February 27, 2014
By CINDY SHER
CHICAGO (JUF News) — Actor, director and writer Harold Ramis died Monday morning, Feb. 24, at his Glencoe, Ill., home. Ramis, 69, died from complications from vasculitis, an autoimmune disorder that leads to inflammation and damage to blood vessels, according to the Associated Press.
Ramis’s filmography reads like an encyclopedia of great comic movies of the last 30 years. He was the brains–either writer, director or both–behind...
February 27, 2014
JERUSALEM (JTA) — Israeli police launched an investigation into a well-known haredi Orthodox rabbi’s statement that Finance Minister Yair Lapid could be assassinated in the same way as Yitzhak Rabin.
Rabbi Dov Halbertal made his remarks in an interview this week on Galei Israel Radio.
“I had a guest over on Shabbat, an important scholar, and he told me something astounding that I think had a lot of truth to...
February 27, 2014
JERUSALEM (JTA) — Jordan’s parliament voted to expel Israel’s ambassador to Amman and recall its envoy following a Knesset debate about Israel regaining sovereignty over the Temple Mount.
The vote on Wednesday is not binding on the Jordanian Cabinet, which has the final decision. The government is unlikely to approve the measure, according to reports.
A day earlier, 47 Jordanian lawmakers signed a statement calling for the 1994 peace treaty...
February 27, 2014
(JTA) — The Israeli government tentatively agreed to a deal that puts a right-wing organization in charge of the Robinson’s Arch area of the Western Wall.
Under the draft agreement, the government transfers control of the Jerusalem Archaeological Park and Davidson Center to the City of David Foundation, Haaretz reported. The foundation runs the City of David tourist site in Jerusalem’s Old City and works to settle Jews in Silwan,...
February 26, 2014
By RON KAMPEAS
WASHINGTON (JTA) — When Rep. Eric Cantor took the stage last week at the Virginia Military Institute to deliver a wide-ranging foreign policy address, Auschwitz was on the House majority leader’s mind — and so, observers suggest, was the state of his party.
In his speech, the Virginia Republican cited his recent visit — his first — to the Nazi death camp, connecting past horrors to the...
February 26, 2014
BERLIN (JTA) — A caricature of Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg in a German newspaper has drawn charges of anti-Semitism against the artist and newspaper.
The Simon Wiesenthal Center protested the depiction of Zuckerberg by artist Burkhard Mohr in the Suddeutsche Zeitungas daily Feb. 21 featuring the 29-year-old Jewish entrepreneur as an octopus reaching with its tentacles to control social media — a comment on Facebook’s acquisition of WhatsApp announced last...
February 26, 2014
JERUSALEM (JTA) — Israeli police entered the Temple Mount to disperse dozens of Palestinian youths who threw rocks and firecrackers at security forces.
Three Palestinian rioters were arrested and two policemen were hurt in Tuesday morning’s confrontation.
Some 50 protesters had slept at the Temple Mount overnight Monday in advance of a Knesset debate scheduled for Tuesday on extending Israeli sovereignty over the site, which is holy to Jews and...
February 26, 2014
JERUSALEM (JTA) – Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu would neither confirm nor deny that Israel had struck a target in Lebanon.
The Lebanese media reported Monday that an Israeli airstrike hit a site in Lebanon known for its arms smuggling and recruitment for Hezbollah.
On Tuesday, during a news conference with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Netanyahu declined to answer directly whether Israeli Air Force jets had attacked what the Lebanese...
February 26, 2014
By TALIA LAVIN and CNAAN LIPHSHIZ
(JTA) — The turmoil in Ukraine has left one of Europe’s largest Jewish communities on edge.
After an outbreak of violence in Kiev last week that left dozens of protesters and policemen dead, President Viktor Yanukovych fled the capital and parliament installed an interim leader to take the still-contested reins of power.
Like their compatriots, Ukraine’s Jews are waiting to see what the future...
February 26, 2014
WASHINGTON (JTA) — U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Treasury Secretary Jack Lew will speak at the annual AIPAC conference.
A spokesman for the American Israel Public Affairs Committee confirmed the administration speakers but did not give the dates of their speeches at next week’s event.
Also speaking at the conference, which is expected to draw a record-breaking 14,000 activists, is Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
The activists plan...