By Cnaan Liphshiz, JTA World News Service (JTA) — An attack on the Paris headquarters of a French satirical magazine has left at least 12 people dead, including the Jewish caricaturist Georges Wolinski. Two of the reported fatalities in Wednesday’s attack were police officers, according to the French daily newspaperContinue Reading
BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (JTA) — Argentina’s president adopted a Jewish godson under a law intended to counteract an old legend about werewolves. President Christina Fernandez described in seven tweets her meeting with her new godson, Yair Tawil, a member of a Chabad-Lubavitch family. Tawil was adopted under a law passedContinue Reading
(JTA) — A draft Palestinian statehood resolution set to be introduced at the United Nations is counterproductive, the U.S. State Department said. “We don’t think this resolution is constructive,” State Department spokesman Jeff Rathke told reporters Monday at a regular news briefing. “We think it sets arbitrary deadlines for reachingContinue Reading
By Samantha Badgen, The Media Line That terrorism causes psychological trauma is nothing new. Most would agree that causing trauma is one of terrorism’s primary goals. But now a study in Israel has found that exposure to even the threat of terrorism, not an actual terror attack, can have negativeContinue Reading
By Uriel Heilman, JTA World News Service (JTA) – For many Cuban Jews – the majority of whom now live in the United States – it has been a bittersweet week. Like countless Jews around the world, they cheered the release of Alan Gross, the American Jewish telecommunications contractor whoContinue Reading
By Uriel Heilman, JTA World News Service NEW YORK (JTA) – United Synagogue Youth voted to relax its rules barring its teenage board members from dating non-Jews. The amendment was adopted Monday in Atlanta at the annual international convention of the Conservative movement’s youth group. The change affects the 100 or soContinue Reading
(JTA) — The French motorist who slammed his car into a crowd shouting “This is in the name of the children of Palestine” did not commit a terror attack, a prosecutor said. At least 13 people were injured, two critically, in the incident Sunday in the city of Dijon, theContinue Reading
By JTA Staff (JTA) — What made headlines (in Israel, the U.S. and around the world) in 2014? Test your knowledge with JTA’s annual news quiz: Palestinian officials apologized to Czech authorities after the Palestinian envoy to Prague, Jamal Al-Jamal, was killed in an explosion in his home because: a) aContinue Reading
By Ron Kampeas, JTA World News Service WASHINGTON (JTA) — I’ve been JTA’s Washington bureau chief for 11 years, but this was the first time I scored a coveted invitation to the annual White House Hanukkah party. A Washington tradition started by President George W. Bush, the party has actually expandedContinue Reading
By Ron Kampeas, JTA World News Service WASHINGTON (JTA) – Come early next year, there might be yet another world capital that opposes Israeli settlement expansion and sees Benjamin Netanyahu as principally responsible for Israel’s isolation: Jerusalem. Isaac Herzog, the Labor Party leader, is faring well in the polls sinceContinue Reading
WASHINGTON (JTA) – The Obama administration announced the release of Alan Gross amidst sweeping changes in Cuba-U.S. ties, including a return to full diplomatic relations. Gross, a Jewish American contractor, was released Wednesday morning and is flying to Washington with his wife, Judy, where he will be met by U.S.Continue Reading
(JTA) — The parents of Steven Sotloff, the Jewish journalist who was beheaded by a member of ISIS, will light a public menorah in Miami in his memory. Arthur and Shirley Sotloff will light the first candle of Hanukkah on Tuesday night at the Chabad center. “Steve was a proudContinue Reading
By Menachem Wecker, JTA World News Service NEW YORK (JTA) — Dimly lit, the stone slab, or stele, doesn’t look particularly noteworthy, especially when compared to the more lavish sphinxes, jewelry and cauldrons one encounters en route to the room where it is installed. Indeed, in a Twitter post thisContinue Reading
By Uriel Heilman, JTA World News Service (JTA) — When the season’s first snowstorm descended on Mount Hermon in the Golan Heights a few weeks ago, it didn’t take long before M, a career sergeant in the Israel Defense Forces, received a phone call from Leon Blankrot. “What do youContinue Reading
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
