In a rare moment of unity, the kidnapping of three Israeli teens in the West Bank has brought together a Jewish community deeply divided over Israel. Debates over Israeli policy, often fraught with friction, were put aside as communal players from right to left joined in support of efforts to rescue the three yeshiva students…
(Reuters) — The disappearance of three Jewish youths in the occupied West Bank has rocked reconciliation between Palestinian political factions and risks sinking a new unity government, analysts and officials have said. Israel has accused the Islamist group Hamas of orchestrating the kidnapping of the three teenagers last Thursday and has detained at least 240 Palestinians…
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu prepared Israel for a long drawn-out operation to find three missing teenagers as troops expanded the search into a crackdown on the Islamist group accused of abducting them and arrested dozens of its officials. Israel says members of Hamas, which signed a unity deal with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in April,…
(JTA) — On the rolling green fields of a suburban Tel Aviv park, hundreds gathered to pray for the imminent rescue of three kidnapped Israeli teenagers. Rabbis delivered speeches, singer Yonatan Razel performed two pieces based on liturgical invocations of God’s mercy, and a prayer was recited for the safe return of Gilad Shaar, Naftali…
The recent Supreme Court decision in Town of Greece v. Galloway upheld the constitutionality of the town’s prayer before its monthly board meeting. In reaching this conclusion, the majority’s opinion focused on the long-standing tradition of legislative prayers in the United States, dating back to the earliest years of our nation’s history. By this logic,…
Prayer outside the U.S. Supreme Court / Getty Images “For what we are about to receive, may the Lord make us truly thankful, amen.” For ten years I attended a Church of England school and, for every set meal during that time, a version of this grace was said. Although there was a notable minority…
Sometime after I became editorial page editor of The Philadelphia Inquirer in 1994, I was invited to have breakfast with Cardinal Anthony Bevilacqua, the archbishop of Philadelphia. Even though my devout Catholic secretary coached me on how to address him and what I might expect, I was apprehensive – afraid that I would feel uncomfortable…
When I was a girl, on Friday nights, I would compete with my sisters for the privilege of fetching my father’s slippers when he returned home from prayers. My siblings and I would beg for the seat to my father’s left or right at the Sabbath meal. I was often chosen for this honor. My…
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