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Israel News
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A Boy Was Born in Bethlehem — But Which One?
Christian tradition has it that Mary journeyed 75 miles from her home in Nazareth to give birth to Jesus in Bethlehem, the storied town near Jerusalem in what is today the occupied West Bank. But what if she actually traveled less than 5 miles to give birth to Jesus in what is now a tiny…
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Turning Shabbat Into Front in War on Secular Jews
(Haaretz) — There really shouldn’t be anything controversial about a traditional Jewish Friday night dinner. After all, a nice meal with a blessing over candles, wine, and challah bread never hurt anybody. Even secular Israelis who don’t find traditional Jewish practice their cup of tea, or simply embrace the idea of Friday night as “family…
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How Russian Jews Fell in Love With Reform Movement in Israel
(Haaretz) — When worshippers arrive for Friday-night services at Israel’s newest Reform congregation, they don’t greet one another in Hebrew. Not in English either, as they would in some of the more established Reform congregations founded by Anglophone immigrants around the country. At this brand-new congregation in Tel Aviv suburb Ramat Gan, Russian rules. Not only…
The Latest
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How To Be a ‘Friend’ and Get a Tax Break in Return
Let’s say you visit Tel Aviv next month, play paddleball on the beach, and then pop down to Rehovot to ogle the decommissioned Koffler Accelerator at the Weizmann Institute of Science. “Wow,” you say. “That’s a big decommissioned Koffler Accelerator!” Back home, still thinking about the big decommissioned Koffler Accelerator, you discover an urge to…
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Anti-BDS Professors Launch Push To Ban 4 Far Right Israeli Leaders
A nascent group of well-known academics is calling on the U.S. government and European Union to impose personal sanctions on four prominent Israelis “who lead efforts to insure permanent Israeli occupation of the West Bank and to annex all or parts of it unilaterally in violation of international law.” Scholars for Israel and Palestine (SIP)…
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Ashton Carter Brings Record of Friendship With Israel to Pentagon
(JTA) — Ashton Carter has championed the sale to Israel of state-of-the-art combat aircraft, has aligned himself with Iran hawks and was observed becoming misty-eyed when serenaded by Israeli soldiers. Carter, 60, President Obama’s secretary of defense nominee, has been depicted in the media as the un-Chuck Hagel. He’s assertive and a bureaucratic in-fighter where…
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Ultra-Orthodox Women Threatened for Demanding Israel Political Voice
(Haaretz) — The backlash against ultra-Orthodox women who are daring to demand a public voice in government didn’t come as a big surprise, but it did come swiftly and harshly. Last week a formal campaign called “No Female Candidate, No Female Vote” was launched to pressure ultra-Orthodox political parties Shas and the United Torah Judaism…
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Birthright Alumni Program Ends Subsidized Shabbat
Birthright NEXT is ending its subsidized Shabbat meal program for Birthright alumni, the group announced in an email to constituents on December 4. NEXT will also end two similar programs that help pay for Passover seders and High Holiday dinners. The group said that it had helped fund 21,800 events through the three programs since…
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Iconic Mideast Photo Is a Fake — and Heartbreaking One at That
One week into Israel’s war with Gaza this past summer, superstar Rihanna tweeted a photo of an Israeli boy and a Palestinian boy with their arms around each other facing away from the camera: “Let’s pray for peace and a swift end to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict!” she wrote. “Is there any hope?….” The photo was…
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Did an Israeli Researcher Spy On a CalTech Lab?
At first glance, this may seem like a page from a spy novel, complete with a young undercover agent roaming an empty lab after dark, with thousands of files mysteriously uploaded from a computer to a secret server, and with comic relief in the shape of top researcher who signs up her pet cat as…
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American Groups Line Up Against Israel ‘Jewish State’ Bill
(JTA) — It’s not unusual to hear U.S. Jewish groups speaking out against laws that discriminate and framing their protests as protecting Jewish interests. What’s unusual is that the target this time is the Israeli government and the proposed law emphasizes Jewish rights. At issue is Israel’s nation-state bill, which if passed by the Knesset…
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