News

Cyber security developers like those seen here from Elbit, an Israeli defense electronics company, will need to play an increasingly integral role in halting more complicated computer viruses. (Courtesy Elbit Systems)

TEL AVIV (JTA) — As the frequency of suicide bombings increased in the 1990s, Israelis began to realize that their conflicts had shifted from the conventional battlefield to their streets, buses and cafes. Now the country — along with the rest of the world — is adapting to a… Read more »

Rachel Corrie's parents, Craig and Cindy, await Haifa District Court Judge Oded Gershon's reading of the verdict in their suit against Israel over their daughter's 2003 death in Gaza, Aug. 28, 2012. (Ben Sales)

HAIFA, Israel (JTA) — The verdict by an Israeli court in the case of Rachel Corrie, an American activist killed in Gaza by an Israeli military bulldozer in 2003, may have captured international attention and touched on a range of ethical issues at the center of Israel’s military operations.… 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 »

Give a little … Change a lot. That is the motto of the B’nai Tzdek Tucson teen philanthropy program, which will have its annual kickoff event Sunday, Sept. 9, 1-3 p.m. at the Tucson Jewish Community Center. Teens contribute $180 to a B’nai Tzedek Fund at the Jewish Community… Read more »

Rev. Dr. John Kitagawa, Jake Gordon and Rabbi Samuel M. Cohon celebrate Jake’s Bar Mitzvah in Jerusalem. ( Photo: Bruno Charbit Photography)

Instead of a traditional Jewish mission to Israel, Temple Emanu-El and St. Philip’s in the Hills Episcopal Church joined forces to expand their congregants’ understanding of the Holy Land. Twelve Jews and 11 Christians participated in the interfaith mission led by Rabbi Samuel M. Cohon and Rev. Dr. John… Read more »

Barbara Shore and her daughter Deborah Shore participate in a project at Handmaker during the Israeli Artists Exchange in February. (Photo: Lori Riegel)

Coming from a Jewish family that valued education propelled Barbara Shore, now 91, into academia. Becoming a feminist happened along the way. Her husband, Jack Shore, whom she married in 1942, was instrumental in that progression. “We didn’t call it then,” Shore told the AJP in her apartment… Read more »

An IDF soldier during a training exercise of the Desert Reconnaissance Battalion of the Gaza Division, which is primarily composed of Bedouins, Nov. 2010

On an August weekday afternoon, 19-year-old Mohammed Kernowi stands in front of a small store in Israel’s largest Bedouin city, a hot plate in front of him with small pancakes sizzling in preparation for the end of that day’s Ramadan fast. At his age, many Israeli men have been… Read more »

Tucson Jewish Community Center President and CEO Ken Light

Twenty-six years ago, when Ken Light took the helm of the Tucson Jewish Community Center, the landmark edifice on River Road hadn’t even been built. Light had come to town with the understanding that financing and permits were all in place, but it would take three more years of… Read more »

New mom (Susan Kovitz) shares the joys and woes of parenting in a scene from ‘Motherhood Out Loud’ coming to the Invisible Theatre. (Susan Claassen)

The Invisible Theatre will begin its 2012-2013 “Season of Love” with the Southwest premiere of “Motherhood Out Loud.” A series of vignettes covering every aspect of motherhood — from stepmoms to single mothers, immigrant moms to grandmothers, new moms to empty nesters, — “Motherhood Out Loud” was written by… 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 »

Portrait of Sir Ludwig Guttman, founder of the Paralympic Games (Photo via Stoke Mandeville)

LONDON (JTA) — In 1917, Ludwig Guttmann, a young German Jew volunteering as an orderly in the local Accident Hospital for Coalminers, came across a strong miner with a broken back. The patient, he was told, would be dead within three months. In fact, he died after five weeks.… 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 »

(N.Y. Jewish Week) — They’ve moved beyond the chess games on Ocean Parkway and the Brighton Beach boardwalk strolls, those clichéd markers of the Russian immigration wave of the 1980s and ‘90s. “We’re night and day from our parents’ generation,” said Esther Lamm, a native of Lvov who leads… Read more »

Australian Jewish News publisher Robert Magid stirred controversy with his article arguing that Muslim boat people deprive sanctuary to legitimate refugees. (Australian Jewish News via AJDS)

SYDNEY (JTA) – An article on illegal boat people by the publisher of Australia’s main Jewish newspaper has ignited a storm of protest, with some critics savaging it for “vilifying Muslims” and promoting “xenophobic, Islamophobic and heartless sentiments.” Titled “Curb your compassion,” Robert Magid’s article published in the Aug.… Read more »

A Haredi man and his son standing next to the army recruiting office in Jerusalem on August 1, 2012. (Noam Moskowitz/Flash 90/JTA)

TEL AVIV (JTA) –  The controversy had sparked a national debate, raucous protests in the streets and the collapse of a historic government. That came in the months after the Israeli Supreme Court had nullified a law exempting haredi Orthodox Israelis from military service and given the government until… Read more »

Marika Weinberger, a Holocaust survivor and former president of the Australian Association of Jewish Holocaust Survivors and Descendants. (Henry Benjamin)

SYDNEY (JTA) — In a court ruling that is bringing new attention to Australia’s failure to prosecute alleged Nazi-era war criminals, the government will not surrender to Hungary the man believed to be the country’s last World War II war crimes suspect. The nation’s High Court ruled Wednesday that… 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 »

Israeli-American men's basketball coach David Blatt led the Russian national team to the bronze medal at the 2012 London Olympic Games. (Christopher Johnson via CC)

(JTA) – The London Olympics may have “lit up the world,” as organizing committee head Sebastian Coe put it, but for Jews the 2 1/2 weeks offered healthy doses of frustration and glory. On the plus side, new medalists such as America’s Aly Raisman gained the spotlight with her… 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 »