Author: David Leibermann

(JTA) — Two popular Israeli singers — one the “Madonna of the East,” the other the “king” of Mizrahi music as well as a convicted rapist — have teamed up on a new song in honor of their country’s 75th birthday. The twist: Both Ofra Haza and Zohar Argov have been dead for decades. Their […]

(New York Jewish Week) — A pilot for El Al, Israel’s flagship airline, took to his plane’s public address system on Yom Hashoah, Israel’s Holocaust Remembrance Day, to express solidarity with anti-government protests in his country. Speaking on a Tuesday morning flight from Tel Aviv to New York City’s John F. Kennedy International Airport, pilot […]

When Rabbi David Wallach was looking for an institution to help him become a better Jewish day school teacher, he was frustrated to find that most of the places he researched offered either training in Jewish studies or general teacher training. It was hard to find both. Then he discovered the Pardes Teacher Fellowship in […]

(JTA) — The umbrella group for Jewish federations defended its decision to invite Benjamin Netanyahu to its conference in Tel Aviv next week, while praising the protesters who want the Israeli prime minister to be snubbed.  The conference, called the General Assembly and beginning on Sunday night, has historically been the signature gathering of the […]

(JTA) — Marcus Mumford, the lead singer and guitarist of British folk rock band Mumford and Sons, will perform in a pre-recorded music video at a joint Israeli-Palestinian memorial service in Tel Aviv next week, giving a celebrity imprimatur to an event that draws perennial controversy in Israel. Mumford has been involved with one of […]

TEL AVIV (JTA) — The first time Gidon Lev encountered Holocaust denial was after becoming an unwitting TikTok star at the age of 86. “I was totally shocked. How could this be?” he told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency about receiving dozens of comments accusing him of lying about the years in a Nazi concentration camp […]

(JTA) — Jonny Greenwood, the guitarist of the acclaimed band Radiohead and an Oscar-nominated composer, has made an album with Israeli rock musician Dudu Tassa. “Jarak Qaribak,” or “Your Neighbor is Your Friend” in Arabic, will be released through World Circuit records on June 9 and features artists from throughout the Middle East, including Palestinian […]

(JTA) — Israel’s government has banned the entry of Jews to Jerusalem’s Temple Mount through the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan later this month, a decision prompted by heightened Israeli-Palestinian tensions. In past years, the mount has been the site of clashes during Ramadan between Israeli security forces and Muslim worshippers. Such […]

(JTA) — A British-Israeli woman who was injured in a West Bank shooting attack that killed two of her daughters has died of her wounds. Lucy Dee, 48, died on Monday, three days after her daughters Rina, 15, and Maia, 20, were killed in a drive-by shooting in the northern Jordan Valley. The Palestinian shooters […]

(JTA) — Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu withdrew his firing of Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, citing a sharp rise in violence in recent days, and suggested that proposed changes to the country’s judicial system that have sparked widespread protest were no longer imminent. In another concession to the hundreds of thousands of Israelis who have flooded […]