By Joe Spier CALGARY, Alberta, Canada — In 1934, the United States sent a team of baseball all-stars to Japan to play a series of exhibition games. On the team were the likes of baseball hall of famers, Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig. Also on the team was Morris “Moe” Berg, a mediocre utility ball-player […]
The spy who worked at home plate Read More »
International, Sports & Competitions, USABy Shoshana Bryen WASHINGTON, D.C. — “Who was worse, Hitler or Stalin?” It isn’t a parlor game, but rather the historical equivalent of “ISIS or Iran (or proxy Syria)?” You can play it either way, but “a plague on both their houses” didn’t cut it in 1941, and doesn’t in 2015. The Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact of 1939
Which is worse — Iran or ISIS? Read More »
Middle East, Shoshana BryenBy J. Zel Lurie DELRAY BEACH, Florida — It may seem foolish to criticize Israeli democracy at a time when the Speaker of the American House of Representatives has to resign his post in order to prevent Republican hardliners from closing down the government. Our forefathers of over 200 years ago devised a Constitution in
The problems of U.S., Israeli politics Read More »
Middle East, USAIsraeli officials: Syria will not be used as Iranian base to attack Israel (Israel Hayom/Exclusive to JNS.org) Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu clarified Tuesday after landing in New York City ahead of his address to the United Nations that he will not allow Syria to be used as a base for Iranian attacks against Israel.
Middle East Roundup: September 30, 2015 Read More »
Middle EastBy Ira Sharkansky JERUSALEM — Two questions have long intrigued me as a student of politics. One has occupied us on several occasions; it concerns the explanation of Israel’s democracy. Another concerns the working of another democracy, and the failure of America’s largest religious group to do better than it has in presidential politics. Neither is
Anomalies of Israeli, American politics Read More »
Ira Sharkansky, Middle East, USABy Ira Sharkansky JERUSALEM — Tensions, competition, or dust-up–call it what you will–between Russia and the US presents a fascinating subject for analysis. No doubt, the US is stronger by far economically and militarily. It was left standing at the end of the Cold War, while the Soviet Union disappeared. Now Russia is a fragment–albeit a
Russia in Middle East may deter Iran, Hezbollah Read More »
International, Ira Sharkansky, Middle EastBy Rabbi Dow Marmur JERUSALEM — More than a million Jews left Russia and its Soviet empire after the latter collapsed. Most of them settled in Israel and, together with all of us, are now facing the prospect of forces of the aspiring new version of that empire under Vladimir Putin being stationed on Israel’s borders.
Israel’s new neighbors in Syria Read More »
Middle EastBy Ira Sharkansky JERUSALEM–The present tension concerned with Syria, Cold warriors Vladimir and Barack against one another, with Bibi somewhere in the middle, brings back our memories of Jewish history, going back to when it began. We are not the only minority having to cope with more powerful others. In this neighborhood alone, the Druze,
Israel must maneuver between super powers Read More »
Ira Sharkansky, Middle EastPope renews appeal for Mideast Christians (JNS.org) Pope Francis renewed his call for the international community to do more to stop the persecution of Christians and other minorities in the Middle East and Africa during his address to world leaders at the United Nations General Assembly in New York City on Friday. “I must renew
Middle East Roundup: September 25, 2015 Read More »
Middle East
Dachau’s makeover: ex-Nazi death camp houses refugees amid Europe’s crisis (JNS.org) A portion of the former Nazi concentration camp Dachau is being used to house dozens of refugees, the German town’s mayor says. The concentration camp, which bears the infamous inscription “Arbeit Macht Frei”—“Work Will Set You Free”—has seen its former herb garden turned into
Never Again: Holocaust news of Sept. 25, 2015 Read More »
International, Jewish HistoryBy Rabbi Ben Kamin ENCINITAS, California — Some of us grew up in an era (now vacuum-sealed by the vitriolic American political culture) when you could disagree with a president on this or that issue but still honor his character and disposition. I like President Obama. His articulate and reflective persona, his intelligence and wryness,
Why this rabbi admires President Obama Read More »
Middle East, USABy Barry Shaw NETANYA, Israel — Bassam Eid is a Palestinian human rights activist. He created Palestinian Human Rights Monitoring Group that focuses on human rights abuses by and corruption in the Palestinian Authority. No other ‘human rights’ organizations focus on citizen abuses at the hands of Palestinian leadership both in Ramallah and Gaza. He
Palestinian NGO head opposes BDS Read More »
Barry Shaw, Middle East(JNS.org) German authorities have charged a 91-year-old woman for her role in the murder of 260,000 Jews in the Auschwitz death camp during the Holocaust. The woman, who has not been identified, served in the Nazi SS and worked as a radio operator for the camp’s commandant in 1944. Prosecutors plan to charge her as
Germany will prosecute Auschwitz radio operator Read More »
International, Jewish HistoryCHICAGO (Israel Hayom/Exclusive to JNS.org) — A local television station in Chicago, WGN-TV, used a stock image of the yellow Star of David—the patch the Nazis forced the Jews to wear on their clothing during the Holocaust—as the graphic accompanying a story about the Jewish holy day of Yom Kippur this week. The symbol was
Chicago TV station apologizes for Holocaust graphic Read More »
Jewish Religion, USA