By Jonah Naghi JERUSALEM–Dr. Jeff Halper is an American-Israeli anthropologist who is a co-founder and the director of ICAHD (the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions). In an interview he discussed how the approach to resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict needs to be reframed. Some of the topics he discussed were the current situation in Gaza, his experience […]
Israeli leftist calls for binational state Read More »
Middle East, USABy Steve Kramer ALFE MENASHE, Israel — “There’s a terrible and relentless TV-movie ropiness about this film [Woman in Gold], combined with a dairy whiff of cheesiness. It deals with a fascinating and important subject but is let down by some embarrassing acting and writing, and it is one that Helen Mirren may have to
‘Woman in Gold’ and Vienna’s rebel art movement Read More »
International, Steve Kramer, USADemocratic leaders believe Iran deal secure in Congress (JNS.org) Democratic leaders in Congress believe that the Iran nuclear deal is secure despite nearly unanimous Republican opposition and intense lobbying efforts to defeat it. “More and more [House Democrats] have confirmed to me that they will be there to sustain the veto,” said House of Representatives
Jewish news briefs: August 3, 2015 Read More »
International, Middle East, USABy Mark D. Zimmerman MELVILLE, New York — In 1985, while Jonathan Pollard was working as a civilian analyst for the Navy, he removed classified material from his workplace. Recognizing that he might be caught, Pollard had set up a secret code with his wife Anne to signal her to remove the classified information from their home if
Jewish trivia: Jonathan Pollard Read More »
Mark D. Zimmerman, Middle East, Trivia, Humor & Satire, USABy Rabbi Dow Marmur JERUSALEM — I’m still among those who don’t know if the Iran deal is as bad as many in Israel say it is or better than its alternatives, which retired big-wigs in the Israeli defense establishment seem to suggest. But it’s becoming increasingly clear that Prime Minister Netanyahu’s campaign against the
Netanyahu must combat the ayatollahs within Read More »
Middle EastBy Dorothea Shefer-Vanson MEVASSERET ZION, Israel — It’s not right and fair to engage in ‘old-timer’ nostalgia at any time, I know, but in view of recent events I can’t help comparing Israel as it was fifty years ago, when I first came to live here, and today. Israel today is, if anything, even more vibrant, productive
Bitter division among Jews threatens Israel Read More »
Dorothea Shefer-Vanson, Middle EastBy Ira Sharkansky JERUSALEM — Israel has been wracked by violence, conscience, and not a little hypocrisy in recent days. Assailants, widely thought to be extremist Jews, firebombed a Palestinian home in a West Bank village, killing a year-old child and severely injuring other family members. An ultra-Orthodox Jew, recently released from prison for a similar
2 Jewish terror attacks roil Israel, U.N. Read More »
Ira Sharkansky, Middle EastBy Rabbi Ben Kamin ENCINITAS, California — He grew up in New Jersey being bullied as a Jew and retains little religious identification. His last name was Leibowitz but he changed it to his middle name, Stuart, and was more or less estranged from his Slavic father. The strain was driven by ethnic complexities. Jon Stewart
Stewart railed with honesty against hypocrisy Read More »
USABy Rabbi Dow Marmur JERUSALEM — I’d like to take back everything negative that I’ve written about President Reuven Rivlin. Though I had repeatedly expressed my admiration for his pronouncements since he became president on behalf of Israel’s Arab citizens, I was distressed by his seeming discrimination against exponents of non-Orthodox Judaism. He seems to
Rivlin, in wake of deaths, urges soul- searching Read More »
Middle EastI Was a Child of Holocaust Survivors by Ann Marie Fleming, National Film Board of Canada
Film: I Was A Child of Holocaust Survivors Read More »
International, Jewish HistoryBy Ira Sharkansky JERUSALEM–Wisdom and justice are elusive topics, with numerous issues on their borders. Israel presents the topics of settlements and Jonathan Pollard. Settlement is either the curse of post-1967 Israel, the fulfillment of God’s promise, an appropriate response to Arab rejections, and/or a way to get more of contested real estate. Americans have
Weighing the morality of settlements, Pollard case Read More »
International, Ira Sharkansky, Middle East, USABy Joe Spier CALGARY, Alberta, Canada — During the Second World War as the Nazis stormed across Europe, they systematically looted millions of priceless paintings, sculptures and other cultural artifacts from museums, including their own, churches, libraries and private collections, mostly Jewish. The monetary value ran into the billions, but the cultural loss was incalculable. It
The story of the youngest of the Monuments Men Read More »
International, Jewish HistoryBy Natasha Josefowitz LA JOLLA, California — In October 1939, I was twelve years old. My parents, my six-year-old brother, and I sat in the basement of our Paris apartment with gas masks on every night as the sirens screeched that German planes were overhead. We fear they will drop mustard gas, which we were
Her first days in America, 1939 Read More »
Jewish Religion, Natasha Josefowitz, USABy Shoshana Bryen and Stephen Bryen WASHINGTON, D.C. — Both Iran and North Korea were part of the A.Q. Kahn proliferation network, and bilateral trade in oil and weapons has continued despite UN resolutions designed to stop it. Ballistic missile cooperation is documented, and nuclear cooperation has been an unspoken theme in Washington. Pyongyang helped
Is Iran building its bombs in North Korea? Read More »
International, Middle East, Shoshana Bryen, Stephen D. Bryen, USA