Martin Indyk said that refraining from imposing ideas on the Israelis and Palestinians inhibited both sides from embracing them. (Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images) WASHINGTON (JTA) – What was supposed to have revived the Israeli-Palestinian peace talks — allowing negotiations to develop organically — instead helped kill them, Martin Indyk, until recently the top U.S. peace broker, told JTA in a candid and wide-ranging interview. Speaking by phone Sept. 19 while in transit… Read more »
President Barack Obama speaking at the 69th session of the United Nations General Assembly in New York, Sept. 24, 2014. (Spencer Platt/Getty Images) NEW YORK (JTA) – President Obama devoted the bulk of his U.N. speech to the fight against violent Islamic extremism and hardly mentioned Iran’s nuclear program. In his address last year to the General Assembly, Obama spent a great deal of time talking about Tehran’s nuclear pursuit, describing it… Read more »
Secular Israelis outside the Cinema City theater in Jerusalem demonstrating in favor of allowing movie theaters to open on Shabbat, Feb. 25, 2014. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90) TEL AVIV (JTA) – During the past 18 months, the governing coalition in Israel has passed legislation to extend the nation’s mandatory conscription to the haredi Orthodox — a group currently exempted from military service — and Knesset leaders have advanced bills that would allow for civil unions and… Read more »
(JTA) — An Ohio University Student Senate meeting erupted into a chaotic scene and four students were arrested over protests of the Senate president’s “blood bucket challenge” of Israel. At Wednesday night’s meeting of the Student Senate, pro-Israel students staged a filibuster and called for the resignation of Megan Marzec over… Read more »
Melissa Duchan NEW YORK (JTA) – For years, Melissa Duchan had found the dress code for girls at her Orthodox school in Brooklyn, the Yeshivah of Flatbush, onerous. But it wasn’t until recently that Duchan, 16, felt that scrutiny of female students had crossed the line from irritating to what she called “predatory.”… Read more »
Israel's Andy Ram sprawled on the court following his five-set doubles victory with partner Yoni Erlich, holding racket, against Argentina in a Davis Cup match in Sunrise, Fla., Sept. 13, 2014. (Andrea Eidman) SUNRISE, Fla. (JTA) – It wasn’t Tel Aviv, but thousands of people chanting his name at a Davis Cup match following a grueling victory was a pretty good way for Israel’s Andy Ram to leave the game oftennis to which he had devoted more than half his life. Ram, 34,… Read more »
Researchers searching for human remains in Wasosz, the site of a massacre of Jewish villagers in 1941. (Podlaska Archaeological Laboratory) (JTA) — In September 1941, a group of villagers wielding axes and other tools descended upon the homes of their Jewish neighbors and murdered every last one, according to testimonies gathered by Holocaust scholars. Not much else is known about the massacre in Wasosz, a village 100 miles east… Read more »
The leader of France's far-right National Front, Marine Le Pen, seen here at a May Day demonstration in Paris in 2012, has a growing following among Jews. (Pascal Le Segretain/Getty Images) (JTA) — From the window of his Paris home, Michel Ciardi can see into the waiting room of a government welfare agency where a predominantly Arab and African crowd awaits government checks. A former communist, Ciardi once believed the scene at the agency was a necessary element of French… Read more »
Who knows what Tucson’s energetic young Jewish leaders may accomplish in the next 30 years? Four of those leaders profiled here, Amy Beyer, Adam Goldstein, Ben Pozez and Sarah Heisler Singer, have already contributed a great deal to the future of Jewish Tucson, belying the stereotype of apathetic young… Read more »
NEW YORK (JTA) — Following a five-week landmark civil trial and two days of deliberation, a Brooklyn jury found Arab Bank liable of knowingly supporting terrorism in Israel, the West Bank and Gaza Strip. According to the U.S. District Court ruling on Monday, the Jordan-based bank provided material support… Read more »
Mark Wallace, CEO of the new Counter Extremism Project, is flanked by board members Fran Townsend and Joseph Lieberman in announcing the group's creation in New York, Sept. 22, 2014/ (Courtesy of Counter Extremism Project) NEW YORK (JTA) – Imagine taking the 6-year-old nongovernmental organization United Against Nuclear Iran and swapping out the word Iran with “violent extremists.” That pretty much sums up the Counter Extremism Project, an NGO launched Monday that aims to expose the financial, ideological and recruitment architecture that supports violent… Read more »
Exterior shot of the $351 million Canadian Museum of Human Rights in Winnipeg. (Flickr) TORONTO (JTA) — On the fourth floor of the new Canadian Museum for Human Rights, visitors will find a gallery called “Examining the Holocaust,” which is devoted entirely to the story and lessons of the Shoah. On the same floor, in a smaller, adjacent space, a gallery called “Breaking… Read more »
Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz of Florida greets Israel's U.S. ambassador, Ron Dermer, at a Jewish New Year celebration hosted by Dermer in Chevy Chase, Md., Sept. 17, 2014. (Courtesy Israel Embassy) WASHINGTON (JTA) — Saying a nuclear Iran would be a “thousand times” greater threat to the world than ISIS, Israel’s ambassador to the United States warned against including Iran in any coalition to derail the jihadist group. Ron Dermer, speaking Wednesday to guests at a pre-Rosh Hashanah reception at… Read more »
Iranian President Hassab Rouhani, left, meeting with U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly on Sept. 26, 2013. (Andrew Burton/Getty Images) NEW YORK (JTA) — The circus is coming to town. No, there won’t be marching elephants, lion tamers or motorcycles jumping through rings of fire. But there may be wolves in sheep’s clothing, tightrope walking and motorcades blocking traffic. We’re talking, of course, about the United Nations General Assembly,… Read more »
In the Paris suburb of Sarcelles, pro-Palestinian rioters broke shop windows and set fires, July 20, 2014. (Cnaan Liphshiz) THE HAGUE, Netherlands (JTA) — A laconic man who abhors hysteria, the president of France’s CRIF umbrella of Jewish communities is not naturally inclined to emphasize his community’s fear in public, preferring to underscore French Jewry’s achievements and capacity to prosper despite recent hardships. But in a filmed interview… Read more »
A U.S. Army casket team lays to rest Pfc. Bernard Gavrin at Arlington National Cemetery while Rabbi Marvin Bash looks on, Sept. 12, 2014. (Ron Kampeas) ARLINGTON, Va. (JTA) — The scene at Arlington National Cemetery last Friday was not quite routine, but nor was it unusual: A clergyman said a prayer, an army NCO handed Bernard Gavrin’s closest living relative a folded U.S. flag, and a volunteer — one of the “Arlington Ladies” who… Read more »
Joe Goldblatt, a Texan who gained Scottish citizenship in July, campaigns for Scottish independence in Edinburgh, September 2014. (Ben Sales) GLASGOW (JTA) — Bright blue signs scream “Yes” while red ones urge “No, thanks” in the streets of Scotland’s largest city just days before a vote on whether to secede from the United Kingdom. But at Frank Angell’s house, his windows are empty and his yard is bare. A… Read more »
The emir of Quatar, Sheik Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani, right, with Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh, second from right, during an official visit to the Gaza Strip, Oct. 23, 2012. (Mohammed Salem-Pool/Getty Images) WASHINGTON (JTA) – It was the first Persian Gulf state to establish ties with Israel, the first to welcome Israeli students and the only one to allow direct dialing to Israel. Israeli athletes shine on its courts. Now Qatar is on the outs with Israel because of its embrace… Read more »
As Jews are known as “the People of the Book, “ the Arizona Jewish Post asked Tucson’s congregational rabbis to recommend a book that would inspire their congregants for the new year. Here are some intriguing suggestions: I recommend “John Lennon and the Jews: A Philosophical Rampage” by Ze’ev… Read more »
Irene Lloyd Jewish Elder Access, a free information and referral service for Jewish adults over 60, has existed in Tucson since 2010. In just four years the program has become so well-known that Ilene Lloyd, program manager, receives calls from people in nearly every U.S. state and countries such as Spain,… Read more »
