Young Jewish adults who participated in Birthright Israel celebrate 10 years of the program at an event in Jerusalem. (Hadas Parush/Flash90)
SAN FRANCISCO (JTA) — After I spoke to a group of people whose post-college-aged children would soon be going on a Birthright Israel trip, one father leaned in close to me, winked and whispered, “Just do what you have to to make sure my son finds a nice Jewish… Read more »
Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu smiles as he delivers a speech during the launch of his Likud party election campaign in Ramat Gan, Israel, March 4, 2019. (Amir Levy/Getty Images)
(JTA) — One week after winning election to a fifth term as Israel’s head of state, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was named to Time magazine’s list of the 100 most influential people. Other Jewish people on the list include Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg; Jennifer Hyman, whose $1 billion company… Read more »
This article originally appeared on Kveller. Author Myla Goldberg is back with “Feast Your Eyes,” a beautiful and compelling novel about a female photographer who grapples with being a mom and an artist. The novel is structured as catalog notes from an exhibition at New York’s Museum of Modern… Read more »
(JTA) — Arizona has eased its rules to a state ban on doing business with companies that boycott Israel in an attempt to avoid potential lawsuits. The amendment would exempt individuals and businesses valued at less than $100,000 or employing fewer than 10 full-time employees from the ban. In… Read more »
Tamer Nafar, a Palestinian-Israeli rapper, is being accused of anti-Semitism for a performance at the University of North Carolina last month that defenders said was meant ironically. (Screenshot from YouTube)
(JTA) — “This is my anti-Semitic song,” Tamer Nafar, a Palestinian-Israeli rapper, said at the opening of a conference on Gaza last month at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. “I know it might sound R&B stuff, but don’t think of Rihanna when you sing it,… Read more »
(JTA) — The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette was awarded the 2019 Pulitzer Prize in breaking news reporting for its coverage of the Tree of Life synagogue massacre last October. Eleven people were shot and killed by a gunman during the rampage, which came as congregants at the synagogue complex in Pittsburgh… Read more »
JERUSALEM (JTA) — The new Palestinian Authority prime minister said the still-to-be unveiled Trump administration peace plan will be “born dead.” Mohammad Shtayyeh told The Associated Press in a wide-ranging hourlong interview that the international community would join the Palestinians in rejecting the peace plan, whose release date has… Read more »
(JTA) — Some 500 doctors who serve Jewish communities across North America have signed on to a letter calling on all children and healthy adults to be vaccinated. “We the undersigned doctors who faithfully serve the Orthodox Jewish communities of North America, strongly urge all members of our community… Read more »
A children's Haggadah from 1945 compares draws parallels between the Passover narrative and the Holocaust. (Yeshiva University Museum/Center for Jewish History)
NEW YORK (JTA) — From graphic novel Haggadahs to a Donald Trump-themed one, if you’re looking for a certain kind of guide to the Passover seder, chances are it’s out there. Recent years have seen a proliferation of political, environmental, family-friendly, or just plain irreverent Haggadahs, but the urge to… Read more »
WASHINGTON (JTA) — The leaders of three of the four major Jewish religious streams were not invited to a White House briefing on issues “impacting the community,” nor was the Jewish community’s leading civil rights advocacy group. Officials of three Orthodox umbrella groups — Orthodox Union, Agudath Israel, and… Read more »
The Israeli spacecraft Beresheet takes a selfie with Earth from more than 23,000 miles away. (SpaceIL and Israel Aerospace Industries)
JERUSALEM (JTA) — With elections in the rearview mirror, Israelis are now focusing on the moon. The Israeli spacecraft Beresheet, or Genesis, is scheduled to touch down on the moon’s surface on Thursday night in Israel. And the country has Beresheet mania. Watch parties and celebrations are planned throughout… Read more »
JERUSALEM (JTA) — The leaders of the Blue and White party conceded defeat to Likud and said they would keep their coalition together in preparation for the next election. Party co-leader Yair Lapid, who brought his Yesh Atid into Blue and White, said in a speech Wednesday night that his… Read more »
Israeli Prime Minster Benjamin Netanyahu greets supporters at his victory speech in Tel Aviv, April 10, 2019. (Amir Levy/Getty Images)
JERUSALEM (JTA) – Israel’s election on Tuesday was contentious, historic, crazy — and somewhat predictable. With most of the vote counted — some 300,000 votes from soldiers, diplomats and other Israeli officials working abroad have yet to be tallied — Benjamin Netanyahu seems poised to become the longest-serving prime… Read more »
Jacob Dinezon's dramatic Yiddish romance novel "The Dark Young Man" was a surprise success in 1877. (Courtesy of the Jewish Storyteller Press)
BOSTON (JTA) — Hot off the Jewish press in Vilna in 1877, a dramatic Yiddish romance novel became a surprising success, selling out its first 10,000 copies in Jewish communities across Poland and Russia. It’s not hard to see why. Set in the mid-19th century in the outskirts of… Read more »
Israelis and tourists enjoy the beach in Tel Aviv, April 7, 2019. (Gershon Elinson/Flash90)
TEL AVIV (JTA) — Even by Israeli standards, the country’s latest general elections have been exceptionally dirty, rife with personal attacks between candidates and fake news. But in an arid country where the blossoms and mild temperatures of spring are gone within a few weeks, the vote’s timing was… Read more »
JERUSALEM (JTA) — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud Party finished one seat behind main challenger Blue and White in the first exit poll results released at the close of voting Tuesday. Blue and White, whose head is former Israel Defense Forces chief of staff Benny Gantz, took 37 seats… Read more »
Rabbi Avi Weiss, center, the founder of Yeshivat Chovevei Torah, said the decision to deny ordination to a gay student pained him but he agreed with it. (Andrew Burton/Getty Images)
NEW YORK (JTA) – The leaders of a liberal Orthodox rabbinical school are standing behind their decision to deny ordination to a rabbinical student who is openly gay, even as Jewish LGBTQ leaders have criticized the move. Daniel Atwood, a rabbinical student at Yeshivat Chovevei Torah in New York… Read more »
Max the Matzah figurine (Courtesy of the JCK)
AMSTERDAM (JTA) — Anywhere else in Europe, a muscular cartoon character named Max the Matzah would have amounted to little more than an inside Jewish joke. But in the Netherlands, where matzah for many non-Jews is a household item year-round, Max became an unlikely hit with the general population.… Read more »
Rice, lentils, chick peas, beans and other legumes shown in a produce market in Netanya, Israel. (David Silverman/Getty Images)
(JTA) — Israel held elections under the cloud of its leader’s possible indictment. The world’s far right and its far left have found common cause in their hatred of the Jews. There is a measles outbreak among the Orthodox. And friends want to kvetch about kitniyot. Every year around… Read more »
The West Bank is a maze-like tapestry of Israeli settlements and Palestinian towns and cities. (Wikimedia Commons)
(JTA) — Just days before Israel was to hold national elections, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu promised to annex parts of the West Bank as Israeli territory. “I’m going to extend sovereignty,” he said in an interview with Israeli Channel 12 on Saturday night, adding that “I don’t differentiate between the… Read more »
