Posts By Jigsaw Digital

WASHINGTON (JTA) — New sanctions targeting Iran’s financial sector and its sale of crude oil give President Obama leeway to moderate their possible impact on oil markets and to use carrots as well as sticks to sway third parties into isolating the Islamic Republic. The sanctions target any foreign… Read more »

BOULDER, Colo. (JTA) — When Matisyahu, the 32-year-old Chasidic reggae superstar, appeared onstage for the first time since shaving his trademark beard, no one in the audience at the Boulder Theater seemed surprised. The news of his shaving had been widely discussed since the star tweeted a photo of… Read more »

Samer al-Issawi spent five time in five Israeli prisons for shooting at Israeli soldiers before he was released in the first phase of the swap for Gilad Shalit. (Linda Gradstein)

OFER, West Bank (JTA) — When Israel releases 550 Palestinian prisoners on Sunday in the second phase of the Gilad Shalit exchange deal, the freed men and women will be leaving behind thousands of fellow Palestinians in Israeli jails. According to the Israeli Prison Service, there are 6,640 Palestinian… Read more »

Broncos quarterback Tim Tebow's signature kneeling move has become an Internet sensation even among Jews, who admire the football player's strong expression of faith. (Jeffrey Beall via CC)

NEW YORK (JTA) — The biggest story in the NFL this season is Tim Tebow, a devout Christian quarterback who doesn’t throw very well but has helped the Denver Broncos pull off a string of last-second victories. But the rugged Tebow’s signature move comes when play has stopped —… Read more »

A sex essay that appeared in a Yeshiva University student publication has prompted an intense debate about reproductive health, Orthodox Jewish modesty and freedom of speech. (Illustration by JTA)

NEW YORK (JTA) — It wasn’t your typical college sex scandal. There were no accusations of molestation, inappropriate faculty-student relationships or date rape charges. Instead, the precipitating incident was the publication by a student-run newspaper of a female student’s first-person account of a premarital sexual encounter. But this is… Read more »

Matisyahu posted pictures of himself on Twitter after shaving his signature beard, Dec. 13, 2011. (Photo via Twitter)

NEW YORK (JTA) — The world’s most famous Chasidic Jew has shaved his beard. With a declaration Tuesday morning that he was “reclaiming” himself, Jewish music star Matisyahu — a.k.a. Matthew Miller — shaved his signature beard and wrote, “No more Chassidic reggae superstar.” The musician posted two photos of his newly… Read more »

Mitt Romney speaks to the Republican Jewish Coalition presidential candidates' forum on Dec. 7. (Republican Jewish Coalition)

WASHINGTON (JTA) — Iran’s nuclear program appears to be racing ahead. The Middle East peace process is in shambles. And a series of recent flare-ups have highlighted ongoing tensions between the Obama administration and elements of the pro-Israel community. It was against this backdrop that six Republican candidates took… Read more »

Danny Danon

JERUSALEM (JTA) — The State of Israel has always prided itself on being not only a home to its native citizens but a haven for Jews from across the globe. For years the Ministry of Immigration Absorption has successfully focused on attracting Jews from around the world to make… Read more »

At a Nov. 20 event in New Brunswick, N.J., sponsored by the People of Abraham United Against Hunger, Muslim and Jewish volunteers gathered to prepare and serve meals to the homeless. (Zamir Hassan)

NEW YORK (JTA) — Daisy Khan seemed right at home in the ornately decorated main sanctuary of B’nai Jeshurun, a large and vibrant synagogue on Manhattan’s Upper West Side. “I want to thank you for inviting us into this sanctuary, which is very much like a mosque,” said Khan,… Read more »

LOS ANGELES (The Jewish Journal) — The USC Shoah Foundation Institute is home to more than 52,000 videotaped testimonies about the Holocaust, and people searching the archive’s index enter a single keyword into their queries more than any other: “Auschwitz.” “Auschwitz seems to be the one that people go… Read more »

JTA’s new column, “Seeking Kin,” aims to help reunite long-lost friends and relatives. BALTIMORE (JTA) — The Ellbogen children, Edna and Michael, nearly became Mordechai “Moti” Malkin’s adopted siblings in early 1950s Israel. Six decades later, the 66-year-old Herzliya resident wants to know what’s become of them. When Paul… Read more »

LOS ANGELES (JTA) — Have I got a secret agent for you! When Hamas is smuggling missiles, and Iranians are building A-bombs deep underground, to whom can Israel turn? 007? No way. He’s busy playing baccarat or keeping the world from being fried by space lasers. He hasn’t time for the… Read more »

LOS ANGELES (Jewish Journal) — In the course of an election campaign, most presidential candidates talk about what they’ll do if — or, if they’re particularly bullish, when — they’re elected. But Fred Karger isn’t like other Republicans running for president, and not just because he’s openly gay and… Read more »

(Jewish Ideas Daily) — The organization Tzohar has just resumed performing its popular “alternative” weddings in Israel, ending a dispute with the Ministry of Religious Services that was resolved only after a media war and a high-level Knesset meeting. Tzohar won — but has not won much. After Prime… Read more »

Members of Gibraltar's largely Sephardic, largely Orthodox community pick up children from the communiyt's primary school, which is seeing record enrollment. (Alex Weisler)

GIBRALTAR (JTA) — Four synagogues, a mikvah, a kosher coffeehouse and separate boys and girls religious high schools. Combined, they suggest a community far larger than just 750 Jews. But Gibraltar — the tiny British overseas territory of 30,000 that sits at the foot of Spain and at the… Read more »

NEW YORK (JTA) — When more than 5,500 people gather at a massive hotel just outside Washington next week for what is slated to be the biggest-ever biennial convention of the Union for Reform Judaism, they will be taking part in a transformative moment for the organization. The longtime… Read more »

Among the ads in Israel's recently canceled campaign to lure expats home was this spot that one critic described as "Netanyahu Government Suggests Israelis Avoid Marrying American Jews."

NEW YORK (JTA) — A few different sparks led to last week’s flare-up over a two-month-old Israeli ad campaign to lure home expatriates in the United States. An ad suggesting that a child of Israelis living in America would mistake Chanukah for Christmas. The claim by an influential blogger… Read more »

Mordechai Levovitz

HAUPPAUGE, N.Y. (JTA) — The 15th annual conference of Nefesh International, an association of Orthodox mental health professionals, was a study in inclusion. Dr. Judith Guedelia, the director of Shaare Zedek Medical Center’s neuropsychology unit, became the first woman to receive the conference’s Esther Solomon Mental Health Award. Several… Read more »

Bike chain menorah, a fair trade product hand made in India, creates a link to Jewish values. (Edmon J. Rodman)

LOS ANGELES (JTA) — When on Chanukah we say “A great miracle happened here,” the “here” isn’t China. I thought it was. With bins of electric menorahs, strings of dreidel lights and flashing LED dreidels, all “Made in China,” I thought I had Chanukah covered. That is until I… Read more »

Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta spoke at the 2011 Saban Forum in Washington on Dec. 2, 2011. (Brookings Institution)

WASHINGTON (JTA) — The Obama administration is reaping a whirlwind of criticism in the wake of pointed remarks about Israel by several U.S. officials over three days. The U.S. ambassador to Belgium, Howard Gutman, caused an uproar when he suggested on Dec. 1 that hostility among European Arabs and Muslims… Read more »