Israel is the world’s seventh-best country for gay men, according to a poll of 115,000 gay men in 127 countries. The Gay Happiness Index, a collaboration of the gay dating network Planet Romeo and researchers from Germany’s Johannes Gutenberg University of Mainz, named Iceland the best country for gay men, followed in order by three…
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu renewed his commitment on Wednesday to a two-state solution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, after backtracking on that pledge during a heated campaign for a March election. Speaking as he met with European Union foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini on her first visit to the region, and a week after his…
Another group of women in powerful positions, another haredi Orthodox paper erasing them. Here we go again. After each new Israeli government is sworn in, its ministers pose for a group photo with the president. This year’s photo, taken yesterday, features Israel’s three women ministers in the middle row — Culture and Sport Minister Miri…
The head of world soccer’s governing body said on Wednesday Israel had proposed easing travel restrictions for Palestinian players but the head of the Palestine FA insisted he would pursue a move to have Israel suspended from FIFA. After meeting Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and soccer officials in the West Bank, FIFA President Sepp Blatter…
More than 40 rabbis from all streams of Judaism will hold a prayer vigil and pre-Shavuot study session at the Holot detention center for African immigrants. The program, organized by leaders in Rabbis for Human Rights, and supported by the New Israel Fund, was scheduled for Wednesday outside the open-detention facility in the Negev Desert….
A former teacher at several Jewish schools in England was found guilty on sexual assault charges. Todros Grynhaus, 50, of Salford, reportedly faces a “substantial prison sentence,” according to Manchester Crown Court judge Timothy Holroyde. They are now adult women. The conviction comes after a two-week trial, and after an earlier trial ended in March…
It’s only been a day since President Obama launched the @POTUS twitter handle, and already Israeli government officials are using it as just another platform to help worsen their already fraught relationship with the current US government. Just look at the following tweet from a Netanyahu cabinet member: Ladies and gentlemen, meet Israel’s new minister…
(JTA) — When considering the Vatican’s creep toward recognition of Palestinian statehood, think “Israel-Vatican” and not “Jewish-Catholic,” say Jewish officials involved in dialogue with the church. A May 13 announcement on an agreement regarding the functioning of the church in areas under Palestinian control raised eyebrows in its reference to the “State of Palestine.” The…
Robert Wistrich, a leading scholar of anti-Semitism and its history, has died. Wistrich, the Neuburger Professor of European and Jewish history at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and the head of the University’s Vidal Sassoon International Center for the Study of Anti-Semitism, died of a heart attack on Tuesday evening in Rome at the age…
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu suspended on Wednesday new bus travel and checkpoint regulations for Palestinian laborers only hours after they were imposed to an outcry by critics accusing Israel of racial segregation. Effectively overruling his defense minister, Netanyahu froze the edicts ahead of a meeting later in the day in Jerusalem with Federica Mogherini, foreign…
A 20-year-old American college student died after falling during a hike on Masada in southern Israel. The woman, part of a group from Florida State University, fell some 26 feet off the historic mountain’s Snake Path on Tuesday afternoon while traveling with an unnamed organized group, according to reports. It took more than an hour…
