Israel

JERUSALEM (JTA) – Facing mounting scandals, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accused the “fake news” media and “leftists” of trying to take him down with a campaign of lies. In a hastily organized meeting with political allies Thursday, Netanyahu denied any wrongdoing in two erupting controversies involving his associates, the… Read more »

NEW YORK (JTA) — In 2012, Rabbi Jason Herman wrote a letter to Israel’s Chief Rabbinate certifying that a friend of his who wished to get married was Jewish and single. The letter was declared invalid. But several months later Herman, spiritual leader of the Orthodox West Side Jewish… Read more »

TEL AVIV (JTA) — He’s charismatic. He’s an outsider. And he’s a political centrist. Some have hailed Avi Gabbay, the telecom exec who was elected Monday to lead the center-left Labor Party, as Israel’s version of French President Emmanuel Macron, the banker who recently swept to power with an… Read more »

(JTA) — The Israeli Chief Rabbinate says that its list of foreign rabbis has been misconstrued, and that the list does not imply that those rabbis cannot be trusted to vouch for the Jewish identities of their followers. On Saturday, JTA reported on a list of some 160 rabbis… Read more »

NEW YORK (JTA) — American Orthodox leaders have a message for their non-Orthodox friends: Take a deep breath. When Israel’s cabinet voted twice to further empower the country’s haredi Orthodox religious establishment last month, Reform, Conservative and non-Orthodox Zionist leaders were outraged. They cancelled meetings with Israel’s prime minister.… Read more »

JERUSALEM (JTA) – Liberal American Jews are feeling thwarted in their years-long campaign for the right to pray as they wish at the Western Wall. Long frustrated that the plaza in front of the wall is run as an Orthodox synagogue, they were doubly incensed when Israel’s political establishment scrapped an… Read more »

JERUSALEM (JTA) — Over the weekend, JTA and others reported on a “blacklist of rabbis” maintained by Israel’s Chief Rabbinate. The list contains the names of more than 160 rabbis whom the rabbinate does not trust to confirm the Jewish identity of immigrants to Israel. The list, obtained by… Read more »

Leah Avuno has spent the last year in Tucson as one of Tucson’s first pair of shinshinim, teen emissaries from Israel. Three years ago, Avuno was a 15-year-old immigrant to Israel from Ethiopia living with her mother, aunt and siblings in Kiryat Malachi, a city known for its diversity.… Read more »

Rabbi Israel and Esther Becker will hold an informational meeting about Southwest Torah Institute’s “Israel: Where the Past Shapes Your Soul” trip planned for October on Sunday, July 23 at 11 a.m. An Israeli-style brunch will be served. “Even if you have been to Israel before, every trip presents… Read more »

  PSAGOT, West Bank (JTA) — Psagot Winery calls its Sinai wine an “unassuming but distinctive blend” of Shiraz and Cabernet Sauvignon. Like all its wines, the bottle is stamped with the image of a coin dating to the first century C.E. found in a chalky cave near its namesake… Read more »

  JERUSALEM (JTA) –  An internal Palestinian dispute has left Gaza’s nearly 2 million Palestinian residents dangerously vulnerable to a heat wave, but Israel could get burned, too. The West Bank Palestinian Authority has recently spearheaded a sharp reduction of electricity to the coastal enclave with Israel’s cooperation, resulting… Read more »

  NEW YORK (JTA) — Daryl Messinger knows she’s going to visit Israel again. But the next time she flies there, it won’t be on El Al. Messinger, the chair of the Union for Reform Judaism, will be boycotting Israel’s national airline as part of her protest of the… Read more »

After 25 years of full diplomatic ties, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s three-day visit to Israel commencing Tuesday can be seen as the official coming out of the relationship between the two countries. While ties between Israel and India have grown exponentially since P.V Narasimha Rao and Yitzhak Shamir… Read more »

“India counts Israel as among it’s most important partners,” Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said at Ben Gurion Airport Tuesday afternoon as he arrived for a three-day visit to mark 25 years since the establishment of full diplomatic ties between the countries. Thanking Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu for a… Read more »

  TEL AVIV (JTA) – The arrival of U.S. fighter jets in Israel, part of a monthlong arms drop, was critical to turning the tide of the Yom Kippur War in favor of the Jewish state. But for the American pilots who volunteered to deliver the aircraft, it was… Read more »

JERUSALEM (JTA) – Haredi Orthodox Jews agree with their non-Orthodox brethren on one thing: The future of the Jewish people is at stake in the debate raging over who controls the Western Wall and conversion in Israel. Other than that, though, there is little common ground. According to Nachum… Read more »

(JTA) — The Great Jewish Revolt of 2017. The Bar Kotel Rebellion. The Diaspora Strikes Back. Whatever you call it, last week’s clash between American Jewish leaders and the Netanyahu government felt louder, angrier and more significant than previous clashes over pluralism in Israel. That may be because it wasn’t… Read more »

  (JTA) — What do you think of when you think of Italy? Maybe you picture beautiful works of art set against rolling Tuscan hills. Maybe a steaming plate of spaghetti topped with  marinara sauce served with a deep red wine. Now what do you think of when you… Read more »

  (JTA) — American Jewish leaders are calling it a betrayal. They say that 17 months after achieving a historic agreement to provide a non-Orthodox space at Judaism’s holiest prayer site, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reneged in a Cabinet vote June 25, effectively canceling the deal and caving to… Read more »

(JTA) — Israeli politicians and Jewish leaders are fighting again over an age-old question: Who counts as a Jew? And who gets to decide? Last week, Israel’s government inflamed simmering tensions over Jewish conversion when a Cabinet committee advanced a bill that would further empower the country’s haredi Orthodox… Read more »