Israel

Multifaith WIC trip brings travelers closer to Israel, one another

Weintraub Israel 2018 multifaith mission group in the Old City of Jerusalem, Oct. 20. Front row (L-R): Ricki Shore, Mary Cochran, Jill Feldhausen, Dawn Gunter, Oshrat Barel, Michael Solan, Susan McMahon, Debe Campbell, Steve Wool, Jarrod Rulney (University of Arizona graduate student at Hebrew University), Gil Alvidrez; middle row: Andrea Crane, Debby Shore, Sara Ross, Bonnie Shore-Dombrowski, Dina Rosengarten, Grace Hartman, Theresa Dulgov, Florence Solan, Gayle Marrett, Pam Sorock, Michele Canney, Jacquelyn Feller, Ron Feller, Wendy Weinberg; back row: Harry Crane, Janice Brundage, Robert Wolk, Marshall Humphrey, Richard Hartman, Muki Jankelowitz (tour educator), Jeff Weinberg, Britt Feldhausen, David Zeinfeld, Lawrence Kinet, Todd Rockoff, Marsha Kinet, Jim Dever, Vicky Lunday, Michelle Kroeger, Richard Canney. (courtesy Weintraub Israel Center)
November 9, 2018 / Debe Campbell, AJP Assistant Editor

Weintraub Israel Center hosted its second annual multifaith mission to Israel in mid-October. A group of 43 participated in the nine-day journey from Tucson to Tel Aviv and around the nation’s interior. “We believe the most effective way to fulfill our mission to build living bridges is for participants… Read more »

Israeli lawmakers debate American anti-Semitism without American Jewish input

Israeli parliament member Avraham Neguise, shown in 2015, chairs the Immigration, Absorption and Diaspora Committee, which recently held a meeting about anti-Semitism in America. (Miriam Alster/Flash90)
November 8, 2018 / Sam Sokol, JTA

JERUSALEM (JTA) — In the wake of the deadly shooting Oct. 27 at a Pittsburgh synagogue, Israeli lawmakers gathered for a special meeting for a discussion of anti-Semitism in America. It was dialogue that at times grew heated: Politicians yelled at each other and argued about the definition of… Read more »

Israeli lawmakers see Pittsburgh shooting as a time to talk about pluralism

Michael Oren speaks at a conference in the Israeli parliament in 2016. (Miriam Alster/Flash90)
October 30, 2018 / Marcy Oster, JTA

JERUSALEM (JTA) — The deadly shooting at a Conservative synagogue in Pittsburgh has underlined tensions in Israel over the haredi Orthodox rabbinic establishment’s disenfranchisement of the Diaspora’s non-Orthodox Jewish streams. Following Saturday’s rampage by a gunman that left 11 worshippers dead, an Israeli government minister and the country’s opposition… Read more »

New delegation of local firefighters heading to Israel

An Israeli firefighter views a wildfire that broke out near Jerusalem, Nov. 25, 2016. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)
October 26, 2018 /

Six firefighters from Tucson will head to Israel next month to share their expertise in handling wildland fires. Since spring, incendiary kites and balloons launched from Gaza have burned thousands of acres of Israeli land. The trip is part of the Greater Tucson Fire Foundation’s Firefighters Beyond Borders program.… Read more »

Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen honored in Israel for her record on eve of her retirement

Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen meets with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem, Oct. 22, 2018. (Amos Ben-Gershom/Israeli Government Press Office)
October 25, 2018 / Ron Kampeas, JTA

  WASHINGTON (JTA) — Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, touring Israel on one of her final overseas trips as a congresswoman, is being feted as one of the Jewish state’s best friends in Congress. Ros-Lehtinen, a Florida Republican who has served in the U.S. House of Representatives since 1989, met Monday… Read more »

Netanyahu says he supports a Palestinian ‘state-minus’ controlled by Israeli security

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, right, is interviewed onstage by Jewish Federations of North America Chairman Richard Sandler at the General Assembly in Tel Aviv, Oct. 24, 2018. (Kobi Gideon/Israeli Government Press Office)
October 24, 2018 / Ben Sales, JTA

TEL AVIV (JTA) — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu signaled that he supported a Palestinian “state-minus,” wherein Israel would maintain a military presence across Israel and the West Bank. Netanyahu also said in a question-and-answer session Wednesday at the General Assembly of the Jewish Federations of North America that… Read more »

A conference of American Jews seeks dialogue with Israelis. But which Israelis, and to what end?

Jerry Silverman, CEO of the Jewish Federations of North America, speaks at its General Assembly in Tel Aviv, Oct. 23, 2018. (Eyal Warshavsky/JFNA)
October 24, 2018 / Ben Sales, JTA

TEL AVIV (JTA) — On Sunday, a day before thousands of American Jews descended on this Israeli city to air their differences with the nation’s government, Israeli President Reuven Rivlin had a listening session. Rivlin invited a select group of about 100 American Jews to his official residence in… Read more »

5 times Nikki Haley delighted the pro-Israel community

NEW YORK, NY - SEPTEMBER 24: United States Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley attends a media briefing during the United Nations General Assembly on September 24, 2018 in New York City. (Photo by Stephanie Keith/Getty Images)
October 10, 2018 / Ron Kampeas, JTA

WASHINGTON (JTA) — When Nikki Haley said on Tuesday that she would be stepping down as U.N. ambassador by the end of this year, the Israeli and pro-Israel laments poured out swiftly. Haley didn’t simply defend Israel and its government, led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, as her predecessors… Read more »

A protest to support pro-Israel students at Columbia University didn’t involve many students

Protesters outside the main gates of Columbia in New York City called on the university administration to do more to protect pro-Israel students, Oct. 4, 2018. (Ben Sales)
October 10, 2018 / Ben Sales, JTA

NEW YORK (JTA) – The organizers of a rally to support pro-Israel students at Columbia University didn’t want the Jewish Defense League to show up. And yet there they were, a few demonstrators wearing the extremist right-wing group’s insignia, a clenched fist punching into a yellow Jewish star. The… Read more »

Ardently pro-Israel presidential candidate wins first round of Brazil’s elections

Brazilian presidential candidate Jair Bolsonaro is shown after casting his vote in Rio de Janeiro, Oct. 7, 2018. (Fernando Souza/AFP/Getty Images)
October 8, 2018 / Marcus M. Gilban, JTA

RIO DE JANEIRO (JTA) — Jair Bolsonaro, an ardently pro-Israel candidate who is highly divisive among Jews for his sometimes politically incorrect rhetoric, won the first round of Brazil’s presidential election and remains the front-runner to lead the Latin American nation. Bolsonaro, a 63-year-old conservative Christian congressman, won 46… Read more »

‘Fauda’ screenwriter wanted to depict terrorists as ‘real human beings’

Laetitia Eïdo, left, and Lior Raz in a scene from "Fauda." (Courtesy of Netflix)
September 27, 2018 / Curt Schleier, JTA

(JTA) — Moshe Zonder noticed it quickly: “My students are completely serious. They are writing. They are doing the assignments. All of them. It’s great teaching here.” Zonder shouldn’t be that surprised. For an aspiring screenwriter, who better to study with than the man who wrote the entire first… Read more »

The ‘best football player who grew up in Israel’ seeks a spot at US college

Yuval Fenta plays running back for the Tel Aviv Pioneers. (Hillel Kuttler)
September 27, 2018 / Hillel Kuttler, JTA

TEL AVIV (JTA) – In the summer of 2011, Yuval Fenta saw two guys tossing a football on the beach in Herzliya. He asked to participate. “You’re too small,” they responded. A dejected Fenta retreated, but not before hearing them mention an American football league that played in Israel.… Read more »

This new program is recruiting Israeli girls for cyber warfare and high-tech futures

Demand for high-tech professionals in Israel currently outstrips supply by about 15,000 individuals, according to Start-Up Nation Central. Programs like CyberGirlz aim to address the shortfall by recruiting more women into the field. (Courtesy of CyberGirlz)
September 27, 2018 / Larry Luxner

TEL AVIV — Tali Ben Aroya knows what it’s like to feel intimidated. As the founder of an Israeli social network startup, she recalls more than once being the only female in a room full of male business executives. “I remember myself asking where all the other women were,”… Read more »

Ari Fuld, American expat slain in West Bank, remembered as a combative activist and caring friend

Ari Fuld, shown at the Western Wall in Jerusalem, worked at a nonprofit that provides food and supplies to Israeli soldiers. (Facebook)
September 18, 2018 / Ben Sales, JTA

(JTA) — When Ari Fuld first approached him, Josh Weixelbaum was a 20-year-old soldier visiting friends in the West Bank settlement of Efrat. Fuld had heard Weixelbaum speaking English, so he introduced himself and asked Weixelbaum about his time in the army. Fuld soon learned that Weixelbaum, an American… Read more »

REPORTER’S NOTEBOOK: How an encounter between Jews and Palestinians underlines the promise and failures of Oslo

The Palestinian side of the separation wall in Bethlehem has graffiti in Arabic and English, but not Hebrew, June 25, 2018. (Ron Kampeas)
September 17, 2018 / Ron Kampeas, JTA

(JTA) — The wall separating Bethlehem from Israel-controlled territory is silent and noisy at once, like the breakdown in conversation between Israelis and Palestinians that helped kill the Oslo peace accords. It was only this year — in June, almost 25 years since the launch of the accords that… Read more »