Award-winning Indian director Mira Nair has turned down an invitation to be guest of honor at the Haifa Film Festival for political reasons, posting on her Twitter page that she would not visit Israel until “Apartheid is over.” “I will not be going to Israel at this time,” she tweeted last Friday in the second…
Alaska opened its first Jewish museum with the dedication of the Esformes Jewish Campus of Alaska in Anchorage, the state’s largest city. Led by Rabbi Yosef Greenberg and his wife Esty, a group of Alaskan Jews conceived of the project in 2004 and in 2007 arranged for Chicago philanthropists Morris and Delicia Esformes to match…
When Secretary of State John Kerry announced on Friday that Israel and the Palestinians had tentatively agreed to resume peace talks after three years, he did so standing alone as dusk fell over the Jordanian capital. The image reflects both his achievement and his challenge: few people would have predicted success when he began his…
For the first time in centuries, a Torah scroll will be installed in the northern Portuguese town of Trancoso, where many Jews lived before the 16th century. The Torah scroll was scheduled to be installed Sunday during the dedication of a new Jewish learning center, the Isaac Cardoso Center for Jewish Interpretation, the Portuguese news…
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s tentative agreement to revive U.S.-sponsored peace talks with the Palestinians met scepticism and scorn on Sunday from some members of his rightist coalition government, including within his own party. With no date yet set for negotiations to begin, let alone a public blueprint for their terms, Netanyahu did not yet…
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu welcomed on Saturday the resumption of peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians, saying that they are “an essential strategic interest for Israel.” Meanwhile, Israel’s political-security cabinet convened on Saturday evening to hear updates on agreement reached to resume negotiation. “I have in mind a number of objectives,” Netanyahu said, “preventing…
Israel will not bow to the Palestinians’ demand on the borders of their future state before peace talks begin but will meet their request for the release of some prisoners, Israeli officials said on Saturday. U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said on Friday that Israel and the Palestinians had laid the groundwork to resume…
Former White House correspondent Helen Thomas, a trailblazing journalist who reported on every U.S. president from John Kennedy to Barack Obama, died on Saturday at the age of 92, The Gridiron Club and Foundation said. Thomas, who worked the White House beat for 49 years for United Press International and Hearst newspapers, died after a…
Nate SIlver is taking his stats and going to ESPN. The geeky numbers guy who turned the electoral vote counting into a national obsession with his FIveThirtyEight blog is leaving the New York Times for the sports network, the Times reported. He will be on staff at a new late night show run by Keith…
San Diego Mayor Bob Filner, who has resisted calls to resign over allegations he groped and made suggestive comments toward women, came under increasing pressure this week as fellow Democrats urged him to quit and as talk emerged of a recall campaign. Filner drew fire as leader of California’s second-largest city last week after a…
Israel has agreed to release Palestinian prisoners in order to resume peace talks, but will not yield to other demands the Palestinians say must be met before they return to the negotiating table. Strategic Affairs Minister Yuval Steinitz said on Saturday that Israel was prepared to release some “heavyweight” prisoners but could not accept Palestinian…
