National

Riskin’s Haman remark reflects broad Israeli distrust of Obama
April 1, 2015 / Ben Sales, JTA

TEL AVIV (JTA) — For years, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel has compared Iran to the biblical Persia, the ancient kingdom where the Jewish people were nearly annihilated through the evil designs of the arch-villain Haman. But when an American-born rabbi, widely seen as a religious moderate who… Read more »

Some of Lincoln’s best friends were Jews

The cover of "Lincoln and the Jews: A History," by Jonathan Sarna and Benjamin Shapell. (Courtesy of Thomas Dunne Books)
March 27, 2015 / Beth Kissileff, JTA

(JTA) – A whopping 16,000 books have been written about President Abraham Lincoln. But a new book and an exhibit at the New York Historical Society tell a previously untold story about Lincoln: his relationships with Jews. Benjamin Shapell has been collecting documents relating to Lincoln and the Jews… Read more »

Meet Ruth Porat, Google’s new CFO

Ruth Porat, who will join Google as its chief financial officer, with the former Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke, left, and former House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank at a panel discussion at the Brookings Institution in Washington, March 2, 2015. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
March 25, 2015 / Anthony Weiss, JTA

(JTA) — To the business press, the symbolism of Ruth Porat’s move from her position as chief financial officer of Morgan Stanley to her newly announced perch as Google’s CFO of the future couldn’t be more obvious — it represents a shift in power from Wall Street to Silicon… Read more »

J Street U students describe emotional, polarized Israel climate on campus

J Street U studentsparticipating in a protestagainst Hillel International on the sidelines of the J Street conference in Washington, March 23, 2015. (Moshe Zusman)
March 24, 2015 / Sarah Wildman, JTA

WASHINGTON (JTA) — At noon Monday, several hundred students marched through the bright March sunshine from the J Street conference at the Washington Convention Center for a protest. “This is not a march!” organizers pleaded as the orderly group moved south from the Carnegie Library to the headquarters of… Read more »

After Brooklyn blaze kills 7 kids, grief spans an ocean

A mourner near the fresh graves of the seven children from the Sassoon family during their funeral in Jerusalem, March 23, 2015. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)
March 24, 2015 / Uriel Heilman, JTA

NEW YORK (JTA) – Even in a city accustomed to deadly fires, this one stood out for the sheer scale of the tragedy: seven children, ranging in age from 5 to 16, killed in the middle of the night after awakening from their Sabbath slumber to smoke and flames.… Read more »

Netanyahu facing challenges, criticism from Jewish liberals

J Street Executive Director Jeremy Ben-Ami addressing the group's conference in Washington, D.C.,March 21, 2015. (Courtesy of J Street)
March 23, 2015 / Ron Kampeas, JTA

WASHINGTON (JTA) – With Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu facing escalating criticism and pressure from the White House, he could use some help from Israel’s erstwhile allies in the American Jewish community — especially those with sway in liberal and Democratic circles. But several leading Jewish liberal critics of Netanyahu… Read more »

Black lawmakers vow to stand by Israel despite sitting out Netanyahu

Rabbi Jonah Pesner, left, the new head of the Reform movement's Religious Action Center, and Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.) in Selma, Ala. (Courtesy photo)
March 10, 2015 /

WASHINGTON (JTA) — It was not the first time John Lewis had invoked the Jewish-black alliance that fought for equality during the civil rights era. But it was the first time that the Georgia congressman, a civil rights hero, invoked it to explain why he was skipping a speech… Read more »

Under cloud of Iran talk, AIPAC quietly courts progressives
March 9, 2015 /

WASHINGTON (JTA) — At the AIPAC conference, a sea of 16,000 Israel supporters spent their time talking Iran policy amid the swirling controversy over Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s speech to Congress. To the sidelines fell discussion of the Israeli elections, the peace process and Israeli innovation — as well… Read more »

Did Netanyahu’s speech make new allies or alienate old friends?

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks about Iran during a joint meeting of Congress, March 3, 2015. (Win McNamee/Getty Images)
March 5, 2015 / Ron Kampeas, JTA

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s speech, in the end, was about reminding Americans that the enemy of your enemy may still be your enemy. He may have lost some friends in the process. Netanyahu spoke before the U.S. Congress on Tuesday following a six-week buildup that spurred questions about… Read more »

Netanyahu to Congress: Deal with Iran paves way to bomb
March 3, 2015 /

(JTA) – In his address to Congress, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu argued that the proposed nuclear deal being negotiated with Iran will lead inexorably to a nuclear-armed Iran and war in the Middle East. “This deal has two major concessions: One, leaving Iran with a vast nuclear program,… Read more »

AIPAC wants to talk Iran, but it can’t get away from speechgate

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks at the AIPAC policy conference a day before his scheduled speech to Congress, March 2, 2015. (Mark Wilson/Getty Images)
March 2, 2015 / Ron Kampeas, JTA

WASHINGTON (JTA) – For all its focus on Iran, AIPAC can’t seem to get away from the controversy surrounding Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s impending speech to Congress. Speaking to attendees Sunday at the launch of the largest-ever annual conference of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, CEO Howard… Read more »

Netanyahu speech straining bipartisanship ahead of AIPAC conference
February 27, 2015 / Ron Kampeas, JTA

WASHINGTON (JTA) — Ahead of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s congressional address and its biggest-ever annual conference,  AIPAC wants to keep the focus squarely on Iran and the traditionally bipartisan nature of American support for Israel. Good luck with that. Tensions between Democrats and the Israeli prime minister are… Read more »

Netanyahu ‘regrets’ partisan perception of speech; Rice calls planned address ‘destructive’

U.S. National Security Advisor Susan Rice, shown addressing Jewish leaders during the National Leadership Assembly for Israel in July 2014, called Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's upcoming speech to Congress "destructive." (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
February 25, 2015 / Ron Kampeas, JTA

WASHINGTON (JTA) — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told top Senate Democrats he regretted that his planned address to the U.S. Congress is being perceived as partisan, as President Barack Obama’s top security adviser said the speech was “destructive.” Netanyahu wrote Tuesday to decline an invitation from Sens. Dick… Read more »

On foreign policy, Jeb Bush navigates between brother and father
February 23, 2015 / Ron Kampeas, JTA
Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush has surrounded himself with foreign policy advisors who have worked for his father and brother as he eyes a run for the presidency. (Mark Wilson/Getty Images)

WASHINGTON (JTA) — As clearly as Jeb Bush has stated that he does not want his foreign policy chops assessed against that of his brother — or his father — his choice in advisers has only made things murkier. Of 21 advisers to the former Florida governor and putative… Read more »

Where does war authorization aimed at ISIS leave Iran?
February 20, 2015 / Dmitriy Shapiro, Washington Jewish Week

WASHINGTON (Washington Jewish Week via JTA) — Don’t make the enemy of your enemy your friend. That’s the message some lawmakers hope to convey to the Obama administration as they consider its request for a war authorization to combat ISIS. Concerns about how best to shape such an authorization… Read more »

Freundel pleads guilty to 52 voyeurism charges
February 19, 2015
Rabbi Barry Freundel, left, with his lawyer, Dmitriy Shapiro, outside the Washington courthouse where he pleaded guilty to 52 misdemeanor counts of voyeurism for spying on women at his Orthodox synagogue's mikvah, Feb. 19, 2015. (Dmitriy Shapiro / Washington Jewish Week)

WASHINGTON (JTA/Washington Jewish Week) — Rabbi Barry Freundel, the former spiritual leader at a prominent Washington synagogue, pleaded guilty to 52 counts of misdemeanor voyeurism. The plea Thursday means that Freundel could be sentenced to a maximum penalty of 52 years in prison and ordered to pay tens of… Read more »

As David Cohen becomes CIA’s No. 2, Jews appear to have smoother sailing at security agencies
February 18, 2015 / Ron Kampeas, JTA
David Cohen, seen here at a Capitol Hill hearing on Iran sanctions in 2011, was recently named to the No. 2 position at the Central Intelligence Agency. (Brendan Hoffman/Getty Images)

WASHINGTON (JTA) — David Cohen’s path to second in command at the Central Intelligence Agency is, in many respects, a typical one in Washington. A seasoned Ivy League lawyer who began his career defending the right of religious groups to display menorahs on government property, Cohen was the Obama… Read more »