News

At Berlin’s European Maccabi Games, the past is ever-present

American soccer player Catie Chase at the European Maccabi Games in Berlin showing photos of her late grandparents, who survived the Holocaust, July 28, 2015. (Hillel Kuttler)
July 30, 2015 / Hillel Kuttler, JTA

BERLIN (JTA) – Seventy-nine summers after Marty Glickman’s Olympics uniform was rendered as useless as a jilted bride’s wedding dress, his daughter Nancy wore the same uniform to light the cauldron that officially opened the European Maccabi Games here. Her late father’s removal from the U.S. track team hours… Read more »

Jewish women’s eggs are hot commodity, but are they ‘kosher’?
July 30, 2015 / Suzanne Pollak
Egg banks report that they cannot meet the demand for Jewish donations. (Ian Waldie/Getty Images)

ROCKVILLE, Md. (Washington Jewish Week via JTA) – Laura has donated her eggs four times to women who needed help having children. “It gave me a real sense of purpose,” she said. “It really is a great personal pleasure to know that I have something that changes someone’s life.”… Read more »

Ukraine fiscal crisis leads to major setback for homegrown Jewish philanthropy

A heavily damaged hotel near the Donetsk airport in Ukraine, Feb. 26, 2015. The fighting between Ukraine and Russian-backed rebels has wreaked havoc on the Ukraine hryvnia.(Andrew Burton/Getty Images)
July 29, 2015 / Cnaan Liphshiz, JTA

(JTA) – For many years Rami Waisman, the director of a major jewelry chain, was earning enough to give back handsomely to the Jewish communal institutions in his eastern Ukraine hometown,  Dnepropetrovsk. But these days Waisman is struggling and can no longer financially support such institutions as the local synagogue,… Read more »

Pollard’s wait not over: Fight to bring him to Israel will outlast his release

Israelis calling for the release of convicted spy Jonathan Pollard in Jerusalem, March 21, 2013. (Liar Mizrahi/Getty Images)
July 29, 2015 / Ron Kampeas, JTA

WASHINGTON (JTA) — President Barack Obama will not alter the terms of Jonathan Pollard’s parole once he is released, a signal that Israel’s struggle to bring him to the country whose citizenship he has assumed will outlast his November release date. “Mr. Pollard will serve his sentence as mandated… Read more »

Israelis say Pollard release won’t change stance on Iran

Uri Ariel, left, Israel's minister of housing, and Knesset Chairman Yuli Edelstein at a Passover seder held in honor of Jonathan Pollard, pictured, at the Knesset, April 8, 2014. (Flash90)
July 28, 2015 / Ben Sales, JTA

  TEL AVIV (JTA) — When the United States frees convicted spy Jonathan Pollard in November, many in Israel will celebrate the moment for which they have fought and hoped. What Pollard’s release won’t do, officials and analysts say, is make most Israelis feel any better about the nuclear deal with Iran. Pollard, who was convicted… Read more »

Israel’s U.S. envoy raps Huckabee on Holocaust-Iran deal analogy

Mike Huckabee fielding questions at The Family Leadership Summit in Ames, Iowa, July 18, 2015. The Republican presidential candidate is standing by remarks he made over the weekend that President Obama is marching Israelis "to the door of the oven" as part of the Iran nuclear deal. (Scott Olson/Getty Images)
July 28, 2015 / Ron Kampeas, JTA

  WASHINGTON (JTA) – Call it a double miracle for the pastor who would be president: Mike Huckabee managed to unite Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Barack Obama while grabbing the spotlight from Donald Trump. Netanyahu’s ambassador to the United States, Ron Dermer, slammed Huckabee, a Republican… Read more »

Jewish lawmakers shut out noise as they consider Iran nuclear deal

Sen. Charles Schumer participating in a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on Capitol Hill, July 8, 2015. Schumer, a New York Democrat, is seen as a key vote on the Iran deal. (Mark Wilson/Getty Images)
July 28, 2015 / Ron Kampeas, JTA

WASHINGTON (JTA) – Turn off the ads, turn down the noise and read, listen and consult. That’s what five key Jewish lawmakers say they are planning for the five to seven weeks they have to contemplate their vote on the Iran nuclear deal. There are 28 Jews in Congress,… Read more »

Jewish groups stake out positions on Iran deal, but whom do they represent?

Hundreds turned out for a protest in Los Angeles against the Iran nuclear deal, July 26, 2015. (Peter Duke)
July 28, 2015 / Uriel Heilman, JTA

NEW YORK (JTA) – When the Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles came out with a strongly worded statement last week opposing the Iran nuclear deal, it became one of a handful of federations across the country to stake out a clear position on the agreement. “This Iran deal… Read more »

U.S. preparing to release Jonathan Pollard: Wall Street Journal

Israelis calling for the release of convicted spy Jonathan Pollard during President Obama’s visit to Jerusalem in 2013. (Uriel Sinai/Getty Images)
July 24, 2015 /

WASHINGTON (JTA) — The Obama administration is preparing to release Israeli spy Jonathan Pollard in the next few months, the Wall Street Journal reported. Pollard may be released in the next few weeks or by Nov. 21, the date he is officially eligible for parole under rules in place… Read more »

The campaign for (and against) the Iran deal gets personal
July 24, 2015 / Ron Kampeas, JTA
Vice President Joe Biden delivering remarks at the Good Jobs Green Jobs National Conference in Washington, D.C., April 13, 2015. This week he beseeched about a thousand Jewish leaders in a phone call on the Iran nuclear deal. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

WASHINGTON (JTA) – Vice President Joe Biden had an intimate phone call this week with about a thousand Jewish leaders, beseeching, teaching and preaching the Iran nuclear deal. Biden’s imploring hourlong call on Monday typified how personal the campaign for and against the Iran nuclear deal is becoming. President… Read more »

Thousands protest the Iran deal at Times Square rally

A protester's sign urging U.S. Sen. Chuck Schumer to vote against the Iran deal at the "Stop Iran Now" rally in Times Square, July 22, 2015. (Gabe Friedman)
July 23, 2015 / Gabe Friedman, JTA

(JTA) — New York Sen. Chuck Schumer was not actually in New York on Wednesday, but the Democrat’s influence on the fate of the Iran deal loomed large when several thousand people descended on Times Square to protest the agreement. Many of those demonstrating against the agreement chanted “Where… Read more »

European Maccabi Games to play at Olympic venues built by Nazis

Adolf Hitler, second from left, watching the Olympic Games in Berlin with the Italian crown prince, left, August 1936. (Fox Photos/Getty Images)
July 21, 2015 / Toby Axelrod, JTA

BERLIN (JTA) – They are roaring through Europe, raising dust as they go: Jewish bikers bearing an Olympic-style torch all the way from Israel to this German city. Next week, 11 core riders will pull their steel steeds into Berlin’s famous outdoor amphitheater, the Waldbuehne, to help usher in… Read more »

What ‘no deal’ would have meant — and 5 other things to consider now that Iran accord has been struck

Portraits of Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, right, and the former Ayatollah Khomeini looking out over Tehran, June 4, 2015. Iranian power is at the center of the debate over the nuclear deal signed between Iran and six world powers. (John Moore/Getty Images)
July 17, 2015 / Uriel Heilman, JTA

(JTA) – The nuclear agreement signed this week between the U.S.-led group of six world powers and Iran raises as many questions as it answers. As critics and proponents dissect the details, here are six issues to consider. It’s not only about nuclear weapons. In all probability, Iran will acquire nuclear weapons. This… Read more »

AIPAC to fight White House head to head in battle over Iran deal

The White House is said to be "on fire" and ready for battle in defending the Iran nuclear plan. (Mark Wilson/Getty Images)
July 17, 2015 / Ron Kampeas, JTA

WASHINGTON (JTA) – Cancel your summer vacations. That was the order AIPAC’s executive director, Howard Kohr, gave his employees in a staff meeting convened this week at the American Israel Public Affairs Committee after the United States announced the Iran nuclear deal. With the influential pro-Israel lobby group pushing for Congress… Read more »

Following Iran deal, Israel to lobby Congress — and reconsider a strike

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaking to the media from his office in Jerusalem following the finalization of a nuclear deal with Iran, July 14, 2015. (Hadas Parush/Flash90)
July 15, 2015 / Ben Sales, JTA

TEL AVIV (JTA) — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has decried an agreement over Iran’s nuclear program hundreds of times — most notably in a March speech to a joint session of Congress. Now that the agreement is signed, experts say Netanyahu has one way left to block it: Go… Read more »

Why the Iran nuclear deal is likely to survive its hurdles

MARCH 03: Sen. Bob Corker (L) (R-TN), chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, answers questions at a press conference following the weekly policy luncheon of the Republican caucus at the U.S. Capitol March 3, 2015 in Washington, DC. Corker answered questions on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's speech to a joint meeting of Congress earlier in the day. Also pictured are Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R) (R-KY) and Sen. John Thune (C) (R-SD). (Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images)
July 15, 2015 / Ron Kampeas, JTA

WASHINGTON (JTA) – The nuclear deal with Iran, 20 months in the making, is now done — at least as far as negotiations go. The accord, announced early Tuesday, still faces hurdles, although they likely won’t keep the deal from going ahead. So what happens next? We read the laws, perused the… Read more »