WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama in his final speech on national security said diplomatic engagement is “required” to resolve Middle Eastern conflicts, including between Israel and the Palestinians. The remarks came as top officials in the outgoing administration hope to influence President-elect Donald Trump to maintain its diplomatic initiatives, particularly regarding the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and…
— Jenna Jameson, the former adult actress and recent convert to Judaism who is engaged to an Israeli, told an Israeli publication that she plans to move to Israel next year. “My fiancé and I hope to move to Israel next year after the birth,” she told the Hebrew-language news website Reshet on Wednesday. Jameson will move…
— A bill to facilitate the return of Nazi-looted artworks to their original owners or heirs passed the U.S. House of Representatives. The House passed the Holocaust Expropriated Art Recovery Act, or HEAR Act on Wednesday. It must still pass the Senate. The bill would extend the statute of limitations for the stolen artwork to six years from the date that the art…
JERUSALEM — A controversial bill that would help legalize West Bank outposts built on Palestinian land was approved in its first reading in the Knesset plenum. The Regulation bill was approved late Wednesday after a five-hour floor debate by a vote of 58 to 51. Two more readings are required to pass the bill into law….
Chicago mayor Rahm Emanuel and Donald Trump are not natural political allies, and Emanuel has been vocal in his opposition to the president-elect on many issues. Nonetheless, the two sat down Wednesday for a 45-minute conversation at Trump Tower in New York, joined by Trump’s chief of staff Reince Priebus and senior advisor Stephen Bannon….
— A British court found a man guilty of waging an anti-Semitic internet campaign against a Jewish lawmaker. Joshua Bonehill-Paine,24, was convicted Wednesday of racial harassment for posting a series of articles online in which he targeted parliamentarian Luciana Berger. The campaign, which Bonehill-Paine named “Operation Filthy Jew B***|h,” referred to Jewish lawmaker as evil and…
Ben Shapiro’s speech at Yeshiva University in which he called transgender people mentally ill and mocked the political left drew strong criticism from some students. While many in the crowd at Monday night’s event cheered the right-wing pundit’s barbs, others said that his remarks left a bad taste in their mouth — and reflected poorly…
JERUSALEM (JTA) — Israel’s Chief Rabbinate committed to creating standards for recognizing which Diaspora rabbis it trusts to handle Jewish conversions. The Ashkenazi and Sephardi chief rabbis announced separately Wednesday afternoon that they would convene a meeting next week with the Chief Rabbinate Council and the Supreme Rabbinical Court to determine the standards. The conversion…
After white nationalist Richard Spencer left him speechless by equating Zionism and white supremacy, Texas A&M Rabbi Matt Rosenberg is acknowledging that it wasn’t his best moment. “I wasn’t on the high school debate team,” Rosenberg told the Forward. “I really didn’t want to get into it. That might have been the wrong decision, but…
Paul Singer, the billionaire Jewish donor who led Republican opposition to Donald Trump, has reportedly flip-flopped and is now shamelessly cozying up to the soon-to-be commander in chief. Singer once famously predicted that Trump would spark a “widespread global depression” if elected has made a substantial donation to the incoming president’s inaugural committee. He also…
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Wednesday that he had told French President Francois Hollande that he would not meet Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas if France pushed ahead with an international peace conference in Paris later this month. France has been trying to convince Netanyahu to meet with Abbas in Paris, in an effort…
