Posts By Jigsaw Digital

(Washington Jewish Week) — A moment of silence. That’s what Jews worldwide were demanding at last summer’s London Olympics in memory of the 11 Israeli Olympians killed by Palestinian terrorists at the 1972 Munich Olympics. The Obama White House wasted little time releasing a statement supporting the gesture. But… Read more »

Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak announcing his retirement from politics at a news conference at the Defesne Ministry office in Tel Aviv, Nov. 26, 2012. (Roni Schutzer/Flash90/JTA)

TEL AVIV (JTA) — Is Ehud Barak a calculating political survivor or a military man who, in his own words, “never had any special desire” for political life? Will he be remembered as a warrior or as a seeker of peace? And what will he do next? Barak’s announcement… Read more »

BRUSSELS (JTA) — Within hours of Israel’s assassination of a top Hamas commander, the situation room sprang into action, anticipating retaliatory attacks and preparing instructions to keep civilians out of harm’s way. No, the room wasn’t deep in a bunker beneath Jerusalem, but thousands of miles away — and… Read more »

TEL AVIV (JTA) — When the first two sirens went off, Shoshana Leshaw ran from her second-floor bedroom down to the bomb shelter in the basement. By the time the third and fourth sirens wailed, she went no farther than the stairwell. “It’s almost like you’re sick of the… Read more »

With this Chanukah season calling for a Lincoln connection, why not light a Lincoln menorah? (Edmon J. Rodman)

LOS ANGELES (JTA) — We need to celebrate a Lincoln Chanukah this year. It’s not because of the new Spielberg movie — that gives us something to do on Christmas Day — but because of the 150th anniversary of a little-known event in American history that threatened to expel… Read more »

NEW YORK (JTA) — The recent conflict in Gaza and Israel casts a vivid spotlight on the need to strengthen relations between Jews and Muslims in countries around the world. It is crucial if we are to avoid importing the violence that has rocked the Holy Land to our… Read more »

Moshe Bahta, director of the Ibim Absorption Center, briefing his staff, Nov. 18, 2012. (Adam Soclof)

IBIM, Israel (JTA) – The explosion occurred close enough to Stesyahu Alema to shake his apartment, where he sat with his wife and two of his five children. But he didn’t flinch. None of them did. “There are a lot of people with me, so I don’t need to… Read more »

Israeli soldier praying next to a tank along the Israel-Gaza border, Nov. 18, 2012. (Tsafrir Abayov/Flash90/JTA)

KFAR AZA, Israel (JTA) — In some ways, Israel’s latest confrontation with Hamas looks like past conflicts in the Gaza Strip. Operation Pillar of Defense has left some key Hamas leaders dead, depleted weapons supplies and hit more than 1,000 targets in Gaza. “We are exacting a heavy price… Read more »

Kiryat Malachi residents crying at the funeral of Itzik Amsalem on Nov. 16, 2012. Amsalem was killed in a missile attack the day before. (Ben Sales)

KIRYAT MALACHI, Israel (JTA) — They pick through the tangled foliage, Orthodox men with long beards and black kipahs, wearing white gloves and bright yellow vests, searching for body parts. A few yards over and four stories up, construction workers drive drills into a bombed apartment building. They speak… Read more »

Memorial candles lit for Kiryat Malachi casualties in the apartment building where they were killed by a Gaza rocket. (Anav Silverman/Tazpit News Agency)

It’s Thursday evening in Kiryat Malachi and the city of nearly 21,000 residents is strangely quiet. The usually busy city center is empty of people—most of the stores and restaurants have been shut down. There are no high school students loitering around, and no elderly folks smoking hooka or… Read more »

Lone soldier Stephen Segal (in purple beret)

The firing of missiles from Gaza into Israel and Israel’s Nov. 14 killing of Ahmed Jabari, the chief of Hamas’ military wing, initiated the call-up of Israel Defense Forces’ reserves. The situation escalated over the following week, and since Nov. 21, a precarious cease-fire has taken hold. For members… Read more »

The Iron Dome defense system firing missiles to intercept incoming rockets from Gaza in the port town of Ashdod, Nov. 15, 2012. (Tsafrir Abayov/Flash90/JTA)

SDEROT, Israel (JTA) — Wage war to make peace. That’s the idea behind Israel’s strikes this week against Hamas targets in Gaza, including Wednesday’s attack that killed Hamas military chief Ahmed Jabari. What’s not clear is how far Israel’s Operation Pillar of Defense will go, what price Israeli civilians… Read more »

JERUSALEM (JTA) — Hours after three Israelis in southern Israel were killed by a rocket fired from the Gaza Strip, a rocket struck the outskirts of Tel Aviv, bringing the conflict between Israel and Hamas to a new intensity. On Thursday, the Israel Defense Forces reportedly sent ground trips to the… Read more »

Smoke rising following an Israeli airstrike on a house in Gaza City, Nov. 14, 2012. (Edi Israel/Flash90/JTA)

JERUSALEM (JTA) – The Israeli army began moving infantry units to the south and calling up reservists in preparation for a further escalation of hostilities with Hamas after an Israeli airstrike killed Hamas’ military chief in the strip. Ahmed Jabari and a passenger were killed by an Israeli missile… Read more »

Phillipe Karsenty delivering a lecture on the al-Dura affair in France in 2011. (Courtesy Phillipe Karsenty)

PARIS (JTA) — To his allies, he’s a bulldog. Enemies call him a conspiracist and a genocide denier. Both sides, however, agree on one thing: One could find a more pleasant adversary than French-Jewish politician and activist Philipe Karsenty. It’s an impression easily reached in even a short conversation with… Read more »

Billionaire Munib al-Masri, the richest Palestinian in the West Bank, standing outside his mansion near Nablus, a replica of a 16th century Italian villa. (Ben Sales)

NABLUS, West Bank (JTA) — Dozens of photographs line the wall of a room on the first floor of Palestinian billionaire Munib al-Masri’s West Bank villa, depicting a man of global influence but also of divergent impulses. Al-Masri is seen posing with the likes of Pope John Paul II… Read more »

Nobel laureate Elie Wiesel, left, and Jewish Agency for Israel Chairman Natan Sharansky, right, discuss the free Soviet Jewry movement, marking the 25th anniversary of its pinnacle event The March on Washington, Nov. 12, 2012. (David Karp)

BALTIMORE (JTA) — A year since its creation, the grandly named Global Planning Table remains the great white hope of the Jewish Federations of North America, which held its annual General Assembly here this week. Introduced a year ago, the GPT aims to reshape the way federations spend money… Read more »

Suzi Hileman

After 22 months, Suzi Hileman finally got to step into a courtroom and confront Jared Lee Loughner, the man who killed six people and wounded her and 12 others who’d come to meet with  Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords at a Tucson Safeway on Jan. 8, 2011. “I have wanted to… Read more »

Sheldon Adelson, a major donor to Republican candidates, attending a Republican Jewish Coalition event at the party's convention in Tampa, Fla., on Aug. 27, 2012. Jewish republicans say the party should expect to hear from donors about how to do better in the next election. (Ron Kampeas)

WASHINGTON (JTA) – Think immigration through — again. Forget about gay marriage. And for heaven’s sake, when it comes to rape, shut up! The Republican Party as a whole is having the morning-afters, reconsidering how it might have done better in an election that saw the party fail to… Read more »

Congressional candidate Rabbi Shmuley Boteach talking to Tenafly High School football players outside a polling station in the northern New Jersey borough, Nov. 6, 2012. (Chanie Lieber)

TENAFLY, N.J. (JTA) — “Hey, are you tweeting that?” Rabbi Shmuley Boteach asks. Boteach — the self-proclaimed “America’s rabbi,” author of “Kosher Sex,” father of nine and Republican candidate for U.S. Congress — is standing on the sidewalk next to Tenafly Middle School on the morning of Election Day.… Read more »