A force for constructive communal consciousness
JERUSALEM (JTA) – Shas party chair Aryeh Deri will resign from the Knesset, but remain in his position as Israel’s interior minister.
Deri made the announcement Monday at a party meeting ahead of the start of the parliament’s winter session. He also holds the Negev and Galilee Development portfolio and serves as a member of the security Cabinet. [Read more…]
JERUSALEM (JTA) – Members of Israel’s ruling government coalition boycotted speeches by lawmakers of the Arab Joint List at the opening of the Knesset’s winter session, and the Arab lawmakers responded by walking out on the address by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
The coalition said in advance of the Israeli parliament’s opening on Monday that its members would boycott the Joint List to demonstrate its anger at the party’s decision to boycott the funeral last month of former president Shimon Peres. [Read more…]
(JTA) – Three Israeli soldiers were wounded in a shooting attack at a West Bank checkpoint carried out by a member of the Palestinian Authority security forces, the Israel Defense Forces said.
One of the soldiers was in serious condition following Monday afternoon’s attack in which the assailant opened fire with an AK-47 assault rifle. The wounded were taken to Jerusalem-area hospitals. [Read more…]
JERUSALEM (JTA) – The Israeli government requested a delay in the evacuation of a West Bank settlement outpost in order to better prepare new housing for its residents.
On Monday, the State Attorney’s Office asked for a delay of seven months from the Dec. 25 deadline ordered by the Supreme Court to evacuate Amona, saying it could not arrange alternative housing for the residents before the target date. The government indicated that it would go ahead with the demolition of the settlement on time if required. [Read more…]
A passport photograph of Swedish architect, businessman and diplomat Raoul Wallenberg taken in Budapest, Hungary, June 1944. (Laski Diffusion/East News/Getty Images)
(JTA) – A Swedish government agency has declared Raoul Wallenberg, the Swedish diplomat who saved thousands of Hungarian Jews from the Nazi gas chambers, as dead.
The Swedish Tax Authority, which registers births and deaths in Sweden, confirmed to The Associated Press (AP) that a report Monday in the Expressen newspaper that Wallenberg had been declared dead was accurate. The decision was made last week following a request for a ruling by the trustee of Wallenberg’s estate. [Read more…]
Intermarried couples whose weddings were officiated by Jewish clergy as the only officiant are more highly engaged in Jewish life than other intermarried couples, a new study has found. (Ashley Novack)
WALTHAM, Mass. (JTA) – At a summit meeting held last week at the National Museum of American Jewish History, several hundred communal professionals, rabbis, scholars, philanthropists and young intermarried couples gathered to discuss engagement of interfaith families in Jewish life.
There is widespread communal agreement that intermarriage has reshaped the landscape of American Jewish life, but a lack of consensus regarding how best to respond to this development. At the forefront of the controversy has been rabbinic officiation at intermarriage ceremonies. [Read more…]
JERUSALEM (JTA) – A Knesset committee advanced a bill that would require Internet service providers in Israel to block pornographic and other websites deemed offensive by the country’s communications minister – currently Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu – unless otherwise instructed by a customer.
The bill, which was unanimously approved Sunday, moves to the Knesset for amendments and approval. [Read more…]
(JTA) – A 23-year-old man who broke into the Florida Holocaust Museum did not damage any of the displays or steal anything.
St. Petersburg Police arrested Christopher Michael Venegas early Sunday morning, according to local reports. Surveillance camera footage at the museum in the Gulf Coast Florida city showed Venegas breaking an electronic keypad and call box, which sent a signal to the police, who arrived minutes later. [Read more…]
JERUSALEM (JTA) – Benjamin Netanyahu will visit four countries in the coming months, including three that he said have never been visited by a sitting Israeli prime minister.
Netanyahu announced Sunday at the weekly Cabinet meeting that he will travel to Australia, Singapore and Kazakhstan, as well as Azerbaijan, where he made a quick stop in 1997. [Read more…]
(JTA) – The American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) has cancelled Israeli journalist Ari Shavit’s participation in its events after two women accused Shavit of sexual assault.
AIPAC, the pro-Israel lobby, confirmed the decision to JTA after Mondoweiss, an anti-Israel publication, reported that a Nov. 10 San Francisco Bay Area event jointly put on by AIPAC and the local Jewish Community Relations Council (JCRC) had been cancelled. [Read more…]