Author: David Leibermann

Matan Kahana was an F-16 fighter pilot in the Israeli Air Force, so he’s not one to back down from a difficult mission. When he entered politics and served as Israel’s minister of religious services in Naftali Bennett’s coalition government, Kahana gave himself a politically perilous assignment: to loosen the grip of haredi Orthodox rabbis […]

(JTA) — Benjamin Netanyahu, the incoming Israeli prime minister who has said that Donald Trump was Israel’s best-ever friend in the White House, said the former president’s dinner a week ago with two antisemites was a “mistake.” ‘I think that that’s what I would say about President Trump’s decision to dine with this person I […]

(JTA) — Itamar Ben-Gvir, the right-wing Israeli politician called a “pyromaniac” by his critics because of his penchant for inflaming his country’s deep tensions, will head Israel’s police forces, under the terms of a deal inked with Benjamin Netanyahu early Friday. The deal would expand the ministry of internal security, the old name of the […]

(New York Jewish Week) — Like so many people, I feel like I’ve known Itzhak Perlman my entire life (thank you, “Sesame Street”). And now, I finally had the opportunity to see and hear the Israeli-American violin virtuoso perform in person. And not just perform: At a fundraising event Tuesday for the nonprofit Amit Children, […]

(JTA) — Two bombs rocked bus stops at crowded entrances to Jerusalem early Wednesday morning, killing a teenager and sending about 20 people to the hospital, some in serious condition. The fatality was a 16-year-old yeshiva student named Aryeh Shtsupak from Har Nof, a largely Orthodox neighborhood in Jerusalem. He may have held Canadian and […]

TEL AVIV (JTA) — On a recent Monday, the owner of a restaurant here captivated a group of 14 lunch patrons with stories of her life before and after moving to Israel from Ethiopia as a youngster. A family visiting from New York approached from another table, and the adult son asked if he could […]

(JTA) – Birthright Israel is drastically cutting back on the number of free trips it plans to offer to Jewish young adults, scaling back its operations by up to a third, the organization announced Monday. The cuts come amid what the organization said is a mix of financial pressures: inflation, heightened travel expenses in a […]

(JTA) — A plaza in Jerusalem’s Kiryat Hayovel neighborhood has been named after Aristides de Sousa Mendes, a Portuguese diplomat who saved thousands of lives during the Holocaust but spent the rest of his life as a social pariah. “This small corner of Jerusalem, the eternal city, now carries the name of a hero,” Jerusalem […]

(JTA) — A Palestinian assailant killed three Israelis in an extended attack before being shot dead in the northern West bank settlement of Ariel on Tuesday. The attack comes after a period of relative calm following a wave of Palestinian stabbing attacks in the spring, which spurred a series of Israeli raids in the northern […]

TEL AVIV and JERUSALEM (JTA) — It was the day before Israel’s Nov. 1 election. In a classroom in downtown Jerusalem, Avi Rose was teaching  about Jewish identity through art to a group of Jewish students from abroad spending a gap year in Israel. Suddenly, movement outside caught his eye. Rose stopped his lecture and approached […]