By Hanna Rais, The Media Line In Afghanistan, dozens of men marched through the streets wearing head-to-toe sky-blue burkas to show their identification with restrictions against women. In Iran, women took to social media to “reclaim feminism.” At the West Bank Qalandia crossing, 1,000 Palestinian and 500 Israeli women triedContinue Reading
By Anthony Weiss, JTA World News Service PORTLAND, Ore. (JTA) — For Tim and Sonia Marie Leikam, the dream is nearly complete. Behind the couple’s tidy Victorian house on a tree-lined street in southeast Portland is a pitched-roof building that vaguely resembles a garage with too small a door. ButContinue Reading
By Ron Kampeas, JTA World News Service WASHINGTON (JTA) — Hillel International said its president, Eric Fingerhut, was pulling out of J Street’s upcoming annual conference because of the scheduled appearance there of Saeb Erekat, the chief Palestinian negotiator. But J Street isn’t buying it. In a statement Monday, theContinue Reading
The Hague, Netherlands (JTA) — A number of Dutch schools refrain from teaching about the Holocaust because of resistance from Muslim pupils, teachers told lawmakers. The centrist Christian Union party held a roundtable discussion about Holocaust education with teachers and other professionals on March 4 in parliament in The Hague,Continue Reading
By Sarah Wildman, JTA World News Service WASHINGTON (JTA) — At the AIPAC conference, a sea of 16,000 Israel supporters spent their time talking Iran policy amid the swirling controversy over Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s speech to Congress. To the sidelines fell discussion of the Israeli elections, the peace processContinue Reading
By Julie Wiener, JTA World News Service (JTA) — Another slick bar mitzvah invitation video of questionable taste has gone viral. This time it’s for the impending bar mitzvah of Brody Criz, whose invitation consists of him starring in a Jew-ified medley of pop-song parodies — including one of “Blurred Lines,” theContinue Reading
By Alan H. Gill, JTA World News Service NEW YORK (JTA) — Jewish perseverance, and more than a bit of chutzpah, lies at the heart of the Purim holiday we celebrate this week. It is one of the reasons we are instructed to mark this raucous holiday with boundless joyContinue Reading
By Anthony Weiss, JTA World News Service PORTLAND, Ore. (JTA) – Until recently, Jo Borkan was thinking about leaving Portland. She had lived in the city almost her whole life and owns a house on the city’s east side. But Borkan craved a connection to Judaism, and she couldn’t seem toContinue Reading
By Anthony Weiss, JTA World News Service PORTLAND, Ore. (JTA) – Until recently, Jo Borkan was thinking about leaving Portland. She had lived in the city almost her whole life and owns a house on the city’s east side. But Borkan craved a connection to Judaism, and she couldn’t seem toContinue Reading
By Ben Sales, JTA World News Service TEL AVIV (JTA) — Isaac Herzog paces slowly up and down the stage, one hand in his suit pocket, a slight smile forming through his slender lips. Quietly, his heavy breath audible through the microphone, the center-left candidate for prime minister runs downContinue Reading
By Janis Siegel, Jewish Sound Correspondent While Middle East experts wring their hands in hopes that moderate leaders can prevail in the region, George Deek, Israel’s former vice ambassador to Norway, is calling upon Palestinian Arabs to take charge of their own fate and their own future, and to stopContinue Reading
(JTA) — In his address to Congress, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu argued that the proposed nuclear deal being negotiated with Iran will lead inexorably to a nuclear-armed Iran and war in the Middle East. “This deal has two major concessions: One, leaving Iran with a vast nuclear program, andContinue Reading
By JTA World News Service Full text of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s speech to a joint session of Congress, March 3, 2015. As delivered: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is addressing a joint meeting of Congress; here is a complete transcript of his remarks. NETANYAHU: Thank you. (APPLA– USE) ThankContinue Reading
In search of old members: Ner Tamid’s 50th anniversary celebration for a shul that lasted five years Five years is a relatively short life for a synagogue, yet the 200 families that were members of Bellevue’s Congregation Ner Tamid from 1965 to 1970 share a special bond that endures, likeContinue Reading
By Gwen Davis , Jewish Sound Correspondent You’re starving, you’ve been sitting too long, you’re overtired, and the baby won’t stop screaming. Sound like a familiar Passover seder scene to you? Tamara Pester thought so. So she invented Passover Bingo, which will allow seder-goers to become more engaged in theContinue Reading
By Emily K. Alhadeff, Associate Editor, The Jewish Sound In 1935, Lithuania-born Rabbi Mordecai Kaplan wrote “Judaism as a Civilization,” a book that reimagined the religion as a way of living and became the foundation for the Reconstructionist Movement. Many of Kaplan’s ideas are taken for granted today, but theyContinue Reading
By Ron Kampeas, JTA World News Service WASHINGTON (JTA) — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told top Senate Democrats he regretted that his planned address to the U.S. Congress is being perceived as partisan, as President Barack Obama’s top security adviser said the speech was “destructive.” Netanyahu wrote Tuesday to decline anContinue Reading
By Ben Sales, JTA World News Service RAMAT GAN, Israel (JTA) — When Isaac Herzog learned that his Zionist Union party had won the election with 32 percent of the vote, he posted a triumphant status update on Facebook. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had failed, Herzog wrote on Sunday, andContinue Reading
By Julie Wiener, JTA World News Service Commentary magazine called it “flood libel.” HonestReporting.com described it as “dam busted.” And Camera headlined it “Dam Lies.” Agence France Presse’s report earlier this week falsely alleging that Israel intentionally opened a large dam in the South in order to unleash floods upon Gaza’s already beleagueredContinue Reading
If you have visited one of our local Jewish cemeteries on Memorial Day you will have seen the efforts of a small group of local Jewish veterans who honor their comrades of past conflicts with a flag placed on each of their graves. In 1996, armed with a list ofContinue Reading
