News

JERUSALEM (JTA) — Benjamin Netanyahu has been charged in three corruption cases, marking the first time a sitting Israeli prime minister has been indicted. The charges, announced on Thursday evening by the Justice Ministry and Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit, include bribery and breach of public trust. Netanyahu has denied… Read more »

NEW YORK (JTA) — Although it hasn’t yet been determined whether the brutal stabbing of a young father on his way to morning prayers in Ramapo, New York, was a an anti-Jewish hate crime, it was described by the local police chief as a “vicious, violent attack” and would certainly… Read more »

JERUSALEM (JTA) — Blue and White party head Benny Gantz told Israeli President Reuven Rivlin that he is unable to form a government. Gantz made the announcement on Wednesday evening, about four hours before his mandate to form a government was scheduled to expire at midnight. Gantz spent the… Read more »

JERUSALEM (JTA) — The U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem issued a travel warning for visiting Americans in the aftermath of the U.S. announcement that the government does not consider the establishment of Israeli civilian settlements in the West Bank as illegal. The warning issued Monday said the visiting Americans could… Read more »

WASHINGTON (JTA) — The Trump administration will no longer regard West Bank Jewish settlement as illegal, another dramatic change that aligns it with Israel’s right-wing government. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in reviewing the history of U.S. policy on settlements said that since 1978, the United States has regarded… Read more »

(JTA) — As an observant Jew, Yosef David was taught to believe in miracles. That’s a good thing since David, a social worker from London, is going to need one to succeed in his new mission: unseating Jeremy Corbyn from Parliament in the general election on Dec. 12. David… Read more »

(JTA) — The crowded field of Democratic 2020 hopefuls has welcomed another latecomer to the fray: Deval Patrick, the former Massachusetts governor. On Thursday, Patrick released an announcement video that recalled the struggles he faced growing up on Chicago’s South Side and said he wanted to make the American… Read more »

(JTA) – Just like the Democratic Party in the U.S., Britain’s liberal Labour Party usually counts on star power for a boost. Ahead of the upcoming Dec. 12 general election, for instance, Labour has scooped up endorsements from major celebrities such as former Oasis lead singer Liam Gallagher, pop… Read more »

(JTA) —  She was 16 years old and alone in a refugee camp in a foreign country when we met her. Sobbing, she told us how she hoped that her brother might be somewhere in this camp, “camp number 18.”  She had heard that he might be alive — if… Read more »

(JTA) — Time magazine is building on its list of the most influential people of the year by releasing a list of “rising stars,” or what it calls the Time 100 Next. The list features what the publication says is an increasing number of influential people who aren’t establishment… Read more »

ODESSA, Ukraine (JTA) — Alina Feoktistova always knew she was Jewish, but the first time she sought contact with the community was to see if it could pay her tuition. Feoktistova’s family couldn’t afford to send her to college, but the local Jewish community provides an alternative in the… Read more »

(JTA) — The day after he turned 100, Jozef Walaszczyk prepared to attend yet another Holocaust commemoration ceremony in his native Warsaw. Walaszczyk is Poland’s oldest living Righteous Among the Nations – a title given by Israel’s Yad Vashem Holocaust museum to non-Jews who risked their lives to save… Read more »

(JTA) — Fifty-eight Israelis were injured during the wave of rocket attacks fired by terror groups from Gaza this week. Thirty-four Palestinians, most of them reported to be members of Islamic Jihad and other Gaza terror groups, were killed in retaliatory strikes. The attacks cost the Israeli economy $315… Read more »

JERUSALEM (JTA) — A cease-fire went into effect between Israel and Palestinian Islamic Jihad, as well as other terrorist groups in Gaza. The Israel Defense Forces confirmed that the cease-fire went into effect at 4 a.m. Thursday, and Egyptian negotiators said it would begin at 5:30 a.m. Several rockets… Read more »

RIO DE JANEIRO (JTA) – At 91, Holocaust survivor Andor Stern no longer fears the Nazis who imprisoned him in Auschwitz. Living in his native Sao Paulo, Brazil’s largest metro area of nearly 25 million, what scares him today are burglars – his modest house has been broken into… Read more »

JERUSALEM (JTA) — A rocket fired by Palestinian terrorists in Gaza struck an assisted-living facility in the southern Israel city of Ashkelon on Wednesday afternoon, injuring a woman in her 70s. The resident was injured in the face and arms by flying glass after the rocket crashed through her… Read more »

JERUSALEM (JTA) — U.S. filmmaker Quentin Tarantino and his Israeli wife, actress, and model Daniella Pick, are renting a home in Tel Aviv. The home in an affluent neighborhood in the northern part of the city rents for nearly $23,000 a month, the Israeli business daily Globes reported. It is… Read more »

(JTA) — NASA has renamed the most distant object ever explored by a spacecraft after it was criticized for calling it by a name with Nazi connotations. It will now be called Arrokoth, which means “sky” in the Native American Powhatan language. The trans-Neptunian object’s official designation is 2014… Read more »

(JTA) — Adam Sandler is finally getting some competition in the Hanukkah music world. Haim, Jack Black, the Flaming Lips, Yo La Tengo and other prominent artists have recorded songs for a Hanukkah album titled “Hanukkah+,” the record label Verve Forecast has announced. The album is out Nov. 22 and also features contributions from folk… Read more »

NEW YORK (JTA) — President Donald Trump told the story of an Army sergeant who defied a Nazi command to identify which of his fellow American soldiers were Jewish. During his Veterans Day speech Monday in New York, Trump told the story of Master Sgt. Roddie Edmonds, Military.com reported. Edmonds, who… Read more »