Author: David Leibermann

(JTA) – On the cusp of forming a new government, incoming Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu defended his inclusion of far-right groups in his coalition amid domestic and global criticism of his alliances with extremist figures. “They’re joining me, I’m not joining them,” Netanyahu said in an NPR interview Thursday during the final stretch of […]

(JTA) — Turkey arrested 44 people on Wednesday for what officials claimed was their involvement with Mossad, the Israeli intelligence service, Turkish media reported.  Those arrested appear to be largely Turkish citizens, and the group includes several private detectives, as well as the director of a private detective firm named Ismail Yetimoglu. No Israelis were […]

TIBERIAS, Israel — In a year when Israel has seen more immigrants move to the country from former Soviet republics than any other year over the last decade, there was plenty to discuss, worry about and celebrate at a major gathering of such Jews at Israel’s only lakeside city, Tiberias. On the first weekend in […]

Shaanan Streett, one-sixth of the Israeli hip-hop/funk group Hadag Nahash, says that it’s all well and good for musicians to advocate for social-justice causes, but that doesn’t mean the music can’t also be fun. Streett seems to have accomplished both goals, as his band’s songs are featured in protests for various causes while remaining catchy […]

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 […]