By Rafael Medoff/JNS.org Like American boys and girls, youngsters growing up in British Mandatory Palestine or the new state of Israel experienced thrills through the adventures of Tarzan, the immortal Edgar Rice Burroughs character whose 100th anniversary will be celebrated next month. American Tarzan movies with Hebrew subtitles attracted standing room-only audiences, and Hebrew writers […]
Tarzan and the Holocaust Read More »
USAClinton says U.S. is not setting deadlines for Iran (Israel Hayom/Exclusive to JNS.org) The U.S. is “not setting deadlines” for Iran and still considers negotiations to be “by far the best approach” to prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told Bloomberg in an interview published Monday. Speaking to
JNS News Briefs: September 10, 2012 Read More »
InternationalBy Ira Sharkansky JERUSALEM — The New York Times changes from moment to moment the stories at the top of its portion on my home page. If I had not seen an item on Gaza (“‘Forgotten Neighborhood’ Underscores the Poverty of an Isolated Enclave“) in that prized spot we could have spent this time on
Why some New York Times stories are chosen Read More »
Ira Sharkansky, Middle East
By Rabbi Yeruchem Eilfort CARLSBAD, California –I have a confession to make. Most people who know me at least fairly well already know that I am conservative in my political leanings. But with that being said I am very proud to be able to call many of my closest friends liberal Democrats. In fact, I
It’s a blessing that Jews are in both parties Read More »
USA, Yeruchem Eilfort-Rabbi
By Loren Kantor STUDIO CITY, California — In Jewish Mystical Teaching, the 22 letters of the Hebrew Alphabet are the energetic building blocks of creation. Like the periodic table of elements, God formed all things in the universe through combinations of Hebrew letters (just as atoms of oxygen and hydrogen combine to form a molecule
Notes from the Woodcutter: The Aleph Read More »
Middle East, Music, Dance, and Visual Arts
Story and photo by Judy Lash Balint NITSAN, Israel — There’s the Zionist dream and then there’s the Zionist reality. There are those who dream about living in Israel but can’t quite make it for compelling personal reasons, or who just missed the boat when they had the chance. Others, like Moshe and
Through it all, they’ve been together Read More »
Middle EastBy Ira Sharkansky JERUSALEM — It isn’t pretty. Israel did what it could to keep the photographers away. It doesn’t play well against the history of Jews having to move from place to place, and encountering borders closed against them. Jewish officials have problems with their own population, ambivalent about providing refuge and the prospect
African migrants in Sinai stir emotional debate Read More »
Ira Sharkansky, Middle East
By Rabbi Michael Leo Samuel CHULA VISTA, California –In Yiddish we say, “A Mentsch tracht, Gott lacht,” which can be translated as, “Man plans, God laughs.” If Heaven has sitcoms for the angels and God to watch, life on planet Earth must be really funny at times. God must be feeling relieved. Getting booed from
God must be feeling relieved Read More »
Michael Leo Samuel-Rabbi, USA
By Rabbi Yeruchem Eilfort CARLSBAD, California — Over the past two weeks we have again witnessed some of the great machinery of American Democracy at work; the conventions of the Republican and Democratic Parties. The conventions have certainly become highly entertaining, and frankly, fun to follow. The festive and positive atmospheres, which are buoyed by
God and Jerusalem returned to platform on fortuitous date Read More »
USA, Yeruchem Eilfort-RabbiObama in DNC address: ‘Commitment to Israel’s security must not waver’ (JNS.org) U.S. President Barack Obama, addressing the Democratic National Convention on Thursday night, said America’s “commitment to Israel’s security must not waver, and neither must our pursuit of peace.” Obama’s statement came after most of the Israel-related talk at the convention in Charlotte, NC,
JNS News Briefs: September 7, 2012 Read More »
InternationalBy Ari Briggs In the middle of the Arab uprising of 1936, the Jewish settlement of Kfar Hittim in the Galilee was established, on 2,000 dunams (200 hectares) of land which the Jewish National Fund had purchased in 1905. David Ben-Gurion, who was then the head of the Jewish Yishuv, gave his tacit approval,
Bedouins with help of NGOs grab land in Negev Read More »
Middle East
By Shoshana Bryen WASHINGTON, D.C. –“I don’t want to be complicit if they (Israelis) choose to do it (attack Iran’s nuclear program),” said Joint Chiefs Chairman Martin Dempsey. News flash, General Dempsey: You are complicit in the way that counts; you are trapped: the Iranian leadership does not care what we say — or what
Dempsey is ‘complicit’ in downgrading U.S.-Israel relations Read More »
Middle East, Shoshana BryenBy Evelyn Gordon WASHINGTON, D.C. — When Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi was first elected, Israel worried that he might seek to revise the Israeli-Egyptian peace agreement. After all, senior members of his Muslim Brotherhood party had threatened repeatedly to “review” it during the parliamentary and the presidential campaigns. Yet this idea always had a serious
Morsi changing the status quo with Sinai remilitarization Read More »
Middle EastBy Rabbi Michael Leo Samuel JERUSALEM — Let me begin with the good news first. The Democratic Party platform reinstated the importance of Jerusalem to our country’s values and principles—along with God too! Now comes the bad news. Although the section of Jerusalem was reinstated, the sections pertaining to the Palestinian refugees and the terrorist
Something not kosher about DNC Jerusalem fiasco Read More »
Michael Leo Samuel-Rabbi, USA