Posts By Jigsaw Digital

WASHINGTON (JTA) — J Street wasn’t welcomed under the umbrella, but it hasn’t been left out alone in the rain. J Street’s failed effort to join the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations showed that many in the Jewish community still regard the dovish Israel policy group… Read more »

Bebe Fischer, Ina Shivack, Hilary Lyons, Billie Maas (Patrick J. McArdle)

Arizona Onstage Productions is holdinga contest for two monologues to be performed in “25 Questions for a Jewish Mother,” by Kate Moira Ryan and Judy Gold, which will run for three weekends beginning May 9at the Temple of Music and Art Cabaret Theater. Email your essay, “My best memory… Read more »

WASHINGTON (JTA) — The best move for the Obama administration on the Middle East peace front may be to take a few steps back. That’s what some observers are advising in the wake of the collapse of Israeli-Palestinian negotiations. The Palestinian unity talks mean that President Obama and U.S.… Read more »

(JTA) — Longtime fans of the Chicago Cubs know there are a few mainstays they can expect when they visit Wrigley Field: ivy on the outfield walls, a strict no-wave policy rigorously enforced by fans and, most days, disappointing play by the hometown team. But there’s one little-known quirk… Read more »

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas meets with journalists in Ramallah on April 22, 2014, a day before his Fatah faction signed a reconciliation agreement with the militant group Hamas. (Palestinian Press Office via Getty Images)

JERUSALEM (JTA) — Nine months of negotiations were supposed to propel Israelis and Palestinians into a future of peace. Instead, the collapse of talks is threatening to make the future look much like the past. Israel’s decision last week to suspend negotiations — a day after the signing of… Read more »

LOS ANGELES (JTA) — In the circumcision wars, circumcision has been winning some big battles. A new survey of medical data going back more than two decades has found that the health benefits of circumcision far outweigh the risks. The publication of the article on April 4 by the… Read more »

Pope John Paul II places a letter between the stones of Jerusalem's Western Wall on March 26, 2000. (Amos Ben Gershom/Israel Government Press Office via Getty Images)

(JTA) — Popes John XXIII and John Paul II are being declared saints of the Roman Catholic church on April 27, the day that is also the eve of Yom Hashoah.  It’s a coincidence but a notable one.  These two post-Holocaust pontiffs revolutionized relations between Catholics and Jews, fostering… Read more »

WASHINGTON (JTA) — A pox on both your houses, but when you want a cure, we’re still here. That’s the message the Obama administration is sending Israel and the Palestinians amid the deepening crisis in peace efforts. “What we haven’t seen is, frankly, the kind of political will to… Read more »

CHICAGO — It is a familiar mantra following a hate crime: Representatives of both the targeted and other minority groups decry the attack as being not just against the victims, but “against all Americans.” At a moment when a particular community feels vulnerable, that principle affirms our nation’s noblest… Read more »

Ghada Zoabi, founder of Bokra, an Arabic Israeli news site, says the best way to improve the lives of Israeli Arabs is to make them better informed about their government's actions. (Courtesy of Bokra.net).

NAZARETH, Israel (JTA) — After Israel’s 2006 war with the Lebanese terrorist group Hezbollah devastated the country’s northern region, most Israelis focused on rebuilding their towns and creating better defense infrastructure. Arab-Israeli journalist Ghada Zoabi turned her focus to the media. Though Israel has well-established protocols for civil defense… Read more »

Supporters of Alan Gross, who has been imprisoned in Cuba since 2009, rally outside the White House on Dec. 3, 2013. (Alex Wong/Getty Images)

WASHINGTON (JTA) — Alan Gross did not warn his family he was launching a hunger strike, but hearing the news, they understood why: The U.S. government subcontractor languishing in a Cuban prison feels forgotten. Gross,  a 64-year-old Jewish father of two from Potomac, Md., is currently serving a 15-year sentence… Read more »

Israeli President Shimon Peres and Lithuania's President Dalia Grybauskaite attend a remembrance ceremony at Panerial Memorial on Aug. 1, 2013 near Vilnius, Lithuania. Around 100,000 victims, more than half of them Jewish, were murdered at the site by the Germans and Lithuanian groups during World War II. (Moshe Milner/Israeli Government Press Office via Getty Images)

NEW YORK (JTA) — When a 2009 Holocaust-era assets conference concluded with a landmark statement of principles on Holocaust restitution, many restitution advocates had high hopes that a corner had been turned in the struggle for survivor justice. The Terezin Declaration, which had the support of 46 countries participating… Read more »

More gluten-free products are available at Passover, and an array of blogs offers recipes on how to use them. (Hillel Kuttler)

BALTIMORE (JTA) – Grasping a jar of jam in the Passover aisle of a large supermarket here, Kevin Brinson turned to a stranger and asked, “Do you know when Passover ends this year?” Brinson isn’t dreading the holiday to the extent that two weeks before its start, he’s already… Read more »

Jessica Montell (Courtesy B'Tselem)

JERUSALEM (JTA) — According to press reports, the crowd at a recent Republican Jewish Coalition conference “noticeably gasped” when New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie referred to the West Bank as “occupied territories.” Christie promptly apologized to the event’s host, mega-donor Sheldon Adelson, clarifying that his remarks “were not meant… Read more »

Alan Baker (Courtesy Alan Baker)

JERUSALEM (JTA) — When New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie apologized to Republican donor Sheldon Adelson for using the term “occupied territories” to refer to the West Bank, critics pounced. Jon Stewart of “The Daily Show” ridiculed the apology, insisting that the phrase is “widely accepted” and accurate. While the… Read more »

Secretary of State John Kerry testifies during aSenate Foreign Relations Committee hearing on April 8, 2014. (Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

WASHINGTON (JTA) — The Obama administration is sticking with the Israeli-Palestinian peace process for now despite a crisis that has threatened to scuttle talks. That’s the message U.S. officials were peddling as a top State Department team was in the region turning over the engine attempting to restart the… Read more »

Yair Lapid says he would leave the coalition if the Israeli government did not "exhaust all options" in its peace negotiations with the Palestinians. (Elad Gutman)

TEL AVIV (JTA) — Israeli Finance Minister Yair Lapid said he supports freezing settlement growth to help jump-start peace negotiations and vowed that his centrist Yesh Atid party would leave Israel’s governing coalition if Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu were responsible for the collapse of the peace process. In an… Read more »

The Etablissements Rene Neymann matzah factory is located in the Alsatian city of Wasselonne. (Courtesy of Etablissements Rene Neymann)

(JTA) — For most Jews, matzah season comes once a year. But for Jean-Claude Neymann, matzah, or “pain azyme” in French, is a defining family tradition. Neymann runs the oldest matzah bakery in France, located in the town of Wasselonne near the German border. The family company, Etablissements Rene… Read more »

Manuel Valls, then the interior minister of France, arriving at a state dinner with his wife, Anne Gravoin, Sept. 3, 2013. (Antoine Antoniol/Getty Images)

(JTA) — Even among those who anticipated it, the intensity of anti-Semitic violence that hit France in 2002 was shocking. That year — the height of the second Palestinian intifada — synagogues and schools were torched, previously rare anti-Semitic beatings occurred in Paris and elsewhere, and a new generation… Read more »

Rabbi Benjamin Sharff

NEW YORK (JTA) — This week, 73 North American rabbis will be missing something when they go to Shabbat services: their hair. As part of a campaign that raised more than $570,000 for pediatric cancer research, approximately 60 male and female rabbis voluntarily shaved their heads on Tuesday night… Read more »