JERUSALEM (JTA) — This time of year — the convergence of Passover, Easter and Ramadan — is peak tourism time for this city. This year is the first time since 1992 that all three festivals fall in the same month. But traveling as a tourist to Jerusalem right now… Read more »
Tagged Jerusalem
My family synagogue burned down in Minnesota this week. We lost much more than a building.
NEW YORK (JTA) — American Jews woke Monday morning to the ancestrally terrifying image of a synagogue on fire. It was my family’s shul: Adas Israel in Duluth, Minnesota. There is a dollhouse model of the Great Synagogue of Vilna in Israel’s Museum of the Jewish People. “That is… Read more »
Israeli city inaugurates a ‘Donald Trump Square’
JERUSALEM (JTA) — The central Israel city of Petah Tikvah inaugurated a city square in honor of President Donald Trump. Donald Trump Square was inaugurated on Wednesday to thank Trump for his support of Israel, especially the president’s recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. The square is… Read more »
First openly gay Orthodox rabbi ordained in Jerusalem
JERUSALEM (JTA) — A gay rabbinical student denied ordination by a liberal seminary in New York was welcomed into the rabbinate in Jerusalem, breaking a longstanding taboo against homosexuality in the Orthodox community. Daniel Landes, a prominent American-Israeli rabbi, granted semichah, Hebrew for ordination, to Daniel Atwood alongside a… Read more »
Dozens of Ukrainian lawmakers want embassy moved to Jerusalem
(JTA) — Nearly one-fifth of Ukraine parliament members co-signed a draft resolution urging their new president to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and move the embassy there. Of the 450 members of the Verkhovna Rada, 86 signed on as co-authors of a bill submitted for a vote on Friday,… Read more »
Tucson’s Next Gen men gain insight on Israel exploration trip
The recent Next Gen Men’s Group trip to Israel was no run of the mill tour. Participants returned believing that Israel-Palestine issues are far more complicated than they thought before the journey, says participant Larry Gellman. What defined the trip for Gellman and others was the unique opportunity to… Read more »
Why Democrats sat on their hands when Donald Trump celebrated recognizing Jerusalem as the capital of Israel
(JTA) — President Donald Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel made it into his State of the Union speech. “Last month, I also took an action endorsed unanimously by the Senate just months before: I recognized Jerusalem as the capital of Israel,” he said to applause, mostly from… Read more »
The top 10 moments that mattered to Jews in 2017
(JTA) — The past year was not a quiet one, to say the least. From the tumultuous first year of Donald Trump’s presidency to a wave of bomb threats against Jewish community centers to the flood of high-profile sexual harassment allegations, Jews — like so many others —… Read more »
OP-ED What we talk about when we talk about Jerusalem
(JTA) — E.B. White famously wrote that there are “roughly three New Yorks”: the one of the native New Yorker, the one of the commuter, and the New York of the “person who was born somewhere else and came to New York in quest of something.” To which… Read more »
Debates with Israel weigh on Reform movement’s largest-ever gathering
BOSTON (JTA) – President Donald Trump’s decision to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel became an unexpected agenda item as 6,000 members of the Reform movement from across North America gathered here for their four-day convention. Addressing the Union for Reform Judaism’s 2017 biennial on Friday, Sen. Elizabeth… Read more »
What Palestinian reconciliation means for Israel
JERUSALEM (JTA) – Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has taken a wait-and-see approach to last week’s Palestinian reconciliation deal. Netanyahu spoke out publicly and loudly against the move toward unity between the feuding Palestinian factions Fatah and Hamas, calling it a threat to Israel and a setback to peace.… Read more »
Tel Aviv and Jerusalem marathons revel in a ‘healthy competition’
TEL AVIV (JTA) – Noah Roth likes to recall two moments from Israeli marathons in which he’s raced: a competitor in Jerusalem breezing by him in 2010 wearing all-black, haredi Orthodox garb but for a white athletic shirt; and a Russian woman on this city’s Allenby Street who last… Read more »
Hundreds of Jews respond to John Kerry’s speech with West Bank solidarity tour
JERUSALEM (JTA) – About 200 Jews from around the world toured the West Bank in response to U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry’s recent speech warning of the dangers of settlement expansion. The group, organized on short notice by Miami-based fashion designer Joseph Waks, visited Jewish communities and met… Read more »
How Israel is courting tourists from India and China
TEL AVIV (JTA) — When Bollywood star and Indian fashion icon Sonam Kapoor appeared on the cover of the June-July issue of Harper’s Bazaar Bride, India, she did so wearing a sheer pink confection and a radiant smile. Behind her sprawled the Old City of Jerusalem. It wasn’t happenstance.… Read more »
OP-ED We can love Jerusalem as Jews without taunting its Muslims
HOLLYWOOD, Fla. (JTA) — Normally, to quote the famous song, “I love a parade.” Except when I don’t. This weekend was the celebration of the 49th anniversary of the reunification ofJerusalem during the Six-Day War. The anniversary was accompanied by gleeful — one might even say ecstatic — observances throughout the… Read more »
With Israeli-EU relations strained, Netanyahu looks toward Asia
JERUSALEM (JTA) — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his Indian counterpart, Narendra Modi, sat kiddy-corner in armchairs at this week’s international climate summit near Paris, talking and laughing. “We have the best of relations, and they can be made even better,” Netanyahu told Modi at the meeting. To which Modi… Read more »
Op-Ed: For kids with disabilities, time to move from inclusion to normalcy
JERUSALEM (JTA) — Just the other day, I overheard someone saying that they had a wonderful interaction with the “Down syndrome employee” at their local cafe. Though it happened to have been a sweet story, I cringed. It also got me thinking about the limitations of our campaigns promoting… Read more »
Why Israelis are fearing a third intifada
TEL AVIV (JTA) — First it was clashes on the Temple Mount. Then a mother and father were shot before the eyes of their four children. Then two men were killed in a stabbing attack in Jerusalem’s Old City. Now Israelis fear the wave of conflict will only rise.… Read more »
Netanyahu: No Palestinian state on my watch
JERUSALEM (JTA) — Benjamin Netanyahu said in an interview that as long as he is Israel’s prime minister, a Palestinian state will not be established. The interview was published Monday on the Israeli news website NRG, a day before Israelis head to the polls, as Netanyahu attempts to shore… Read more »
Op-Ed: Heaven save us from a holy war
This week we have learned that Adam Everett Livvix, a 30-year-old from Texas, was arrested in Israel for allegedly plotting to attack the Dome of the Rock with explosives. Thanks to the collaboration between Israeli security agencies and the FBI, an incident of colossal implications was prevented. The Palestinians,… Read more »