A haredi Orthodox woman taking part in one of the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee’s technical training programs. (Courtesy JDC) At Israel’s first college for the haredi Orthodox, lectures on social work and computer programming are conducted just down the hall from a pair of classrooms transformed into a nursery for the students’ babies. The average female student here — women comprise a majority of the 1,100 student body… Read more »
Their effort may be coming on the heels of “Black Friday,” but organizers of a new nationwide campaign are hoping that consumers will hold on to some of their shopping dollars to show support for Israel. Jewish newspapers, pro-Israel groups, Israeli companies and retailers are joining together to launch… Read more »
Former Duke University basketball star Jon Scheyer, who will be playing pro ball for Maccabi Tel Aviv, at Ben Gurion Airport in Israel following his group aliyah flight, Aug. 30, 2011. (Sasson Tiram) The night after the National Basketball Association season was scheduled to begin, Jon Scheyer, perhaps the best Jewish basketball player of his generation, was in his Tel Aviv apartment talking about Israeli cuisine and hoops in the United States and the Holy Land. “It’s nuts,” he said last week… Read more »
Jason Alexander, meets with Israeli President Shimon Peres at Peres' residence in Jerusalem, Oct. 25, 2011. (Yossi Zamir/Flash90/JTA) (JTA) — To those who know him as the lovably neurotic and lazy George Costanza from TV’s “Seinfeld,” there was something comic — if not downright ridiculous — in seeing actor Jason Alexander being asked by an elder statesman of Middle East diplomacy about making peace between Israelis and… Read more »
NEW YORK (JTA) — In her final months as a political science major at the University of Pittsburgh, Susanna Zlotnikov had a positive outlook about landing a job. But as the months passed and her network of contacts led only to dead ends, Zlotnikov decided she needed a backup.… Read more »
Israeli President Shimon Peres visiting Gilad Shalit at the Shalit family home in the northern Israeli town of Mitzpe Hila, Oct. 24, 2011. (Ziv Binyonski/Flash 90) JERUSALEM (JTA) — A week after Gilad Shalit returned to Israel after being held in captivity for more than five years in Gaza, things were getting back to normal at the Shalit family home — sort of. The Israel Police said they would remove a barrier placed in front… Read more »
Palestinian prisoners who were freed from Israeli jails as part of the exchange deal for Gilad Shalit arriving at the Rafah crossing border in the Gaza Strip, Oct. 18, 2011. (Abed Rahim Khatib/Flash 90) (JTA) — In exchange for Gilad Shalit’s release, Israel is freeing 1,027 Palestinian security prisoners. The first 477, agreed upon with Hamas, were released Tuesday. Most had been serving life sentences for their roles in attacks against Israelis, and they included the organizers or perpetrators of many of the… Read more »
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu looks on as freed soldier Gilad Shalit is embraced by his father, Noam, at Israel’s Tel Nef Air Force base shortly after Shalit’s release from more than five years of captivity, Oct. 18, 2011. (GPO) JERUSALEM (JTA) — It seemed that all of Israel breathed a sigh of relief when Gilad Shalit returned to Israel after being transferred from Hamas captivity in Gaza into Egyptian custody. After more than five years of campaigning for Shalit’s release, and seeing little of him other than the… Read more »
Former Duke University basketball star Jon Scheyer, who will be playing pro ball for Maccabi Tel Aviv, at Ben Gurion Airport in Israel following his group aliyah flight, Aug. 30, 2011. (Sasson Tiram) JERUSALEM (JTA) – Call it circumstantial Zionism. There’s been a recent uptick in North American aliyah — of basketball players. More than a dozen North American players have become Israeli citizens and joined professional Israeli basketball teams and second division squads in the past few years. It’s not exactly… Read more »
Noam Shalit, the father of captive Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, reacts at the protest encampment opposite the prime minister's residence in Jerusalem that a deal has been reached for the release of his son, Oct. 11, 2011. JERUSALEM (JTA) – There was a festive mood among the shoppers running around Emek Refaim Street in Jerusalem’s German Colony doing their last-minute shopping Wednesday before Sukkot, but the mood was about more than just the coming holiday. The news late Tuesday night that captive Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit… Read more »
Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit was 19 when he was taken captive in a cross-border raid on the Israel-Gaza line. (Shalit family) (JTA) — If captive Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit is freed in the prisoner-exchange deal with Hamas that was approved by Israel’s Cabinet in a 26-3 vote late Tuesday night, it will raise two immediate questions: Which side finally acceded to the other’s demands after years of fruitless negotiations… Read more »
Newly arrived Jewish immigrants from Ethiopia attending a rehearsal for a Passover Seder at the absorption center in Mevasseret Zion, April 14, 2011. (Kobl Gideon/Flash 90) MEVASSERET ZION, Israel (JTA) — It’s a typical Friday morning in Israel’s largest absorption center: A handful of local residents, all immigrants from Ethiopia, mill about examining wares for sale at a small, unofficial souk. Located in Mevasseret Zion, a town just outside Jerusalem, the center has become more… Read more »
Israeli scientist Dan Shechtman explaining his Nobel Prize-winning theory to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Oct. 6, 2011. (Amos Ben Gershom/GPO/Flash 90) JERUSALEM (JTA) — Dan Shechtman remembers the day he was kicked out of a research group because of the theory that last week won him the Nobel Prize in chemistry. “Read this book. What you say is impossible,” the group leader at the National Bureau of Standards in Maryland,… Read more »
Protesters marching in lower Manahttan in an Occupy Wall Street demonstration, Sept. 26, 2011. (Paul Stein/Creative Commons) NEW YORK (Tablet) — As the Occupy Wall Street protest enters its third week, with demonstrations popping up in more than 10 cities, the protesters are aggressively pushing a comparison to the Arab Spring. Some say the movement has channeled the zeal (or perhaps the naivete, others would argue)… Read more »
KFAR SABA, Israel (JTA) — The Israeli Labor Party’s new leader, Shelly Yachimovich, makes a grand entrance at the annual Rosh Hashanah toast for party activists. Well over an hour after the guests begin munching on puff pastries, she is greeted like a conquering hero as she wades into… Read more »
WASHINGTON (JTA) — Republican presidents have been guiding Israel toward the peace table — sometimes not so gently — almost since the Jewish state was born more than six decades ago. But in the recent round of debates, the crop of candidates vying for the GOP nomination have been… Read more »
Palestinians in the West Bank village of Nabi Saleh, near Ramallah, faced off against Israeli soldiers during their weekly protest on the same day that Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas submitted a bid for Palestinian statehood to the United Nations, Sept. 23, 2011. (Isasm Rimawi/Flash 90/JTA) RAMALLAH, West Bank (JTA) — A larger-than-life sky-blue chair with the word “Palestine” dominates the center of Manara Square in downtown Ramallah. The Palestinian flag, a national symbol once banned by Israel, flies everywhere. Long banners of flags crisscross the square, huge flags decorate the sides of buildings, and… Read more »
President Obama, meeting with his Brazilian counterpart, Dilma Roussef, at the United Nations, is canvassing world leaders to oppose a bid by the Palestinians for statehood recognition, Sept. 20, 2011. (Office of Brazilian president) WASHINGTON (JTA) — Was it a speech to help launch his campaign for re-election, or an address to bury hopes for immediate Palestinian statehood recognition? Both assessments marked the immediate reaction to President Obama’s speech Wednesday at the United Nations General Assembly, and there was ammunition for both arguments.… Read more »
Diana Golbi performed in new york on behalf of ELEM, a nonprofit Israeli organization that helps "distressed youth" from whcih she herself benefited in her earlier teens. (Courtesy ELEM) NEW YORK (JTA) — For her first visit to New York and the United States, Diana Golbi adopted the unofficial uniform of most city dwellers — head-to-toe black. Black shirt, black top and tight black jeans. Her long brown hair was straight and hung past her shoulders. Pointing to… Read more »
WASHINGTON (JTA) — In recent months, the tensions that have characterized relations between the Obama administration and the Netanyahu government have largely receded into the background. The Obama administration is preparing to stand virtually alone with Israel at the United Nations in opposing the Palestinians’ statehood push. A consensus… Read more »
