(JTA) — Religious Jewish teens are far less likely to attempt suicide than their secular Jewish counterparts, a new study finds.The study, led by researchers from Tel Aviv University’s Sackler School of Medicine and Clalit Health Service’s Geha Mental Health Center, and published last week in the journal European Psychology,Continue Reading
(JTA) — Israel’s Health Ministry issued a warning declaring that therapies aimed at changing patients from gay to straight are not supported by medical evidence and could be harmful.Signed by Health Minister Yael German, Sunday’s decision adopts the position of the Council of Psychologists and the Israel Psychological Association.The HealthContinue Reading
By Uriel Heilman, JTA World News Service (This is part of a special JTA report on conversion in America. Read our other pieces about who’s converting to Judaism, and about the denomination-by-denomination breakdown of how the different denominations do conversion.) Must coverts pass a test to become a Jew? Generally, no. Across all the denominations,Continue Reading
By Cnaan Liphshiz, JTA World News Service THE HAGUE, Netherlands (JTA) — For the tour guides that lead visitors through the Van Ostade Housing Project, Fabrice Schomberg’s sukkah is one of the few signs of the neighborhood’s Jewish roots. Built in the 19th century for impoverished Jews, the enclave todayContinue Reading
(JTA) — A French teenager who wanted to join jihadists in Syria said her handlers instructed her to commit attacks on Jews in France.The testimony of the 15-year-old girl, who was arrested last month after her parents alerted police to her plans, appeared Thursday in Le Nouvel Observateur weekly. TheContinue Reading
By Ben Sales, JTA World News Service ARIEL, West Bank (JTA) — The small cardboard box in Elyashiv Drori’s palm looks like it’s full of black pebbles. Closing the box quickly, he explains that it cannot be open for long. The pebble-like pieces, which were uncovered in an archaeological dig near Jerusalem’sContinue Reading
By Ben Sales, JTA World News Service TEL AVIV (JTA) — For approximately a half hour at the beginning of her El Al Israel Airlines flight last week from New York to Tel Aviv, Elana Sztokman watched as the haredi Orthodox man seated next to her rushed up and downContinue Reading
By Ron Kampeas, JTA World News Service WASHINGTON (JTA) – In a strategic shift, the New Israel Fund is arming itself with a set of sharp political tools and picking a fight. Its target: Israel’s political right. Its weapons: Opposition research, media monitoring, and staking its claims to patriotism and Zionism. IfContinue Reading
By Ben Sales, JTA World News Service TEL AVIV (JTA) – During the past 18 months, the governing coalition in Israel has passed legislation to extend the nation’s mandatory conscription to the haredi Orthodox — a group currently exempted from military service — and Knesset leaders have advanced bills that wouldContinue Reading
(JTA) — A Ukrainian health official warned that Jewish pilgrims converging in Uman may bring with them the Ebola virus and other epidemics.Larissa Kachanova, who heads the local branch of the Ukrainian government’s Sanitary and Epidemiological Management Center, issued the warning Sept. 18 ahead of the arrival of approximatelyContinue Reading
By Uriel Heilman, JTA World News Service ANALYSIS NEW YORK (JTA) — The circus is coming to town. No, there won’t be marching elephants, lion tamers or motorcycles jumping through rings of fire. But there may be wolves in sheep’s clothing, tightrope walking and motorcades blocking traffic. We’re talking, ofContinue Reading
By Ami Eden, JTA World News Service ANALYSIS NEW YORK (JTA) — President Obama did not mention Israel or the Palestinians during his address to the nation last week. But his pledge to lead a U.S.-coordinated effort to destroy ISIS could end up doing more to get Israeli-Palestinian negotiations backContinue Reading
By Anthony Weiss, JTA World News Service NEW YORK (JTA) — For a few days this year, they clogged up our Facebook feeds and then, perhaps, our subconscious. In our list of the top viral videos of 5774, we bring back those videos that had you hitting “share” again and again. Prairie dogsContinue Reading
By Ron Kampeas, JTA World News Service WASHINGTON (JTA) – Jewish institutions, which have faced attacks in recent years by lone wolves — extremists who draw their inspiration from the like-minded but act on their own — now must be wary of returnees from the Iraq-Syria arena who are trained and indoctrinatedContinue Reading
By Ron Kampeas, JTA World News Service WASHINGTON (JTA) — It was the first Persian Gulf state to establish ties with Israel, the first to welcome Israeli students, and the only one to allow direct dialing to Israel. Israeli athletes shine on its courts. Now Qatar is on the outsContinue Reading
WASHINGTON (JTA) — Germany is ready to allocate funds to tailor education about anti-Semitism for its Muslim students, the country’s Jewish outreach official said.Felix Klein, Germany’s special representative for relations with Jewish organizations, is in Washington this week to meet with Jewish groups and Obama administration officials over AmericanContinue Reading
(JTA) — The serial killer Jack the Ripper was identified through DNA as a Jewish barber who immigrated to London from Poland.Businessman Russell Edwards, an amateur Jack the Ripper sleuth, and molecular biologist Dr. Jari Louhelainen of Liverpool John Moores University made the discovery through DNA traces found onContinue Reading
JERUSALEM (JTA) — All women of Ashkenazi descent should be screened from age 30 for the BRCA gene mutation that causes breast cancer, an Israeli study recommends.The study, by a research team headed by Ephrat Levy-Lahad of Shaare Zedek Medical Center, was published last Friday in the journal ProceedingsContinue Reading
By Ben Sales, JTA World News Service BEERSHEBA, Israel (JTA) — Handcuffed to a wooden chair in the middle of the night, Rafat Awaysha still wasn’t sure what crime he had committed. He had announced a demonstration against the war in Gaza in a July 11 Facebook post. Soon afterward,Continue Reading
By Ron Kampeas, JTA World News Service WASHINGTON (JTA) – Don’t bring it up. If it comes up, change the subject. If you can’t change the subject, consider an outright denial. Those are some of the strategies used by Jewish reporters working in the Arab and Muslim Middle East toContinue Reading
