Israeli police arresting Anat Hoffman after she said the Shema Israel prayer at the Western Wall in Jerusalem, Oct. 16, 2012. (Women of the Wall) TEL AVIV (JTA) — Last week’s episode was hardly the first time Israeli police stopped activist Anat Hoffman while she was leading a women’s prayer service at the Western Wall in violation of Israeli law. But this time, police actually arrested Hoffman — a first, she says — and… Read more »
Asmaa al-Ghoul, a Palestinian journalist, is trying to advance civil and human rights in Gaza by protesting Hamas policies. (Courtesy International Women's Media Foundation) TEL AVIV (JTA) — She can’t stay out of trouble there, but Asmaa al-Ghoul always comes back to Gaza. A secular, feminist Palestinian journalist, al-Ghoul, 30, has been harassed by Hamas. She’s also been beaten and arrested by Hamas police for protesting its Islamist policies and suppression of human… Read more »
George McGovern signing his book "Abraham Lincoln" at the Richard M. Nixon Library and Museum in Yorba Linda, Calif., August 2009. (Scott Clarkson via CC) WASHINGTON (JTA) — George McGovern is widely remembered for advocating immediate American withdrawal from Vietnam and sharp reductions in defense spending. Yet despite his reputation as a pacifist, the former U.S. senator and 1972 presidential candidate, who died Sunday at 90, did believe there were times when America should… Read more »
A poster touts the debate Oct. 11 between Vice President Joe Biden and Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) in Danville, Ky. The candidates outlined differences over what constitutes a red line for action when it comes to Iran's suspected nuclear weapons program. (Creative Commons) WASHINGTON (JTA) — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made headlines last month with this question: What are the U.S. red lines when it comes to Iran’s suspected nuclear weapons program? The two presidential campaigns are offering two different answers. “Recently, President Obama and Vice President Joe Biden have talked… Read more »
TEL AVIV (JTA) — The Facebook page of PlayArt Labs, an Israeli gaming startup, looks more like the homepage of an art museum than the profile of an emerging technology company. It features an article about Johannes Vermeer’s “Girl with a Pearl Earring,” an animation of Vincent van Gogh’s… Read more »
Hannah Rosenthal, center, the anti-Semitism monitor for the United States, meeting with English language micro-scholarship students in Azerbaijan, March 2011. (U.S. Embassy Baku) WASHINGTON (JTA) – Anti-Semitism overseas is being noted with increasing frequency by U.S. State Department human rights reports, and Hannah Rosenthal says that’s a good thing. Rosenthal, the State Department’s second anti-Semitism monitor, says increased reporting reflects burgeoning awareness of the problem among U.S. diplomats. “The not-so-sexy part of… Read more »
Arlen Specter, shown speaking at the AFL-CIO convention in September 2009, represented Pennsylvania in the U.S. Senate for 30 years. (Steve Dietz/Sharp Image) WASHINGTON (JTA) — During his 30 years in the clubby confines of the U.S. Senate, Arlen Specter never lost his acerbic prosecutorial zeal, friends and associates say. The insistent questions, the commitment to independence that made the longtime Pennsylvania senator a critical player in recent U.S. history, ultimately did… Read more »
The five co-founders of New York's Lost Tribes Brew (Courtesy Lost Tribes Brew) The five co-founders of New York’s Lost Tribes Brew (Courtesy Lost Tribes Brew) NEW YORK (JTA) – As he weaves in and out of traffic in New York City on a Friday afternoon, David Itzkowitz has two things on his mind: Shabbat and beer. Beer because Itzkowitz, 26, is a co-founder… Read more »
WASHINGTON (JTA) — When 15 prominent American Protestant leaders sent a letter to Congress last week calling for an investigation and possible suspension of U.S. aid to Israel, at least one outcome was certain: The Jews wouldn’t like it. Already, one major American Jewish group has canceled its participation… Read more »
Rabbi Raphael Evers speaking with spectators at the commemoration ceremony on the 20th anniversary of the crash of an El Al plane in Amsterdam, Oct. 4, 2012. (Cnaan Liphshiz) AMSTERDAM (JTA) — Chemical weapons, nuclear debris and Mossad agents in biohazard suits all have played prominent roles in the dozens of conspiracy theories surrounding the crash of an El Al airplane here 20 years ago this month. But Rob Oudkerk, vice chairman of the Dutch parliament’s inquiry into… Read more »
Gordon Steen, 66, of Baltimore has been looking for a full-time job for six years. (Neil Rubin) BALTIMORE (JTA) – After some 40 years in the business world, Gordon Steen never thought his morning would start outdoors with hyenas, elephants and monkeys. But that was more than six years ago, before he had closed his 17-year-old shipping and packing business. While contemplating his next career move,… Read more »
BALTIMORE (JTA) – Every Jewish community wants more Raymonde Fiols among its active retirees. The question is whether those communities are prepared to meet the needs she and hundreds of thousands of “younger seniors” and older ones will have in the near future. Now 76, Fiol has resided in… Read more »
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announcing early elections in Israel at a news conference at his office in Jerusalem, Oct. 9, 2012. (Miriam Alster/FLASH90/JTA) TEL AVIV (JTA) — It wasn’t Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s call for early elections that was unusual. After all, only a few governments have served a full term in Israel’s 64-year history. What was unusual was that seemingly everyone on Israel’s political spectrum — from left to right — appeared to… Read more »
Michal Kohane with her sons Ohr Taylor, right, and Yonatan during West Point Acceptance Day, Aug. 18, 2012. (Courtesy Michal Kohane) SAN FRANCISCO (j weekly) — “You don’t mind me applying to West Point Military Academy, Mom, do you?” “West Point?” I thought, surprised. But it was fall. Graduation seemed like light years away. “Go ahead,” I said, trying to sound casual. “Let me know if you need anything,” I… Read more »
Saul Kagan, founding executive direcor of the Claims Conference, right, talking to Nahum Goldmann, founder and longtime president of the World Jewish Congress, 1958. (Courtesy Claims Conference) NEW YORK (JTA) — As the founding executive director of the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany, I remember just how difficult the issue of negotiating with Germany was within the Jewish world 60 years ago. In Israel in particular, it was a subject of enormous controversy, political and… Read more »
NEW YORK (JTA) — In 1935, a trial was held in Bern, Switzerland, in which two individuals were being prosecuted for distributing the notorious anti-Semitic document “The Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion.” At the trial, witness after witness came forward testifying to the fraudulent nature of “The… Read more »
NEW YORK (JTA) – We could have been in Tehran. Men in dark suits and earpieces stood outside the doors of the hotel, keeping watch for protesters and anybody else who didn’t belong. Inside, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad prepared to meet a group of university students. Except this was… Read more »
Holocaust survivor Larisa Rakovskaya in her Odessa apartment, Sept. 14, 2012. (Cnaan Liphshiz) ODESSA, Ukraine (JTA) — In her dilapidated apartment, Larisa Rakovskaya examines a stack of unpaid heating bills. Sick and alone, the 86-year-old Holocaust survivor and widow is preparing for another encounter with the cold, her “worst and only fear.” Rakovskaya says her hope of staying warm this winter lies… Read more »
U.S. Secretary of State Hilary Clinton meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during an offsite bilateral meeting as part of the U.N. General Assembly in New York, Sept. 28, 2012. (Avi Ohayon/GPO/Flash90/JTA) WASHINGTON (JTA) — President Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu did not meet, but they ended up sounding not so far apart. Netanyahu’s address to the U.N. General Assembly on Sept. 28 in many ways echoed Obama’s speech there on Sept. 25, with both ratcheting up the heat… Read more »
Our agencies regularly provide background discussions concerning Middle East negotiations, the Palestinian Authority and UNRWA for the cream of the crop of North American Jewry, which includes clergy, students, academics and all streams of Jewish religious observance, from Orthodox Jews to Reconstructionist Jews. Whenever possible, we invite someone who… Read more »
