A force for constructive communal consciousness
(JTA) – The Anglican Church of Canada is close to removing a prayer for the conversion of the Jews from its official liturgy.
The church’s General Synod overwhelmingly approved its deletion during a recent meeting in Vancouver, the Canadian Jewish News (CJN) reported. [Read more…]
Israeli policemen take their positions during a march by Jewish boys from the Damascus Gate to the Western Wall to mark the 51st anniversary of the reunification of Jerusalem, May 13, 2018. (Ilia Yefimovich/Getty Images)
JERUSALEM (JTA) – An east Jerusalem resident is suing the Israeli police for planting a gun in his home while filming an episode of a reality television show.
“Jerusalem District,” which purports to show the police in real-life situations and is produced by Israel’s public broadcaster, followed a team of officers late last year as they raided Samer Sleiman’s home in the Arab neighborhood of Isawiyah. The episode, which aired late last month, showed policemen finding a rifle. Sleiman was surprised, as he was not charged and the police had told him they had not found anything. [Read more…]
Yair Lapid responded to criticism over a video he tweeted by saying “there is real anti-Semitism in the world” and Jews are being “shot in synagogues.” (Jack Guez/AFP/Getty Images)
JERUSALEM (JTA) – Yair Lapid, leader of the centrist Yesh Atid party, tweeted a video that some have perceived as reinforcing antisemitic stereotypes about money-grubbing Jews.
Lapid, who is second on the Blue and White centre-left alliance’s list in the September Knesset election, has come under fire from political rivals on the right for the satirical video portraying a WhatsApp group chat between a number of political leaders who are asked to swear loyalty to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, “the first of his name, messenger of God, leader of the right and father of dragons.” [Read more…]
A housing development in the Israeli West Bank settlement of Efrat, a bedroom community outside Jerusalem. Demand for housing there has risen as Israelis seeking a suburban lifestyle have become less concerned with settlement living. (Ben Sales/JTA)
(JTA) – The United Nations has called on Israel to back down after it advanced the construction of more than 2,300 housing units for West Bank settlements.
“The expansion of settlements has no legal effect and constitutes a flagrant violation of international law,” United Nations Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process Nickolay Mladenov said in a statement Wednesday. “By advancing the effective annexation of the West Bank, it undermines the chances for establishing a Palestinian state based on relevant UN resolutions, as part of a negotiated two-state solution.” [Read more…]
Avigdor Liberman (centre) holds a news conference in Tel Aviv, May 30, 2019. (Flash90)
JERUSALEM (JTA) – Yisrael Beiteinu leader Avigdor Liberman reiterated his demand for the passage of a haredi Orthodox draft bill on Wednesday.
His insistence on the measure several months ago had caused coalition negotiations to collapse, forcing the new election scheduled for Sept. 17. [Read more…]
Banners for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s election campaign in Tel Aviv show him alongside Vladimir Putin, right, and Donald Trump, July 28, 2019. (Adam Shouldman/Flash90)
JERUSALEM (JTA) – Israel’s ruling Likud Party has launched a new ad campaign featuring Russian President Vladimir Putin, coinciding with one of the Kremlin’s largest crackdowns on political dissent in years.
Large multi-story banners featuring Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu with Putin, as well as alongside U.S. President Donald Trump and Indian premier Narendra Modi were unfurled on three sides of the party’s Tel Aviv headquarters on Sunday as part of a new campaign showcasing the Israeli leader’s relations with heads of state across the globe.
An accompanying video sent to reporters featured clips of Netanyahu chatting with the three leaders. Netanyahu frequently boasts of his diplomatic skills and close relationships with his counterparts abroad. [Read more…]
Then-Israeli defence minister Avigdor Liberman speaking in the Knesset in Jerusalem, Feb. 19, 2018. (Hadas Parush/Flash90)
JERUSALEM (JTA) – So just who is Avigdor Liberman, the man who single-handedly forced Israelis to go to the polls for an unprecedented second time in a year?
And is he really the champion of secular right-wing Zionism that he would have voters believe? [Read more…]
Newly ordained Rabbi Daniel Atwood is congratulated by Rabbi Daniel Landes at the Jerusalem Theater on May 26, 2019. (Sam Sokol)
JERUSALEM (JTA) – A gay rabbinical student denied ordination by a liberal seminary in New York was welcomed into the rabbinate in Jerusalem, breaking a longstanding taboo against homosexuality in the Orthodox community.
Daniel Landes, a prominent American-Israeli rabbi, granted semichah, Hebrew for ordination, to Daniel Atwood alongside a mixed group of men and women at the Jerusalem Theater on Sunday evening during a ceremony attended by more than 200 guests. [Read more…]
Rabbi Daniel Landes delivers a speech at a conference in Jimbaran, on Bali island, June 12, 2007. (Sonny Tumbelaka/AFP/Getty Images)
JERUSALEM (JTA) – A gay rabbinical student denied ordination by a liberal Orthodox seminary in New York will become a rabbi under the auspices of an Orthodox rabbi here on Sunday, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency has learned.
Daniel Atwood, 27, was informed earlier this year that he would not be ordained after completing his studies at New York’s Yeshivat Chovevei Torah despite the school previously saying it would ordain him. While there has been a significant increase in empathy for LGBTQ Jews in recent years within the Orthodox community, inclusion has rarely reached the level of communal leadership, and same-sex marriage is universally prohibited. [Read more…]
British Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn addresses the crowd in Trafalgar Square in London, England, July 13, 2018. (NIKLAS HALLEN/AFP/Getty Images)
(JTA) – A Jewish advocacy group in London has accused the British Labour Party of “endemic anti-Jewish behaviour” and wants the government to investigate.
The report by Labour Against Anti-Semitism contains “15,000 screenshots taken from hundreds of Labour members ‘and officials’ promoting anti-Semitic views.” It was submitted to the British Equality and Human Rights Commission and seeks a “full-scale anti-Semitism probe.” [Read more…]