Shana Tova from Israel Radio website team – Have a happy, sweet new year

Find out more Torah cartoons at www.g-dcast.com

A special new mini-site, including online exhibits, photos, video clips and educational material explore this year’s theme, Children in the Holocaust.

Approximately one and a half million of the six million Jews murdered in the Holocaust were children. Some children were able to escape by hiding while other children survived by concealing their identities. Liberation did not end the suffering as most had no home to return to, no family to take them in. Special children’s homes were set up immediately after the war, to meet the tremendous physical and emotional needs of the children who survived the Holocaust. One of these homes was in Otwock, Poland. A new online exhibition “A Time to Heal“, The Story of the Children’s Home in Otwock, Poland, focuses on the children’s experiences from their arrival at the home in Otwock, through the difficult and often painful process of healing and rehabilitation.

The educational material uploaded includes age-appropriate lesson plans for grades K-12, ceremony suggestions, documents, interviews and films as well as other related teaching materials.

With more than 8.1 million visits during 2008, a more than twofold increase since 2005, www.yadvashem.org reached out to visitors from 220 countries and territories – including the United States, Israel, Germany, Great Britain, France, Canada, Egypt, Thailand and even Barbados. Last year, Yad Vashem’s “Virtual School” of the International School for Holocaust Studies offered educational materials in 19 different languages to more than 1.2 million visitors who came for online courses, lesson plans, video conferences, community forums, interactive maps, ceremonies, educational units and more.

In addition, Yad Vashem’s four YouTube channels, in English, Hebrew, Arabic and Spanish have been visited by more than 1.3 million people.

Happy Holiday!

April 2009 will mark the 100th anniversary of the city of Tel Aviv. Tel-Aviv (The official full name is “Tel-Aviv Yafo”), which was a small neighborhood founded by 66 families on the shore of the Mediterranean Sea in 1909 is today the center of culture, economics and society in Israel.

The Tel Aviv-Yafo Centennial Year opened officially on Saturday, April 4 with the biggest free concert in Israel history. Hundreds of thousands poured to Rabin Square, where the Centennial Celebrations commenced in a unique music and projections show.

The outdoor concert, which was undoubtedly the highlight of the opening week of the centennial events, was colorful and unforgettable. The performance made use of the entire square and the surrounding building’s facades to present a spectacle of lights and multimedia. The show focused on the city’s residents, conveying a message according to which everything is possible in Tel-Aviv Yafo.

The Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Zubin Mheta, opened the event and Mayor Ron Huldai lit a birthday cake with 100 candles. The orchestra was then joined by 800 dancers, singers, musicians and actors in homage to the history of the first Hebrew City.

Israeli singer Berry Saharoff sung his famous tune, “Today is your Birthday,” and was followed by renowned singers Dana International, Miri Mesika, Monika Sex (band), Matti Caspi, Shlomo Gronich, Alona Daniel and Danny Robas.

The concert was marked by a breathtaking fireworks show and then followed by a big street party in Rabin Square and nearby streets.

According to the Tel-Aviv Foundation, The Tel Aviv Centennial is meant both to underscore Tel Aviv’s status as an international city and to highlight its vitality and accomplishments.

The concert is only the first of many public events that the municipality of Tel-Aviv organized and will occur over the next nine months.

The 18th Maccabiah games will take place on July 12-23 , 2009.

The 18th Maccabiah is going to be the largest Maccabiah ever. About 5,000 Jewish athletes are supposed to arrive from abroad and they will join to 2,000 Israeli athletes, which will make the Maccabiah the world’s third largest sporting event after the Olympic games and the Universiada.

The J.L.TV network will broadcast for the first time the Maccabiah games live to the USA in a $500,000 estimated contract.

A total of 15,000 tourists are expected to arrive to Israel during the Maccabiah days. Currently, the largest delegation is supposed to arrive from the USA with 1,106 participants, which among them a few formerly and current Olympic athletes.

The athletes will compete in 29 different sports such as Basketball, Tennis, Cricket, Bowling, Chess and even Bridge. Except of the sporting events, the delegations will also travel across the country in trips organized by the Maccabi World Union.

The expected profits to the Israeli economy from the games stands on 140 Million ILS. This is great news for the Israeli tourism industry which deals many challenges these days with the world economic crisis among them.

Maccabi World Union Logo

Maccabi is a global Jewish organization spanning five continents, more then 50 countries and boasting some 400,000 members. Many Maccabi clubs serve as community centers, providing a diversity of educational, cultural, social and sports activities under one roof.
Maccabi World Union comprises 6 confederations: Maccabi Israel, European Maccabi confederation, confederation Maccabi North America, confederation Maccabi Latin America (CLAM), Maccabi South Africa and Maccabi Australia (APA).

Throughout the course of the year, confederations conduct regional and inter-regional games, providing opportunities for bonding, sharing and meeting other Jewish communities throughout the world. The highlight, of courses, still remains the quadrennial Maccabiah games, which brings Jews from all four corners of the world together in Israel.

We will report from the Maccabiah this summer in a special section, from the opening ceremony to the closing ceremony with all the sounds & sights. stay tuned!

Sine 2003, the non-profit organization MASA(Journey in Hebrew) enables thousands of Jewish youth to spend a semester or a year in Israel in any of over 160 programs, helping them build a life-long relationship with Israel and a firm commitment to Jewish life.

MASA Israel Journey enables young Jews from around the world to build lasting relationships with Israel, strengthen their Jewish identities and gain meaningful experiences by participating on long-term programs to Israel. MASA provides every participant, aged 18-30, with grants ranging from $2,000 to $4,500. MASA programs range from five months to a year in length and include gap-year, college and post-college programs.

In the full operating year of MASA, planned for 2008-09, the government of Israel will invest 50 million dollars in the project. This will be matched by 50 million dollars from Jewish communities around the world to be raised by The Jewish Agency. The Jewish Agency will accomplish this by contributing from its own resources, from federations in Noth America, Keren Hayesod outside Norh America and from private donors.

Interested? Learn more on MASA website. (Application forms availible in English, French, Russian & Spanish)

Did you know for example that Israel, with a 75% water recycling rate, is the world’s #1 water recycler while the second largest water recycler is Spain with a rate of 12%.

Today, Israel continues to develop innovative water technologies and the Israeli government motivate these Israeli water-technology companies by helping them market all their products & services to the world in order to position Israel as the leading provider of advanced solution for the global water market.

IsraelNEWTech – Novel Efficient Water Technologies is a national program promoting the Israeli water technology sector. Israel NEWTech builds upon Israel’s experience in coping with water scarcity problems, incorporating all the separate industry elements in order to advance the sector at an international level. The Israeli government, recognizing the Israeli potential to be a leader in the growing international water technologies market, heavily invested in the program and has allocated substantial resources towards strengthening the foundation of water tech cluster and the promotion of its capabilities worldwide.

The Israeli water market is already internationally conceived as highly developed, benefiting from the several years of experience in managing scarce water resources, while the national industry is widely regarded as a nexus of world-class expertise in the water field. The volume of Israeli water-related industrial export exceeds $800 million a year, mainly in the agricultural irrigation products sector, which numbers about 100 companies using a range of technologies.

WATEC Israel 2009, which will take place next month in Tel-Aviv, is an international professional exhibition that offers a meeting place for manufacturers, researches, investors, academics, purchasers and decision makers representing both local and international economy. Those invited to take part include Mayors, Heads of Municipalities, Rural Communities and Kibbutzim, Engineers and Technicians, Maintenance Managers, Consultants, Regulatory Bodies, Decision Makers, Project Developers, Safety Managers, Entrepreneurs and all other individuals and organizations dealing with the water technologies, the environment and alternative energy sources.

Jewish Social Action Month (JSAM) is an initiative of KolDor, a global network of young Jewish activists operating around the world, the Office of the Prime Minister of Israel and socialaction.com to promote both social action and Jewish Peoplehood.

In just three years since its launch, JSAM has evoked a remarkable response. Political support has come from the Presidents of both Israel and the United States of America, British parliamentarians, US senators and congressmen, Israeli Knesset members and others.

A wide spectrum of Jewish religious leaders, major institutions, youth groups, communal organizations and many others from around the world endorsed the initiative and created exciting and widespread programs.

JSAM 2008 takes place from October 30 to November 27, during the Hebrew month of Cheshvan, hundreds of activities are taking place right now in support of JSAM in Israel, USA, Europe and even Australia.

Take part in Jewish Social Action Month and find out more information in JSAM website.

Find more videos like this on Jewish Social Action Month

Have a sweet year!

Shana Tova – Happy Rosh Hashana =)