ousands of pilgrims traveled to Meron in northern Israel to mark the start of Lag B’Omer. Mount Meron is the burial place of grave of Jewish Kabbalist and mystic Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai, a popular pilgrimage site for the holiday. The pilgrims began lighting bonfires after midnight on Saturday night, with hundreds of thousands of…
Palestinians are planning to create a Bitcoin-style currency that would help the Palestinian economy operate independently of Israeli influence. According to a report in Reuters, the Palestine Monetary Authority is designing the currency, which would be called the Palestinian pound. It aims to have the currency in use in the next five years. The PMA…
Israeli director Yoav Tzafir is blaming Israel’s poor showing in the 2017 Eurovision contest finals on the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement. Israeli pop singer Imri Ziv came in 23rd out of 26th place in the competition in Ukraine with his song “I Feel Alive.” The song’s music video was co-directed by Tzafir and Elad…
(JTA) — The Hashomer Hatzair Jewish youth movement called on its members in Israel to vote for a performer representing Belgium in the Eurovision song contest because she is a member of the organization’s Brussels branch. Ellie Delvaux, 17, aka Blanche, is one several dozen performers from 26 countries, including Israel, who are participating in…
Almost everyone knows that bacon is forbidden under kosher laws, but a rogue group of rabbinic scholars is challenging this assumption, according to a recent article in Haaretz. Dr. Robert Gnuse, a professor in the Religious Studies Department at Loyola University, argues that the kosher and clothing rules found in the Book of Leviticus (where…
A days-old media mystery appears to have been solved — but plenty of questions remain. In an article posted Friday, BuzzFeed identified the writer Eric Alterman as the “well-known professor” and “columnist at a liberal magazine” whom Tablet columnist Paul Berman alleged was trying to blackmail him. Berman wrote Monday that he was the subject…
(JTA) — There are those who blame Anthony Weiner, the disgraced former congressman and repeated sexter, for Hillary Clinton’s election loss and all that has come afterward — including President Trump’s abrupt firing of FBI Director James Comey. After all, Weiner’s misdeeds and the inquiries they sparked led to the reopening of the Clinton email…
(JTA) — The party of French president-elect Emmanuel Macron withdrew from its parliamentary elections ticket a politician who made statements deemed anti-Semitic. Christian Gerin, a journalist, was taken off the En Marche ticket Friday, a day after he was nominated to represent the party in next month’s elections for the French parliament, in connection with…
ROME (JTA) — Unidentified individuals damaged dozens of gravestones and memorials in both the Catholic and Jewish sections of one of Rome’s main cemeteries. According to the Italian media, the damage was discovered Friday morning during an inspection before the Verano cemetery opened. The culprits smashed or toppled crosses as well as Stars of David and damaged…
Update, 5:01 p.m.: The post in question was edited to refer to “Palestinian Territories.” President Trump’s upcoming foreign tour later this month, his first trip abroad since his inauguration, will take him to many locations, including Saudi Arabia, Israel and the Vatican. Also on his agenda, according to the White House’s director of social media:…
A Tennessee woman was arrested after chasing Representative David Kustoff and an aide as they left a town hall meeting. Wendi Wright, a 35-year-old constituent of Kustoff, followed the Republican lawmaker after a meeting at the University of Tennessee — Martin, and chased him as he drove away. When Kustoff and his aide stopped the…
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