Middle East

For Brown Widow Spiders, sex leads to cannibalism

BEER-SHEVA, Israel (Press Release) — Male brown widow spiders seek to mate with older, less-fertile females who are 50 percent more likely to eat them after sex, according to Israeli researchers in a study published in the journal Animal Behaviour. Researchers at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem and The Volcani

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Middle East, Science, Medicine, & Education

IsraelFest offered plenty to do at Liberty Station

Story by Donald H. Harrison; Photos by Shor M. Masori SAN DIEGO – A trip to the IsraelFest on Sunday led to Camelot. In this case, Camelot was a well-behaved camel, wearing an intricately woven Middle Eastern blanket over his saddle. He posed regally for photographs and graciously tolerated strokes and pats from admiring humans. 

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Donald H. Harrison, Middle East, San Diego County, Shor M. Masori

National anguish following death of Israeli teens

By Ira Sharkansky JERUSALEM — After several weekends of coping with massed Gazans on or over the edge of violence, the country has been obsessed with the deaths of teenagers, seemingly caused by the negligence of an upper status pre-army program. The disaster also reflected one of the country’s natural attractions: spectacular desert canyons (wadis)

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Ira Sharkansky, Middle East, Science, Medicine, & Education

A European debate on anti- Semitism

By Dorothea Shefer-Vanson MEVASSERET ZION, Israel — Unable to sleep one night I surfed through the TV channels I sometimes watch and came across a debate about anti-Semitism on France24 (in English, fortunately). The trigger for this was President Macron’s tweet about the existence of an ‘old anti-Semitism’ in France alongside a new form of the

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Dorothea Shefer-Vanson, International, Middle East

Levin- Banchik new Israeli scholar in residence at SDSU

SAN DIEGO (Press Release) –The Jewish Studies Program at San Diego State University has announced that Israeli political scientist, Dr. Luba Levin-Banchik, will be teaching courses in the History and Political Science Departments and will be in residence at SDSU for the 2018/19 academic year. Her residency is supported by a grant from the Murray

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Jewish History, Middle East, San Diego County, Science, Medicine, & Education

Deja Vu in Europe

By Steve Kramer KFAR SAVA, Israel — “Will Europe’s Jews stop wearing kippahs [skullcaps]? Most already have,” was the lead article in the Times of Israel internet newspaper on April 26. (timesofisrael.com) Unfortunately, it’s not hard to believe the above statement.  Times have certainly changed since the 1950s, when as a youngster I first learned about

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International, Middle East, Steve Kramer, USA

U.S., Israel defense chiefs meet

WASHINGTON, D.C. (Press Release) –Chief Pentagon Spokesperson Dana W. White provided the following readout: Secretary of Defense James N. Mattis met today with Israeli Minister of Defense Avigdor Lieberman to discuss mutual security issues, including Iranian malign influence and destabilizing affects in the region.Secretary Mattis and Minister Lieberman reaffirmed their commitment to the U.S. –

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Middle East, USA

JREC opposes proposed Israeli law on conversion

NEW YORK (Press Release) –The Jewish Religious Equality Coalition (J-REC), a wall-to-wall coalition of Modern Orthodox, Conservative, Reform, and Reconstructionist communal leaders and organizations, strongly opposes the proposed conversion bill currently under consideration by the Israeli government. J-REC has long believed that the unofficial monopoly enjoyed by the Chief Rabbinate on matters of personal status,

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Jewish Religion, Middle East, USA

Congress reacts to report of European anti- Semitism

WASHINGTON, D.C. (Press Release) — Representatives Peter Roskam (R-IL), Nita Lowey (D-NY), Chris Smith (R-NJ), Eliot Engel (D-NY), Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL), Ted Deutch (D-FL), Kay Granger (R-TX), and Marc Veasey (D-TX), the co-Chairs of the Bipartisan Task Force for Combating Anti-Semitism, issued the following joint statement on a recent report by the Kantor Center for the

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International, Jewish History, Middle East, USA

Nine teens die in flash flood near Arava Junction

  ARAVA JUNCTION, Israel (Press Release)–Nine teenagers, eight of them girls, were drowned in a flash flood near Arava Junction in Israel’s Negev Desert.  Another two youths were lightly injured, and evacuated to Saroka Hospital in Beer-Sheva. Thirteen were unharmed and one girl was missing, according to Magen David Adam. Eitan Shlomo, an emergency medical

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Middle East

AJC welcomes Pompeo as Secretary of State

NEW YORK (Press Release) — The American Jewish Committee (AJC),  the global Jewish advocacy organization, congratulated Mike Pompeo on his swearing-in as Secretary of State today. The letter from AJC  CEO David Harris to Secretary Pompeo follows: As longtime admirers and supporters of the State Department’s defense of American interests and values across the globe,

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International, Middle East, USA