Yearly Archives 2015

Looking back at 2015, there is no question that the growing number of refugees worldwide has become a huge concern. The United Nations refugee agency reported this summer that there are more refugees in the world today than ever previously recorded. The agency labels Syria, Ukraine and South Sudan… Read more »

ZHUKOVKA, Russia (JTA) — On the only road connecting this affluent village on Moscow’s western outskirts, Russian secret service agents are blocking all inbound traffic. Drivers bound for Zhukovka pull over and step out to smoke while chatting with other motorists as a line of luxury cars grows on the shoulder… Read more »

NEW YORK (JTA) – Donald Trump’s call last week to bar all Muslims from entering the United States “until our country’s representatives can figure out what is going on” has set off a deluge of criticism in America and around the world, from U.S. House Speaker Paul Ryan to Israeli… Read more »

TEL AVIV (JTA) — During last week’s climate summit outside Paris, the 195 delegate countries — including Israel — committed to implementing plans to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and improving their goals every five years. The aim: Keep Earth from warming more than 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit by the end of the 21st… Read more »

(JTA) — Itzhak Perlman, the Israeli-born violin virtuoso, was named the third winner of the Genesis Prize. Perlman was named the winner on Monday of the annual $1 million prize that has been dubbed the “Jewish Nobel.” He joins former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg and the actor-director… Read more »

LOS ANGELES (JTA) — Persian culture makes up an important part of the Jewish community in New York, Israel and especially Southern California, where some 45,000 Persian Jews reside. The cuisine of this strong, close-knit community is not unlike that of Persian cuisine in general: colorful rice dishes, rich and… Read more »

RIO DE JANEIRO (JTA) – For four years, llana Lerner Kalmanovich rode a hot and crowded bus three hours each day to reach the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, where she was pursuing degrees in physical education and nutrition. Police raids into nearby slums, or favelas, often blocked… Read more »

NEW YORK (JTA) – It was all hugs and smiles when Israeli President Reuven Rivlin met Friday with leaders of America’s three main Jewish denominations at an event hosted by UJA-Federation of New York. But when it came time to speak, the Reform and Conservative leaders made clear they… Read more »

(JTA) — Arab-Israeli lawmaker and political leader Ayman Odeh refused to meet with the umbrella foreign policy body for American Jews because it shares office space with the Jewish Agency, an abrupt and dissonant end to a trip that was aimed at promoting greater Arab-Jewish cooperation. “I came here… Read more »

(JTA) — Avigail Alfatov eats her pizza upside down and has funny hiccups. Her favorite food is falafel and she makes her face shine by wiping it with green tea bags. How do we know this and, perhaps more important, why do we care? Well, Alfatov is the reigning… Read more »

AMSTERDAM (JTA) – More than 350 years after this city’s Portuguese Jewish community excommunicated Baruch Spinoza and banned his writings for eternity, the philosopher’s books are for sale at the souvenir shop of the community’s synagogue. Spinoza, a Dutch-born Jewish philosopher who laid the intellectual foundations of the Enlightenment… Read more »

(The Nosher via JTA) — Cooking enough for an army has been a long-established tradition of Jewish mothers across the globe, but mine takes it to a new level. I can’t think of a meal prepared by my mother where there wasn’t enough food for each diner to have… Read more »

TEL AVIV (JTA) — The teeming blocks around this city’s New Central Bus Station are anything but scenic. Packed with humanity at every hour of the day, they are dizzying monuments to urban blight: equal parts graffiti, chaotic traffic and bustling, black-market commerce. So on a sunny Friday last… Read more »

TEL AVIV (JTA) — When Israel discovered two massive natural gas fields off its coast five years ago, it was billed as a goldmine that would shift the balance of energy exports in the Middle East and fill Israel’s coffers. Five years later, drilling in the biggest field, known as Leviathan,… Read more »

TEL AVIV (JTA) — Sitting in front of a computer at the center of Israel’s largest army base, a soldier stares at the screen, moving pixel by pixel over a satellite photograph, picking out details and finding patterns. A few years ago N.S., who has autism, thought the Israel Defense Forces wouldn’t take him.… Read more »

(JTA) – While America puzzles over the mass shooting in San Bernardino, California, many American Jews are puzzling over an additional element: the religious identity of victim Nicholas Thalasinos. Pictured on his Facebook page wearing a scarf-style tallit prayer shawl, Thalasinos, who was killed along with 13 others in… Read more »

It was fitting and ironic that Donald Trump chose this week of all weeks to issue his monstrous missive calling for all Muslims – including citizens who have traveled outside of the country for work, vacation, or any reason at all – to be barred from entering the United… Read more »

(JTA) – Since last week’s mass shooting in the California city of San Bernardino, U.S. authorities have been piecing together what might have led Syed Farook and his wife, Tafsheen Malik, to gun down 14 of Farook’s colleagues at a holiday party for county health department employees. The attack raises… Read more »

WASHINGTON (JTA) — In carefully tailored stump speeches that ranged in tone from apocalyptic to chummy, all but one of the Republican presidential candidates showed up in an attempt to woo Jewish voters. Many of the speeches at the Republican Jewish Coalition Presidential Candidates Forum, held Dec. 3 at… Read more »

WASHINGTON (JTA) — U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, speaking at an annual U.S.-Israel confab, said Israel’s government must consider the consequences of evolving toward a single state incorporating the Palestinian areas. “How does Israel possibly maintain its character as a Jewish democratic state?” Kerry said Saturday at the Saban Forum in Washington,… Read more »