International

For photogenic Jerusalem, a look at how locals first captured their city

Jerusalem has been photographed from nearly every conceivable angle, dating back to the 1830s, when the world’s first photographic images were captured on film. That photographic heritage is the subject of a new exhibit, “The Camera Man: Women and Men Photograph Jerusalem 1900-1950,” opening Thursday, May 26, at Jerusalem’s Tower of David Museum. It was […]

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Jewish History, Middle East, Music, Dance, and Visual Arts

Israel’s contentious new civics textbook illuminates country’s divisions

From the moment a furiously contested civics textbook was published earlier this month, its critics’ focus shifted subtly — from the contents of the 500-page high school text to the omissions that Israeli reviewers now maintain reveal its discrimination. The textbook, “Being a Citizen in Israel,” marginalizes Israel’s Arab community and its secular public, mentions

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Middle East, Science, Medicine, & Education

London’s Muslim mayor joins pledge to fight anti-Semitism

London”s newly-elected mayor, Sadiq Khan, endorsed a pledge co-signed by dozens of American and European mayors to fight anti-Semitism. Khan, a Muslim Labour politician who won the May 5 mayoral election by a broad majority, recently informed the Board of Deputies of British Jews of his decision to join the Mayors United Against Antisemitism initiative,

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International

Wild fire threatens Jerusalem

JERUSALEM (Press Release)–The Jewish National Fund issued the following news advisory on Thursday, May 26: In what has been described as the biggest fire since the devastating 2010 Carmel fire, a huge blaze broke out and continues to rage in Jerusalem and the surrounding areas. Fifty firefighting and rescue teams and eleven planes are attempting

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Middle East

U.S.: Lieberman Appointment ‘Raises Serious Questions’

The U.S. has expressed its concern about the Israeli government’s swing to the far-right after the appointment of ultra-nationalist former foreign minister Avigdor Lieberman as the ruling coalition’s new defense minister. “This raises legitimate questions about the direction it may be heading in and what kind of policies it may adopt,” U.S. State Department spokesman

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Middle East, USA

Nasrallah: Lieberman is ‘crazy’

Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah on Wednesday attacked Israel”s incoming Defense Minister, Avigdor Liberman, referring to him as “crazy”. Nasrallah made the comments in a speech marking 16 years since the IDF evacuated south Lebanon. “In occupied Palestine, the crazy and coarse Liberman has been made war minister by Netanyahu the extremist. I don’t want to

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Middle East

‘Hijab Day’ at this US school was canceled, but it got people talking

Students from the Arabic Club at the public high school in the city of Medford, about a 15-minute drive north of downtown Boston, wanted to participate in “World Hijab Day” early this semester. The annual event was created in 2013 to promote awareness and understanding of Muslim women who wear the headscarf as an expression

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USA

A synagogue is born in a little Polish town, but no Jews are left

A small town in Poland is building a wooden synagogue — more than 70 years after the Nazis burned all the country’s wooden Jewish temples to the ground. Thing is, there aren’t any Jews left in the town of Bilgoraj. Even the retired businessman who came up with the idea, 62-year-old Tadeusz Kuźmiński, isn’t Jewish.

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International, Jewish History

Nepal’s F.M. seeks direct Israel – Nepal flights

JERUSALEM (WJC) –In a speech in Jerusalem before the Israel Council on Foreign Relations (ICFR), which operates under the auspices of the World Jewish Congress, Nepalese Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Kamal Thapa reminded his audience that Nepal and Israel have a long, uninterrupted history of cordial relations dating back to 1960.

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International, Middle East, Travel and Food

Middle East Roundup: May 26, 2016

  ‘Difficult to overstate’ American Jewry’s importance to Israel, Netanyahu says (JNS.org) It is “difficult to overstate the importance of the American Jewish people to the State of Israel,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Wednesday at an event in the Israeli Knesset that honored U.S. Jewry’s 100 years of contributions to Israel. “American Jewry’s contribution

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Middle East