This is the Forward’s coverage of Israel, the Jewish state in the Middle East founded in 1948.
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Israel News Israel Deports Some Converted Immigrants
Within the next few weeks Martina Ragachova could be deported from Israel — for being too frum. Prague-born Ragachova, 37, moved to Israel a decade ago, and in 2004 converted to Judaism in the Bnei Brak rabbinic court of Nissim Karelitz, one of the world’s best-respected and most stringent Haredi rabbis. Karelitz was so moved…
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Israel News Obama Wins Rousing Cheers at Reform Biennial
In a speech aimed at liberal Jewish voters, President Obama sought to rebut Republican claims that he was soft in his support for Israel and praised Reform Judaism’s support for civil rights and social justice in his address at the biennial meeting of the Union for Reform Judaism. The crowd of 6,000, in turn, enthusiastically…
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Opinion Get to the Damn Table? Guess Who Said It First
Defense Secretary Leon Panetta has drawn a lot of heat in the last few weeks, on himself and the administration, for his December 2 comment that Israel needs to “just get to the damn table” with the Palestinians. After all, his critics note, Prime Minister Netanyahu has been declaring since 2009 that he’s ready to…
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The Schmooze Ovadia Yosef Frees Man Who Tried to Kill Him
What would be your attitude toward someone who had plotted to kill you? I can’t help thinking that I’d be more than a little broiges. You would imagine that the stakes are upped a little when the target of the murder plot is the former Sephardi Chief Rabbi of Israel Ovadia Yosef, spiritual leader of…
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Opinion GOP Gets It Right on Israel
The Republican presidential contenders have campaigned hard for the pro-Israel vote. Recently they each made bold promises of fealty to Israel while addressing the Republican Jewish Coalition (save for Ron Paul, who wasn’t invited) and sparred verbally, not just over whether the United States should support a Palestinian state, but over whether the Palestinians were…
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Israel News Dead Sea Drying Fast, a Sign of Trouble
Scientists drilling into the Dead Sea bed have discovered that the sea, now drying up because of climate change and overuse, dried up once before on its own. The process, which happened long ago without human intervention, is now going much faster because of global warming, which most scientists think is caused by human activity….
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Opinion Israel Misses Point With Ad Campaign
The advertising campaign by Israel’s Ministry of Immigrant Absorption aimed at inspiring expatriate Israelis to return to Israel so offended American Jews that it eventually was canceled by Prime Minister Netanyahu himself. One of the ads suggested that a peril of Israelis coming to the United States and raising children here is the likely loss…
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The Schmooze School Called ‘Impure’ After Muslim Wedding
Parents of students who attend the public-religious Ohel Meir school in Afula in northern Israel are demanding that it be spiritually purified following a Muslim wedding that took place there. They are up in arms that the wedding was allowed to happen in the hall where the school’s Torah scrolls are kept, and are threatening…
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