On the other hand
This week’s good news stories from Israel from Michael Kuttner.
THESE BIRDS LOVE ISRAEL
The winter migratory season is in full swing with half a billion birds covering 400 different species on the move from freezing Europe to the warm climate of Africa. As usual most of them stop to rest and refuel in the Hula Valley before continuing on south. However it seems that many of them have now woken up to the fact that Israeli winters are not so harsh. Rather than undertaking the exhausting and often dangerous trek to Africa large numbers are staying.
Following a growing trend in recent years, some 40,000 Gray Cranes stayed this winter in the Agamon Hula Lake, feasting on crops and nesting in an artificial lake. To protect farmers’ livelihood, the government feeds the cranes up to eight tons of corn a day.
The Hula Valley became a prime bird-watching spot by accident. Drained of its swamps in the 1950s, the valley was re-flooded four decades later when KKL-JNF realized the drainage had damaged the local ecosystem. Farmers began planting corn and peanuts in the newly re-moistened soil — exactly the crops cranes like to eat.
TALKING TURKEY
If you’re a turkey, this is a grim time, with US Thanksgiving dinners. There may be some room for hope, though, as a new study show turkeys may be more useful alive, eating — and excreting.
A new Israeli study shows that turkey excrement may be a major untapped resource in use as a combustible biomass fuel. The study, authored at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, said that this waste fuel could one day replace up to 10 percent of coal used in generating electricity, which would be a positive boon to the environment, not to mention to turkeys.
LOST AND FOUND
Eliahu Pietruszka believed his brother, who escaped Warsaw ghetto, had died in a Russian labor camp, but, generations later, a Yad Vashem genealogy project led to incredible news.
This is an amazing story which is guaranteed to make you weep for joy. Grab those tissues and read all about it.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/102-year-old-holocaust-survivor-reunites-with-newly-discovered-nephew/
