Good News

Police Dismantle Bomb

{image_1}A
private vehicle wired with
explosives and parked outside the Lev
HaMifratz shopping mall in Haifa was neutralized by security forces on
the evening of March 21, preventing a potentially deadly attack. The
bombs were found after a partial explosion occurred, alerting local
security. Sappers alerted to the scene worked for a lengthy period of
time to dismantle the remaining explosives, which were concealed in a
bag. According to the police, the largest of the explosive devices
detonated partially, leaving the rest of it intact. A number of smaller
charges spread around it also did not explode. Officers later said that
current estimates put the weight of the explosives involved at nearly
100 pounds [45 kilograms].

Turning Olive Waste into Fuel

{image_1} In the shadow of Herodion (Herod’s conical fortress palace southeast of Bethlehem), a group of youngsters—many of whom were homeless until they were gathered together by a man named Yossi Sadeh—are changing the face of energy production. Their work is to help create Olivebar rolls to heat homes in wood-burning stoves, which General Manager Eli Karniel describes as “ecologically perfect.”

Israeli Medical Center for Gazans Opens

{image_1} The complicated reality of Israel’s never ending state of war is that it tears down with one hand and builds up with the other. The hope being that, at the end of the day, positive efforts will outweigh negative ones. And so, in the wake of a ceasefire that went into effect at 2 a.m. January 18, Israel’s Magen David Adom (MDA) opened a medical center at the Erez Crossing between Gaza and Israel to serve Gaza Strip citizens.

Israeli Citizens Send Aid to Gaza

{image_1} Despite the facts that since 2005, over 8,000 rockets have been fired into Israel from Gaza, killing 12 and wounding dozens and 13 Israelis were killed during Israel’s Operation Cast Lead in Gaza, Israeli citizens banded together to collect humanitarian aid for Gazan families a week before the war ended.

Canadian Hauls Great Catch in Israeli Waters

{image_1} When it comes to fishing in the Holy Land, Canadian fisherman Italo Labignan is nothing short of enthusiastic. “It’s an awesome experience,” he admits. This is fulsome praise indeed because Labignan is a premier fisherman and the host of Canada’s longest running and most watched sports fishing TV series.

60-Year Reunion for Holocaust Survivor

{image_1} The Jewish Foundation for the Righteous, organized the meeting that brought together Rozia Rothshild, who now lives in Tivon, Israel, with her rescuer Wiktoria Sozanska from Wroclaw, Poland, for the first time in over 60 years. This moving reunion between a Holocaust survivor and the Polish woman who risked her life to save her, took place at JFK Airport in New York.

Border Guard Unit Stars in TV Series

{image_1} The world will soon get acquainted with the Israeli Border Guard unit through a documentary series on special police units around the world titled “Elite Police.” The Discovery Channel production, which is set to air in dozens of countries across the globe, premieres in South Africa.

‘‘Leah’’ gives Birth

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“When the LORD saw that Leah was unloved, He opened her womb” (Genesis 29:31).

What was written long ago about Jacob’s first wife is true of another “Leah” today—only this time it is a 30-year-old gorilla in the Ramat Gan Safari Park who was also rejected by other gorillas in her group. Leah gave birth to a healthy baby on December 14 and mother and baby are both doing well.

Salamanders Saved!

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Aviram Tzuk, KKL-Jewish National Fund regional director, noted that goldfish, recently introduced into pools and springs of freshwater by unknown hands, fed on the salamander eggs. The foresters removed most of the goldfish from these pools. After the first rains, the results were clear: there is now a noticeable increase in the number of salamanders!

Kristallnacht Synagogue Restored

{image_1} Germany’s fast-growing Jewish community has inaugurated a new synagogue in the western city of Krefeld, seven decades after the original was destroyed by the Nazis. “We are here, in the middle of this society, and we will never let anyone challenge that place again,” the President of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, Charlotte Knobloch, told guests at the inauguration ceremony.