The Israeli government announced it will authorize some houses in two West Bank outposts because they are built on state land. However, some houses in the Givat Hayovel outpost near the West Bank settlement of Eli will be demolished within a year because they were built on Palestinian-owned land.
The City University of New York has voted not to honor playwright Tony Kushner with an honorary degree at its commencement after a board member objected, citing the Pulitzer Prize winner\’s anti-Israel statements. The New York Jewish Week reported that the request by CUNY\’s John Jay College to recognize Kushner was turned down at a board of trustees meeting Monday after board member Jeffrey Wiesenfeld objected. Kushner would have been eligible to speak at the graduation ceremony.
A homeless man was indicted by a federal grand jury on charges of detonating an explosive device outside a Southern California Chabad House. Ron Hirsch, 60, also known as Israel Fisher, was indicted in Los Angeles on Tuesday for the April 7 blast at the Santa Monica Chabad House, which forced the evacuation of the Jewish center and synagogue during early morning prayers.
Robert Wexler, president of American Jewish University (AJU), eschews the labels of Judaism’s mainstream denominations. “I’m Jewish,” Wexler said last week. “Religious.”
I have danced in Rabin Square! That’s a major happening in Tel Aviv the night of Yom HaAtzmaut, Independence Day in Israel. I have bounced my noise-making hammer off my fellow dancers all around me. That is also a major happening on Independence Day. I have no idea what the symbolic meaning of those plastic hammers is, but they are everywhere on Independence Day. The day before, I have stood silently by my car in the middle of a busy roadway. For miles and miles I could see the cars stopped and the people standing at attention. They were answering the call of remembrance signaled by the sirens heard all over the State of Israel. We stood to honor all those heroes who had fallen while defending this land of freedom, redemption, and incredible opportunity. Yes, I have danced many times in Rabin Square to celebrate Yom HaAtzmaut, but this Independence Day, it is different.
U.S. President Barack Obama has decided not to release photos of al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden dead, U.S. television networks said on Wednesday.
Maj. Gen. Amos Yadlin, Israel\’s former military intelligence chief, is joining the influential Washington Institute for Near East Policy think tank. Yadlin, who just retired, will be the Kay Fellow on National Security, the institute announced Wednesday.
A coalition of documentation preservation groups, including national archives from six nations, is launching a portal that accesses records on stolen Nazi-era cultural property.
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