Category: Israel

TEL AVIV ((JEWISH REVIEW)) — When Jonathan came home after 99 days serving in Israel’s military reserves in and around Gaza and the West Bank, the feeling that stuck with him wasn’t relief or exhaustion. It was anger.  Transitioning back to civilian life was a challenge, as was keeping his emotions in check. He says […]

((JEWISH REVIEW)) — The Israeli military has rescued two hostages in the southern Gaza city of Rafah, the second such rescue since Hamas took hundreds of Israelis captive on Oct. 7. The overnight rescue operation, which was announced in the early hours of Monday morning, Israel time, comes as the Israel Defense Forces are shifting […]

((JEWISH REVIEW)) — Late last month, Jacob Frey, the Jewish mayor of Minneapolis, vetoed his city council’s resolution endorsing a ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war, calling it “a one-sided resolution that adds more division to an already fraught situation.” On Thursday, the council voted to override his veto, adopting a resolution that calls for a […]

WASHINGTON ((JEWISH REVIEW)) — President Joe Biden is conditioning U.S. defense assistance on not impeding the delivery of humanitarian aid, a key point of tension between the U.S. and Israeli governments during the Gaza war. The policy announcement, made Thursday night, followed a trip by Secretary of State Antony Blinken to Israel that has put […]

((JEWISH REVIEW)) — Assaf Lowengart’s introduction to American baseball didn’t go well: A fan accidentally doused him in beer when his family, having relocated from Israel to Milwaukee for a year, attended a Brewers game. Then in first grade, he cried. Yet Lowengart soon caught the baseball bug, rising in the ranks of Israel’s nascent […]

Jared Genser, a Washington, D.C.-based international human rights lawyer, has extracted hostages and political prisoners from some of the world’s worst dictatorships — usually in one-off deals following years of negotiation and on a rare occasion involving large sums of money.  But he’s concerned that piecemeal dealmaking with rogue actors encourages more kidnappings. So Genser […]

((JEWISH REVIEW)) — An array of left-leaning Israeli human rights groups has called for an immediate ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war. Their statement echoed the views of some of the families of the hostages still held by Hamas. It also was a sign of the way Jewish Israelis’ virtually wall-to-wall support for the war is […]

WASHINGTON ((JEWISH REVIEW)) — As Congress debates various bills that would send emergency military aid to Israel, Jewish groups across the political spectrum have advocated for their passage.  But the push for aid ended up dividing those groups on another issue that often animates Jewish activism: immigration reform. Legacy Jewish groups parted ways over whether […]

((JEWISH REVIEW)) — An outspoken American-born rabbi and left-wing human rights activist has been charged with obstructing soldiers in the West Bank, one of whom was a far-right settler who was himself charged with a hate crime in 2015.   The indictment comes as violence has risen in the West Bank, and as the Biden administration […]

When Alon Fishman visited Israel in early January on a group trip, it wasn’t his first time in the country. But Fishman, 23, had never seen Israel like this before. When his Birthright Israel group arrived at the Western Wall, they found it uncharacteristically empty, and the plaza featured a new memorial with the names […]