Mika and Maureen Velasco being arrested in August. (Courtesy of United Children of Israel/JTA Photo Service)
TEL AVIV (JTA) — The woman approached with trepidation, fidgeting and glancing nervously over her shoulder as she sat down in a coffee shop here. A Filipino caregiver who has been living in Israel without a visa for years, the woman said her home had been raided by Israeli… Read more »
(JTA) — In a first, Israel’s national baseball team has qualified for a spot in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. The squad of mostly Jewish-American college players and some pros team defeated South Africa on Sunday in the Europe/Africa Qualifier tournament in Italy and finished the tournament with a record… Read more »
JERUSALEM (JTA) — A woman has died nearly a year after suffering injuries in a rocket attack into southern Israel from Gaza. Nina Gisdenanova, 74, died last week at the Sheba Medical Center in Tel Hashomer, The Times of Israel reported Sunday. She was in an apartment building in… Read more »
Members of the Joint List arrive for a meeting with Israeli President Reuven Rivlin at the President's Residence in Jerusalem on Sept. 22, 2019, where they said they would support Blue and White head Benny Gantz for prime minister. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)
JERUSALEM (JTA) — The Arab Joint List recommended to Israel’s president that Blue and White head Benny Gantz be tapped to form the next government in order to end the political career of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Ayman Odeh, who heads the coalition of four Arab parties, explained its… Read more »
JERUSALEM (JTA) — Blue and White head Benny Gantz met with outgoing White House Middle East peace envoy Jason Greenblatt at the U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem. The meeting on Monday afternoon also included the U.S. ambassador to Israel, David Friedman. Gantz’s party was the top vote-getter in Israel’s national… Read more »
JERUSALEM (JTA) — A film about the assassination of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin as seen through the eyes of his killer will be the country’s nomination for an Oscar. “Incitement” took the Ophir Award in Israel for best picture on Sunday night. The top prize at the Ophirs of… Read more »
JERUSALEM (JTA) — Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Benny Gantz have agreed to hold negotiations to form a unity government. The heads, respectively, of the Likud and Blue and White parties announced the negotiations late Monday night following a two-hour meeting at the Jerusalem residence of President Reuven Rivlin.… Read more »
Blue and White party chairman Benny Gantz casts his ballot at a voting station in Rosh Haayin, Israel, on Election Day, Sept. 17, 2019. (Noam Revkin Fenton/Flash90)
JERUSALEM (JTA) — Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party and the Blue and White were again locked in a virtual dead heat at the close of voting in Israel, exit polls on Tuesday showed. Both Blue and White, which is led by Benny Gantz, a former military chief of… Read more »
An Israeli election billboard for the Likud party shows President Donald Trump shaking hands with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, also the Likud party chairman, on a street in Jerusalem, Sept. 16, 2019. (Ahmad Gharabli/AFP/Getty Images)
JERUSALEM (JTA) — Israelis head to the polls for the second time this year on Tuesday. Exit polls from the country are notoriously fickle, so the real results of the election may leave onlookers in suspense for a bit. Here are some of the more important things to look… Read more »
Almost 6 million voters, over 11,000 ballots. Sept. 17 is national Elections Day for the 22nd Knesset. This is the second time in 2019 that the Israeli public is called to actively participate in the democratic process. First results of this 2nd round are expected to be published tomorrow… Read more »
L-R: Nolan Shifren, Todd Sadow, Ted Glenn, Damion Alexander, Michael Wexler, Jeff Wortzel (co-chair), Ben Pozez, Michael Shiner, Adam Goldstein (co-chair), Josh Hurand, Isaac Figueroa.
The Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona ChaiLife members gathered Saturday, Aug. 24 to reconnect. ChaiLife was created for those men who have graduated from the Young Men’s Group and want to remain connected to the Federation and their chevra (group).… Read more »
Tucsonan Aimee Katz (front right) with third-grade students at the Alfassi school in Mitzpe Ramon, Israel. Katz taught English in Mitzpe Ramon during the 2018-19 school year. (Courtesy Aimee Katz)
Leaving home is difficult, especially since I had lived nowhere else besides Tucson, except for sleepaway camp and teaching in Israel for short stints during the summers. A year ago, however, I traded in the Arizona desert for Mitzpe Ramon, a small southern Israeli desert town in the middle… Read more »
David Meiri Professor David “Dedi” Meiri of the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology in Haifa, Israel, will be the keynote speaker at the upcoming University of Arizona Inaugural Interdisciplinary Cannabis Symposium. The symposium, sponsored by the UA’s College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, BIO5 Institute, College of Medicine-Tucson, and College of Science,… Read more »
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu delivers a statement in Ramat Gan on September 10, 2019. Photo by Hadas Parush/Flash90
(JTA) — Benjamin Netanyahu said Tuesday that if he is re-elected next week, he’ll immediately annex a big part of the West Bank: the Jordan Valley. That’s kind of a big deal. On the other hand, it’s not really — yet. That specific eastern swath of the West Bank… Read more »
JERUSALEM (JTA) — Israel likely will have to go to war with Gaza, Benjamin Netanyahu said. “There probably won’t be a choice but to launch an operation, a war with the terror forces in Gaza,” Netanyahu said during an interview with the Kan public broadcaster on Thursday morning. “We have… Read more »
Jeiwsh thought leaders and activists from around the world present the Declaration of Our Common Destiny to Israeli President Reuven Rivlin, Sept. 10, 2019. (Avishag Shaar-Yashuv)
JERUSALEM (JTA) — Despite our differences, Jews around the world have remained bound together by a shared history, by the Torah and by our core values, Israeli President Reuven Rivlin told Jewish thinkers from around the world. The 30 scholars and activists met this week in Jerusalem to hammer… Read more »
JERUSALEM (JTA) — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had to be removed from the stage during a campaign speech in the southern Israeli city of Ashdod after rockets were fired from Gaza. The Iron Dome missile defense system intercepted a rocket heading toward Ashdod and another heading toward Ashkelon… Read more »
JERUSALEM (JTA) — Several rockets were fired at Israel from Syria, launched by Shiite militias operating under the command of the Iranian Quds Force, the Israel Defense Forces said. The rockets failed to land in Israeli territory, according to the IDF. The attack Monday followed hours after a series… Read more »
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announces that if he is re-elected, he will make the Jordan Valley a sovereign part of Israel, Sept. 10, 2019. (Hadas Parush/Flash90)
JERUSALEM (JTA) — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Tuesday that if he is re-elected, he will immediately annex the Jordan Valley. Netanyahu also promised to annex West Bank Jewish settlements in what he termed a “dramatic announcement” exactly one week before Israelis go to the polls for national… Read more »
JERUSALEM (JTA) — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, making his first visit to Hebron since 1998, said Wednesday that the West Bank city “will never be empty of Jews.” Netanyahu made the remarks at a ceremony to mark the 90th anniversary of the massacre of Jews in Hebron, a… Read more »
