By Batya Ungar-Sargon, JTA World News Service Inhale your arms up into warrior one. Exhale and extend your arms into warrior two. I followed the instructor’s soft but firm voice as she led me and five other women through the yoga poses, and the deep breathing helped to calm my nerves. TheContinue Reading
(JTA) — Slightly more Americans favor the establishment of an independent Palestinian state than those opposed, a new poll found. Forty-two percent of the 837 Americans surveyed by Gallup backed a state in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, while 38 percent were against one, according to the poll releasedContinue Reading
By Ron Kampeas and Uriel Heilman, JTA World News Service NEW YORK — Round 2 in the judicial wars between Israel and the PLO went to Israel, and Israel isn’t about to let the Palestinians forget it. A New York jury on Monday ordered the Palestine Liberation Organization and theContinue Reading
By Ron Kampeas, JTA World News Service WASHINGTON (JTA) — As clearly as Jeb Bush has stated that he does not want his foreign policy chops assessed against that of his brother — or his father — his choice in advisers has only made things murkier. Of 21 advisers to theContinue Reading
(JTA) — A threat on “American or Jewish” shopping centers by the terrorist group responsible for the deadly 2013 attack on a Kenya mall has the U.S. security apparatus calling on the public to be vigilant. Al-Shabab, a Somali group affiliated with al-Qaida, posted a video over the weekend about theContinue Reading
By Cnaan Liphshiz, JTA World News Service As a longtime promoter of Jewish-Muslim dialogue in Denmark, Naveed Baig is no stranger to Copenhagen’s Great Synagogue. The imam at the capital’s Danish Islamic Center, Baig, 39, has on numerous occasions sat under the structure’s gold-and-white ceiling meeting with people he calls his “JewishContinue Reading
By Suzanne Pollak and Geoffrey W. Melada, JTA/Washington Jewish Week Rabbi Barry Freundel, the former spiritual leader at a prominent Washington synagogue, pleaded guilty to 52 counts of misdemeanor voyeurism. The plea Thursday means that Freundel could be sentenced to a maximum penalty of 52 years in prison and orderedContinue Reading
By Boris Kurbanov, Jewish Sound Correspondent The sign posted on the front door read: “Stopsky’s was a project of the heart whose mission was to reconnect people to Jewish heritage, connect the community, and create homemade Jewish comfort cuisine from scratch. We achieved a lot of this, but in theContinue Reading
By Abby Sher, Jewniverse via JTA When an animal species is on the edge of extinction, there are plenty of ways to do your part (adopt an African rhino, anyone?). But what do we do when a language in in critical danger of becoming extinct? There are approximately 6,500 distinct languages spokenContinue Reading
By Janis Siegel, Jewish Sound Correspondent When the Seattle Times released a tool on its website in early February that showed vaccination rates based on 2011-12 school year — and only one of the six Jewish day schools showed that it had provided data — anxious and upset parents litContinue Reading
(JTA) — Muslims in Norway plan to form what they are calling a “peace ring” around an Oslo synagogue following Sabbath services. More than 800 people have signed up on a Facebook page called Frendens Ring, or Friendship Ring, to participate in the gesture on Saturday. The human ring isContinue Reading
By Janis Siegel, Jewish Sound Correspondent In today’s high-risk, high-reward venture capital scene, longtime Seattle entrepreneur and angel investor Jon Staenberg of Staenberg Venture Partners has funded his share of startups and brokered hundreds of deals by using conventional wisdom — stick to the businesses you know and to theContinue Reading
By Janis Siegel, Jewish Sound Correspondent TAG International Development isn’t a public relations firm, but its founder and CEO, Orthodox rabbi and Londoner Yossi Ives, fervently believes PR can go a long way toward recasting Israel’s image in the world. The Israel-based nonprofit matches Israeli experts with local partners inContinue Reading
(JTA) — Copenhagen police are holding two men suspected of aiding the gunman in separate deadly shootings in the Dutch capital, including on a synagogue. In a statement Monday, police said that the men are “suspected of aiding and abetting the perpetrator in connection with the shooting attacks” at aContinue Reading
(JTA) — A woman in Boise, Idaho, allegedly harassed and physically attacked her Jewish neighbor in order to convince her to convert to Christianity. Marguerite Haragan, 58, was charged last week with two counts of malicious harassment in the attack, which police have labeled a hate crime, the KTVB televisionContinue Reading
By Cnaan Liphshiz, JTA World News Service (JTA) — From the window of the Jewish Community of Copenhagen’s crisis center, Finn Schwarz can see his country changing before his eyes. Hours after the slaying of a guard outside the Danish capital’s main synagogue early Sunday morning, two police officers toting machineContinue Reading
By Edmon J. Rodman, JTA World News Service LOS ANGELES (JTA) — Who is the Haman in your life? The person, who like the bad guy in the Megillah Esther that we read on Purim, schemes to bring you down. When we get to the place in the Megillah whereContinue Reading
By JTA World News Service JERUSALEM (JTA) — Israel’s Supreme Court upheld a lower court decision on civil damages in the case of U.S. peace activist Rachel Corrie, who was killed in Gaza in 2003 by a military bulldozer. The high court on Thursday upheld a ruling by the Haifa DistrictContinue Reading
JERUSALEM (JTA) — The remains of an 85-million-year-old reptile — the oldest fossils ever found in Israel — were identified in the Arava Desert. Some 30 fossils belonging to the Elasmosaurus, a large carnivorous reptile, were discovered in the southern Israeli desert. The ancient reptile, a carnivore considered a “cousin”Continue Reading
(JTA) — The vice chancellor at a South African university called a student government demand to kick out pro-Israel Jewish students “outrageous” and “preposterous.” The Students Representative Council at the Durban University of Technology called on the university to expel “Jewish students, especially those who do not support the PalestinianContinue Reading
