Israel Active

Sixty-eight Holocaust survivors moved to Israel since Oct. 7, 2023. The oldest new immigrant who survived the Shoah was 98, while the youngest was 81. Nine went to live in my city of Netanya. Of the 123,715 Israeli survivors, 257 are older than 100.

KKL-JNF has built temporary homes in Kibbutz Ruhama for Kibbutz Kfar Aza residents whose houses were destroyed by Hamas on Oct 7 2023. KKL-JNF Australia held an event where participants crafted handmade mezuzahs and hamsas - each to be affixed to one of the homes.

Biokineticist Nikia Blumenthal offers IDF combat soldiers a cold plunge to promote physical and emotional healing. She packs her car with a portable bath and 100kg (220 pounds) of ice and drives to IDF bases or army refreshment stations. (Disclosure - I attend Nikia’s Netanya stretch classes)

Serving 24-hour shifts in vault-like rooms across the country, 136th Battalion soldiers face the ballistic missile threat against Israel at all times. Ultimately, one person decides when to press the button to intercept a ballistic missile launched thousands of kilometers away.

Israel’s internal risks may have deteriorated by the release of hundreds of terrorists, but at least its external geographic security situation has improved substantially.

The heartwarming scenes of the three released women hostages greeting their parents. The news of their freedom was announced on every El Al airplane, followed by cheers and applause from passengers. And hot off the press, scenes of the latest 4 female soldier hostages being reunited with their families.

Israeli and American archaeologists have uncovered a Roman boundary stone over 1,700 years old with a Greek inscription. These stones were used to implement Roman Emperor Diocletian’s harsh taxation laws, which are mentioned in the Jerusalem Talmud.

A Jewish girl from Brooklyn, New York, has founded the organization Tefillin On Us, that supplies tefillin to IDF soldiers who are non-religious or cannot afford them but wish to wrap daily. Since Oct 7 2023, it has donated 114 pairs of tefillin - each costing over $1,000.

Some 9,000 Thai agricultural workers who survived the Oct 7 2023 Hamas attacks went back home (39 others were murdered and 8 are still held hostage). Almost all 9,000 have since returned, many to the communities that came under attack that day - heartwarming to their Israeli friends.

Israel’s Strauss’s Group chairperson Ofra Strauss told the Globes "Returning to the North" conference that the company this year will open a new factory for plant-based milk products in Ahihud, about 9km East of Akko (Acre). She linked the theme of building to the return of the hostages.