The following music video was performed by the Israeli band ‘The Angelcy, and was filmed at Arlozorov Street, in Tel Aviv.

The band employs a wide variety of styles — folk music, klezmer and pop with reggae, blues, old film scores and classical.

I hope you enjoy their original song, “My Baby Boy.”

During my thirteen 13 years as Shiloh’s Girls Gym Teacher, I was careful to obey the rule that said it’s forbidden to have outdoor lessons when the temperature is over 30 degrees Centigrade.

Around five in the morning, Wednesday, a 20-year-old foreign national from Africa burst into an apartment in the Yad Eliahu neighborhood in south Tel Aviv and started to molest an 8-year-old girl sleeping in her room, Israel’s Channel 2 News reported.

As a result of the attack, the girl began to cry and her mother, who was sleeping in the next room, woke up. When she entered her daughter’s room, she saw the intruder in the process of raping the girl, and ran over to try and stop him. In the fighting that ensued, the African stabbed the mother, who sustained light to medium injuries.

Moments later, the girl’s father woke up, realized what was happening and rushed to attack the intruder. According to police, the father, who studied martial arts, began beating the infiltrator, wounding him severely.

A Magen David Adom spokesperson said that the injured mother was taken to Wolfson hospital in Holon, with stabbing wounds in her upper body. The girl was also taken to Wolfson, for an examination.

The intruder who had been caught and beaten unconscious by the girl’s father was taken in critical condition to Ichilov medical center in Tel Aviv, connected to a respirator. He suffered a head injury.

The neighborhoods of south Tel Aviv have been infested with illegal migrants from East Africa, who crossed into Israel in search of work. Over the past decade, these illegals have become a dangerous burden on the already poor and under-served local population. The demands of south Tel Aviv residents that the Africans be removed has been met with little more than elitist sniggers by the Israeli press.

Attempts on the part of Israeli legislators and the Interior Ministry to manage the problem by systematically returning the illegals to their home countries have been dubbed racist.

The Iron Dome anti-missile defense system was tested near the city of Modi’in, located between Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, before  being removed on Wednesday, Haaretz reported.

A battery stationed there would protect the Jerusalem area from rocket attacks. At least two rockets were fired from Gaza at Jerusalem during last November’s Operation Pillar of Defense, landing in open areas. One of them exploded close to an Arab village in Gush Etzion.

Iron Dome systems have been deployed throughout central Jerusalem for tests in recent days, according to reports.

Israel has five Iron Dome batteries, which have been stationed throughout the country as the need arises.

Last month, an Iron Dome battery stationed in the north was unusable for more than four weeks after sustaining flood damage in January. The battery was in storage when it flooded, damaging its electrical system, which has since been repaired and is now functional.

Two suspects have been arrested in conjunction with an apparent assassination attempt against alleged underworld figure Nissim Halperon (Alperon).  It is the eighth attempt on life.

On Jabotinky Street and Shlomo Hamelech Boulevard, near the Azrieli Towers, a short distance from the IDF central command in Tel Aviv, a parked car exploded next to a bus at 1:00 PM on Thursday.

MDA initially called it a Mass Casualty Event, but canceled it. There were approximately 7 people reported as lightly wounded, mostly from the shock-wave.

The bomb was apparently place underneath the parked Mazda, and police initially, and correctly suspected the bombing was criminal, and not terror related.

Witnesses said that a moped was seen speeding away from the scene, and two suspects have been arrested.

The nearby bus was empty at the time.

As a unique show of thanks to IDF soldiers, the Haredi superstar Yaakov Shwekey performed on Wednesday, January 2, in front of thousands of fans at Tel Aviv’s Nokia stadium in Yad Eliyahu, on a special night honoring IDF soldiers.

“I’ve come to sing here tonight to show my gratitude to all the Israeli soldiers who work so hard to defend the Jewish state,” Shwekey told the audience.

Shwekey also sang a new song that he composed especially to thank the for the soldiers for all that they do to make the country safe.

Shwekey’s most famous song is Rachem, composed by Pinky Weber. The lyrics are from the grace after the meal, asking God to have mercy on the Jewish nation and the city of Jerusalem. Shwekey described this song: “It’s a prayer. It’s not just a song. We connect with God and ask Him to have mercy.”

Back in August, 2007, Shwekey and singer Avraham Fried were scheduled to perform together in Jerusalem, in commemoration of the 40th anniversary of the reunification of the city. Leading Haredi Rabbis signed forbidding participation in the event. Yaakov responded saying that he had permission from Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, and both Shwekey and Fried went on to perform at the concert.

“Fill the Void” is the title of Rama Burshtein’s film that played to critical acclaim at the recent Toronto International Film Festival and earned seven Ophir Awards — the Israeli Oscars — including one for best film and best director, and has become Israel’s entry into the 2012 Oscars’ foreign language category.

What is this film that has generated so much professional interest?

Amazingly, it’s the story of an average family in a strictly religious, charedi, community in Tel Aviv. It focuses on the family’s 18 year-old-daughter Shira who is in the throws of her first attempts at arranged dating. In the process, unbeknownst to him, Shira spots her intended in the dairy section of the supermarket and a spark is ignited, setting off preparations for the wedding. Then tragedy strikes: Shira’s older sister Esther dies in childbirth, and the family, crushed by grief, delays the wedding. As Esther’s husband, Yochai, is encouraged to remarry a widow living in Belgium, Shira’s mother, desperate to keep her only grandchild in the country, pleads with Shira to marry Yochai instead, and become mother to her older sister’s child.

It is a moving but simple story whose uniqueness lies in that it is a film about charedi life directed by a charedi woman, exposing the true nature of that world for a secular audience. “I felt it was time to tell a story from within, and say something that comes from really living the life,” Rama Burshtein, member of the Tel Aviv charedi community, said. “That’s what I felt was important: to just tell a story that has no connection with the regular subjects that you deal with when you talk about the Orthodox world. People don’t know much about this world, so it’s not a question of celebration or criticism, it’s a window into this world.”

The film offers a rare glimpse into the Orthodox way of life, its customs and traditions, but also deals with the wider themes of relationships and family pressures.

Mrs. Burshtein, a native New Yorker who grew up in Tel Aviv, became religious

at age 25, shortly after graduating from Jerusalem’s Sam Spiegel Film and Television School.

“I love this world, I chose it, I was not born in it,” she told reporters.

In preparation for the filming, she spoke with members of her own community – women who had married their sisters’ widowers – and found a surprising phenomenon: the marriages contracted for the sake of fulfilling religious and family obligations evolved into relationships of love.

“At the beginning of the research, it sounded like it was impossible to understand how it works,” Burshtein said. “And then at the end of it, it was like the natural thing to do, to marry within the family.”

With the backing of her rabbi, Ms.Burshtein began production in January 2011 in a tiny Tel Aviv apartment, not far from the home she shares with her husband and four children. Her three sons and daughter, all in their teens, are enthusiastic supporters of her work. On all occasions Rama takes time to express her thanks to them and to her loyal husband, a highly respected public figure in the charedi world.

By opening a window to the charedi world I believe Rama Burshtein, even without the predicted Academic Award, has done a great benefit for Jewish life in Israel which is in dire need in improvement.

Vienna retains the top spot as the city with the world’s best quality of living, according to the Mercer 2012 Quality of Living Survey. Zurich, Switzerland, and Auckland, New Zealand, follow in second and third place, respectively, and Munich is in fourth place, followed by Vancouver, which ranked fifth. Düsseldorf dropped one spot to rank sixth followed by Frankfurt in seventh, Geneva in eighth, Copenhagen in ninth, and Bern, Switzerland, and Sydney, Australia, tied for tenth place.

Here’s another common denominator to all the cities above: these are all cities I won’t be caught dead living in. Two of my favorite cities barely made the cut: New York City came in 44th and Tel Aviv 99th. I didn’t see Jerusalem anywhere in the survey, although it could be tucked away in the full list, which you have to buy (not gonna’ happen).

New York came in 30th on the Infrastructure Ranking list (seriously? with the longest and most complex subway system in the world?) and Tel Aviv 58th – hey, ahead of 72nd spot Abu Dhabi!

In the Americas, Canadian cities still dominate the top of the index, with Vancouver (5) retaining the top regional spot, followed by Ottawa (14), Toronto (15) and Montreal (23). Calgary ranks 32nd on the overall quality of living ranking.

Honolulu (28) is the U.S. city with the highest quality of living, followed by San Francisco (29) and Boston (35). Chicago is at 42 and Washington, DC ranks 43rd.

In the Middle East and Africa, Dubai (73) and Abu Dhabi (78) in the United Arab Emirates are the region’s cities with the best quality of living. Port Louis in Mauritius (82), Cape Town (89) and Johannesburg (94) follow, and along with Victoria in the Seychelles (96) and Tel Aviv (99), are the region’s only other cities in the top 100.

The Middle East and Africa have 15 cities in the bottom 20, including Lagos, Nigeria (202); Bamako, Mali (209); Khartoum, Sudan (217); and N’Djamena, Chad (218). Baghdad, Iraq (221) is the lowest-ranking city both regionally and globally.