Watch List notes:

Israel: Yeshiva "Yachel Israel" / "Vizhnitz" Religious Institutions medal, circa. 1980's (judging by font style and artistic design); silvered bronze; no maker/artist marks; 59mm, 97.1g: obverse reads in Hebrew "Institutions of 'Sert Vizhnitz' in the Holy Land" above a stylized Jewish religious emblem of a crown and wings; on obverse reads a Hebrew legend "Yeshiva 'Yachel Israel', Ramat Vizhnitz Haifa" over an image of the Yeshiva building, and below reads in Hebrew "A tree of life is she to those who cling to her, and her supporters are happy". Possibly a contributor's tribute medal. "Vizhnitz" is a sect of a branch of Orthodox Judaism called "Hasidism" and originates from the Ukrainian town of Vyzhnytsia; Hasidic Jewry preserves religious faith through an emphasis on Jewish mysticism and spirituality, and its founder is the famous Rabbi Israel Ben Eliezer (1698-1760), also known as the "Baal Shem Tov" ("Possessor of the Good Name"), whose chief spiritual opponent incidentally, was the famous "Vilna Gaon". The connection to Haifa is that in 1952 the then leader of the Vizhnitz sect, 'Admor' (the title given a chief Hasidic Rabbi, the abbreviation for "Adoneinu Moreinu VeRabeinu" - "Our Master, Our Teacher, Our Rabbi") Rabbi Baruch Hager proposed the creation of a neighborhood (called "Ramat Vizhnitz" - Vizhnitz Heights) there in order to establish a Synagogue and Yeshiva (religious training school) for the sect; Yeshiva "Yachel Israel" was built in 1957. The community there numbers around 400 families today. In UNC with a few tiny scuffle marks.