Tagged HEADLINES

Boys’ kidnapping inspires ‘SOS Israel’ app

In response to the kidnapping of three boys last week, some Israelis have prayed. Some have voiced support on social media. And some have done what they do best: they made an app. Prompted by the kidnapping and set to launch in the near future, the SOS Israel app will allow anyone in… Read more »

American Jews take up cause of missing Israeli teens

Demonstrators rally outside the Israeli consulate in Manhattan to express solidarity with three Israeli teens who were abducted in the West Bank, June 16, 2014. (Miriam Moster/JTA)

NEW YORK (JTA) – The Reform movement posted a prayer. Chabad asked followers to pledge to do a mitzvah. The Jewish Federations of North America set up a Web page to express solidarity. The disappearance of three Israeli teens in the West Bank last week is being taken as a call to action uniting… Read more »

Should robots count in a minyan? Rabbi talks Turing test

A "Bot-Mitzvah" depicted on the TV show "Futurama." (Via Hulu)

NEW YORK (JTA) — Robots can hold a conversation, but should they count in a minyan? A chatbot at Britain’s University of Reading was heralded this week as passing the Turing test, showing a conversational ability that managed to fool people into thinking it was human. Using the fictional… Read more »

Bitcoin makes aliyah: Cryptocurrency finds Israeli fans

Nimrod Gruber uses Israel's first Bitcoin ATM in Tel Aviv, June 12, 2014. (Ben Sales/JTA)

TEL AVIV (JTA) — Blocks away from the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange and the headquarters of two major banks, in the corner of the lobby of a boutique hotel, Nimrod Gruber sticks his hand into an ATM. A few seconds later, a QR code prints out. Gruber takes the… Read more »

Likud’s Reuven Rivlin is elected president of Israel

JERUSALEM (JTA) — Reuven Rivlin of the Likud party was elected president of Israel in a campaign that was fraught with scandal. Rivlin was elected in the second round of Knesset balloting on Tuesday, defeating Meir Sheetrit of the Hatnua party in a 63-53 runoff vote. The former Knesset… Read more »

Op-Ed: Why gun control is a Jewish issue

  The most recent gun-related murderous rampage in our country has been greeted by an outcry from families of the victims regarding the need for saner gun control policy. We all need to be more passionate about the right of Americans to live in safety and not become innocent… Read more »

Golden Dawn’s gains in EU election signal failure of Greece’s crackdown

Supporters of the Greek ultra-nationalist party Golden Dawn attend a pre-election rally on May 2, 2014 in Athens, Greece. (Milos Bicanski/Getty Images)

ATHENS, Greece (JTA) — The picture of Golden Dawn leaders being led away in shackles by masked policemen last September was supposed to be a defining image: Greek authorities cracking down on the country’s neo-Nazi party as a harbinger of its demise. Instead, soon there will be a new… Read more »

As Poland touts rescuers, filmmakers address Holocaust-era treachery

Agata Trzebuchowska as Ida Lebenstein, right, and Agata Kulesza as Wanda Gruz in the Polish film "Ida." (Courtesy photo)

(JTA) — After reburying the bones of her parents in a neglected Jewish cemetery, a soon-to-be Polish nun quietly crosses herself with earth-covered fingers. A devout and introverted young woman, Ida Lebenstein had learned only days earlier that her parents were Jews who were murdered by Polish Christians. As… Read more »

Op-Ed: Presbyterians, BDS and Israel — here we go again

NEW YORK (JTA) — In the charming movie “Groundhog Day,” Bill Murray’s character repeatedly relives the same day until learning from the repetition transforms him from lout to worthy wooer of his colleague, played by Andie MacDowell. The “Groundhog Day” of Presbyterian-Jewish relations is coming soon to a theater… Read more »

Billionaire debutantes: Russian philanthropists take Bloomberg to the ball

Former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, at far right, receives the Genesis Prize on May 22, 2014 at the Jerusalem Theater, where he is joined onstage by, from left, ceremony emcee and former "Tonight Show" host Jay Leno; Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu; the chairman of the Jewish Agency, Natan Sharansky; and the chairman of the Genesis Prize, Stan Polovets. (Milner/Genesis)

JERUSALEM (JTA) — There were ballerinas, a full dance ensemble, soloists, a harpist, a video tribute to Jewish luminaries in multiple fields, a multimedia orchestra performance celebrating the enduring light of creation, a speech from the prime minister, stand-up from Jay Leno, and an audience packed with top Jewish… Read more »

Beleaguered Belgian Jews shocked but not surprised by museum attack

BRUSSELS (JTA) — The cold determination with which the shooter at Belgium’s Jewish museum murdered four people shocked many Belgians, but local Jewish leaders have long anticipated the possibility of such an attack on their community. The shooter who entered the Jewish Museum of Belgium on Saturday in central… Read more »

Shaken by Ukraine’s turmoil, Kiev Jews form self-defense force

KIEV, Ukraine (JTA) — At an empty Chabad school near the banks of the Dnieper River here in Ukraine’s capital city, six uniformed Jews with handguns and bulletproof vests are practicing urban warfare. Leading the training last week is a brawny man who at irregular intervals barks Hebrew-language commands… Read more »

Op-Ed: New gauge of anti-Semitism starting point to address global problem

Palestinian children play in a damaged building with a swastika and the Star of David painted on it in a Gaza refugee camp in 2005. The ADL survey found that 93 percent of respondents in the West Bank and Gaza have anti-Semitic views. (Abid Katib/Getty Images)

The Anti-Defamation League’s Global 100 Index of Anti-Semitism is the broadest public opinion survey of attitudes toward Jews ever conducted. It is one of the most important efforts we have undertaken in our history as an organization. The survey was conducted in more than 100 countries and territories, and… Read more »

THA tidbits: Gifted, Orthodox tracks to expand

Jon Ben-Asher, Tucson Hebrew Academy’s new interim head of school, is off and running. He attended THA in the late 1970s and early ’80s and recalls being assigned to watch Carl Sagan’s “Cosmos” as homework. “Cosmos” is back on TV, modernized and even more spectacular. So is Ben-Asher’s view… Read more »

Op-Ed:Anti-Israel campaign at UCLA echoes of McCarthyism

Members of UCLA's student government listen to supporters and opponents of a divestment resolution targeting Israel in a session that stretched into the early morning hours of Feb. 26, 2014. (Courtesy of StandWithUs)

LOS ANGELES (JTA) – UCLA has some proud moments in the history of civil liberties. After World War II, UCLA and the University of California, Berkeley, were the hotbeds of opposition to an anti-communist loyalty oath that California tried to impose on academics. Ultimately the professors won in court… Read more »

Hillary’s choice: Clinton seeks to differentiate herself from Obama on Mideast

Hillary Rodham Clinton speaking at the American Jewish Committee's Global Forum, May 14, 2014. (Ronald Sachs)

WASHINGTON (JTA) – A month before her foreign policy autobiography, “Hard Choices,” hits the bookstores, Hillary Rodham Clinton made an easy choice: She pitched her diplomatic credentials to a friendly Jewish audience. Clinton’s speech to the American Jewish Committee on May 14 was meant to send a signal to… Read more »