60 Facts About Israel

Israel, officially the State of Israel, is a Western Asian country.

It covers an area of 20,770 square kilometres.

Jerusalem is the country's capital and largest city.

Israel's official language is Hebrew.

Israel has the highest per capita rate of altruistic kidney donation in the world: 1,005 in the last 11 years and counting.

The oldest tree in Israel is a jujube tree in Ein Hatzeva on the road to Eilat, estimated to be 1,500 to 2,000 years old.

Scientists in Israel were able to grow fresh dates from seeds discovered at Masada and Qumran in the sixth century.

The Israel Postal Service has a special Letters to God department for all letters addressed to God that arrive in Jerusalem from all over the world. They are opened and inserted into the Western Wall's cracks.

Every year, approximately 1 million notes are left at the Western Wall.

Since the 18th century, an old wooden ladder has been propped up against a window in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. Nobody can move it because the structure is managed by six different churches, and none of them can agree on who owns the ladder.

Israel is the only country that has resurrected a long-dead language and made it its official language.

In 1942, the hottest temperature ever recorded in Israel was 54 degrees Celsius (129.2 degrees Fahrenheit) at Kibbutz Tirat Zvi in the northern Jordan Valley. (The highest temperature ever recorded in the world was 56.7 degrees Celsius in Death Valley in 1913.)

While Jerusalem experiences snow storms every few years, and even the Negev desert experiences snow on occasion, Tel Aviv has only experienced one snow storm in its history. It snowed 12-18 cm in 1950, thrilling locals who had never seen snow before.

Despite the fact that more than half of Israel is desert, the country has an Olympic bobsled and skeleton team.

Israel is a world leader in medical clowning, having been the first country to send medical clowns into Covid-19 wards.

Shari Arison, an Israeli businesswoman, founded Good Deeds Day in 2007 to encourage people to help one another. In Israel that year, 7,000 people took part. In 2019, 3.9 million people participated in 108 countries worldwide.

Shari Arison, an Israeli businesswoman, founded Good Deeds Day in 2007 to encourage people to help one another. In Israel that year, 7,000 people took part. In 2019, 3.9 million people participated in 108 countries worldwide.

Israel is bounded on one end by snowy peaks and on the other by a desert beach.

Israel is testing a new AI system developed locally to assist lifeguards in protecting swimmers on beaches and providing real-time data on wind, waves, and other potential hazards.

Israel's $100 billion economy dwarfs that of all of its neighbours combined. It has the highest living standard in the Middle East. It also has the highest per capita ownership of home computers.

Outside of the United States, Israel has the highest concentration of high-tech and startup companies (over 3,000). It has the world's highest rate of entrepreneurship for women and people over 55, and the third highest overall.

Israel is a world leader in technological innovation. It invented the cell phone, voice mail technology, the first antivirus software, the Pentium MMX chip technology, and the majority of the Windows NT operating system.

24 percent of Israel's total workforce has a college degree, and 12 percent has an advanced degree.

Israel is the world's largest wholesale diamond centre, and the country produces the majority of the world's cut and polished diamonds. It was also the first country to implement the Kimberly Process. This is a new international standard for certifying conflict-free diamonds.

In terms of population size, Israel is the world's largest immigrant-absorbing country. Israel's culture is extremely diverse, with people from over 100 countries across five continents.

Israel's official languages are Hebrew and Arabic. The Hebrew language had been dormant for centuries before the Israelis resurrected it.

Israel is the only country in the world that requires women to serve in the military.

Over 90% of the land in Israel is owned by the State of Israel and managed by the Israel Land Authority (ILA), which grants long-term leasing rights.

In Israel, all citizens, Jews and Arabs, have full political rights. Women have full rights, which they do not have anywhere else in the Middle East.

Hiking and camping are an important part of the culture of the country. Annual hiking trips are taken by Israeli school and youth groups throughout Israel, instilling in their children a love of hiking and outdoor exercise.

While not everyone in Israel keeps kosher, kashrut observance influences the menus of public institutions and restaurants. In Israel, there are 40 kosher McDonald's fast food restaurants. Bamba, a peanut butter-flavored snack made exclusively in Israel, is widely regarded as the country's national dish.

Each of these is more prevalent in Israel than in any other country, with more books printed, museums, and orchestras per capita. Israel has the most free and independent Arabic press in the Middle East.

Israel recycles wastewater, and it provides half of its irrigated water. More than 85 percent of Israel's solid waste is also treated to be environmentally friendly, making Israel one of the cleanest countries on the planet.

Folk dancing, particularly the traditional folk dance known as the Hora, is very popular in Israel. Israeli modern dance companies are well-known in the international dance community. Folk dancing has also been choreographed for recreational and performance dance groups.

Israelis consume the most fruits and vegetables per capita in the world.

Israeli banknotes are marked in Braille so that the blind can "read" them.

Giraffe meat and milk have been certified kosher by Israeli scientists.

In order to combat anorexia, Israel has become the first country to prohibit the use of underweight models on catwalks.

According to the most recent statistics, the most popular baby name in Israel for both boys and girls is Noam. Noam means "pleasant".

Israel actually started the twenty-first century with more trees (a net gain in their number of trees). It was only one of two countries in the world to do so.

A company in Israel has created the world's first jellyfish repellent.

The airspace above Israel is a superhighway for birds. Every spring and fall, at least 500 million birds from 200 different species fly through there on their way to and from Asia, Africa, and Europe.

Albert Einstein, the famous scientist, was offered the position of President of Israel in 1952. He politely declined the position.

Israel is the only country in the world with the same name, geographical location, and language as it did 3,000 years ago. Following the destruction of King Solomon's Temple in Jerusalem by the Romans in 70 C.E., the majority of Jews were forced into the Diaspora (exile). However, the Jewish people did not all flee.

In 1950, the Israeli government passes the Law of Return, which states that "Every Jew had the right to come to this country..." as an immigrant. They proclaim Jerusalem to be their capital.

Between 1947 and 1949, approximately 600,000 Arabs are displaced as a result of the United Nations partition resolution of 1947, which approved a plan for the partition of Palestine. On May 14, 1948, Israel declares its independence.

Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, and Iraq immediately invade Israel, launching the first of a series of Arab-Israeli wars. In 1949, an armistice agreement is reached, and the West Bank is divided from Israel, becoming part of Jordan, while the Gaza Strip becomes part of Egypt. As Israel is admitted to the United Nations that same year, this agreement is meant to be temporary and serve as a precursor to permanent peace treaties.

In 1967, Israel fought the Six-Day War against Egypt, Syria, and Jordan.

On Yom Kippur, Israel's holy day, Egypt and Syria launch air strikes. The fighting will be over in two weeks thanks to a United Nations resolution.

In Jerusalem in 1977, Egyptian President Anwar Sadat meets with Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin for peace talks. They continue with President Jimmy Carter at Camp David in 1978, and the Middle East Peace Framework is established. That year, Sadat and Begin shared the Nobel Peace Prize. The Egypt-Israel Peace Treaty is signed in March 1979, and Israel agrees to withdraw from Sinai. Egypt agrees to open the Suez Canal to Israeli ships and to establish diplomatic relations with them. Egypt is expelled from the Arab League, and Sadat is murdered.

At the 1972 Olympic Games, eleven Israeli athletes were killed.

For more than four decades, war, terrorist acts, retaliation, and acts of violence have been ongoing. Suicide bombings began in 1989 and are still occurring today.

Israel is the world's only Jewish state. For over 3,000 years, the Jewish people have had an unbroken presence there. Its historical and archaeological sites bear witness to Jewish life throughout the ages. The Jews are even referred to as "Children of Israel" in the Koran. As the land that God gave to them, the land of Israel is central to Judaism.

For over a thousand years, the Yiddish language has been an integral part of Jewish identity. Yiddish is spoken by Orthodox Jews all over the world and is the first language of Haredi Jews at home, school, and in many social settings. It's also popular in Hasidic yeshivas.

There are approximately 14,500,000 Jews in the world today.

Judaism is the Jewish people's religion, culture, philosophy, and way of life. Judaism, an ancient monotheistic religion, is the world's tenth largest religion. Judaism is the expression of the covenantal relationship God has established with the "children of Israel".

When a Jewish boy or girl turns 13, or when a Jewish girl turns 12, they celebrate their Bar Mitzvah, which is a rite of passage into adulthood.

The Star of David is Judaism's religious symbol.

A kosher diet is one that adheres to the dietary laws outlined in the Torah. Kosher means fit for use, and in the context of food, it means not only eating according to the prescribed Biblical code, but also with reverence for all life and an understanding of the relationship between what we eat and how we act in the world.

Different foods are associated with various Jewish holidays and celebrations. Jews still eat crispy flat bread called matza for Passover dinner. Challah is the bread made for the Sabbath dinner.