This is the Forward’s coverage of Israel, the Jewish state in the Middle East founded in 1948.
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Fast Forward Meet Israeli Bureaucrat Who Decides If You Can Get Married — or Not
(JTA) — To be married in Israel, immigrants must prove their Jewish ancestry to the country’s Chief Rabbinate. Couples can solicit a letter from their hometown rabbis or present their parents’ Jewish marriage contracts. Sometimes they even bring a Yiddish-speaking grandmother before a rabbinical court. In the end, every claim has to pass through one…
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Opinion The Sharon They Loved, the Sharon We Hated
Ariel Sharon in death, as in life, presents a challenge for us. By advocating a bold, self-asserting Jewish settlement movement, with or without a peace agreement, Sharon shattered the image of Israel as a country that places the achievement of peace with its neighbors above all other national goals. This triggered a long-term rift with…
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Opinion If ‘Palestine’ Jerseys Incite Hatred, What About JNF?
Normally, when a sports team decides to redesign its uniforms, the decision isn’t considered a major news story. But when Chile’s El Palestino soccer club began wearing jerseys that show the entire map of Israel as Palestine, it met with an intense Jewish backlash — and it’s easy to see why. By using a one-state…
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Fast Forward Benjamin Netanyahu and Iran’s Hassan Rouhani Both Going to Davos Economic Forum
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will both attend the World Economic Forum in the Swiss resort of Davos this month, the organisers told Reuters on Friday. Asked about their attendance, a spokeswoman for the forum said: “Yes, it’s confirmed.” She declined to name other participants at the annual meeting. The…
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Fast Forward Dutch Chided by Israel Over ‘Occupation Boycott’
For the second time in less than a month, Israel demanded clarifications from the Netherlands on Dutch firms’ divestment from Israel’s occupation. On Friday, Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs summoned the ambassador to Israel of the Netherlands, Caspar Veldkamp, to provide clarifications on the decision of PGGM, a large pensions administrator, to divest from five…
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Fast Forward Israel Tourism Reaches All-Time High in 2013 With 3.54 Million Visitors
Israel reported an all-time high in annual visitors in 2013. A record 3.54 million visitors arrived in Israel in 2013, half a percent more than the previous record year. Meanwhile, some 272,000 tourists arrived in December, a 14 percent increase over December 2012, setting a record for most arrivals in the Jewish state in one…
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Fast Forward Israeli Museums May Own Nazi-Looted Art and Judaica, Organization Claims
An Israeli organization that recovers Jewish assets stolen by the Nazis said hundreds of items in Israeli museums may have been looted. Hashava: The Company for Location and Restitution of Holocaust Victims’ Assets said Wednesday that hundreds of paintings, items of Judaica and other artworks in Israeli museums may be Nazi-looted art. Hashava was set…
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Fast Forward Rolling Stones in Talks To Add Tel Aviv to Upcoming Tour
A new round of very serious negotiations are going down in Israel—this time between Israeli producers and the Rolling Stones. According to the Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahronot, the band is in the process of hashing out a deal to add a Tel Aviv performance to their upcoming European summer tour. It would be their first-ever…
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