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Major Donor Saban Unhappy With Obama

05/16/2010 | JTA

WASHINGTON (JTA) -- A major pro-Israel Democratic Party campaign donor says the Obama administration's Middle East policy unsettles him.

"The situation is catastrophic, if you want me to put it simply," Haim Saban, an entertainment magnate, told Israel's Channel 10 news on May 13. "Look, I don’t think Obama is anti-Israel, like people think he is. His goal is to achieve peace, just like our goal is to achieve peace. The way he intends to do it may not be the way some people in Israel would like it, and especially on the right."

Shavuot’s Gift: What to do After ‘Lost’

05/16/2010 | Ami Eden | JTA

NEW YORK (JTA) -- Early on in the Talmudic tractate of Taanit, Rabbi Yitzchak causes a bit of stir when, in the name of Rabbi Yochanan, he declares: "Jacob our father did not die."

Rav Nachman rejects the idea with a sharp retort, asking: "Was it then for nothing that they mourned Jacob and the embalmers embalmed him and the grave-diggers buried him?"

Mumbai Chabad to Open Museum to Victims

05/16/2010 | JTA

(JTA) -- Mumbai's Chabad Jewish center, where six Jews were killed in 2008, will open a museum.

A small memorial and educational center will be opened at the five-story complex, the French news agency AFP reported.

The fifth floor of the building reportedly will be set up the way it was when Chabad emissaries Rabbi Gavriel and Rivkah Holtzberg and their son, Moshe, lived there, according to the report, citing the Mumbai Mirror newspaper. The bullet holes will be left as well.

Pat Buchanan Slams Obama Over Kagan

05/16/2010 | JTA

(JTA) -- Syndicated columnist Pat Buchanan slammed President Obama for nominating a Jewish woman to serve on the U.S. Supreme Court.

White House Meets With Rabbis to Assuage Concerns on Israel

05/14/2010 | Ron Kampeas | JTA

WASHINGTON (JTA) -- If you tell the rabbis, they will spread the word.

That was the thinking behind two intimate White House meetings -- the second of which took place on Thursday -- with a carefully selected slate of 15 rabbis from across the country and representing the Orthodox, Reform and Conservative streams.