Tagged Jerusalem

The $50K sukkah: Celebrating the harvest holiday in style

Penthouse guests at the Inbal Jerusalem Hotel get to custom design their private sukkah in the suite, complete with full-service meals and a space to relax. (Ben Sales)

(JTA) — With its panoramic views of Jerusalem, plush seating area and decorative elements, this could be almost any other room at the Inbal Jerusalem Hotel. Except the floor is made of AstroTurf, the walls are made of transparent cloth and the roof is a bamboo mat. Welcome to… Read more »

As U.S. tries to save talks, Kerry touts past progress, says ‘fight is over process’

Secretary of State John Kerry testifies during aSenate Foreign Relations Committee hearing on April 8, 2014. (Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

WASHINGTON (JTA) — The Obama administration is sticking with the Israeli-Palestinian peace process for now despite a crisis that has threatened to scuttle talks. That’s the message U.S. officials were peddling as a top State Department team was in the region turning over the engine attempting to restart the… Read more »

The verdict on Ehud Olmert

Former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, seen in the courtroom of the District Court in Tel Aviv on March 31, 2014 where he was convicted of taking bribes when he was Jerusalem's mayor. (Ido Erez/Pool/Flash 90)

TEL AVIV (JTA) — Now we know one thing for sure: Ehud Olmert will never again be prime minister of Israel. Olmert, who led Israel’s government from 2006 to 2009, was convicted Monday morning of taking bribes in the Holyland affair, a scandal involving the illegal construction of high-rise… Read more »

Visiting Kiev’s wounded in Jerusalem

JERUSALEM (JTA) — Artem Zaptotski, from Lutsk, in western Ukraine, sits in Hadassah Hospital in Jerusalem, sharing his room with a French Hasid. Seeing that I speak Hebrew and wear a kippah, the Hasid asks if he should encourage Zaptotski to put on tefillin. No, I tell him. Zaptotski… Read more »

For one mother, is decision to ‘opt out’ a cop-out?

Devorah Blachor wondered whether staying home after the birth of her daughter Mari was just a convenient way of surrendering to her fears and not facing the world.

JERUSALEM (JTA) — At a recent kids-included party in Jerusalem, I spent much of the time either on the floor with my daughter Mari or trailing her around to make sure she didn’t eat anything toxic. A successful American journalist living here chatted with me for a few minutes,… Read more »

Husband of terror victim pens memoir of quest to meet bomber

David Harris-Gershon in his forthcoming memoir "What Do You Buy the Children of the Terrorist Who Tried to Kill Your Wife?" shares his psychological journey following the 2002 Jerusalem terrorist attack that severely injured his wife. (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette)

NEW YORK (JTA) — David Harris-Gershon, author of the forthcoming memoir “What Do You Buy the Children of the Terrorist Who Tried to Kill Your Wife?,” is frank about the contradictions in his personality. An admitted “natural introvert,” Harris-Gershon describes himself as “surprisingly good” at public speaking. In 2013,… Read more »

For growing number of Jewish women, single motherhood beckons

With the rise of medical technology as well as the number of educated women who can support a family themselves, more single Jewish women are opting to have children on their own. (Courtesy Single Mothers by Choice)

NEW YORK (JTA) — When Emily Wolper broke her engagement six years ago, she promised herself that if the time came when she felt ready to have a child and she was still single, she’d have one on her own. Now 37, Wolper, a college admissions consultant in Morristown,… Read more »

Democrats return to the economy after Jerusalem detour

President Obama speaking at the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte, N.C., Sept. 6, 2012. (Donna Bise via flickr.com/photos/demconvention)

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (JTA) — It was the nuts-and-bolts convention that nearly broke down over the most ethereal of issues: Jerusalem and God. But by its third and final night, the Democratic National Convention had gotten back on message: jobs, jobs, staying on course with getting the economy back on… Read more »

Rav Elyashiv’s mixed legacy

(Jewish Ideas Daily) — Last Wednesday night, July 25, in the middle of a heat wave, a quarter of a million people flocked to the funeral of Rabbi Yosef Shalom Elyashiv.  At the request of the deceased, no eulogies were delivered, but for the rest of the week, the… Read more »

At Yom Ha’atzmaut, school shows it’s OK for Jewish, Arab students to have differences

Arab and Israeli students holding hands at the Max Rayne Hand in Hand School for Bilingual Education in Jerusalem. (Kobi Gideon/Flash90/JTA)

JERUSALEM (JTA) — The two seventh-grade girls walk together down the hall, their heads touching as they talk excitedly. Dana’s dark auburn hair is pulled back in a ponytail. Waard’s head is covered by a hijab, the traditional Arab headscarf, held with a fashionable pin. Dana is Jewish and… Read more »

Seeking Kin: An IDF unit helps answer the cry, ‘Where is my son?’

The “Seeking Kin” column aims to help reunite long-lost friends and relatives. BALTIMORE (JTA) — On Jan. 3, 1948, Mordechai Levy, a resident of the Jewish Quarter in Jerusalem’s Old City, disappeared. The 17-year-old’s parents, David and Yaffa, alerted British mandatory authorities and checked local hospitals, the chevra kadisha… Read more »

In Israel, composting and recycling programs in new ecology push

JERUSALEM (JTA) — The still-new recycling center in the Givat Shaul neighborhood of Jerusalem is fairly quiet on a crisp winter afternoon. Several people drive in to drop off their recycling — from old printers and batteries to aluminum pans, plastic containers and cardboard — in bins clearly labeled… Read more »

New Olmert indictment keeps focus on political corruption

JERUSALEM (JTA) — The indictment of former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and 17 other Israelis on charges related to one of the largest real estate scandals in Israeli history is the latest shoe to drop in a country where political corruption has come to be seen as an epidemic. The… Read more »

Is Jerusalem in Israel? Supreme Court hears passport case

Ari Zivotofsky and his son Menachem speak to the press outside the U.S. Supreme Court Nov. 8. (Richard Greenberg)

The U.S. Supreme Court convened Monday to ponder the implications of a single word that is conspicuously missing from the passport of a 9-year-old boy who was born in Jerusalem. His name is Menachem Binyamin Zivotofsky, the son of Ari and Naomi Siegman Zivotofsky, Americans who made aliyah in… Read more »

Obama advisor: leave Jerusalem for last

 WASHINGTON (JTA) — A top adviser to President Obama said talks on Jerusalem should be left for last. “The president agrees that Jerusalem as an issue can’t be the first issue for negotiations,” David Axelrod, Obama’s top political adviser, told a small group of journalists working for Jewish media.… Read more »