Ten wounded Israeli soldiers traveled to South Africa recently for a recovery program combining support from local Jewish communities with a demanding trek through the Drakensberg mountain range.

Jewish and Israeli-owned restaurants in New York City appear to have a new off-menu offering: introducing Jewish singles to one another. “I feel like going to a restaurant — whether kosher, Jewish- or Israeli-owned — I’m more likely to meet someone who is pro-Israel,” Skye Ostreicher, 35, said.

A thanksgiving celebration was recently held for Elkana Levi, an officer in the Golani Brigade who was badly wounded in Khan Yunis a year ago and lost both his legs.

For 32 years, Esther Melamed has been the secular studies principal at Beth Jacob High School. That’s a lot of students she has seen and guided. Melamed estimates that over the years she has taught 800 to 900 graduates; a perfect background to bolster conversations about the 250th anniversary of the US and the future of America.

Some people return to the places that shaped them simply to reminisce. Rabbi Jordan Shaner is returning to help shape the next generation. Years after sitting in the classrooms of Temple Sinai as a child, he has come home as the congregation’s new rabbinic director of Jewish learning, bringing his journey full circle.

Retired American-Israeli basketball star Amar’e (Yehoshafat) Stoudemire was inducted on Sunday, Aug. 16, into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame, receiving the highest honor for former professional athletes in the sport.