Jonathan Pollard, the Israeli spy, is set to be released on parole on Nov. 21 unless the parole board objects, the U.S. Justice Department said. A statement emailed to JTA on Saturday noted that Pollard, a U.S. Navy analyst, was arrested in 1985 and in 1987 sentenced to life for espionage. “Under the laws in…
Illinois on Thursday became the first U.S. state to divest its public pension funds from companies that boycott Israel. Gov. Bruce Rauner signed the historic legislation into law as Jewish community leaders and the consul general of Israel to the Midwest, Roey Gilad, looked on. “We need to stand up to anti-Semitism whenever and wherever…
A renovated Richard Wagner Museum opening in Bayreuth this weekend to coincide with the Bavarian city’s annual Wagner opera festival puts the composer’s anti-Semitism and his family’s later ties to Adolf Hitler center stage for the first time. Revamped and doubled in size at a cost of 20 million euros ($21.92 million), the museum for…
U.S. officials on Friday denied a Wall Street Journal report that the Obama administration was considering early release for Jonathan Pollard, a former U.S. Navy intelligence officer convicted of spying for Israel. The Justice Department said Pollard must serve his full 30-year sentence. It stressed that he has long been eligible for consideration for parole…
WASHINGTON (JTA) — A unilateral Israeli attack on Iran would be an “enormous mistake,” Secretary of State John Kerry said. “That would be an enormous mistake, a huge mistake with grave consequences for Israel and for the region,” Kerry said Friday on NBC’s Today show. Kerry said a unilateral strike would set back Iran’s nuclear…
Sheldon Silver, the once-powerful former leader of the New York State assembly, lost his bid to have federal corruption charges against him dismissed on Friday for the second time. “None of Silver’s arguments is persuasive,” U.S. District Judge Valerie Caproni in Manhattan wrote in rejecting Silver’s motion to throw the case out. Silver, 71, is…
Organizers of a trade union festival in Britain asked pro-Israel activists to leave and pack up their stand following harassment by supporters of the Palestinian cause. Members of the Bournemouth Action for Israel (BAFI) grassroots group claimed that their kiosk was defaced and they were verbally abused by Palestine Solidarity Campaign supporters at the Tolpuddle…
The World Jewish Congress praised Romanian President Klaus Iohannis for enacting a law that makes it illegal to deny the Holocaust. “We congratulate President Iohannis for his strong stand against fascism, anti-Semitism and racism,” WJC President Ronald Lauder said in a statement Thursday, after Iohannis signed into law legislation passed recently by Romania’s parliament. “Only…
A poll showed American Jews are much likelier than non-Jews to back the Iran nuclear deal. The Los Angeles Jewish Journal poll published Thursday shows 49 percent og American Jews support the deal and 31 percent oppose. Among all Americans, 28 percent support the deal and 24 percent oppose it. Similarly, 53 percent of Jewish…
A placard critical of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was removed from the Jerusalem grave of a soldier who was killed while fighting in Gaza. The placard, which was removed Thursday from the grave of Leet Matt, read: “Lillik died on the watch of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Bibi, and of Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon,…
Secretary of State John Kerry said on Friday it would be a huge mistake if Israel decided to take unilateral military action against Iran over its nuclear program in the future. Kerry was asked in an NBC “Today” show interview if the nuclear deal reached last week between would make it more likely that Israel…
