Israel

Hundreds of Israelis mourn at the funeral of three of the victims killed earlier today when two Palestinian terrorists from East Jerusalem entered the Kehilat Yaakov synagogue in the Jewish orthodox neighborhood of Har Nof, Jerusalem, with pistols and axes, and began attacking Jewish worshippers. Four orthodox Jewish men were killed and several more injured. The attackers were shot and killed at the scene. November 18, 2014. (Miriam Alster/Flash90)

TEL AVIV (JTA) — They all lived on the same street. They had all moved there from abroad. They were all rabbis. They all prayed at the same synagogue. And it was at that Jerusalem synagogue that they were all murdered on Tuesday morning. Mosheh Twersky, 59; Kalman Levine,… Read more »

From left, Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif, EU Foreign Policy chief Catherine Ashton of the European Union, Omani foreign Minister Yusaf bin Alawi and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry at three-way negotiations about the future of Iran's nuclear program in Muscat, Oman, Nov. 9, 2014. (U.S. State Department)

WASHINGTON (JTA) — With the Nov. 24 deadline for an Iran deal looming, there’s no guarantee that the Obama administration will achieve its long-sought goal of an agreement over the Islamic Republic’s nuclear program. But there’s at least one outcome that is a virtual certainty: Obama will face a… Read more »

Aftermath of deadly attack on the Bnei Torah Kehillat Yaakov synagogue

JERUSALEM (JTA) — Four Israelis were killed in a terror attack during morning prayers at a Jerusalem synagogue. Two Palestinian assailants entered the synagogue and rabbinical seminary in the Har Nof neighborhood of western Jerusalem and attacked worshippers on Tuesday with a gun, axes and knives. Three of those killed… Read more »

Some of the hundreds of Palestinians who work at SodaStream's West Bank factory that will be shit down. They could be put out of work with the facility's relocation to southern Israel. (Nati Shohat/Flash90)

TEL AVIV (JTA) — SodaStream, the Israeli at-home seltzer machine company, announced last month that it would be closing its West Bank factory and moving the facility’s operations to southern Israel next year. Here’s what you need to know about SodaStream, the controversy that has bubbled up in its… Read more »

LOS ANGELES (JTA) — Members of the American Studies Association gathered last year for their annual meeting and a vociferous debate on the wisdom of initiating an academic boycott of Israel. One year later, the debate is over and the boycott resolution has long since passed — but the… Read more »

Israel and Kenya signed an agreement today, pledging to strengthen ties and increase cooperation between the two countries. Representatives from Kenya’s National Assembly met with their counterparts in the Knesset to sign the agreement in Israel. The agreement stated that Israel and Kenya’s “shared belief in the values of freedom,… Read more »

A concrete security barrier at a light rail station in Jerusalem, Nov. 6, 2014. Four people have been killed at light rail stations in two separate attacks in recent weeks. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

JERUSALEM (JTA) — It’s 3 p.m. on a Thursday and the Jerusalem light rail is packed with secular and religious, Jew and Arab, as it heads east from the city’s Central Bus Station. From there it passes some of the city’s most crowded venues, stopping at the Mahane Yehuda… Read more »

IsraAid psychosocial trauma specialists Hela Yaniv, left, and Sheri Oz leading a counseling and training session for service providers in Sierra Leone, Oct. 27, 2014. (Courtesy IsraAid)

(JTA) – Even amid the unceasing horrors of Sierra Leone’s Ebola epidemic, it was a case that stood out. A 5-year-old boy had been found in his home in a remote village, the lone survivor in a house riddled with the corpses of family members. He needed to be… Read more »

On Wednesday, Border Guard policemen on routine patrol in the Hebron casbah identified a Palestinian boy lying unconscious on the floor. A police officer and a paramedic team quickly ran to the boy, while reporting the incident and calling for additional medical help. Early examination of the boy showed… Read more »

Muslims seen at the Al-Aqsa Mosque, in Jerusalem's Old City, on their way to pray on the second day of the holy Muslim month of Ramadan. Jun 30 2014. (Sliman Khader/FLASH90)

TEL AVIV (JTA) – Tensions in Jerusalem have run high since last summer, but have recently crossed over into lethal violence. In the past two weeks, there have been three attacks, in which motorists have plowed into crowds of people — killing, among others, a 3-month-old baby and and… Read more »

Anna Varsanyi is considered Jewush by Israel's Chief Rabbinate but not by the country's Interior Ministry. (Courtesy Anna Varsanyi)

TEL AVIV (JTA) — In 2012, Anna Varsanyi was married in an Orthodox Jewish ceremony conducted through Israel’s Chief Rabbinate. Two years later, the Hungarian immigrant has made a life in Israel, settling with her husband in the central city of Modiin and working a desk job in a… Read more »

WASHINGTON (JTA) — A lawyer for a boy born in Jerusalem whose parents want Israel listed as the birthplace on his U.S. passport tried mightily this week to make a Supreme Court hearing mainly about their wish, but the justices kept upping the ante. That might mean bad news… Read more »

TEL AVIV (JTA) – The Israeli government has adopted a major reform expected to ease the path to conversion for hundreds of thousands of Israelis now prohibited from marrying in the Jewish state. In the most significant response in decades to the estimated 400,000 Israelis who are not considered… Read more »

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addresses the Knesset during the opening of the winter session, Oct. 27, 2014. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

JERUSALEM (JTA) – An anonymous White House staffer apparently isn’t the only one who thinks Benjamin Netanyahu is shy about taking chances. A piece this week in The Atlantic magazine by journalist Jeffrey Goldberg ignited a firestorm with its revelation that an Obama administration official had called the Israeli… Read more »

President Reuven Rivlin, shown speaking on Oct. 23, 2014 at the dedication of a Jerusalem road names for Yitzchak Shamir, says the relationship between Jews and Arabs in Israel "has reached a new low." (Hadas Parush/Flash90)

TEL AVIV (JTA) — Israel’s president fills a largely ceremonial role — meeting with foreign dignitaries, representing the government at state funerals and other official gatherings. But the office’s new occupant has embraced a challenge not inherent to the job: curbing what he sees as an epidemic of anti-Arab… Read more »

MODIIN, Israel (JTA) — With the news that Rabbi Barry Freundel, a prominent Orthodox rabbi, has been arrested for peeping at the naked bodies of his female congregants through a secret camera in the mikvah, or Jewish ritual bath, many disturbing questions are being raised about the implications of… Read more »

TEL AVIV (JTA) — Having coffee with Stav Shaffir is little different from meeting up with other 20-somethings in Tel Aviv. She rushes into the cafe a few minutes late, glances repeatedly at her phone and complains about high rents and an out-of-touch government. It’s hard, she says, being… Read more »

Ibrahim Barzak with his sons before leaving Gaza. (Courtesy Ibrahim Barzak)

WASHINGTON (JTA) — Ibrahim Barzak spent his childhood counting the days to weekends, when he would travel with his father to see friends in Tel Aviv, Herzliya, Ashdod and Jerusalem. For Barzak’s young sons, by contrast, the names of those cities conjure malevolent exotica. Barzak, 38, has worked for… Read more »

The small cardboard box in Elyashiv Drori’s palm looks like it’s full of black pebbles. Closing the box quickly, he explains that it cannot be open for long. The pebble-like pieces, which were uncovered in an archaeological dig near Jerusalem’s Old City, are in fact remains of a kilo… Read more »

Israel Border Police confront a Palestinian man in the Silwan neighborhood of eastern Jerusalem where Jews moved into 25 apartments in the middle of the night, Sept. 30, 2014. (Silman Khader/Flash90)

JERUSALEM (JTA) — Jewish- and Arab-Israeli residents of the Jerusalem neighborhood of Silwan disagree on whether the neighborhood is historically Jewish or Arab. They disagree about whether Israeli Jews should be living there. They even disagree on what to call one of the main streets in the neighborhood, a… Read more »