Author: David Leibermann

TEL AVIV (JTA) — When Daniel Schleider and his wife, Lior, leave Israel next month, it will be for good — and with a heavy heart. “I have no doubt I will have tears in my eyes the whole flight.” said Schleider, who was born in Mexico and lived in Israel for a time as […]

(JTA) — Since December, Israel’s top diplomat in New York has found himself in an odd-couple relationship with the government he represents. Now, that relationship looks like it may be on the rocks after he criticized his government’s signature legislation. Asaf Zamir, Israel’s consul general in New York, was appointed to the position in 2021 […]

(JTA) — An Israeli-American former U.S. Marine was seriously injured in a terror attack in the Palestinian West Bank village of Huwara. David Stern, a resident of the Israeli West Bank settlement of Itamar, was driving through the village with his wife when a Palestinian gunman shot at their car. Stern was hit in his […]

(JTA) — An American Jewish group that has provided aid to Jewish communities in crisis for more than a century has become the target of one of Israel’s newly empowered far-right ministers. Itamar Ben-Gvir, who serves as national security minister, said on Wednesday that he was shutting down a program dedicated to reducing violence in […]

MIAMI (JTA) — They didn’t call it the “Pool of Death” for nothing. After a 3-1 come-from-behind victory over Nicaragua on Sunday, Israel finished the World Baseball Classic with only one additional run over the next three games. Israel lost 10-0 to both Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic, recording only one hit across the […]

(JTA) — Israeli President Isaac Herzog warned of the possibility of civil war if the governing coalition won’t agree to a compromise on its judicial reform legislation. The statement is one of the most dire pronouncements by a senior Israeli official about the tumultuous fallout from the judicial proposal, which has sparked fierce debate, months […]

(JTA) — A delegation of U.S. Jewish federation leaders is lobbying in Israel against the government’s planned overhaul of the judiciary, a rare step that underscores the degree to which the proposed changes have rattled the U.S. Jewish establishment. The delegation came to Israel for 24 hours between Tuesday and Wednesday, and includes representatives of […]

MIAMI (JTA) — The final result wasn’t pretty for Israel, but it almost didn’t matter. This night belongs to Jacob Steinmetz. The 19-year-old Woodmere, New York, native and the first Orthodox Jew to be drafted into Major League Baseball, Steinmetz took the ball for Israel against the Dominican Republic Tuesday in a 10-0 loss in […]

MIAMI (JTA) — As Team Israel celebrated its victory over Nicaragua Sunday afternoon in its opening game of the 2023 World Baseball Classic, there was proof up and down the lineup card of a months-long recruitment process that brought together a slew of major league talent. There was manager Ian Kinsler, a 14-year MLB veteran […]

MIAMI (JTA) — Israel found itself on the wrong side of World Baseball Classic history Monday night as Puerto Rico pitched a combined perfect game, a first in the five editions of the international tournament. The box score says it all. Israel: 0 runs, 0 hits, 2 errors. Puerto Rico: 10 runs, 11 hits. A […]