Dozens of Russian Jewish community leaders and businessmen arrived in Israel for a solidarity visit led by Russian Chief Rabbi Berel Lazar. The approximately 50 visitors from across the Russian Federation landed in Israel earlier this week and are scheduled to return next week, Lazar said. The group was scheduled to leave for Israel after…
Palestinians set fire to a Jewish shrine in the West Bank on Friday as the Islamist group Hamas called for a day of rage against Israel, with tensions still running high after two weeks of violence. Israel’s military said about 100 people converged on the tomb of the biblical patriarch Joseph, which is located in…
Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, a philosopher and member of the U.K. House of Lords who served as Britain’s chief Orthodox rabbi from 1991 to 2013, is in America lecturing and promoting his latest book, “Not in God’s Name: Confronting Religious Violence.” JTA’s Uriel Heilman caught up with Sacks in New York for a conversation about his…
The United States’ ambassador to Israel, Daniel Shapiro, said Washington does not view Israel’s recent actions to curb Palestinian violence as excessive and supports Israel right to defend its citizens. Shapiro made the statement during an interview Friday on Israel Radio about indignation by Israeli officials at what they viewed as a suggestion by a…
Jamie Zimmerman, a doctor and reporter with ABC’s medical unit, died after a freak accident during a Hawaiian vacation. Zimmerman, 31, slipped while crossing the Lumahai River on Kauai and was swept out to sea. Lifeguards and paramedics tried to rescue her but were unsuccessful. “My little girl was always trying to do too much,”…
Anti-Semitism “continued to be a major problem around the globe,” the U.S. State Department’s annual International Religious Freedom Report for 2014 found. The 17th annual report, which was released Wednesday, noted that anti-Semitic incidents rose significantly in Western Europe during the 2014 Gaza War between Israel and Hamas as well as in eastern Ukrainian regions…
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he was willing to meet with Mahmoud Abbas while blaming the Palestinian Authority president of fanning the flames of the current wave of Palestinian violence against Israelis. On Thursday, at a news conference for the English-speaking media, Netanyahu accused Abbas of “incitement and lies.” “I have called on Abbas…
The words “‘Homeland’ is racist” were hidden in plain sight on Sunday’s episode of “Homeland.” Star Claire Danes’ character, CIA agent Carrie Mathison, passes by a wall at a former refugee camp graffitied with the phrase in Arabic. Other messages at the camp that made it on air include “There is NO ‘Homeland,’” “‘Homeland’ is…
Yona Metzger, a former Ashkenazi chief rabbi of Israel, was indicted for corruption. In the indictment filed Tuesday by the Jerusalem District Attorney’s Office, Metzger was charged with fraud, theft, conspiracy, breach of trust, money laundering, tax offenses and accepting bribes. The indictment followed a hearing in which Metzger’s attorney argued against the charges. It…
The Jewish fraternity Alpha Epsilon Pi issued a warning about “rising anti-Israel and anti-Semitic activity” to its 185 chapters on U.S. college campuses. The AEPi warning, sent Thursday, was prompted by the surge of violence in Israel. Several prominent anti-Semitic incidents took place on college campuses after the Gaza war in 2014, and the AEPi…
A Dutch restaurant owner called for violence against Israeli tourists in response to the spike in violence in Israel. Dutch Jewry’s watchdog on anti-Semitism filed a complaint with police for incitement to violence on Thursday against Youness Ouaali, 30, pertaining to text he posted on Facebook two days earlier about a picture of a blood-covered…
