Posts By Jigsaw Digital

I recently wrote an article outlining how and why the new well-funded Adelson/Netanyahu/Republican/Evangelical coalition has emerged as the new pro-Israel voice in the U.S. — supplanting the traditional majority of American Jews who are increasingly demonized for expressing honest and heartfelt concerns about the policies and statements of the… Read more »

(JTA) — New York Sen. Chuck Schumer was not actually in New York on Wednesday, but the Democrat’s influence on the fate of the Iran deal loomed large when several thousand people descended on Times Square to protest the agreement. Many of those demonstrating against the agreement chanted “Where… Read more »

BERLIN (JTA) – They are roaring through Europe, raising dust as they go: Jewish bikers bearing an Olympic-style torch all the way from Israel to this German city. Next week, 11 core riders will pull their steel steeds into Berlin’s famous outdoor amphitheater, the Waldbuehne, to help usher in… Read more »

WASHINGTON (JTA) — The road to the Iran nuclear deal did not start in November 2013, when the major powers and Iran launched formal talks. It did not begin in 2010, when the U.S. Congress passed the far-reaching Iran sanctions and the U.N. Security Council approved its own set of… Read more »

NEW YORK (JTA) — The burning a few weeks ago of the Church of the Multiplication of the Loaves and Fishes, a historic church in the Galilee region of Tabgha built on the foundations of a sixth-century house of worship, is not the first act of evil allegedly carried… Read more »

NEW YORK (JTA) — Today is the last day of my long tenure as national director of the Anti-Defamation League. It has been a highly satisfactory and meaningful 28 years as director and 50 years as a professional at this prestigious organization. So why am I choosing to write… Read more »

LOS ANGELES (JTA) — Does the hit Pixar movie “Inside Out” hold a clue as to why many Jews find it so difficult to engage with Tisha b’Av? Could its cast of characters — Joy, Sadness, Anger, Fear and Disgust, who are anthropomorphized in the animated film — help… Read more »

PHILADELPHIA (JTA) — Alex Bethea, the son of cotton and tobacco farm workers, was in sixth grade in 1965 when his family moved from Dillon, South Carolina, to the tiny town of Fairmont, North Carolina, where he attended a school called Rosenwald. But it wasn’t until this week, 50… Read more »

NEW YORK (JTA) – When I was 24, an Orthodox matchmaker tried to set me up on a date with a man older than my parents. When I objected, she told me, “Stop being so picky. Not many guys are willing to consider a black girl.” As an African-American… Read more »

(JTA) – The nuclear agreement signed this week between the U.S.-led group of six world powers and Iran raises as many questions as it answers. As critics and proponents dissect the details, here are six issues to consider. It’s not only about nuclear weapons. In all probability, Iran will acquire nuclear weapons. This… Read more »

WASHINGTON (JTA) – Cancel your summer vacations. That was the order AIPAC’s executive director, Howard Kohr, gave his employees in a staff meeting convened this week at the American Israel Public Affairs Committee after the United States announced the Iran nuclear deal. With the influential pro-Israel lobby group pushing for Congress… Read more »

Few people who are now furiously debating the Iranian deal have actually read the 160 pages of the agreement. I doubt it if they will ever do, and anyway, it will not sway them from their entrenched positions. Those who support it would stick to what President Obama has… Read more »

Anniversaries always present us with an opportunity to reflect on things past, and try to learn lessons from history. It was British military thinker and historian B.H. Liddell Hart who said that, “The only thing you can learn from history is that you can’t learn from history.” However, he… Read more »

TEL AVIV (JTA) — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has decried an agreement over Iran’s nuclear program hundreds of times — most notably in a March speech to a joint session of Congress. Now that the agreement is signed, experts say Netanyahu has one way left to block it: Go… Read more »

WASHINGTON (JTA) – The nuclear deal with Iran, 20 months in the making, is now done — at least as far as negotiations go. The accord, announced early Tuesday, still faces hurdles, although they likely won’t keep the deal from going ahead. So what happens next? We read the laws, perused the… Read more »

KFAR QASIM, Israel (JTA) — The group of Jewish-Israelis sat in a semicircle on the thick, red carpet of the mosque. The women wore headscarves; everyone’s feet were bare. They had come to this Arab town in central Israel to experience a slice of Ramadan, the monthlong daytime fast observed by… Read more »

WASHINGTON (JTA) – When the Department of Homeland Security convened a terror attack simulation for national Jewish leaders, they returned again and again to last month’s deadly shooting attack on a historic black church in Charleston, South Carolina. Last week’s simulation, known as a “tabletop” exercise, posits a possible attack, depicted as… Read more »

WHITEFISH, Mont. (JTA) – Until last year, Rabbi Francine Green Roston was among the Conservative movement’s rising stars. The first woman in the movement to head a congregation with more than 500 members, Roston, the spiritual leader of Congregation Beth El in South Orange, New Jersey, also published Op-Eds… Read more »

WASHINGTON (JTA) – Years before it is deemed a success or a failure, a nuclear deal between Iran and the major powers could unleash far-reaching changes in the region. Much of the focus in Congress and the media in recent weeks has been on whether the deal would inhibit… Read more »

ATHENS, Greece (JTA) — For 55 needy Jewish families, a cash welfare payment is the only thing that gets them through the month. But when they came to the Athens Jewish Community last week for their July assistance, they were given only a portion of the payment in cash… Read more »