By Rabbi Michael Leo Samuel CHULA VISTA, California –One of the most memorable experiences I had growing up in the Orthodox Jewish world, as a young man, was the sanctity the community placed on human life. In matters of Kashrut and Shabbat, there was little compromise among the Hassidic and Haredi communities. They live in […]
Our duty to one another supersedes ‘rules’ Read More »
Michael Leo Samuel-Rabbi, USABy Rabbi Dow Marmur JERUSALEM — I’ve reconciled myself to the fact that Sheli Yachimovitch isn’t taking my advice that Labor should join the Netanyahu government. But can she survive as party leader having turned down the Shas guru, Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, who is said to have even been prepared to call on her
Better a government with Haredim than with settlers Read More »
Middle EastSenate foreign relations chair Menendez: No ‘blank check’ to Egypt (JNS.org) WASHINGTON, DC—U.S. Sen. Robert Menendez (D-NJ), the new chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, on Tuesday told the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) conference that U.S. aid to Egypt should be contingent upon Egypt upholding its 1979 peace treaty with Israel. “American
JNS news briefs: March 5, 2013 Read More »
InternationalReport: Hamas refused missiles with tracking devices (Israel Hayom/Exclusive to JNS.org) Hamas refused to receive a shipment of missiles that were smuggled into the Gaza Strip from Libya across the Sinai desert, after it was discovered that they contained espionage and surveillance devices which would enable Israel to track the missiles, an Egyptian news website
JNS news briefs: March 4, 2013 Read More »
InternationalBy Rabbi Dow Marmur JERUSALEM — In the course of the election campaign last January, Yair Lapid, the leader of the new party Yesh Atid, declared that he very much wanted to be part of the next Netanyahu government. Naftali Bennet, the head of the Zionist, settler-nationalist, largely Orthodox party Habayit Hayehudi had election posters
A brief for Labour joining Bibi’s government Read More »
Middle EastBy Ira Sharkansky JERUSALEM — Bibi has finished the four weeks provided by the President to create a government, and has received the two-week extension allowed by law to the President’s discretion. Prospects are not good, with the two contentious camps of the Haredim and anti-Haredim cursing and threatening one another. Bibi says that he
Pros and cons of Haredim in Israel’s government Read More »
Ira Sharkansky, Middle EastBy Arkady Mamaysky TARRYTOWN, N.Y. — Two major and roughly equal-sized branches of the Jewish people live in Israel and the United States. We are separated by distance and diverging more and more by culture. In other words, we are gradually becoming (or have already become) two different people. This is a very unfortunate
Bringing Jews of Israel and U.S. closer Read More »
USABy Shoshana Bryen WASHINGTON, D.C. — President Obama’s plans in the Middle East include three and a half hours in Ramallah to meet with Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas. The president’s hope is to find a mechanism for advancing Israeli-Palestinian “peace.” The appearance of the President of the United States in “Palestine” is calculated to provide
Obama’s upcoming visit to Ramallah Read More »
Middle East, Shoshana BryenBy Ira Sharkansky JERUSALEM — Maariv is one of Israel’s two centrist Hebrew dailies, along with Yedioth Aharonoth. They are between Haaretz to the left and Israel Hayom to the right. While no editorial board may be free of subtle or not so subtle intentions, one doesn’t read Maariv prepared for the most obvious of
Ma’ariv headlines make for worrisome Shabbat Read More »
Ira Sharkansky, Middle EastPollard: ‘I haven’t been forgotten’ (JNS.org) Jonathan Pollard, who is serving a jail sentence in the United States for espionage on behalf of Israel, spoke to his wife Esther by telephone Thursday, who told him that the city of Jerusalem has decided to give him the Jerusalem Freedom Award. “Esther, you don’t know how happy
JNS news briefs: March 1, 2013 Read More »
InternationalErdogan at UN summit: Zionism a ‘crime against humanity’ (JNS.org) Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan grouped Zionism with anti-Semitism and Islamophobia as a “crime against humanity” in a speech at a United Nations summit on tolerance held in Vienna on Wednesday, Israel Hayom reported. “Just like Zionism, anti-Semitism and fascism, it becomes unavoidable
JNS news briefs: February 28, 2013 Read More »
InternationalBy Alan Elsner WASHINGTON, D.C – Over the past few decades, a strange affliction has seized the American Jewish community. As part of a people who pride themselves on questioning everything, debating everything and taking nothing at face value, we have suddenly become speechless when it comes to Israel. Many of our leaders regard it
American Jews need not be silent about Israel Read More »
USAEU report recommends boycott of Israeli products (Israel Hayom/Exclusive to JNS.org) The European Union has recommended that its 27 member states “prevent” all financial transactions that support Israel’s Jewish communities in the West Bank. In its “Jerusalem Report 2012,” an internal report written by the EU mission heads in Jerusalem and Ramallah, the European
JNS news briefs: February 27, 2013 Read More »
InternationalBy Rabbi Dow Marmur JERUSALEM — Yehuda Bauer is one of Israel’s internationally recognized historians. His special fields of research include the Holocaust, genocide and anti-Semitism. His latest book is a collection of popular essays which he’s said to be currently translating into English, probably under the title, The Impossible People. In an essay that
Differentiating anti-Semitism from loving self-criticism Read More »
Middle East