This week in power: Election coming and Syrian Bibles

A roundup of the most talked about political and global stories in the Jewish world this week:

Netanyahu update
“As Israel’s election campaign began this week, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu did not aim his opening shot at foes like Iran or Hamas. He addressed the more immediate concerns of many Israelis: their low bank accounts and empty wallets,” ” target=”_blank”>wrote Shmuel Rosner in The New York Times.

For many, however, Netanyahu's legacy and standing will be judged based on foreign policy interests. “Netanyahu’s reign has run its course. The new election offers Israelis a historic opportunity to elect new visionary and courageous leaders who will first and foremost commit themselves to seek peace with the Palestinians and preserve Israel’s democratic principles,” ” target=”_blank”>reported the Associated Press. “Known as the Crowns of Damascus, the nine leather-bound parchment books — some featuring microscopic calligraphy and gold-leaf illumination — were written mostly in Spain and Italy between 700 and 1,000 years ago.”

This isn't the first time Syrian texts have made headlines. “The Syrian Jewish community has a checkered history of dealing with ancient books and manuscripts in its possession. Some were ripped up into individual pages or small sections by Syrian Jews fleeing the country. But many of those pages were never reunited after leaving the country and are thought to be held by individual Syrian Jewish families in New York and Israel as talismans,”