Campaign initiated by Prime Minister's Office, Industry, Trade and Employment Ministry designed to raise awareness while breaking through stigmas, calling attention to incentives state offers employers

Source: Ynetnews

The Government on Monday will launch a wide-ranging advertising campaign to encourage the employment of non-Jewish academics.

The campaign has been initiated by the Prime Minister's Office Authority for the Economic Development of the Arab, Druze and Circassian Sectors in cooperation with the Industry, Trade and Employment Ministry and is designed to raise awareness of the issue while breaking through stigmas and calling attention to the incentives that the state offers employers.

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Kufur Yasif, an Arab village in northern Israel, hosts the main center for boxers in Israel.

Source: MFA

Dr. William Shehade, Director General of the Israel Boxing Association and a resident of the village, talks about the Olympic boxing hall, where Jews and Arabs train together.

The center has produced many local and international champions. In addition to teaching jabs and punches, it also educates the trainees in sportsmanship, respect and friendship, serving as a bridge to peace as they get to know each other at close hand.

Ben Havardi, a sophomore student is the youngest winner to ever receive the President's Award for the Volunteer, which is handed out by President Shimon Peres to organizations and individuals who have contributed to Israeli society in an extraordinary way.

Source: Ynet

Havardi might be the youngest recipient, but he does have quite a spectacular resume. He began volunteering when he was in the third grade and since then, volunteer work has become an inseparable part of his life.

He first started volunteering with special needs children and children with autism. He accompanied them for years, even when he was in middle school. In addition, every Friday night and on the eve of the Jewish holidays he hands out food to the needy within the framework of community volunteer work projects.

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Sheba Medical Center geneticists find common genetic mutation, often called the 'Ashkenazi mutation.'

Source: Haaretz

Sheba Medical Center geneticists have found that a population of Native Americans in the U.S. state of Colorado has genetic Jewish roots going back to the expulsion of Jews from Spain.

The common marker was a unique genetic mutation on the BRCA1 gene. This mutation, commonly known as the "Ashkenazi mutation," is found in Jews of Ashkenazi origin and is associated with an increased risk of developing breast and ovarian cancer.

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In an unprecedented move, Israel has announced that it is prepared to recognize Reform and Conservative community leaders as rabbis and fund their salaries.

Source: Haaretz

Rabbis belonging to either stream will be classified as "rabbis of non-Orthodox communities." The attorney general advised the High Court that the state will begin equally financing non-Orthodox rabbis in regional councils and farming communities that are interested in doing so.

The state's answer comes in response to a petition that was made in 2005 by the Israel Movement for Reform and Progressive Judaism, in the name of the Reform community at Kibbutz Gezer and Rabbi Miri Gold, who demanded equal financing of non-Orthodox religious services to those of the Orthodox via the municipal authority. The petitioners demanded the regional council be allowed to finance the salary of the community leader in the same way that hundreds of regional councils, neighborhoods and communities across the country do so for male Orthodox rabbis they employ.

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The Jewish holiday of Shavuot will begin on Saturday night. Thousands will stream to the Western Wall

Source: Israelnationalnews

Shavuot (Pentecost, Feast of Weeks), as well as Pesach (Passover) and Sukkot (Tabernacles), are the three pilgrimage festivals on which Jews are bidden to visit Jerusalem. Tens of thousands of people are in fact expected to arrive at the Western Wall throughout Saturday night and Sunday morning, though the Biblical commandment to visit Jerusalem on these days applies fully only when the Holy Temple is built.

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