S WITH A LITTLE HELP FROM THEIR FRIENDS: Gush Katif evacuees marked Monday the construction of their first permanent synagogue - with help from World Mizrachi - at a luncheon in Jerusalem. In the presence of Chief Rabbi Yonah Metzger, Science Minister Daniel Hershkowitz and top Jewish Agency brass, a scribe - who used to live in Gush Katif - concluded the writing of a Torah scroll dedicated to the synagogue, which is being built in Bnei Netzarim, south of Gaza. Solly Sacks, World Mizrachi's director-general and an immigrant from South Africa, explained that Mizrachi's international branches felt the need to devote "most of its resources and funds" to rehabilitate displaced communities and residents. Mizrachi Canada was especially successful in raising money, donating some $2.5 million for the construction of new facilities for Gush Katif evacuees. (Raphael Ahren)
S INTO THE FRYING PAN: Some 5,000 Christian pilgrims landed this week in Israel - and straight into the complex situation in the eastern part of Jerusalem. The pilgrims, who have come from all corners of the world to Jerusalem to celebrate the biblical Feast of Tabernacles, are expected to inject up to $15 million into the Israeli economy. The capital has recently seen heightened tensions and hostilities between Muslims and Jewish worshipers and security forces South Africa-born Malcolm Hedding, executive director of the International Christian Embassy Jerusalem, which traditionally organizes events for the pilgrims, said: "The way Israel has responded to the recent scenes involving crowds of agitators trying to deny the rights of others to visit Jerusalem's holy sites only reinforces our confidence in Israel as the proper guardians of this city, to ensure freedom of access for all peoples." (Cnaan Liphshiz)
S ALIYAH: THE NEXT GENERATION: Some 40 teenagers joined Telfed on the inaugural activity of a new program for second-generation South African immigrants this week. "The idea is to have a social program to bring new immigrants and sabras together," Telfed's director of project development, Dorron Kline, told Anglo File. The girls and boys Sunday gathered in Beit Shemesh under a sukkah and listened to a rabbi explain the importance of visiting the sick before the group drove to Hadassah Ein Kerem Hospital. They spent several hours chatting with and giving out sweets to Jewish and Arab patients in the oncology, surgery and children's wards. From the hospital, the teenagers hiked on a path connecting the ancient village of Ein Kerem and the picturesque springs of Ein Hindak. "It was a good start for the new program," Kline said. "I think we have found a model we can use in the future: first we do something for the community and in the afternoon we do something fun." (Raphael Ahren)
