U.S. and Israeli teens tie at International Bible Contest
(Israel Hayom/Exclusive to JNS.org) Israel’s annual International Bible Contest was held on Tuesday in Jerusalem, with 58 young people from 26 countries taking part in all stages of the international contest, including Turkey, the United States, Brazil, South Africa and Germany. This year’s results yielded a surprise, with two winners instead of one: Yishai Eisenberg, 15, an American Jew, and Elior Babian, 16, an Israeli from Beit Shemesh.
Eisenberg hails from Passaic, NJ, and is a student of Yeshivat Beit Hillel of Passaic-Hillel. Babian attends the Shaalei Torah yeshiva high school in Beit Shemesh.
In the final head-to-head battle, both contestants repeatedly completed verses from the Bible with success. Eisenberg was asked to complete the verse, “The king establishes the land by justice.”
“But he who receives bribes overthrows it,” Eisenberg said to complete the verse from Proverbs.
Babian was asked to complete another verse from Proverbs, “Where there is no revelation, the people cast off restraint.”
“But happy is he who keeps the law,” Babian answered, correctly.
When the increasingly difficult questions failed to trip up either contestant, the panel of judges at first called for a three-question tiebreaker. But ultimately, the panel of judges decided that both had displayed such extraordinary knowledge that Knesset Speaker Yuli Edelstein had no choice but to crown them both laureates. Second-place was taken by Liora Braverman of Petach Tikva.
“Our amazement at the wonderful mastery of Bible verses plants a great hope in each of our hearts,” said Israeli Education Minister Rabbi Shai Peron.
“It raises the expectation that these verses and chapters will turn into your road map,” he said.
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Christian program brings youths together on tours of Israel
(JNS.org) A program run by an international Christian organization is bringing Christian youths from around the world on two-week tours of Israel to understand the complex landscape and their religious heritage.
The trips are organized by Ebenezer Operation Exodus, an international Christian group that was founded in 1991 by Swiss businessman Gustav Scheller. The organization assisted Jews from the former Soviet Union as well as from Ethiopia in immigrating to Israel in the early 1990s. Today, the organization runs a number of different humanitarian programs that help Jewish communities throughout the world, according to its website.
Ebenezer Operation Exodus’s “Engage: Israel” program, which was launched in 2009, is “intended to help people 18 to 35 years old understand Israel, prophecy and aliyah—Jewish immigration to the Land of Israel,” according to CBN News. Last summer the program drew more than 100 children from around the world.
“My passion is to see young people getting trained and equipped here in Israel and being sent back to the nations and them asking God in their nation ‘What can I do? How can I stand up for Israel? What will you give me as a task?’” Andy Ernst, international young adults coordinator for Ebenezer Operation Exodus, told CBN News.
Similar to the popular Taglit-Birthright Israel trips for diaspora Jewish youths, the “Engage: Israel” trip tours Israel, allowing Christian youths to hike the Golan Heights, float in the Dead Sea, ride camels in the Negev and learn about Israeli and Jewish history.
But in addition to the touring, the Christian youths also participate in service projects such as working with local Arab and Jewish children, according to the “Engage: Israel” promotional video. *
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‘Terror cell’ indicted in Jerusalem
(JNS.org) Indictments were filed on Wednesday against members of a recently apprehended terror cell, residents of eastern Jerusalem who allegedly conspired to kidnap and murder an Israeli in order to steal his weapon. The cell had also planned to carry out a terrorist attack at the Temple Mount, Israel Hayom reported.
The Israel Security Agency (Shin Bet) and the Jerusalem police arrested the cell in March. Nur Hamdan, 25, the cell’s leader, allegedly approached the Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigade in Gaza and in Nablus seeking assistance in preparing a shooting attack against Israeli targets on the Temple Mount. He eventually recruited four friends from eastern Jerusalem to assist in the attack, the Shin Bet said.
According to the Shin Bet, during one of their outings, three cell members picked up a Jewish hitchhiker, but upon learning he was not carrying a weapon, decided to let him go.
The indictment, filed with the Jerusalem District Court, charges the cell members with a host of crimes, including conspiring to commit a kidnapping, conspiring to commit murder, conspiring to assist an enemy in wartime, assisting an enemy during wartime, contact with an enemy agent, carrying illegal weapons, attempted purchase of illegal weapons, attempted robbery, attempted murder, illegal military training and obstruction of justice.
According to the Shin Bet, Hamdan confessed that he had planned to carry out an attack on the Temple Mount “to protect Al-Aqsa mosque.” He reportedly said that he had been inspired by YouTube videos detailing terror attacks in Jerusalem, especially the 2008 attack at Mercaz Harav yeshiva (in which eight students were killed).
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Boston Marathon bombings elicit mixed response
(JNS.org) –Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei condemned Monday’s terrorist bombings at the Boston Marathon, but at the same time used the issue as a platform to express anger at U.S. drone attacks in the Middle East. In addition, commenters on some online jihadi forums expressed happiness about the Boston attack.
“The Islamic Republic of Iran, which follows the logic of Islam, is opposed to any bombings and killings of innocent people,” Ayatollah Ali Khamenei told Iranian military leaders, the Associated Press reported. Khamenei added, “What kind of logic is this that if children and women are killed by Americans in Afghanistan and Pakistan and by U.S.-backed terrorists in Iraq and Syria is not a problem, but if a bombing happens in the U.S. or another Western country, the whole world should pay the cost?”
Iran itself funds terrorist groups including Gaza-based Hamas and Lebanon-based Hezbollah.
According to the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI), online jihadi comments on the Boston Marathon bombings have varied from postings that present the now broadly seen photo of a young man with both legs blown off as the “best image from Boston explosions,” to those calling the attack “great news,” to those that wish to burden the U.S. with many such attacks so that the country will collapse.
Israeli leaders, meanwhile, have expressed their condolences to the U.S. over the Boston attack.
“We send our condolences to President [Barack] Obama, the American people and the bereaved families,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said. “On this day and on any day, Israel stands shoulder to shoulder with the American people.”
Israeli President Shimon Peres said, “At times like these we are all one family. We feel one with those families who have paid such a heavy price.”
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Iran continues expansion of nuclear program
(JNS.org) Iran, in defiance of the international community, is in the process of upgrading its main uranium enrichment facility at Natanz, according to Western diplomats.
Technicians in Iran are installing new high-tech machines to replace the more than 12,000 older and more inefficient machines. The technicians have tripled their installation of the machines in the past three months to 600, the Associated Press reported.
The latest news follows the International Atomic Energy Agency’s (IAEA) February quarterly report, that said inspectors counted 180 of the new high-tech IR-2m advanced enrichment centrifuges at Natanz.
The new report also comes as Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad visited the uranium-rich West African nation of Niger this week.
Iran denies it is developing nuclear weapons and says its nuclear program has peaceful goals. The international community, led by six nations—the United States, Russia, China, Britain, France and Germany—has been attempting to persuade Iran to end the nuclear program during diplomatic talks. The most recent round of talks in Kazakhstan, however, ended without progress.
Boston Marathon runners from Israel react to bombings
(JNS.org) Although they come from a country that is long accustomed to terrorism, the 17 Israelis who signed up for the Boston Marathon found it hard, at first, to comprehend that Monday’s explosions that killed three and injured more than 170 people were indeed a terrorist attack.
Maria Valsenko, an Israeli graduate student at Columbia University in New York who ran the Boston Marathon, had her proud moment turn to shock several minutes after crossing the finish line.
“I was 300 meters (less than 1,000 feet) from there, and the joy from crossing the finish line was wiped out by a despicable attack,” she told Israel Hayom.
Nine of the 17 Israelis who registered to run finished the Boston Marathon.
“I finished the marathon and on my way back to the hotel I heard the blast,” runner Tzvika Bronstein said. “At first I didn’t make the connection to terrorism, and I ignored it. I even sent a text message to my wife that I had finished, without even telling her about the explosion.”
Orit Trumper-Sela, the director of human resources for EMC in Israel, flew to participate in the race after winning a raffle at work. She was already at the final kilometer mark when everything came to a halt. “I didn’t understand what was happening,” she recalled. “I thought something had happened to one of the runners. It’s unbelievable that I came from ‘dangerous’ Israel to a marathon that ended in such a way. It’s incomprehensible.”
Yaron Tubin, on sabbatical in Boston with his wife, stopped running 200 meters from the finish line. “The explosion was really right in front of me,” he said. “It feels inconceivable that it could be a terrorist attack, but the Israeli head takes over. The Americans around me didn’t understand what it was and were wandering around aimlessly, but as an Israeli you understand.”
Preceding provided by JNS.org