Editor’s Note: Here are the sections about human rights in Israel and the Territories that were part of a larger report issued on Thursday, Feb. 27, by the U.S State Department evaluating human rights issues around the world. * Israel Israel is a multiparty parliamentary democracy. Although it has no constitution, the parliament, the unicameral […]
State Dept. report on human rights in Israel, territories Read More »
Middle East, USANEW YORK (Press Release)–The Zionist Organization of America (ZOA) has expressed concern at reports in the Israeli press that the Obama Administration is increasingly rejecting requests from Israeli citizens for visas to visit the United States. According to U.S. State Department records consulted by these reports, during 2013, 9.7% of Israelis who requested visas —
ZOA: Limiting Israeli tourist visas part of Obama pattern Read More »
USABy Hadas Rosental PETACH TIKVAH, Israel — We’re starting the chemotherapy. What, now? Yes, yes, now. But we just got to the ward, and just did a biopsy, and she’s still weak. True, but there is a tumor inside that is growing bigger every day. If we give it more and more time, it will
When your 3-year-old is a cancer patient… Read More »
Science, Medicine, & Education
HAIFA, Israel (Press Release) — Could used coffee grounds be good for your plants? University of Haifa scientists are planning to answer that question. Researchers at the Kadas Green Roofs Ecology Research Center, operating under the Faculty of Natural Sciences’ Institute of Evolution, and working in conjunction with the Student Union and the Green Campus
Are coffee grounds good for your plants? Read More »
Science, Medicine, & Education
NEW YORK (Press Release)– World Monuments Fund (WMF) announced on Thursday, Feb. 27, the receipt of an award of $220,000 from the David Berg Foundation of New York for five projects at Jewish heritage sites in Europe and Africa: the Schola Canton in Venice, Italy; the Great Synagogue of Iasi, Romania; Split Synagogue in Croatia;
Funds donated to conserve 5 Jewish sites Read More »
International, Jewish HistoryBy Shoshana Bryen WASHINGTON, D.C. — If you are surprised by this week’s announcement of major manpower cuts to the U.S. Army, you haven’t been paying attention. For a long time. There are two components to understanding America’s defense spending choices — the political and the budgetary; they are not the same. The Administration has
Proposed defense cuts based on false assumptions Read More »
Shoshana Bryen, USAEditor’s Note: San Diego Jewish World printed a brief obituary notice about the death of Barry Rubin, whose columns we had the privilege of carrying from time to time. In this article, his colleague, Jonathan Spyer, looks back over Rubin’s career and assesses the contributions he made to Middle Eastern studies. By Jonathan Spyer HERZLIYA
In memory of Barry Rubin, scholar and journalist Read More »
Middle EastBy Ira Sharkansky JERUSALEM–Settlers and the ultra-Orthodox are important minorities in Israeli politics. Both are somewhere on the fringe of key decision-makers, but must be taken into consideration even if not part of the A-team. There is no precise measure of either group. “Settlers” are both more and less than the people living in post-1967
Settlers, Haredim both important blocs in Israel politics Read More »
Ira Sharkansky, Middle EastPalestinian students launch anti-Israel photo exhibit at Hebrew University (JNS.org) Watan, a Palestinian student group at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, launched a new exhibit featuring photos whose captions are hostile to Israel, referring to Jerusalem as a “sewer of the Israeli settlements” and to Israeli soldiers as “the occupation army” and “the hunters
JNS news briefs: February 27, 2014 Read More »
InternationalBy Rabbi Dow Marmur JERUSALEM — Israel’s prime minister has worked hard to forge an alliance with the king of Jordan. One of the results is said to be Israel supplying water for the million Syrian refugees currently in the kingdom without which they couldn’t survive. Another is the sale of half-a-billion dollars’ worth of
Feiglin’s folly: Knesset debate on Temple Mount Read More »
Middle EastBy Aryeh Savir JERUSALEM (TNA) — Amnesty International released a report on Thursday, Feb. 27, accusing the IDF and Israeli police of being “Trigger-happy”, using “reckless force in the West Bank.” “Israeli forces have displayed a callous disregard for human life by killing dozens of Palestinian civilians, including children, in the occupied West Bank over
Nicole Nathan, Let My RV Go!, Mosaica Press, 2013, ISBN: 9781937887087, 222 pages including glossary By Donald H. Harrison SAN DIEGO– The title to this novel is well chosen. It is a humorous play on the phrase “Let My People Go!” which we imagine Moses (or at least Charleton Heston in the Ten Commandments )
Book Review: ‘Let My RV Go!’ Read More »
Donald H. HarrisonDavid’s Psalms by David Sharir and Benjamin Segal; Gefen Publishing House, 2013; ISBN 9789652296191, 110 pages, Rating 5+ Stars. By Rabbi Michael Leo Samuel CHULA VISTA, California — This new book on the Psalms is very simple and yet very elegant. Rabbi Benjamin Segal’s previous volume, New Psalm: The Psalms as a Literature, is an excellent
Five stars plus for a book on Psalms Read More »
Jewish Religion, Michael Leo Samuel-Rabbi
NEW YORK (Press Release) –The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) on Wednesday, Feb. 26, welcomed Governor Jan Brewer’s veto of legislation that would have been a harmful attack on civil rights. Arizona’s so-called “religious freedom” bill, driven by opponents of marriage equality, would have provided a legal defense to individuals and businesses who claimed that a “sincerely
ADL congratulates Brewer on veto of anti-gay bill Read More »
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