This is the Forward’s coverage of Israel, the Jewish state in the Middle East founded in 1948.
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Opinion With conversion decision, Israel moves one step closer to being genuinely inclusive
It is the rainy season in Israel, so I have been thinking about umbrellas. It is tempting to make a benign, even cozy, metaphor, imagining Israel as a protective force shielding us from threatening storms, and a means of uniting us as we huddle together to stay warm and dry. I wish I could give…
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News Netanyahu allies compare Reform Jews to dogs in racist election ads
Benjamin Netanyahu’s ultra-Orthodox coalition partners have ratcheted up their election campaigns with incendiary material comparing Reform Jews to dogs and xenophobic ads warning that African asylum seekers would convert to Judaism. The video, circulated on Wednesday by the ultra-Orthodox United Torah Judaism party, depicted dogs wearing ritual items like kippot, tallit, and tefillin, along with…
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Opinion Israel’s conversion news isn’t good for converts
As a convert to Judaism, it’s frequently the case that when conversion and Israel come into the news, I avoid reading the stories. It’s simply never good news. This week’s Israeli High Court decision recognizing converts via the Reform and Conservative movement might appear to be different — that is, until you read the fine…
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News Interview | Trump’s Middle East diplomat reflects on a sleepless tenure
David Schenker, who spent 19 months as an assistant secretary of state in the Trump administration, said in a recent interview that he is “very happy to be sleeping at night again.” “I didn’t sleep well — it was really a lot of responsibility and I was incredibly concerned with the well-being and safety of…
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News Israel’s top court orders recognition of non-Orthodox conversions under Law of Return
Israel’s High Court ruled Monday that the state must recognize Reform and Conservative conversions to Judaism performed in Israel for the purpose of the Law of Return. The Law of Return allows anyone born to a Jewish mother, who has at least one Jewish grandparent, as well as converts to Judaism or spouses of Jews…
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News Israel will vaccinate Palestinians who work in Israel or West Bank settlements
Israel’s cabinet has approved extending the country’s vaccination campaign to Palestinian laborers working in Israel and in West Bank settlements, the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories said in a statement Sunday. Some 100,000 Palestinians are estimated to hold a permit allowing them to work inside Israel and the settlements. The inoculation campaign is…
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News Netanyahu addresses Israel-Diaspora relations in Zoom call with Jewish leaders
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu touted his warm relationship with President Joe Biden and addressed concerns about Israeli-Diaspora relations in a private Zoom call with top leaders of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations on Thursday. Netanyahu told the 115 participants representing the group’s 53 member organizations that Israel must be welcoming…
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News Scott Stringer trying to play both sides of the BDS debate in mayoral campaign
Scott Stringer, one of the leading candidates in the New York City mayoral race, pretended not to know the views of his close progressive allies in support of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement in an interview published on Thursday. Stringer, the city’s comptroller, was asked in an interview with Jewish Insider to address concerns…
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News That whites-only, no Jews allowed Arkansas community is legal, says state’s attorney general. How?
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Opinion As an Israeli political scientist, I resisted thinking this war was a genocide. Here’s what changed my mind
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News In a first, Orthodox rabbinical school ordains an out gay rabbi
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Fast Forward From Shabbat dinners to ‘Talmudic discourse’: Jewish women killed in NYC shooting leave legacies of faith and family
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Fast Forward Historic Ukrainian synagogue significantly damaged by Russian drone strike
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Opinion In that horrific video of a man digging his own grave, Israelis are seeing something that Americans aren’t
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Opinion Netanyahu’s new Gaza plan is a disaster. But it contains a tiny kernel of wisdom
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Culture In a first-of-its-kind museum, mezuzahs keep memories of pre-war Poland alive
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