WASHINGTON (JTA) — A political action committee preparing the ground for a Hillary Rodham Clinton run for the presidency launched a Jewish outreach. Jewish Americans Ready for Hillary launched last week just before the Shavuot holiday. It is attached to Ready for Hillary, a so-called Super PAC founded in JanuaryContinue Reading
Linda Gradstein/The Media Line Israel’s 120-seat parliament today chose long-time Likud member Reuven Rivlin as the country’s next president who will succeed the popular Shimon Peres, who retires next month at the age of 90. Rivlin, who served two terms as speaker of the Knesset, has been a member ofContinue Reading
By Linda Gradstein, The Media Line Israel has no constitution. The reason, according to local lore, is that the secular majority and the ultra-Orthodox minority could not agree on how to refer to God so they never wrote an actual constitution. Instead there are a series of 13 “Basic Laws”Continue Reading
The oldest man alive of record has passed at 111. Alexander Imich was a Holocaust survivor born in Poland in 1903 who lived through a Soviet Gulag and emigrated to the US in the 1950s. He died peacefully at his home in New York peacefully on Sunday. He had turnedContinue Reading
(JTA) — Eitan Green, a Solomon Schechter day school alumnus from Needham, Mass., was among six hikers killed on Mount Rainier.Green, an experienced mountain guide for Alpine Ascents International who had made more than 40 ascents up Mount Rainier, was ascending the north face of the mountain with one otherContinue Reading
TORONTO (JTA) — A Canadian judge has invalidated the will of a man who bequeathed his estate to a U.S. neo-Nazi group. A court in New Brunswick ruled June 5 that the National Alliance, an American hate group, may not inherit the estate of Robert McCorkill because such a bequestContinue Reading
By Ron Kampeas, JTA World News WASHINGTON (JTA) — The new Palestinian unity government brought together rivals Hamas and Fatah, but it has opened a divide between allies Israel and the United States. “I’m deeply troubled by the announcement that the United States will work with the Palestinian government backedContinue Reading
(Israel Hayom/Exclusive to JNS.org) As a sign of respect for observant Jews, the start time of the Rolling Stones June 4 concert in Tel Aviv has been pushed back by half an hour to allow those observing the Shavuot holiday to arrive at the event comfortably after the holiday endsContinue Reading
(JNS.org) Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas swore in a new unity government on Monday following an agreement between Abbas’s Fatah party and the terrorist group Hamas. The agreement came as the two sides resolved a dispute over a key ministry position. “Today, after announcing the government of national unity weContinue Reading
Tuesday night marks the beginning of Shavuot, a holiday at which the story of Ruth, the Moabite convert and considered one of the greatest heroines of the Torah, is read. Rabbi Shmuley Boteach argues that the greatest challenge facing the world Jewish community is it’s shrinking size and looks at the possibilities of focusedContinue Reading
With the reality of another failed round of Israeli-Palestinian peace talks sinking in for American leftist Zionist groups, many of these organizations are now facing the challenge of restrategizing and reframing their message to the American Jewish audience. Groups like J Street, Americans for Peace Now and Israel Policy Forum areContinue Reading
By Alina Dain Sharon, JNS.org During the same weekend, the fatal shooting at a Jewish museum in Brussels and the surge of right-wing parties in continent-wide parliament elections have brought the multidirectional threats faced by Europe’s Jews back to the forefront. These problems are coming together from theContinue Reading
The Times of Israel reports that the Polish government has expanded the parameters for Polish survivors of Nazi persecution who are eligible for monthly pensions. This new law will increase coverage to include Holocaust survivors of Polish descent, along with Polish victims of Soviet persecution, who are now living outsideContinue Reading
While most of us are aware that today is Yom Yerushalayim (Jerusalem Day), the Israeli holiday that commemorates the reunification of Jerusalem in the Six-Day War, most are unaware that another memorial holiday is also celebrated throughout Israel today: Memorial Day for Ethiopian Jews Who Died on the Way to Israel. TheContinue Reading
By Cnaan Liphshiz, JTA World News BRUSSELS (JTA) — Hunched over a small island of memorial candles for the victims of the attack on the Jewish Museum of Belgium, Paul Ambach is lost in thought. “Once again, Jewish blood in Belgium, which is no longer Belgium,” said Ambach, a well-knownContinue Reading
As the death toll now reaches four in Saturday’s shooting at the Brussels Jewish Museum, some security experts are now saying that evidence from the attack seems to suggest the shooter may have been a hitman rather than an anti-Semitic ‘lone wolf.’ The victims included an Israeli couple, a French woman, andContinue Reading
Approximately 15,000 pounds of hummus-related products have been recalled by major food label Lansal Inc. (better known as Hot Mama’s Foods) due to a possibly bacterial contamination scare. The news comes on the heels of the story earlier this week that Sabra had filed a petition with the FDA “toContinue Reading
By Michael Gerson, The Washington Post Several years ago, I attended the bar mitzvah of a friend’s son. Uniquely in my experience — and, I’d bet, most people’s experience — all of the boy’s four grandparents were Holocaust survivors. In the middle of the ceremony, one grandfather interrupted: “I haveContinue Reading
By Abdullah H. Erakat, The Media Line ABU DIS – Hala Kanaan recalls her disappointment at being one year too young to cast a ballot in the 2006 Palestinian election. A school girl at the time, Hala remembers arguing with her mother and older sister, both of whom failed toContinue Reading
A decision made two months ago by the Israeli government’s religious court to release a woman from her marriage to a comatose husband was made public Tuesday. The ritual divorce was allowed by the court using the Jewish legal concept of “get zikui” to allow the divorce, as the husbandContinue Reading
