National

WASHINGTON (JTA) — When 15 prominent American Protestant leaders sent a letter to Congress last week calling for an investigation and possible suspension of U.S. aid to Israel, at least one outcome was certain: The Jews wouldn’t like it. Already, one major American Jewish group has canceled its participation… Read more »

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaking at a joint news conference with Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borissov in Jerusalem, Sept. 11, 2012. (Itay Beit-On/GPO)

WASHINGTON (JTA) — In the U.S.-Israel relationship, “daylight” is back, but this time it’s Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu who is being called on to draw down the shades. Netanyahu’s recent sharp rebuke of the Obama administration’s Iran policies has drawn equally pointed pushback from Jewish Democrats. The back… Read more »

Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney speaking at a rally in Nashua, N.H., Sept. 7, 2012. (Marc Nozell via Creative Commons)

WASHINGTON (JTA) — Mitt Romney’s pessimistic take on Israeli-Palestinian peace prospects drew some media attention but not much noise from centrist Jewish groups. Only groups on the right and the left ends of the communal spectrum issued statements in response to the revelations this week of Romney’s remarks, respectively… Read more »

Ambassador to Libya J. Christopher Stevens was one of four U.S. diplomats killed in a rocket attack in Benghazi on Sept. 11, 2012. (U.S. Department of State)

NEW YORK (JTA) — There was no Israeli-American real estate developer named Sam Bacile, and the 100 Jews he claimed had financed his anti-Islam film were fictitious as well. Both fabrications were offered to the media apparently to hide the true identity of the Egyptian Christian from Southern California… Read more »

  American Physicians and Friends for Medicine in Israel will hold an Emergency and Disaster Preparedness Course, Nov. 3-8, in Israel. In conjunction with the Ministry of Health and the medical corps of the Israel Defense Forces, the course offers emergency and peacetime preparedness techniques. Local physician Ken Brandis,… Read more »

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (JTA) — Republicans and Democrats may not have much common ground this election year, yet their national conventions shared one feature: Both gatherings were blessed from the podium by prominent American rabbis. The Democrats had Rabbi David Wolpe, a best-selling author and leader of a prominent (capital-c)… Read more »

President Obama speaking at the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte, N.C., Sept. 6, 2012. (Donna Bise via flickr.com/photos/demconvention)

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (JTA) — It was the nuts-and-bolts convention that nearly broke down over the most ethereal of issues: Jerusalem and God. But by its third and final night, the Democratic National Convention had gotten back on message: jobs, jobs, staying on course with getting the economy back on… Read more »

Antonio Villaraigosa, the mayor of Los Angeles and chairman of the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte, N.C., introducing the platform amendment that affirms Jerusalem as Israel's capital, Sept. 5, 2012. (Camden Lee via flickr.com/photos/demconvention)

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (JTA) — At President Obama’s behest, and to boos from some delegates, Democrats on Wednesday night inserted a few lines into their party platform affirming Jerusalem as Israel’s capital. Two of the lines had appeared in the 2008 party platform but had been dropped for some reason… Read more »

David Harris, the president of the National Jewish Democratic Council, speaking to a British journalist outside the NJDC bus in Charlotte, N.C., the site of the Democratic National Convention, about reported tensions between President Obama and Jewish voters, Sept. 3, 2012. (Ron Kampeas)

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (JTA) — Jewish swing voters could make or break President Obama’s bid for reelection. At least that’s the case that Democratic Party leaders made in a training session that packed one of the larger halls at the convention center here on Monday, the day before the formal… Read more »

Ann and Mitt Romney after his speech accepting the Republican presidential nomination at the Republican National Convention in Tampa, Fla., Aug. 30, 2012. (Romney campaign)

TAMPA Fla. (JTA) — Republicans spent three evenings at their convention hammering home their message: After four years of leadership failures, Mitt Romney will restore America to a position of strength, confidence and unity — at home and abroad. In his Thursday night speech accepting the Republican presidential nomination,… Read more »

Mitt Romney speaking at the NASCAR Technical Institute in Mooresville, N.C., Aug. 11, 2012. (Mitt Romney official website)

TAMPA, Fla. (JTA) — Whole barbecued pigs, cheerleaders and elegies to skinny-dipping farmers’ daughters. That was the organized noise Sunday night at the opening bash of the Republican National Convention at Tropicana Field, the home of Major League Baseball’s Tampa Bay Rays in St. Petersburg. For those seeking Jewish… Read more »

Members of ZAKA rescuing a Torah from Congregation Beth Israel after Hurricane Katrina hit, August 2005. (Courtesy ZAKA)

(JTA) — Seven years ago an iconic picture for many Jews of the devastation wrought by Hurricane Katrina was of men waist deep in a flooded synagogue carrying Torahs to safety. On Sunday, in a celebration of physical and spiritual unity, the Torahs of that congregation were carried into… Read more »

Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.), left, Democratic National Committee chair and Rep. Eric Cantor (R-Va.), majority leader of the U.S. House of Representatives. (Photos by Gage Skidmore, graphic design by Uri Fintzy)

WASHINGTON (JTA) – Get set for a political double feature with much of the same plot, but with different outcomes for the issues that tend to preoccupy Jewish voters. The same key words and themes will bounce around Jewish events at next week’s Republican convention in Tampa, Fla,. and… Read more »

Israeli analysts say that signals from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, left, and his leadershipare showing a call for an unequivocal commitment from the administration of President Barack Obama, right, to come to Israel's aid in case of a strike against Iran, led by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. (Photos by Creative Commons, design by Uri Fintzy)

WASHINGTON (JTA) — How much noise does Israel’s leadership have to make to get the Obama administration to say what it wants to hear about Iran? It’s a question now preoccupying Israel, along with its corollary: How much noise is too much and risks precipitating a crisis between Jerusalem… Read more »

Mitt Romney introducing Wisconsin Rep. Paul Ryan as his running mate during a rally in Manassas, Va., Aug. 12, 2012. (Photo via Creative Commons)

WASHINGTON (JTA) – Anointing Paul Ryan as his running mate, Mitt Romney attached a name and face to his fiscal policy. Jewish Republicans, including the House majority leader, say they are thrilled with Wisconsin’s Ryan emerging as the ticket’s fresh face, hailing the lawmaker as a thoughtful and creative… Read more »

Sheldon Adelson is suing the National Jewish Democratic Council for $60 million for intimating in a online petition that he approved of prostitution in his Macau casino, shown here. (Photo via Creative Commons)

WASHINGTON (JTA) — Sheldon Adelson’s $60 million defamation lawsuit against the National Jewish Democratic Council describes extensive efforts by his representatives, including Alan Dershowitz, to talk the group into apologizing for intimating that the casino magnate approved of prostitution. The 16-page lawsuit was filed Wednesday in U.S. District Court… Read more »

Sheldon Adelson's backing of Republican candidates and pro-Israel causes have garnered widespread media attention this campaign. (Oliver Fitoussi/Flash90/JTA)

WASHINGTON (JTA) — Call it the Adelson conundrum: What happens when the guy who acts as if he owns the room really does? In March at TribeFest, the annual gathering of young adults organized by the Jewish Federations of North America at the Venetian hotel in Las Vegas, Sheldon… Read more »

A candlelight vigil for the victims of the shooting at the Sikh temple in Oak Creek, Wisc., Aug. 6, 2012. (Courtesy of Overpass Light Brigade)

(JTA) – Almost as soon as she heard the news about a deadly shooting at a Sikh temple near Milwaukee, Elana Kahn-Oren’s phone started ringing. As director of the Jewish Community Relations Council at the Milwaukee Jewish Federation, Kahn-Oren fielded call after call from concerned area Jews asking what… Read more »

WASHINGTON (JTA) — The U.S. State Department’s report on religious freedom described a “global increase” in anti-Semitism and said the “rising tide of anti-Semitism” was among the key trends of last year. The executive summary of the report for 2011, released July 30, also detailed the “impact of political… Read more »

WASHINGTON (JTA) – Seven years on, many Jews still have lingering questions about the addition to the pro-Israel lobbying scene of Christians United for Israel, the project of evangelical leader the Rev. John Hagee. Hagee believes he has a biblical mandate to press on and is undeterred. “As Isaiah… Read more »