After President-elect Donald Trump’s victory, and a spike in hate crimes against Muslims, one Jewish filmmaker is pushing back. Joshua Seftel produced a documentary called “The Secret Life of Muslims.” “American Muslims still face an uphill battle in the national imagination. The current political climate spurred on by constant fear mongering during this election cycle,…
Despite a persistent divide in educational attainment between Jews and Arabs in Israel, Haifa’s Technion University has managed to triple the enrollment of Arab students over the past decade. Referred to as Israel’s MIT, and reputed for its math and science talent, the Haifa school now has a student body that’s 20 percent of Arab…
Turkish Jewish author Beki Ikala Erikli was murdered while she stood outside her apartment building in Istanbul on Thursday. She was pronounced dead at the scene. Her killer was still on the lam as off press time, his motive unclear. Police were said to be investigating the murder, according to reports in the Times of…
Representatives for Donald Trump on Friday said it was too soon to say when the Republican U.S. president-elect would make good on his controversial campaign promise to move the U.S. embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. Trump aide Jason Miller said Trump “remains firmly committed to” the move. But with more than a…
Outgoing United Nations chief Ban Ki-moon on Friday urged Israeli lawmakers to reconsider a bill to legalize Israeli settlement homes on private Palestinian land as Arab states mull putting forward a Security Council resolution on settlements. The Palestinians want an independent state in the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem, areas Israel captured in a…
David Friedman, who has been named America’s next ambassador to Israel, heads a fundraising organization that has raised tens of millions of dollars for one of the most radical settlements in the West Bank. According its tax forms, American Friends of Beit El Institutions, which was established in 1988, raises about $2 million in tax-deductible…
— The number of terrorist attacks recorded in Israel dropped last month by 38 percent over October nationally — largely thanks to a 72-percent drop in incidents in Jerusalem. The Israel Security Agency, or Shin Bet, recorded a total of 95 attacks in November, with only nine in Jerusalem, compared to 153 attacks in October…
— Socialite Shelli Azoff asked guests at her annual women-only glamour gala in Los Angeles to refrain from making any mention of Donald Trump. Azoff, the wife of music mogul Irving Azoff, who is Jewish, presented the house rule at the 17th annual “Just Us Girls” holiday bash on Wednesday at the Forum in LA, where…
— Dovish Jewish groups spoke of their concern over Donald Trump’s nomination of David Friedman as U.S. ambassador to Israel, but their more hawkish counterparts celebrated it as momentous. Friedman, a bankruptcy lawyer who has for years worked for the Republican president elect and his real estate development business, has expressed hardline right-wing views on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict,…
LOS ANGELES — Israel’s hopes for an Oscar as best foreign-language film were dashed when “Sand Storm” failed to make the cut as competing entries from 85 countries were narrowed to nine semi-finalists. Noticeably, however, three of the nine movies on the shortlist, which was determined Thursday evening, deal with the Nazi era, indicating once again…
RIO DE JANEIRO — Cardinal Paulo Evaristo Arns, who challenged Brazil’s brutal dictatorship to honor a Jewish journalist killed in prison by the military, has died. Arns, one of the Catholic Church’s most prominent pro-democracy voices in Latin America, became famous for his fight against torture during 1964-1985. He died Wednesday at 95. On Oct….
