News

A bar or bat mitzvah brings families together in a special way. In recent months, three Temple Emanu-El members with interfaith backgrounds created new family traditions as they demonstrated their commitment through this age-old rite of passage. A father and son celebrated a joint b’nai mitzvah, and the son of… 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 »

WESTERBORK, Netherlands (JTA) — Nothing about the footage that Rudolf Breslauer filmed here on May 30, 1944, suggests that it was taken inside one of Europe’s largest Nazi concentration camps. In the film by Breslauer, a German-Jewish inmate of the Westerbork camp in Holland’s northeast, prisoners are seen playing… 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 »

NEW YORK (JTA) — For years, Laurie Grauer had waved a rainbow flag emblazoned with a Jewish star at the Chicago Dyke March, sometimes marching near activists waving Palestinian flags. It had never been a problem. But this year, Grauer was confronted by the LGBT parade’s organizers, questioned about… 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) — When Wimbledon starts this week, no other Jewish tennis player will be seeded higher than Diego Schwartzman. The scrappy 24-year-old from Argentina, fresh off an impressive five-set duel with perennial star Novak Djokovic at the French Open earlier this month, is No. 37 in the Association of Tennis… 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 »

NEW YORK (JTA) — When Megan Corbin was in school, she learned about the Holocaust as an optimistic story. Her grade school, she said, “highlighted Anne Frank as the voice of hope, and that really wasn’t the reality.” Now, as an eighth-grade language arts teacher outside of Seattle, she… Read more »

  (JTA) — In February 2015, Sen. Jim Inhofe carried a snowball on to the floor of the Senate to prove global warming did not exist. Everyone knows “it is very, very cold outside,” the Oklahoma Republican said. “Unseasonable.” That, said Al Franken, gave him an idea. “I thought… Read more »

  (JTA) — Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu shelved a controversial bill that would have made the haredi Orthodox-dominated Chief Rabbinate the only body authorized by the government to perform conversions in Israel. Netanyahu’s office announced Friday that the legislation will not be considered for six months while a “team” he will appoint… Read more »

(JTA) — They’ve tried strongly worded statements. They’ve tried private meetings with the prime minister. They’ve tried negotiations, protest and prayer. But for the past five years, despite broad internal consensus and consistent pressure, the American Jewish establishment has been unable to persuade Israel’s government to create an equitable… Read more »

Congregation Anshei Israel is recognizing Lynne Falkow-Strauss, director of its Esther B. Feldman Preschool/Kindergarten for 45 years, by creating a new courtyard and foyer in her name. The beloved educator, who has welcomed multiple generations of students, will be honored in a unique way that reflects her leadership style.… Read more »