MASHAV agricultural experts conducted a consultation visit to the Center of Excellence for Vegetables in Tamil Nadu, India, within the framework of the Indo-Israel Joint Agricultural Project. A group of 90 progressive farmers from nearby districts and a group of students from Srirangam Horticultural College for Women, discussed with the Israeli experts issues concerning cultivation in greenhouses and alternate crops.
Israel in India

The Tiny Taster's First Impressions Of Israel and they are Goooood!

The city of Haifa has long been a model of coexistence in Israel.
The Al-Sham festival taking place this week in downtown Haifa is an Arab food festival which pairs Jewish and Arab chefs together to offer modern takes on traditional Arab recipes. Last year, 40,000 Israelis attended the festival and this year organizers are hoping for even more.

Yaniv Raba is a young musician, who toured the world for artistic inspiration and found it eventually at home with his Lybian-born cantor father Later, he fell in love with the oud instrument and decided to give a modern interpretation to ancient Jewish-Lybian liturgical poems.

Happy National Day, #Laos!

Spotted - 'The Flowers', An animated Stop Motion film by the talented Limor Salman.
'The Flowers' is a gorgeous music video for Regina Spektor's song The Flowers. The video describes a woman that is stuck in a pile of garbage, which is also her dress. She is having a complex relationship with her stuff, when it's hard to say who controls the other.

Happy Union Day, #Romania!
Israel in Romania Ministerul Afacerilor Externe/ Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Romania Ambasada României în Israel/Embassy of Romania to Israel

***The expulsion of Jews from Arab and Muslim countries***
The Jewish population in Iraq during the 1930's faced discrimination and harsh laws. On June 1, 1941 the Farhood, “violent dispossession,” broke out. Nearly 300 Jews were killed and more than 2,000 injured. Between 1941-1951, 15,000 Jews fled from Iraq. Mordechai Ben Porat, a former Jewish refugee from Iraq, remembers well the Farhood. He recalls
"Jews were killed on the road, in their homes. Many women raped and men injured."
during the years 1949-1951, Jews had permission to leave Iraq under the condition that they renounced their citizenship. 104,000 Jews were evacuated and another 20,000 escaped through Iran.

Today we mark the annual Memorial Day for the 20th-century expulsion of Jews from Arab and Muslim countries. Jewish communities in Arab countries formed a significant part of the Jewish diaspora. From 1920 onward, some 850,000 Jews were expelled from their homes – from Tripoi to Cairo, from Damascus to Baghdad.

***The expulsion of Jews from Arab and Muslim countries***
By the 1940's, 30,000 Jews lived in Syria. The Syrian government passed a number of restrictive laws against the Jewish minority. Jewish property was confiscated, including homes. Menachem Yedid, a former Jewish refugee from Iraq, remembers what happened to the Jews when the laws were established:
The Syrian government imposed restrictive laws. Jews carried an identity card with the word "Moussawe" (Jew) written in red….The word "Jew" had to be displayed on their shops so the Arabs wouldn't buy there…They couldn’t obtain a driver's license, nor own a telephone, buy or sell properties." Menachem Yedid, on anti-Jewish laws in Syria in the 1940's

Tomorrow we will mark the annual Memorial Day for the 20th-century expulsion of Jews from Arab and Muslim countries. Jewish communities in Arab countries formed a significant part of the Jewish diaspora. From 1920 onward, some 850,000 Jews were expelled from their homes – from Tripoi to Cairo, from Demascus to Bagdhad.