In the narrow corners of Jerusalem, where Jewish neighborhoods abut Palestinian ones, apprehension ran deep on Wednesday as Israel authorized the police to block access from Arab areas after a two-week wave of violence. The hilly backstreets that twist around the eastern, predominantly Arab half of the city were quieter than normal, as were the…
Officials in Lisbon approved the naturalization of a Panamanian national who applied for a Portuguese passport under recent legislation benefiting descendants of Sephardic Jews. Alfonso Paredes is the first applicant to obtain Portuguese nationality since new regulations for the naturalization of Sephardic Jews went into effect in March, according to the Jewish Community of Porto,…
Temple University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, has officially named its medical school after the late Jewish-American businessman and philanthropist Lewis Katz. The Lewis Katz School of Medicine debuted Tuesday in a naming ceremony held at Temple University, the university said in a statement. Friends of the university, as well as friends and relatives of the Katz…
Ohio lawmakers plan to push for legislation that opposes the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions, or BDS, movement against Israel. Ohio Speaker of the House Cliff Rosenberger announced the decision following a visit Oct. 8 from Israeli lawmaker Hilik Bar, of the Zionist Union, the Jerusalem Post reported. “Ohio will fight BDS and boycotts against Israel,”…
The first Democratic presidential debate focused mostly on economic issues, although foreign policy differences emerged on how to handle the crisis in the Middle East. The debate Tuesday night in Las Vegas brought together the five candidates running for the Democratic nod for the presidency. Making his first appearance on a national debate stage was…
Secretary of State John Kerry said he will travel to the Middle East “soon” to move Palestinians and Israelis from violence to peace. Kerry also linked the surge of Palestinian violence on Israelis to the “increase in settlements,” during a speech Tuesday night at the Harvard Kennedy School’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs….
French judges asked American officials to identify a person whom they believe helped the Islamist radical Amedy Coulibaly plan and carry out the murder of four Jews in Paris in January. A day before Coulibaly took more than 20 hostages and killed four of them at the Hyper Cacher kosher supermarket on Paris’ eastern edge,…
(JTA) — “Do I know this person?” has been a common refrain in the Washington offices of national Jewish organizations since Rep. John Boehner, R-Ohio, resigned as House speaker last month and his chosen successor, Rep. Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., the majority leader, flamed out last week. Every day sees a new Republican contender named in…
(JTA) — At an Israeli bus station, several uniformed officers surround an Arab woman before opening fire on her, dropping her to the ground. Standing over her motionless body, a Border Police officer toting an automatic rifle speaks into a radio while another officer chases away a bystander documenting the scene on his cellphone. That’s…
Palestinian men armed with knives and a gun killed at least three people and wounded several others in a string of attacks in Jerusalem and near Tel Aviv on Tuesday, police said, on a “Day of Rage” declared by Palestinian groups. With the worst unrest in years in Israel and the Palestinian territories showing no…
(JTA) — For the past 10 years, Rabbi Steve Gutow has been trying to get American Jews to be more civil to each other, especially in debates about political issues. But a decade on, as he prepares to step down from the helm of the Jewish Council for Public Affairs, the community seems even more bitterly…
