Israel

(JTA) — While American politicians and pundits fumed at President Donald Trump’s performance at his much-anticipated meeting last week with Russian President Vladimir Putin, lost in the clamor was one small but crucial moment: Israel emerged from Helsinki a winner. Trump said that he and Putin had reached a “really good conclusion” for… Read more »

(JTA) — As he waited to be interrogated by the Israel Police for conducting a non-Orthodox wedding, Rabbi Dov Haiyun began a Facebook post with three words: “Iran is here.” Haiyun awoke at 5:30 a.m. Thursday at his home in Haifa to a knock on the door from two… Read more »

JERUSALEM (JTA) — The Knesset passed controversial legislation making Israel the “nation-state of the Jewish people,” angering groups in Israel and the Diaspora. The so-called Nationality Law enshrines in Israel’s quasi-constitutional Basic Law that Israel is the nation-state of the Jewish people. It passed early Thursday morning after hours… Read more »

JERUSALEM (JTA) — Israel is debating legislation that supporters say states the obvious. Critics, meanwhile, say the measure will divide Israeli society and damage its relationships with the rest of the democratic world, especially Jews in the United States. The premise of the so-called Nationality Law is simple: It… Read more »

NBA star Draymond Green on his recent visit to Israel got to meet the nation’s president and take some shooting practice — with guns, not basketballs — on a military base. Green’s visit, particularly his jovial use of Israeli military weaponry, prompted criticism from notable figures on the American… Read more »

JERUSALEM (JTA) — Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg described how grateful she was for her Jewish heritage during a screening of a new documentary film about her life and career at the Jerusalem Cinematheque. “The demand for justice, peace and enlightenment runs through Jewish history and tradition,” she… Read more »

(JTA) — It has become a staple of his stump speeches to audiences in Israel and abroad: Far from being isolated politically, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu argues, Israel is forming new and stronger alliances with a host of countries around the world. In recent years, Netanyahu has either… Read more »

Each time we put together a Congregation Bet Shalom tour, we focus on a different aspect of life in the Holy Land. This time we concentrated on the idea of living as a non-Jew in the Jewish State. This two-week tour was aimed at proving the theory that non-Jews… Read more »

(JTA) — On June 11, the Knesset’s official no smoking day, the Likud party’s Yehudah Glick announced that he was embarking on a hunger strike until the body passed a tax on loose tobacco equal to the tax on cigarettes. Glick’s dramatic gesture was a sign of a seldom-discussed crisis… Read more »

TEL AVIV (JTA) — Tel Aviv has been decked out in rainbow flags for weeks. Suddenly, it seems, every restaurant, coffee shop and store is super “gay friendly.” The city’s Pride Parade is traditionally held on the second Friday of June. Fifteen years ago, estimates were that 9,000 people… Read more »

As part of the University of Arizona Water Resources Research Center’s ongoing efforts to compare water management experiences of Israel and Arizona, the WRRC has scheduled two lectures this spring  and summer. On May 21, Uri Shani, Ph.D., a professor at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, presented “The Red-Dead… Read more »

Tucson Hebrew Academy eighth graders enjoyed the annual graduation trip to Israel, May 6-17. Highlights included an archeological dig at Beit Guvrin and Bar Kochva Caves, and a Bedouin experience with a drum circle and desert tent sleepover in Kfar HaNokdim, along with the requisite camel ride. Unique on… Read more »

WASHINGTON (JTA) — Israeli and American Jews disagree on much — settlements, religious pluralism, even the degree to which they are “family.” And now you can add Donald Trump to the mix. Twin polls of Israeli and American Jews published by the American Jewish Committee on Sunday uncovered divides… Read more »

NAHAL OZ, Israel (JTA) — Dani Ben David fiddles with his radio, switching between it and his cellphone as he drives through the Beeri Forest, a nature reserve located on the border of Israel and the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip. As his Jeep jolts over the dirt road, he quickly… Read more »

  WASHINGTON (JTA) — Amos Yadlin likes talking about the Begin doctrine, which calls for removing existential threats to Israel before they are manifest — maybe because he lived it twice. As an Israeli Air Force pilot, Yadlin flew one of the planes that took out Iraq’s nuclear reactor… Read more »

WASHINGTON (JTA) — David Friedman, the U.S. ambassador to Israel, waded into the debate over media coverage of Israel with a pointed request to journalists. Reporters should “just keep your mouths shut until you figure it out,” he was quoted as saying at a conference launching a new Jerusalem… Read more »

JERUSALEM — It’s easy to spot Iris Yifrach as she walks through the crowds in a packed shopping mall in central Israel. And it’s not just because she’s wearing a bright yellow blouse and matching headscarf. Yifrach has been a public figure since June 2014, when her 19-year-old son,… Read more »

  JERUSALEM (JTA) — The idea came to Yotam Gross as a commander in the Givati Brigade following 2014’s Operation Protective Edge in Gaza: Instead of heading back to school after his Israeli military service, he wanted to spend his days bringing people together over warm plates of hummus… Read more »

The Weintraub Israel Center, in partnership with Tucson Hebrew Academy and local synagogues as part of its school twinning program, sent a group of educators to Israel this week. On Tuesday, the group was visiting the Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona’s partners in Hof Ashkelon and Kiryat Malachi, which… Read more »

JERUSALEM (JTA) — Of the more than 60 deaths that occurred during the recent clashes between Israel and Palestinians at the Gaza border, none was as divisive as that of Layla Ghandour. Ghandour, an 8-month-old girl, died after an uncle, himself only 12, brought her to the edge of the… Read more »