Breaking News

On Eve of Washington Talks: Barak, Abbas Hold Secret Meeting

08/31/2010

JERUSALEM (JTA) -- Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak reportedly met secretly with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas on the eve of peace talks.

Barak met with Abbas Sunday night in Amman, Israeli media reported, hours after meeting with Jordan's King Abdullah at his palace. Barak reportedly returned to Israel to brief Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu between the meetings.

Shots fired from Turkish Embassy in Tel Aviv

08/17/2010

(JTA) - Shots reportedly were fired from inside the Turkish Embassy in Tel Aviv. Israeli media have reported that a Palestinian from Ramallah barricaded himself inside the building Tuesday night with two hostages. He allegedly was threatening to “kill any Jews” who enter, according to Haaretz.

The streets around the embassy have been closed. Embassy staff reportedly have prevented police and medical personnel from entering the building.

Israeli army slams ex-soldier for Facebook photos

08/17/2010

(JTA) - A former Israeli soldier is being criticized for posting Facebook photos of herself with Palestinian prisoners.

Eden Aberjil put the pictures in an online album on her Facebook page called “The army: the best days of my life,” according to a BBC report.

In one photo widely circulating on the Internet, Aberjil is smiling in the foreground while three blindfolded Palestinian prisoners sit behind her.

Harvard says it’s not divesting from Israel

08/17/2010

WASHINGTON (JTA) - Harvard University said the sale of some of its investments in Israel was not politically motivated and it is not divesting from Israel.

Harvard spokesman John Longbrake told Foreign Policy that the university sold $39 million in stocks in five Israeli companies because Israeli stocks could no longer be considered part of the emerging markets portfolio, where they previously had been held.

Wiesenthal Center Opposes Ground Zero Mosque

08/06/2010 | Adam Dickter | Assistant Managing Editor

The latest Jewish organization to weigh in on the Ground Zero mosque controversy is opposed to the project, siding with the Anti-Defamation League in what had been a lonely stand against the proposed $100 million Cordoba House on Park Place.

Sendak gives $1 million to N.Y. Jewish agency

08/02/2010

NEW YORK (JTA) -- Children's book author Maurice Sendak has given $1 million to the Jewish Board of Family & Children’s Services of New York.

Sendak, 82, who wrote the iconic children’s book “Where the Wild Things Are,” gave the money in honor of his life partner, Eugene Glynn, a longtime psychiatrist for the organization.

The money will go toward general operating support, and the organization will name one of its 15 clinics after Glynn, who died in 2007, according to The Wall Street Journal.