By Ben Sales, JTA World News Service JERUSALEM (JTA) – On the surface, the tour looked much like a standard Birthright Israel trip: Participants celebrated Shabbat in Jerusalem’s Old City, swam in the Dead Sea and ascended the ancient mountain fortress at Masada. The trip was mostly free and organizersContinue Reading
(Israel Hayom/Exclusive to JNS.org) Israeli police closed off Highway 90 to the southern city of Eilat after an oil pipeline burst around 12 miles north of the city Thursday night, spilling millions of gallons of crude oil and prompting serious environmental concern for the entire area. The Israeli Environmental ProtectionContinue Reading
JERUSALEM (JTA) — Two shoppers outside a West Bank supermarket were stabbed by an assailant in what police are treating as a terrorist attack. The victims reportedly were moderately injured in the attack Wednesday evening outside the Rami Levy discount supermarket in the Mishor Adumim industrial zone near Maale Adumim,Continue Reading
(JTA) — A suspect in the robbery and rape of a young couple in suburban Paris borrowed sugar from the victims days before the attack, a lawyer for the victims’ family told French media. The three suspects in the case, who reportedly are known to police, appeared in court onContinue Reading
(JNS.org) Ahead of Americans’ nationwide feasting on Turkey for Thanksgiving last week, newly released statistics showed that Israel is the surprising world leader in consumption of turkey per capita. According to figures from Israel’s turkey industry, agriculture ministry, and foreign ministry, the average Israeli eats about 28 pounds ofContinue Reading
Israel Hayom/Exclusive to JNS.org Hezbollah has a stock of advanced sea-to-sea missiles with which it intends to impose a maritime siege on Israel if the two sides enter another war, Lebanese media outlets reported on Monday. According to the reports, Hezbollah apparently has an arsenal of sophisticated Russian-made Yakhont sea-to-seaContinue Reading
By Ben Cohen, JNS.org To properly understand how the Holocaust has been seared onto Israel’s collective consciousness, one should visit the country on the 27th of Nisan, a date in the Hebrew calendar that falls in either April or May in the solar one. On that day, Yom HaShoah,Continue Reading
By Jacob Kamaras, JNS.org Settlements or Jewish communities? West Bank or Judea and Samaria? East Jerusalem or eastern Jerusalem? Those are some of the language choices that journalists covering the Israeli-Palestinian conflict are faced with each day—and those choices should not be taken lightly, experts say. “It’s the terminologyContinue Reading
(JTA) — Israeli security services uncovered a Hamas plot to carry out several large-scale terror attacks on Israeli targets. More than 30 Hamas members involved in the plot were arrested in September, according to the Shin Bet security service and the Israel Defense Forces, which released information about the plotContinue Reading
(JTA) — Jewish groups called for civil and serious discussion about race, democracy and justice in the wake of the grand jury’s decision in fatal shooting of an unarmed African American teen in Ferguson, Mo. The Jewish Council for Public Affairs in a statement issued on Wednesday affirmed its supportContinue Reading
NEW YORK (JTA) – A growing chorus of Orthodox leaders are speaking out against the anti-Arab rhetoric of a prominent New Jersey rabbi, Steven Pruzansky of Teaneck. Following last week’s terrorist attack at a Jerusalem synagogue, Pruzansky, the spiritual leader of Congregation Bnai Yeshurun, wrote a blog post titled “DealingContinue Reading
WARSAW, Poland (JTA) — A town in central Poland is reconsidering a development plan that would turn a Jewish cemetery into a residential complex with underground parking. The Jewish community of Warsaw and local activist Robert Augustyniak, who is not Jewish, had protested the plan. The City Council in GrodziskContinue Reading
JERUSALEM (JTA) — Israel and the Palestinians held secret back-channel peace negotiations, the New Republic reported. The secret negotiations created substantial progress toward an agreement but collapsed when it became clear the Palestinian negotiator did not have the backing of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, according to the article publishedContinue Reading
By Uriel Heilman, JTA World News Service NEW YORK (JTA) – If they buy it, they will come. That’s the philosophy behind a new luxury apartment project in Israel called The Hamptons in Herzliya Pituach that’s attempting to link two very swanky locales in the service of strengthening Diaspora Jews’ connectionsContinue Reading
By Ben Sales, JTA World News Service JERUSALEM (JTA) — Rawan Masalha and Inbar Shaked-Vardi were in their ninth-grade geography class earlier this year when a fight began over the name of their textbook, “Israel: Its People and Area.” “The Palestinian students started saying, ‘Why Israel? Why not Palestine?’ TheyContinue Reading
By Uriel Heilman, JTA World News Service NEW YORK (JTA) – If Rabbi Steven Pruzansky of Teaneck, N.J., had his way, Arab rioters and stone throwers would be shot with live ammunition. Arabs would be barred from the Temple Mount for six months. Any village from which two or moreContinue Reading
(JNS.org) Yemenite Minister of Culture Arwa Othman is giving away Human Rights Watch’s Alison Des Forges Award, which she received in September, to Yemen’s dwindling Jewish community. The award honored Othman for her work promoting women’s rights and fighting extremism. On Nov. 20, she called for “tolerance,” dedicating her award to “brothers and friends from the Jewish community,”Continue Reading
JERUSALEM (JTA) — A shipment of knives, swords, fireworks and Tasers bound for eastern Jerusalem was intercepted by Israel Police. Police seized the two containers of weapons last week addressed to residents of the eastern Jerusalem neighborhood of Beit Hanina, which has a large population of Christian Arabs. They wereContinue Reading
JERUSALEM (JTA) — The Israel Antiquities Authority has launched a free app to introduce archaeology to children using games and puzzles. The app Dig Quest: Israel is available through the App Store beginning Thursday. The games were developed in collaboration with Israel Antiquities Authority archaeologists and researchers. As they play,Continue Reading
By Sara K. Greenberg CAMBRIDGE, Mass. (JTA) — I never imagined that a day would come when some of the world’s leading corporations would fund calls for Israel’s destruction, let alone at one of the world’s most prestigious universities. But that is exactly what happened last week at Harvard. MyContinue Reading
