By Cnaan Liphshiz, JTA World News Service (JTA) — For the past 14 years, French Jews have grown accustomed to coming under attack during periods of conflict in the Middle East from hostile elements within their country’s large Arab and Muslim communities. One recent incident, however, stood out: the JulyContinue Reading
Dan Aznoff, Special to the Jewish Sound Despite the fact that she grew up 3,000 miles away from Seattle and speaks with an East Coast accent, Rabbi Ruth Zlotnick believes she will be coming home in August when she takes her place on the bima as the new senior rabbi atContinue Reading
JERUSALEM (JTA) — A United Nations agency condemned the discovery of rockets discovered in one of its schools in the Gaza Strip.The United Nations Relief and Works Agency, which assists Palestinian refugees, said in a statement issued Thursday that about 20 rockets were discovered hidden on the premises of aContinue Reading
By Alina Dain Sharon, JNS.org Australia’s Sydney Harbor is up in flames. Large letters superimposed on the scene ask, “How would they react?” That image and many others like it have been distributed by an Israeli student initiative called “Israel Under Fire,” which now boasts more than 57,000Continue Reading
(JTA) — Israel launched a ground incursion into the Gaza Strip to destroy tunnels it says are used for terrorist activities. “A large IDF force has just launched a ground operation in the Gaza Strip,” the Israel Defense Forces’ spokesman’s office said late Thursday on its Twitter feed. “A new phase ofContinue Reading
WASHINGTON (JTA) — U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry ripped Hamas for ignoring a cease-fire call and affirmed Israel’s right to defend itself.“I cannot condemn strongly enough the actions of Hamas in so brazenly firing rockets in multiple numbers in the face of a goodwill effort to offer a cease-fireContinue Reading
(JTA) — A Belgian Jewish woman said an Antwerp shop owner refused to serve her “out of protest.”The woman, identified by the initials B.H., told police and the Jewish monthly Joods Actueel that she was declined service on Monday when she entered his clothes store in the shopping district ofContinue Reading
By Linda Gradstein The Media Line Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas is in Egypt today in an attempt to push forward a cease-fire between Israel and the Islamist Hamas movement, although a truce still appears to be days, if not weeks, away. Hamas today officially rejected an Egyptian proposal forContinue Reading
By Tori Gottlieb, Jewish Sound Correspondent How many people have fond memories of their childhood Hebrew school programs, of sitting in their synagogues’ classrooms or social halls after a full day of English and algebra, going over alphabets and pronunciation and vowels, without understanding much of what was going on?Continue Reading
(JTA) — Israel and Hamas are fighting their third major conflict in six years, and while some things have stayed the same, the battle lines have also shifted in a few notable ways. Here are eight things you need to know about the current conflagration: • Iron Dome has been a gameContinue Reading
NEW YORK (JTA) – A Jewish woman was ejected from a JetBlue flight after arguing about the Israel-Hamas conflict with a Palestinian passenger. The Jewish woman, physician Lisa Rosenberg of New York, was asked to leave the July 7 John F. Kennedy Airport-bound flight from Palm Beach International Airport notContinue Reading
By JTA World News Service Pearl Jam lead singer Eddie Vedder on Friday denounced Israel in an expletive-laden tirade during a concert in England. “I swear to f***ing god, there are people out there who are looking for a reason to kill,” Vedder said. “They’re looking for a reason toContinue Reading
By JTA World News Service WASHINGTON (JTA) — Israel is ready to accept an Egyptian-brokered cease-fire, multiple media reports said, although it is unclear whether Hamas also has agreed. The cease-fire that would end the eight-day Gaza conflict was first posted Monday on Twitter by Yossi Melman, a veteran IsraeliContinue Reading
By JTA World News Service (JTA) — Dozens of young men protesting Israel’s actions in Gaza briefly besieged a Paris synagogue and clashed with security. At least three Jews were taken to the hospital as a result of the clashes that erupted Sunday between the protesters and young Jewish menContinue Reading
According to this article in Tablet Magazine, the six men accused of kidnapping and brutally murdering an Arab Israeli teen that resulted in the war that broke out this month are all members of a group of rabid fans of the Beitar Illit soccer team. This group has been involvedContinue Reading
By Ben Sales, JTA World News Service TEL AVIV (JTA) — Had the shrapnel fallen a foot to the right, gas station attendant Michael Savlov would have been destroyed along with the rest of the Dor Alon gas station in southern Tel Aviv. Savlov was with a customer in theContinue Reading
By Joel Magalnick, Editor, The Jewish Sound During a lunchtime conference call today with members of Seattle’s Jewish community, Andy David, Israel’s consul general to the Pacific Northwest, laid out the issues of the war that erupted this week between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip. This is whatContinue Reading
By Ben Sales, JTA World News Service TEL AVIV (JTA) — Get used to conflict. That’s the message Israeli officials and security experts are relaying as the Israel Defense Forces conducts its third operation in six years against Hamas in the Gaza Strip. Israel’s missile defense capabilities have grown significantlyContinue Reading
By Joel Magalnick, Editor, The Jewish Sound FY2015_PAC_Grants (1) Sometimes a kid just needs a place to unwind. “It’s an overwhelming, stimulating world,” said Shoshana Bilavsky, head of school at the Seattle Jewish Community School. “The new generation is more and more stimulated, and you see more excitement and sensoryContinue Reading
This year’s Jacob Friedman Holocaust Writing, Art, and Digital Media Contest, sponsored by the Washington State Holocaust Education Resource Center, received 700 entries from students across the state. Here are excerpts and artwork from several of the winners: Digital Media 1st Place: Marina LaBossier, Grade 10, Eastside Catholic High School,Continue Reading
