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
(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 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
(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
(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
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
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
(JTA) — A French watchdog on anti-Semitism said President Barack Obama mislabeled the slaying of four Jews near Paris as “random.” Sammy Ghozlan, founder of the National Bureau for Vigilance Against Anti-Semitism, or BNVCA, and a former police commissioner, spoke out against Obama’s assertion Wednesday in an interview with JTA.Continue Reading
WASHINGTON (JTA) — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he is determined to speak to Congress on March 3. “At a time when there are those who would deal with protocol and politics, an agreement with Iran is taking shape in Munich that would risk Israel’s existence,” Netanyahu said onContinue Reading
JERUSALEM (JTA) — Israeli President Reuven Rivlin launched a project to help integrate Arab-Israelis into the workforce. Rivlin announced the project Sunday during a meeting at the president’s residence in Jerusalem with CEOs and employers involved in the initiative. Days earlier, Rivlin met with the mayors and local council headsContinue Reading
(JTA) — A Muslim teacher said he resigned from a French private high school for Muslims because of rampant anti-Semitism and radicalism among his students. Soufiane Zitouni, a former philosophy teacher at the Averroes high school in Lille, in northern France, revealed his reasons for quitting five months after startingContinue Reading
(JTA) — A Tunisian tennis player who withdrew from a 2013 match rather than face an Israeli quit a match in France with an Israeli opponent up next. Malek Jaziri cited an elbow injury for his withdrawal Feb. 4 from the Open Sud de France after winning the first setContinue Reading
BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (JTA) — A federal judge in Argentina who has authored a book about the Holocaust was tapped to pick up the late AMIA prosecutor Alberto Nisman’s case against President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner. Daniel Rafecas, who has a relationship with the Jewish community, was chosen by lotteryContinue Reading
By Ben Sales, JTA World News Service TEL AVIV (JTA) — Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Labor Chairman Isaac Herzog won’t be debating each other ahead of Israel’s March election, but English speakers in Tel Aviv who packed an event hall here got the next best thing: Candidates from five parties cameContinue Reading
By Ben Sales, JTA World News Service TEL AVIV (JTA) — There were wings, beers, giant TV screens, and football fans wearing New England Patriots sweatshirts and Seattle Seahawks jerseys. If not for the fact that it was 1 a.m. and former Israeli Finance Minister Yair Lapid stood in the center ofContinue Reading
