News

For French Jews, resort town of Deauville doubles as a safe haven

The entrance to the main boardwalk of the Deauville beach, July 24, 2015. (Cnaan Liphshiz)
August 7, 2015 / Cnaan Liphshiz, JTA

DEAUVILLE, France (JTA) – This seaside community situated 125 miles west of Paris boasts windswept beaches, turquoise-water marinas, a grand casino, a race track and an Olympic-size swimming pool. Deauville, spanning 2.2 square miles, also has five kosher restaurants, three main synagogues and more than 20 smaller Jewish congregations.… Read more »

What it means to be a Jewish family in rural Maine
August 6, 2015 / Courtney Naliboff, Kveller via JTA

(Kveller via JTA) — For many Jewish parents, the challenges they face raising their children include choosing between Jewish and public schools, planning bar and bat mitzvahs, and staying sane while planning big Shabbat dinners. But for parents raising Jewish children in rural areas like me, without a cohesive community… Read more »

The surprising Jewish history of St. Thomas, Virgin Islands
August 6, 2015 / Jacob Kaplan, Jewniverse via JTA

(Jewniverse via JTA) — Jews from Denmark first arrived on the white beaches of what is now St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands — a tiny speck off the coast of Puerto Rico — in the mid-17th century. These were descendants of a Jewish population that had fled Spain for… Read more »

In pivot, Egyptians and their leaders are warming to Jews, Israel

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El Sisi, center, meeting a six-person delegation from the American Jewish Committee, July 2015. (Courtesy of Ken Bandler)
August 5, 2015 / Jacob Wirtschafter, JTA

CAIRO (JTA) — It’s been a particularly challenging summer for Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El Sisi. Within one week in late June and early July, his attorney general was assassinated in the upscale Cairo suburb of Heliopolis and an Islamic State affiliate launched a two-day siege in the North Sinai town of Sheikh… Read more »

What can Iran hide in 24 days? Answering the questions posed by the nuclear deal

U.S. Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz, left, testifying before the Senate Armed Services Committee about the Iran nuclear deal, July 29, 2015. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
August 5, 2015 / Ron Kampeas, JTA

  WASHINGTON (JTA) – Congress has until mid- to late September to consider whether to reject the nuclear restrictions for the sanctions rollback deal reached by Iran and six major powers on July 14. Some of the debate is over the meaning of certain provisions in the accord. Here’s a breakdown… Read more »

Does Israel give Jewish extremists a pass on violence against Arabs?

Family members of Ali Saad Dawabsheh outside their home in a West Bank Palestinian village after an arson attack that killed the 18-month-old boy, July 31, 2015. Jewish extremists are suspected of setting the fire. (Oren Ziv/Getty Images)
August 5, 2015 / Uriel Heilman, JTA

(JTA) – There are some striking similarities between last week’s arson attack on a Palestinian home that killed an 18-month-old boy and last summer’s kidnapping and immolation of a 16-year-old Palestinian, Mohammed Abu Khdeir. Then, as now, Jewish extremists were the prime suspects in the attack. Then, as now, the murder… Read more »

A year after Gaza war, border communities are growing

Children in the southern Israeli kibbutz of Nahal Oz playing near a colorfully painted concrete shelter, July 6, 2015. (Miriam Alster/Flash90)
August 4, 2015 / Ben Sales, JTA

TEL AVIV (JTA) — Few communities were as battered during last summer’s conflict between Israel and Hamas as Nahal Oz, a kibbutz of some 350 people located just a mile from the Gaza border. At one point in the fighting, 40 missiles landed on the community in a single… Read more »

Blog: White House briefing of AIPAC activists ends in communication breakdown
August 4, 2015 / Ron Kampeas, JTA

  (JTA) — Got questions about the Iran nuclear deal? Too bad, if you were an AIPAC activist at a briefing this week with top Obama administration officials. At the briefing Wednesday, Howard Kohr, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee’s director, stopped the proceedings before his activists could ask questions. The… Read more »

Jerusalem Pride Parade murder sparks calls for change to laws — and pushback, too

Some of the participants mourning at a Jerusalem vigil for Shira Banki, the teenager who died three days after being stabbed at the Jerusalem gay pride parade, Aug. 2, 2015. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)
August 4, 2015 / Ben Sales, JTA

TEL AVIV (JTA) — The murder of a 16-year old girl at Jerusalem’s gay pride parade has sparked calls for LGBT-rights legislation — as well as pushback from those who oppose it. Shira Banki died Sunday after being stabbed while marching in the parade on Thursday night. Five others were wounded… Read more »

Get your kosher dogs at Dodger Stadium!
August 3, 2015 / Lisa Keys, JTA

(JTA) — The Los Angeles Dodgers may never achieve the lore of their brethren in Brooklyn, but now at least they’ve brought a bit of Brooklyn to the West Coast — in the form of hot dogs. Earlier this week, Dodger Stadium opened its first kosher hot dog stand,… Read more »

How music and meditation jazzed up Jewish life on N.Y.’s Fire Island
August 3, 2015 / Batya Ungar-Sargon, JTA

(JTA) — It was Friday evening and the cantor, wearing a leopard-print top and gladiator sandals — including one with a with a tambourine affixed to it — greeted the congregants at Shabbat services with a smile. She encouraged them to pick up the percussion instruments left on the… Read more »

After Palestinian baby’s death, Israelis say condemnation not enough

Tali Mizrahi, a member of the anti-racism group Light Tag, visiting the home of a Palestinian baby allegedly killed by Jewish arsonists. (Ben Sales)
August 3, 2015 / Ben Sales, JTA

DUMA, West Bank (JTA) — The smell of stale smoke wafted from the burnt concrete home now marked by a banner bearing the grinning face of a baby and, in bold red letters, a name: Ali Saad Dawabsha. Some 100 Jewish visitors trudged hesitantly under the banner and into the… Read more »

Obama rallies supporters against ‘billionaire’ opponents of Iran deal

President Barack Obama talks with President Hassan Rouhani of Iran during a phone call in the Oval Office, Sept. 27, 2013. (Pete Souza/Getty Images)
July 31, 2015 / Ron Kampeas, JTA

WASHINGTON (JTA) — In a phone call with supporters on Thursday, President Barack Obama characterized opponents of the Iran deal as being backed by “billionaires” and urged those listening in to win over “squishy” lawmakers considering opposing the deal. Opponents “would be opposed to any deal with Iran,” Obama told… Read more »

Jewish terror draws Netanyahu’s focus homeward

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visiting the hospitalized family of a West Bank Palestinian baby killed in an arson attack, July 31, 2015. (Flash90)
July 31, 2015 / Ron Kampeas, JTA

  Updated 8.5.15 WASHINGTON (JTA) – Ahead of what may be the toughest diplomatic battle of his career, a final bid to kill the Iran nuclear deal, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has suddenly found himself facing down a terrorist threat – apparently from Jews. The flow of Iran… Read more »

McSally to join lawmakers meeting Netanyahu in Israel
July 31, 2015 /

Rep. Martha McSally (R.-Ariz.) will be one of more than 40 U.S. lawmakers traveling to Israel next month to meet with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu prior to a Congressional vote on the nuclear deal with Iran. Congress has until Sept. 17 to vote on the agreement the United States and five other countries (known… Read more »

News Analysis: With polls of U.S. Jews on Iran at odds, whom to believe?

Hundreds of people protesting against the Iran nuclear deal on July 26, 2015, in Los Angeles, California. (Peter Duke)
July 31, 2015 / Uriel Heilman, JTA

NEW YORK (JTA) — There have been three major polls of American Jews since the announcement of the nuclear deal between world powers and Iran — by the L.A. Jewish Journal, The Israel Project and J Street— all with significantly different results. Two show U.S. Jewish support for the Iran nuclear… Read more »

Netanyahu to speak on Iran nuclear agreement in live webcast
July 31, 2015 /

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will speak to the American Jewish community and friends of Israel in a live webcast on Tuesday, Aug. 4, 2015 at 1 pm EDT. Register here to receive the web link for access to the address. Participation is free and open to all. The… Read more »

Six marchers stabbed at Jerusalem gay pride parade
July 30, 2015 /

JERUSALEM (JTA) — Six marchers were stabbed at Jerusalem’s annual gay pride parade — allegedly by the man who stabbed three people at the parade in 2005. One victim in Thursday’s stabbings was in critical condition and two were in serious condition. The alleged assailant — Yishai Schlissel, a… Read more »