TEL AVIV (Press Release) — Israeli soldiers captured during the 1973 Yom Kippur War were subjected to brutal torture in Egypt and Syria. Held alone in tiny, filthy spaces for weeks or months, sometimes handcuffed and blindfolded, they suffered severe beatings, burns, electric shocks, starvation, and worse. And rather than receiving treatment, additional torture was
The painful legacy of torture Read More »
Science, Medicine, & EducationTEL AVIV (Press Release)– On the 18th anniversary of Yitzhak Rabin’s assassination, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry paid tribute to him at the square where his life was taken. Here, provided by the U.S. State Department, is a transcript of the remarks made on that occasion: SECRETARY KERRY: It’s a great privilege for me
Kerry pays homage to Yitzhak Rabin’s memory Read More »
Middle EastNetanyahu: No change in Palestinian position since 1993 (JNS.org) Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Monday in a Likud-Beiteinu alliance meeting that he sees “no real changes in the Palestinian position since 1993,” the year the Oslo Accords were signed. Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, meanwhile, said Israel’s linking of its release of Palestinian prisoners
JNS news briefs: November 5, 2013 Read More »
InternationalLA JOLLA, California– Susan Magee, author of Into the Light, a pictorial biography of artist Kalman Aron, speaks at the San Diego Jewish Book Fair today (Tuesday, Nov. 5). Here is a video about the artist whose work has been greatly influenced by surviving the Holocaust.
Kalman Aron: Survivor and artist subject of Book Fair talk Read More »
Jewish HistoryBy Ira Sharkansky JERUSALEM — Here we are, with at least 2,000 years of animosity from outsiders, along with quarrelsome Jews. Some believe with great intensity that God gave us everything between an Egyptian river and far to the east. Some believe that the Jews of Palestine then Israel have been responsible for their problems
Netanyahu and Israel have learned to cope Read More »
Ira Sharkansky, Middle East
By Rabbi Ben Kamin ENCINITAS, California — On November 4, 1963, a still-emerging quartet from Liverpool played a key engagement: The Beatles gave a concert for the Royal Family in London. In fact, the event was a Royal Command Performance at the Prince of Wales Theatre in London, in the presence of both the Queen
Memories of 1963: JFK, The Beatles Read More »
USA
Aline Sax, author, and Caryl Strzelecki, illustrator, The War Within These Walls, Eerdman’s Books for Young Readers, 2013, ISBN 978-0-8028-5428-5, 169 pages. By Donald H. Harrison SAN DIEGO — Sometimes I think all of us are too young to learn about the Holocaust, because the more we know the more our souls feel crushed. But
A Holocaust book for youngsters? Read More »
Donald H. HarrisonBy Laurie Baron SAN DIEGO―Major cuts in the Food Stamp Program went into effect the day after Halloween. When criticized for reducing food subsidies for those who can’t afford to feed themselves, a number of Tea Party Republicans introduced legislation to hold Halloween on the last Thursday of every month to sweeten the lives of
Humoring the headlines: November 4, 2013 Read More »
Lawrence Baron, Trivia, Humor & SatireJobbik party’s commemoration of Hungarian Nazi collaborator sparks protest (JNS.org) Nearly 1,000 protestors took to the streets in Budapest to decry the far-right Jobbik party’s unveiling of a statue of Hungarian wartime leader and Nazi collaborator Miklos Horthy, Reuters reported. The third-largest party in Hungary, Jobbik’s leaders have stoked extremism anti-Semitism in Hungary, often
JNS news briefs: November 4, 2013 Read More »
International
By Shoshana Bryen WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Palestinians have thrown a monkey wrench in the works again – as they have a pattern of doing every time the “peace process” is supposed to be close to “solving” the problem. Despite the secrecy surrounding the current U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry-sponsored talks, a Palestinian
Why the Palestinian Authority can’t afford peace Read More »
Middle East, Shoshana BryenBy Eileen Wingard LA JOLLA, California — The “musical journey honoring the State of Israel” presented by the local chapter of the Friends of the Israel Defense Forces (FIDF) provided our community with a most memorable evening of vocal Jewish music. Had we only been able to experience the golden sounds of IDF Chief Cantor
Emotional concert held in La Jolla for the IDF Read More »
Eileen WingardBy Dorothea Shefer-Vanson MEVASSERET ZION, Israel –Taxi! Taxi drivers the world over are a race unto themselves. The taxi drivers of London, have to acquire ‘The Knowledge,’ which involves studying London’s streets till they can find any address, and have to pass an exam to gain their taxi license. These days they are separated from
Taxi drivers around the world are a special breed Read More »
Dorothea Shefer-Vanson, Trivia, Humor & SatireBy Ira Sharkansky JERUSALEM–America’s loss of dominance was inevitable. Its standing from the late ’40s through the ’50s could not last. The power derived from being the sole country on its feet after the most destructive war in history. The American economy thrived as a result of pent-up purchasing power from war-time full employment, the
Steps that led to the decline of America Read More »
Ira Sharkansky, USABy Rabbi Michael Leo Samuel CHULA VISTA, California — Many baseball fans I know have grown up and relished the great baseball rivalries of the last fifty years or more. As a native San Franciscan, who could forget the rivalries involving the Giants and the Dodgers—Northern vs. Southern California? Indeed, today’s latest incarnations of the
Red Sox win mirrors Boston’s big heart Read More »
Michael Leo Samuel-Rabbi, USA