The wonderful visit of Oz

August 08, 2013

By BEN SALES

TEL AVIV (JTA) — Dr. Mehmet Oz sat down to talk with JTA on the Tel Aviv coast last week, but what he really wanted to do was go to the beach.

Oz, the surgeon and well-known...

Israeli firm plans gas pipelines to Turkey, other Mideast countries

August 07, 2013

JERUSALEM (JTA) — An Israeli energy company announced plans to export natural gas via pipelines through Turkey and other countries in the Middle East.

The Delek Group, the parent firm for several energy and gas exploration companies, said in its...

Women of the Wall, shielded by police, raises Torah scroll and blows shofar

August 07, 2013

JERUSALEM (JTA) — Women of the Wall blew a shofar at the back of the Western Wall Plaza and raised a Torah scroll at the plaza’s gate under a heavy police barricade.

The police shielded the the estimated 300 women...

Women of the Wall, haredim urged to avoid clashes over Ramadan concerns

August 07, 2013

JERUSALEM (JTA) — Jerusalem police asked haredi Orthodox members of the Jerusalem City Council and Women of the Wall leaders to refrain from confrontation at the Western Wall Plaza this week.

Women of the Wall will hold its monthly Rosh...

As peace talks kick off, right wing intensifies efforts to influence their outcome

August 07, 2013

By RON KAMPEAS

WASHINGTON (JTA) — Israeli settler leader Dani Dayan has made it his mission over the years to warn members of Congress, particularly Republicans, of the perils of Israeli-Palestinian peace talks.

Dayan has been a regular visitor to...

Rabbi shot in Russia released from Israeli hospital

August 07, 2013

JERUSALEM (JTA) — A Chabad rabbi shot in what authorities have called a likely terrorist attack in southern Russia was discharged from an Israeli hospital.

Rabbi Artur Ovadia Isakov, 40, was released from Beilinson Hospital in Petach Tikvah on Sunday....

New chief rabbi Lau accused of cheating on ’93 ordination exam

August 07, 2013

JERUSALEM (JTA) — Rabbi David Lau, the recently elected chief Ashkenazi rabbi of Israel, has been accused of cheating on an ordination exam.

Israel’s Channel 2 reported Sunday that Lau in 1993 brought papers with the questions and answers to...

U.S. diplomatic posts in Israel reopen, 19 others in Mideast to remain closed

August 07, 2013

JERUSALEM (JTA) — The U.S. diplomatic missions in Israel reopened after a daylong closure due to what was deemed a credible al-Qaida threat.

While the U.S. embassy in Tel Aviv, and the consulates in Jerusalem and Haifa reopened on Monday,...

Palestinian leader in Canada to Israelis: Get out of Jerusalem or be shot

August 06, 2013

TORONTO (JTA) — A Palestinian community leader in Toronto said Israelis should be given a two-minute warning before being shot.

Addressing the annual Al-Quds Day rally on Saturday, Elias Hazineh, the former president of Palestine House in suburban Toronto, called...

Yitzhak Berman, catalyst for Sabra and Shatila massacre inquiry, dies at 100

August 05, 2013

JERUSALEM (JTA) — Yitzhak Berman, who quit Menachem Begin’s government to protest its resistance to investigating the causes of the 1982 Sabra and Shatila massacre, has died.

Berman died and was buried Sunday on Mount Herzl in Jerusalem with a...