Tagged Barack Obama

Your government is funding houses of worship. Here’s why no one noticed.

Piles of ruined books from United Orthodox Synagogues of Houston. The congregation lost many of its prayer books during Hurricane Harvey and replenished them through donations. (Courtesy of United Orthodox Synagogues)
March 12, 2018 / Ron Kampeas, JTA

WASHINGTON (JTA) — President George W. Bush’s first act as president, on Jan. 29, 2001, was to open an office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives. Church-state separations that had hindered such partnerships, he said in a statement, were “inherently unfair.” Jewish groups, civil libertarians and Democrats immediately raised concerns,… Read more »

Mideast expert Dennis Ross to speak at free JFSA event
November 5, 2015 /
Dennis Ross

Former Middle East peace envoy Dennis Ross, author of the new book “Doomed to Succeed: The U.S.-Israel Relationship from Truman to Obama,” will speak at the Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona’s free Together community event on Wednesday, Nov. 18 at 7 p.m. at Congregation Anshei Israel. The event will… Read more »

Op-Ed: Obama could learn from Bill Clinton how to be a true friend of Israel

Former President Bill Clinton meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in New York, Nov. 8, 2010. (Avi Ohayon/GPO via Getty Images)
October 28, 2015 / Gil Troy, JTA

WASHINGTON (JTA) — By now it should be obvious how absurd it is to call President Barack Obama Israel’s “best friend” ever, as Thomas Friedman of The New York Times has claimed. A Blame Israel Firster, Obama won’t use his moral authority to try stopping the instigators of this… Read more »

Everyone’s talking ISIS at the UN, leaving Netanyahu glaring

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks at the U.N. General Assembly at United Nations headquarters in New York City, Oct. 1, 2015. (Andrew Burton/Getty Images)
October 1, 2015 / Ron Kampeas, JTA

(JTA) – All anyone attending the United Nations General Assembly opening seemed to want to talk about was the threat posed to the world by the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria. That was much to the consternation of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who argued in his speech… Read more »

African-Israeli personalities hoping to change community’s image
March 29, 2013 / Ben Sales, JTA
Yityish Aynaw, Miss Israel, meets President Barack Obama during his visit to Israel, March 2013. (Avi Ohayon/GPO/JTA)

TEL AVIV (JTA) — When Yityish Aynaw immigrated from Ethiopia to Israel at age 12, she was thrust into an Israeli classroom. An orphan lacking Hebrew skills, Aynaw says she relied on other kids and her own sheer ambition to get through. Ten years later Aynaw, 22, is the… Read more »