We have many beautiful birds resident in this country, and with the great variety of migrating birds that visit our shores we live in an avian wonderland. Choosing a bird as our national emblem was not an easy task, but with the help of Internet voters the hoopoe was elected.

Thanks to ESRA’s support teenagers with cerebral palsy have a place of their own that welcomes them, and a group of friends that waits to meet with them every week. For the last ten years ESRA has sponsored this special social club in the community center of Kfar Shmaryahu. Like its other good works, ESRA maintains this club quietly, steadfastly, without fanfare, and largely without publicity.

Forget about sweating and groaning as you struggle to get that perfect figure in your gym class. The big news now is that aqua gym has become one of the best ways to keep cool and fit at the same time. Exercising in water will tone your muscles and give you a great workout.

A wonderful tribute written by Helen Schary Motro for Shelley Tiber who succumbed to cancer this year. This is a tribute to a vibrant, remarkable, energetic enthusiastic, positive lady of valour and courage

Aharon Appelfields tale of wartime erotica etched in tragedy “Blooms of Darkness” reviewed by Helen Schary Motro

Helen Schary Motro describes Martin Fletcher’s book “The List” as a terrific read. It is set during the final years of the Second World War and is about actual events of the Holocaust and the Zionist struggle in Palestine. Overlaid is a fictitious love story of a young refugee couple from Vienna who are trying to settle into a new life in London.

DocAviv festival offers dozens of the world’s finest new documentaries from morning until late night. Directors fly in from abroad to engage in dialogue with audiences, and sophisticated big budget films elbow with maiden efforts of students just mastering the medium.

Gush Dan is dotted with buildings erected over the last generation bearing the imprint of 80 year old architect Lydia Granot, a child survivor of the Holocaust and one of the Teheran children. Former clients don’t disappear - they metamorphose into friends.