Leaders are expected to discuss options at emergency meeting in Brussels later this week

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IDF announces launch of a ‘wide-scale’ counter-terrorism operation in Hebron * Australia parliament returns with moment of silence for victims of Bondi Hanukkah terror attack

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'It's a 'Trump United Nations' that ignores the fundamentals of the UN charter,' one diplomat says of initiative currently focused on Gaza

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Athlete seen wearing same message before Sunday's latest match

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'Jewish life in Jackson is still here, and we are not going anywhere,' says student rabbi Benjamin Russell

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Regime hints it may go forward with executing protesters; CEO of Iran's second-largest telecom company fired for not blocking internet, as shutdown returns after briefly easing

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Bill says 'trust in law enforcement is very low' due to leaks, selective enforcement, personal interests, as Otzma Yehudit MK continues coalition push against Gali Baharav-Miara

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'A senior officer in Military Intelligence wants to give me urgent documents to the PM,' Eli Feldstein wrote to Netanyahu's key adviser Jonatan Urich in 2024, police tell court

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Truce leaves much of Kurdish-majority northwest under Damascus control for first time in decade; Sharaa proclaims victory for 'Syrians of all backgrounds'

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Responding to petitions by civil society groups, government's lawyers say letting court order such a probe 'would tear apart the principle of separation of powers'

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Raid led by Ben Gvir's former pick for police chief reportedly sees forces march 60 former prisoners to entrance of Shuafat and snap group photo of them next to Israeli flags

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Ministerial committee approves a draft bill for shared ride-hailing services to operate in Israel, aiming to increase transportation supply and reduce taxi fares

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We talk about Sponder’s rise from clubs to sold-out theaters, why Jewish humor matters right now, and what it means to perform with real stakes.

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During Knesset hearing, alleged victims warn against Silvan Shalom leading state-owned Israel Aerospace Industries: 'You are placing Israel's security in the hands of a rapist'

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Diaspora Affairs Minister Amichai Chikli joins us to explain how these fronts connect - and why uniting the world against radical Islam is critical to defeating antisemitism.

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Netanyahu on Sunday convened several ministers within the senior defense echelon to discuss recent developments in the region. Israeli officials believe that a "US strike on Iran is still an option."

When Shapiro complained about the offensive nature of the double agent question, he was told, “Well, we have to ask,” Shapiro wrote, which “said a lot about some of the people around the VP.”

The operation is expected to continue for several days. During this period, residents may hear explosion sounds and observe increased movement of IDF forces throughout the area.

The clash intensified when Smotrich said, “Who are you anyway? Why are you interfering?" and Amsalem replied, “You’re not speaking politely, don’t call me chutzpan.”

Alireza Jeyrani Hokmabad asked for asylum in Swiss territory not only for himself but also for his family after leaving his workplace.

Khamenei himself bears the responsibility for this bloodshed.

Reports indicated that Israel may have been taken by surprise that Trump had been aloof at first, but was suddenly contemplating an attack on Wednesday.

Anti-regime activists hacked Iran’s Badr satellite, briefly taking over state TV broadcasts to air protest messages and appeals by Reza Pahlavi, according to Iran International and Manoto News.

Alireza Jeyrani Hokmabad asked for asylum in Swiss territory not only for himself but also for his family after leaving his workplace.

The three textbooks and one middle school dictionary included a paragraph stating that "1,200 Jewish settlers" were killed "in a series of Hamas attacks."

The attack shocked the nation and led to calls for tougher action on antisemitism and gun control, with Prime Minister Anthony Albanese pledging tougher action on both.

Ministers said Kushner “derailed” Israel’s 2020 sovereignty declaration and continues to pose obstacles because of close political and economic links with Arab leaders.

As millions recover from the stress of war, JDC is expanding care, harnessing technology, and fostering resilience across Israel

“It was a secret poll which said that 92% of the Iranian people hate their regime,” Sabti said, according to a transcript provided to The Jerusalem Post.

Speaking at the Jerusalem Post Miami Summit on Wednesday, Alshareef called on Israel and the Jewish people to back Iranians seeking freedom, as Netanyahu voiced solidarity with the protesters.

At the Jerusalem Post Miami Conference, TALMA CEO Ido Mahatzri showed how teachers, language and values reshape Israel’s periphery.

Speaking at the Jerusalem Post Miami Conference, IDF veterans and civil-society leaders highlighted service, dignity, and Diaspora responsibility as pillars of Israel’s next chapter.

Amid changing geopolitics and evolving Diaspora-Israel relations, the conference served as a platform for powerful ideas, bold discussions, and building bridges across continents.

Michal Gadisman, who said she previously worked as a senior secretary for former minister Silvan Shalom, also testified, alleging he sexually assaulted her years ago. 

After spotting the police, the driver, a man in his mid-20s, attempted to flee, driving recklessly through open terrain. 

The judge said the defendants’ actions represented a “particularly grave moral failure,” adding that they had shown a “crude trampling of the most basic elements of human compassion.”

These three aircraft are part of a long-standing deal spread over a period of years to raise Israel's fleet from 25 to 50 F-35s.

According to the military, activity in the area is currently ongoing and it is in contact with with the relevant authorities to provide updates on the situation as it develops. 

The day after in Gaza will be decided by whoever takes ownership of it with an executable policy.

The British royal and six others, including Elton John, are suing Associated Newspapers over alleged unlawful practices, including phone hacking and deceptive access to personal data.

The IDF sent out more than half a dozen messages about how ready it was and how strong its air defense capabilities are, only for Netanyahu to privately express the opposite opinion to Trump.

The committee will take care of the regulation of commemorative manners and expression of legacy in IDF units and camps, to provide an in-depth review of honor attribution, the IDF said.

בצה"ל מזהירים מהשלכות התוצאה של המו"מ המתחדש עם א-שרע לתיקוף הפסקת האש בגולן מתקופת אסד: נתיבי התעצמות לחיזבאללה יחודשו, הסיוע לדרוזים ייעצר או לכל הפחות יופחת. בצבא מעדיפים את המודל הלבנוני על העזתי - ומבהירים: "בכל תרחיש נישאר עם כוחות מעובים בגבול הצפון"

אחרי יממה גשומה, מגמת ההתקררות תימשך עד רביעי. גשם מקומי קל צפוי במרכז ובצפון הנגב על הצהריים, בלילה - חשש לקרה. צפו במכ"ם

 בהכירנו את יו"ר ועדת החינוך, חבר הכנסת צבי סוכות, נער גבעות לשעבר שלא שירת בצה"ל, סביר שהוא מבקש להצטרף למקעקעים את דמותו המוסרית של צה"ל בטענה השקרית שערך הניצחון אינו מופיע ברוח צה"ל, למרות שהוא הערך הראשון שמופיע בה

לקראת המעבר לשלב ב' בתוכנית לסיום המלחמה, עזה ניצבת בצומת קריטית בין שיקום אזרחי להסדר ביטחוני שברירי. בצה"ל רואים במעורבות הקטארית סיכון משמעותי וחוששים משחזור המנגנון שאפשר לחמאס להשתקם במשך שנים. יואב זיתון ועינב חלבי מסבירים מה קורה כעת בשטח, איך חמאס נערך לשלב הבא - והאם ישראל מתקרבת להסדרה או לסבב נוסף

18 נרצחים בחברה הערבית ב-2026: צוות מד"א שהוזעק ליישוב סעווה קבע את מותה של האישה, בשנות ה-40 לחייה. המשטרה עצרה את בעלה בחשד למעורבות ברצח

התאונה אירעה בדרום המדינה, סמוך לקורדובה, ומצבם של 30 מהפצועים קשה. אחת הרכבות סטתה מהמסילה, פגעה באחרת – וגרמה גם לה לרדת מהפסים

כוחות פתחו במרדף אחר רכב חשוד באזור ערוער. לפי המשטרה, אחרי נהיגה פרועה והשלכת M16 מהרכב - הנהג איבד שליטה ונהרג. בן גביר: "מגבה את הלוחמים שפעלו בפזורה מול עבריין נשק"

מול הכנסת, בזמן שוועדת החוקה תתכנס ללא סיעות האופוזיציה שמחרימות, תיערך הפגנה נגד ועדת החקירה הפוליטית לחקר אירועי הטבח. משפחות שכולות ייקחו חלק במחאה, אביו של גיא שנרצח ונחטף: "רוצחים אותי יום-יום, אני חטוף בידי המדינה". שמעון, שבנו נרצח בנובה: "חייב לדעת את האמת"

מנכ"ל התעשייה האווירית הביע תקווה שישראל תשתלב בפיתוח מערכת ההגנה הרב-שכבתית שעליה הכריז טראמפ. הסנאטור לינדזי גרהאם, לאחר פגישה עם נתניהו: "רה"מ שכנע אותי שישראל מפתחת נשק שישנה את עתיד הלחימה. אתייחס למיזם הזה כפרויקט מנהטן של המאה ה-21". התכוון ל"כיפת זהב"?

לא מחסור במיירטים או חשש מקריסת ההגנה האווירית: לפי גורמים אמריקנים, הטיעון שהועבר מישראל היה שתוכנית התקיפה שעמדה על הפרק בשבוע שעבר לא הייתה מובילה להפלת המשטר. כעת ארה"ב שוב מעלה הילוך, ולצד יכולות צבאיות מתבצע חיפוש אחר נקודות שבירה פנימיות במערכת האיראנית

ישראל כשלה בעזה. אין לה פתרון לחבל הארץ הזה, לאנשים שחיים בו. החששות של נתניהו מכניסתן לתהליך השיקום של קטאר וטורקיה, שתי תומכות חמאס מובהקות, מבוססים. אבל החלופה שהוא מציע למעשה מסוכנת יותר

כל מי שעיניו בראשו הבין שאם צה"ל חותר לפירוק והשמדת חמאס, מישהו יצטרך לנהל את ענייני רצועת עזה ביום שאחרי- אולם ממשלת ישראל בראשות בנימין נתניהו פשוט סירבה לעשות זאת. זהו אחד המחדלים הגדולים ביותר של המלחמה הזו, מרגע שהחלה

העבודה כבר מזמן אינה מייצגת את תפיסת בן-גוריון כפי שהליכוד אינו ממשיכו של בגין. השמות נשארו, הנשמות התחלפו

הריקבון המוסרי העצום והסירחון הפלילי שנודף מהחבורה שבנימין נתניהו בחר להקיף בה את עצמו הוא לא קארד בלאנש לחקור באזהרה על בסיס כלום בפיתה, או לשלול שוב ושוב חירויות בסיסיות מבלי שהראיות יצדיקו זאת 

מאז 7/10 אלפי משפחות נכנסו למעגל השכול, כשבחלק מהמקרים נוצרו נסיבות ייחודיות שלא קיבלו עד כה ביטוי בחוק. הצעה חדשה צפויה לחולל שינוי דרמטי בזכויות מי שאיבדו הכל - ונשארו מאחור. האוכלוסיות החדשות שיזכו להכרה - ואלה שעדיין לא: "ההורים בסטטוס הלא-נכון"

תקציב המדינה מגיע לכנסת, והדד-ליין להעברתו בקריאה ראשונה יוצר קשיים מול המפלגות החרדיות. בראשם, הדרישה להעביר קודם את חוק הפטור מגיוס - מהלך שלא עמד בזמנים שהוקצבו לו. למרות הפלונטר: ההערכה היא שהקואליציה תצלח את המשבר בזכות מהלך אייכלר-פינדרוס. עושים סדר: השבוע הדרמטי בכנסת

מסיכום סבב מינויי קצינים שאושר בידי כ"ץ עולה כי תא"ל אליעד מואטי, שהיה מפקד חיל הגנת הגבולות ב-7/10, לא יפקד על אוגדה 210. זה הקצין שיקבל את המושכות על האוגדה, שאחראית בין השאר על גזרת הגבול עם סוריה

בסרטונים שפורסמו בערוץ האופוזיציה "איראן אינטרנשיונל" וברשתות החברתיות נראים על מסכיהם של ערוצים איראניים הנקלטים דרך הלוויין מסרים נגד המשטר, תיעודי הפגנות ונאומים של יורש העצר רזא פהלווי: "זהו מסר לצבא - אל תפנו את נשקכם נגד העם, הצטרפו לאומה!". גם פנייה לנשיא הופיעה: "לצד מי אתה, מפיצי השקרים על 'סוכני מוסד'?". הודח מנכ"ל חברת סלולר שלא ניתק את האינטרנט

בכיכר הבימה בת"א התאספו בני משפחה ותומכים לעצרת הזדהות עם משפחת קסאו, בדרישה להגביר את המאמצים להשבת היימנוט, שנראתה לאחרונה בצפת לפני 693 ימים, וקראו להגדירה חטופה: ״ילדה לא ׳נעלמת׳, היא נחטפת״. ראש מטה המאבק: ״זה סיפור של כל הציבור, לא רק של הקהילה האתיופית. יהיו הפגנות נוספות״

"מומחי האו"ם אינם פועלים מדאגה לזכויות אדם, אלא מאג'נדה פוליטית", תקף מנכ"ל UN Watch, בעקבות הדוח שחיבר הארגון. מנתוני הדוח עולה מוסר כפול בקרב 54 מומחים של האו"ם, שאינם מגנים רדיפה דתית באיראן, דיכוי נשים ומפגינים והוצאות להורג - בעוד שתקפו את ישראל בקביעות ובאופן קיצוני

אחרי שבועות של חיפושים, נמצאה גופתה של רות פלת בחיפה. לדברי אמה, היא גילתה על מותה ברשתות החברתיות – ורק כעבור יומיים קיבלה הודעה רשמית: "סבל שאי-אפשר לתאר". המשטרה: "מועד ההודעה נגזר מהשלמת הליכי הזיהוי"

בכיר השב"כ והמוסד לשעבר אליעזר "גייזי" צפריר נפטר בגיל 92. בסוף שנות ה-60 הוא ארגן עליית יהודים מעיראק במסווה של "נופש בהרי כורדיסטן", ב-1979 היה ממונה על תוכנית הפינוי של הישראלים מאיראן לפני המהפכה האיסלאמית. "הקדיש את חייו לביטחון ישראל", ספד לו בנו

שלושה מטוסי F-35I "אדיר" נחתו בבסיס נבטים והוטבע עליהם סמל חיל האוויר. רה"מ כינס דיון עם הרמטכ"ל וראש המוסד. על הפרק: איראן, עזה ומועצת השלום

אי אפשר לנתק את הרעיון לביטול העבירה מהעיתוי בו הוא עולה – כאשר תלויים ועומדים אישומים חמורים בעבירה זו נגד אישי ציבור, ובראשם ראש הממשלה. אם תבוטל העבירה, יתבטלו האישומים, ייפסקו ההליכים, ומי שכבר הורשע – הרשעתו תימחק

במשך שנים התפרנס חאלד נביה אבו סאלח ממאפיית אלנור בסכנין. אחרי שסירב לשלם פרוטקשן לעבריינים הם ירו לעבר העסק ושדדו אותו - והוא החליט לסגור: "לא סומך על אף מילה שיוצאת מפיו של מנהיג ערבי. הפסקתי ללכת למסגד, שומעים שם כל הזמן אותן מילים. שום דבר לא שווה טיפת דם שנשפכת"

העיתונאית נורה בוסיני, שאימה נולדה במרוקו, פעלה כשנה בכסות של פעילה פרו-פלסטינית - ואת ממצאיה פרסמה בספר "האנטישמים החדשים" שהפך לרב-מכר בצרפת. "זה היה כמעט סכיזופרני, ראיתי איך הם מתאגדים סביב השנאה לישראל", סיפרה בריאיון. איומי הרצח שקיבלה, התמיכה מהיהודים - ושורדת השואה שלה הקדישה את הספר

ארה"ב שולחת מטוסי מטען ונושאת מטוסים לאזור, והתיאום עם ישראל הדוק. לפני "עם כלביא" טראמפ הטיל וטו על חיסול המנהיג העליון, וייתכן שהבין מאז שטעה - או שזה צעד טקטי שנועד לגרום לחמינאי להסכים לדרישות. וגם: פגישת הסנאטור הבכיר עם ראש המוסד, ו"הנשק הישראלי שישנה את עתיד הלוחמה"

האם אחמד א-שרע ניצח את ה-SDF ויחסל את כוחו הצבאי של המיעוט הכורדי? אחרי ימי לחימה שהגיעו לשיאם היום, כשצבא המשטר חצה את נהר הפרת, הכריזה הממשלה בדמשק: "נחתם הסכם הפסקת אש מיידית. הכורדים ימסרו את השליטה בא-רקה ודיר א-זור ובמעברי הגבול, חיילי ה-SDF ייסוגו וישולבו במנגנוני הביטחון של המדינה". הכורדים מאשרים נסיגה, ארה"ב כבר בירכה: "נקודת מפנה מכרעת"

מידע ראשוני על "נכס אזרחי" ברצועה הוביל למבצע מעצר ייעודי של "גורם בפתח" שהתגורר במקום. במסגרת חקירתו התקבל המודיעין על המיקום המדויק שבו הוחזק אורון שאול ז"ל, ויממה לאחר מכן נשלחו כוחות לחילוץ. לפי צה"ל ושב"כ, המבצע תוכנן כך שלא יסכן חטופים חיים שהוחזקו באותו זמן בעיר עזה

A Western diplomat involved in efforts to advance US President Donald Trump's plan for the Gaza Strip told Israel Hayom that Netanyahu's announcement on Sunday regarding the Gaza governing committee was warranted. "There were communication breakdowns between the sides," the diplomat said. "At this very moment, work is underway to smooth things over and return to a full agreement with coordination between Jerusalem and Washington." The diplomat declined to go into the substance of the disagreements.

During the World Economic Forum, taking place this week in Davos, an international condemnation of Hamas is expected. The condemnation will be led by President Trump, with dozens of world leaders set to join him.

After the conference, all bodies responsible for administering the Gaza Strip, including Turkey and Qatar, are expected to present Hamas with an unequivocal demand to disarm. The demand will be delivered by the Board of Peace headed by Trump, the Gaza executive board, and the Palestinian "technocratic" government.

A source familiar with the details told Israel Hayom that if Hamas rejects the demand to surrender its weapons, Trump will authorize Israel to address the problem, as he stated openly during his most recent meeting with Netanyahu.

The Gaza Strip. Photo: Reuters

If, however, Hamas agrees to the demand, close monitoring of its full implementation will be required. Both Israeli and American officials assume that Hamas cooperation would be partial and that only some of its weapons would be handed over. It remains unclear how such a scenario would be handled.

Meanwhile, an American official told Israel Hayom that the administration harbors no illusions about the scale of the challenge. He agreed that disarming Hamas is the greatest test facing the Gaza plan.

At the same time, the senior US official said the current administration has already achieved extraordinary results regarding Gaza and the war. "Who would have believed we would bring back all the living hostages and nearly all of the fallen hostages? Who would have believed we could maintain the ceasefire while the Israel Defense Forces control more than half of Gaza?" he said.

He added, "In this period, we managed to establish a technocratic government that is neither Hamas nor the Palestinian Authority and that is acceptable both to Israel and to Arab and Muslim states. All of this could only have happened thanks to President Trump, who cares deeply about what is happening here."

Staff Sgt. Ran Gvili

According to the official, Trump "is throwing his full weight behind the success of the plan, and Israelis need to give it a chance." He said, "The option of resuming the war is always there. But just as we delivered results on other fronts, this effort also deserves an opportunity." The official stressed that the US administration remains committed to securing the return of the last hostage, Ran Gvili.

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The decision not to launch a military strike on Iran was made last week by US President Donald Trump, following a round of talks with regional leaders, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Qatar's prime minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, Oman's Sultan Haitham bin Tariq, and others.

According to senior foreign diplomatic sources, intelligence assessments regarding the level of preparedness of the US military and allied forces in the region, alongside pessimistic evaluations of the likely consequences of a strike within the operational window available that day, weighed even more heavily in Trump's decision.

The sources said that in his conversation with Trump, Netanyahu presented an overview of Israel's defensive preparations, while also sharing intelligence assessments indicating that a limited strike, even if highly precise, could lead to outcomes different from those originally planned.

Rows of bodies lie in a street in Tehran, Iran, January 11, 2026. Photo: AP

Other intelligence agencies in the region shared the assessment that the collapse of the Iranian regime would take time and would not occur as a direct result of an aerial attack. At the same time, they assessed that Iran's ability to respond militarily was far weaker than the bombastic rhetoric voiced by regime leaders. Despite this, the sources said Netanyahu, along with at least two other regional leaders, supports an active approach aimed at toppling the regime in the near term and has committed to providing all necessary support toward that goal.

Not If, but when

The sources assessed that the buildup of US forces in the region is intended to enable a growing range of options, including attack plans and an economic and strategic siege of Iran. In parallel, the US Treasury Department is preparing a new package of sanctions targeting the regime, with a particular focus on senior officials and companies linked to regime leaders and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.

One of the sources told Israel Hayom in this context that a significant American move was not a question of if, but when. According to the source, the correct timing and the nature of the action are under constant review, in full cooperation with all friendly countries in the region.

"The president is determined to bring about the fall of the regime, which is an obstacle to any political and economic progress in the Middle East," the source said. He added that Saudi Arabia had presented a complex position, combining concern over potential Iranian attacks on nuclear facilities with a recognition of the need to significantly reduce Tehran's destructive influence over other regimes in the region.

The US administration is divided over Israel. Photo: AP

A significant role in the decision to refrain from a strike was played by Steve Witkoff, who serves in the US State Department and is referred to by some there as "Naive Steve." Witkoff relayed to Trump a message sent via text by Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, stating that there would be no executions. According to information reaching Israel from Iran, that message was false.

Witkoff also conveyed a similar commitment from Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, along with assurances that gunfire in the streets would cease. An Israeli source told Israel Hayom that Witkoff's lack of experience in dealing with Iran was evident, and that the president later received intelligence indicating that assassinations inside Iran had continued despite those promises.

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Several Iranian state television channels were hacked on Sunday, broadcasting anti-regime messages and footage of protests, according to reports by the opposition outlet Iran International.

The channels, which are carried on the Badr satellite network, aired clips from demonstrations alongside calls by Iran's exiled crown prince, Reza Pahlavi, the son of the deposed shah, urging citizens to join the protests and members of the security forces to side with the demonstrators.

IRAN STATE TV HACKED pic.twitter.com/Gca7xrqya0

— Open Source Intel (@Osint613) January 18, 2026

Iran's state broadcasting authority relies on the Badr satellite to transmit a number of regional television channels across the country. The breach appeared to affect multiple outlets simultaneously, giving viewers rare access to opposition messaging on official state platforms.

In recent days, there has been growing speculation that the US could carry out cyberattacks against Iranian infrastructure as part of a response to the regime's harsh crackdown on protesters. No official confirmation has been issued yet regarding who was responsible for the hack.

Protests in Iran. Photo: Reuters

Iran has been without internet access for the past 10 days, with some 92 million citizens cut off from digital services. The blackout has been accompanied by disruptions to phone lines and text messaging, further isolating the population.

The Iranian government shut down the internet in an effort to suppress the protests, prevent renewed organization by demonstrators, and limit international scrutiny of the methods used to disperse crowds. Since then, much of the country has been plunged into near-total information blackout, with only a small number of people managing to maintain contact with the outside world, mainly through services such as Starlink or by using VPNs and encrypted platforms.

Meanwhile, despite a reported easing in regional tensions, the US continues to deploy forces in the Middle East. The Navy's largest aircraft carrier is making its way toward the region as part of the buildup.

The Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier. Photo: AP

At the center of this military buildup is the aircraft carrier Abraham Lincoln and its strike group, which is en route from the South China Sea to the area of responsibility of US Central Command. The carrier was spotted on Sunday in the Malacca Strait at the entrance to the Indian Ocean, according to maritime tracking applications and open-source reporting. This indicates that the carrier is expected to reach the Persian Gulf area later this week.

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Amid the storm surrounding the establishment of the "peace board," Israel has killed a senior Hamas terrorist named Mohammed al-Houli, also known as Abu Fouad, who served as chief of central camp operations and participated in preparations for the October 7 massacre.

Abu Fouad joins a series of terrorists eliminated during the ceasefire against the backdrop of Hamas violations. Still, many senior figures remain in the organization's Gaza leadership, with accounts still to be settled. These individuals are responsible for attempted force buildup, ongoing violations, refusal to disarm, and a three-month delay in returning all deceased hostages.

The most senior figure eliminated in the past three months was Raad Saad. The founder of Hamas' Nukhba units and naval force, who served for decades as one of the military wing's senior commanders, had climbed to the No. 2 position in the wing after two years of war. Saad, who was killed on December 13 while traveling in his vehicle with bodyguards, oversaw weapons production and was responsible for assembling explosive devices deployed against IDF forces.

In early December, East Rafah Battalion commander Abu Ahmed al-Bawab and his deputy Ismail Abu Labda were killed. Both had spent extended time in an underground tunnel after the ceasefire took effect in October. On November 22, Alaa al-Hadidi was eliminated – a senior figure responsible for supply and equipment in the military wing's production apparatus. Two days earlier, Abdullah Abu Shamala, who served as head of Hamas' naval apparatus, was killed.

New power structure

At the top of the Gaza pyramid, associates of Yahya Sinwar have reemerged, taking the places of other senior figures who were eliminated.

The Saudi newspaper Asharq Al-Awsat reported earlier this month that Ali al-Amodi, one of the prisoners released in the 2011 Shalit deal who headed the "propaganda" apparatus in Gaza and used to accompany Sinwar, has become the de facto head of the Gaza Bureau. The report also stated he is considered the central figure in the Strip.

Raad Saad (L) and Ismail Haniyeh (R)

Sources indicated that no elections were held for the Gaza Bureau, but a "consultation" took place. In that process, Tawfiq Abu Naim was reportedly appointed as a bureau member. As we reported in October in the "Israel This Week" supplement, the prevailing assessment was that Abu Naim, like other senior figures, was called to serve in key Hamas positions amid the growing gap in the leadership's top ranks. Previously, Abu Naim commanded the terror organization's policing mechanisms. Like al-Amodi, he is a Shalit deal release and among Sinwar's associates.

Speaks Hebrew, dyed his hair, and got a haircut to escape

At the top of the military wing still stands Izz al-Din al-Haddad. A former Fatah member who became Hamas' only brigade commander in the wing not eliminated in the war.

According to foreign reports, al-Haddad, as Gaza City brigade commander, was among the few who knew the date of the October 7 attack. Like others, he was involved in planning and executing the mass massacre. After Mohammed Deif, Marwan Issa, and Mohammed Sinwar were killed, he was appointed head of the wing. Following the manhunt for him, he even dyed his hair and got a haircut to obscure his identity. Returned hostages reported that al-Haddad speaks Hebrew.

Intelligence Staff head Mohammed Odeh has also survived in the military wing. According to Arab reports, he was appointed commander of the northern Strip brigade in place of Ahmed Ghandour, who was killed. A terrorist named Mohanad Rajab was appointed Gaza City brigade commander. Besides him, three "veteran" battalion commanders survived the war: Imad Aslim and Haitham Hawajari from the Gaza brigade, and Hussein Fayyad from Beit Hanoun.

Ali al-Amodi

Alongside the surviving senior figures, Hamas still controls policing mechanisms and a military wing. According to data published, the three policing mechanisms have at least 20,000 members. However, most of the rocket array has been destroyed, and most trained terrorists in the military wing have been killed. Additionally, Israel estimates Hamas has been forced to appoint field commanders at lower levels after dozens of battalion commanders and company commanders were killed in the war.

The organization's leadership abroad

Simultaneously, there is, of course, Hamas' "political bureau" abroad, the one attacked in Doha on September 9. Most of its members reside in Qatar and Turkey, with the rest in other countries such as Iran and Algeria. In total, this involves several dozen senior and junior bureau members living there.

Izz al-Din al-Haddad, one of the few who knew about the October 7 attack (Photo: AFP)

At the top of this bureau serves a five-member leadership council: Khalil al-Hayya, Khaled Mashaal, Mohammed Darwish, Zaher Jabarin, and Nizar Awadallah. Al-Hayya serves as Gaza regional head, and Zaher Jabarin serves as West Bank regional head. Mashaal is responsible for the diaspora abroad, and Mohammed Darwish is responsible for the organization's Shura Council. Awadallah also serves on the Gaza bureau.

For the position of bureau head, which remained vacant after Sinwar and Ismail Haniyeh were killed, al-Hayya and Mashaal are now competing primarily. As part of the election process, a deputy is also expected to be appointed following Saleh Arouri's killing in 2024.

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As Iran continues its brutal crackdown on protests following the killing of thousands of demonstrators, the comprehensive report published recently by UN Watch reveals what it calls a deafening silence from the majority of the UN Human Rights Council's special rapporteurs.

The report examined the conduct of 54 experts and found troubling evidence of political bias and moral double standards. Despite a surge in executions by the Iranian regime, intensified persecution of minorities, particularly the Baha'i community, and violent repression of women, most of the experts whose mandates cover these issues did not publish a single statement condemning Tehran's actions.

Out of 87 special rapporteurs, only five expressed support for or endorsed the official statement condemning Iran's repression, which was issued on January 13, two and a half weeks after the protests began and after attempts to violently suppress them were already well underway. Apart from that official statement, only a handful of posts appeared on social media.

One striking example cited in the report concerns the UN expert on freedom of religion. While homes belonging to Baha'is in Iran were being demolished and dozens of believers arrested solely because of their faith, the rapporteur chose not to issue any official statement denouncing the regime. The same pattern applied to the expert tasked with monitoring the right to life.

The report notes that despite the sharp rise in executions in Iran, many of them carried out after sham trials and without due process, the response from the international human rights machinery was weak and minimal. Experts responsible for freedom of expression and the right to life issued dozens of condemnations against Western countries and Israel, yet refrained from releasing even a single statement against mass executions and the repression of journalists in Iran during the period reviewed by the report.

UN Watch also draws a direct comparison between the treatment of Iran and that of Israel. The data show that experts who never published a condemnation of Iran, despite overwhelming evidence of repression and the killing of protesters, were highly active in drafting harsh statements against Israel.

Protests in Iran. Photo: Social media

The report names specific experts who, it says, repeatedly used their mandates to attack Israel, while completely ignoring human rights abuses in authoritarian states. While Israel is condemned for acts of self-defense or for construction in Judea and Samaria, these same experts avoided criticizing Iran for supplying weapons to terrorist organizations, crushing protests over water and bread shortages, or poisoning schoolgirls.

According to the report, the double standard is especially evident in the conduct of certain individuals. Francesca Albanese, the UN special rapporteur for the Palestinian territories, is cited as frequently launching severe attacks on Israel, accusing it of promoting "apartheid" and even "genocide," while calling for an arms embargo against the country. At the same time, the report says, she consistently ignores Iran's role in arming and financing terrorist organizations that target civilians.

Another example highlighted is Balakrishnan Rajagopal, the UN special rapporteur on the right to housing, who swiftly condemned Israel over building demolitions but remained completely silent when Iranian security forces brutally destroyed the homes of members of the Baha'i community in Iran.

Hillel Neuer, executive director of UN Watch, said the findings prove that many UN experts are not motivated by genuine concern for human rights but by political agendas. "When they stay silent in the face of Tehran and scream in the face of Jerusalem, they lose all legitimacy," Neuer said. "Their silence amounts to a green light for the ayatollahs to continue hanging dissidents from cranes."

Hillel Neuer. Photo: Courtesy of Goldfish

The report concludes with a call on democratic countries that are members of the UN to stop funding these mechanisms and to demand reform in the appointment of experts. "It is unacceptable that an expert charged with defending freedom of expression ignores the arrest of hundreds of journalists in Iran, yet finds time to condemn Israel week after week," the report states.

UN Watch also presents additional examples of what it describes as radically different responses. While condemnation of Iran's repression was delayed and lacking in support, on January 7, 2026, just four days after the US arrested Venezuelan ruler Nicolas Maduro, 19 UN experts jointly signed a strongly worded statement of condemnation.

The same pattern, the report notes, emerged after Israel's pager attack against Hezbollah, a designated terrorist organization, on September 17, 2024. By September 19, 22 UN experts had already jointly condemned Israel for what they called a "terrifying violation of international law."

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The National Football League has decided not to fine Houston Texans linebacker Azeez Al-Shaair, who appeared at a recent game with the words "Stop the Genocide" written under his eyes. The phrase was visible throughout the game and during his postgame interview with ESPN.

League regulations prohibit players from displaying personal messages, and under the NFL's fine schedule, a first-time offense of this kind typically incurs a penalty of $11,593. Nevertheless, the NFL chose not to sanction Al-Shaair, even after issuing its official disciplinary report, which included fines for eight other players.

Azeez Al-Shaair, Houston Texans linebacker. Photo: Gary A. Vasquez – Imagn Images

Al-Shaair, a Muslim who spent part of his childhood in Saudi Arabia, has previously expressed support for the Palestinian side. In an earlier game, he wore cleats bearing the word "FREE" in the colors of the Palestinian Authority flag, along with figures published by Hamas regarding casualties in the Gaza Strip.

American journalist Jon Root criticized the NFL over the incident, calling it "one of the most egregious double standards in the history of the NFL." He pointed out that last season, the league fined San Francisco 49ers defensive end Nick Bosa more than $11,000 for wearing a MAGA hat after a game.

This is one of the most egregious double standards in the history of the NFL…

Last season, the NFL fined 49ers DE Nick Bosa over $11k for wearing a MAGA hat postgame.

During & after their Wild Card game, Texans LB & Muslim, Azeez Al-Shaair wore anti-Israel eyeblack that said… pic.twitter.com/vS3MOxQnBl

— Jon Root (@JonnyRoot_) January 17, 2026

Root also lashed out at the media, saying, "journalist covering the Texans, or sports media outlet, other than Will Kunkel, has asked the NFL/Commissioner Goodell to comment on this, to either give a defense for the lack of a fine, or a defense for somehow approving this blatant propaganda. What a joke."

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An Iranian official said Sunday that authorities had confirmed the deaths of at least 5,000 people in protests across the country, including about 500 members of the security forces, and accused Israel and armed groups operating from abroad of orchestrating the unrest.

Speaking on condition of anonymity to Reuters, the official said "terrorists and armed operatives" were responsible for killing "innocent Iranians." He added that some of the deadliest clashes occurred in Iran's Kurdish regions in Iran's northwest, where separatist Kurdish groups are also active. Those areas have been flashpoints during previous periods of unrest.

Rows of bodies lie in a street in Tehran, Iran, January 11, 2026. Photo: AP

"The final number is not expected to rise sharply," the official said, again blaming Israel and armed organizations from abroad for backing and deploying those who took to the streets. Iranian authorities have repeatedly accused foreign actors, including Israel and the US, of involvement in the protests.

The US-based human rights group Human Rights Activists in Iran (HRANA) said Saturday that the death toll had reached 3,308, with another 4,382 cases still under investigation. The group said it had confirmed more than 24,000 arrests.

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For long hours on Wednesday, it appeared the US was on the verge of launching a large-scale strike on Iran, in response to the violent suppression of a nationwide protest wave against the regime that has left thousands dead. The Pentagon had already moved military assets into the Gulf, allies were alerted, and personnel at the Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar were instructed to prepare for possible evacuation amid fears of an Iranian response.

A day earlier, US President Donald Trump had publicly encouraged Iranian protesters on social media, promising that "help is on the way," a statement widely interpreted in Washington as laying the groundwork for military intervention. At the last moment, however, Trump halted the move following an internal clash at the top of the administration, according to several US officials cited by The Washington Post.

According to the Post, US Central Command was also instructed to prepare personnel to be available for high-level support around the clock "for the coming month," as one official familiar with the details put it.

Rows of bodies lie in a street in Tehran, Iran, January 11, 2026. Photo: AP

A source close to the White House said Vice President JD Vance, usually associated with more isolationist views, adopted a hawkish line this time. He argued that Trump had drawn a public red line by warning Tehran against killing protesters and therefore had to enforce it.

CIA Director John Ratcliffe also presented Trump with classified videos showing severe regime violence against civilians, including scenes of bodies lying in the streets, in an effort to underscore the gravity of the situation. According to an official familiar with the discussions who spoke to the Post, the images reminded Trump of how footage of atrocities in Syria had previously led him to order a strike.

Opposing them were Trump's Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff and White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles, who warned of regional escalation and unpredictable consequences. Witkoff, who also serves as the main channel to Tehran and opposed a strike, conveyed direct messages to the president from Iran's leadership, including a message from Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, as reported in recent days. At the same time, a text message sent by Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi to Witkoff "also contributed somewhat to calming the situation," according to an official familiar with the matter. Witkoff told Trump that Iran had canceled the planned execution of 800 prisoners, a step Trump viewed as a signal of de-escalation.

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian. Photo: Reuters Reuters

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent pushed to wait and continue economic pressure on the regime, while military officials warned that the deployment of US forces in other theaters limited Washington's ability to cope with a broad Iranian retaliatory attack.

External pressure was also applied in a coordinated manner. Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Egypt and Oman warned the White House of an Iranian response that could destabilize the entire region. As previously reported, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also spoke with Trump and urged him not to act at this stage, arguing that Israel was not prepared to withstand Iranian retaliation without a broad US military presence in the region.

After receiving a full briefing from the Pentagon and intelligence agencies, Trump concluded that the potential gains of a strike did not justify the risk. A person close to the administration described it as a "cost-benefit analysis," stressing that an attack would not necessarily have led to the regime's collapse but rather to a dangerous escalation.

On Friday, Trump even addressed Tehran publicly, saying he "very much respects the fact that they canceled" the executions. Around 3:30 p.m. local time, senior Pentagon officials were informed that there was no need to prepare for overnight operations, after it became clear the strike would not go ahead. Vance fell in line with the president's decision, and US forces returned to routine operations.

The White House emphasizes that the military option remains on the table, but for now, caution and fears of a wider regional war have prevailed.

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European leaders responded forcefully on Saturday evening to US President Donald Trump after he threatened to "punish" European countries standing in the way of America's annexation of Greenland, including by imposing new tariffs. British and French officials condemned what they called a "completely wrong decision," while Greenland leaders welcomed the European support.

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said Saturday evening that "our position is clear – Greenland is part of Denmark, and its future is a matter for the Greenlandic people and Denmark," adding that Britain has emphasized repeatedly that security matters concerning NATO and allies should receive collective responses, particularly given the threat from Russia. French President Emmanuel Macron echoed the message, calling Trump's threats "unacceptable."

A 3D-printed miniature model of US President Donald Trump and flags of eight European countries potentially facing US tariffs after Trump said he may put a tariff on countries that do not support his plan for the United States to control Greenland, in this illustration taken January 17, 2026 | Photo: Reuters/Dado Ruvic

Macron wrote on X that if the tariffs Trump threatened to impose are indeed approved, Europe will coordinate its response. "We will not be deterred by threats or intimidation," Macron said. "Not in Ukraine, not in Greenland, and not anywhere else in the world. Tariff threats are unacceptable and have no place here. Europe will respond."

Additional politicians came out against Trump's statements, according to a report by the British newspaper The Guardian. Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch responded sharply. "The tariffs will constitute an additional burden on businesses in our country," Badenoch said. Liberal Democrat leader Ed Davey joined the criticism and also attacked Starmer, saying, "His policy toward the United States is failing. Trump is now punishing Britain and NATO partners for doing the right thing. The time has come for the prime minister to stand up to White House bullies and work with European allies to force him to retreat from this dangerous plan."

In Greenland, the European response was welcomed. Greenland's Minister of Natural Resources Naaja Nathanielsen wrote, "I am stunned by the initial responses from many countries, and grateful and hopeful that diplomacy and alliances will prevail." Trump has continued to apply pressure on Denmark and European countries to allow the United States to annex Greenland. Last Saturday, he announced his decision to impose a new 10% tariff on imports from several European countries, starting February 1, unless they agree to the annexation. According to Trump, the tariffs will remain in effect "until an agreement is reached for the complete and absolute purchase of Greenland" by the United States. In a post on Truth Social, Trump said that countries like Denmark, Norway, Sweden, France, Germany, Britain, the Netherlands, and Finland will face a 10% tariff on "all products" imported into the United States. On June 1, he said, the tariff will rise to 25%.

People as they take part in a demonstration that gathered almost a third of the city population to protest against the US President's plans to take Greenland, on January 17, 2026 in Nuuk, Greenland (Photo: Mads Schmidt Rasmussen / AFP) AFP

Trump frequently uses tariffs as a political pressure tool against both US allies and rival nations. Last year, he surprised the international audience when he imposed comprehensive tariffs on almost all countries in the world, including Israel. "I am the tariff king, and the tariff king has done a great job," he said over the weekend.

Greenland is a large Arctic island with a population of approximately 57,000 residents. It has belonged to Denmark for hundreds of years but enjoys broad autonomy. Denmark's constitution grants it the right to declare independence if it chooses to do so. The idea of purchasing Greenland first emerged during his previous term as US president – Trump views the resource-rich island as a vital security asset in the Arctic, a region where Russia and China seek to expand their presence. Since returning to the White House last January, Trump has raised the annexation issue many times. In recent months, he has taken steps emphasizing the seriousness of his intentions, including appointing a special envoy for Greenland and sending his son, Donald Trump Jr., to visit the island.

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Archaeologists at the Karaagac burial site in Bilecik province, northwestern Turkey, have reported that the current excavation season began with what they called "the first comprehensive study" of a wooden grave buried beneath an artificial mound. The project began after the site's discovery in 2010, with excavations starting in 2013.

The mound stands more than 99 miles (160 kilometers) west of Gordion, the former capital of Phrygia. "Burials of high-status individuals far from Gordion indicate that the kingdom was richer and stronger than previously assumed," said Huseyin Arpeliben from the University of Bilecik, as reported by focus.de.

Researchers have dated the mound to the period between 1200 and 675 BCE, spanning the reign of the legendary King Midas. The mound served as a cemetery for nearly 3,000 years, with hundreds of human skeletons from different periods found within it – some predating the mound's construction and others added hundreds of years later.

Monumental tomb discovered in Turkey might be of royal from King Midas' kingdom https://t.co/ny1XLKSt0A pic.twitter.com/A3K5efA3bB

— Sarah (@Sarah404BC) January 11, 2026

At the mound's core, archaeologists uncovered a wooden chamber wrapped in layers of stone and earth. Inside, they found ceramic jars, ornate metal containers, and bronze situlae – buckets engraved with battle scenes. "The magnificent burial objects indicate that an important person is buried there," Arpeliben said.

Several situlae resembled items excavated decades ago from the tomb believed to belong to Gordias, Midas's father, suggesting dynastic connections. "The situlae may indicate gift exchanges rather than local royal status," Maya Vasilieva from New Bulgarian University told Live Science.

Secondary burials complicated efforts to isolate the primary burial, with some bones shifting as the mound settled. The team is conducting DNA analysis, residue testing on findings, and meticulous stratigraphic work to identify material related to the earliest Phrygian phase and determine whether the grave contained a member of the Midas family, a rival dynasty, or another noble family.

The excavation has expanded the geographic scope of documented Phrygian influence. If a prominent figure from the royal court rested at such a distance from Gordion, the kingdom likely managed a network of regional elites with considerable autonomy. Even if the objects arrived through diplomacy, their presence still indicated extensive connections throughout northwestern Anatolia.

Arpeliben's team plans to stabilize the wooden chamber and map the skeletal remains layer by layer. Experts in metallurgy, ancient carpentry, and textile preservation have joined the effort to analyze the findings without contamination, aiming to extract every possible insight from the mound.

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החל מבצע ביטחוני נרחב של צה"ל, שב"כ והמשטרה בשכונת ג'בל ג'והר בחברון, בעקבות התרעות על התארגנויות טרור וחשש לזליגת כמויות גדולות של נשק לפיגועים

איומי המכסים של טראמפ סביב גרינלנד מציבים את אירופה במבחן של סולידריות, ריבונות וביטחון. חילופי הדברים החריפים בין המנהיגים מעמיקים את הקרע הטרנס־אטלנטי, כאשר הכינוס דאבוס מתקרב

מרדף משטרתי סמוך לפזורת ערוער הסתיים במותו של גבר כבן 25 שניסה להבריח אמל"ח, לאחר שהשליך נשק M16 מהרכב הנמלט ואיבד שליטה בתאונה עצמית

לאחר חודשים של מתיחות, הרמטכ״ל אייל זמיר ושר הביטחון ישראל כ״ץ סיכמו סבב מינויים רחב בצה״ל, אך נותרו חלוקים לגבי מינוי הנספח בוושינגטון והמזכיר הצבאי לראש הממשלה

נתניהו התעקש לא לדון ב"יום שאחרי" בעזה וכתוצאה מכך קיבלנו את טורקיה וקטאר בחצר האחורית של ישראל, כשחמאס עדיין לא מפורק מנשקו ורן גואילי ז"ל עדיין מוחזק ברצועה

בממשל טראמפ נבחנת אפשרות למתן מקלט ליהודי בריטניה. המהלך נשקל על רקע עלייה חדה באנטישמיות מאז 7 באוקטובר

העובדה שממשלת המחדל היא זו שממַנה את אלה שיחקרו אותה לא שונה בהרבה מהעובדה שקטאר וטורקיה הן אלה שישתתפו בניהול רצועת עזה "ביום שאחרי". איבדנו חיים של לא מעט אנשים - וגם לא הגענו למטרה

הטלוויזיה האיראנית הממלכתית נפרצה היום ובמספר ערוצים הוצגו צילומים של המפגינים האיראניים בעת המחאות לצד קריאות של הנסיך הגולה של איראן, רזא פהלווי, לאנשים להצטרף להפגנות

המשבר סביב חוק התקציב וחוק הגיוס מציב את הקואליציה בפני איום ממשי של פיזור הכנסת והליכה לבחירות. הווטו החרדי והלחץ בלוחות הזמנים יוצרים פלונטר פוליטי עם השלכות כלכליות כבדות

לפחות שני בני אדם נהרגו ומספר לא ידוע של נוסעים נפצעו או נלכדו לאחר ששתי רכבות מהירות ירדו מהפסים באזור אדאמוס סמוך לקורדובה שבדרום ספרד. נסיבות התאונה נחקרות

המגזין National Interest מעריך כי תקיפה אמריקאית נגד איראן עשויה להתרחש בתוך ימים, כשסוף השבוע - כמו במבצעים קודמים של טראמפ - מסתמן כחלון הזמן המועדף

מדינות האיחוד האירופי בוחנות צעדי תגמול כלכליים בהיקף של עד 93 מיליארד אירו נגד ארה"ב, בעקבות איומי הנשיא דונלד טראמפ להשתלטות על גרינלד וההחלטה שלו להגדיל את מכסי היבוא ב-10 אחוזים

מחקר חדש מזהיר: קריסת מדפי הקרח באנטארקטיקה עלולה להעלות את מפלס הים בעד עשרה מטרים עד 2300, להציף ערי חוף מרכזיות ברחבי העולם ולשנות את מפת היבשות באופן בלתי הפיך

הבחירה האמריקאית במערכת HERO-90 הישראלית מסמנת שינוי תפיסתי בלוחמת חי"ר, ומעניקה ללוחם הבודד יכולת אש מדויקת ועצמאית מול מטרות משוריינות ללא תלות בסיוע חיצוני

לאחר שח"כ גלית דיסטל טענה כי אחריות הממשלה ל-7 באוקטובר “לא רבה בכלל”, היחצ"ן רני רהב תקף בחריפות: “מסיתה, מלכת הפייק ניוז ובושה לכנסת ישראל"

פרשת הבילד מתקרבת להכרעה משפטית. חקירותיו של יונתן אוריך במשטרה נחשפות והפערים בין הגרסאות מתחדדים

עם כל הביקורת והאכזבה, צריך להבין שרק ממשלה חדשה, ציונית, מאחדת, שהליכוד במרכזה עם פנים חדשות, תקנה לאומה ביטחון, שגשוג ורגיעה

דורון נתנאל הס, אביו של ליאם ז"ל שנדקר למוות לפני כשנה וחצי ע"י אמו, מתמודד מאז עם פוסט-טראומה ומנסה לאסוף את השברים. כעת, מבקש לגייס מהציבור תמיכה כדי לממן את הכשרתה של כלבתו האהובה לונה ככלבת שירות

תא״ל במיל’ אמיר אביבי בריאיון ל"מעריב": הקמת מועצת השלום של טראמפ יוצרת אי-ודאות לגבי עתיד עזה, אולם קיימת נחישות לפירוק חמאס ופירוז הרצועה

בני גנץ, האלטרנטיבה המשמעותית ביותר לשלטון נתניהו, הפך למושיע המחלץ שלו בעת צרה. לא נשארו לו עכשיו אפשרויות רבות

Israeli company Aporia says its artificial intelligence control tool Guardrails has been selected as one of TIME’s 2024 Best Inventions, a list of 200 pioneering innovations redefining the way we live.  

Guardrails, which mitigates evolving risks in AI systems real-time, has been recognized as one of the 10 companies in the AI technology category. 

The list was created following a thorough process in which TIME’s global editors and correspondents assessed each candidate based on several critical factors, such as originality, efficacy, ambition, and impact.

“We’re incredibly proud to see Aporia’s Guardrails recognized by TIME as one of the year’s best inventions,” said Aporia CEO Liran Hason. 

“Aporia is committed to making AI applications safer and more reliable for everyone—from businesses to everyday consumers,” he said. 

We’re developing rigorous Guardrail policies, implementing advanced capabilities to ensure compliance with AI regulations in the EU and US, expanding capabilities to secure a broader range of AI systems, and welcoming new customers. Our Guardrails do more than manage glitches; they empower companies to deploy AI that users can trust.”

The company has also been named a Technology Pioneer by the World Economic Forum, and recently announced partnerships with Google Cloud and Microsoft. 

The post Israeli AI Safety Tool Among TIME’S Best Inventions For 2024  appeared first on NoCamels.

For more than a decade, NoCamels has written about every aspect of Israel’s high-tech sector, from medical breakthroughs for treatment of deadly diseases to digital developments for both work and leisure and greentech to preserve our struggling planet. 

Here are five favorites from us and five from you, our loyal readers:  

Our Picks: 

Cancer Cures 
With artificial intelligence playing an ever-increasing role in our lives, medtech company OncoHost is using it to help oncologists decide the optimum therapy for their cancer patients. 

The startup’s main focus is determining treatment for a form of lung cancer, with its proprietary PROphet platform scanning up to 7,000 proteins in a patient’s blood in order to see how receptive that person would be to immunotherapy.  

The platform looks for proteins that are present in the blood of patients who did not respond to immunotherapy but absent for patients who did respond. Click here for more

Life Saver 
When Israeli businessman Adam Bismut saw a man lose his life by drowning at the Dead Sea because help was too far away, he was determined to stop such tragedies from happening again. 

Bismut developed Sightbit, a drowning prevention platform that uses AI to spot dangers on and in the water, alerting lifeguards to people in peril in real time. 

Sightbit creator Adam Bismut z”l (Photo: Courtesy)

Tragically, the person who devoted his professional life to helping others also gave his life to protect others, as IDF Sgt. Maj. (res.) Adam Bismut fell in battle in Gaza on January 22, 2024. May his memory be a blessing. Click here for more

Water World 
Building on a water-from-air concept devised by WaterGen, fellow Israeli startup H2oll also produces drinking water from the atmosphere, but more cheaply, more efficiently and more sustainably – and in any climate.

The internal workings of the H2oll machine (Photo: Courtesy)

H2oll has added a new element to the existing technology, by way of a concentrated salt solution. Instead of cooling the whole air mass, it extracts and cools only the moisture molecules – around two percent of air content, depending on humidity – and turns them into water.

The company says it aims to address the global water crisis, especially in the developing world, where countries want to avoid expensive infrastructure, or costly bottled supplies. Click here for more

A Voice For The Voiceless 
The AI-powered Voiceitt platform is designed to recognize and translate speech by people with an underlying medical condition, disability or age-related condition that means their speech is hard to understand. 

Voiceitt lets people with speech disabilities speak spontaneously and be easily understood (Photo: Courtesy)

It works either as voice to text or voice to synthesized speech, with the latter allowing the user to speak in person in real time, as part of a face-to-face conversation, or in a virtual, online meeting.   

The technology is based on machine learning and speech recognition algorithms that are customized to the user, allowing the platform to assimilate each user’s unique way of speaking. It is web based, which means that it can be accessed from any internet-connected device without having to download a program or app. Click here for more

Potato Power
Rumafeed has come up with a way to boost the amount of animal feed produced worldwide by genetically modifying the currently discarded foliage from potato harvests and making it suitable for livestock.  

Potato foliage discarded during harvest could be nutritious feed for livestock (Photo: Depositphotos)

Potato foliage contains glycoalkaloids, which makes it toxic, but by removing this inedible chemical compound, the foliage is transformed from a waste byproduct to a plentiful, viable food source for herds that is rich in nitrogen and protein.  

Potato hay could also be a valuable source of income for farmers, fetching as much as $600 per hectare of land where the tubers are grown, with each hectare capable of producing 3.5 tons of it. Click here for more

Your Picks: The Articles You Read The Most

Ice Cream On Demand
A machine invented by Israeli startup Solato uses a secret process to create super-fresh frozen desserts from liquid in just 60 seconds. It whips up and freezes a range of gelato, sorbet, frozen yogurt, smoothies and even iced coffee.

Solato uses a secret process to create super-fresh frozen desserts from liquid in capsules, in just 60 seconds (Photo: Courtesy)

Solato says it is the first to market with a frozen dessert capsule machine, offering a range of flavors including Amarena cherry and mascarpone, piedmont hazelnut gelato, lychee sorbet, and classics like dark chocolate and vanilla gelato, as well as plain frozen yogurt. 

Each cup-sized capsule of concentrate liquid makes a cup of ice cream. The unique code on each capsule is read by the machine to determine how much it needs to freeze it and how much air it needs to add, to increase its volume. The capsule itself, which is biodegradable, can then be used for serving. Click here for more

COVID Spray 
An Israeli-founded company in Canada has developed a nasal technology to treat and prevent upper respiratory and topical infections such as COVID-19 and successful Phase 3 clinical trials proved it can reduce viral load in people with mild cases of coronavirus.

Enovid reduces COVID viral loads (Photo: Gilly Regev/LinkedIn)

Enovid, the nitric oxide nasal spray (NONS) created by Vancouver-based SaNOtize is designed to treat adult patients who have a risk of progression of COVID-19.  

The patented platform technology allows for the topical delivery of nitric oxide (a naturally occurring nanomolecule with the formula NO, hence the name) to treat a variety of bacterial, fungal, and viral diseases. Click here for more

Chewing Gum Diet 
A chewing gum infused with an ancient sugar-blocking herb may help people lose weight, according to a new consumer study. 

Sweet Victory gum (Photo: Courtesy)

Israeli startup Sweet Victory imbues the Indian botanical gymnema sylvestre into its gum, which blocks the taste receptors for sweetness when it is chewed for just two minutes. The company says that its effects last up to two hours.  

Of the 80 participants in a two-week trial, 87 percent reported experiencing weight loss, at an average of 1.3 kilos per two weeks. An additional 80 percent of the participants significantly reduced their consumption of sweets by the end of the trial, and said they had “better control” of their food choices. Click here for more

Screenless Laptop With Virtual Screens 
Spacetop, billed as the world’s first augmented reality laptop, looks like the keyboard to a standard 13-inch laptop, minus the 13-inch screen.

Spacetop offers dozens of virtual screens for its screenless laptop (Photo: Courtesy)

But with a dedicated pair of glasses and just 20 seconds of training, the user can actually see a dozen or more virtual screens. They can toggle between them, resize and reposition them at will, and even zoom in and out.

Sightful, the company behind the design, says Spacetop has been painstakingly redesigned “from the ground up” with no off-the-shelf components. Everything is custom-made and works on Spacetop OS, a proprietary operating system. Click here for more

Sperm Solution
Israeli scientists at the Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (BGU) haven developed an innovative platform to create sperm in a laboratory through a microfluidic system, which contains hundreds of microchannels for fluids to pass through. 

Sperm grown in the lab can provide a solution for men who have been affected by aggressive medical treatment (Image: Depositphotos)

The sperm was grown on a special silicon chip developed in collaboration with researchers at the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology. The chip enables the researchers to grow cells from the testis in the microchip and add fresh cell culture media designed to support cellular growth. A 3D system was also built and integrated to allow the addition of testicular tissue cells. 

The innovation is designed to help males who receive aggressive treatment for cancer that can damage sperm-forming cells and result in impaired spermatogenesis, the origin and development of sperm cells within the reproductive organs, leading to fertility problems. Click here for more

The post Editors’ & Readers’ Choice: 10 Favorite NoCamels Articles appeared first on NoCamels.

Medical researchers at Tel Aviv University (TAU) have discovered a way to help the body fight cancerous tumors that are even resistant to prevailing forms of immunotherapy.

The researchers found that reversing a mechanism preventing the immune system from attacking tumors can stimulate the immune system to fight the cancer cells. 

The breakthrough was led by Prof. Carmit Levy, Prof. Yaron Carmi, and PhD student Avishai Maliah from TAU’s Faculty of Medical & Health Sciences. The paper was published in the leading journal Nature Communications.

Levy said the discovery occurred at his lab, which studies both cancer and the effects of ultraviolet (UV) radiation from the sun on our skin and body  – both of which are known to suppress the immune system. 

“Cancer suppresses approaching immune cells and solar radiation suppresses the skin’s immune system,” he explained. 

“While in most cases, we cancer researchers worldwide focus on the tumor and look for mechanisms by which cancer inhibits the immune system, here we proposed a different approach: investigating how UV exposure suppresses the immune system and applying our findings to cancer. The discovery of a mechanism that inhibits the immune system opens new paths for innovative therapies.”

The research was recently published in the leading journal Nature Communications.

The post TAU Team Discovers Mechanism To Eliminate Cancerous Tumors appeared first on NoCamels.

The tech incubator operated by Ashdod Port is investing $2 million in three startups as part of its strategy to foster innovation at the site. 

The sum was approved by the port’s board of directors as part of its Corporate Venture Capital (CVC) investment fund, subject to the approval of the Government Companies Authority. 

Since its establishment in 2021, the incubator has supported more than 90 startups in various fields, including operations, logistics, cyber and safety. 

The three startups were selected following a pilot program lasting an average of six months, during which the technologies being developed were tested in close cooperation with the port’s staff. 

The three startups are:

Makalu Optics, which develops groundbreaking LiDAR technology for various applications  

Treedis, which develops an advanced digitally compatible solution based on virtual and augmented reality  

Flyz Robotics, which developed an autonomous system for miniature drone robots with unique capabilities  

“The Ashdod Port Company views investments in technology companies as a strategic move, which will help us meet both the challenges of the current period of time and the global challenges faced by ports all over the world and, in parallel, optimize our competitive ability,” said Shaul Schneider, the chairman Ashdod Port Board of Directors. 

“We are confident that this investment will yield optimal results for the Port of Ashdod, for the Israeli economy, as well as for the international port industry.”

The post Ashdod Port Investing In Startups As Part Of Innovation Strategy appeared first on NoCamels.

The past year has been a period of great upheaval and uncertainty in Israel, yet the high-tech sector has proven steadfast, despite concerns over investment and durability and swathes of the workforce serving in the IDF reserves for long stretches at a time. 

And as Israel navigates this time of war on multiple fronts – with its troops fighting in Gaza and Lebanon as well as handling attacks from Iran, Iraq, Syria and Yemen – NoCamels asked leaders in the sector to look forwards and share their thoughts on what the future holds for the national high-tech industry, whose strength and vitality earned the country the moniker “Startup Nation.”  

Israeli readiness to embrace innovation, even when it seems somewhat risky, is a long-standing trait that is key to the sector thriving even in wartime – and crucial to it flourishing in the years to come, says Jon Medved, the CEO of Israel’s global investment powerhouse OurCrowd. 

“The fact that Israel grows and it continues to grow its tech sector during war is sort of a core element of who we are,” Medved tells NoCamels. 

“The reason that we’re so strong in the startup arena boils down, more than any other single reason, to our attitude towards risk. We are people who have learned to live with risk, even though I’m not sure we chose it.”  

Limor Nakar-Vincent: Periods of growth follow cycles of tension (Photo: Eyal Toueg)

In agreement with this sentiment is Limor Nakar-Vincent, the Deputy Executive Director of Business at the Binational Industrial Research and Development  Foundation (BIRD), a joint Israeli-American endeavor that brings companies from both countries together on collaborative projects. 

Nakar-Vincent tells NoCamels that the decades of conflict that the country has endured has made its people hardy, and spurred innovation and development. 

She cites the strong sense of solidarity and a highly adaptable workforce whose members often take on additional responsibilities to cover for colleagues called to reserve duty. 

“Israelis are creative and deeply motivated, which helps them navigate challenging times,” she says. “[They] are accustomed to managing through cycles of tension, and historically, periods of growth follow.” 

Going Global

Medved credits the diverse essence of Israel – a rich melting pot of Jews from around the world – with its ongoing and future success on the global stage. This “secret sauce,” he says, allows Israelis to retain ties, language skills and familiarity with global commerce and business on a broad scale – all of which are key, too, to its future success. 

It is this global outreach that is crucial for investment in the sector in years to come, Medved says, as foreign investors are “the main part of the story in the Israeli Startup Nation ecosystem.” 

In fact, he explains, even during the ongoing conflict, Israel reached a record high of 93-percent foreign VC participation in funding rounds for local startups, meaning that just 7 percent of them were solely Israeli efforts. 

And as the sector looks to sustain itself and expand in years to come, Medved believes that in the next half decade or so, Israeli startups must now look beyond becoming a unicorn or decacorn (companies valued at $1 billion or $10 billion, respectively) and seek the attainable target of a $20, $50 or even $100 billion valuation, which means a more international approach.  

“I predict that 10 years from now, there will be several Israeli companies in that $100 billion range,” he says. 

Medtech veteran Mati Gill shares this sentiment, citing a trend of Israeli startups moving into the international arena rather than opting for what he calls “the classical ‘exit’ model” of selling to a larger entity. 

“We saw a generation of Israeli startups that went public and grew globally, [while] maintaining their headquarters and R&D in Israel,” says Gill, who today is CEO of the Rehovot-based Aion Labs medtech venture studio, an initiative of the Israel Innovation Authority that works with global pharmaceutical giants on solutions for some of the most challenging diseases facing humanity. 

In fact, Gill tells NoCamels, the expansion by Israeli startups into areas outside the classic tech and SaaS space into fields such deeptech and biotech has opened new opportunities for Israeli R&D to mature into industry solutions.

Staying Power 

These new opportunities include making headway in the field of sustainability – one of the most innovative and significant in the tech ecosystem – which will create fresh avenues for Israeli startups in the years ahead. This, of course, is  alongside other major areas like cybersecurity and fintech, in which local companies have already built a reputation. 

“The double bottom line of impact investing – doing well and making money at the same time – is very valid and important,” says Medved. 

“Whether it’s in healthcare or climate, access to disabled technologies, foodtech or agtech, transportation, education or financial inclusion, you will see large numbers of Israeli startups on the front lines of this important battleground.” 

Gill, who has worked extensively in medtech innovation, also believes that healthcare – which he describes as the meeting point of technology and life sciences – is an area in which Israel is “uniquely positioned” to become one of the most relevant and leading ecosystems. 

Israel is ‘uniquely positioned’ to lead in the healthcare sector, says Mati Gill (Photo: Elad Malka)

“Our strong research and talent capabilities in both sectors, coupled with the entrepreneurial mindset of Israelis have helped birth a new cluster of startups in the tech bio space in Israel,” he explains. 

This includes significant fundraising achievements, deals and increased interest from pharmaceutical multinational corporations in the past five years alone, he adds.

Medved also highlights the need to ensure that Israeli innovation in these extremely important areas is made available in “every corner of the planet,” regardless of how economically developed a country is. 

To this end, he says, OurCrowd has partnered with the World Health Organization Foundation on a $200 million Global Health Equity Fund to help make these technological advances more equitable.  

Meanwhile, says Nakar-Vincent, the ongoing war will likely lead to growth among companies focusing on dual-use technologies, which serve both civilian and military applications. 

“This sector has garnered heightened interest, leading to increased funding and expedited development processes,” she says. 

In fact, she adds, the experience gained by many Israelis now serving in reserve duty will nurture the establishment of new start-ups in the defense and homeland security spheres.

“It’s essential to consider various forms of support for high-tech companies, especially those facing the ‘valley of death’ but with the potential to commercialize their technologies,” she explains. 

Looking beyond new innovation to the challenges of maintaining its well-respected position in the world’s tech sector, Gill believes that regulatory and geopolitical stability are vital, as well as restored trust in the country’s leadership and maintaining an independent judiciary. 

The latter refers to the domestic political turmoil over proposed judicial reform in the months preceding the October 7, 2023 mass terror attack by Hamas that saw tens of thousands taking to the streets every week to protest.  

Equally important, Gill says, is the ability to produce experienced homegrown talent in the sector and the ability to attract talent from abroad to Israel.  

Jon Medved: Israeli startups must discover new funding sources (Photo: Courtesy)

Medved ties expansion in Israeli high-tech to the need to find novel ways of raising money, in particular for startups in the field of artificial intelligence, which Israeli angel investor and former military intelligence officer Alon Arvatz predicted last year would be accelerated due to its use by the army in the current war.  

“It turns out that to build these AI startups fast, you need a lot of capital and a lot of money for computing and for GPU farms,” Medved says, referring to sophisticated servers that can quickly perform complex calculations.

Ultimately, say both Medved and Gill, it is experiences of extreme challenge that makes Israelis creative, progressive and determined to succeed, and will continue to do so in the future. 

“We are great as a country at staying focused on what matters, delivering results no matter what and adapting to any circumstances – especially when our backs are against the wall,” declares Gill. 

“It’s unfortunately been part of our environment for thousands of years that our risk of survival is simply part of the nature of our society,” says Medved. 

“As a result, we don’t stop creating. We don’t stop celebrating. We move forward with laughter through tears, and if they think they can stop us, they can’t.”

The post Forward Facing: What Does The Future Hold For Israeli High-Tech? appeared first on NoCamels.

With conspiracy theories and so-called fake news rampant on social media, in particular during major election periods, researchers at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (BGU) have developed a method to help fact checkers keep up with increasing volumes of misinformation on these platforms.

A team led by Dr. Nir Grinberg and Prof. Rami Puzis of BGU’s Department of Software and Information Systems Engineering found that tracking fake news sources, rather than individual articles or posts, can significantly lower the burden on fact checkers and produce reliable results over time.

The researchers’ audience-based models outperformed the more common approach of looking at who’s sharing misinformation by large margins: 33 percent when looking at historical data, and 69 percent when looking at sources as they emerge over time.

The authors also showed that their approach can maintain the same level of accuracy in identifying fake news sources while requiring less than a quarter of the fact-checking costs.

“The problem today with the proliferation of fake news is that fact checkers are overwhelmed,” explained Grinberg. 

“They cannot fact check everything … [and] we know little about how successful fact checkers are in getting to the most important content to fact check. That prompted us to develop a machine learning approach that can help fact checkers direct their attention better and boost their productivity,” he said.  
The team’s findings were published recently in Proceedings of the 30th ACM SIGKDD Conference on Knowledge Discovery and Data Mining.

The post BGU Develops Fast Fact Checking Via News Sources Not People appeared first on NoCamels.

Israeli military technology company Elbit Systems has announced that it has been awarded an approximately $200 million contract by the nation’s Ministry of Defense to supply high-power laser systems for the Iron Beam air defense platform.

The mobile Iron Beam system consists of two pivoting laser guns, a surveillance system to track the incoming projectile and a control center staffed by personnel who issue commands to the system. 

The laser gun creates a high-energy beam that can bring down missiles, mortars and drones at a reported maximum range of 10 km. The laser heats its target to incredibly high temperatures very quickly, rendering it obsolete. 

According to the contract, Elbit will supply the ministry with its proprietary high-power laser solution in order to provide a robust defense against a variety of threats. The contract also includes the provision of ongoing support services.

“As Israel’s Laser Center and a global leader in high-power laser technology, Elbit Systems congratulates on the significant progress made in the Iron Beam project and is proud of its contribution to its success. The capabilities developed at Elbit Systems represent a leap forward in future defense against various threats,” said Bezhalel (Butzi) Machlis, the president and CEO of Elbit Systems. 

The Haifa-based company, which has almost 20,000 personnel working across five continents, says its products allow its clients around the world “to address rapidly evolving battlefield challenges and overcome threats.”

The post Israel Gives Elbit $200M Contract For Laser Air Defense System  appeared first on NoCamels.

Researchers at Tel Aviv University have found that the Oriental hornet is the only known animal in nature capable of consuming alcohol chronically and in high concentrations with almost no negative effects on their health or lifespan. 

The researchers hope that the discovery could help future studies into alcoholism and how alcohol metabolizes in our bodies. 

The research was conducted under the leadership of postdoctoral fellow Dr. Sofia Bouchebti from the laboratory of Prof. Eran Levin at Tel Aviv University’s School of Zoology and the Steinhardt Museum of Natural History. 

The team tested the Oriental hornet’s ability to consume and break down alcohol, and were surprised by the rapid rate at which the insects metabolized it. 

They also found that even high concentrations of alcohol had no noticeable effect on the hornets’ behavior and that there was no difference in lifespan for hornets that only consumed alcohol for their entire three-month lives and those that consumed sugar water.

“This is a remarkable animal that shows no signs of intoxication or illness even after ingesting huge amounts of alcohol,” said the research team. 

“While alcohol-related research is highly advanced, with 5.3 percent of deaths in the world linked to alcohol consumption, we believe that, following our research, Oriental hornets could potentially be used to develop new models for studying alcoholism and the metabolism of alcohol,” said Prof. Levin. 

The study was published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (PNAS).

The post TAU’s Booze-Proof Hornets Could Help Research Into Alcoholism appeared first on NoCamels.

Israeli company Dataloop AI has announced a collaboration with American multinational Qualcomm Technologies, which aims to significantly accelerate AI model development for mobile, automotive, IoT and other computing devices powered by Snapdragon platforms.

Snapdragon is a versatile suite of system-on-chip (SoC) semiconductor products for a range of devices designed and marketed by Qualcomm, including mobile devices, tablets and laptops.

Dataloop enables developers to streamline the entire AI lifecycle through an automated pipeline that includes data curation, labeling, model fine-tuning, and integration with Qualcomm AI Hub, which compiles, optimizes, and profiles the ready-to-deploy model.

“The Qualcomm AI Hub helps enhance the efficiency of AI development. Dataloop’s comprehensive platform simplifies the entire AI lifecycle, while Qualcomm Technologies’ innovations enable models that are optimized and ready for deployment on edge devices, empowering developers to accelerate innovation and bring AI solutions to market faster,” said Dataloop AI co-founder and CBO Nir Buschi.

“Qualcomm Technologies is collaborating with Dataloop to streamline on-device AI deployment,” said Siddhika Nevrekar, senior director of product management at Qualcomm.

“With Dataloop’s automated pipelines and robust data management, developers can effortlessly create powerful AI systems and seamlessly deploy them on-device using our Qualcomm AI Hub.”

The post Israeli, US Firms Team Up To Develop AI Models For Devices appeared first on NoCamels.

NoCamels has recently shone a spotlight on Israeli medical technology and green technology that has the potential to change the world. 

But there are other equally innovative companies whose remit falls outside of these two categories yet have just as much potential impact on our lives. Here we take a look at 10 of them: 

Electric Air Travel

Eviation became the first company in the world to develop an electric plane with its nine-seater aircraft Alice, which it designed from scratch.

In 2022, Alice made a successful eight-minute flight at Moses Lake in Washington State, reaching an altitude of 3,500ft. The company beat the world’s aerospace giants in the race to develop an electric airplane, which in most cases were focusing their R&D on modifying existing petrol planes. 

The plane runs on rechargeable lithium-ion batteries that only require 30 minutes to fully charge. It has a top speed of nearly 300 mph, a range of 288 miles and can fly for an hour at a time.

Eviation hopes to launch the plane for short-hop commercial flights in the US in 2027, with the aim of shaping future air travel for both passengers and cargo. Click here for more

Sustainable Sweetness 

A heavy impact on the environment makes globally beloved chocolate a costly affair for the planet. But Israeli startup Celleste Bio has found a way to change that with its lab-cultivated beans that create cocoa indistinguishable from the rest.

Celleste Bio uses lab-grown cocoa beans to create sustainable chocolate (Photo: Depositphotos)

Celleste Bio uses cell culture technology to create the cocoa beans, combined with AI modeling to create optimal growing conditions. The bean cells are used to make the cocoa butter needed to manufacture chocolate, which has the identical chemical profile to the original.

It takes just seven days for the bean cells to mature in their bioreactor so that the butter can be harvested.  

And because the process involves just a couple of beans that can be repeatedly reproduced, the Misgav-based company says the lab-cultivated cocoa is grown without ever needing to cut down a single tree again. 

“We are the first in the world to have been able to produce chocolate-grade cocoa butter,” said Celleste CEO Michal Beressi Golomb. “We’re really excited about it.” Click here for more 

Hunter Drones 

In southern Israel, close to the city of Be’er Sheva, Robotican has been developing a drone that can snatch its target out of the sky and even named it after a bird of prey that grapples with its enemies mid-flight. 

The Goshawk floating above its ‘nest’ (Photo: Ariel Gabay)

The Goshawk fully autonomous drone is a counter-UAS (unmanned aircraft system) designed to detect, track and destroy other craft. It sits in a metal box-like device that Robotican has dubbed its “smart nest,” waiting for its opportunity to strike. 

Once the radar system spots that a hostile drone has infiltrated the no-fly zone, the nest opens and the Goshawk takes to the air, chases it and catches it in a net.  

If the hostile drone is too heavy or if the Goshawk senses other threats, the net is sent plummeting to the ground with its victim trapped inside. Otherwise, it bears it safely to earth unharmed.  

According to Robotican, the Goshawk has already intercepted more than 250 enemy drones in its use by the Israel Defense Forces. Click here for more

Beating Bots With AI  

Tel Aviv-based Cyabra calls itself a “social threat intelligence” company, whose mission is to fight misinformation and expose online risk to individuals, institutions or even governments. 

Cyabra says unlike other cybersecurity companies, it focuses on accounts aiming to cause harm in the social sphere, rather than hackers who pose “classic threats” to infrastructure or hardware.

Cyabra roots out accounts spreading disinformation on social media (Image: Unsplash)

The company says its unique AI software can root out even the most sophisticated threats, quickly identifying malicious actors using social media and other online spaces such as comment sections, to spread false information. 

Hundreds of different behavioral parameters are fed into the Cyabara algorithm, including an account’s online behavior, the accounts that it follows and engages with and those that follow and engage with it.  

The company’s three founders are all veterans of the Israeli high-tech sector and two served in information warfare units in the IDF.  

“They developed the technical tools and skills to be able to track and fight disinformation, and then they started to use those skills for good,” said Cyabra VP Marketing Rafi Mendelsohn. Click here for more

Taxis In The Sky

Israel’s notorious traffic jams have led two companies to develop drones that can carry passengers in urban areas, by passing the clogged roads below. 

Dronery and AIR were both part of the Israel National Drone Initiative (INDI), which five years ago began preparing for the regular use of unmanned flying vehicles to carry goods as well as passengers.  

Dronery’s UAV is designed to carry people through the air for distances of up to 30km (Photo: Mark Nomdar)

Dronery’s Chinese-made, Israeli-adapted craft can carry 220 kg in cargo and fly as far as 30 km, while AIR’s homegrown AIR ONE craft can carry up to 250 kg and for a far greater distance of 160 km. 

Successful test flights last year involved taking off and landing in urban areas while carrying mannikins.  

“We believe that this whole technology is something that can really help solve urgent problems such as traffic and such as air pollution, and help us move things from place to place in a more efficient and safe way,” said Daniella Partem, who headed Israel’s drone project. Click here for more

To Catch A Hacker 

Pentera simulates attacks across an entire organization to pinpoint potentially exploitable gaps that make it vulnerable to potential hacking attempts.  

The company takes the perspective of the hackers in order to highlight the security gaps that would be most appealing to them, rather than just searching for any and all weaknesses. 

Pentera approaches cybersecurity from the perspective of the hackers (Photo: Depositphotos)

The system carries out the assessments automatically, without disrupting an organization’s ongoing operations, and focuses on two particular kinds of threats: exploitable gaps in the external attack surface – an organization’s digital footprint that is visible and accessible to anyone – and potential openings for malicious hackers using compromised credentials like passwords.

It identifies corporate passwords and other sensitive information that were leaked online either through the dark web or other resources used by hackers that make it vulnerable to cyberattacks. 

“Our goal is to find these exploitable gaps so that security teams can remediate the issues before our adversaries have a chance to use them,” said Pentera’s Senior Director of Product Management Ofer Yavelberg. Click here for more

Man Or Machine? 

Can you tell if you are talking to a computer or a real human? It’s not as easy as it might seem. 

A game created by AI21 Labs tests users’ skills in discerning the difference between bot and person with the aim of showing just how far artificial intelligence has advanced. And it even fooled its creator Amos Meron.

The game gives users two minutes to determine if they are talking to a human or bot (Image: Courtesy)

The premise is based on what Alan Turing, the father of modern computing, in the 1950s called the Imitation Game – a time when machines could imitate man so well that it would be difficult to tell from one the other. The test later came to be known as the Turing Test in his honor. 

Using an array of large language models (LLMs), including ChatGPT4 and AI21’s own Jurassic-2, the test makes each bot into its own character, with a name, location and date of birth, that has knowledge of recent events and even the current weather.

The test takes two minutes, which Meron calls the sweet spot as anything shorter is not enough interaction but a longer conversation could be boring or expose the flaws in the bot. Click here for more 

Cybersecurity In The Actual Clouds 

Cyviation says it is the first-ever company to focus on cybersecurity for aircraft, with a software solution that provides multiple levels of safety without having to make changes to the planes themselves.  

Cyvation keeps planes safe from cyberattacks with four levels of protection (Photo: Pexels)

The four-layer system is designed to reduce the risk of cyber attack, help manage such attacks should they occur and support airlines as they implement new and upcoming international regulations regarding cybersecurity in aviation. 

The first layer is a scan of an entire craft to create a virtual “twin” that allows the company to analyze any vulnerabilities on different severity levels.

The second is cybersecurity training for pilots, which the company says had not previously existed at all.  Similarly, the third layer of protection is security information and event management (SIEM), which trains pilots and crew in how to act should a cybersecurity incident actually occur.  

 The final layer is a set of patented devices that can detect any attack in real time, allowing the pilot to react swiftly to the threat. 

“When we look at cyber training, we don’t look at how you protect your password, we look at how you react when there is an event on the aircraft,” said Cyvation CEO Avi Tenenbaum. Click here for more 

Watchers Over The Waves

Drawing on decades of professional experience, two Israeli technology veterans created a new startup to combat cyberattacks on some of the country’s key institutions, including national water company Mekorot. 

IXDen’s founders and co-CEOs Zion Harel and Dr. Leonid Cooperman devised entirely new software from scratch with a focus on artificial intelligence and machine learning. 

IXDen protects the infrastructure of Israel’s national water carrier Mekorot from attack (Photo: Courtesy)

Collecting information from sensors placed around the company’s infrastructure, IXDen uses those algorithms to analyze millions of pieces of data every day in order to spot any anomalies that point to suspicious activity or even to just identify a fault in the system. 

The water company has around 3,000 sites in 10 regions across Israel, including 700 water pumping stations and 20 desalination sites. The IXDen platform is active at each location, analyzing 300 million pieces of data on a daily basis and feeding it all into one centralized system. Click here for more

The post Impact Innovation: Israeli Startups That Could Shape Our Future appeared first on NoCamels.

Leading green power company Enlight Renewable Energy has announced the completion of its Solar and Storage Cluster project in Israel, covering 12 locations in the north and the south of the country. 

The 12 installations were built in cooperation with multiple agricultural communities in Israel, and have a combined solar generation capacity of 254 MW and energy storage capacity of 594 MWh. While portions of it began commercial operation in 2023 and grid connections continued throughout 2024, the process has now been completed.

The Cluster’s entire output will be sold to Enlight’s supplier division, which markets the electricity directly to customers in Israel’s newly deregulated power market. 

The generation volumes of the Cluster currently account for 50 percent of all clean power produced under the new regulatory framework. 

“Today we completed the commencement of full commercial operations at the largest group of renewable energy facilities operating in Israel’s deregulated power market,” said Enlight MENA General Manager Gilad Peled. 

“The Cluster will generate attractive returns for Enlight, while creating a stable and vital source of income for our partners in the agricultural communities of Israel.”

Enlight is headquartered in Rosh Ha’ayin and operates in multiple countries worldwide, including Italy, Spain, Sweden and the US. 

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An Israeli company that develops cannabis-based therapeutics says its CBD injections have proven effective in providing pain relief for dogs with naturally occurring osteoarthritis. 

According to InnoCan Pharma, a long-term treatment plan consistently demonstrated the LPT-CBD injection’s efficacy in pain reduction and improved mobility, with the effects lasting for several weeks after each treatment. 

This, the company says, demonstrates that LPT-CBD can be a viable treatment option for managing chronic pain and enhancing the quality of life in animals.

Two dogs suffering from osteoarthritis were treated for two years or more with LPT-CBD after failing to respond to non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs and oral CBD. Both animals showed noticeable pain relief, substantially improved mobility and obvious increased well-being. 

“We are thrilled with these findings, which highlight the long-lasting effects of repeated administration of LPT-CBD to treat chronic pain,” said InnoCan CSO Prof. Chezy Barenholz. 

“These results support the potential of LPT-CBD as a monthly treatment for chronic pain conditions, providing sustained relief. They position LPT-CBD as a breakthrough solution for managing chronic pain in animals and, by extension, human patients,” he said.

“This compassionate therapy has demonstrated significant efficacy in companion dogs and reinforces our commitment to advance FDA’s Center for Veterinary Medicine (CVM) approval of LPT-CBD for the treatment of chronic pain in dogs,” said Dr. Eyal Kalo, InnoCan’s director of R&D.

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The US government is funding the development of an effective treatment created by Israeli firm RedHill Biopharma for the rare and deadly Ebola virus (EBOV).

The funding comes via the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA), part of the US Department of Health and Human Services’ Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response (ASPR).  

A study last year carried out by RedHill found that twice-daily oral doses of its opaganib medication boosted survival from about six days to 11 days in mice infected with Ebola. 

Opaganib is a host-directed therapy, meaning rather than destroying the pathogen directly, it makes its local environment less favorable to grow and live in. 

The drug is also in development as a treatment for multiple cancers, COVID-19 and viral and inflammatory diseases.  

“EBOV is deadly, killing, on average, half of all those who contract it. This year marks 10 years since the West Africa Ebola epidemic in which 11,000 people died, and yet there are still no host-directed, small molecule therapies approved to provide effective and usable treatment strategies,” said RedHill Chief Business Officer Guy Goldberg.  

 “Currently only Inmazeb, a combination of three monoclonal antibodies, and Ebanga, a single monoclonal antibody, are FDA-approved to treat EBOV, as such there is an urgent medical need for additional effective and easy to distribute and administer EBOV therapies,” he said.  

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With the adverse impact of climate change becoming clearer almost every day, the role of technology in mitigating these devastating effects has never been more important. 

Israeli innovation – from clean energy to agriculture technology – has made massive contributions to the world’s efforts to  deal with this phenomenon, and NoCamels takes a look at some of the companies that have the potential to make a real difference. 

Making A Splash With Clean Energy  

Eco Wave Power has become a worldwide phenomenon with its ability to transform water into electricity by using the power of waves. 

The company’s unique floating devices are placed in the water, where they rise and fall with the movement of waves, generating energy that is delivered to power stations on land. The power stations then convert that energy into pressure used to spin a generator, thereby producing electricity.

The system is already generating electricity in China, Israel, South America and the US, and the company lately signed an agreement to bring its technology to Taiwan.  

“It seems like slowly but surely the world understands the great potential and undeniable resource, which is wave energy,” said EWP co-founder and CEO Inna Braverman. 

Eco Wave Power’s floater technology draws energy from incoming waves by converting their motion into clean energy (Photo: Courtesy)

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Air Con Without Electricity 

With no wires, no plugs and no greenhouse gasses, Green Kinko has developed the world’s first outdoors air conditioning unit to use liquid nitrogen as a power source. 

The Kensho unit quietly emits nitrogen gas at a temperature of -10C (14F) to cool the surrounding area, providing needed relief as the world gets hotter, without contributing to the problem. It even has the option of adding an insect repellent, to keep the mosquitoes at bay while enjoying a cool breeze in the garden. 

Liquid nitrogen is already in wide use as a coolant in multiple industries, and the Shefayim based company came up with the idea of using it to cool the air while working on an unrelated project with cryogenic (very low temperature) liquids.

“We have invented a new generation of air conditioner,” said Green Kinko CEO Tal Leizer. “The technology is unique and amazing.” 

The Kensho unit is the world’s first outdoor air conditioner that works without electricity (Photo: Courtesy)

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Taking The Pollution Out Of Plastic  

UBQ Materials says its thermoplastic material, made from unsorted household waste, is considered to have the lowest carbon footprint in the world.

Each year, the world produces more than two billion tons of household waste, most of which is unrecyclable and sent to landfills, for incineration or dumped in open natural spaces. 

The company’s patented technology breaks down the waste into its most basic molecular components and assembles them into the new raw material. It can absorb all kinds of non-sorted household waste, including organic garbage, plastics, papers, cardboard and even dirty diapers.  

The process has zero emissions and uses little energy and no water, giving it a carbon footprint 15-20 times lower than that of alternative resins. 

“By converting solid waste into a sustainable circular thermoplastic that acts as a plastic substitute, we can stop covering up our waste and start transforming and reusing it in safe, affordable and beneficial ways,” said UBQ International Advisory Board member and former White House climate expert Gina McCarthy.  

UBQ Materials takes household waste and converts it into a bio-based plastic substitute (Photo: Courtesy)

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A Breath Of Fresh Air  

Using data from thousands of locations worldwide, BreezoMeter’s app gives users real time information on the air quality in their immediate vicinity – even as they move about. 

The startup takes data from government air monitoring stations – using more than 50,000 sources globally, including satellite, weather and traffic data. Its AI and machine-learning algorithms are then able to track levels of pollution street by street and hour by hour, and are accurate down to five meters (16 feet). 

Its Cleanest Route feature directs pedestrians and cyclists to the least polluted route for them, giving the options a score from 0 to 100, based on air pollution, pollen and smoke in the atmosphere. It also works for motorists, who are actually exposed to higher levels of pollution as they sit behind the wheel.

And so effective is the app, the startup was bought by Google in 2022, in a deal reported to have been worth more than $200 million.

“Our mission is to improve the health and safety of millions of people by reducing their exposure to environmental hazards,” said Tamir Kessel, BreezoMeter’s head of Business Development and Strategy.  

The BreezoMeter Air Quality map tells users how best to avoid pollution in the air (Photo: Courtesy)

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Keeping Urban Landscapes Green And Shady

Trees are one of the biggest casualties of human encroachment into natural landscapes. But one company has found a way to allow trees and technology to coexist – to the benefit of urban dwellers and nature. 

TreeTube’s proprietary tubes are massive, soil-filled cylinders made from inert plastic material (one quarter of which is recycled), which are fitted together like blocks and placed under roads and walkways alongside the infrastructure of modern life.

The tubes allow the roots of the trees to grow in non-compacted soil, unlike the earth needed for pipes and cables, giving them unfettered access to the ground, air and water they need to survive.

The company works primarily with local authorities and landscape architects, and installing the tubes is a quick and efficient process that takes just several hours. The tubes are already successfully in use in Israel, the Netherlands and Estonia, providing shade, keeping down urban temperatures and even reducing carbon emissions in the air. 

“Trees are fantastic filters,” said TreeTube co-founder Jonathan Antebi. “They are one of the utilities that have an actual return on investment to a municipality. 

TreeTube’s plastic-based tubular system is easy to install under sidewalks to let trees flourish in cities (Photo: Courtesy)

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Don’t Worry, Bee Happy  

As the world’s beekeepers warn of the dangers of rapidly disappearing colonies of the honeymakers, Israeli company BeeHero has created a way of monitoring their hives to ensure that the insects inside are happy and healthy. 

Tiny in-hive sensors (about the size of an AirPods case) act as eyes and ears for beekeepers who rely on the bees for honey and pollination of crops. 

They gather a wide range of data from inside the hives, including sound, light, temperature, vibration and humidity. The data is analyzed by the AI platform, which alerts keepers to potential issues that require their attention.

The company says its solution is in use in more than 200,000 hives worldwide and in 2022 alone saved the lives of a quarter of a billion bees, while its precision pollination program tells farmers just how many bees they need and where they need them. 

“I think what is very, very unique about BeeHero is the understanding… that there must be a way to apply Big Data, algorithms, machine learning and artificial intelligence into a legacy industry,” said BeeHero’s VP Global Strategy Eytan Schwartz. 

BeeHero uses sensor technology to monitor the welfare of bees in hives (Photo: Courtesy)

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Meat With Mercy 

The world’s first steak created without killing an animal was the work of Israeli startup Aleph Farms, which grows cultured cow cells in the lab to create meals to satisfy any carnivore. 

Scientists have warned of the environmental impact of the world’s high demand for meat, which requires massive swathes of land for grazing, which not only is resource heavy but also drives up production costs. 

Aleph Farms says its bio-engineering platform, developed in conjunction with the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology, means it can grow steak in the lab without the need for vast tracts of land, water, feed and other resources to raise cattle. Nor does Aleph require antibiotics, whose use in animal feed has exacerbated the growing phenomenon of antibiotic resistance.

The startup uses a combination of six unique, innovative technologies, including the bioreactors in which the cells are grown, which also allow it to drop the production costs of the meat.  

“We’re shaping the future of the meat industry — literally,” said Aleph Farms co-founder and CEO Didier Toubia. 

Aleph Farms creates cultivated meat with less resources and animal cruelty (Photo: Courtesy)

Click here for more

The post Israeli GreenTech Making Our World A Happier, Healthier Place  appeared first on NoCamels.

Israeli company SuperCom, which provides security solutions for digital operations, has been awarded a five-year contract by the government-run Israel Prison Service (IPS) to deploy its PureSecurity Electronic Monitoring (EM) Suite, alongside its prime partner Electra. 

The full-service contract, which is already in effect, includes all EM programs within Israel, including SuperCom’s existing Home Detention Monitoring program and additional GPS Tracking programs.

The program is expected to cover all EM offender programs in Israel, with an estimated 1,500 enrollees and potential for expansion. SuperCom says it will deploy its cutting-edge EM solutions, including PureCom, PureTrack, PureTag, and PureBeacon. 

The contract also includes the option for up to four one-year extensions.  

“We are deeply honored to support Israel’s public safety infrastructure during these challenging times,” said SuperCom CEO and President Ordan Trabelsi. 

“By providing the Israel Prison Service state agency with our advanced electronic monitoring solutions, we reaffirm our unwavering commitment to making Israel safer for all its citizens,” he said.

“We also thank our partner, Electra, one of the most reputable and reliable nationwide security services providers. Together, we offered a winning proposal that combines the most advanced technologies and services to meet the critical needs of the IPS.”  

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CivicLabs, a joint initiative by the Israeli government and private industry to help the high-tech industry in the north, has launched a new program designed to promote startups in the Built Environment (human-created spaces) sector. 

The initiative was devised by Baran Group, Israel’s largest engineering company, and the program focuses on early-stage startups in the sector that have demonstrated both technological and business feasibility.

Forty percent of the startups participating in the program are from the north of Israel, where swathes of the area have been devastated by rocket fire from the Hezbollah terrorist group in Lebanon since the day after the massive terror attack by Hamas in the south last October.

Over a period of six to eight months, the program will offer professional guidance, access to funding and investment opportunities, support for technological and business development, access to R&D infrastructure, pilot opportunities with potential customers and networking with global investors specializing in the Built Environment. 

The five startups selected for the program so far last week presented their ventures at an event held at Meta’s offices, attended by Alon Stopel, the chairman of the Israel Innovation Authority and chief scientist at the Ministry of Innovation, Science and Technology, along with investors, potential partners and leading industry experts.

“Our vision is not only to provide technological and business support but also to establish a comprehensive connection to the entire ecosystem in the north,” said CivicLabs CEO Yogev Katzir.

“This is crucial during normal times and even more so now. We believe that in this challenging period, breakthrough solutions can emerge that will transform the industry and revitalize the economy in the north. Our goal is to position Israel, particularly the north, as a leading technology hub in the Built Environment sector, thereby developing innovative technologies and strengthening the local economy,” he said. 

“The North needs support now more than ever, and at this moment, we are proud to spearhead a significant change in the industry,” said Baran Israel CEO Zohar Nevo.

“The Startup Nation, which has already demonstrated its leadership in various technological fields, is taking another step toward fostering innovation in the Built Environment sectors, which are essential for the ecosystem, independence, and resilience of the Israeli economy, now more than ever.”

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Israel Aerospace Industries, a world leader in the aerospace and defense sectors, has opened its first American innovation center in Washington, D.C., marking the event with the launch of a new accelerator program. 

The new IAI Catalyst program focuses on a number of fields critical to the future of aerospace innovation, among them AI, quantum science, energy and space technology, with the stated aim of becoming an epicenter for aerospace innovation. 

IAI says the Catalyst program will host two cohorts every year, each comprising four startups who have passed a rigorous screening process. 

The selected startups will be provided with office space, technological and business support from IAI and an investment of $100,000, and will be encouraged to work with IAI engineers on future advanced technologies.

“We are proud to launch the Israel Aerospace Industries Innovation Center in the United States, marking a significant milestone that underscores the deep bond between Israel and the US,,” said Amir Peretz, IAI’s Chairman of the Board of Directors and former Israeli defense minister. 

“This center symbolizes the partnership between Israel and America, and the achievements that are reshaping global defense and technology. Together, we will continue to lead, innovate, and shape the future for future generations,” he said.

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Raanana-based startup Cympire has been selected by the Israel Defense Forces to use its cybersecurity training and assessment platform for training. 

Cympire says its military-grade platform provides hyper-realistic training environments and is designed to meet the needs of military, government, enterprise organizations and higher education, 

The platform enables users to “train-as-they-fight,” offering mission-critical readiness, as well as online training content and services.

“We are honored to be selected by the IDF for this critical project. Cympire’s platform offers the most advanced capabilities for building cyber defense skills, and we are committed to supporting the IDF in maintaining their leading edge in cybersecurity,” said Cympire CEO Yaniv Shachar.

According to Cympire’s senior advisor US Maj. Gen. Neil S. Hersey, the former Deputy Commanding General – Operations at the US Army Cyber Command, the partnership underscores the company’s ability to meet the demands of elite military cyber units. 

“By leveraging Cympire’s platform, the IDF will enhance its ability to counter advanced cyber threats effectively. I am excited to see this technology being utilized in one of the world’s most challenging and dynamic cyber defense environments,” he said.

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American pharmaceutical giant Johnson & Johnson has completed its purchase of Israeli medtech company V-Wave, which makes a device to treat heart failure, after the prospective acquisition was announced in August. 

The Israeli company has now become part of Johnson & Johnson MedTech.  

V-Wave’s proprietary, minimally invasive Ventura Interatrial Shunt (IAS) is designed to treat patients with heart failure. The shunt between the left and right atria in the heart aims to reduce elevated pressure in the left atrium. 

It received FDA Breakthrough Device Designation in 2019 and CE mark in 2020, and, according to Johnson & Johnson, has the potential to be the first device of its kind to market.

The American multinational said in August that it would pay up to $1.7 billion for V-Wave. This included a sum of $600 million upfront, followed by further payments totalling some $1.1 billion should V-Wave hit certain regulatory and commercial milestones. 

“We’re excited to officially welcome V-Wave to Johnson & Johnson MedTech,” saif Johnson & Johnson Executive VP and Worldwide Chairman Tim Schmid. 

“V-Wave’s novel implantable device, the Ventura Interatrial Shunt, offers tremendous promise for patients experiencing heart failure with reduced ejection fraction. This technology has the potential to be the first device of its kind to market. We look forward to working with the talented V-Wave team to bring this transformative innovation to patients.”

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Researchers at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot have created a new composite plastic that degrades easily using bacteria that is cheap, strong and simple to prepare. 

Seeking to create a composite plastic that would meet the needs of industry while also being environmentally friendly, the researchers decided to focus on commonplace, inexpensive source materials whose properties could be improved. 

They found that molecules of tyrosine – a prevalent amino acid that forms exceptionally strong nanocrystals – could be used as an effective component in a biodegradable composite plastic. 

And after examining how tyrosine combines with several types of polymers, they also chose hydroxyethyl cellulose, a cellulose derivative employed extensively in the manufacture of medicines and cosmetics.

When hydroxyethyl cellulose and tyrosine are combined, they form an exceptionally strong composite plastic made of fiber-like tyrosine nanocrystals that grow and integrate into the hydroxyethyl cellulose. 

The study was led by Dr. Angelica Niazov-Elkan, Dr. Haim Weissman and Prof. Boris Rybtchinski of Weizmann’s Department of Molecular Chemistry and Materials Science. 

As both cellulose and tyrosine are edible, the biodegradable composite plastic can actually be eaten. The researchers say, however, that as the conditions in the lab are not suitable for foodstuffs, they have yet to sample their new material.

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The Startup Nation is world-famous for its innovation in a wide range of fields, from cybersecurity that protects from hackers to awe-inspiring defense tech on the ground and in the air that keeps us all safer.  

But for many who find themselves facing the greatest battle of all – for their health – Israeli companies have developed truly life-changing medical technology. 

We take a look at some of the most significant innovations, which have the potential to really make the world a better and healthier place. 

Freezing Out Cancer 

IceCure Medical’s ProSense system does what the name of the company suggests – freezing tumors as a treatment for early-stage breast, lung, liver and kidney cancers. 

Doctors insert a small needle into the tumor, using liquid nitrogen to freeze it to temperatures as low as -170°C, without harming the healthy tissue that surrounds it. The cells die as they thaw, and are then absorbed by the body.

The system can be used in a doctor’s own surgery with no invasive treatment or general anesthetic, involving no hospitalization or tissue removal that can cause scarring. The ice ball also has an analgesic effect, providing additional numbing and pain relief to the treated area.

Today, ProSense currently has regulatory approval in 15 countries, including Canada, the United States and China.

IceCure allows physicians to remove tumors by freezing them with liquid nitrogen – with no need for hospitalization (Photo: Courtesy)

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Wheelchair That Puts Users Back On Their Feet  

The wife of inventor and entrepreneur Dr. Amit Goffer cried when she saw him standing on his own feet for the first time, after almost two decades in a wheelchair, thanks to his UpnRide development.  

The unique mobility device gives users the freedom to sit, stand and travel in an upright position, and can lift the user from a sitting to a standing position – and back again – unaided.

Goffer had lost the use of both legs and some movement in his arms when he broke his neck in an ATV accident in 1997, He had already invented the “bionic” ReWalk, a wearable device that allows paraplegics to walk again, and then began developing a solution for people who did not have the upper-body function it requires.  

And unlike other similar solutions on the market, FDA-approved UpnRide’s sophisticated technology allows the user to travel upright at 4km per hour regardless of terrain, tackling almost all urban environments. Click here for more

Dr. Amit Goffer visiting the Western Wall in Jerusalem using the mobility device he invented (Photo: Courtesy)

Delivering An IVF Baby Boom 

Israel loves babies. It is the only developed nation on the planet with an above-average number of births per woman and is by far the world leader in IVF procedures. 

So it is hardly surprising that a major revolution in the efficacy of IVF treatments should be Israeli. 

Tel Aviv-based startup AIVF uses artificial intelligence to select the embryo with the best chance of being successfully implanted into a woman’s womb. 

Using massive amounts of biological data, the EMA platform was trained to understand developmental biology in order to detect milestones and parameters in a developing embryo. 

The founders created the platform based on the premise that AI would be better than the human eye at the “crucial point“ of evaluating embryos in the lab and determining which of a woman’s fertilized eggs was most likely to be viable. 

The AIVF platform predicts which embryos fertilized using IVF are most likely to result in pregnancy (Photo: Depositphotos)

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Tiny Camera Is Canceling Colonoscopies   

Perhaps the most famous of Israeli medtech developments, the PillCam is a non-invasive method of detecting disorders in the gastrointestinal (GI) tract. 

Developed by Given Imaging (today owned by American multinational Medtronic), the pill-sized camera is ingested by patients, which allows physicians to visualize the esophagus, colon and areas of the small intestine. This is vital for detecting diseases including Crohn’s, obscure gastrointestinal bleeding (OGIB) and even esophageal cancer.

After a 10-hour fast, patients swallow the PillCam that then passes naturally through the digestive system over an eight-hour period. During that time PillCam transmits approximately 50,000 images, which can then be downloaded and reviewed by the physician.  

The pill also costs around $800, making it far cheaper than a colonoscopy that can come with a price tag of more than $4,000 and is often far more uncomfortable. 

Since acquiring Given Imaging, Medtronic has opened development centers in Jerusalem and Yokneam, where it employs around 750 people. 

The PillCam allows physicians to examine the gastrointestinal tract without a colonoscopy (Photo: Courtesy)

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Predicting Strokes With Sensors

Prevention, as the saying goes, is better than a cure, and Avertto’s groundbreaking wearable device alerts people to the dangers of an imminent stroke before it even happens. 

The first-ever device of its kind uses cutting-edge pulse wave analysis technology to monitor changes in the blood flow to the brain through the carotid artery, allowing immediate medical steps to be taken to mitigate the risk. 

Strokes are most commonly caused by a clot blocking the essential supply of blood to the brain, and according to the World Health Organization are the second leading cause of death and the leading cause of disability across the globe. 

Avertto’s device uses sensors placed over the carotid arteries, the two major blood vessels on either side of the neck that provide the blood supply to the brain.

A lower blood flow level indicates potential blockages in the carotid arteries. The device’s AI-based alert system detects these changes and within seconds notifies the wearer, first responders and healthcare providers. 

Avertto’s wearable device monitor changes in the blood flow to the brain via the carotid arteries (Images: Courtesy)

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AI Platform Makes Snappy Work Of Diabetic Eye Test

A store-bought camera and a revolutionary AI platform have made simple work of one of the seemingly endless list of tests required by diabetics to monitor their health – with minimum discomfort and in a convenient setting.  

AEYE Health’s proprietary software analyzes an image of the eye for diabetic retinopathy – damage to the blood vessels in the retina that can lead to blindness – without having to dilate the pupil in an uncomfortable and incapacitating procedure. 

Building the platform, which uses machine learning, involved collecting and analyzing massive amounts of data in order to understand how to differentiate between patients whose eyes needed no immediate further care and those who required a referral to an ophthalmologist. 

The method can be used by a family doctor at a pharmacy or even in a patient’s own home, and yields immediate results, avoiding the discomfort and inconvenience that deters many people from having the crucial annual test. 

So remarkable is the development that AEYE Health CEO Zack Dvey-Aharon was recently named by TIME Magazine as one of the 100 most influential people in artificial intelligence for 2024. 

The AEYE Health technology allows crucial eye tests to be carried out in a convenient setting (Photo: Courtesy)

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Mapping Endometriosis Without Surgery 

Women suffering from endometriosis – when tissue similar to the womb lining grows as “lesions” on other parts of the body – have traditionally had to undergo painful and invasive surgery to properly assess the extent of the debilitating disease.  

So challenging has been the detection of the disease, Yale Medicine says that it takes between four to 11 years from the onset of symptoms to diagnosis and treatment.  

But femtech startup EndoCure has developed an AI-powered ultrasound platform for comprehensive mapping of the lesions, leading to quicker diagnosis and customized treatment options for the one in 10 women of reproductive age worldwide who suffer from endometriosis. 

The lesions appear primarily on the ovaries, bowel and other areas of the pelvic region, causing severe pain and affecting fertility. 

EndoCure’s system integrates with standard ultrasound equipment, streaming the data using its own software as the area is scanned.  It produces 3D imaging that is able to detect lesions smaller than one millimeter, which are extremely hard for current systems to spot.

Scar tissue on a woman’s reproductive system caused by endometriosis (Image: Depositphotos)

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An honorable mention also goes to femtech startup Gynica, which has developed a treatment for endometriosis with cannabinoids, the main component in the cannabis plant. 

The startup’s proprietary slow-release suppository makes use of cannabinoids’ anti-inflammatory and analgesic properties, as well as their ability to deter the movement of the endometrium cells to different parts of the body in a three-fold treatment that tackles different aspects of endometriosis. Click here for more

The post Israeli Medical Technologies That Could Change The World appeared first on NoCamels.

The Israel Innovation Authority (IIA) has approved a second year of funding for a joint R&D project to develop CRISPR gene-editing technology for crustaceans that will improve key traits such as growth rate, disease resistance and environmental adaptation. 

The joint project by sustainable aquaculture company Watershed AC, computational biotech firm Evogene and Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (BGU) focuses on giant freshwater prawn, white leg shrimp and red swamp crayfish.

CRISPR is a powerful gene-editing tool that allows for the modification of DNA with unprecedented precision and ease, making it a valuable tool in various fields of research and biotechnology.

The decision by the IIA – the government agency dedicated to supporting the national tech sector – came after the collaboration partners met their targeted goals in the first year of research. 

Using Evogene’s advanced GeneRator AI tech-engine and other tools, Watershed and BGU successfully produced the first edited giant freshwater prawn with selected gene modifications by using CRISPR.  

In the second year, the collaboration’s main target is to industrially scale-up CRISPR technology for giant freshwater prawn and expand the obtained application to other two crustacean species.  

The collaborators say the global shrimp market, which was worth $40.35 billion in 2023, is projected to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 7.09 percent and the global crayfish market is projected to grow at a CAGR of 31.5 percent during the next eight years, 

These growing markets increasingly emphasize the need to expand sustainable aquaculture, the team says, making the technology developed in the frame of the collaboration exceptionally relevant.

The post IIA Funds Further Israeli R&D Into Crustacean Gene Modification appeared first on NoCamels.

Eco Wave Power, an Israeli company that uses waves to create energy, has signed an agreement to bring its technology to Taiwan.

According to the agreement, the Tel Aviv-based company will sell its first wave energy generation unit to I-Ke International Ocean Energy, a subsidiary of leading maritime engineering company Lian Tat.

I-Ke will provide the full financing for the 100KW pilot project, by buying a turnkey conversion unit from Eco Wave Power, the agreement states. The conversion unit includes all the hydraulic and electric conversion parts, coupled with the smart control and automation system.

This agreement is based on a memorandum of understanding signed between Lian Tat and Eco Wave Power in June 2023, and will leverage the latter’s technology to maximize energy extraction on the Taiwanese coastline.

“The construction of Eco Wave Power’s project is relatively easy, and I believe that it will be a significant stepping stone for the development of green electricity in Taiwan,” said Lian Tat Chairman CY Huang. 

“I also think that this will allow Taiwan to break away from existing renewable energy restrictions and develop in the direction of diversified renewable energy,” he said. 

“I am certain that Eco Wave Power’s official visit in Taiwan and the signing of this official collaboration agreement between our companies is the beginning of a true friendship and a productive business collaboration,” said Eco Wave Power founder and CEO Inna Braverman. 

“I believe that this new collaboration will not only be a win-win collaboration for both parties but will also serve as a pioneering step towards the implementation and adaptation of wave energy all over Asia, as this will be the first onshore wave energy array in the region. So let’s change the world together – One Wave at a Time!” 

The post Israeli Wave Energy Tech To Create Power In Taiwan appeared first on NoCamels.

A new AI tool created by Microsoft, in association with a group documenting the events of the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7 of last year, facilitates the preservation of real-time testimonies from that day as part of a collective memory. 

Engineers from Microsoft Israel’s R&D department teamed up with Edut 710 to develop the unique tool, which allows anyone to create a personalized ceremony, event or learning session. 

The ceremony can include video testimonies, background materials, artwork and texts related to the October 7 attack,and creators end up with a customized PowerPoint presentation of their work.

Edut 710 was founded to preserve the memories of the victims of the mass terror attack in southern Israel, collecting testimonies of survivors in full detail. So far, more than 1,200 testimonies have been collected as part of a project to create a comprehensive national archive. This archive could then be used to teach and discuss the attack even when survivors cannot be physically present. 

Browsers of the collective digital memory bank do so with the help of advanced language-learning models (LLMs),which allow it to carry out sophisticated searches across hundreds of testimonies. 

“Collaborating with the amazing employees at Microsoft has allowed us to take another step forward in our commitment to the survivors, their stories, and society at large, ensuring that these testimonies reach a wide audience and are not just preserved in archives,” said Itay Ken-Tor, co-founder and Head of Partnerships and Resource Development at Edut 710. 

“We are excited by the collaboration and the amazing dedication of the Microsoft volunteers who created such an important and impactful platform in such a short time, and we thank them all,” he said. 

“Above all, we are deeply moved by the ability of users to send personal thanks to the survivors whose testimonies they heard. From our experience and consultations with experts, we know how significant this is for them.”

The post Microsoft Creates AI Tool To Help Preserve October 7 Testimonies   appeared first on NoCamels.

Israeli water management pioneer LeakZon has announced the official release of what it says is the first and only dedicated platform designed to significantly reduce water loss rates and enhance the control and clarity of water networks. 

The WEAD (Water Efficiency, Anomaly Detection) platform contains an automated algorithm to identify, categorize and address any anomalies in a water system, monitoring the problem and its performance until resolution.

The  SaaS solution integrates with any Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) platform, and is the only platform available that supports simultaneous integration with multiple AMI platforms. 

The platform, which is available for water utilities, municipalities, smart meter manufacturers and multifamily property owners, also maintains high levels of cybersecurity to safeguard customer data. 

Its capabilities include reducing water loss by up to 66 percent; an intuitive dashboard that provides a clear snapshot of entire water networks; and a Virtual District Metered Area (VDMA) that presents a holistic view of water networks.

“We are thrilled to offer utilities the opportunity to enhance their water loss management,” said LeakZon CEO Dan Winter. 

“With numerous customers already benefiting from our solution, we are confident that WEAD will help utilities, municipalities, and multifamily property owners increase their revenue and significantly reduce water loss. In light of the global climate crisis, LeakZon has made sustainability one of our top priorities, and we are pleased to be able to make our humble contribution to creating a better and safer world.”

The post Water Management Pioneer Unveils Unique New Anti-Leak Platform appeared first on NoCamels.

“We will dance again” has become an Israeli mantra of hope and resilience following the massacre at the Nova music festival on October 7, when Hamas terrorists brutally slaughtered 364 people at the dance party and kidnapped dozens more to nearby Gaza. 

Vibez, a unique, young platform for music events, is determined to help Israelis do just that – with major input from a famous Israeli DJ whose son was one of the victims of the Nova attack. 

The memorial to the victims of the massacre at the Nova music festival in southern Israel (Photo: Shlomo Roded/PikiWiki)

The platform is available in app and browser form, and operates as a portal for private communities for specific events, which anyone can apply to join. The platform serves as a complete environment for each event, with social media features, member offers and ticket sales. 

“We built an ecosystem for advanced communities that does much more than just ticketing,” Dovev explains. “We do the whole aspect of member management.”  

And no other platform in the world, he says, has the same range of features as Vibez. 

One of the main communities on the platform – with more than 10,000 members –  is operated by David Abramov, better known in the Israeli music world as DJ Darwish, who is also a member of the Vibez advisory board.   

Abramov’s 20-year-old son Laor was initially declared missing in the chaotic aftermath of the Nova attack and tragically later found to be among the dead. 

Launched just two weeks before the massacre at the Nova festival on October 7, Vibez co-founder and CEO Saar Dovev tells NoCamels that it took until mid-March for Israeli events to begin happening again. 

Nova was a prime example of a community-based music festival, Dovev says. 

Saar Dovev: We realized that events were building themselves communities (Photo: Courtesy)

Each community – be it created by an individual, specific festival or club – has its own pages on the platform, with listings for upcoming events, messages from the operators and special offers exclusive to that group. 

Would-be members ask to join the specific community in order to access their features and, once approved, can interact and receive often exclusive details of upcoming events.  

Dovev explains that each community can also define the levels of membership within it, such as premium or VIP, set up event promotions or even just send messages to its members. A social media aspect, allowing members to chat, is also in development. 

“We are a little bit like Meetup,” Dovev says, referring to the global forum for people to find others in their immediate vicinity who share their interests, “but for nightlife, festivals, parties – everything to do with culture.” 

Dovev set up Vibez in late 2021 with co-founder Yael Dovev, who is the company COO and also his wife, whom he fondly refers to as his “partner in crime.”  

An experienced entrepreneur in the event industry, Dovev had created ticketing platform EventBUZZ more than a decade ago, but came to realize that as events of all kinds were building communities around themselves, they would need a dedicated home to manage all their interactions. 

“Communities became a big thing everywhere, in every segment of life,” he says.  

The founders funded the development of the platform themselves, with no external investment and a small team to write the code and develop the software themselves. 

“I’m very proud of the fact that we are a bootstrap company, and we reached the milestone that we have reached,” Dovev says, adding that Vibez “didn’t spend a shekel on marketing.”  

That milestone includes some 100,000 users in Israel and an app that he says has been downloaded by more than 10 percent of that number – making it the 15th most popular app in the country in less than a year. 

The Vibez app has become one of the most popular apps in Israel (Photo: Courtesy)

Although currently operating primarily in Israel, the platform has also expanded internationally with events in Finland and Thailand, and has already established itself as a firm fixture in the latter. 

Vibez is also hopeful that a large music festival in Europe will be using the platform in the near future, and has its sights set on the US, where it has already registered the company. 

Although the emphasis is on music events, Dovev says the platform is suitable for any kind of cultural experience. 

“If it has culture, if it has music, sound, art, movement, it’s relevant for us,” he says.

The post Innovative Music Festival Platform Is Helping Israelis To Dance Again  appeared first on NoCamels.

The Israel Innovation Authority (IIA) has announced the 20 Israeli climate tech companies that will be featured at the United Nations COP29 Climate Conference set to take place in Baku, Azerbaijan in November. 

The 20 companies operate in a diverse range of sectors related to green tech – including renewable energy; water; advanced agriculture; and smart transportation – and each has its own innovative solution to combating the global climate crisis.

The various companies were chosen in order to showcase the impact of Israeli innovation in this ecosystem, and will be present at the Israeli pavilion inside the event’s main Blue Zone hub. 

COP29 will be the UN’s 29th climate conference, the largest event of its kind in the world. More than 100 heads of state and over 40,000 participants – including members of governments, the private sector, academia and financial institutions – 

are expected to attend this year’s conference, which will focus on reducing greenhouse gas emissions and adapting to climate change, with an emphasis on innovative and sustainable solutions.

The Israeli companies selected are: 

Airovation Tech: Developed a unique technology for capturing and storing carbon dioxide from the air, enabling industries such as fertilizers, cement and steel to significantly reduce carbon emissions

CarbonBlue: Removes carbon dioxide from ocean water, allowing it to absorb more CO₂ from the atmosphere without requiring water pre-treatment

Rewind: Developed a carbon dioxide removal method involving the storage of biomass in the 2km deep, oxygen-depleted waters of the Black Sea

Momentick: Uses advanced sensors and artificial intelligence to provide precise and autonomous capabilities for detecting and quantifying methane and other greenhouse gas emissions worldwide

Senecio Robotics: Tackles the global mosquito epidemic by developing an AI-powered robotic platform that releases sterile males, dramatically reducing mosquito populations in vast areas

TextRe: Specializes in converting synthetic textile waste into sustainable recycled materials used in various applications in the plastics industry.

Treetoscope: Presents advanced irrigation optimization technology in agriculture, reducing water waste and promoting efficient use of renewable water sources

BlueGreen Water Technologies: Purifies polluted lakes by combining innovative materials and technologies to treat stagnant water sources and rivers

SolCold: Developed a unique nanotechnological coating that cools buildings under sunlight without the need for electricity, making it a perfect solution for extremely hot regions

EZPack: Provides off-grid water solutions for rural areas, with technologies that supply clean water for drinking and agriculture even in harsh conditions

NGV: Offers technology to reduce carbon emissions from polluting industries while creating sustainable products, enabling over an 80-percent reduction in emissions throughout the lifecycle

Envomed: Developed a solution for the treatment of hazardous medical waste, focusing on environmental preservation and reducing pollutant emissions

Reep Technologies: Removes ink from paper in a way that allows paper reuse, reducing pollution in the printing industry

H2OLL: Provides technology to extract drinking water directly from the air, a unique solution for areas with water shortages

Salicrop: Develops environmentally friendly fertilizer alternatives that help plants adapt to harsh climatic conditions

ANINA Culinary Art: Offers unique packaging solutions for healthy, eco-friendly meals that are ready to eat within minutes

CI Sensing: Developed a revolutionary solution for monitoring greenhouse gas emissions based on Optical Gas Imaging technology, which helps energy companies reduce emissions and enhance safety against leaks

Marine Edge: Provides optimization solutions for shipping companies, reducing fuel consumption and pollutant emissions

Terra: Developed technology for managing and monetizing carbon removal for farmers

The post Israel Sending 20 Green Tech Firms To UN Climate Conference appeared first on NoCamels.

One year after the brutal mass attack by Hamas terrorists on southern Israel, and the country is still dealing with the subsequent and ongoing war in Gaza, driving Hezbollah from the northern border, and attacks by Iran and its other proxies in Iraq, Syria and Yemen. 

But during the past year, Israelis have displayed the resilience, determination and creativity that has helped them overcome the threats they have faced since the creation of the state in 1948 and for which they have a worldwide reputation. 

So too has the national innovation ecosystem risen to the occasion, displaying the same tenacity that earned it the moniker Startup Nation, and using it to rehabilitate the country during the greatest challenge of its 76-year history.  

Perhaps in the realest sense of the word rehabilitation, Sheba Medical Center – Israel’s largest and internationally ranked hospital – is developing the most groundbreaking surgical techniques to improve the lives of Israeli veterans who were wounded in the line of duty. 

The soldiers underwent what Sheba said were life-changing procedures by Israeli and top global surgeons, with the aim of helping them to reclaim their sense of empowerment and independence. 

The foreign surgeons also worked with their Israeli counterparts on these new techniques, in a joint project by Sheba and Brothers for Life, a non-profit organization providing critical and immediate aid to wounded IDF veterans.

The innovative techniques will now be used to operate on IDF veterans such as Sergeant O., who lost his right leg after stepping on an IED during a mission in the West Bank in January, and who has since  experienced severe pain due to nerve damage. 

Sergeant O. was set to undergo surgery at Sheba to ease the pain, a procedure to be led by Dr. Jason Souza, Director of the Orthoplastic Reconstruction and Advanced Amputation Program at Ohio State University.  

“We are humbled and honored to serve those who have served us. It is our duty to help veterans rebuild their lives and enable them to look ahead to a future filled with hope and possibilities,” said Dr. Avi Avitan, head of Sheba’s Outpatient Rehab Clinic. 

“Our network of healthcare professionals, including surgeons, physical therapists and prosthetists assists patients along every step towards recovery, providing support in every way possible. They fought their battle on the front line, and now it is our turn to fight alongside them in their journey to recovery and rehabilitation,” he said. 

Brothers for Life today works with 2,000 wounded IDF veterans and its co-founder and executive chairman Gil Ganonyan, who was also wounded in battle, anticipates that more veterans will look to the organization for support in the coming months. 

“We are fully committed to continuing our vital mission of supporting the physical and mental recovery of our heroes, putting the puzzle pieces back together to build a stronger, more resilient future,” Ganonyan said. 

Coping with the wounds of the past year also means healing the mental scars, and Israel’s innovation ecosystem has also been hard at work in this sphere too.  

Medical cannabis company SyqeAir – which created the world’s first inhaler with metered doses for pain management – has developed an online questionnaire to recognize early symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and recommendations for professional help for anyone suffering from mental distress. 

The number of Israelis dealing with PTSD has almost doubled in the past year (Photo: Pexels)

According to the Israeli Center for Suicide Research, the number of Israelis dealing with PTSD has almost doubled in the past year from 16 percent to 30 percent. Furthermore, a survey by the University of Haifa also found that approximately 60 percent of the population not directly affected by the war are experiencing acute stress disorder (ASD), which when left untreated has the potential to develop into PTSD.

SyqeAir’s questionnaire asks respondents about their recent emotions and behaviors, and the degree of their intensity, which may reveal symptoms characteristic of PTSD. 

The completed questionnaire is analyzed for signs of symptoms characteristic of PTSD. If such signs appear, the respondent is recommended to contact a professional for a full diagnosis and treatment advice. 

The questions are based on a self-report survey used by the National Center for PTSD at the US Department of Veterans affairs, which assesses 20 symptoms of post-traumatic stress. 

According to SyqeAir, its data shows a 350 percent increase in victims of hostilities being treated with medical cannabis, of which 56 percent are being treated for PTSD. 

The data also shows a 150 percent increase in members of the security forces being treated with medical cannabis, of which 57 percent are dealing with PTSD from the ongoing conflict.

“Professional estimates suggest that by the end of 2025, between 1.5 to 2 million individuals may be suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD),” said SyqeAir CEO Hagit Kamin. 

“Our newly developed digital tool aims to raise awareness about post-traumatic symptoms and offers an early self-identification solution for those in need of help and professional guidance to improve their well-being,” she said. 

“Considering the rapid increase in the number of people experiencing PTSD, we recognize the critical need to provide the general public with an initial identification tool to promote awareness and enable individuals to seek treatment as early as possible.”

Young Israelis are also innovating for better medical solutions, with students at Afeka College of Engineering creating new technologies for emergency medical services in the wake of the October 7 attacks. 

The top three winning entries were an AI-powered platform to streamline patient medical history, thereby reducing time to treatment; a smart bandage that helps prevent sepsis by detecting an infection based on the changes in a patient’s pH levels; and a drone that can deliver medical equipment to remote areas.

The unique solutions for emergency care were created during the Tel Aviv college’s third annual 24-hour hackathon, and is an issue of great importance to Afeka, which has seen 42 percent of its study body serving in the Israel Defense Forces during the course of the war. 

Afeka students beside a Magen David Adom ambulance during the college’s hackathon for medical care innovation (Photo: Courtesy)

The event, dubbed “the MDAthon,” was held in conjunction with Magen David Adom, Israel’s national rescue service, and included multidisciplinary teams of students and alumni, emergency responders and industry professionals. 

“The demand for skilled engineers has never been greater, especially during these critical times,” said Afeka President Prof. Ami Moyal. 

“Our students will be the leaders and innovators that drive future success, will drive our economy, and ensure Israel’s continued success on the global stage.”

The post Rehabilitation Nation: Israeli Innovation On Road To Healing  appeared first on NoCamels.

Israeli medical diagnostic company MeMed has announced the successful completion of the first randomized controlled trial in the US of its test to differentiate between bacterial and viral infections. 

The test could reduce the amount of use of antibiotics, which do not work on viral infections but whose prescription for them plays a part in the growing problem of antibiotic resistance in bacteria.

The company says the trial of the MeMed BV test successfully demonstrates its clinical utility in promoting appropriate antibiotic use, highlighting its potential to improve patient outcomes and healthcare decision making. It also called the trial a critical step toward making the test the standard for distinguishing bacterial and viral infections.  

The randomized controlled trial was conducted across 11 Emergency Departments (EDs) and Urgent Care Centers (UCCs) in the US and Israel, and included 260 adult patients with clinical suspicion of lower respiratory tract infection (LRTI). 

The first small-scale analysis of data from the trial showed a 62 percent relative reduction in unnecessary antibiotic prescription rates, while follow-up data indicated no significant increase in the rate of return ED/UCC visits within 7 days.

“The results of this trial build on a decade-long series of studies involving thousands of patients, demonstrating the high performance of the MeMed BV technology,” said MeMed co-founder and CEO Dr. Eran Eden. 

“This trial marks a significant step forward by generating interventional data and showcasing the test’s actual impact on patients. We are committed to further expanding on these findings, with several additional utility and real-world studies underway,” he said.  

The post Israeli Test To Tell If Infection Bacterial Or Viral Successful In Trial  appeared first on NoCamels.

Tel Aviv University (TAU) has been ranked seventh worldwide and first outside the US in the 2024 Pitchbook Ranking for global entrepreneurship. 

The annual ranking, published by renowned business data research company Pitchbook, tracks startups raising capital in the US, using the number of entrepreneurs among an institution’s alumni to compile the top 50 universities.

TAU says the achievement was driven by 893 alumni with bachelor’s degrees who have founded 755 companies over the past decade, raising $29.8 billion in total capital. 

While TAU joins world-famous US universities such as Stanford, MIT and Harvard in the top 10, it places higher than Yale, Columbia and Princeton, who were ranked 11th, 13th and 14th respectively. 

Pitchbook singled out three companies founded by TAU alumni that have each raised over $1 billion: Generate ($4.3 billion); Lendbuzz ($1.2 billion); and Next Insurance ($1.1 billion).

“TAU continues to be Israel’s main entrepreneurial university and a global leader in producing alumni who become entrepreneurs, found companies, raise venture capital and drive economic progress,” said Prof. Moshe Zviran, the university’s Chief Entrepreneurship & Innovation Officer. 

“TAU’s 7th place in the Pitchbook ranking is another testament to the exceptional quality of our alumni and the impact of our entrepreneurial ecosystem on campus, which actively promotes this mindset,” he said. 

Three other Israeli universities made the list: the Technion – Israel School of Technology in Haifa, which was ranked 16th; the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, which was ranked 30th; and Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, which was ranked 47th.

The post Tel Aviv University Ranked 7th In World For Global Entrepreneurship appeared first on NoCamels.

<p>The Australian Parliament convened on Monday morning and observed a moment of silence in memory of the victims of the Bondi Beach massacre, with families of the victims present in the gallery.</p><p>Prime Minister Anthony Albanese announced last week that MPs would return from their summer recess earlier than expected, with the aim of advancing legislation against anti-Semitism and hatred.</p>

It is time to stop apologizing, to stop pleading for understanding. It is time to return to the language of justice. Opinion.

Iraqi authorities arrest three ISIS terrorists in Anbar and Sulaymaniyah, including a bomb‑maker.

<p>Israeli basketball player Deni Avdija led the Portland Trail Blazers to a 117-110 victory over the Sacramento Kings on Sunday night.</p><p>Avdija, who returned to the court after missing three games due to a back injury, finished with 30 points, eight rebounds, and eight assists in 32 minutes of play.</p>

Trump invites Pakistan’s PM to join the new Gaza Peace Board as part of a wider US plan to oversee Gaza’s transition and rebuild the enclave.

<p>Overnight Sunday, in the Jabal Johar area in Hebron, security forces began an operation to dismantle terror infrastructure sites, eradicate illegal possession of weapons, and enhance security in the area.</p><p>The operation is expected to continue for several days. During this time, explosions may be heard and increased movement of IDF forces will be noticeable in the area.</p><p>The security forces will continue to operate to thwart terrorism throughout Judea and Samaria.</p>

Sen. Lindsey Graham meets top Israeli leaders in Jerusalem, praising the US‑Israel alliance and citing rising Iran tensions.

Texans LB Azeez Al‑Shaair fined $11,593 for wearing “stop the genocide" eye black, violating NFL rules on personal messages during games.

Sen. Ted Cruz says the US should exhaust all non‑military options against Iran’s regime but supports force as a last resort.

Iran’s blackout briefly lifted as rights groups report thousands killed in a crackdown.

JACKSON, Mississippi — The emotion was palpable in the pews Friday night at Beth Israel Congregation’s first Shabbat service since its synagogue was targeted by an arsonist last week.

“We will not only survive, we will thrive,” the congregation’s student rabbi and spiritual leader, Benjamin Russell, told his community. He was draped in the only surviving tallit from the synagogue’s library, where the arsonist lit the fire.

“A few days ago, someone tried to wound us, someone tried to destroy what we love, someone tried to tell us that we do not belong in our own city, that being visibly Jewish is dangerous, that being proudly Jewish is a risk, that being a synagogue is an invitation for hatred,” Russell said. “What they failed to understand is that we are not made of wood and paper and shelves. We are made of Torah, memory, community, stubborn love and 3000 years of defiance.”

Roughly 170 Beth Israel congregants filled Northminster Baptist Church in Jackson on Friday night, after the church lent its space to the displaced community.

Founded in 1860, Beth Israel has always been the only synagogue in Mississippi’s capital. The arson attack last week, which burnt out the synagogue’s library and destroyed two of its Torahs, was not the first time that Beth Israel’s congregants were faced with the task of rebuilding. In 1967, the Ku Klux Klan bombed the synagogue, and, months later, also targeted the home of Rabbi Perry Nussbaum after he advocated for civil rights and desegregation.

Beth Israel Congregation in Jackson, Mississippi, on Jan. 16, 2026. (Jewish Telegraphic Agency)

Reflecting on the congregation’s 160-year-old roots in Jackson, Russell said, “We have prayed through wars, depressions, pandemics, demographic shifts and antisemitism in every decade, and every single time we did more than survive, we adapted, we rebuilt, we showed up, and that is exactly what we are doing and will continue to do now.”

Throughout the service, little mention was made of the suspect who confessed to the arson, Stephen Spencer Pittman, a 19-year-old resident of a suburb of Jackson who told the FBI that he had targeted Beth Israel because it was a “synagogue of Satan.”

Standing outside of the charred entrance to the synagogue earlier in the day Friday, Abram Orlansky, a lifelong Jackson resident and past president of Beth Israel Congregation, said that most of the conversations within the congregation had not revolved around Pittman.

“To the extent we’re talking about him, we’re just saying what he wanted to do was interrupt or destroy Jewish life in Jackson, and all he’s going to succeed at is making it more vibrant,” said Orlansky. “All he’s done is reaffirm the connection between this Jewish community and this city.”

Beth Israel Congregation’s president, Zach Shemper, and student rabbi, Benjamin Russell outside of the synagogue building on Jan. 16, 2026. (Jewish Telegraphic Agency)

On Thursday, a host of Christian faith leaders and Jackson city officials said a prayer for the congregation during a citywide prayer service. Zach Shemper, the president of Beth Israel Congregation, said more than 10 churches had offered to host the synagogue for Shabbat.

“We’ve been persecuted for thousands of years, and just like we survived that, we will survive this,” said Shemper outside of the synagogue. “All this atrocity did was relocate where we’re having services.”

Support from other Jewish congregations across the South was also visible throughout the services.

Temple B’Nai Israel, a Reform synagogue in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, lent the community a Torah as well as 50 prayer books. A synagogue in Memphis, Tennessee, sent another 100 prayer books.

The oneg after services was provided by Touro Synagogue in New Orleans, Louisiana, and included a pecan praline challah king cake, a Jewish twist on the traditional Mardi Gras dessert.

The challah king cake loomed large over the evening. When Shemper announced the pastry at the end of the service, several children in the audience cheered and audience members applauded.

On Friday morning, Orlansky showed a photo of the cake on his phone and said, “That’s Jewish southern culture,” adding that there is a store in New Orleans called “Kosher Cajun.”

The pecan praline challah king cake at the Beth Israel Congregation’s oneg on Jan. 16, 2026. (Jewish Telegraphic Agency)

In Jackson, a city with no explicitly Jewish establishments or cultural centers, Beth Israel has acted as a central hub of Jewish communal life. (The city’s only Jewish restaurant, Olde-Tyme Deli, closed in 2000 after serving the Jewish community for 39 years.)

“We are the minority in the area, and so we don’t have all of the Jewish delis and JCC down the road and all of those things,” Russell said. “Our synagogue is that place for us to meet.”

About a 45 minute drive from the synagogue is Jacobs Camp, a Jewish summer camp run by the Union of Reform Judaism.

Sarah Thomas, the synagogue’s first vice president, read an address by Rabbi Rick Jacobs, the URJ’s  president, aloud during the service.

“Beth Israel family, like our ancestors, who endured the plague of hate and still found light, we think of all of you and know that there’s much light in your midst,” Jacobs said in the comments. “We pray that you continue to bask in the light of community and the light of solidarity and the light of hope for better days ahead.”

In the absence of Jewish infrastructure in Jackson, Russell said the congregants “make every space that we are in Jewish by our own presence there.”

According to Russell, some of the local spots that have become surrogate Jewish spaces include Myrtle Farms, a brewery, and Thai Tasty, a restaurant a short walk from Beth Israel.

Russell said that Thai Tasty had become so popular with his congregants that he now announces during services when its owners make their annual monthlong trip to Thailand.

“Something that we see across the South’s Jewish communities is that there is a level of pride, because you may be the only Jewish person in your high school,” said Russell. “I think there’s just a little bit of charm in that resilience or that stubbornness that we have that says we’re going to be here, we’re going to always be here.”

In high school, Orlansky recalled, there were two other Jewish students in his grade. Today, he said his two children are the “only Jewish kid in their class, or either class on either side of them.” That makes Beth Israel a haven, he said.

“A shared experience I have with my kids is being able to come to this building and not be the sort of constant representative of the Jewish people to everyone you know,” said Orlansky.

Rachel Myers and Abram Orlansky pose on Beth Israel Congregation’s bimah on Jan. 16, 2026. (Jewish Telegraphic Agency)

Orlansky said that the responsibility of representing the Jewish community was both an “honor” and a “challenge.”

“It is an honor to live in a place like this where people ask you about your religion, and people kind of look to you for answers about Judaism, but it can be a challenge, and so having a home where everyone around you is also Jewish is a respite,” he said.

Thomas, who is also a lifelong Beth Israel congregant, said growing up she was also the only Jewish student in her grade, but when she came to Beth Israel Congregation on Wednesdays and Sundays she found a “safe space.”

“We talked about things that were happening outside of here and, and how we were going to respond with our Jewishness to a world, or a community, that was just different, and we knew that here was our safe space,” said Thomas.

Thomas said the Beth Israel building was an “epicenter of life” for the community’s 140 families.

“What I want people to know about the southern Jewish communities, especially the smaller ones, or the only ones within a 90 mile radius, is everything related to Jewish life happens here,” said Thomas.

The library inside Beth Israel Congregation on Jan. 16, 2026. (Jewish Telegraphic Agency)

But while the building had served as a focal point of the community, Thomas added that “the building is not what makes up our community.”

“The building is not what makes up our community, our community is made up of the people,” said Thomas. “We’re going to be in other places, and we’ll make that our home, but really together, we the people are going to be home to one another.”

Shari Rabin, an associate professor of Jewish studies and religion at Oberlin College and the author of the 2025 book “The Jewish South: An American History,” told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency that the sentiment was common in small Jewish communities in the region.

“Synagogues are such important institutions in these smaller Southern communities,” said Rabin. “This is the center of Jewish life, and it’s really important for Jewish communities there to have a public address to show we’re here, we’re part of the landscape, other Jews can find us here.”

But Rabin said that public visibility also has a potential dark side.

“It can also make these institutions a target for those who are poisoned by various ideologies and decide that they want to make Jews a target,” said Rabin.

Following the attack last Saturday, most of the synagogue’s leaders said they had initially assumed the fire had been caused by an electrical malfunction or another accident.

While antisemitism has risen across the country, in many Southern states, including Mississippi, the trend has felt less pervasive. From 2022 to 2024, the number of antisemitic incidents in the state rose from 7 to 20, according to the Anti-Defamation League’s annual antisemitism audit.

“To know that someone could do this in your own community is frightening, but it’s also eye-opening,” said Russell. “We always say, not me, not me, not me, not us, not our community, and I think what I have learned, and my message for everyone, is that you never know.”

The day after the arson attack, Rachel Myers, the second vice president and co-director of the religious school at Beth Israel, hosted the synagogue’s Sunday school at the Mississippi Children’s Museum, where she works as the director of exhibits.

There, Myers showed the class of 14 children a slideshow of the damage inside the synagogue and helped them brainstorm ways to rebuild it. She said one child imagined a cotton candy machine while another said, Llet’s do a mural of all the rabbis on the wall.”

Smoke damage inside a classroom in Beth Israel Congregation on Jan. 16, 2025. (Jewish Telegraphic Agency)

“I just was trying to focus on: this thing happened to us, all of these grown-ups around you are the ones that work so hard to make Jewish life happen, and we’re going to continue to make Jewish life happen,” said Myers.

For the teens in the synagogue, Myers said the main question that was asked was “why.”

While Myers said she hadn’t yet planned her lesson for the teens, she said she would lead with explaining that “when people are bad and angry, they look for somebody to blame, and in this case, this young person decided to blame Jewish people.”

After being a part of the congregation for almost 20 years, Myers said she had never before experienced antisemitism in Jackson.

“I think I know that there’s a rise of antisemitism, and I think I know that there’s a rise of mis- and disinformation on the internet,” said Myers. “I know there’s crazies on the internet, I don’t read the comments, but the fact that someone, that crazy, left the internet and came and did a physical act of harm to us — it is surprising.”

Russell said that he was concerned for the teens of Jackson.

“I think the biggest thing is we have to watch our kids and our teens, the fact that they’re being radicalized so quickly online by social media and other things on the internet,” said Russell, later adding, “Of course, we have to monitor, but the real antidote is just to stop breathe and love each other, even when we disagree.”

Benjamin Russell speaks with congregants at the Northminster Baptist Church on Jan. 16, 2026. (Jewish Telegraphic Agency)

As the congregation mingled over the challah king cake following the service, Joshua Wiener, a Beth Israel Congregation member since 1981, said he believed that Russell and Shemper had represented the community well.

“As [Russell] said, antisemitism has been around since even before Pharaoh, but it hasn’t touched us here, and so I think there’s just shock at what happened, maybe a little relief that it wasn’t worse, and maybe some relief that it was not an organized effort,” Wiener said.

He described Jackson’s Jewish population as a “drop in the bucket,” but said they had always had an “outsize presence and influence, and a lot of that is just because of how welcomed we have been in the community.”

At the end of his sermon, Russell offered an instruction to the worshippers, several of whom were visibly emotional.

“This is the time to say, out loud, I am Jewish, I am proud, this is my community, and I belong here,” he said.

“I want to say something clearly. Beth Israel is still here, Jewish life in Jackson is still here, and we are not going anywhere, because the opposite of fear is not bravery, it is presence,” Russell continued. “Every time we gather, every time we pray, every time we teach a child to read aleph bet, every time we put on a tallis, every time we celebrate a bat mitzvah or mourn with the family, we are safe. We belong, we matter, we will outlive every Pharaoh history produces.”

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It had all the trappings of a conventional Christmas pageant: the three wise men, Christmas carols, and children dressed as angels.

But there was a twist: This pageant, performed on Sunday in New Jersey, also included a Hasidic Jewish caricature, carrying a sack of coins and dancing with the devil.

Earlocks swaying, the character called Moshko entered the room to the tune of “Hava Nagila,” offered a greeting in mock Yiddish, and announced that he was selling liquor, in a brazen effort to distract the Christians from reverence about the birth of Jesus.

The pageant that took place at St. Mary Protectress Ukrainian Orthodox Church in Clifton, New Jersey, is known as a vertep — a form of theater prominent in Slavic Christmas celebrations. Caricatures of Jewish figures that promote stereotypes about Jews and greed are a longstanding and frequent feature.

Especially as Ukraine has sought to shed any association with antisemitism amid its ongoing conflict with Russia, calls to remove the vertep’s antisemitic components have gained traction. In recent years, some have replaced Jews with Russians as the villainous characters.

But some communities have continued to embrace the Jewish caricature — leading Lev Golinkin, a Jewish author born in Ukraine who has written about antisemitism there, recently to call out the importation of antisemitic stereotypes from the old country to Ukrainian diaspora communities, usually under the auspices of the Catholic church.

Golinkin said in an interview that seeing the Clifton pageant on Facebook, where the church posted a video, was a “jarring” reminder of antisemitism he experienced as a child.

“It feels like a betrayal,” Golinkin said. “America should be where things are left behind and there are new starts — and there you have this show, this pageant that it seems like it’s a new generation of mockery, teaching kids to mock.”

The Anti-Defamation League condemned the pageant’s contents after learning about it from the Jewish Telegraphic Agency.

“There is no place for antisemitic stereotypes in any religious celebration,” Scott Richman, the regional director of ADL New York and New Jersey, said in a statement. “At a time when antisemitism is surging to alarming levels, continuing harmful stereotypes — even in the context of traditional religious customs — undermines the efforts built to understand and maintain safety for Jewish communities.”

Richman said his office was reaching out to “local leaders to discuss the harm these portrayals cause” but said he had not yet been in touch with St. Mary Protectress, a small church in a suburb with a growing Orthodox Jewish population.

“We hope future celebrations will focus on the joy of the holiday season and the shared values that bring us together, rather than reviving centuries-old stereotypes that have no place in today’s society,” Richman said.

St. Mary Protectress, which had invited members to the pageant by saying on Facebook that it would “take us back to our childhood Christmas,” did not respond to requests for comment. Neither did two organizations serving Ukrainians in the United States, the Ukrainian Institute of America and the Ukrainian American Cultural Center of New Jersey.

Ukrainians have addressed the vertep’s portrayal of Jews in the past. In a 2017 interview with Ukrainian Jewish Encounter, a nonprofit aiming to build bridges between Ukrainians and Jews, the writer and art critic Diana Klochko explained that antisemitism was long baked into Ukrainian society.

“There was also a lot of it in everyday Ukrainian life, and this was fed by unacceptability, negligence, or threat,” Klochko said. “There were very many situations that constantly spilled over into what is, one way or another, a very strong antisemitic motif in Christianity itself. And it exists in the vertep, too.”

But she added, “You have to understand that this is history, and it is not mandatory to drag this from tradition, from history, into the contemporary world.”

The St. Mary Protectress pageant conformed to the patterns that make up the traditional vertep: a retelling of the Christmas story (sans a Jesus character) blended with a satirical take on Ukrainian issues of the day. After discovering that his prospective customers prefer Jesus to alcohol, the Jewish character reports to King Herod, the Roman Jewish king overseeing Jerusalem, about the threat to his power. Herod dispatches soldiers to kill Jesus.

The arc amounts to a romp through antisemitic tropes, from the charge that Jews killed Jesus to the theories that Jews are greedy, use Christian blood in their rituals and exercise inordinate power. The tropes have been used to justify centuries of violent antisemitism, including but not only by the church.

Evolved from puppet theater, the vertep includes a cast of Ukrainian folkloric characters such as the Cossack, the Pole, the Muscovite, the Lithuanian, the Roma and the Jew — referred to in the story as Moshko the “zhyd,” a derogatory term for “Jew.”

In the St. Mary vertep, Moshko introduces himself as a “zhyd,” and Sarah introduces herself as a “zhydivka.”

Though the word was once an acceptable word for “Jew” in Ukrainian, it is widely considered a slur today. Still, it remains contested in Ukraine: In 2012, a member of an antisemitic political party in the Ukrainian government referred to Ukrainian-American actress Mila Kunis as a “zhydovka” on a Facebook post, causing immediate backlash from the Jewish community. The country’s justice ministry ruled that the use of the word was acceptable because it appears in the official Ukrainian dictionary.

Hearing the slur being used in his own state felt especially distressing to Golinkin.

“‘Zhyd out’ was ‘kike out’ — just a slogan in my childhood. I saw it written in alleyways, and in bathroom stalls, and it was a call to cleanse Ukraine. When things go bad and things fall apart, the solution is ‘Jew out,’” Golinkin said, adding, “We left everything in Ukraine to have a life in which you don’t hear ‘Jew, out.’”

After Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, Golinkin wrote about how his sense of identity as a Ukrainian was deepening. The pageant in Clifton, he said, would not erase all that is positive about Ukrainian culture.

“Choosing this filth is just a shameful thing to do,” Golinkin said. “It doesn’t do justice to Ukraine which has so much more than this.”

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In the fall, a video of Nick Fuentes criticizing Donald Trump drew the praise of progressive ex-Congressman Jamaal Bowman.

“Finally getting it Nick,” Bowman commented, apparently recognizing some common ground between himself on the left and Fuentes, on the far right, who said in the video that Trump was “better than the Democrats for Israel, for the oil and gas industry, for Silicon Valley, for Wall Street,” but said he wasn’t “better for us.”

Now, Fuentes says there is actually no common ground between him and those on the left. 

“My problem with Trump isn’t that he’s Hitler — my problem with Trump is that he is not Hitler,” Fuentes said during his streaming show on Tuesday, which focused mostly on the potential for an American attack on Iran.

He continued, “You have all these left-wing people saying, ‘Why do I agree with Nick Fuentes?’ It’s like, I’m criticizing Trump because there’s not enough deportations, there’s not enough ICE brutality, there’s not enough National Guard. Sort of a big difference!”

Fuentes, the streamer and avowed antisemite who has previously said Hitler was “very f–king cool,” has been gaining more traction as a voice on the right. His interview with Tucker Carlson in October plunged Republicans into an ongoing debate over antisemitism within their ranks, inflaming the divide between a pro-Israel wing of the party and an emerging, isolationist “America First” wing that’s against U.S. military assistance to Israel.

Once a pro-Trump MAGA Republican, Fuentes has become the leader of the “groyper” movement advocating for farther-right positions. The set of Fuentes’ show includes both a hat and a mug with the words “America First” on his desk.

In a New York Times interview, Trump recently weighed in on rising tensions within the Republican Party, saying Republican leaders should “absolutely” condemn figures who promote antisemitism, and that he does not approve of antisemites in the party.

“No, I don’t. I think we don’t need them. I think we don’t like them,” replied Trump when asked by a reporter whether there was room within the Republican coalition for antisemitic figures.

Asked if he would condemn Fuentes, Trump initially claimed that he didn’t know the antisemitic streamer, before acknowledging that he had had dinner with him alongside Kanye West in 2022.

“I had dinner with him, one time, where he came as a guest of Kanye West. I didn’t know who he was bringing,” Trump said. “He said, ‘Do you mind if I bring a friend?’ I said, ‘I don’t care.’ And it was Nick Fuentes? I don’t know Nick Fuentes.”

Trump flaunted his pro-Israel bona fides in the interview, mentioning the recent announcement that he was nominated for Israel’s top civilian honor and calling himself the “best president of the United States in the history of this country toward Israel.”

Fuentes, meanwhile, spent the bulk of his show on Tuesday speculating that Trump will order the U.S. to attack Iran, and concluded that “Israel is holding our hand walking us down the road toward an inevitable war.”

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Larry Ellison, the Jewish founder of Oracle and a major pro-Israel donor, has recently been in the headlines for his media acquisition ventures with his son.

The new scrutiny on the family has surfaced a decades-old detail about Ellison: that he once rechristened a superyacht after realizing that its original name carried an antisemitic tinge.

In 1999, Ellison — then No. 23 on Forbes’ billionaires list, well on his way to his No. 4 ranking today — purchased a boat called Izanami.

Originally built for a Japanese businessman, the 191-foot superyacht was named for a Shinto deity. But Ellison soon realized what the name read backwards: “I’m a Nazi.”

“Izanami and Izanagi are the names of the two Shinto deities that gave birth to the Japanese islands, or so legend has it,” Ellison said in “Softwar,” a 2013 biography. “When the local newspapers started pointing out that Izanami was ‘I’m a Nazi’ spelled backward, I had the choice of explaining Shintoism to the reporters at the San Francisco Chronicle or changing the name of the boat.” He renamed the boat Ronin and later sold it.

The decades-old factoid resurfaced this week because of a New York Magazine profile of Ellison’s son, David Ellison, the chair and CEO of Paramount-Skydance Corporation.

Skydance Corporation, which David Ellison founded in 2006, completed an $8 billion merger last year with Paramount Global. Larry Ellison, meanwhile, joined an investor consortium that signed a deal to purchase TikTok, the social media juggernaut accused of spreading antisemitism. Together, father and son also staged a hostile bid to purchase Warner Bros. but were outmatched by Netflix.

After acquiring Paramount, David Ellison appointed The Free Press founder Bari Weiss as the editor-in-chief of CBS News, in an endorsement of Weiss’ contrarian and pro-Israel outlook that has been challenged as overly friendly to the Trump administration.

Larry Ellison, who was raised in a Reform Jewish home by his adoptive Jewish parents, has long been a donor to pro-Israel and Jewish causes, including to Friends of the Israel Defense Forces. In September, he briefly topped the Bloomberg Billionaires Index as the world’s richest man.

In December, Oracle struck a deal to provide cloud services for TikTok, with some advocates hoping for tougher safeguards against antisemitism on the social media platform

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For the second year in a row, Jewish star third baseman Alex Bregman has signed a lucrative free-agent contract with a team that is run by a Jewish executive and plays in a historic ballpark in a city with a significant Jewish community.

Last year, it was the Boston Red Sox. Now, Bregman is headed to the Chicago Cubs — a team whose Jewish fans possess almost religious devotion.

Bregman, who had opted out of a three-year, $120 million deal with Boston, has signed a five-year, $175 million pact with the Cubs. It is the second-largest contract ever signed by a Jewish ballplayer, behind Max Fried’s $218 million contract in 2024. Bregman previously signed a five-year, $100 million extension with the Houston Astros in 2019.

Bregman, who played the first nine years of his career in Houston, has been one of baseball’s premier third basemen over the past decade, with three All-Star selections, a Gold Glove, a Silver Slugger and two World Series rings. He’s also heralded for his leadership on and off the field.

Bregman grew up in Albuquerque, New Mexico, where he played baseball in high school and also, according to his mother, was once teased while leaving school for a bar mitzvah lesson. His grandfather, the onetime attorney for the Washington Senators whom she said Bregman called “zeyde,” gave him a collection of baseball cards featuring Jewish players.

His great-grandfather fled antisemitism in Belarus and fell in love with sports in the United States, The Athletic reported in 2017, as Bregman hurtled toward his World Series win.

“It’s the fulfillment of four generations of short Jewish Bregmans who dreamed of playing in the major leagues,” his father Sam, now the district attorney in Albuquerque’s county as well as a Democratic candidate for New Mexico governor, said at the time. “The big leagues and the World Series. One hundred twenty years in America fulfilled by Alex in this World Series.”

Bregman has also been vocal about his Jewish pride. He celebrated Hanukkah with a local synagogue in Houston, and following the Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel that launched the Gaza War, Bregman drew a Star of David on his hat during a playoff game and participated in a video of Jewish players calling on fans to support Israel.

Some Jewish fans hoped Bregman’s shows of solidarity with Israel would lead him to suit up for another new squad this spring, Team Israel at the upcoming World Baseball Classic. But Bregman announced this week that he will play for Team USA again. Another Jewish ballplayer, Rowdy Tellez, will rejoin team Mexico, taking two big names off the recruitment board for Israel.

Back in 2018, as Bregman was first emerging as a major star, he said he regretted taking a pass on Team Israel the previous year, when it made it to the second round of play. Suiting up for the U.S. team, Bregman had just four at-bats as a backup player.

Now, he has selected a jersey number for his Cubs era that reflects his aspirations.

“I wore No. 3 because I want a third championship,” Bregman said during his first press conference with his new club on Thursday.

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A version of this piece first ran as part of the New York Jewish Week’s daily newsletter, rounding up the latest on politics, culture, food and what’s new with Jews in the city. Sign up here to get it in your inbox.

Julie Menin moves on antisemitism

• Julie Menin, the new leader of the NYC Council, is announcing her initiative to combat antisemitism at the Museum of Jewish Heritage today.

• Menin’s plan includes establishing a perimeter around schools and houses of worship to protect students and congregants from protests.

• Gov. Kathy Hochul announced similar legislation at the state level this week, proposing a 25-foot buffer zone around houses of worship. Menin wants to go further with a 100-foot barrier, she told The New York Times.

• Hochul’s push is likely to run into free speech concerns, sources told us, and Menin may face similar obstacles.

• Menin will also propose a program to provide places of worship with security training, a hotline for reporting antisemitic incidents and $1.2 million allocated to Holocaust education over the next two years.

• Menin was not backed by Mayor Zohran Mamdani to become speaker. As a moderate and a Zionist, she differs on many issues from the democratic socialist, anti-Zionist mayor.

• But she told The Times, “This has absolutely nothing to do with the mayor. This has everything to do with protecting Jewish New Yorkers.”

Mamdani defends Mahmoud Khalil after court loss

• Mamdani said that Columbia University graduate and pro-Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil “must remain free” after a federal appeals court opened the door to his rearrest.

• Khalil, a legal permanent resident, was the first student protester to be detained by the Trump administration amid a campaign to deport international students who participated in college campus demonstrations against Israel over the war in Gaza. Trump called Khalil a “radical foreign pro-Hamas student.”

• The court ruled that the judge who ordered Khalil’s release in June did not have the authority to do so, making a victory for Trump’s immigration policy and mass deportation campaign.

• “Last year’s arrest of Mahmoud Khalil was more than just a chilling act of political repression, it was an attack on all of our constitutional rights,” Mamdani said on X. “Now, as the crackdown on pro-Palestinian free speech continues, Mahmoud is being threatened with rearrest.”

• Khalil, who rejected the idea that antisemitism was present in Columbia’s student protests, appeared with Mamdani during his mayoral campaign and attended his inauguration. One of his lawyers, Ramzi Kassem, is the chief counsel in Mamdani’s administration.

‘Sloppy’ vetting behind Da Costa scandal

• Catherine Almonte Da Costa, who lasted one day as Mamdani’s director of appointments before her past antisemitic posts came to light, was fast-tracked as Mamdani’s team rushed to staff his administration, reported Gothamist.

• Sources told the outlet that Da Costa underwent a “rushed and sloppy” process instead of being fully vetted. “We had a rigorous process,” said one source, adding that Da Costa “just wasn’t subjected to it.”

• Da Costa had only completed an initial vetting that involved a search of public records, missing her social media posts — which included a reference to “money hungry Jews” — because her handle was not easily identifiable.

Jewish food report

• Cafe Landwer debuted its first New York City location in Williamsburg last week.

• The all-day cafe serving Mediterranean fare was founded in Berlin in 1919 by Moshe Landwer, who moved it to Tel Aviv in 1933 amid the rise of the Nazi regime. The restaurant now has 80 locations across Israel.

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When Mickey Gitzin arrived in New York last month with two young daughters and a few winter coats hastily packed in Israel, he was stepping into a role that once would have seemed improbable for the organization he now leads.

Gitzin, 44, was named acting CEO of the New Israel Fund in December, as its longtime CEO, Daniel Sokatch, begins a year-long sabbatical. Gitzin takes over at an organization that funds progressive Jewish and Arab organizations in Israel that are often at odds with the Israeli government. As a result, it has been vilified by Israel’s right and their allies in the United States as dangerously radical, even traitorous.

And yet today, as Israel is led by its most right-wing government ever and anti-Zionism is growing on the American left, NIF finds itself in a different, if no less precarious, position: defending a space in the Jewish mainstream that is fiercely critical of Israeli policy while affirming a version of Zionism that aligns with democratic equality. 

“NIF was always in the forefront when it came to the liberal progressive ideas that were later on absorbed by the mainstream,” said Gitzin, the first Israeli to lead the organization, in a Zoom interview. “We are not there to be the mainstream. We’re there to push the mainstream, but in order to push the mainstream, you need to be in touch with the mainstream and not give up on it, which is a very, very fine line.”

That position leaves NIF open to criticism from both sides. To some on the American left, Zionism of any stripe is incompatible with democracy and human rights for Palestinians and other minorities. In many parts of the Jewish center, NIF’s grantees reveal political and social ills in Israel they’d rather not see, and definitely do not want broadcast to the rest of an already hostile world. 

Yet Gitzin argues that NIF reflects where many American Jews actually are: horrified by Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack, devastated by the destruction in Gaza, and alienated by a discourse that demands total allegiance to one narrative or another.

“We’re there to push the mainstream, but in order to push the mainstream, you need to be in touch with the mainstream,” said Mickey Gitzin, the interim CEO of the New Israel Fund. (Yanai Yechiel)

“People want to act in ways that fit with their values,” he said. “I think that we have a very powerful story to tell, that the story of Israel is being able to care about the state of Israel and fight for it and care about the notion of equality for Jews and Palestinians.”

Born in Israel to immigrants from the former Soviet Union, Gitzin grew up in Azor, a working-class development town. His first rebellion, he said, was against the politics of his right-leaning parents. His political awakening came late, sharpened by his service as an intelligence officer in the Israel Defense Forces, where he worked on Palestinian affairs during the Camp David negotiations and the Second Intifada.

That “allowed me to understand the complexity of the relationship between Israelis and Palestinians, the role that Israel plays, and the missed opportunities all through the way,” he said.

Later, as a Jewish Agency emissary in South Bend, Indiana, Gitzin encountered an American Jewish world that unsettled his assumptions about liberal politics and Jewish observance, which among many secular Israelis are often seen as incompatible. “I was able to jump between the communities happily, something that I’ve never been able to do in Israel,” he said.

Returning to Israel, he founded an organization focused on religious freedom that later became an NIF grantee. Gitzin had found his institutional home. Eight years ago he became executive director of NIF’s Israel office — years that coincided with some of the fiercest attacks the organization had ever faced.

Though more intense, those attacks were not new. Since the 1980s, NIF has been accused by critics of undermining Israel by funding human rights groups that promoted anti-Israel positions. In 2010, the right-wing organization Im Tirtzu said NIF grantees were helping hostile groups abroad build their case against the Jewish state. Those grantees included B’Tselem, a human rights group, who said they merely reported human rights violations and left others to draw their own conclusions. 

NIF responded at the time that politically charged groups like B’Tselem represent only a fraction of their grantees. It pointed to other grantees, including the Association for Civil Rights, the pro-democracy group Mehazkim, the civil-society coalition Citizens HQ and the Israel Religious Action Center, a public policy arm of the Reform movement.

More recently, the criticism came not just from right-wing NGOs but from the prime minister’s office. In 2018, Netanyahu blamed NIF for thwarting his plan to deport African asylum seekers. That same year, he accused NIF of weakening Israel by opposing the nation-state law that prioritized Jewish national identity over equal citizenship for non-Jewish Israelis.

“I think it was very confusing for the organization,” said Gitzin. “We’re do-gooders, and all of a sudden we found ourselves in such an attack.”

The organization’s response, he said, was to retool and stop ducking each individual attack or trying to convince critics that NIF’s mission was as a non-ideological supporter of “civil society” or “social justice.”

Instead, NIF has clarified that it stands for democracy, peace, building Palestinian civil society, Jewish-Arab partnership and protecting human rights. Other issues, like economic justice and religious pluralism, are less of a priority now, said Gitzin, who described the process as “being pushed out of the closet.” 

“As someone who came out of the closet, personally, as a gay person, I know it’s really, really difficult to be pushed out of the closet,” he said. “And then when you’re out it’s the most powerful feeling that you can know.”

A physician volunteering for the mobile medical clinic run by NIF-grantee Physicians for Human Rights-Israel treats Palestinian patients in the West Bank. (Mati Milstein for NIF)

As a result of this clarity, he said, their support in Israel grew. Donations from within Israel also surged after Netanyahu’s attacks, Gitzin said, as liberal Israelis came to see NIF as part of a broader struggle to defend democratic institutions.

According to NIF, since 2023 — and especially in the aftermath of Oct. 7 — NIF’s donor base has increased by more than 7,000, from roughly 14,000 donors to more than 21,000 through 2024. Its annual budget in 2025 was $28.5 million, a figure that does not include additional funds it stewards through donor-advised gifts and family foundations. 

In 2025, NIF distributed more than $12.8 million in core grants to 97 grantees, and spent an additional $3.7 million on strategic capacity-building and issue advocacy in Israel.

NIF employs 112 staff members, with 42 based in the United States and 70 in Israel.

Gitzin boasts that NIF was one of the first organizations to respond to the Oct. 7 attacks, finding hotels for people who were evacuated from Ofakim and other villages. NIF also raised more than $3 million for a humanitarian campaign to aid Gazan civilians.

In Israel, NIF has expanded its work in the West Bank, funding not only legal advocacy but “protective presence,” supporting Israelis and Palestinians who show up as observers and demonstrators at Palestinian communities threatened  by settler violence. Gitzin describes the campaign to push Palestinians out of Area C, the fully Israeli-controlled territory in the West Bank, as systematic and state-enabled. 

“These are not mistakes,” he said. “It’s a policy.”

He worries about the tens of thousands of Israelis who have left the country since Oct. 7, suspecting many are the kind of liberal democrats who agree with NIF’s agenda. And he warns about the rise of what he and others call “Kahanism,” a hyper-nationalist Zionism associated with the late Meir Kahane, the American rabbi who at one time was shunned even by the Israeli right for being too radical. 

Such Kahane acolytes as the far-right senior ministers Bezalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben-Gvir, Gitzin said, make it increasingly obvious that “the attack against Israel and democracy comes from the settlement enterprise and ultra-nationalist settlers,” alongside “populist leadership like Netanyahu” and forces that “can’t live with the notion of equality.”

Asked whether liberal Zionism still has a future in Israel, Gitzin argued that the political landscape is shifting in ways that create new — if limited — opportunities. While the traditional left remains a small minority, he said, “the definition of what’s left or not left is changing,” especially since Oct. 7 and, before then, the government’s judicial overhaul proposal that triggered massive pro-democracy demonstrations.    

“There is a  space to influence, where more people are searching for answers. There’s definitely a growing camp of people who are not pleased with the current government and who identify as liberal democrats,” he said. “Our job is to reach out to them and try to bring them closer to where I sit.”

Liberal Zionists, he acknowledged, “will never be a majority.” But drawing a lesson from their ideological opponents, he noted that settlers were never a majority, yet learned how to exert their influence. That, he said, is a model for Jews and Arabs who believe Israel needs “a different vision than the one represented by this government.” 

NIF-grantee Tzedek Centers participates in a citizens’ rights fair in the southern Israeli development town of Ofakim in October 2025. (Mati Milstein for NIF)

Reinforcing that vision in the United States means building bridges and setting boundaries. Gitzin said NIF staff and grantees include Jewish and Palestinian citizens of Israel, Zionists and non-Zionists. In the Israeli context, “non-Zionist” means those who do not actively support or advocate for a Jewish state, but also do not actively seek the end of Israel. NIF has several red lines: It will not support groups that advocate violence, racism or affiliation with the movement to boycott, divest from or sanction Israel, or BDS. In addition, “we don’t support those who actively oppose the notion of a homeland of the Jewish people,” he said.

“We are a space in which Zionist and non-Zionists can live together and work together, as long as we share ideas like equality, partnership, peace-seeking and so on,” he said. Outside of that space are those, on both the right and the left, who offer “from the river to the sea” solutions of exclusive Jewish or exclusive Palestinian domination in Israel proper, Gaza and the West Bank.  

As interim CEO, Gitzin is still finding his footing in a new country and a new role. But he brings with him a sensibility shaped by Israel’s contradictions — and by the conviction that walking away, whether from Zionism or from liberal democracy, is not an option.

“Israel is giving me, personally, with my family story, an opportunity that no other country would have ever given me. I’m not throwing it away,” he said. “Despite my extreme criticism of current policies, I’m not willing to give it away. It’s too dear to my heart.”

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JACKSON, Mississippi — Days after their synagogue was burned in an arson attack, dozens of Jews in this city stood for prayer in a communal service.

The interfaith prayer event at the Thalia Maria Hall in downtown Jackson, billed by Mayor John Horhn as an “All-City Call to Prayer and Action,” had been planned as a general ceremony for the city.

But after Beth Israel Congregation was set ablaze Saturday morning, Benjamin Russell, who serves as the student rabbi and spiritual leader of Beth Israel Congregation, said Horhn had called and said he wanted to tweak the event “pray for you and provide blessings.” The call came amid cascading support from across the city.

“We pretty much expected it all,” said Russell of the outpouring of support. “For the most part, we’ve always felt welcome, and so this was more of a confirmation of what we already knew.”

In Jackson, Beth Israel Congregation’s 140 families are far outnumbered by the city’s 400 churches. The gathering Thursday night underscored the complexity of Jewish life in Jackson, a place where the small community has been widely supported by its neighbors at a time of crisis, but always conscious of its minority status in a city defined by Christian institutions.

Throughout the service, participants were invited to huddle with their neighbors in prayer circles as the program’s faith leaders, who were almost all pastors, bishops and reverends, gave blessings over different aspects of Jackson’s city life.

“It is our intent to not make this a spectator-type event where you just watch us up on the stage pray. Know everybody is going to get in on prayer tonight,” said Bishop Ronnie Crudup. “I want you to find a few folk you can huddle with, you can create a circle with. You can reach over and touch if you want to, and make them your prayer partners for this time tonight.”

Some Jewish audience members stay seated during an interfaith service in Jackson, Mississippi, on Jan. 15, 2026. (Jewish Telegraphic Agency)

While the third prayer of the evening centered on “peace and restoration” for the congregation following the fire, the rest of the service was laden in references to the city’s predominantly Christian faith.

During the second prayer, which called for a “good working relationship” between Horhn and the city council, the pastor who led the prayer said, “in the name of Satan, you don’t have no power in him, there’s too much faith in him, it’s too much belief in you and in the name of Jesus.”

Following the prayer, Horhn told the crowd, “oftentimes, when I hear someone say I’m praying for you, I say, I thank you, keep me covered in the blood of Jesus.”

Toward the end of the service, former Mississippi Republican Rep. Charles Pickering called for Jackson to bring “God’s kingdom to earth,” which he described as “one people with one mission and one language and one faith.”

Russell said the display was typical for the community.

“We live in the buckle of the Bible Belt,” said Russell. “Sometimes we just have to be grateful for the support that we’re receiving … even if some of the messages may not be exactly what we would say.”

Many of Jackson’s roughly 400 churches serve the city’s large Black Protestant community. About 80% of Jackson’s roughly 150,000 residents are Black.

“Because this event was geared so much toward the city of Jackson itself, that was its kind of main focus, that it made it a little harder for everyone to kind of hold everything in which is, again, is one of the things that we understand living here,” said Russell. “We’ve been here since 1860, and that goes with a lot of history and a lot of learning how to interact with each other, so we do it, we do a dance very well.”

The city is home to long and deeply etched ties between its Jewish and Black communities. In 1967, members of the Ku Klux Klan bombed Beth Israel after its rabbi at the time, Perry Nussbaum, advocated for civil rights and desegregation. Months later, Nussbaum’s home was also bombed by the group.

Extensive damage to the Beth Israel Congregation synagogue after an arson attack in Jackson, Mississippi, Jan. 10, 2026 (Beth Israel Congregation)

“Moving forward from the 60s, during the first bombing, there was an interfaith committee that was put together,” said Russell. “We’ve had several organizations that have kind of helped keep, at least in the metro area, the different faith traditions together, which has been really instrumental in things like we saw tonight where people are willing to reach out.”

Michele Schipper, the CEO of the Institute of Southern Jewish Life, which is housed in the synagogue building, grew up in Jackson going to Beth Israel Congregation. She was a toddler at the time of the bombing.

“Once the temple was bombed and the rabbi’s house was bombed, that really was when the community really came together and stood strong,” said Schipper. “I think harkening back to that time, we’re reflecting. We made such great strides from that time, [and] we will continue to move forward in a very positive direction, because we’re here for the long haul.”

Speaking at a local cafe ahead of the interfaith service, which streamed Christian pop songs from the sound system, Schipper reflected on what it meant to live as a Jew in Jackson.

“Hate is not inborn, hate is learned, and I’ve always said, especially being here in Jackson, being the minority, I’ve always felt like certain questions that people asked were one of just ignorance,” said Schipper. “It wasn’t negative, it was just ‘I don’t know anything about Judaism, so I don’t know how to ask the right questions.’”

The prayer service, which included a link to the synagogue’s rebuilding fund on its flyer, was not the only display of support from the city’s Christian community.

In the immediate wake of the attack, as congregants began to flock to the synagogue’s parking lot to see the devastation for themselves, the church across the street, St. Philip’s Church, immediately opened its doors to allow grieving members a space to process.

On Friday, the congregation’s first Shabbat service since the attack will be held at the Northminster Baptist Church.

Shari Rabin, an associate professor of Jewish studies and religion at Oberlin College and the author of the 2025 book “The Jewish South: An American History,” told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency that synagogues facing attacks in the South had largely been met by support from the community, even as Jews have also faced antisemitism in the region.

“Obviously, there have been times when there is more sort of Christian antagonism towards Jews and missionary zeal and the like,” she said. “But I think there also has generally … just been a sort of public outcry and support when synagogues are attacked.”

Rabin said the attack on Beth Israel Congregation underscored a deeper vulnerability facing Jewish communities, even those with long roots in the South.

“I think it is a reminder that Jews can live in a place, have a community in a place for decades, 150-plus years, they can be acculturated and part of the community and prominent members in all sorts of ways, and there still is sort of an underlying precarity that makes them vulnerable,” she said.

Following the 1967 bombing, Rabin said Nussbaum had taken aim at the leading Southern Baptist minister in Jackson, telling him “go to hell when he came around with his condolences, telling him to preach the following Sunday to his front pews, where all the rightists regularly gathered.” She said he had been motivated by a clarity about where the attack’s ideological roots lay.

“For him, like that attack was coming out of a sort of radical, certain kind of Christian discourse that he wanted to call out,” said Rabin.

Speakers on Thursday night likewise lay blame for Saturday’s attack. The man charged with the arson, Stephen Spencer Pittman, referred to Beth Israel as a ”synagogue of Satan” and espoused Christian content online. He was not mentioned by name Thursday night.

Hohrn told the crowd that it was “an indictment on our country, on our community, that there wasn’t a way, someone to stand in the gap, to turn him around, to make him inspired not to make that journey.”

Derrick Johnson, NAACP President and CEO, attends the 56th NAACP Image Awards Creative Honors at The Novo on February 21, 2025 in Los Angeles, California. (Paras Griffin/WireImage)

The president and CEO of the NAACP, Derrick Johnson, blamed the Trump administration, charging that the “political climate” in the country that fueled the attack.

“I have no illusion of what is taking place, it is germinating directly from the White House,” said Johnson. “Some people say, ‘but don’t be politically praying,’ but let’s be very clear, the tone that is set for this country about accepting one another or other-izing our communities will be the tone that our young people buy into. It can be socialized on social media, to be radicalized, to carry out these disastrous attacks.”

The comments elicited the only open dissent during the event. An audience member shouted from the back of the auditorium, “It’s not coming from the White House.”

But Johnson continued his remarks, telling the audience that “as we pray for Beth Israel, we should be even more vigilant and accepting of one another and all that we bring to the table.” He was met by a chorus of “amens” and applause.

Johnson’s address came shortly before the prayer for Beth Israel Congregation commenced, in which dozens of Jewish audience members were called to rise from their seats.

Jewish audience members rise during an interfaith service in Jackson, Mississippi, on Jan. 15, 2026. (Jewish Telegraphic Agency)

“God bless the families and the leaders of Beth Israel, may they feel the love of a community surrounding them from the ashes of despair,” said Bishop David Tipton, a district superintendent of the United Pentecostal Church.

A second Christian clergy member, Pastor CJ Rhodes of the Mt. Helm Baptist Church, also offered a prayer for the synagogue. In it, he referred to Jesus as a “Palestinian Jew” and told the crowd, “We thank you for being the God who watches over Israel, Palestine, the entire world.”

Rhodes then used the Hebrew words, including one meaning God, to call for benevolence toward Jackson’s Jewish community.

“God, we come before you asking for your chesed, your lovingkindness, be poured out abundantly upon Congregation Beth Israel,” continued Rhodes. “We thank you for the compassion and the comfort they receive, not only from you Adonai, but from all of your people.”

Following the prayer, the synagogue’s president, Zach Shemper, thanked those present for their support.

“Thank you for standing with the Jewish community this evening, for the overwhelming, overwhelming outpouring of support in words and in actions, for speaking out against this historic antisemitic event, for being a part of a rebuilding and believing that we all have a right to safely pray for one another,” said Shemper.

Shemper also recalled the solidarity displayed by the city’s Christian communities with Beth Israel Congregation during its initial dedication in 1967, a few months before the Klan bombing.

Russell also addressed the audience, expressing gratitude for the “outpouring of care and love” from the community.

“This act was meant to make us feel unsafe and unwelcome in our own city, it was meant to push us inward, it was meant to tell us that we do not belong,” he said. “But the response from all of you, from all of our neighbors, has made something unmistakably clear. Instead of fear, we have felt peace, instead of isolation, we have felt embrace, instead of being pushed to the margins, we have been healed by a wider community practicing radical love in a real, intangible, embodied way.”

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Jerry Lippman, the indefatigable publisher of the Long Island Jewish World and the Manhattan Jewish Sentinel, who passed away Sept. 1 at age 76, was more than just another Jewish newspaperman. 

He was, in many ways, the personification of everything he thought a Jewish weekly should be. He knew the names and faces of every colorful personality around town, the machers and the minyan makers, and they knew him. He was intimate with senators and mayors and nonprofit CEOs. 

And yet, behind the smiles and hugs, he unnerved and unsettled an establishment that saw him as a perennial gadfly.

All of that, however, would hardly describe the typical Jewish newspaper publisher when Jerry first came on the scene almost 50 years ago. Back then, Jewish weeklies were, for the most part, milquetoast affairs. Most churned out reliably puffed-up profiles of dinner honorees, touched-up sermons by local rabbis and travelogues of “solidarity missions” to Israel. If they weren’t owned and operated outright by the local Jewish federations, many acted that way anyway.

Lippman was determined to change that. He had no background in journalism or Jewish organizational life. He’d owned a gas station before he launched the Long Island Jewish World with his then wife, Naomi Lippman, in 1976. His distinctive Brooklyn street drawl, full of unintended neologisms, set him apart from the bookish wordsmiths he would lead as an editor in chief.

He recruited talented and ambitious young journalists, expressing a passion for Jewish politics that made them suspect among Jewish leaders unused to their scrutiny. He encouraged his staff to stay with a story, yielding features that ran longer and deeper than anything else you’d find in a community paper. And they pushed boundaries — in part because Jerry fiercely cultivated independence, whether from Jewish organizations, wealthy advertisers or convention. 

Among the writers who passed through his office were Yossi Klein Halevi, the author and fellow at the Shalom Hartman Institute; Larry Cohler-Esses, an investigative reporter at the Washington Jewish Week, the Forward and the New York Daily News; Jim Sleeper, a former columnist for Newsday and the New York Daily News; Annie Karni, a White House correspondent for the New York Times; Larry Yudelson, the publisher of the Ben Yehuda Press; Jonathan Mark, the longtime columnist for the New York Jewish Week, and Shira Dicker, an author and publicist.

He took chances on young nobodies. I was one of them. As a teenager in Israel, I filed stories about Scud missile attacks and Ethiopian Jewish airlifts, followed by years of stringing in and around Manhattan. Writing for Jerry became, in effect, my college major, and his offices were like a second home. I can still hear his voicemails, left at 5:30 a.m. after he had already devoured the dailies and a dozen wire service stories, firing off “idears”: “Let’s do a series on grass roots activists fed up with the establishment.” “Let’s talk about a cover story on Modern Orthodoxy.” 

In some ways, the Long Island World appeared to be no more interested in the 500,000 Jews living in its backyard than in the global Jewish community. Walter Ruby, who wrote for the paper in the 1980s and ‘90s, remembers assignments in Algiers, Geneva, Paraguay and Germany, and travel-writing gigs in India, Greece and Jamaica.

When I finished college, Lippman asked me to be his assistant editor, in part to recruit the next generation of Jewish journalists. To that end, I introduced him to Uriel Heilman, later an editor at the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, along with his colleague Ben Harris, now the managing editor at My Jewish Learning (JTA and My Jewish Learning share a parent company, 70 Faces Media); Andy Wallenstein, who became co-editor in chief of Variety; Chanan Tigay, the author, academic and Jewish newspaper editor, and a handful of others.

Not every one of my “recruits” was a good match for Jerry. For all his dedication to writers and their freedom, he was a tough boss, who rarely minced words or lowered his voice. Yet if he fought hard, he forgave easily. And while he was careful with his cash, Jerry rushed to provide what he could, be it connections, barter at hotels or airlines, even heaping trays of cold cuts and potato salad from delis that advertised in his pages.

Besides, we all knew the occasional spats were just the inevitable steam blasts of a locomotive struggling to keep its freight on track. And it wasn’t easy. Jerry’s insistence on independence cost him. While his federation-backed rivals benefited from automatic funds and subscribers, Jerry had to hustle, scrounging for readers and advertisers and, at times, office space. 

In 1984, Lippman butted heads with UJA-Federation of New York, which subsidized the rival New York Jewish Week. In a challenge that drew national attention, Lippman argued that by paying for subscriptions to people who made a minimum donation to the federation, it had created an unfair market advantage. 

In a 1994 settlement, UJA-Federation agreed to allow its Long Island contributors to choose which of the two Jewish newspapers they would receive. He took over the Manhattan Jewish Sentinel the same year.

The dispute occurred as Lippman was serving as president of the American Jewish Press Association, some of whose members were engaged in similar disputes that pitted federation-backed papers against independent rivals.

As the digital revolution — which Jerry never really joined — helped hollow out or shutter other Jewish weeklies, the Jewish World kept coming, loudly and colorfully through the pandemic and the aftershocks of Oct. 7. In his final years, Jerry lured back some reporting veterans like Ruby and Stewart Ain.

As Jerry somehow kept the Jewish World afloat, even through his decade-long battle with cancer, it seemed to return the favor. More than his nearly constant medical interventions, the Jewish World seemed to be keeping him alive. That and his family — daughters Sarah and Hannah and son Michael — the only thing that, as far as I can tell, obsessed him more than the paper.

To the rest of us, his other “family” of current and former writers, the small world of Jewish journalism and the larger world it brought to light, has lost an irreplaceable spark.

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A version of this piece first ran as part of the New York Jewish Week’s daily newsletter, rounding up the latest on politics, culture, food and what’s new with Jews in the city. Sign up here to get it in your inbox.

Israel on the campaign trail

• Lt. Gov. Antonio Delgado, running a longshot campaign to unseat his boss Gov. Kathy Hochul, said the United States should halt all arms sales and “diplomatic cover” to Israel in an interview with student journalist Luke Radel on Wednesday.

• Delgado staked out a more critical position on Israel than Hochul, calling Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu a “war criminal.” Asked if he thought Israel was committing genocide, Delgado said he “could see how people want to argue it both ways” but it was “hard to argue against scholars.”

• Delgado has not previously made Israel a major issue in his politics. His comments come as support for Israel has plummeted among Democrats.

• Delgado also said he was “sensitive” to the issue because of personal relationships. He is married to Black Jewish filmmaker Lacey Schwartz Delgado, who joined him on a trip to Israel when he represented his upstate district in Congress, and they have two Jewish sons. He said it “felt good” to visit Israel with her.

• Hochul has disagreed with Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s pledge to arrest Netanyahu, maintained an anti-BDS executive order by former Gov. Andrew Cuomo and announced legislation to ban protests — including Israel-related demonstrations — outside synagogues this week.

• Meanwhile, Republican Hudson Valley Rep. Mike Lawler is being attacked over his support for Israel in a new ad from the Institute for Middle East Understanding.

• “Lawler voted to give Israel billions of dollars paid for by your taxes,” said the ad, which launches today on CNN, MSNBC and digital platforms. “Israelis enjoy universal healthcare while Americans go bankrupt from medical bills.”

• Lawler’s spokesperson Ciro Riccardi dismissed this in a statement to Politico, saying, “Congressman Lawler considers it a badge of honor to be attacked by a dark money group of far-left Hamas sympathizers who lie about Medicaid reform and cloak their message in antisemitism.”

Reflecting on Renee Good

• Sam Rosen, the cantor at Congregation Beth Elohim in Park Slope, chanted El Maleh Rachamim (or “God full of mercy,” a prayer for the dead), at a vigil for Renee Good and other people killed by ICE on Monday.

• Good’s death in Minneapolis last week has largely divided Jewish leaders on partisan lines. Bruce Blakeman, the Jewish Nassau County executive and Republican candidate for New York governor, said on Wednesday that Good seemed to be at fault.

• Blakeman also stood by President Donald Trump’s immigration and deportation policies, saying he did not want to “put any shackles on ICE.”

Hellerstein’s health

• Alvin Hellerstein, the 92-year-old Orthodox Jewish judge overseeing Nicolás Maduro’s case in Manhattan, is being closely watched for any signs of fading health in a momentous trial that will test American power.

• Hellerstein works out twice a week and maintains an active social life, but he was also seen falling asleep during a trial last year, reported The New York Times. Jeffrey Toobin, a Jewish legal analyst, questioned Hellerstein’s fitness in an op-ed.

• He is known among colleagues as an empathetic judge with a conversational style, and has said that he schedules sentencings on Fridays to reflect on his decisions over Shabbat.

Young Republicans’ dirty laundry

• The New York Young Republicans Club is suing its former press chair, Lucian Wintrich, reported amNewYork. The group accused Wintrich of defamation and violating confidentiality and non-disparagement agreements after its controversial gala last month.

• The dispute surrounded Wintrich’s public statements about the gala, which fueled a debate about antisemitism. Its guest list included white nationalist Jared Taylor and lawmakers from Germany’s far-right Alternative for Germany party.

Jewish food report

• What’s the hottest hangout for Jewish teens on the Upper East Side? This teen says it’s a kosher grocery store.

Coming up

• Temple Emanu-El will host its annual Martin Luther King Shabbat on Friday, Jan. 16 at 6 p.m. An online broadcast will be available here.

• The interfaith service will include a reflection from Rabbi Joshua Davidson on the recent arson attack on Beth Israel Congregation in Jackson, Mississippi.

• Rev. Dr. Gary V. Simpson, the senior pastor of Concord Baptist Church of Christ in Brooklyn, will also return for a sermon followed by a joint musical program from both congregations’ choirs.

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Several years ago, my book on King David was optioned for a movie by Warner Brothers. A few scripts were written and then it fell into the void of Hollywood projects that languish for eternity. The studio concluded it just wasn’t the right time for a major biblical epic.

Apparently, it is now.

Several shows about David are suddenly dotting the streaming landscape. There is an animated film, a forthcoming docudrama and a streaming TV show. Why the sudden surge of interest in the ancient Israelite king?

According to the creators of “David,” the children’s movie released in December by the Christian production company Angel Studios, David is an exemplar of faith. (He’s voiced by Phil Wickham, a star in Christian worship music.)

“Now more than ever, David is to me what the world is missing in terms of leadership, because he was so servant-hearted, such a shepherd-hearted person,” director Brent Dawes said on a Christian podcast. “And that’s why he was chosen to be the leader — because the first king of Israel, Saul, let the power get to his head. He let fear of man get to his head and he tried to rule with, you know, with a grip, whereas David just had a heart after God’s.”

Zachary Levi, the actor tapped to star in the Fox Nation docudrama “David: King of Israel” set to launch in March, explained his interest in David in a statement: “Aside from the account of Christ, the story of David is the most powerful in all of scripture. In fact, one might argue that it’s even more powerful in some ways, given that David was fully human, and therefore flawed, like us, making his journey more relatable to our own.”

And about the massively popular “House of David,” whose second season is soon to start streaming on Amazon, the Jewish consultant brought in to assist the evangelical showrunners had a simple take. “King David is someone who can inspire anybody,” Jenn Levine told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency last year, in an unpublished interview.

Indeed, while the three major David productions all emerge from the recent explosion in Christian programming, I believe Jews would do well to tap into the David moment, too.

The story of David is one of a flawed but supremely gifted and determined person who rises to the pinnacle of leadership. He is an improbable hero: When the High Priest Samuel first comes to Jesse’s house to anoint the new king it doesn’t even occur to David’s father to introduce him to the distinguished guest, much less that the Prophet could actually be seeking David!

But once tested, his remarkable courage is inspiring precisely because he is otherwise so unprepossessing. The slingshot that fells Goliath epitomizes not only the improbability of David’s victory, but its creativity and daring. How desperately we seek that in leaders today: someone who will step forward when others are afraid and do difficult things with elan and grace.

A promotional image for “House of David” shows David wielding his slingshot against Goliath. (Photo by Jonathan Prime for Amazon Content Services LLC)

David also models different human qualities and their coexistence in one heroic figure. He is a sensitive soul, who plays music and writes poetry; yet on the battlefield he is fierce and his band of fighters are loyal to him. The name David means “beloved,” and no character in the Bible is said to have been loved as deeply as David: he is loved by Saul, by Michal, by Jonathan, by Israel and by God. In an age eager for both, David displays both strength and tenderness.

Also, and crucially to the David story, he sins. David is a deeply flawed human being. He has trouble with his children — his own son, Absalom, rebels against him — and does not stride frictionless through life. But it is his sin with Bathsheba that determines much of what we think about this remarkable figure.

To remind us of the story: David sees Bathsheba bathing on an adjoining roof. He desires her, summons her and sleeps with her. When he discovers that she is pregnant, he summons her husband Uriah back from combat to induce him to sleep with his wife. When Uriah refuses to do so — for he feels it is dishonorable when his compatriots are fighting on the front lines — David arranges to have him killed in battle. So he has committed, all in one episode, both adultery and murder.

In a time of tension, how should the Jewish community react to Christian depictions of David? Remembering his role as the founder of Jerusalem, and therefore as pivotal in Israel’s historic ties to the land, we should certainly welcome the framing of David as a heroic if flawed figure. Part of the antisemitism of recent years has been the resolute attempt to strip Jews of our history. While David as “prelude” which is part of the Christian story, may raise theological differences, I know from speaking about David in churches and Christian colleges that a common celebration of his legacy is more a tie than his eschatological status is a divider.

What about this story would appeal to the contemporary viewer? Not only the salacious reality of the story itself, but the astonishing aftermath. In the ancient world, kings had plenipotentiary power, meaning they could do whatever they wished. David’s actions could be multiplied a thousandfold in the ancient world with no consequences for the kings who murdered their rivals, stole their women, violated their people in countless ways, all with impunity.

Yet when the prophet Nathan daringly accused David of his crime, what astonishes is what David did not do — he didn’t say, “Off with his head!” Instead, David instantly recognized his sin, fell to weeping before God and begged for repentance. Power does not merely reveal character; it tests whether we can repent of the selves power tempts us to become.

In this juxtaposition is the deepest appeal of David to the modern audience. He is a model of masculinity and heroism that does not deny the ugly side of those roles: The hero is often one who slays more efficiently and the man is often the one who prosecutes his will at the expense of his conscience. But the true man, and the true hero, is not only an external quality — not merely one who acts. He is one who feels, regrets, understands, embraces his friends, dances and weeps. David exemplifies depth and offers accountability, which is a balm in an unaccountable age. He reminds us that greatness is not the absence of failure but the refusal to let failure be the final word.

Finally, David carries within himself the relation of politics to art and to faith. In an idolatrous world, David is true to the God of Israel. In a savage time, he is a spinner of songs and poetry. He shows that the same hand that wields the sword can also pluck the harp.

There are many speculations about why David is the one chosen to be the precursor of the Messiah. In my book I review some of the theories, but in the end, I believe the key is when God says that David is “a man after my own heart.” Since everything is in God, the more fully human one is, the more one in a sense carries out the religious injunction of imitatio Dei, to conduct one’s life b’tzelem Elokhim — in the image of God. Holiness is not a flight from humanity but its fullest realization.

The Christians who made the flurry of David productions believe David is worth paying attention to because he is close to God. Their shows may be worth watching for the opposite reason. David — warrior, poet, lover, sinner, hero, founder of Jerusalem, King of Israel — is the fullest character the Bible offers us. In his sinfulness and sublimity, he is the most human of us all.

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British Jews are weighing in after authorities said they are considering deeming some circumcisions “a form of child abuse” following deaths from the procedure.

The Crown Prosecution Service, the region’s chief agency for criminal prosecutions, said that while male circumcision is not a crime, it may constitute child abuse “if carried out incorrectly or in inappropriate circumstances,” according to a draft document seen by the Guardian.

This document, which looked at circumcision as a potential “harmful practice” alongside virginity testing, breast flattening and exorcisms, has driven heated debate among Jewish and Muslim leaders since it was revealed this week.

The draft guidance follows a coroner’s report from Dec. 28 about Mohamed Abdisamad, a 6-month-old boy who died in London from a streptococcus infection caused by his circumcision in 2023.

The coroner warned of “a risk that future deaths could occur unless action is taken,” noting that “any individual may conduct a Non-Therapeutic Male Circumcision (NTMC) without any prior training.” He said there was no system to ensure that people who conduct religious circumcisions have accreditation or meet requirements for infection control.

In the past, another coroner raised similar concerns over the 2014 death of Oliver Asante-Yeboah, who developed sepsis after his circumcision by a rabbi. Male circumcision was a factor in 14 deaths in England and Wales since 2001, half of them men over 18 and half boys under 18, according to the Office for National Statistics.

Unlicensed circumcisions are a subject of mounting scrutiny in Europe, raising alarm in some Jewish communities. In May, Belgian police raided three homes in Antwerp as part of an investigation into illegal ritual circumcisions. And in 2024, a rabbi from London was arrested and imprisoned in Ireland for allegedly performing a circumcision without required credentials.

Some Jewish leaders swiftly condemned the Crown Prosecution Service document.

“Calling circumcision child abuse is fundamentally antisemitic,” said Gary Mond, founder of the Jewish National Assembly, to the Jewish News Syndicate.

Jonathan Arkush, co-chair of the Milah UK group that advocates for Jewish circumcision, told the Guardian that the document’s language about circumcision was “misleading” and he would be in touch with the prosecutors.

“The incidence of complications in circumcision performed in the Jewish community is vanishingly rare,” he said. “Circumcision is a core part of our identity.”

Other Jewish voices have urged action to enforce medically safe circumcisions. Rabbi Jonathan Romain, who oversees Reform Judaism’s religious court in Britain, said it was “time to clamp down on rogue practitioners” and called for mandatory training, monitoring and annual reports on the practice.

“Given that it is a longstanding and important tradition among Jews, Muslims and various other cultures, the best way forward is to only permit circumcision if it is practised by someone specifically qualified for it and who belongs to a nationally accredited scheme,” Romain said in a letter to the Guardian.

The Muslim Council of Britain also told the Guardian that it supports strengthening safeguards.

“Male circumcision is a lawful practice in the UK with recognised medical, religious and cultural foundations, and it should not be characterised in itself as child abuse,” said the group. “However, where procedures are carried out irresponsibly, without proper safeguards, and cause harm, they may rightly fall within the scope of criminal law.”

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Leaders of Tulsa’s Jewish community are publicly pushing back against a proposal to open a publicly funded Jewish charter school in Oklahoma, saying the plan was developed without meaningful local input and could destabilize existing Jewish institutions.

In a joint statement released this week, senior figures from Tulsa’s synagogues, Jewish day school and community organizations said they opposed efforts by an outside group to create what would become the only religious school in the country entirely funded by taxpayers — an arrangement whose constitutionality is contested.

“We are deeply concerned that an external Jewish organization would pursue such an initiative in Oklahoma without first engaging in meaningful consultation with the established Oklahoma Jewish community,” the statement said. “To bypass community consultation in favor of an externally driven initiative is a serious error.”

The statement was signed by leaders from across Tulsa’s Jewish community, including the executive director of the Mizel Jewish Community Day School, rabbis from two Tulsa synagogues, and the head of Jewish Tulsa, the local federation. 

The response follows an application by the National Ben Gamla Jewish Charter School Foundation to open a statewide online charter school that would combine Oklahoma academic standards with daily Jewish religious instruction. 

Ben Gamla was founded by former U.S. Rep. Peter Deutsch, who told the Oklahoma Statewide Charter School Board on Monday that many families in the state are looking for a religious education option.

“There are a lot of parents that are looking for a sort of a faith-based, rigorous academic program,” Deutsch said.

Tulsa Jewish leaders rejected that claim. In their statement, they said Oklahoma already has Jewish schools and synagogue programs and that they were never consulted about any unmet need.

“Our local boards, organizations and donors have invested heavily in our local Jewish educational system through a dedication to learning,” the statement said, citing the day school and other community programs.

The application also raises a larger legal issue that board members openly acknowledged.

At Monday’s meeting, board chairman Brian Shellem said there was an “elephant in the room” given the board’s recent approval of another religious charter school — the St. Isidore of Seville Catholic Virtual School — which was later ruled unconstitutional by the Oklahoma Supreme Court and left unresolved after a 4-4 split at the U.S. Supreme Court.

Ben Gamla’s lawyers say that split leaves the door open.

“The exclusion of religious charters based on faith violates [U.S.] Supreme Court precedents that ensure equal access to public education for everyone, regardless of religion,” Eric Baxter, a senior lawyer at Becket, the religious-liberty firm representing Ben Gamla, said in a statement. 

Baxter said Peter Deutsch consulted with local rabbis and parents during visits to Oklahoma in 2023.

“Contrary to claims of no engagement, Peter Deutsch consulted with local rabbis and parents during exploratory visits in 2023,” Baxter said. “Far from bypassing the community, Peter’s proposal builds on those consultations to expand faith-based choices for families, and we urge the Board to assess it on its merits.”

When asked who specifically Deutsch consulted with and whether  here has been any consultation since then, Becket did not provide details. Instead, a firm spokesperson accused local Jewish institutions of trying to block competition.

“Sometimes, institutions that see potential new competitors will attempt to keep those competitors out of the market for educational providers,” said Ryan Colby, a spokesperson for Becket. He added, “While the Jewish Federation is entitled to its own opinions, it does not speak for all Jews.”

Colby added that Deutsch has spoken with Jews who support the proposal and said he expects non-Jewish families would also enroll.

The Oklahoma Statewide Charter School Board is expected to vote on the application as early as soon as its next monthly meeting on Feb. 19.

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Several European carriers canceled flights to Tel Aviv on Wednesday as turmoil over a potential U.S. strike on Iran roiled the skies and elevated fears in Israel.

President Donald Trump has threatened for days to intervene in Iran if the government proceeds with plans to execute protesters who have staged weeks of demonstrations against the autocratic religious regime there. Thousands of protesters have been killed in the streets, according to both government and opposition sources, and Tehran had planned a first execution of a protester arrested during the demonstrations on Thursday.

That execution was postponed amid sharp pressure from the United States, as signs piled up that Trump may plan to go forward with a military option against Iran. U.S. planes have moved within the region, several countries including the United States have urged nonessential personnel to leave the region and Iran briefly closed its airspace on Wednesday night.

On Thursday, reports emerged that Gulf states had talked Trump out of an imminent attack. But the uncertainty — and the recollection that Trump had appeared to waffle before striking Iran last year — has escalated fears in Israel, which is the Islamic Republic of Iran’s sworn enemy.

Iran and Israel fought a deadly 12-day war last year. This time, Israel and Iran have reportedly exchanged assurances, via Russia, that they would not strike each other first, but Iranian officials have said they could attack Israel alongside U.S. targets if Trump strikes Iran.

Daily life in Israel has not been interrupted, but Israelis are on high alert for a potential rehash of last year, when Iranian missiles sent them running to safe rooms multiple times and killed dozens of people.

So far, Lufthansa canceled some flights, then announced that it would revamp its schedule to prevent its employees from being in Israel overnight, when any Iranian retaliation is seen as more likely. A flight from New York was delayed on Wednesday while its carrier reportedly changed its route, igniting fears that the tensions had moved into a new phase. And some travelers have opted not to press on with their Israel trips, fearing being stuck in the country if conditions deteriorate.

At the same time, Israelis and Jews around the world, including tens of thousands of Persian Jews who fled following the ascendance of the Islamic Republic in 1979, are rooting for the protesters and against the regime. The American Jewish Committee issued a statement late Wednesday in support of the protesters.

“The international community has a moral responsibility to act in solidarity with the Iranian people and to advance a safer region and a more peaceful Middle East,” the organization said.

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Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff announced on Wednesday the beginning of the second phase of the U.S.-brokered ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas, which includes a transitional Palestinian committee to oversee Gaza’s governance.

The announcement drew alarm from the family and advocates of Ran Gvili, a police officer murdered on Oct. 7, 2023, who is the final Israeli hostage remaining in Gaza.

“Moving to phase two at this moment, while the efforts to return Ran have yet to be exhausted, is a loss of the most significant leverage and may be a sentence of eternal disappearance for Ran,” Gvili’s mother, Talik, said in a statement. “Until Ran is returned, the State of Israel will not be able to close its most bloody wound and will not be able to begin the rehabilitation and healing that it so desperately needs. Phase two must not be implemented as long as Ran has not returned home.”

Israeli officials have reportedly assured the family that the advance in the U.S.-engineered plan for Gaza does not undercut pressure to return Gvili’s body. The second phase was supposed to start as soon as all living and dead hostages had been returned, which the original agreement struck in October said should happen immediately.

Witkoff’s announcement follows repeated signals from President Donald Trump that the second phase was imminent, despite allegations of truce violations from both Israel and Hamas.

“Today, on behalf of President Trump, we are announcing the launch of Phase Two of the President’s 20-Point Plan to End the Gaza Conflict, moving from ceasefire to demilitarization, technocratic governance, and reconstruction,” Witkoff wrote in a post on X.

US Special Envoy Steve Witkoff looks on as he delivers a press conference in Paris on Jan 6, 2026. (Ludovic Marin / Pool / AFP via Getty Images)

Witkoff said the second phase established a “transitional technocratic Palestinian administration in Gaza,” and would begin the “full demilitarization and reconstruction of Gaza.” The leader of the administration is a former Palestinian Authority deputy minister named Ali Abdel Hamid Shaath.

In a joint statement, the other mediators of the ceasefire deal — Egypt, Turkey and Qatar — wrote that the second phase was an “important development … aimed at consolidating stability and improving the humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip.”

The details of how Hamas will be disarmed — a requirement for a permanent peace — remain unclear. Hamas has not agreed to lay down its arms, and fighting in Gaza has continued in fits and starts, including in areas controlled by Israel.

Last month, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met with Trump at his Mar-a-Lago estate where the president said that Hamas would be given “a very short period of time to disarm.”

Witkoff indicated in his post that the move to phase two did not preclude consequences for Hamas. He did not specify any, but Israeli officials are reportedly preparing for a potential major Gaza City operation this spring.

“The US expects Hamas to comply fully with its obligations, including the immediate return of the final deceased hostage,” Witkoff wrote. “Failure to do so will bring serious consequences.”

Israeli officials offered a muted response to Witkoff’s announcement, which comes as Israel is preparing for a possible new confrontation with Iran. Netanyahu reportedly sought to cast the announcement as symbolic only.

Some liberal pro-Israel groups offered cautious praise while emphasizing that more needed to be done for a lasting peace.

Brian Romick, the president and CEO of the Democratic Majority for Israel, called the second phase a “welcome step,” but called for the return of Gvili’s remains and increased aid in Gaza. He also called for Hamas to be “fully disarmed” and have no role in Gaza’s governance.

“The Trump administration and the international community must remain focused on enforcing demilitarization, supporting responsible governance, and ensuring that this effort delivers lasting security for Israel and the region,” Romick said.

The president of the liberal Zionist advocacy and lobby group J Street, Jeremy Ben-Ami, also welcomed the announcement in a statement, but called for “prioritizing civilian protection, ensuring the steady flow of humanitarian aid and establishing accountable governance and security arrangements.”

“We support the plan’s focus on Hamas’ demilitarization, Palestinian technocratic governance and reconstruction, and believe that serious diplomacy and international cooperation are essential to saving lives and keeping open a path toward a better future for Israelis and Palestinians rather than endless war,” said Ben-Ami.

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I grew up in a large suburban Conservative synagogue in the 1980s. It was there that I learned what it meant to be a Jew. I attended religious school three times a week, absorbing Jewish history, ritual, Hebrew, and values. I loved being Jewish — until I became a bar mitzvah.

Around that time, I realized that I was gay. I quickly thought that finding another Jewish man to marry may be impossible and that an interfaith relationship might be my future. Shortly thereafter, our synagogue’s education director told my peers and me that if we married outside the faith, there would be no place for us in the Jewish community. At 13, I felt faced with an impossible choice: Do I choose to be gay and leave Judaism, or reject who I am in order to remain Jewish?

I left Judaism behind, finding my way back several years later, but never to the Conservative movement. 

That experience defines how I read the movement’s Joint Intermarriage Working Group’s report, released last month. The report, in my view, represents a meaningful and overdue evolution in tone within the Conservative/Masorti movement. Its public acknowledgment of harm — and its clear shift away from disapproval toward engagement — matters deeply to the many Conservative Jews like me and our loved ones who have long felt judged, sidelined, or pushed out.

What struck me most powerfully was not its nuance when it comes to halacha, or Jewish law, or its procedural recommendations — important as those are — but its pursuit of teshuvah: not abstract regret, but responsibility for repair. Teshuvah requires courage. In Jewish tradition, teshuvah is not complete until harm is acknowledged and relationships are repaired. It demands honesty about harm and humility about impact. The report acknowledges that decades of categorical disapproval of interfaith relationships caused pain, alienation, and disconnection — and offers a public apology. That matters.

Psychoanalyst Judith Herman reminds us that apology without change is another form of injury. The working group seems to understand this. It calls for centering harmed voices, hosting community conversations, revising policies, and creating new rituals and curricula. These are not small steps. They are necessary ones.

And yet the report also reveals where the movement still hesitates.

Several pages after apologizing for decades of harm, the report recommends a curriculum that affirms endogamy as a “desirable goal,” even as it insists it is not the only path. For families who have lived for generations under the weight of being told their lives are “less than,” this language undermines the repair the report seeks. The message remains that interfaith and multi-heritage families are suboptimal — tolerated, perhaps even welcomed, but never fully embraced (Conservative clergy still cannot officiate at an interfaith wedding). That message — however carefully worded —lands as judgment, not invitation.

Belonging does not work that way. 

At 18Doors — a nonprofit dedicated to empowering multi-heritage individuals, couples and families and training the professionals who serve them — we work every day with clergy, educators and communal leaders to turn belonging from aspiration to practice. We center our work on the concept of belonging, understanding that it is not a “nice-to-have,” but is directly linked to positive health outcomes. Everyone seeks to belong somewhere and unfortunately, the former position of the Conservative/Masorti movement forced interfaith individuals, couples and families to leave either the movement— or the Jewish community— to seek out belonging elsewhere.

RELATED: The Conservative movement eased its stance on intermarriage. Here’s why I am quitting its rabbis’ union anyway.

The implications of this report, and the pursuit of belonging, extend beyond those in interfaith relationships and families. In 2021, the Pew Research Center found that Jews with other marginalized identities — Jews of color, gay, lesbian and bisexual Jews — are almost twice as likely to be in interfaith relationships as Jews without those identities. That means the stakes of this report are intersectional and widespread.

By “acknowledging and healing hurt,” the movement has set a new course toward belonging for not just interfaith couples. The work will be hard, but they are heading in the right direction. Having worked closely with Conservative rabbis and synagogues through 18Doors’ Rukin Rabbinic Fellowship and B’Yachad, I know the talented, trained and passionate Conservative rabbis, Jewish educators and lay leaders who will lead that change.

I am optimistic.

Behavior does not change simply because policy does. Culture shifts when leaders are trained, supported and held accountable. Families experience belonging not when statements are issued, but when their lives are consistently affirmed — at the bimah, in the classroom, in the lifecycle moment, and in the quiet pastoral conversation.

At 18Doors, we see this report as an invitation, not a conclusion. The next chapter must include clear implementation strategies, measurable outcomes, scalable education and coaching for clergy and couples, and philanthropic investment to sustain the work. Most importantly, it must center interfaith families not just as recipients of care, but as co-creators of the Jewish future. And our organization is here to support the movement as it turns its recommendations into reality.

The Conservative movement has taken an important step. Now comes the harder work of earning trust again through action.

Belonging is not declared. It is rebuilt and demonstrated—slowly—through consistency, humility, and courage. If the movement is willing to do that work, genuine repair is possible. I know this not only as a professional, but as someone who once walked away—and found his way back. 

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As news broke over the weekend of an arson attack that heavily damaged the only synagogue in Jackson, Mississippi, a few prominent individuals connected the culprit to pro-Palestinian activism.

“This is a major tragedy. But it’s more than that,” Deborah Lipstadt, formerly the State Department’s special envoy to combat antisemitism, wrote on the social network X. “It’s an arson attack and another step in the globalization of the intifada.”

Later, upon learning that the arsonist appeared to have been motivated by a strain of antisemitism associated with the far right, not the pro-Palestinian movement, she walked back her comments — to a degree. But Lipstadt’s initial comments about the arsonist’s motives reflect a larger sense of disorientation among diaspora Jews as they face increased levels of antisemitism from across the spectrum of left-wing, right-wing and Islamist extremism.

Jewish activists and communities have been engaged in fierce debate over which corner poses the greatest threat, and reports of new incidents are often met with immediate speculation over the attacker’s motivations. Lipstadt, an Emory University professor who had served in the State Department under President Biden, has herself criticized the politicization of antisemitism charges.  “When you only see it on the other side of the political transom,” she told the Los Angeles Times in 2024, “I have to ask: Are you interested in fighting antisemitism, or was your main objective to beat up on your enemies?”

“Globalize the Intifada” is a term commonly used in left-wing, pro-Palestinian protests. Most of the perpetrators of the large-scale antisemitic attacks in the diaspora since the Oct. 7, 2023 Hamas attacks in Israel — including in Washington, D.C.; Boulder, Colorado; Bondi Beach, Australia; and the arson attack on Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro’s home — have made their pro-Palestinian and/or Islamist affiliations public.

But when the identity of the Jackson arsonist was revealed and the suspect appeared in court, his comments and social media presence betrayed no obvious link to the pro-Palestinian movement. 

Instead the suspect, 19-year-old Catholic school graduate Stephen Spencer Pittman, used language —including “synagogue of Satan” and “Jesus Christ is Lord” — popular among leading figures of the online far right who peddle antisemitism, including Nick Fuentes and Candace Owens. (“Synagogue of Satan” also has deeper roots; it was popularized by Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan.)

An Instagram account appearing to be Pittman’s also contains references to a “Christian diet” and a clip from “Drawn Together,” an adult animated series, referencing an antisemitic “Jew crow.” (One of the show’s creators is Jewish.) Neither Pittman’s public statements in court, nor his Instagram account, referred to pro-Palestinian activism.

Surveillance footage shows a suspect pouring gasoline in the Beth israel Congregation in Jackson, Mississippi, on Jan. 10, 2025. (FBI)

In hindsight, was Lipstadt right to preemptively link the fire to “globalize the intifada”? 

“It may have been inopportune of me to say that,” she told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency about her invocation of the phrase.

Lipstadt insisted, “I was not saying this was a leftist attack. Clearly it’s not.” Nor did she “mean to suggest that this was an Islamist attack.”

She offered that the phrase, which uses the Arabic word associated with the violent Palestinian uprisings of the late 1980s and early 2000s, could be interpreted as hatred toward Jews coming from all sides.

“If ‘globalize the intifada’ means ‘attack Jews everywhere,’ then it certainly fits,” she said. “So it depends on how you want to interpret the sentence.”

Lipstadt wasn’t the only prominent figure linking the arsonist to “globalize the intifada” and other pro-Palestinian phrases before his identity was revealed.

“It began with BDS. Some said, it’s just words,” Marc Edelman, a Jewish law professor at the City University of New York, wrote on X over the weekend. 

He continued, “CUNY Law speech: ‘globalize the intifada.’ Still, just words? Recent pro-Hamas chants. Words again? And now the violence in Pittsburgh, Washington D.C., Sydney, Jackson, Mississippi and more. As the Left used to say, words matter!”

Pro-Palestinians protesters outside Park East Synagogue in Manhattan, during an Israeli immigration event hosted by Nefesh B’Nefesh, Nov. 19, 2025. (Selçuk Acar/Anadolu via Getty Images)

Even a pro-Palestinian politician condemned the arson while also addressing recent hard-line pro-Palestinian activism in her own city.

“Mississippi’s oldest and largest synagogue, and two of their Torah scrolls, were burned yesterday on Shabbat in a horrific antisemitic attack—days after protestors chanted ‘We support Hamas’, here in NYC,” Shahana Hanif, a New York City council member from Brooklyn who won re-election in a race that pivoted largely on Israel, wrote on X. 

She was referencing recent pro-Hamas protesters outside synagogues in New York, who have been denounced by progressives who are critical of Israel including Mayor Zohran Mamdani and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

Hanif added, “These chants are antisemitic and deeply harmful. You can oppose land sales in the West Bank without supporting violence against Jews. Yesterday’s arson in Mississippi is a stark reminder of the consequences of hate.”

She attracted some criticism from the pro-Palestinian movement for her statement — including from the group that organized the pro-Hamas New York synagogue protests, which took offense at the comparison.

A pro- Palestinian protester holds a “globalize the intifada” sign near during an anti-Israel protest in New York City, Sept. 25, 2025. (Alexi J. Rosenfeld/Getty Images)

“Linking chants at a Palestine protest that support a resistance movement of occupied people to the klan bombing of a synagogue is absolutely irresponsible and disgusting,” PAL-Awda NY/NJ, a radical group, wrote to Hanif. 

In the group’s Telegram channel viewed by JTA, PAL-Awda added, “We see you, politicians who claim to support Palestine but then follow the hasbara playbook to link people resisting colonial oppression with white supremacists bombing synagogues in Mississippi.” “Hasbara” is a Hebrew term used to describe Israeli public relations efforts.

Pro-Israel groups, meanwhile, claimed hypocrisy, with some sharing a screenshot of Hanif previously retweeting a pro-Palestinian activist’s post that included the phrase “Globalize the Intifada.” JTA was unable to verify the post.

Unlike Lipstadt, Edelman, the CUNY law professor, told JTA he stands by his initial assessment of the arson.

“Nothing changes the fact that the actions taken in Washington, D.C. and Sydney, Australia, coalesced with an extreme left anti-Israel position,” he said, referring to the mass shootings at the Capital Jewish Museum and Bondi Beach — the former by a declared pro-Palestinian activist, the latter by declared Islamists. (Edelman noted that he recently undertook a Fulbright scholarship in Australia.)

Edelman added, “It is also not surprising that far-right rhetoric, much as it has for generations in this country, has also led to increased violence against minority groups including Jewish Americans.” 

But there’s a key difference between the two sides, in Edelman’s eyes. 

“The big distinction here, and I say this as a member of the Democratic Party, is that the left has historically been better than this,” he said. “And now, perhaps, they are not.”

For Lipstadt, the incident has largely taught her that Jews shouldn’t spend time trying to determine which kinds of antisemitic attacks, whether from the left or right, are worse.

“It’s all horrible,” she said. “Much of it is lethal. It’s toxic and it’s dangerous.”

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A version of this piece first ran as part of the New York Jewish Week’s daily newsletter, rounding up the latest on politics, culture, food and what’s new with Jews in the city. Sign up here to get it in your inbox.

Kasky drops out

• Cameron Kasky, the Jewish Gen-Z progressive who ran for retiring Rep. Jerry Nadler’s seat, quit his bid to focus on human rights in the West Bank.

• “Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. Columbia University. Folks, I’m so sorry- I have to drop out of one more thing,” Kasky said on X on Wednesday morning.

• The 25-year-old Parkland school shooting survivor said his trip to the West Bank last month compelled his pivot from politics to activism. “I returned from Palestine with one concern: what can we do to stop the settler violence in the West Bank?” he said.

• Kasky made criticizing Israel central to his campaign and told us that his views represent “the next generation of Jewish Americans.”

• The race for New York’s 12th District remains crowded, including candidates such as Assemblymembers Alex Bores and Micah Lasher, who is considered Nadler’s protegee, John F. Kennedy’s grandson Jack Schlossberg and anti-Trumper George Conway.

Adams’ antisemitism-fighting crypto coin crashes mysteriously

• Eric Adams’ New York City-themed crypto token, which he said would fund efforts to combat antisemitism, shot to $580 million and then crashed 80% in a matter of minutes when it launched on Monday.

• The former mayor said NYC Token’s proceeds would be used to “address anti-Americanism” and “antisemitism.”

• The token’s value collapsed after an account linked to its creator withdrew about $2.5 million from the liquidity pool, leading to accusations of a “rug pull” — a scheme in which someone publicly markets a coin and then quickly takes significant profits.

• About $1.5 million of the funds were later returned, leaving about $1 million unaccounted for.

Militant pro-Israel group halts in NY

• Betar US, a militant pro-Israel group, has agreed to halt its New York operations in a settlement with state Attorney General Letitia James.

• The attorney general’s office found the group had committed a “campaign of violence, harassment, and intimidation against Arab, Muslim, and Jewish New Yorkers.”

• Mayor Zohran Mamdani praised the settlement. “For years, Betar has sowed a campaign of hatred across New York, trafficking in Islamophobic extremism and harassing those with whom they disagreed,” he said on X.

• The decision marked the first penalty from a state law enforcement agency against Betar US since the group emerged as an exemplar of aggressive, truculent pro-Israel counter-protests in the aftermath of the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attacks in Israel and the subsequent war in Gaza.

• In texts to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, Ronn Torossian, the founder of Betar Worldwide who lives in Israel, said the organization had sought to disband its New York operations since last March.

• “We urge all Zionist nonprofits to disband in NYC,” Torossian wrote via WhatsApp. Betar’s social media accounts echoed this sentiment, saying, “NY stands with Palestine. We advise all Zionist organizations to disband in the state of NY.”

What’s next for protests outside synagogues?

• Gov. Kathy Hochul announced new legislation to create a 25-foot buffer zone around houses of worship and healthcare facilities in her State of the State address on Tuesday.

• Hochul said that pro-Hamas chants by protesters outside a Queens synagogue last week were “antisemitic,” adding, “I’ll respect people’s right to protest any day of the week — but not within 25 feet of the property line at houses of worship.”

• But while there appears to be broad support for such buffer zones in New York, their path to implementation could be rocky. We looked at how lawmakers will weigh the benefits of constraining protests against the costs, including the potential impact on free speech.

Activist student group still registered after role in synagogue protest

• The Students for Justice in Palestine chapter at City College of New York remains a registered campus group after participating in the Queens synagogue protest last week, reported Jewish Insider. The event saw some activists chanting, “We support Hamas here.”

• CCNY SJP reposted a flier promoting the protest and shared videos on its Instagram story of its members taking part.

• CCNY recently came under scrutiny after an imam led a student walkout against the Hillel director during an interfaith campus event.

Jewish food report

• Tomorrow is National Bagel Day! To celebrate, H&H Bagels is offering a free bagel and spread sandwich to all Rewards members.

• How do you choose the “most iconic” bagel? We looked at one option that resonates in New York City: ranked-choice voting.

• Check out The New York Times rundown of the 17 best bagels in the city right now.

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This article was produced as part of the New York Jewish Week’s Teen Journalism Fellowship, a program that works with Jewish teens around New York City to report on issues that affect their lives.

When the Ramaz High School’s student government was looking for ways to foster school spirit this fall, it reached out to the one place that could unite the Upper East Side school’s students: Ouri’s Market.

A kosher grocery market might not be the most obvious place for teens to seek partnership — but then again, Ouri’s isn’t a typical store. It’s become a hotspot for local teens from Ramaz and other nearby schools, drawn by its smoothies and social media buzz.

Because of the draw Ouri’s has with the Ramaz community, the student government approached them about creating a custom drink. Morris Cohen, the club’s senior vice president, said he took inspiration from his best friend’s aunt, Mariel Dweck, who made a smoothie with Ouri’s to promote Marielody, her educational show for toddlers. The store’s management got them in touch with their social media manager Andro Mchedlidze, and after sessions of testing and filming, the result was the Ramaz Remix, an $8 blue raspberry and mango lemonade in the school’s blue and gold colors. 

The family-operated supermarket chain was founded by Ouri Galili in 1976, but his five children now run and continue to develop the business. Expanding upon two other Brooklyn and New Jersey locations, the one on Third Avenue, since its opening in 2024, has given Ouri’s a new virality and buzz, with 28.6K Instagram followers. Their online growth comes from several places: collaborations like the Ramaz Remix, connections with influential locals like influencer mom Joyce Chabbott, and the steady rotation of trend-driven items.

Customer’s line up for smoothies and kosher baked goods at Ouri’s Market on New York’s Upper East Side. (Misha Vaynerchuk)

Caroline Tablada, 17, calls herself “Ouri’s obsessed.” A Reform Jew living on the Upper East Side, she is there at least once a week as a part of her after-school routine, whether that involves grabbing a snack or browsing.

Gourmet grocers are a rising trend in the city, and Tablada follows many on social media, but says Ouri’s is “by far the best.” The energy impresses her most. “When you go inside, there’s actually really high-quality food and just the network of staff members are just always happy to be there,” she said.

In addition to the Ramaz Remix, Ouri’s collaborates with other Jewish brands and influencers, including Ellie Zeiler, who has 10.2 million TikTok followers. Zeiler’s jewelry brand, Jane Jewels, has two drink collaborations with Ouri’s and held a one-day event selling her product.

Before Ouri’s, teens said that they would shop at other Upper East Side markets, such as the neighborhood’s Butterfield Market. Religious teens also relied on Tomer’s Gourmet Market, another kosher option in the area. However, Ouri’s fills a need for a combination of the two, offering kosher grab-and-go options that speak to the interests and culture of their demographic. Cohen explained, Ouri’s is Tomer’s “on steroids.”

“A lot of the upper classmen that have privileges that can leave the building during lunch go to Ouri’s because of the variety. You can get a bagel, you can get coffee, you can get sushi,” said Cohen. “There’s literally anything.”

On a recent Wednesday afternoon, young costumes formed several lines in the store, ordering smoothies — including specialty drinks averaging $10-15 for a small — and pre-made foods like $10 sushi.

Ouri’s is only blocks away from more than 10 elite private schools, both secular and Jewish, and more than 10 synagogues.

“They don’t care if you’re Jewish or not,” said Abby, 16, whose private school is nearby and lives across Central Park on the Upper West Side. She asked that her last name not be used. “They just want to share the food that they love and that they eat with everyone. And it’s nice seeing how close of a relationship they have with their customers.”

Ouri’s offers produce, kosher snacks and a buzzy Instagram presence. (Misha Vaynerchuk)

The social media pull is strong for many of these shoppers, who watch videos of reviews, tours of the grocery, or Ouri’s own interviews with their customers.  

“It was recommended to me by my friend and her mom,” said Tablada, who added that “TikTok definitely put it on my radar.” Tablada considers the store cross-generational, but she notes its energy is attracting lots of younger customers. 

Though Ouri’s management didn’t respond to a reporter’s interview requests, Mchedlidze said social media draws teens.

“Ouri’s is viral because it has a cool Instagram, first,” said Mchedlidze. “Second, I think they trust the shop.” 

When asked if he truly feels a part of Ouri’s, Cohen explained, “One hundred percent. Almost every time I go to Ouri’s, I’ll see a familiar face, just because the community’s pretty big, but it’s also not super big.”

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The militant pro-Israel group Betar US has agreed to halt its operations in New York in a settlement with state Attorney General Letitia James, whose office found that the group had committed a “campaign of violence, harassment, and intimidation against Arab, Muslim, and Jewish New Yorkers.”

The settlement announced Tuesday followed a months-long investigation into Betar US triggered by “multiple complaints and public reports about Betar’s violence against and harassment of Muslim, Arab, Palestinian, and Jewish activists,” James’s office said.

The investigation found that Betar encouraged its followers to bring weapons to pro-Palestinian protests, trespassed onto private property to steal Palestinian flags and followed and struck people wearing keffiyehs. The group boasted on social media about its activities, including incidents of violence, a practice that the settlement agreement notes.

The settlement agreement details inflammatory social media posts that demeaned and called for violence against Palestinians in Gaza. It also notes that the group forced beepers onto people who appeared Muslim or Jewish and supported the Palestinian cause — a reference to Israel’s exploding pager operation that targeted Hezbollah in September 2024.

The investigation also found that the group harassed and threatened Jewish academics and other Jews who “profess views Betar deems not aligned with their vision of Judaism or Israel.”

Overall, James’ office found that Betar US violated civil rights regulations by harassing people who were exercising their constitutional right to protest.

As part of the settlement, Betar US agreed to “immediately cease instigating or encouraging violence against individuals, threatening protesters, and harassing individuals exercising their civil rights,” the language reads. The group is subject to a $50,000 fine if it violates the terms of the settlement within the next three years, during which it must submit annual compliance reports.

New York Attorney General Letitia James speaks during a press conference at the office of the Attorney General on Dec. 15, 2025 in New York City. (Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images)

“New York will not tolerate organizations that use fear, violence, and intimidation to silence free expression or target people because of who they are,” James said in a statement. “My office’s investigation uncovered an alarming and illegal pattern of bias-motivated harassment and violence designed to terrorize communities and shut down lawful protest.”

It was the first penalty handed down by a state law enforcement agency against Betar US since the group emerged as an exemplar of aggressive, truculent pro-Israel counter-protests in the aftermath of the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attacks in Israel and subsequent war in Gaza.

The settlement agreement specifies that Betar does not admit or deny any of the findings, and in its own statement the group denied all allegations of wrongdoing.

Founded in 2024 as an homage to a militant Zionist group in pre-state Israel, the group says it will continue as a global entity but will no longer operate in New York, where a large portion of its activities had previously been concentrated.

In texts to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, Ronn Torossian, a public relations executive and founder of Betar Worldwide who attested in the settlement that he now lives in Israel, said the organization had sought to disband its New York operations since last March.

CEO 5W Public Relations Ronn Torossian speaks during 5WPR 15th Anniversary Event at Catch Rooftop on June 14, 2017 in New York City. In 2024 Torossian relaunched the Zionist group Betar in the United States. (Eugene Gologursky/Getty Images for DuJour)

“We urge all Zionist nonprofits to disband in NYC,” Torossian wrote via WhatsApp, a perspective also echoed by Betar’s social media accounts following the settlement announcement, in which the group stated, “NY stands with Palestine. We advise all Zionist organizations to disband in the state of NY.” 

Torossian also shared a longer statement from Betar spokesperson Daniel Levy defending the group’s approach to Zionist activism and linking its activities to spiritual founder Ze’ev Jabotinsky.

“Betar is mainstream Zionism, and is an organization without which the State of Israel would not exist,” Levy said in a statement to JTA. “We urge Zionists to come home to Israel.”

As the group has encouraged its followers to “fight back” against pro-Palestinian demonstrators in New York, it has drawn followers and received support, including from the celebrity musician Matisyahu.

But it has also faced criticism from mainstream Jewish organizations over its tactics to fight antisemitism, which have included identifying pro-Palestinian protesters for the Trump administration to deport. In at least one case, according to a federal judge, a Betar social media post directly led to a pro-Palestinian protester’s detention. (The settlement agreement said Betar maintained it had not employed the facial recognition software it had previously boasted of using to identify protesters.) 

A scene from a pro-Israel counterprotest to a pro-Palestinian demonstration outside a synagogue in Borough Park, Brooklyn, that was endorsed by Betar US and includes a Jewish Defense League flag. (Screenshot via X)

In February, the group was added to the Anti-Defamation League’s extremism database after Torossian attempted to confront a gathering of establishment Jewish groups in Israel. Torossian was also briefly barred from the World Zionist Congress over a vicious dispute with rival pro-Israel activist Shai Davidai, but he was later permitted to serve as a delegate.

“As a Zionist activist who has been personally targeted by @Betar_USA and its founder Ronn Torossian, I can say that this is long overdue,” Davidai wrote on X following the settlement announcement. He added that it was “time to do the same” for Within Our Lifetime, a radical pro-Palestinian group active in New York.

The ADL did not immediately return a request for comment. 

Rabbi Elchanan Poupko, a Connecticut-based rabbi formerly with Park East Synagogue in New York, defended Betar and criticized the settlement on X.

“Banning @Betar_USA while continuing to give legal permits to Brownshirts protesting outside synagogues makes no sense,” Poupko wrote, referring to recent far-left anti-Israel protesters who have demonstrated outside synagogues in the city — including some last week who vocally supported Hamas. 

The attorney general’s office said that it initially launched their investigation into Betar US in March, shortly after the group allegedly urged supporters to “fight back” against “terrorists” and urged followers to bring pit bulls to a counterprotest against pro-Palestinian demonstrators in Brooklyn. Violent clashes broke out between the two groups at that protest.

Vdeos and images shared by the Betar US social media account in February 2025 that helped lead the Anti-Defamation League to add the group to their glossary of extremism include (l-r) a video of a man yelling profane remarks at a New York mosque; a video of comedian Michael Rapaport praising Rabbi Meir Kahane; and a post praising the Proud Boys. (Screenshots via X)

Betar US is incorporated as a nonprofit in Katonah, New York, and solicits donations but never registered with the attorney general’s Charities Bureau, according to the settlement. 

In a statement to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, Levy said the group was incorporated in Delaware — a common practice for nonprofits — and emphasized its operations in Israel. “Betar maintains global headquarters in Metzudat Ze’ev, Beit Jabotinsky in Tel Aviv,” he said. “Prime Minister Netanyahu maintains a personal office in the building.”

He insisted the group would remain active despite the shutdown in New York..

“Nobody can dictate to us from the diaspora what is legitimate Zionism or not,” Levy said. “We will continue to serve the people of Israel, in the Land of Israel, as citizens of the State of Israel.”

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A person walks along a street on the day of the meeting between top US officials and the foreign ministers of Denmark and Greenland, in Nuuk, Greenland, January 14, 2026. Photo: REUTERS/Marko Djurica/File Photo

Global markets are facing volatility after President Donald Trump vowed to slap tariffs on eight European nations until the US is allowed to buy Greenland, news that pushed the euro to a seven-week low in late Sunday trading.

Trump said he would impose an additional 10 percent import tariff from February 1 on goods from Denmark, Norway, Sweden, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Finland and Britain, which will rise to 25 percent on June 1 if no deal is reached.

Major European Union states decried the tariff threats over Greenland as blackmail on Sunday. France proposed responding with a range of previously untested economic countermeasures.

As early trade kicked off in Asia-Pacific, the euro fell 0.2 percent to around $1.1572, its lowest since November. Sterling also dipped, while the yen firmed against the dollar.

“Hopes that the tariff situation has calmed down for this year have been dashed for now – and we find ourselves in the same situation as last spring,” said Berenberg chief economist Holger Schmieding.

Trump‘s sweeping “Liberation Day” tariffs in April 2025 sent shockwaves through markets. Investors then largely looked past US trade threats in the second half of the year, viewing them as noise and responding with relief as Trump made deals with Britain, the EU and others.

While that lull might be over, market moves on Monday could be dampened by the experience that investor sentiment had been more resilient than expected in 2025 and global economic growth stayed on track.

US markets are closed on Monday for Martin Luther King Jr. Day, which means a delayed reaction on Wall Street.

The implications for the dollar were less clear. It remains a safe haven, but could also feel the impact of Washington being at the center of geopolitical ruptures, as it did last April.

Bitcoin, a liquid proxy for risk that is open to trade at the weekend, was steady, last trading at $95,330.

Capital Economics said countries most exposed to increased U.S. tariffs were the UK and Germany, estimating that a 10 percent tariff could reduce GDP in those economies by around 0.1 percent, while a 25 percent tariff could knock 0.2–0.3 percent off output.

European stocks are near record highs. Germany’s DAX and London’s FTSE index are up more than 3 percent this month, outperforming the S&P 500, which is up 1.3 percent.

European defense shares will likely continue to benefit from geopolitical tensions. Defense stocks have jumped almost 15 percent this month, as the US seizure of Venezuela’s Nicolas Maduro fueled concerns about Greenland.

Denmark’s closely managed crown will also likely be in focus. It has weakened, but rate differentials are a major factor and it remains close to the central rate at which it is pegged to the euro, and not far from six-year lows.

“The US-EU trade war is back on,” said Tina Fordham, geopolitical strategist and founder of Fordham Global Foresight.

Trump‘s latest move came as top officials from the EU and South American bloc Mercosur signed a free trade agreement.

HOT SPOTS EVERYWHERE

The dispute over Greenland is just one hot spot.

Trump has also weighed intervening in unrest in Iran, while a threat to indict Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell has reignited concerns about the US central bank’s independence.

Against this backdrop, safe-haven gold remained near record highs.

Given Trump’s recent Fed attacks, an escalation with Europe could pile pressure on the dollar if it adds to worries that US policy credibility is becoming critically impaired, said Peel Hunt chief economist Kallum Pickering.

“(This) could be amplified by a desire, especially among Europeans, to repatriate capital and shun US assets, which may also pose downside risks to lofty US tech valuations,” he added.

The World Economic Forum’s annual risk perception survey, released before its annual meeting in Davos next week, which will be attended by Trump, identified economic confrontation between nations as the number one concern replacing armed conflict.

A source close to French President Emmanuel Macron said he was pushing for activation of the “Anti-Coercion Instrument,” which could limit access to public tenders, investments or banking activity or restrict trade in services, in which the US has a surplus with the bloc, including digital services.

“With the US net international investment position at record negative extremes, the mutual inter-dependence of European-US financial markets has never been higher,” said Deutsche Bank’s global head of FX research George Saravelos in a note.

“It is a weaponization of capital rather than trade flows that would by far be the most disruptive to markets.”

Russian President Vladimir Putin welcomes US President Donald Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff during a meeting in Moscow, Russia, Aug. 6, 2025. Photo: Sputnik/Gavriil Grigorov/Pool via REUTERS

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said a US invasion of Greenland “would make Putin the happiest man on earth” in a newspaper interview published on Sunday.

Sanchez said any military action by the US against Denmark’s vast Arctic island would damage NATO and legitimize the invasion of Ukraine by Russia.

“If we focus on Greenland, I have to say that a US invasion of that territory would make Vladimir Putin the happiest man in the world. Why? Because it would legitimize his attempted invasion of Ukraine,” he said in an interview in La Vanguardia newspaper.

“If the United States were to use force, it would be the death knell for NATO. Putin would be doubly happy.”

President Donald Trump on Saturday appeared to change tack over Greenland by vowing to implement a wave of increasing tariffs on European allies until the United States is allowed to buy Greenland.

In a post on Truth Social, Trump said additional 10 percent import tariffs would take effect on February 1 on goods from Denmark, Norway, Sweden, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Finland and Great Britain — all already subject to tariffs imposed by Trump.

Those tariffs would increase to 25 percent on June 1 and would continue until a deal was reached for the US to purchase Greenland, Trump wrote.

Trump has repeatedly insisted he will settle for nothing less than ownership of Greenland, an autonomous territory of Denmark. Leaders of both Denmark and Greenland have insisted the island is not for sale and does not want to be part of the United States.

Syria’s interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa speaks during a Ministerial formation of the government of the Syrian Arab Republic, in Damascus, Syria, March 29, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Khalil Ashawi

i24 News – Syrian state media reported on Sunday that the Syrian government and the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) have reached an immediate ceasefire after days of clashes in Kurdish-held areas of the northeast.

The agreement, announced electronically by Damascus, marks a major shift in Syria’s ongoing efforts to reassert control over its Kurdish-majority regions.

According to the Syrian presidency, the deal, signed by President Ahmed al-Sharaa and SDF commander Mazloum Abdi, calls for a full halt to combat operations on all fronts, the withdrawal of SDF-affiliated forces to the east of the Euphrates, and the integration of SDF fighters into Syria’s defense and interior ministries on an individual basis.

The agreement also stipulates that the Syrian government will assume military and administrative control over Deir al-Zor and Raqqa, take over all oil and gas fields, and assume responsibility for prisons and camps holding ISIS members and their families. The SDF has committed to evacuating all non-Syrian PKK-affiliated personnel from the country.

“All lingering files with the SDF will be resolved,” Sharaa said, adding that he is scheduled to meet Abdi on Monday to continue discussions. The ceasefire is intended to open safe corridors for civilians to return to their areas and allow state institutions to resume their duties.

US Special Envoy Tom Barrack praised the agreement, describing it as a “pivotal inflection point” that brings former adversaries together and advances Syria toward national unity. Barrack noted that the deal facilitates the continued fight against ISIS while integrating Kurdish forces into the broader Syrian state.

The ceasefire comes after days of heavy fighting in northeastern Syria, highlighting both the fragility and potential of Damascus’ reconciliation efforts with Kurdish forces.

FILE PHOTO: Cars burn in a street during a protest over the collapse of the currency’s value, in Tehran, Iran, January 8, 2026. Photo: Stringer/WANA (West Asia News Agency) via REUTERS/ File Photo

Iran‘s president warned on Sunday that any US strike would trigger a “harsh response” from Tehran after an Iranian official in the region said at least 5,000 people — including about 500 security personnel — had been killed in nationwide protests.

Iran‘s protests, sparked last month in Tehran’s Grand Bazaar over economic grievances, swiftly turned political and spread nationwide, drawing participants from across generations and income groups – shopkeepers, students, men and women, the poor and the well‑off – calling for the end of clerical rule.

US President Donald Trump has repeatedly threatened to intervene if protesters continued to be killed on the streets or were executed. He said in an interview with Politico on Saturday: “it’s time to look for new leadership in Iran.”

Iran indicated on Sunday it might go ahead with executions of people detained during the unrest, and with its clerical rulers facing mounting international pressure over the bloodiest unrest since the 1979 Islamic revolution, is seeking to deter Trump from stepping in.

Iran‘s President Masoud Pezeshkian on X warned that Tehran’s response “to any unjust aggression will be harsh and regrettable,” adding that any attack on the country’s supreme leader is “tantamount to an all-out war against the nation.”

RIGHTS GROUP REPORTS 24,000 ARRESTS

Protests dwindled last week following a violent crackdown.

US-based rights group HRANA said on Saturday the death toll had reached 3,308, with another 4,382 cases under review. It said it had confirmed more than 24,000 arrests.

On Friday, Trump thanked Tehran’s leaders in a social media post, saying they had called off scheduled executions of 800 people. He has moved US military assets into the region but has not specified what he might do.

A day later, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei branded Trump a “criminal,” acknowledging “several thousand deaths” that he blamed on “terrorists and rioters” linked to the US and Israel.

Iran‘s judiciary indicated that executions may go ahead.

“A series of actions have been identified as Mohareb, which is among the most severe Islamic punishments,” Iranian judiciary spokesperson Asghar Jahangir told a press conference on Sunday.

Mohareb, an Islamic legal term meaning to wage war against God, is punishable by death under Iranian law.

The Iranian official told Reuters that the verified death toll was unlikely to “increase sharply,” adding “Israel and armed groups abroad” had supported and equipped those taking to the streets.

The clerical establishment regularly blames unrest on foreign enemies, including the US and Israel, an arch foe of the Islamic Republic which launched military strikes in June.

Internet blackouts were partly lifted for a few hours on Saturday but internet monitoring group NetBlocks said they later resumed.

One resident in Tehran said that last week he had witnessed riot police directly shooting at a group of protesters, who were mostly young men and women. Videos circulating on social media, some of which have been verified by Reuters, have shown security forces crushing demonstrations across the country.

HIGHEST DEATH TOLL IN KURDISH AREAS

The Iranian official, who declined to be named due to the sensitivity of the issue, also said some of the heaviest clashes and highest number of deaths were in the Iranian Kurdish areas in the country’s northwest.

Kurdish separatists have been active there and flare-ups have been among the most violent in past periods of unrest.

Three sources told Reuters on January 14 that armed Kurdish separatist groups sought to cross the border into Iran from Iraq in a sign of foreign entities potentially seeking to take advantage of instability.

Faizan Ali, a 40-year-old medical doctor from Lahore, said he had to cut short his trip to Iran to visit his Iranian wife in the central city of Isfahan as “there was no internet or communication with my family in Pakistan.”

“I saw a violent mob burning buildings, banks and cars. I also witnessed an individual stab a passer-by,” he told Reuters upon his arrival back in Lahore.

People protest against ICE, after a US immigration agent shot and killed 37-year-old Renee Nicole Good in her car in Minneapolis, in New York City, January 7. Photo: REUTERS/Angelina Katsanis

The Pentagon has ordered about 1,500 active-duty soldiers in Alaska to prepare for a possible deployment to Minnesota, the site of large protests against the government’s deportation drive, two US officials told Reuters on Sunday.

The US Army placed the units on prepare-to-deploy orders in case violence in the state escalates, the officials said, though it is not clear whether any of them will be sent.

President Donald Trump on Thursday threatened to use the Insurrection Act to deploy military forces if officials in the state do not stop protesters from targeting immigration officials after a surge in Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents.

Increasingly tense confrontations between residents and federal officers have erupted in Minneapolis since Renee Good, a 37-year-old mother of three, was fatally shot behind the wheel of her car by ICE officer Jonathan Ross on January 7.

Mayor Jacob Frey said on Sunday that any military deployment would exacerbate tensions in Minnesota’s largest city, where the Trump administration has already sent 3,000 immigration and border patrol officers to deal with largely peaceful protests.

“That would be a shocking step,” Frey said on NBC’s “Meet the Press” program. “We don’t need more federal agents to keep people safe. We are safe.”

Clashes in the city intensified after the federal ICE surge and the killing of Good. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem told CBS “Face the Nation” on Sunday that Frey should set up “a peaceful protest zone” for demonstrators.

Trump has repeatedly invoked a scandal around the theft of federal funds intended for social-welfare programs in Minnesota as a rationale for sending in immigration agents. The president and administration officials have singled out the state’s community of Somali immigrants.

“I think what he’d be doing is just putting another match on the fire,” US Senator Chris Van Hollen, a Democrat, told ABC’s “This Week” when asked about the possible military deployment.

THREAT OF TROOPS FOLLOWS SURGE OF IMMIGRATION AGENTS

If US troops are deployed, it is unclear whether the Trump administration would invoke the Insurrection Act, which gives the president the power to deploy the military or federalize National Guard troops to quell domestic uprisings.

Even without invoking the act, a president can deploy active-duty forces for certain domestic purposes such as protecting federal property, which Trump cited as a justification for sending Marines to Los Angeles last year.

In addition to the active-duty forces, the Pentagon could also attempt to deploy newly created National Guard rapid-response forces for civil disturbances.

“The Department of War is always prepared to execute the orders of the commander in chief if called upon,” said Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell, using the Trump administration’s preferred name for the Department of Defense.

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the order, which was first reported by ABC News.

The soldiers subject to deployment specialize in cold-weather operations and are assigned to two US Army infantry battalions under the 11th Airborne Division, which is based in Alaska, the officials said.

Trump, a Republican, sent the surge of federal agents from ICE and Border Patrol to Minneapolis and neighboring St. Paul early last week, as part of a wave of interventions across the US, mostly to cities run by Democratic politicians.

He has said troop deployments in Los Angeles, Chicago, Washington, D.C., Memphis and Portland, Oregon, are necessary to fight crime and protect federal property and personnel from protesters. But this month he said he was removing the National Guard from Chicago, Los Angeles and Portland, where the deployments have faced legal setbacks and challenges.

Local leaders have accused the president of federal overreach and of exaggerating isolated episodes of violence to justify sending in troops.

Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, against whom the Justice Department has opened a criminal investigation, has mobilized the state’s National Guard to support local law enforcement and the rights of peaceful demonstrators, the state Department of Public Safety posted on X on Saturday.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks during a press conference at the Prime Minister’s office in Jerusalem, Aug. 10, 2025. Photo: ABIR SULTAN/Pool via REUTERS

i24 News – During an appeal hearing at the District Court over the decision not to extend restrictions in the classified documents case, police revealed new correspondence between Yonatan Urich and Eli Feldstein.

The messages suggest that Feldstein, an advisor to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, was aware of the secret document and its potential leak.

Feldstein was also summoned for further questioning at Lahav 433 amid suspicions of obstruction during a late-night meeting in a parking lot.

The correspondence, dated October 13, 2024, was exchanged on the encrypted messaging app Signal. Feldstein reportedly wrote to Urich that he was considering taking advantage of a visiting Bild reporter to discuss the document. Urich responded: “Let Hasid handle it, why waste your time on it,” referring to the reporter as a “nuisance.”

Police stated that the messages contradict Urich’s previous claims that he had never seen or heard of the secret document, showing that he was not only aware of it but also discussed its publication with Feldstein.

Last Thursday, the court rejected a request to remove Urich from the Prime Minister’s Office and denied lifting restrictions on Chief of Staff Tzachi Braverman and Omer Mansour. Judge Menachem Mizrahi wrote that the requests lacked “evidentiary, substantive, proportionate, or purposeful justification,” and saw no reason to extend prohibitions on contact or work for the respondents.

The new revelations are likely to intensify scrutiny of the roles of senior aides in the handling of classified material within the Prime Minister’s Office.

Swiss flags flutter on the Swiss Parliament Building (Bundeshaus), after the weekly governmental meeting in Bern, Switzerland, Jan. 29, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Denis Balibouse

i24 News – A senior Iranian diplomat posted to the United Nations’ European headquarters in Geneva has reportedly defected and applied for political asylum in Switzerland, according to diplomatic sources cited on Sunday by the Iranian opposition outlet Iran International.

The diplomat, Alireza Jiranieh Hokambad, served as a minister-counselor, the second-highest-ranking position in Iran’s UN delegation in Geneva.

According to the report, he left his post and submitted an asylum request for himself and his family, citing fears of persecution should he return to Iran.

Sources said Hokambad’s decision was driven by concerns over the ongoing political and social unrest in Iran, as well as doubts about the stability of the Islamic Republic’s governing structure. Swiss authorities have not yet issued an official response to the asylum application.

Hokambad joined Iran’s Geneva delegation in 2017 and represented Tehran in several UN-affiliated economic bodies, including forums focused on trade, development, and investment.

Diplomatic sources noted that increasing international support for protesters in Iran, coupled with strong criticism from European leaders, has heightened unease among Iranian diplomats stationed across Europe.

According to the report, several other Iranian diplomats have discreetly contacted European authorities in recent weeks to explore the possibility of seeking asylum.

European sources added that some governments are considering easing asylum procedures for Iranian diplomats, even in cases where applicants are unable to demonstrate an immediate and direct threat to their lives.

Defections by Iranian diplomats during periods of domestic unrest are not without precedent. In the aftermath of Iran’s 2009 “Green Movement” protests, a number of senior diplomats posted in countries including Norway, Finland, Italy, and Belgium resigned and sought asylum, publicly condemning the Tehran government’s violent crackdown.

FILE PHOTO: U.S. President Donald Trump is interviewed by Reuters White House correspondent Steve Holland (not pictured) during an exclusive interview in the Oval Office in the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., January 14, 2026. REUTERS/Evelyn Hockstein/File Photo

Governments reacted cautiously on Sunday to US President Donald Trump’s invitation to join his “Board of Peace” initiative aimed at resolving conflicts globally, a plan that diplomats said could harm the work of the United Nations.

Only Hungary, whose leader is a close Trump ally, gave an unequivocal acceptance in response to the invitations, which have been addressed to some 60 nations and began arriving in European capitals on Saturday, according to diplomats.

Other governments appeared reluctant to make public statements, leaving officials to express concerns anonymously about the impact on the work of the U.N..

The board would be chaired for life by Trump and would start by addressing the Gaza conflict and then be expanded to deal with other conflicts, according to a copy of the letter and draft charter seen by Reuters.

Member states would be limited to three-year terms unless they pay $1 billion each to fund the board’s activities and earn permanent membership, the letter states.

“This simply offers permanent membership to partner countries who demonstrate deep commitment to peace, security, and prosperity,” the White House said in a post on X.

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, visiting South Korea, told reporters her country was “ready to do our part,” although it was not clear whether she was specifically referring to Gaza or the broader peace.

Canada’s Prime Minister Mark Carney said on Sunday he had agreed to Trump’s Board of Peace for Gaza in principle although details were still being worked out.

The Board of Peace’s mandate was only authorized by the United Nations Security Council through 2027 and was solely focused on the Gaza conflict.

‘DARK TIMES’

The inclusion of a “charter” in the invitation letter stoked concerns among some European governments that it could undermine the work of the United Nations, which Trump has accused of not supporting his efforts to end conflicts around the world.

“It’s a ‘Trump United Nations’ that ignores the fundamentals of the U.N. charter,” said one diplomat.

Three other Western diplomats said it looked as if it would undermine the United Nations if it went ahead.

A further three diplomats and an Israeli source said that Trump wanted the Board of Peace to eventually have a broader role beyond Gaza that would oversee the other conflicts that Trump has said he has resolved.

The leaders of France, Germany, Italy, Hungary, Australia, Canada, the European Commission and key Middle East powers were among those invited to sit on the Board of Peace, according to officials.

“Declaring that durable peace requires pragmatic judgment, common-sense solutions, and the courage to depart from approaches and institutions that have too often failed,” the document showed.

In what appeared to be directed at the United Nations, the document added that there was a “need for a more nimble and effective international peace-building body.”

Trump, who covets the Nobel Peace Prize, said in the letter that the board would convene in the near future, adding: “This board will be one of a kind, there has never been anything like it!”

In public comments in response to a reporter’s question, a senior UN official did not address the plan directly, but said the United Nations was the only institution with the moral and legal ability to bring together every nation, big or small.

“And if we question that … we fall back and very, very, dark, times,” Annalena Baerbock, president of the United Nations General Assembly, told Sky News, adding that it was up to individual states to decide what to do.

The White House on Friday named some individuals who will sit on the board, which would outlive its role supervising the temporary governance of Gaza, under a fragile ceasefire since October.

They included US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, President Donald Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff, former British prime minister Tony Blair and Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner.

Israel and the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas signed off on Trump’s plan, which says a Palestinian technocratic administration will be overseen by an international board, which will supervise Gaza’s governance for a transitional period.

TRUMP GOES FOR GLOBAL PEACE ROLE

“It’s going to, in my opinion, start with Gaza and then do conflicts as they arise,” President Donald Trump told Reuters in an interview earlier this week.

Many rights experts and advocates have said that Trump overseeing a board to supervise a foreign territory’s governance resembles a colonial structure, while Blair’s involvement was criticized last year due to his role in the Iraq war and the history of British imperialism in the Middle East.

The White House did not detail the responsibilities of each member of the board. The names do not include any Palestinians. The White House said more members will be announced over the coming weeks.

It also named a separate, 11-member “Gaza Executive Board” to support the technocratic body.

This would include Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan, U.N. Middle East peace coordinator Sigrid Kaag, United Arab Emirates International Cooperation Minister Reem Al-Hashimy, Israeli-Cypriot billionaire Yakir Gabay and officials from Qatar and the United Arab Emirates.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said the composition of this board had not been coordinated with Israel and contradicted its policy – possibly a reference to Fidan’s presence, as Israel objects to Turkish involvement. Israel’s government also has a tense relationship with Qatar. An Israeli government spokesperson declined to comment beyond the statement.

US Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff, Washington, DC, Jan. 20, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Carlos Barria

i24 News – Amid growing disagreements with the Trump administration over the composition of the Board of Peace for Gaza and the question of a strike on Iran, officials in Israel point to a key figure behind decisions seen as running counter to Israeli interests: Special Envoy Steve Witkoff.

The officials mention sustained dissatisfaction with Witkoff. Sources close to the PM Netanyahu told i24NEWS on Saturday evening: “For several months now, the feeling has been that envoy Steve Witkoff has strong ties, for his own reasons, across the Middle East, and that at times the Israeli interest does not truly prevail in his decision-making.”

This criticism relates both to the proposed inclusion of Turkey and Qatar in Gaza’s governing bodies and to the Iranian threat. A senior Israeli official put it bluntly: “If it turns out that he is among those blocking a strike on Iran, that is far more than a coincidence.”

European Union flags flutter outside the EU Commission headquarters in Brussels, Belgium, on June 17, 2022. Photo: Reuters/Yves Herman

European Union leaders on Saturday warned of a “dangerous downward spiral” over US President Donald Trump‘s vow to implement increasing tariffs on European allies until the US is allowed to buy Greenland.

“Tariffs would undermine transatlantic relations and risk a dangerous downward spiral. Europe will remain united, coordinated, and committed to upholding its sovereignty,” European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and EU Council President Antonio Costa said in posts on X.

The bloc’s top diplomat Kaja Kallas said tariffs would hurt prosperity on both sides of the Atlantic, while distracting the EU from its “core task” of ending Russia’s war in Ukraine.

“China and Russia must be having a field day. They are the ones who benefit from divisions among allies,” Kallas said on X.

“Tariffs risk making Europe and the United States poorer and undermine our shared prosperity. If Greenland’s security is at risk, we can address this inside NATO.”

Ambassadors from the European Union’s 27 countries will convene on Sunday for an emergency meeting to discuss their response to the tariff threat.

The Torah revolves around one simple but powerful precept - to not treat others in a way you wouldn’t want to be treated. The following poem offers insight as to why.

The post The Wheel of Change appeared first on The Jewish Press - JewishPress.com.

Providing a needy person with employment is considered the highest form of tzedakah because it preserves his self-dignity (Y.D. 249:6; Shach 249:7), replied Rabbi Dayan.

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Do you live like that? Constantly imagining danger around the corner? Are you suffering from low-grade anxiety on a constant basis?

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Over time, I realized that my resentment of Chana stemmed from jealousy – jealousy that she had been given the space and permission to feel throughout her childhood. I had never sent a child to their room or shamed them for their feelings, so how could she get so sick in my house? What had I done wrong? Where had I failed her?

The post Family Mental Illness in a Family – Chapter Seven appeared first on The Jewish Press - JewishPress.com.

Double Trouble?
“Two Handfuls”
(Menachos 11b)

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Help your daughter understand that this girl is not better than her; rather, she likely has low self-esteem and needs to hurt others to feel better.

The post Dear Dr. Yael appeared first on The Jewish Press - JewishPress.com.

Chasidic music is limited. That’s the nature of the music. Think about it, Bichler says – most of the Jews in Eastern Europe were hardworking people. Many of them were in survival mode. Life was not easy. And that was reflected in the music. It was simple.

The post Pinchas Bichler: Malchus Choir’s Maestro appeared first on The Jewish Press - JewishPress.com.

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Ran went out to confront absolute evil. And it is the same evil we see today, asserting itself in Iran against its own people and elsewhere against anyone who stands for freedom and truth. We pray that this too will fall, that another hateful regime, another Jew-hating empire, will be thrown onto history’s scrap heap, just as others before it.

The post Ran Gvili, Iran, and Us appeared first on The Jewish Press - JewishPress.com.

Panic is driven by the amygdala, not the thinking brain. You cannot out-logic an amygdala. But you can stop giving it reasons to stay activated. Acceptance plus anchoring signals the brain: Stand down. It listens.

The post The Bitachon Blueprint (Part XLVII) appeared first on The Jewish Press - JewishPress.com.

The plague of hail involved two opposing forces, water and fire. Under normal circumstances these forces cannot coexist peacefully, they are diametric opposites of each other. HaKadosh Baruch Hu miraculously made peace between them and unleashed them upon Egypt.

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The Rebbetzin eyed him skeptically. But maybe some of your friends have money? she asked shrewdly. Or maybe you can think of a way to get some people with money together to have one of those—what do you call them—parlor meetings?

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Experts declared: this should not have happened.

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Behavioral economists have long wrestled with why smart people make bad decisions. Dan Ariely and others have shown that we often act against our own interests to protect pride, defend identity, or avoid appearing weak. What begins as conviction can harden into stubbornness.

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Geulah is not an escape; it is a return. It is the moment when a person remembers who they are and who they were meant to be.

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I won’t mention specific names, but if readers want to do their own research just look up the best performing funds/stock pickers in a previous year. They will rarely be on top multiple years in a row. Yet, they will still get prominent airtime to discuss their strategies, which are usually wrong or antiquated.

The post Money Lesson From Moshe Rabbeinu: Be Humble or Get Humbled appeared first on The Jewish Press - JewishPress.com.

Question: Seemingly the only place in our Torah where the matter of a birthday celebration is mentioned is regarding the birthday of Pharaoh. The only birthday celebration that we as Jews celebrate is a bar mitzvah – a young man’s 13th birthday. Is there greater significance to that day more than to any other?
Yitzchak Gutman
Via E-mail

The post Q & A: Birthday and Bar Mitzvah (Part II) appeared first on The Jewish Press - JewishPress.com.

The great thing about Jill is she has vast experience not just from the judge’s side of the bench, but from the attorney side of the bench, New York Assemblymember Kalman Yeger told The Jewish Press at the event.

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But the people were overworked and under pressure and they had no time for seemingly empty promises... It was hard for them to believe in a vacuum. They needed to see some concrete results.

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What makes Te’udah be-Yisrael especially noteworthy is its moderation. Unlike later, more radical maskilim, Levinsohn defends the historical role of the rabbis and recognizes the necessity of rabbinic authority in its time.

The post The RIBaL’s Te’udah be-Yisrael appeared first on The Jewish Press - JewishPress.com.

The danger of not listening is not limited to kings, tyrants, or political leaders intoxicated by success. It confronts all of us.

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You know that part of forging an authentic connection is sharing, but you are scared. Because, of course, it’s scary to share.

The post Trust Me appeared first on The Jewish Press - JewishPress.com.

One of the key characteristics we see of Moshe that make him uniquely qualified for prophecy is his attention to detail in the face of the unusual.

The post The Mechanics of Prophecy: A Further Exploration appeared first on The Jewish Press - JewishPress.com.

Probably the most significant election result for the Jewish community was that Julie Menin, 58, was chosen unanimously by her colleagues to be the first Jewish speaker of the 51-member New York City Council.

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In general, Klal Yisrael chooses its great people very differently than does the other nations. Rav Aharon Leib Shteinman, zt”l, zy”a, never ran for office. Rav Pam, zt”l, zy”a, never strutted his credentials. To the contrary, they ran from honor and it was that very humility that knighted them to be the leaders of our people.

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Even more concerning is that Vice-President J.D. Vance, who is a friend of Carlson, appears at least to tolerate the woke right, as evidenced by an interview on the website UnHerd.

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A person who can feel the pain of others is more suited to be a leader. For that reason, Hashem first tested Moshe to verify that he had the sensitivity to be able to share in the distress of his brethren.

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The habits that ordered his own days were the same ones he brought to communal decision-making.

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It is interesting that Duckwitz was required to forward a simple autograph request up the chain of command and to obtain formal approval from the Reich Foreign Minister in Berlin to provide the signature.

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The New York Post Editorial board argued that with Mamdani in office, the city desperately needs some steady hands at the top, framing Menin as a necessary alternative to avoid the Council becoming a rubber stamp organization for the far-left agenda.

The post NYC Council Speaker Julie Menin: Counterweight to Mayor Mamdani? appeared first on The Jewish Press - JewishPress.com.

The American Israel Public Affairs Committee, often a reliable ally of pro-Israel Republicans, is now echoing Democratic outrage over one of President Donald Trump’s most polarizing policies: immigration enforcement. It comes amid backlash sparked by the fatal shooting this month of Renee Good by an ICE agent in Minneapolis.

AIPAC’s super PAC, United Democracy Project, began airing an attack ad over the weekend against former Democratic Rep. Tom Malinowski, who is running in a Feb. 5 primary for the House seat vacated by New Jersey Governor-elect Mikie Sherrill. The ad highlights his 2019 vote for a bipartisan border funding bill, which included an increase in funds for the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency. “We can’t trust Tom Malinowski” to stand up to President Donald Trump, the voiceover says in the 30-second video.

AIPAC has become increasingly controversial among mainstream Democrats for backing pro-Israel Republicans who questioned the 2020 election results. That opposition deepened during the Gaza war as Democratic voters became more polarized over U.S. policy on Israel. Congressional candidates, including some Jewish Democrats, have promised not to take contributions from AIPAC. The group has also drawn attacks from white nationalists and some leaders of the MAGA movement for their lobbying on behalf of a foreign government.

The new ad is especially notable given that AIPAC has spent years cultivating ties to Trump-aligned Republicans, many of whom strongly support aggressive immigration enforcement. By attacking a Democrat over ICE funding while sidestepping Trump himself, the group is threading a narrow needle — aligning rhetorically with Democratic outrage while maintaining its broader bipartisan posture.

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In the 2024 election cycle, the group spent $28 million in high-stakes Democratic primaries. That included more than $14 million, which contributed to the defeat of Rep. Jamaal Bowman, a strident critic of Israel. Malinowski, who served two terms in Congress from 2019 to 2023, holds a mainstream Democratic stance on Israel. During his first term, he traveled to Israel on a trip sponsored by the American Israel Education Foundation, AIPAC’s educational affiliate.

Israel has not been a key issue in the crowded special election in the northern New Jersey district, which includes a sizable Jewish electorate. The Jewish Democratic Council of America held a virtual candidate forum last week with eight candidates on issues important to Jewish voters.

A spokesperson for the United Democracy Project did not immediately respond to questions about why the group is targeting Malinowski, particularly on such a deeply contentious political issue. AIPAC spent at least $350,000 on the ad.

AIPAC ad is out https://t.co/f0cH6AIgja pic.twitter.com/udwL7nJgYf

— umichvoter (@umichvoter) January 17, 2026

Malinowski, 60, is a former assistant secretary of state for democracy, human rights and labor in President Barack Obama’s second term and previously served as a foreign policy speechwriter for President Bill Clinton. He first ran for Congress in 2018 in New Jersey’s 7th District, saying he was motivated by Trump’s election.

“I am myself an immigrant from Poland. My family was not Jewish, but experienced life under the Nazi occupation,” Malinowski said in an interview at the time. “That’s where my commitment to defending human rights comes from. That’s where my belief in the importance of protecting Israel comes from.” He is a close friend of former Secretary of State Antony Blinken. Malinowski was defeated in the 2022 election.

Malinowski is competing for the open seat against at least two leading contenders: Outgoing Lt. Gov. Tahesha Way and Essex County Commissioner Brendan Gill.

AIPAC typically focuses on U.S.-Israel relations and national security issues. However, its political arm has focused on domestic issues in close contests.

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• Why this congressional candidate is making attacks on AIPAC central to his campaign
• Why isn’t a pro-Israel lobbying group considered a foreign agent?

In 2024, they attacked Reps. Jammal Bowman of New York and Cori Bush of Missouri — two of the first House members to advocate for a ceasefire after the Hamas attack on Oct. 7, 2023 — over their votes against signature Biden-era bills, like infrastructure and healthcare.

In a statement to the New Jersey Globe, Malinowski called the attack “laughably preposterous” and suggested it would boomerang against AIPAC. “I have many pro-Israel supporters in the district, including AIPAC members, who believe you can be passionately pro-Israel while being critical of Netanyahu,” Malinowski said. “To say that they’re appalled by this ad would be an understatement. In fact, I’m reading a collective sense that AIPAC has lost its mind.”

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• In a Mamdani-era primary, J Street endorses pro-Israel incumbent — and, in a first, ‘approves’ his challenger

The post Why is AIPAC targeting Trump’s ICE funding? appeared first on The Forward.

In June 1866, just over a year after the Civil War ended, young Jewish men in Richmond, Virginia, removed their coats and set to work among the graves of their fallen comrades. Some were “frail of limb,” a newspaper noted. They wheeled gravel and turf, filled the graves, and tamped the earth down “in a very substantial manner.” It was the last sad tribute they could offer.

The work that day was organized by Jewish women in the city. Their aim was permanence: to enclose the soldiers’ graves, to mark them, and to ensure they would not disappear “before the relentless finger of time.”

The Hebrew Cemetery in Richmond was established in 1816, decades before the Civil War reshaped the nation and long before the city became the capital of the Confederacy. It was the second burial ground for the Beth Shalome Congregation, Virginia’s first synagogue. Tucked within its grounds is the Soldiers’ Section, where 30 Jewish Confederate soldiers are buried, in what is believed to be one of only two Jewish military cemeteries in the world outside Israel.

They came from across the South, including Georgia, Mississippi, South Carolina, Virginia, and beyond. A bronze plaque at the entrance reads: “To the glory of God and in memory of the Hebrew Confederate soldiers resting in this hallowed spot.”

What matters here is not only who is buried — but who remembered them, and how.

The work the war left behind

In 1866, just a year after the war’s end, Jewish women in Richmond organized the Hebrew Ladies’ Memorial Association. That same year, the group issued an appeal “to the Israelites of the South” for aid to enable the society to care for the graves of Jewish Confederate soldiers from all over the South who lie buried in the cemeteries of Richmond.

It was a duty, an act of chesed shel emet, Hebrew for the truest form of kindness, performed for those who could not repay it.

Newspaper accounts from the period are striking for their clarity and urgency. These women understood that the work of memory is laborious — physical, ongoing, and vulnerable to neglect. Graves, they warned, could vanish unless someone acted.

So they took responsibility.

By the late 1860s and 1870s, the Association’s work had grown to include an annual memorial service. Reports describe flowers laid carefully on each grave, marble slabs placed at the head of each burial, names and regiments inscribed so those resting there would not slip into anonymity.

An 1868 account observed that “each grave has been marked in a manner that ensures that the names of the still tenants of this beautiful spot will be preserved from oblivion; and handed down to be further cherished by the generations yet to come.”

That language echoes a Jewish concept. Zachor. Remember.

Memory, they understood, does not preserve itself.

Importantly, these memorial services were not closed affairs. One report from 1868 noted that the crowd gathered in the cemetery “was not confined to any one denomination.” Jewish lives were honored in the public view, but still held apart from Richmond’s larger Confederate cemeteries, Hollywood and Oakwood, which were not consecrated for Jewish burial and could not accommodate Jewish ritual requirements, including separate sacred ground.

Tending the dead

The care itself remained constant, but the language surrounding it did not.

What is striking in early accounts of the Soldiers’ Section of the Hebrew Cemetery is not the absence of politics, but how its weight changes over time.

In the earliest years, memory and the war were still closely bound. The 1866 appeal issued by the Hebrew Ladies’ Memorial Association spoke openly of a “glorious cause” and framed the soldiers’ deaths within the language of Confederate sacrifice. Like other women’s memorial groups in the postwar South, these Jewish women used care for the dead to assert dignity and a claim to sacrifice in a defeated society.

Yet even then, the work itself was grounded in restraint. The focus was on names, tending, and preservation — on preventing the graves from vanishing. The labor was physical, repetitive, and unglamorous. Whatever meanings surrounded it, the work remained the same.

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• Why small town Jews buried their dead in big cities — and what those journeys reveal today

As decades passed, the emphasis shifted. By the 1930s, memorial services featured a cadet, Walter McDonald of the Catholic Benedictine College, sounding taps and the ceremonial laying of wreaths. Confederate organizations were invited to attend. In 1940 and 1941, the public was welcomed to observe the 74th and 75th annual memorials. After 1941, the Hebrew Ladies’ Memorial Association continued to participate alongside other organizations in Memorial Day observances, but it appears that by 1947 the local observance of “Hebrew Memorial Day” or “Jewish Confederate Memorial Day” faded as a distinct commemoration.

Across generations, the observance persisted, a refusal to abandon the dead to neglect. Memory grew larger than any one explanation. The women’s work became less about what the war had meant, and more about what the living still owed to their dead.

A refusal to forget

This is a complex story that shows how history so often complicates memory. It sits at the intersection of some of America’s most divisive episodes and a small minority faith community declaring its presence and its sacrifices over decades.

When the Civil War ended, Jews needed to be buried. What followed was a choice.

The Hebrew Ladies’ Memorial Association chose to take responsibility. To remember “many a loved brother, son, and husband.” To insist that whatever judgment history would render, oblivion was not acceptable for “Israelitish soldiers of the Confederate army.”

Today, the Soldiers’ Section in Richmond’s Hebrew Cemetery remains. Names are still remembered. The work begun in 1866 was not temporary.

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• What I learned about life from preparing the dead
• They met at synagogue in 1961. They were buried together at Arlington National Cemetery in 2025. This is their story.

The post The Jewish women who kept Confederate graves from disappearing appeared first on The Forward.

From the beginning of the biographical documentary The First Lady, Efrat Tilma makes it clear she has mixed feelings about the film, which details how she became the first trans woman to volunteer in Israel’s police department. When asked why she wanted to make the movie, she tells one of the directors, “I didn’t want to. You asked me.” This prickly demeanor persists throughout the film, although she later acknowledges that she wants “to show people that a trans woman is just like any other woman, like any other person.”

Tilma starts her story in 1964, the year she first tried living as a woman. Using archival footage, animation, and present-day interviews, directors Udi Nir and Sagi Bornstein present a moving portrait of Tilma’s life, unveiling how the burdens of her past have followed her into the present.

When Tilma was 14, she often wandered the streets of Tel Aviv to escape her abusive father. There she met another trans woman, Gila Goldstein, who introduced her to a whole network of trans women who taught Tilma about hormones and gender reassignment surgery. That same year, a man held her hostage in his apartment for a day and a half and sexually assaulted her. Not long afterwards, she says, an Israeli police officer threatened to kill her for dressing as a woman.

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These experiences made her determined to carve her own path in spite of obstacles or the opinions of others, including the film directors. In one scene, as the team records her coming out of her apartment building, she strikes several poses.

“Natural, Efrat. We said natural!” a director reminds her.

“Kiss my ass!” Tilma responds, before strutting away.

But behind all the bravado is a vulnerable human being, who spends her first moment in the film nervously rehearsing the speech she is going to give at a 2023 Pride celebration in Israel. Tilma acknowledges that she’s not sure she’s been able to process her trauma and still carries it with her.

Tilma as an airline stewardess. Courtesy of Efrat Wilma

After leaving Israel in 1967, Tilma spent nearly four decades living in Europe, where she created a new life for herself as a woman. She performed in nightclubs, worked as an airline stewardess, got sex reassignment surgery in Morocco, married a man, and, nearly two decades later, divorced him. In 2005, she finally moved back to Israel and, on a whim, began volunteering with the Israel Police.

She wasn’t open about her gender identity at first, given the negative way she saw her colleagues treat trans women on the street. But when the police captain eventually discovered she was trans, the result ended up being positive: She began leading workshops on approaching the trans community with empathy and respect.

The film jumps between Tilma’s past and the present, as she reacts to Netanyahu’s 2022 re-election and the creation of a far-right coalition in Israel. Convinced that the world is reverting to the hateful days of her youth, Tilma leaves the police force and plans how she’ll kill herself if the government attempts to round up trans people. As protests start to sweep the country, however, she decides to channel her fear into activism. Shots of her among the protesters are mixed with recollections of her 1971 sex reassignment surgery and abuse she faced from a doctor in 1973.

Respecting Tilma’s boundaries while encouraging her to share her life story, the filmmakers capture both Tilma’s toughness and sensitivity, giving the film the honesty and heart that make The First Lady feel so intimate. They get Tilma to open doors into her life — literally.

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Several times, the directors try to convince Tilma to bring the film crew into her apartment, where she says that no one else has been for a decade. When she finally lets them inside, they encounter piles of clothing, discarded plastic bottles, and other hoarded objects. The filmmakers tell her that the film crew will help her reorganize the apartment bit by bit, in much the same way they piece together her story: bit by bit.

Even if she approaches the whole process with a bit of attitude, Tilma remains determined to never give up fighting for a better life — or a better apartment.

The First Lady will screen at the New York Jewish Film Festival on Jan. 20.

The post How the Israeli police’s first trans volunteer fought bigotry on the force appeared first on The Forward.

The whole story of Barbra Streisand and the sturgeon began a few months ago on a Thursday when I was at my regular spot at the fish counter.

A very pleasant, attractive woman ordered a pound of Nova and, before Slim, my long sharp slicing knife, and I started our journey through the salmon, she said, “I’m buying this for Barbra Streisand.”

I was skeptical, so I asked her what her relationship was with Barbra. She told me her name was Christine and that she was Barbra’s editor and had edited Barbra’s autobiography. Well, that made me look up and take notice. She must be genuine, I thought, who would make up such a story?

As I sliced, I heard Barbra in my head singing “You’ll Never Walk Alone” and lost all track of time. I threw the lox I had sliced up on the scale with flair; one pound it was.

While I continued to work, an idea popped into my head. I spotted a succulent block of sturgeon in the showcase of fish and thought, “I’m going to cut as perfect a slice as I can, wrap it carefully in tissue paper and place it neatly in the Zabar’s wrapping on top of the pound of Nova.” I didn’t disclose what I was doing because I wanted it to be a lovely surprise — if she happened to like sturgeon, that is.

Two Thursdays later, when I arrived at work, I found a small square envelope sitting on my board face-up. It read “For Len.” Inside was a folded card on which was printed in raised gold letters “BARBRA STREISAND.”

I opened the card, looked inside and found a handwritten note: “Dear Len, What a lovely gift! Did you know how much I love sturgeon? Thank you. It was delicious!” She signed it “Barbra” in a nice, swirly signature.

That night at home, I just couldn’t get it out of my mind: I actually had a handwritten note from Barbra Streisand. How many people could say that? Now that I knew she liked sturgeon, I decided I would personally send her a pound as a gift. But then I stopped.

“You don’t know her,” I said to myself. “It would be inappropriate and silly. I went back and forth until I gave up, watched Yentl instead, then went to sleep.

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That night, I had a dream.

Barbra was in Zabar’s, walking up and down the aisles, smiling, going through each department, carefully selecting items when, suddenly, she noticed that her shopping cart was full. At that moment, she found herself standing opposite me at the fish counter.

“Welcome to the heart of the store, Ms. Streisand,” I said.

She smiled, I smiled back. I invited her to step behind the counter so she could have a better, closer look at all the fish. Next thing I knew she was standing there beside me, asking about my slicing technique and, for that fleeting moment, I was the star — a master lox slicer.

“Look who’s here, guys,” I told my co-workers. “It’s Barbra Streisand paying us a short visit,” at which point Barbra and I began a duet — “People who need people are the luckiest people in the world.” I wanted so much to finish the song with her, but I woke up before I could.

In the morning, as I considered Barbra’s thank you note and our unfinished dream duet, I realized that she and I have a lot more in common than meets the eye.

We are both old. She is 83 and I am 95. We’re both Jewish. We both like sturgeon. But most of all we are both professional singers — my career started in 5th grade, at P.S. 180 in Brooklyn, when I was chosen to sing the lead in Walt Whitman’s “I Hear America Singing.” Then, in 6th grade, I played Nanki-Poo in The Mikado. And, when I was 12, I sang in the Oscar Julius Choir at Tempel Bethel in Borough Park. I also sang at Jewish weddings — 50 cents as part of a choir, $1 when I performed a solo.

Suddenly, I realized that maybe it wouldn’t be so inappropriate to send Barbra a half-pound of sturgeon as a belated 83rd birthday present. Except I didn’t have her address.

Enter Christine.

On another Thursday, as I was cleaning my knives, one of my co-workers tapped me on the shoulder and told me there was a woman looking for me. And there she was. Did Barbra want more Nova, I wondered, or some sturgeon?

She told me she had an appointment in the neighborhood and thought she’d stop in and say hello. I told her how I had considered sending Barbra a belated birthday gift, though I added that it would be just as easy for her to order some online.

Christine gave me her phone number, so later I texted her and asked if I could send Barbra the sturgeon. “Sure,” she texted back and gave me an address.

I got to work.

I selected the best-looking block of sturgeon in the display counter, sliced off half a pound and wrapped it up. Then I removed the dorsal fin from the most succulent whitefish in the showcase, wrapped it and placed it on top of the sturgeon. I walked over to the bakery and retrieved one of Zabar’s rugelach, wrapped it in foil and placed it alongside the dorsal fin. There was a paper plate on the shelf behind me. I took out my black marker and wrote “Happy Birthday” to Barbra and signed my name.

I finished the package and brought it up to Bernardo in the shipping department, and gave him instructions as to where and to whom it should be sent. I returned to the fish counter thinking a job well done. But — she never got the sturgeon

I set the wheels in motion with the appropriate department at Zabar’s to investigate “The case of the missing sturgeon.”

In the annals of crime, there are those cases that go down in the books as unsolved; so too in the world of undelivered smoked fish. This is one of those cases.

As for the replacement sturgeon I sent to Barbra, a recent call to Christine revealed somewhat anticlimactically, that Barbra did receive it, but due to some confusion, it was sliced and sent as a regular shipment with no indication that it came from me, her fellow singing professional. Perhaps she sent a perfunctory thank you note to Zabar’s, perhaps she wondered why she was getting another round of sturgeon, without explanation, so close to her birthday, or maybe, just maybe, she suspected it was from her new friend, Len.

Still, I’d like to think that I’ll have another opportunity to wish her a happy birthday. When her 84th comes around in a couple of months, I’ll be at the fish counter. And I’ll be ready.

 

The post The mysterious case of Barbra Streisand and the missing half-pound of Zabar’s sturgeon appeared first on The Forward.

(JTA) — In the fall, a video of Nick Fuentes criticizing Donald Trump drew the praise of progressive ex-Congressman Jamaal Bowman.

“Finally getting it Nick,” Bowman commented, apparently recognizing some common ground between himself on the left and Fuentes, on the far right, who said in the video that Trump was “better than the Democrats for Israel, for the oil and gas industry, for Silicon Valley, for Wall Street,” but said he wasn’t “better for us.”

Now, Fuentes says there is actually no common ground between him and those on the left. 

“My problem with Trump isn’t that he’s Hitler — my problem with Trump is that he is not Hitler,” Fuentes said during his streaming show on Tuesday, which focused mostly on the potential for an American attack on Iran.

He continued, “You have all these left-wing people saying, ‘Why do I agree with Nick Fuentes?’ It’s like, I’m criticizing Trump because there’s not enough deportations, there’s not enough ICE brutality, there’s not enough National Guard. Sort of a big difference!”

Fuentes, the streamer and avowed antisemite who has previously said Hitler was “very f–king cool,” has been gaining more traction as a voice on the right. His interview with Tucker Carlson in October plunged Republicans into an ongoing debate over antisemitism within their ranks, inflaming the divide between a pro-Israel wing of the party and an emerging, isolationist “America First” wing that’s against U.S. military assistance to Israel.

Once a pro-Trump MAGA Republican, Fuentes has become the leader of the “groyper” movement advocating for farther-right positions. The set of Fuentes’ show includes both a hat and a mug with the words “America First” on his desk.

In a New York Times interview, Trump recently weighed in on rising tensions within the Republican Party, saying Republican leaders should “absolutely” condemn figures who promote antisemitism, and that he does not approve of antisemites in the party.

“No, I don’t. I think we don’t need them. I think we don’t like them,” replied Trump when asked by a reporter whether there was room within the Republican coalition for antisemitic figures.

Asked if he would condemn Fuentes, Trump initially claimed that he didn’t know the antisemitic streamer, before acknowledging that he had had dinner with him alongside Kanye West in 2022.

“I had dinner with him, one time, where he came as a guest of Kanye West. I didn’t know who he was bringing,” Trump said. “He said, ‘Do you mind if I bring a friend?’ I said, ‘I don’t care.’ And it was Nick Fuentes? I don’t know Nick Fuentes.”

Trump flaunted his pro-Israel bona fides in the interview, mentioning the recent announcement that he was nominated for Israel’s top civilian honor and calling himself the “best president of the United States in the history of this country toward Israel.”

Fuentes, meanwhile, spent the bulk of his show on Tuesday speculating that Trump will order the U.S. to attack Iran, and concluded that “Israel is holding our hand walking us down the road toward an inevitable war.”

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(JTA) — Larry Ellison, the Jewish founder of Oracle and a major pro-Israel donor, has recently been in the headlines for his media acquisition ventures with his son.

The new scrutiny on the family has surfaced a decades-old detail about Ellison: that he once rechristened a superyacht after realizing that its original name carried an antisemitic tinge.

In 1999, Ellison — then No. 23 on Forbes’ billionaires list, well on his way to his No. 4 ranking today — purchased a boat called Izanami.

Originally built for a Japanese businessman, the 191-foot superyacht was named for a Shinto deity. But Ellison soon realized what the name read backwards: “I’m a Nazi.”

“Izanami and Izanagi are the names of the two Shinto deities that gave birth to the Japanese islands, or so legend has it,” Ellison said in “Softwar,” a 2013 biography. “When the local newspapers started pointing out that Izanami was ‘I’m a Nazi’ spelled backward, I had the choice of explaining Shintoism to the reporters at the San Francisco Chronicle or changing the name of the boat.” He renamed the boat Ronin and later sold it.

The decades-old factoid resurfaced this week because of a New York Magazine profile of Ellison’s son, David Ellison, the chair and CEO of Paramount-Skydance Corporation.

Skydance Corporation, which David Ellison founded in 2006, completed an $8 billion merger last year with Paramount Global. Larry Ellison, meanwhile, joined an investor consortium that signed a deal to purchase TikTok, the social media juggernaut accused of spreading antisemitism. Together, father and son also staged a hostile bid to purchase Warner Bros. but were outmatched by Netflix.

After acquiring Paramount, David Ellison appointed The Free Press founder Bari Weiss as the editor-in-chief of CBS News, in an endorsement of Weiss’ contrarian and pro-Israel outlook that has been challenged as overly friendly to the Trump administration.

Larry Ellison, who was raised in a Reform Jewish home by his adoptive Jewish parents, has long been a donor to pro-Israel and Jewish causes, including to Friends of the Israel Defense Forces. In September, he briefly topped the Bloomberg Billionaires Index as the world’s richest man.

In December, Oracle struck a deal to provide cloud services for TikTok, with some advocates hoping for tougher safeguards against antisemitism on the social media platform

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(JTA) — For the second year in a row, Jewish star third baseman Alex Bregman has signed a lucrative free-agent contract with a team that is run by a Jewish executive and plays in a historic ballpark in a city with a significant Jewish community.

Last year, it was the Boston Red Sox. Now, Bregman is headed to the Chicago Cubs — a team whose Jewish fans possess almost religious devotion.

Bregman, who had opted out of a three-year, $120 million deal with Boston, has signed a five-year, $175 million pact with the Cubs. It is the second-largest contract ever signed by a Jewish ballplayer, behind Max Fried’s $218 million contract in 2024. Bregman previously signed a five-year, $100 million extension with the Houston Astros in 2019.

Bregman, who played the first nine years of his career in Houston, has been one of baseball’s premier third basemen over the past decade, with three All-Star selections, a Gold Glove, a Silver Slugger and two World Series rings. He’s also heralded for his leadership on and off the field.

Bregman grew up in Albuquerque, New Mexico, where he played baseball in high school and also, according to his mother, was once teased while leaving school for a bar mitzvah lesson. His grandfather, the onetime attorney for the Washington Senators whom she said Bregman called “zeyde,” gave him a collection of baseball cards featuring Jewish players.

His great-grandfather fled antisemitism in Belarus and fell in love with sports in the United States, The Athletic reported in 2017, as Bregman hurtled toward his World Series win.

“It’s the fulfillment of four generations of short Jewish Bregmans who dreamed of playing in the major leagues,” his father Sam, now the district attorney in Albuquerque’s county as well as a Democratic candidate for New Mexico governor, said at the time. “The big leagues and the World Series. One hundred twenty years in America fulfilled by Alex in this World Series.”

Bregman has also been vocal about his Jewish pride. He celebrated Hanukkah with a local synagogue in Houston, and following the Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel that launched the Gaza War, Bregman drew a Star of David on his hat during a playoff game and participated in a video of Jewish players calling on fans to support Israel.

Some Jewish fans hoped Bregman’s shows of solidarity with Israel would lead him to suit up for another new squad this spring, Team Israel at the upcoming World Baseball Classic. But Bregman announced this week that he will play for Team USA again. Another Jewish ballplayer, Rowdy Tellez, will rejoin team Mexico, taking two big names off the recruitment board for Israel.

Back in 2018, as Bregman was first emerging as a major star, he said he regretted taking a pass on Team Israel the previous year, when it made it to the second round of play. Suiting up for the U.S. team, Bregman had just four at-bats as a backup player.

Now, he has selected a jersey number for his Cubs era that reflects his aspirations.

“I wore No. 3 because I want a third championship,” Bregman said during his first press conference with his new club on Thursday.

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(JTA) — It had all the trappings of a conventional Christmas pageant: the three wise men, Christmas carols, and children dressed as angels.

But there was a twist: This pageant, performed on Sunday in New Jersey, also included a Hasidic Jewish caricature, carrying a sack of coins and dancing with the devil.

Earlocks swaying, the character called Moshko entered the room to the tune of “Hava Nagila,” offered a greeting in mock Yiddish, and announced that he was selling liquor, in a brazen effort to distract the Christians from reverence about the birth of Jesus.

The pageant that took place at St. Mary Protectress Ukrainian Orthodox Church in Clifton, New Jersey, is known as a vertep — a form of theater prominent in Slavic Christmas celebrations. Caricatures of Jewish figures that promote stereotypes about Jews and greed are a longstanding and frequent feature.

Especially as Ukraine has sought to shed any association with antisemitism amid its ongoing conflict with Russia, calls to remove the vertep’s antisemitic components have gained traction. In recent years, some have replaced Jews with Russians as the villainous characters.

But some communities have continued to embrace the Jewish caricature — leading Lev Golinkin, a Jewish author born in Ukraine who has written about antisemitism there, recently to call out the importation of antisemitic stereotypes from the old country to Ukrainian diaspora communities, usually under the auspices of the Catholic church.

Golinkin said in an interview that seeing the Clifton pageant on Facebook, where the church posted a video, was a “jarring” reminder of antisemitism he experienced as a child.

“It feels like a betrayal,” Golinkin said. “America should be where things are left behind and there are new starts — and there you have this show, this pageant that it seems like it’s a new generation of mockery, teaching kids to mock.”

The Anti-Defamation League condemned the pageant’s contents after learning about it from the Jewish Telegraphic Agency.

“There is no place for antisemitic stereotypes in any religious celebration,” Scott Richman, the regional director of ADL New York and New Jersey, said in a statement. “At a time when antisemitism is surging to alarming levels, continuing harmful stereotypes — even in the context of traditional religious customs — undermines the efforts built to understand and maintain safety for Jewish communities.”

Richman said his office was reaching out to “local leaders to discuss the harm these portrayals cause” but said he had not yet been in touch with St. Mary Protectress, a small church in a suburb with a growing Orthodox Jewish population.

“We hope future celebrations will focus on the joy of the holiday season and the shared values that bring us together, rather than reviving centuries-old stereotypes that have no place in today’s society,” Richman said.

St. Mary Protectress, which had invited members to the pageant by saying on Facebook that it would “take us back to our childhood Christmas,” did not respond to requests for comment. Neither did two organizations serving Ukrainians in the United States, the Ukrainian Institute of America and the Ukrainian American Cultural Center of New Jersey.

Ukrainians have addressed the vertep’s portrayal of Jews in the past. In a 2017 interview with Ukrainian Jewish Encounter, a nonprofit aiming to build bridges between Ukrainians and Jews, the writer and art critic Diana Klochko explained that antisemitism was long baked into Ukrainian society.

“There was also a lot of it in everyday Ukrainian life, and this was fed by unacceptability, negligence, or threat,” Klochko said. “There were very many situations that constantly spilled over into what is, one way or another, a very strong antisemitic motif in Christianity itself. And it exists in the vertep, too.”

But she added, “You have to understand that this is history, and it is not mandatory to drag this from tradition, from history, into the contemporary world.”

The St. Mary Protectress pageant conformed to the patterns that make up the traditional vertep: a retelling of the Christmas story (sans a Jesus character) blended with a satirical take on Ukrainian issues of the day. After discovering that his prospective customers prefer Jesus to alcohol, the Jewish character reports to King Herod, the Roman Jewish king overseeing Jerusalem, about the threat to his power. Herod dispatches soldiers to kill Jesus.

The arc amounts to a romp through antisemitic tropes, from the charge that Jews killed Jesus to the theories that Jews are greedy, use Christian blood in their rituals and exercise inordinate power. The tropes have been used to justify centuries of violent antisemitism, including but not only by the church.

Evolved from puppet theater, the vertep includes a cast of Ukrainian folkloric characters such as the Cossack, the Pole, the Muscovite, the Lithuanian, the Roma and the Jew — referred to in the story as Moshko the “zhyd,” a derogatory term for “Jew.”

In the St. Mary vertep, Moshko introduces himself as a “zhyd,” and Sarah introduces herself as a “zhydivka.”

Though the word was once an acceptable word for “Jew” in Ukrainian, it is widely considered a slur today. Still, it remains contested in Ukraine: In 2012, a member of an antisemitic political party in the Ukrainian government referred to Ukrainian-American actress Mila Kunis as a “zhydovka” on a Facebook post, causing immediate backlash from the Jewish community. The country’s justice ministry ruled that the use of the word was acceptable because it appears in the official Ukrainian dictionary.

Hearing the slur being used in his own state felt especially distressing to Golinkin.

“‘Zhyd out’ was ‘kike out’ — just a slogan in my childhood. I saw it written in alleyways, and in bathroom stalls, and it was a call to cleanse Ukraine. When things go bad and things fall apart, the solution is ‘Jew out,’” Golinkin said, adding, “We left everything in Ukraine to have a life in which you don’t hear ‘Jew, out.’”

After Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, Golinkin wrote about how his sense of identity as a Ukrainian was deepening. The pageant in Clifton, he said, would not erase all that is positive about Ukrainian culture.

“Choosing this filth is just a shameful thing to do,” Golinkin said. “It doesn’t do justice to Ukraine which has so much more than this.”

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It’s a truly grotesque moment in American political history: A fundraising campaign supporting Jonathan Ross, the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent who shot and killed Renee Nicole Good in Minneapolis, injected overt antisemitism against Minneapolis’ Jewish mayor into its pitch.

While a parenthetical noting Frey’s Jewishness — in the phrase “anti-American traitors like Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey (who is Jewish)” — was eventually removed from the fundraiser after public condemnation, the insertion was not merely accidental. Rather, it was a deliberate dog whistle to an audience steeped in the conspiratorial logic that has fueled deadly recent far-right attacks. And its presence tells us something significant about the ideology behind our current wave of anti-immigrant rhetoric and activity.

It all comes back to the great replacement conspiracy theory, which suggests that a cabal of elites — often interpreted, by the antisemitic, as “Jews” — is deliberately flooding the United States with immigrants to “replace” white Americans. The conspiracy posits that immigration and demographic change are not organic shifts that emerge as a result of historical and economic processes that lead to migration. Instead, they are the result of a deliberate conspiracy to erode white dominance.

That theory, first articulated by French writer Renaud Camus, has migrated from the niche domain of online extremists to the rhetoric of mainstream Republican politicians in the U.S. For instance, during his first presidential term, President Donald Trump falsely suggested that the Jewish political donor and Holocaust survivor George Soros might be behind Central American migration to the U.S.

It is not hard to see how a conspiracy about a group of financial and media elites orchestrating a conspiracy to undermine white American families would quickly come to target Jews. And that’s exactly what happened in the fundraiser: By explicitly naming Frey’s Jewishness, while describing him as a traitor, the post’s authors were saying the quiet part out loud: Jews support immigration, which means Jews are enemies of the state.

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The rise of the great replacement theory goes hand-in-hand with the Trump administration’s increasingly overt turn toward white nationalist rhetoric. Over the past year, the administration has referred to immigration an “invasion” and claimed that “mass migration poses an existential threat to Western civilization.” At the same time, federal agencies, including ICE and the Department of Homeland Security, have leaned into social media and recruitment materials that critics warn are infused with imagery and language that resonates with white nationalist motifs.

The Department of Labor recently posted the slogan, “One Homeland. One People. One Heritage,” which some have argued is a deliberate echo of the Nazi slogan “One People, One Realm, One Leader.” Other agencies have used deliberately nostalgic imagery evoking manifest destiny and the settlement of the American West. After the fatal shooting of Good, DHS even used a neo-Nazi anthem as a recruitment tool.

One particularly shocking DHS social media post employed the phrase “Which way, American man?” invoking the title of a 1978 book, Which Way, Western Man?, written by an avowed white supremacist who argued that Jews and Black people posed existential threats to Western civilization. In another, DHS wrote “We’ll have our home again” on social media, a lyric from a song often used by the Proud Boys and other white nationalist groups.

The clear ideological affinity between U.S. immigration policy under Trump and the white nationalist narratives that animate the great replacement conspiracy should deeply alarm us. When supporters of a murderous ICE agent amplify the Jewish identity of the mayor of the city in which he acted, as if it inherently makes him suspect, they are doing more than engaging in crude bigotry. They are feeding a larger ecosystem of grievance that has already inspired violence.

In that context, objecting to ICE’s newly brutal tactics is about rejecting a worldview that says some people — including Jews — are less American, less worthy, or less deserving of safety and dignity. It’s about preserving a country that rejects conspiracy-fueled hatred, stands up for the vulnerable, and refuses to let fear be weaponized against those who are different.

The great replacement is a destructive myth that has already inspired violence against Jews, Muslims, Black Americans, and many other marginalized communities. Countering it requires courage and a deep sense of shared humanity, one that transcends the false divisions sown by those who would profit from fear. The stakes are no less than the very principles of democratic pluralism that have made this country a relatively safe place for Jews for generations.

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My last semester of college, I had an Alvin Ailey phase.

My time in Philadelphia was rapidly coming to a close and I felt an urge to make it to as many of the performing arts venues in the city as I could (not an easy feat). With a close family friend, I attended my first Alvin Ailey performance at the Forrest Theatre. Soon after, I went to a talk at the African American Museum in Philadelphia about Ailey and the piece The River. That weekend, I also watched the 2021 documentary Ailey. Then I found myself doing a sociolinguistical analysis of Ailey’s most famous work, Revelations, for a class.

To call my interest in Ailey a phase is actually a misnomer since, two years later, I am still an Ailey fan — and now the owner of an actual Alvin Ailey-branded hand fan. Last June, I attended a performance during their run at the Brooklyn Academy of Music and fell in love with Grace, choreographed by Ronald K. Brown. I bought a ticket to see it again, along with Revelations and two shorter works, during their winter season at New York City Center.

While the end of Grace — in which a dozen dancers take a nearly 30-minute-long journey to a promised land — made me tear up, it wasn’t until Revelations that I actually began to cry. It happened during the duet “Fix Me, Jesus,” in which a female dancer searches for spiritual guidance and a male figure depicts divine support.

Dancer Samantha Figgins from the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater rehearses at New York City Center on Dec. 20, 2024. Photo by Donna Ward/Getty Images

I was aware of the irony. As a lifelong Jew, I have never wanted Jesus to “fix” me. But the piece moved me to tears nonetheless. Within the gospel music, New Testament themes and African American cultural imagery of Revelations — composed of multiple smaller pieces — is a universal story of desire for redemption and turning to faith in times of great suffering.

The choir that accompanies the dance sings “fix me for my long white robe,” a reference to Revelation 6:11, where those that have lived their life without sin are told they will be given white robes for their ascension to Heaven. I was reminded of the kittel, a plain white robe some in the Ashkenazi tradition wear on Yom Kippur. Some rabbis have interpreted the robe to symbolize the blank slate we are creating for ourselves in the new year. Dressing plainly can also be another way of resisting earthly pleasures on the Day of Atonement. Since some people are also buried in their kittel, another interpretation is that wearing it helps one consider their death and what legacy they want to leave behind, thinking of how they may “fix” themselves to be ready for when they will be brought before G-d.

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These echoes of Yom Kippur make another appearance in Ailey’s Revelations in the solo “I Wanna Be Ready.” The single dancer dressed in white alternates between contracting and expanding their body, kneeling and prostrating on the ground, as if they are repenting for something. The choir chants that they want to be ready to put on their long white robes and the lead singer explains he has avoided the temptation to sin so his soul will be ready for death.

This deviates slightly from how I think of preparing for the Day of Judgment. For me, Yom Kippur has always been about acknowledging that we will sin, that we are human, flawed, prone to jealousy and gossip and all those other things we list as we beat our chests during the confessional. In the Reconstructionist Press version of the Prayerbook for the Days of Awe, Rabbi Rami M. Shapiro writes that “we freely admit our failings” in order to “create our atonements.” In the confessional, we are instructed not to tell G-d that “we are righteous, and we have not sinned,” for “indeed we have sinned.”

I have always experienced Yom Kippur as an intense emotional journey to find within myself the ability to do better, be better, perhaps with some divine guidance. This is what I recognized in “Fix Me, Jesus,” this burning desire to exceed our own expectations.

People pray on Yom Kippur in Brooklyn in 2024. Photo by Stephanie Keith/Getty Images

But the yearning of Revelations is not just about individual spiritual reckoning. Throughout the work, you can feel Black Americans pushing toward freedom as they emerge from the degradation of slavery and Jim Crow.

I connect with this existential cultural aspiration to escape systemic degradation both as a Black American and as a Jewish American, descended from enslaved people on one side and pogrom survivors on the other. Although Revelations originated in a specific cultural context — born from Ailey’s experiences growing up in the Black church in 1930s Texas — its broader message about redemption feels unifying across cultural divides. I have imagined seeing Revelations with my paternal grandmother, an active and dedicated member of the Black Presbyterian church. Even if we were to appreciate the dance’s spirituality for different reasons — her for the work’s reflection of her faith in Jesus, me for its raw portrayal of an intense desire to improve — it’s something that would move both of us.

Probably my tears were triggered by the intensity of the piece and the beauty of its dancers and not by some spiritual awakening. Still, despite — or really, because of — the emotional unrest Alvin Ailey put me through, they will probably be seeing me again soon.

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The post How Alvin Ailey’s ‘Revelations’ evokes Yom Kippur for me appeared first on The Forward.

The chicken coop is located about 300 feet from Lubavitcher World Headquarters in Brooklyn. It’s part of The Crown Heights Homestead, which, according to Google Maps, is “permanently closed,”

Don’t believe everything you read on the Internet. The Hasidic homestead was very much in operation when I visited on a recent frigid weekday afternoon. Emerging from the Kingston Avenue subway station, I walked over to the four-story building that is home to Daniel Yeroshalmi and his family. Yeroshalmi, 21, is a member of Chabad.

He showed me the 20 hens he keeps in his cement backyard and I watched as he retrieved a single egg from the chicken coop he built.

“I got a lot more eggs when they were younger,” Yeroshalmi told me. “But as they get older they lay a lot less.”

Yeroshalmi says that when his hens were younger, they used to lay a lot more eggs. Courtesy of Daniel Yeroshalmi

Built from bookshelves Yeroshalmi salvaged from a yeshiva renovation, the chicken coop is a demonstration of his tech chops, which extend into video production, social media and security surveillance. The insulated coop has an automatic door that goes up in the morning and down at night.

As I stood next to him and marveled at the chickens scurrying about, I felt my foot sink into something mushy. It turned out to be a huge piece of squash that had been left on the ground for the chickens to eat.

A local yeshiva donates squash and other produce that he feeds to the flock.

“Whatever they have that’s going bad, they give to me,” Yeroshalmi explained.

The urban homesteader also composts the yeshiva donations, as evidenced by a huge pile of eggplants and cucumbers decomposing in his yard. At the base of the compost pile on the day I visited were several esrogim, the yellow citron used during the holiday of Sukot.

“A lot of Crown Heights people don’t know what compost is. They just wonder why I’m piling up vegetables in my front yard,” he said.

His homestead may be Hasidic but the soil is too acidic to grow corn and wheat. Yeroshalmi tried.

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He did grow 10-foot tall sunflowers. And his garden has yielded tomatoes, cucumbers and peppers, a veritable Israeli salad. There are cherry and fig trees, some of which were propagated from the branches of fig trees his family brought to America from Iran over the years. One of the fig trees is a variety known as the Chicago Cold Hardy Fig, but Yeroshalmi, who davens three times a day, is following the commandment known as orlah that forbids consuming a tree’s fruit during the first three years.

Yeroshalmi’s quest to make green things flourish in this Kings County soil started early. A 2012 Google Maps photo shows him planting radishes in the front lawn when he was seven.

“I think there’s more of a connection between Judaism and plants than people think about,” he told me.

A calling that’s for the birds

Over the hours I’ve talked and texted with Yeroshalmi, I have come to think of him as a Hasidic version of St. Francis of Assisi, the charismatic figure who preached to the birds in 13th Century Italy — even though St. Francis had thousands of followers while Yeroshalmi has a little less than a thousand on Instagram, where his Crown Heights Homestead logo depicts the iconic three-story Gothic Revival headquarters of Chabad atop a farm field.

Two years ago, he told me, he confronted a couple of teenagers who were throwing potatoes from a food pantry at pigeons. When he was 12, a group of Lubavitcher kids were harassing an injured dove on the sidewalk during Shabbos.

Yeroshalmi in his workshop. Photo by Jon Kalish

“I stood there with the bird in between my legs for the next hour until Shabbos was over and I was able to scoop it up and take it home,” Yeroshalmi told me. But the dove died after a couple of days.

Another dove made a nest in a tree next door to his house. The nest looked unstable, so Yeroshalmi added a wooden cup-shaped structure to support it.

“It worked well,” he said. “The original two doves have turned into about 18 that I see on a daily basis. Within the last two years I’ve seen so many babies!”

Yeroshalmi’s passion for God’s winged creatures is perhaps best exemplified by a single maple tree in his front yard where a dozen of his handmade birdhouses painted green, blue and red are attached to the tree. One day he came home to find a stranger had left him a painting of the tree with all the birdhouses along with a note that explained they had passed the tree every day on their way to work.

But it is his dedication to the chickens that is perhaps most impressive. In 2024 he dressed up as a farmer for Purim. Wearing a cowboy hat, a plaid flannel shirt and a pair of suspenders to which he pinned a QR code directing people to his Instagram account, Yeroshalmi wheeled several members of his flock around Crown Heights in a yellow metal wagon covered with chicken wire. The flock includes Rhode Island Reds, New Hampshire Reds and Barred Rocks. A few have names. He had a rooster named Rafi that the chick hatchery inadvertently sent along with the pullets.

The chicken coop at the Crown Heights Homestead. Courtesy of Crown Heights Homestead

“That was the best mistake to ever happen,” he wrote in an Instagram caption. “I don’t want to sound like a crazy Chicken lady. But he was a great rooster.”

There are predators hungry for the poultry in Crown Heights. Yeroshalmi said a possum killed one of his chickens and that there are also raccoons in the area.

Last summer he took all 20 hens to a camp for Orthodox Jewish boys in the Midwest, transporting them in poultry crates more than 800 miles in a rented truck. Yeroshalmi was tasked with fixing and building stuff at the summer camp. Immediately upon arriving, he built a chicken coop.

The camp director told me that for many of the boys the chickens were the most exciting part of the camping experience and said it was therapeutic for them to be around live animals, which most of the campers don’t get to do at home.

“A lot of the kids had their favorite chicken,” he told me. “It was kind of like having a pet for the first time.”

A New Yorker — at least until he flies the coop

Both of Yeroshalmi’s parents were born in Iran. His father, a dentist who practices in Borough Park, was the first member of the family to become a Lubavitcher. He was part of the wave of Iranian Jews who came to America in 1979. Yeroshalmi’s mother is a pharmacist and so is one his aunts. Another uncle is the head of pediatrics at a municipal hospital in the Bronx.

“There are probably 35 doctors in my family among my close cousins, uncles, aunts,” he told me.

Tomatoes straight from Yeroshalmi’s garden. Courtesy of Daniel Yeroshalmi

Yeroshalmi himself earned a B.S. in Business Administration before he turned 19, and currently has a job that he works at night. He earns a little money selling firewood he gathers from fallen trees and pruned branches in the neighborhood. And he sells a few eggs when he has extras.

Yeroshalmi’s homesteading has been trying for his parents, he says.

Walking past piles of lumber stacked vertically on a cement walkway leading from his basement workshop to the backyard, Yeroshalmi told me: “They do give me grief about hoarding lumber, tools, everything. I’m very thankful they haven’t thrown me out yet.”

Yeroshalmi says he wants to become a lawyer but has no immediate plans to go to law school.

During our texting he confided that it hasn’t been easy for him to live in Crown Heights. He was bullied a lot growing up and once wrote an essay for a Crown Heights blog titled Beaten and Robbed By My Own People. The essay detailed how a group of Hasidic thugs broke his glasses, stole his hat and yarmulke and stomped on his tefillin.

Yeroshalmi acknowledged that many of his fellow Hasids consider him an odd duck for pursuing his agricultural passions.

“Crown Heights people don’t seem to like greenery,” he told me

In an Instagram video that served as a tutorial for power tools, he dedicated it to “all the useless Crown Heights people who’ve never picked up a drill in their life.”

Still, he added, “If I have to live in New York City, I would definitely choose Crown Heights.”

“But,” he added, “If I had an option to move out, which I will in the future, I would definitely not stay in Crown Heights. Or the city at all.”

 

The post How the chicken man of Crown Heights became a Hasidic St. Francis of Assisi appeared first on The Forward.

Julie Menin, New York’s first Jewish speaker of the City Council, has introduced a plan to combat antisemitism in the city, where Jews are divided over Mayor Zohran Mamdani.

Her plan includes introducing a bill that would ban demonstrations around entrances and exits of houses of worship. Mamdani is assessing the proposal. “On the first day of his administration, the Mayor directed the NYPD and Law Department to review the legality of a range of proposals, including those like Speaker Menin’s buffer zones proposal, and he will wait for the outcome of that review,” Dora Pekec, a Mamdani spokesperson, said in a statement.

Mamdani has also said he is reviewing the legality of similar legislation proposed by Gov. Kathy Hochul, which would create a 25-foot buffer zone around houses of worship across New York state. Menin’s bill would “probably” extend that to 100 feet, she told The New York Times.

On his first day in office, Mamdani revoked an executive order issued by former Mayor Eric Adams in December that called on Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch to evaluate proposals for establishing a buffer zone of at least 15 feet outside houses of worship. Tisch, who is Jewish, has remained commissioner under Mamdani.

Menin’s proposal also includes $1.25 million in funding to the Museum of Jewish Heritage and establishes a hotline to report incidents of antisemitism, housed within the New York City Commission on Human Rights.

Antisemitic incidents accounted for 57% of reported hate crimes in 2025, according to the NYPD, while Jewish New Yorkers make up 10% of the city’s residents.

“As the first Jewish speaker of the New York City Council, I must emphasize, no one is in a position too high or too low to fight hate,” Menin said at a press conference Friday hosted at the Museum of Jewish Heritage in Manhattan.

Menin’s proposal follows a series of protests at synagogues after which Mamdani drew scrutiny for what some Jewish New Yorkers saw as slow or equivocal responses. After chants of “we support Hamas here” outside a Queens synagogue event promoting real estate development in Israel earlier this month, Mamdani said the rhetoric and displays at the protest were “wrong and have no place in our city.” He took about a day to issue a statement, as other city leaders immediately issued condemnations.

The response echoed an earlier incident, when demonstrators outside Park East Synagogue chanted “globalize the intifada” and “death to the IDF” while protesting an event promoting immigration to Israel. Mamdani condemned the protesters’ rhetoric but also said “sacred spaces should not be used to promote activities in violation of international law.”

“I think the most important thing for New Yorkers is to know that they have a mayor who is firmly committed to rooting out the scourge of antisemitism across this city,” Mamdani told the Forward on Monday, adding that he would fulfill that commitment “not only through my words, but through my actions.”

On day one in office, Mamdani revoked executive orders issued by Adams prohibiting city employees from boycotting Israel and implementing the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of antisemitism, which classifies most anti-Zionism as antisemitic.

Mamdani also announced his intent to keep open the Office to Combat Antisemitism, created by Adams in May. Rabbi Moshe Davis, the current executive director, is a holdover from the Adams administration. On the campaign trail, Mamdani pledged an 800% increase in funding for hate crime prevention and response, but has not since offered other specific policy recommendations.

“Rhetoric is not enough. Policy fights antisemitism,” Councilman Eric Dinowitz, chair of the Jewish Caucus, said at Friday’s press conference. “This government action will help our Jewish community that will go beyond saying ‘I condemn antisemitism,’ because it is not enough.”

The proposal for protest-free buffer zones outside houses of worship could run into legal challenges if passed. The bill has prompted First Amendment concerns, as legal experts note it could be problematic if the bill permits supportive demonstrations but bans critical ones.

A 1994 federal law, the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act, already makes it illegal to use force, threats, or physical obstruction to block access to reproductive health services or houses of worship.

“We’re not trying to stifle peaceful protests,” Menin said at the press conference. “What we are trying to do is protect congregants for any house of worship, of freely being able to enter and exit without fear of intimidation or harassment.”

Related

• A new bill would ban protests near synagogues. Is that legal?

The post NYC’s first Jewish City Council leader could govern as a check on Mamdani. Here’s her plan to fight antisemitism appeared first on The Forward.

“Embrace Americanism,” reads a graphic shared by the U.S. Department of Labor on X, featuring a photo of George Washington’s bust on Mt. Rushmore. “America is for Americans,” the accompanying post says.

What, exactly, is Americanism? Though it may sound like a made-up term that Donald Trump might sling in his speeches off the cuff, in fact it has been around for at least two centuries, since the early days of the U.S.

Yet its definition has never been clear. While the word connotes some ideology of adherence to American values, a unified culture or an idealized vision of the nation, the exact vision of what that set of values or culture is remains so vague that the term has been used by  Theodore Roosevelt, the American Communist Party and the Ku Klux Klan.

Early American figures, including John Adams, simply used Americanism to mean a belief in a new republic defined by Democratic ideals and freedom of religion, a commitment to the culture of America. But that culture had not yet been defined — was it white and Christian, or was it a diverse melting pot?

Since its first use, the term has been claimed most often by the KKK. A 1926 paper by Klan Imperial Emperor and Wizard Hiram Wesley Evans, published in The North American Review, is titled “The Klan’s Fight for Americanism.” In it, Evans says that the KKK arose as an answer to an influx of “aliens and alien ideas” in the country — namely that of Jews, Catholics and Black people.

Evans does not define the Americanism he’s fighting for. But he’s clear about what it isn’t. He praises the Klan’s work fighting “radicalism, cosmopolitanism, and alienism of all kinds” — “rootless cosmopolitanism” being a pejorative regularly levied at Jews — and says that “racial instincts” are essential to preserving Americanism.

Those racial instincts are necessary, Evan writes, because anyone who is not an “old-stock American” of “Nordic blend” is fundamentally incapable of understanding or upholding Americanism. (The article largely avoids the term “white” to exclude groups like Eastern and Southern Europeans, as well as Jews and Catholics, who today we might consider white.)

The 1920s were a time of great debate over Americanism, but the term has largely fallen out of use in the modern day. So is this the Americanism the Department of Labor is telling people to embrace one that excludes Jews, Black people, Asians, Catholics and anyone who isn’t a white Protestant — is it a dog whistle for the nativist, KKK ideology that defined the term when it was last popular? The DOL did not respond to a request for comment in time for publication, so we can’t know how the government came to adopt the word. But without specifying which Americanism they mean, it will be easy for white nationalists to see a post from the government using a term with a long racist history, and feel emboldened.

Still, maybe the values of Americanism they meant are something new entirely, synonymous with the Trump administration’s fight against trans people and DEI, or perhaps a simple declaration of patriotism.

Or maybe the DOL used Americanism in the sense that Earl Browder, president of the American Communist party in the 1900s, did when he attempted to reclaim the term and proclaimed that “Communism is 20th century Americanism.”

Probably not, though.

The post The Department of Labor told us to embrace ‘Americanism.’ What’s that? appeared first on The Forward.

איינער פֿון די פֿילמען וואָס מע ווײַזט די וואָך ווי אַ טייל פֿונעם ניו־יאָרקער ייִדישן קינאָ־פֿעסטיוואַל איז דער פּרעכטיקער ייִדישער פֿילם ,,על חטא“.

דער פֿילם, וואָס איז געמאַכט געוואָרן אין פּוילן אין 1936, איז געווען אַ וויכטיקע דערגרייכונג אין דער געשיכטע פֿון ייִדישן קינאָ. ער איז געווען דער ערשטער ייִדישער פֿילם מיט קלאַנג און דיאַלאָג, און האָט אויך געשילדערט אַ גאָר מאָדערנע טעמע.

איך האָב אַליין געזען דעם פֿילם אויפֿן מעלבורנער „דשיף“ אינטערנאַציאָנאַלן פֿילם־פֿעסטיוואַל אין אָקטאָבער 2025, און ער האָט אויף מיר געמאַכט אַ שטאַרקן אײַנדרוק. עס שילדערט נישט בלויז דאָס ייִדישע לעבן אין שטעטל, די ראָלע פֿון רעליגיע אין טאָג-טעגלעכן לעבן, די מנהגים און די שוועריקייטן פֿון די שטעטל־ייִדן, נאָר אויך ווי פּראָגרעסיוו און בראַוו איז געווען דער אויסבליק פֿון די שרײַבער און אָנטיילנעמער אין ייִדישן טעאַטער און פֿילם אין יענער צײַט.

דער רעזשיסאָר, אַלעקסאַנדער מאַרטען, און די שפּילער האָבן נישט מורא געהאַט אָפֿענערהייט צו באַטראַכטן אַ טעמע וואָס איז דעמאָלט געווען פֿאַרבאָטן. דער פֿילם דערציילט ווי אסתּר, אַ יונגע טאָכטער פֿונעם שטעטל רבֿ, פֿאַרשוואַנגערט מיט אַן אָפֿיציר פֿון אַרמיי. דער פֿילם באַשרײַבט אירע שוועריקייטן און קאָנפֿליקטן אַלס אַ נישט־חתונה געהאַטע, וואָס זי באַשליסט צו טאָן און וואָס געשעט ווײַטער. די באַרימטע קאָמיקער דזשיגאַן און שומאַכער שפּילן דאָ הױפּט־ראָלעס. מיר זײַנען צוגעװוּינט צו זען דזשיגאַן און שומאַכער אין סלעפּסטיק און קאָמישע שטיק. דאָ אָבער זעען מיר אַ טיפֿערן אויסטײַטש אין זייער אויסשפּילונג — קאָמעדיע געמישט מיט דראַמע און איידלקייט.

די הױפּט־ראָלע פֿון אסתּר שפּילט די אויסגעצייכנטע אַקטריסע רחל האָלצער. דאָ באַװײַזט זי מיט האַרץ און געפֿיל, פֿאַרװאָס זי איז געװאָרן אַ װעלט־באַרימטע ייִדישע אַקטריסע. איר אויסטײַטש איז פּרעכטיק און רירנדיק. עס איז װערט קוקן דעם פֿילם פּשוט צו זען און אָנערקענען איר ראָלע.

רחל האָלצער איז געװען אַ הױפּט־שפּילער און רעזשיסאָר אינעם נאַציאָנאַלן פּױלישן טעאַטער, און אויך אין דער װילנער טרופּע. אין „על חטא“ איז זי שוין געווען אין די יונגע דרײַסיקער, נאָר זי שפּילט דאָ סײַ די ראָלע פֿון אסתּר ווי אַ יונג מײדל, סײַ אסתּר ווי אַן עלטערע פֿרױ. אין 1939, דרײַ יאָר נאָך דעם וואָס „על־חטא“ איז אַרױס, איז רחל געװען מיט איר מאַן, דעם באַקאַנטן דראַמאַטורג חיים ראָזענשטיין, אין מעלבורן ווי טייל פֿון אַ װעלט־טור. זײ זײַנען געקומען כּדי צו שטעלן איר סאָלאָ־פּיעסע, װען עס איז אױסגעבראָכן די צװײטע װעלט־מלחמה, און זײ האָבן נישט געקענט זיך אומקערן קײן פּױלן. אַ דאַנק זייער זײַן אין אויסטראַליע זענען זײ געראַטעװעט געוואָרן פֿון דעם חורבן, און זײַנען ביז זייער טױט געבליבן אין מעלבורן.

אין אױסטראַליע איז רחל האָלצער אויפֿגעטראָטן אױף די גרעסטע בינעס מיט גרויסן דערפֿאָלג. אין 1940 האָט זי, צוזאַמען מיט יעקבֿ װײַסליץ, געשאַפֿן דעם „דוד הערמאַן טעאַטער“ אין מעלבורן וואָס איז געבליבן אַקטיוו מער ווי פֿערציק יאָר. זי האָט אױך ווײַטער געשפּילט אין סאָלאָ־פֿאָרשטעלונגען. זעקס טויזנט מענטשן האָבן זי למשל געהערט רעציטירן יעווגעני יעווטאָשענקאָס ליד „באַבי־יאַר“ אינעם מעלבורנער שטאָטזאַל. צווישן זיי: יעווטאָשענקאָ אַליין. די וועלכע האָבן עס געזען און געהערט האָבן געזאָגט אַז עס איז געווען, ווי אַלע אירע פֿאָרשטעלונגען, אומפֿאַרגעסלעך.

איך האָב נישט געקענט רחל האָלצערן ווי אַ יונגע אַטקריסע, און געדענק זי נאָר אַלס אַן עלטערע פֿרױ. אָבער זי האָט קײנמאָל נישט פֿאַרלױרן איר עלעגאַנץ, איר שײנקײט. זי איז געװען די מלכּה פֿון דער ייִדישער טעאַטער און איז געבליבן אַ מלכּה, אַפֿילו אין אירע נײַנציקער, ווען איך האָב זי באַזוכט אין אַ מושבֿ-זקנים.

איך האָב אויך געהאַט אַ פּערזענלעכן שײַכות צו רחל האָלצער. איר מאַן, חיים ראָזענשטיין, איז געװען דער ברודער פֿון מײַן באָבעס מאַן, מאָטל ראָזענשטיין. נישט געקוקט אויף דעם װאָס חיים און מאָטל זײַנען בײדע געשטאָרבן איידער איך בין נאָך געווען אויף דער וועלט, האָב איך געװוּסט אַז זי איז אַ װײַטע קרובֿה, און איך פֿלעג זי זען אינעם ייִדישן קולטור־קלוב אין מעלבורן, „קדימה“, אָדער בײַ מײַנע עלטערן. און אַוודאי אויך אויף דער בינע.

ווען איך בין געווען דרײַצן יאָר אַלט האָב איך געהאַט אַ ספּעציעלע איבערלעבונג מיט איר. מיר זײַנען ביידע געווען אין „קדימה“, אינעם גרױסן זאַל װוּ מע האָט אָפֿט געשפּילט ייִדישן טעאַטער. איך האָב רעציטירט אַ דראַמאַטישע פּאָעמע אויף דער בינע. נאָך דער פֿאָרשטעלונג איז רחל האָלצער צוגעקומען צו מיר, מיך אָנגעכאַפּט בײַ דער האַנט, און מיט אַ שמײכל פֿון נחת געזאָגט: „דו ביסט מײַן משפּחה, דו ביסט מײַן משפּחה!“ אַזאַ כּבֿוד פֿון דער קעניגין פֿון ייִדישן טעאַטער האָב איך נישט דערװאַרט! איך האָב דעמאָלט נישט פֿאַרשטאַנען די גרױסע מתּנה װאָס זי האָט מיר געגעבן מיט די װערטער. איך וועל דאָס קײנמאָל נישט פֿאַרגעסן.

דער גרױסער זאַל און די בינע זענען הײַנט אַן אַלגעמיינער קינאָ־הויז. װען איך האָב אין נאָוועמבער דאָרט געקוקט דעם פֿילם „על חטא“, בין איך געזעסן ממש נאָר אַ פּאָר רײען פֿונעם אָרט, וווּ רחל האָלצער האָט אַמאָל גענומען מײַן האַנט און מיך אַזוי וואַרעם באַגריסט.

פֿאַר די פֿון אײַך וואָס וועלן דעם זונטיק זען „על חטא“ אויפֿן ניו־יאָרקער ייִדישן קינאָ־פֿעסטיוואַל, װעט איר האָבן אַ געלעגנהײט אַליין צו זען רחל האָלצערס וווּנדערלעכן טאַלאַנט ווי אַן אַקטריסע. דאָס אַליין איז ווערט דאָס גאַנצע געלט.

The post The exceptional actress in the Yiddish film ‘I Have Sinned’ appeared first on The Forward.

A Different College Search

For many American Jewish families, the college search is no longer just about rankings and dorm tours. It’s about values, identity, belonging — and whether a campus will feel like a place where a Jewish student can actually breathe.

Just as important, families want to know students won’t have to trade academic rigor for that sense of belonging. Israel’s universities offer globally respected, academically serious programs — including English-taught and transitional pathways — so students can pursue excellence while feeling supported.

At the same time, there’s a practical reality: tuition in the U.S. has climbed to a level that can feel surreal, even for middle- and upper-middle-income families. More parents are asking the question out loud: is there another path that’s academically serious, globally respected, and financially sane?

“The Future Is Calling,” a campaign supported by the Tzemach David Foundation, exists to make one answer easier to explore: college in Israel — not as a vague idea, but as a concrete, navigable option with real programs, real support, and real student experiences.

A Campaign Built for Clarity

“We saw real informational gaps that exist… A lot of things are translated into English, but aren’t translated into American,” says Tamar Krieger Kalev, Executive Director at Tzemach David / The Future Is Calling.

In the months around October 7, Tamar says she watched interest accelerate — and saw how hard it still was for American families to understand Israeli higher education. Philanthropic funding toward Israeli universities helped expand transitional tracks for international students; it also surfaced how many obstacles families face simply trying to figure out what’s possible. The result is a campaign that aims to translate, clarify, and support — so families can move from interest to confidence without doing forty hours of scattered research.

Translating Between Systems

One reason families stall is that Israeli higher education doesn’t work like the American system — and the differences show up quickly in admissions, degree structure, and program language.

“You don’t apply to a university… you apply to a certain program in the university, and every program has their own requirements,” Tamar explains. That one distinction alone can change how a student searches, compares, and applies — especially if they’re used to thinking in terms of a single application leading to an entire campus experience.

The Future Is Calling exists to make those differences legible, early — and to help families ask better questions from the start.

The Future Is Calling, organized around four pillars. Four Pillars, One Promise

Tamar describes four pillars that guide the initiative: Personal Growth and Transformation; Academic Excellence and Innovation; Value and Accessibility; and Community and Tradition. Together, they form a simple promise: Israel can be a place of high-level learning and real-world opportunity — while also offering a supportive environment for Jewish life, identity, and belonging.

An option hiding in plain sight

Israel’s universities are deeply familiar to Israelis and olim — but for many American families, they can still feel distant, hard to compare, or difficult to understand. That’s the gap TheFutureIsCalling.org is designed to close.

Instead of asking families to start from scratch, the site offers a structured entry point:

• A view of major Israeli universities and what each is known for
• Program discovery (including English-taught options)
• Parent-facing answers about support systems, adjustment, and logistics
• Resource pathways — so families can move from “interest” to “next step” without guesswork

“The idea is to have… a one stop shop for people to be able to get all the information,” Tamar says.

And unlike a single-institution pitch, the campaign is designed to help families compare across multiple schools. “We don’t represent one university or one college. We represent several,” she adds — a detail that matters if your real goal is fit.

Academic Excellence and Innovation: world-class universities in the heart of a global ecosystem

For American families used to a familiar narrative — “the best education must be in the U.S.” — this is often the most surprising part: Israeli programs are competitive, serious, and connected to real-world opportunity.

Israel’s universities are not “alternative” in the sense of lesser — they are globally recognized institutions with deep strengths in STEM, medicine, research, and innovation. The campaign spotlights multiple universities offering English-taught degrees and support for international students, including Technion (Israel Institute of Technology), Tel Aviv University, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Bar-Ilan University, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, and Jerusalem College of Technology (JCT).

Tamar also points to the advantages of studying inside an innovation ecosystem that’s physically close. Students can access internships and training opportunities with global companies that have a strong presence in Israel — alongside the startup culture Israel is known for — and carry those experiences into the next chapter, whether in Israel or back in the U.S.

“Real students, real stories”

The most convincing part of the campaign is also the simplest: the student voices.

Asher Dayanim, an American student at Tel Aviv University, puts it plainly: “This past year has been the most amazing in my life.” He describes Tel Aviv as a place where learning doesn’t end when class does — where the city itself becomes part of the education, full of conversations, cultures, and ideas that keep widening the frame.

And for Ava Schwartz, a U.S. student who chose Tel Aviv University’s Liberal Arts program, it was the academic flexibility that made the decision click. “The liberal arts program at TAU is the only one like it in Israel… it allows me to explore everything from psychology to Jewish Studies while living in the city I fell in love with,” she says — capturing something many students are seeking right now: rigor, range, and an environment that feels alive.

The questions parents actually ask

In any family considering a serious move, “Is it inspiring?” is rarely the first question. The first questions are usually more basic — and more human: Is it safe? Will the degree translate back home? What about language? Can we afford it?

On cost, Tamar notes that tuition can look dramatically different depending on program and institution — and that for families thinking about immigration, there can be additional support: “If the student has made Aliyah… the government will pay for their first degree,” she says. And she adds a line that lands for parents immediately: “You can have your kid come home several times… and you’ll still save a lot of money, even though you’re paying for flights.” The point isn’t that every student should go to Israel. It’s that families deserve a clear look at the option — without needing to already be insiders.

A campaign that acts like a guide

At its best, The Future Is Calling functions less like a brochure and more like a guide — a place to gather momentum and get oriented.

“Usually it’s a phone call where they have a huge amount of questions…” Tamar says. For families that feel overwhelmed, that human layer matters: a real person who can translate between systems, clarify what a program actually is, and help a student find a starting point.

And then, the site becomes the hub. “The idea is to have… a one stop shop for people to be able to get all the information,” Tamar explains — a place to compare institutions, understand pathways, and begin narrowing toward fit.

For some students, the pull is academic: specific programs, labs, or a particular university culture. For others, it’s the integration of Jewish life into the calendar of everyday life — not as an extracurricular, but as an atmosphere. And for many, it’s the combination: a high-level education in a place that offers a different kind of grounding, community, and continuity — with clearer access to opportunity on the other side.

Answering the call

There’s a phrase that appears often across the campaign: “the future is calling.” It’s a tagline, yes — but it’s also a real description of where many families find themselves: on the edge of a decision that will shape not just four years, but a life.

The campaign’s invitation is simple: let Israeli universities be part of your consideration set — not as a niche choice, but as a real option with academic strength, clearer economics, and a supportive Jewish environment.

To explore programs, student stories, and parent resources, visit TheFutureIsCalling.org.

Group photo / campus life / students together Courtesy of The Future Is Calling

The post College in Israel, made clearer: How “The Future Is Calling” helps American Jewish students find their place appeared first on The Forward.

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The Anti-Defamation League’s broad coalition that helped pass a hate crime law in Georgia at the height of the Black Lives Matter movement six years ago was a classic campaign for the organization, drawing together an alliance of civil rights groups with civic and business leaders to pass a landmark piece of liberal-minded legislation.

After helping the ADL shepherd the bill through Georgia’s legislature, Robert Sills, a young Atlanta-based attorney, decided to apply for a job with the organization. “I thought, ‘I know these people and really like them,’” Sills recalled in an interview.

He was hired in August 2023 to manage state and local policy and set to work on a toolkit to help city governments stop hate groups. “When I joined, the perception was still very much that it was white supremacists and neo-Nazis that we were focused on,” Sills said.

The ADL has acknowledged a shift away from civil rights while insisting it remains committed to its historic mission of helping both Jews and non-Jews.

Three years later, much has changed at the nation’s largest Jewish advocacy organization. Sills is gone, and the ADL has shut down its teams focused on democracy and civil rights. Much of the information about #HateFreeGA has been archived and is no longer available on the ADL’s website, nor are hundreds of other pages related to civil rights and extremism, as the organization narrows its focus to antisemitism.

“Core civil rights work is going away,” said Sills, who resigned about a year after he started.

The ADL has tried to walk a fine line between acknowledging a shift away from civil rights while insisting that it remains committed to its historic mission of helping both Jews and non-Jews. The organization said, for example, that removing “protect civil rights” from a prominent section of its website was a technical update; it still notes a commitment to “safeguarding civil rights” in its work countering extremism.

At the same time, Jonathan Greenblatt, the organization’s CEO, has said that the surge of antisemitism following the Oct. 7 Hamas terrorist attack in Israel has been forcing a retreat from the ADL’s historic commitment to such work.

Jonathan Greenblatt, who has led the Anti-Defamation League since 2015, said the organization has been forced to focus more narrowly on antisemitism since Oct. 7, 2023. Photo by Jemal Countess/Getty Images for ADL

“This moment has required us to be more and more focused on fighting the rise of antisemitism,” Greenblatt said in an interview. “And I hope when this situation abates — when there’s a cessation of hate, when the numbers start to come down — that we’ll be able to make different decisions about how we allocate our resources.”

But many close observers say Greenblatt began shifting the organization away from work on voting rights, abortion, and LGBTQ+ issues, among others, well before Oct. 7 and that the ADL is unlikely to return to those issues under his leadership — a shift that could have major implications for American Jews given the ADL’s outsize influence in shaping the way Americans understand antisemitism.

“Groups that should be natural allies of a group like the ADL aren’t going to trust anything it says.”Rabbi Jill JacobsDirector of T'ruah

This article is based on interviews with 14 current and former ADL employees, board members and major donors, along with other Jewish leaders who have worked closely with the organization, most of whom spoke on the condition of anonymity because they had signed non-disclosure agreements or because being named would jeopardize their current employment or their working relationship with the ADL.

Jill Jacobs, the director of T’ruah, a liberal rabbis and cantors group, said the ADL’s decision to stop working on behalf of other vulnerable groups, and increasing willingness to antagonize former allies on the left, has been making it hard for every Jewish organization trying to convince partners to take antisemitism seriously.

“Groups that should be natural allies of a group like the ADL aren’t going to trust anything it says — and aren’t going to trust much of what’s said publicly about antisemitism by anyone,” she said.

Sherman Fabes, a spokesperson for the ADL, defended the organization’s track record and said that even as it focuses more narrowly on antisemitism it recognizes that “we can’t do it alone.” Fabes pointed to Greenblatt’s decision to sponsor the 60th anniversary of the March on Washington shortly before Oct. 7, ongoing partnerships with the National Urban League and the League of United Latin American Citizens, and lawsuits defending a church targeted by white supremacists over its support of LGBTQ+ rights and an Ohio city suing a neo-Nazi group.

But Greenblatt has also spoken publicly since Oct. 7 about his frustration with the civil rights organizations that he believes failed to show up for Jews as antisemitism spiked. And the ADL’s move away from civil rights work in the two years since has alienated several mainstream organizations.

Both GLAAD, an LGBTQ+ advocacy group and longtime partner of the ADL, and the Asian American Foundation, which was created with support from the ADL, have pulled back from work with the ADL’s Center on Extremism since Oct. 7 as the organization began almost exclusively monitoring antisemitism, according to a former employee. Meanwhile, a global LGBTQ+ rights coalition and the ADL parted ways as well.

The NAACP once partnered closely with the ADL, including on a campaign targeting social media companies, but the organizations have drifted apart more recently and CEO Derrick Johnson has been absent from recent ADL conferences, though Fabes said he remains affiliated with the organization. And several people close to Maya Wiley, who runs the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, said she and Greenblatt have repeatedly clashed.

Abe Foxman, the ADL’s former longtime director, cautioned against Jews abandoning civil rights work during a podcast last spring. “We can’t throw it away because at the end of the day we’ll be alone,” he said. “And we can’t survive alone.”

An early retreat from civil rights

Greenblatt had been CEO of the ADL for just over a year when Donald Trump was first elected in 2016, and quickly positioned himself as a bulwark against what many feared would be an erosion of civil liberties under the president. “If one day Muslim Americans will be forced to register their identities, then that is the day that this proud Jew will register as Muslim,” Greenblatt declared shortly after the election.

And when Trump nominated Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court in 2018, Greenblatt issued a statement warning about the risk to “the future of civil rights, civil liberties, and our democracy” and referenced “LGBT rights, voting rights, and women’s rights” before raising an alarm about Kavanaugh’s “demonstrated hostility to reproductive freedom.”

The expression of concern was standard fare for the organization, which was founded in 1913 with a mission “to stop the defamation of the Jewish people and to secure justice and fair treatment to all” and had been reliably liberal on domestic political issues, including abortion.

Demonstrators protest U.S. Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh near the U.S. Capitol on Oct. 4, 2018. Photo by Jim Watson/AFP via Getty Images

But the Kavanaugh statement frustrated conservative Jews already wary of Greenblatt’s background working as a special assistant to President Barack Obama. Liel Leibovitz wrote an op-ed for The Wall Street Journal claiming that “Greenblatt has frequently steered the ADL into the murky waters of party politics” and was “leaving American Jews behind.”

The column was part of a flurry of attacks across right-wing media that seemed to hit a nerve.

“Jonathan utterly freaked out,” said a former senior ADL leader familiar with the incident. He announced that the organization would not change its official position on abortion “but we’re kind of going to bury and downplay it,” the source recounted.

Melanie Robbins, the former deputy director of the organization’s New York and New Jersey regional offices, told JTA in December that Greenblatt yelled during a meeting following the Kavanaugh hearings that women’s issues were not core issues for the ADL.

Nancy Kaufman, who was CEO of the National Council on Jewish Women at the time, said she also recalled Greenblatt’s decision to stop working on abortion rights following Kavanaugh’s nomination.

“It was the beginning of the retreat by ADL of dealing with the kind of human rights issues that we had come to believe they were supporting,” Kaufman said in an interview. “I was concerned then; I’m concerned now.”

Fabes, the ADL spokesperson, said that the organization had never been an abortion rights organization and that “the confirmation hearings, nor any response, had no impact on the direction of ADL’s work in any area.”

He denied that Greenblatt had been alarmed by right-wing attacks, and said that he “did not yell at anyone.”

Early in his tenure, Greenblatt also diminished the role of the organization’s national commission, a group of several hundred lay leaders that served as its governing board — who were overwhelmingly liberal, committed to broad civil rights work and had long helped set the organization’s policy agenda.

Joe Berman, a Boston attorney who served on the national commission for 15 years, acknowledged that the 350-member body could be unwieldy and said Greenblatt persuaded them to turn power over to a more traditional 20-person board. But Berman said that however practical it may have been, the move “kneecapped” the influence of volunteer leaders and allowed Greenblatt to shift the organization away from a focus on civil rights.

“Let’s be honest, it’s always been a more progressive, left-leaning organization,” Berman said. “Jonathan is paddling upstream against that.”

Fabes said the ADL has always been “strictly nonpartisan and nonpolitical” and that the transition to a more traditional board reflected best practices for nonprofit governance and was made with broad support.

Greenblatt also oversaw the 2017 departure of Deborah Lauter, who had served as national civil rights director at the ADL for nearly a decade when Greenblatt was hired, and shortly thereafter several of the organization’s most senior civil rights staff — including Michael Lieberman, Erika Moritsugu and Moran Benai — departed within a few months of one another, taking with them years of specialized experience.

“It’s always been a more progressive, left-leaning organization. Jonathan is paddling upstream against that.”Joe BermanFormer member of the ADL's national commission

Lieberman had served as Washington counsel for the organization since 1989 and led a portfolio focused on hate crime prevention, religious freedom, and LGBTQ+ equality and voting rights, a role that has not been filled. He also managed the ADL’s relationship with many non-Jewish civil rights groups, which gave him credibility to speak with those groups about antisemitism and Israel.

“We need to stand with others if we think that we want them — expect them — to stand with us,” Lieberman said during a speech shortly before he resigned. “If you want a friend, you have to be a friend.”

Eileen Hershenov’s departure without replacement as senior vice president for democracy initiatives in August 2023 marked the end of an executive-level position focused on civil liberties.

When Greenblatt took over in 2015, the ADL had around 10 full-time employees coordinating the organization’s work on its civil rights portfolio. But despite hiring 200 new staff members over the past decade — and nearly tripling the ADL’s budget from $57 million to $163 million — a combination of attrition and the reassignment of regional civil rights counsels to new roles has led to the elimination of any dedicated teams working on civil rights or democracy.

Fabes said Hershenov’s portfolio and the former civil rights counsels were converted to “policy counsels” and folded into a new 29-person “national affairs” team, “the majority of whom do civil rights work.” But he downplayed the significance of these structural changes over the past decade. “All of our work relates to antisemitism,” Fabes wrote in an email. “That’s true now as it was true then.”

In response to a question about how Greenblatt viewed the departures of Lieberman and other senior civil rights staff, Fabes said that the ADL did not comment on personnel matters. But in a recent op-ed Greenblatt lamented that in working on “the broader landscape of social issues” the organization had sometimes “ranged far from our core purpose.”

Oct. 7 and the ‘bolt of lightning’

Greenblatt’s explanation for how the ADL came to eschew a broader advocacy portfolio in favor of a “laser” focus on antisemitism centers on Oct. 7, 2023, and its aftermath. “It was like a bolt of lightning,” Greenblatt told the Forward in an oral history of the day. “I’ve had tough days, but Oct. 7 was the toughest.”

It wasn’t just the carnage in Israel but a sense of betrayal that struck Greenblatt.

“Jews around the world and here in America mourned,” Greenblatt recalled in a speech this past November. “Yet, to our dismay, many of our so-called allies were nowhere to be found.”

Columbia University students participate in a rally and vigil in support of Israel on Oct. 12, 2023. Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images

One of those so-called allies was the Council for Global Equality, a coalition promoting LGBTQ+ rights overseas that the ADL had helped create in 2008 and that Julie Dorf, the council’s co-chair, said had regularly partnered with the ADL on policy campaigns during the Obama administration.

But as the ADL began working less on civil rights issues, they faded into the background of her coalition, Dorf said.

Still, the ADL believed that the council’s statement about the Israel-Hamas war, which condemned “all attacks on civilian populations” and called for a ceasefire, was a departure from the organization’s mission and “harmful to our ADL community,” according to Fabes.

“CGE was unwilling to acknowledge the harm the statement had caused,” Fabes added. “ADL, therefore, made the values-based decision to end our membership in the coalition.”

Dorf said she wasn’t sure what the ADL’s specific objection was even after meeting with them at the time.

“It was clear they didn’t even read it carefully because they accused us of all kinds of things that weren’t true — I said, ‘Pull it up, do you see these sentences?’” recalled Dorf, who is Jewish. “They were just grasping for something that would make it an antisemitic statement.”

“There was a time before Oct. 7 and there's a time after.”Jonathan GreenblattCEO of the ADL

Dorf said she didn’t hear anything from the ADL following the meeting and removed the organization from the coalition herself. The council continues to represent some of the largest LGBTQ+ groups in the country, including GLAAD, the Human Rights Campaign and the Trevor Project. Following the ADL’s departure, its only Jewish member is American Jewish World Service.

Fabes said the ADL continues to support LGBTQ+ rights and pointed to recent partnerships with Equality Illinois on a hate crimes training law for police in the state and with Free State Justice on an anti-masking law in Maryland.

Inside the ADL, Sills, who previously worked for Amazon, said Greenblatt began adopting the kind of corporate mantras favored by Jeff Bezos. Instead of “every day is day one,” Greenblatt began telling staff that every day was Oct. 8. “It seemed to communicate the expectation that ADL exists in this trauma response state indefinitely,” Sills said.

Greenblatt has maintained this perspective. “When I say we’re still in an Oct. 8 world, we are — and that doesn’t mean that we don’t adapt and evolve, but there was a time before Oct. 7 and there’s a time after,” he said in an interview.

After Oct. 7, what had been a gradual shift away from working on issues other than antisemitism expanded into what some staff saw as a disregard for safeguarding civil liberties when it came to antisemitism work.

A few weeks after Oct. 7, Greenblatt called on nearly 200 college and university presidents to investigate pro-Palestinian student clubs for “materially supporting” Hamas, and months later the organization endorsed mask bans at political demonstrations.

Sills, the head of local policy at the time, said the anti-masking campaign drove his resignation.

“I laid out the legal argument, commented on the fact that employees at ADL with significant expertise were not being listened to, and said, ‘You’ve got to find somebody else to do this — it’s not going to be me,’” Sills recalled. “It’s unconstitutional.”

Fabes said Sills was not privy to high-level decision making at the ADL and that many experts supported the push for anti-masking laws.

“Ultimately, the proposed anti-masking legislation gained full support from Black and LGBTQ groups because ADL’s approach was responsible and legal, harkening back to the anti-masking laws that were first passed to combat the Ku Klux Klan,” Fabes said. He noted that the NAACP’s local chapter in New York backed a law in the state.

Oren Segal, director of the Anti-Defamation League’s Center on Extremism, during a 2017 press conference. Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images

There was also a push within the organization to categorize a wider range of speech as antisemitism, specifically speech targeting Israel. One former employee, who helped the Center on Extremism track antisemitic incidents, said staff initially responded to Greenblatt’s 2022 speech — in which he more forcefully articulated his existing view that anti-Zionism was a form of antisemitism — by defining the concept extremely narrowly.

“The team cared a lot about the data and said, ‘Well, Jonathan has defined anti-Zionism as specifically not supporting a Jewish right to self-determination in Israel, so just saying ‘Israel is a racist state’ isn’t saying Jews have no right to self-determination,’” the employee recalled.

But after Oct. 7, the person said, ADL executives began insisting that the center’s staff classify many pro-Palestinian demonstrations as antisemitic based on the use of anti-Zionist slogans and signs.

The ADL said in a statement to the Forward in January 2024, following the release of its first annual tally of antisemitic incidents following Oct. 7, that it had significantly broadened its definition of antisemitic incidents to include rallies that feature “anti-Zionist chants and slogans.”

“While our methodology may change slightly from time to time, there was no mandate from senior leadership to make changes after Oct. 7,” Fabes said. He added that the ADL only counted 2,596 out of more than 5,000 protests against Israel in 2024 as antisemitic.

The Asian American Foundation, a civil rights organization modeled after the ADL and created with significant support from Greenblatt, has come under pressure to cut ties with the group from 70 Asian American groups and allies frustrated with Greenblatt’s criticism of pro-Palestinian activists. The foundation has maintained its relationship with the ADL, including sharing a board member with the organization, though The New Yorker reported that it ended its partnership with the Center on Extremism in the spring of 2024.

Around the same time, Sarah Moore, who had been monitoring anti-LGBTQ+ extremism in a dual role for both the ADL and GLAAD, started a new role working exclusively for GLAAD. GLAAD did not respond to multiple questions about its current relationship with the ADL, but three former employees said the organization had made an intentional decision to cut ties.

Fabes said the ADL was “proud of the work our teams accomplished together” and “proud that this effort enabled GLAAD to fully fund and house this position within its own team.”

ADL staff in the Center on Extremism wrote a letter to their boss, quoted by The New Yorker, warning that the organization was losing trust with “other extremism researchers, media outlets, anti-hate organizations, civil rights groups and — perhaps most concerningly — large swaths of the Jewish community that we are committed to serving.”

The letter came from “a few people” and “did not represent the views of all staff,” according to Fabes, but he said that Greenblatt met with the team to discuss the issues raised.

The ADL also said that it was in the process of adding a new researcher to the Center on Extremism funded by the League of United Latin American Citizens to monitor threats to the Hispanic community.

Greenblatt made waves early in the second Trump administration for initially defending Elon Musk’s controversial gesture at an inaugural rally as an “awkward gesture,” and then supporting the White House’s “bold” attempt to revoke the permanent residency of Mahmoud Khalil, a leader of the pro-Palestinian demonstrations at Columbia University, and detain him at an immigration jail in Louisiana.

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The Anti-Defamation League praised the Trump administration for detaining and attempting to deport Mahmoud Khalil, a former Columbia University graduate student known for his role in the 2024 Columbia University pro-Palestinian protests, pictured here during a rally following his release from detention. Photo by Stephanie Keith/Getty Images

The response to Khalil’s arrest was the final straw for Berman, who first joined the ADL’s regional New England board in 2001 and had held leadership positions on the national commission.

Berman had little sympathy for Khalil’s views, which he called “reprehensible” in his resignation letter, but defending the arrest had “irrevocably degraded the ADL’s moral authority.”

“If we don’t stand for civil rights, we stand for nothing,” he added.

The Khalil controversy did little to change Greenblatt’s hostile posture toward campus protesters. In a closed-door meeting with Republican attorneys general over that summer, he compared masked demonstrators at Columbia to ISIS and al-Qaida terrorists.

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In an interview, Greenblatt emphasized that his remarks were not intended for the public.

But his intensifying rhetoric toward protesters drove an even deeper wedge between the ADL and other civil rights groups. In the initial aftermath of Oct. 7, many Jewish clergy and other leaders wondered why their interfaith and social justice partners weren’t condemning Hamas more forcefully, while leaders in other communities questioned a perceived lack of sympathy for Palestinian civilians.

Ginna Green, the founder of Horizon Philanthropy, which encourages Jewish donors to support liberal democracy, said she understood the fear that led to this schism between not only the ADL but many other Jewish establishment groups and civil rights groups in recent years — but said it was shortsighted.

“The American Jewish community has never been less safe,” Green said. “We’ve never needed the protection of democracy and coalitions and partners more than right now — so to make this move at a time when nobody is safe unless they’re a straight, white Christian male seems like an absolute abandonment of the principles the ADL was founded on.”

A former senior staff member at the ADL who worked there before and after Oct. 7 said he shared the frustration toward the progressive and human rights communities but thought there was an opportunity for cooler heads to prevail.

Instead, the organization’s approach — including the call to investigate students for ties to Hamas — caused a tonal shift among former allies from, “We don’t want to work with the ADL because we don’t think they care about us,” he said, to “We can’t work with them because they’re a hate organization.”

Greenblatt tests ‘old friendships’

The ADL’s shifting approach to civil rights began around 2017, but the rupture with other groups also grew from a new understanding of where antisemitism was coming from, which Greenblatt began to articulate a few years before Oct. 7.

Early in the Biden administration, Greenblatt argued that a record-shattering spike in antisemitic incidents was being caused not just by the right, which was responsible for most of the physical violence toward Jews, but by people criticizing Israel. “When you have people make wild claims about the Jewish state, make unhinged accusations, maybe it shouldn’t surprise us that then people attack Jewish Americans,” he said on PBS News Hour in April 2022.

Just a few weeks later Greenblatt delivered a watershed speech at the ADL’s national leadership summit in which he declared that “anti-Zionism is antisemitism” and said the groups promoting it — including Students for Justice in Palestine, Jewish Voice for Peace and the Council on American-Islamic Relations — were the “photo inverse” of violent white supremacists.

“These organizations might not have armed themselves,” Greenblatt said, but “if you demonize another group enough, there are more than a few people out there who will act.”

Greenblatt had spoken out against anti-Zionism for years, but the speech marked a new era in which he would start regularly describing anti-Zionists as posing an equivalent threat to white supremacists.

According to several former employees familiar with the matter, he delivered these remarks over the objection of most of the ADL’s senior leadership team, including Oren Segal, who runs the organization’s Center on Extremism and cautioned that law enforcement might take Greenblatt’s remarks as an excuse to surveil peaceful advocacy groups.

“Oren himself says that he has no recollection of ever having a conversation” in which he raised those concerns, Fabes said.

Greenblatt recognized in his speech that the new direction he was plotting would “fray some old friendships” and “cost us some donations.”

One of those old friendships seemed to fray almost immediately.

Greenblatt’s speech was followed by remarks from Maya Wiley, the incoming CEO of the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, one of the country’s oldest coalitions of its kind that includes the ADL, NAACP and ACLU, along with scores of smaller groups.

Wiley had not been warned that Greenblatt would unveil a more aggressive posture toward progressive organizations at the event, and it prompted an immediate challenge for her work keeping a sprawling coalition united despite differences over Israel, according to multiple people familiar with the matter.

Leadership Conference on Civil Rights CEO Maya Wiley appears with her husband, Harlan Mandel, who is Jewish, at a campaign stop during her 2021 run for mayor of New York City. Photo by Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images

The relationship between Wiley and Greenblatt has continued to deteriorate, sometimes in personal terms, three people familiar with the matter said.

Greenblatt unequivocally denied this. “That’s not true,” he said. “I have a lot of respect for Maya.”

Wiley declined to answer questions about her relationship with Greenblatt.

The ADL was not among the 65 civil rights organizations that signed onto a June statement from the Leadership Conference condemning “antisemitic hate crimes” following the attacks at the Capital Jewish Museum and at a rally in Boulder, Colorado, last spring. Wiley also released a statement last summer defending the National Education Association, a member organization, after Republicans pushed to shut it down over a vote to boycott the ADL.

Several Leadership Conference member organizations also took issue with the ADL before Oct. 7 over a preliminary version of survey results about antisemitism in the African American community that they found oversimplified and offensive. The ADL eventually agreed to delay the survey’s release and modify its presentation. Fabes described the incident as part of the ADL’s belief in “a counsel culture, not a cancel culture.”

Fabes said that Greenblatt has a recurring call with Wiley and that the ADL currently serves on the Leadership Conference’s board and sits on its hate crimes task force. He also said that the ADL continues to work with the NAACP, and that Johnson served as co-chair of its Sports Leadership Council even as he has been absent from recent conferences and called for an arms embargo against Israel.

The NAACP did not respond to questions about the current status of its work with the ADL.

Maya Berry, executive director of the Arab American Institute, is the co-chair of the hate crimes task force that the ADL sits on, and while she once testified alongside Greenblatt during a 2021 congressional hearing about violent extremism, Berry recently said she was pleased the FBI had decided to end its partnership with the ADL.

The ADL has continued to work closely with two Leadership Conference members: the National Urban League, another Leadership Conference member, whose president spoke at its annual conference last year, and the League of United Latin American Citizens.

Wiley said in a statement to the Forward that, despite various divisions, the Leadership Conference has always sought to maintain a diverse coalition committed to “fighting antisemitism and all forms of hate.”

ADL loses longtime supporters

While the ADL has long faced criticism from progressives — including a campaign to #DropTheADL — many former employees and board members who are speaking out now were unswayed by these previous critiques.

Tracey Lagbold, who served as leadership chair on the national commission and head of the ADL’s education committee, said that “breaking up with ADL was one of the hardest things I’ve done in my entire life.”

She first got involved with the ADL in 2008 after an acquaintance invited her to an event the organization was hosting. “It was the first time I really heard about civil rights from a Jewish perspective,” she said. “I was like, ‘Wow, I didn’t know I was looking for that my whole life, but that’s what I’ve been wanting.’”

Lagbold eventually became chair of the ADL’s Florida board and assumed several national roles. She stomached a series of frustrating decisions made by Greenblatt, she said, including shrinking the organization’s education programming focused on combating bias and eliminating the dedicated civil rights team.

But presenting an award to Jared Kushner in early 2024 for his work on the Abraham Accords was the final straw.

Walter Jospin, a longtime ADL donor, was also angered by the award, and said Greenblatt’s decision to give it caught the organization’s then-board chair Ben Sax by surprise. “He told me that the national board was blindsided — Jonathan just did it,” Jospin said. “They didn’t like it.”

Sax did not respond to a request for comment, and Fabes said the organization does not discuss Greenblatt’s interactions with the board.

“The ADL was founded on this mission of doing two things that I thought were inextricable: caring for others and caring for ourselves,” said Lagbold, whose resignation from the ADL has not been previously reported. “I don’t think of them as two things, because they need each other, they inform each other — and it became clear in the last few years that’s not the way the organization is operating anymore.”

Aaron Ahlquist, who ran the ADL’s regional office in New Orleans and eventually became a regional vice president, resigned in July over similar concerns with the organization, according to a copy of his resignation letter obtained by the Forward.

In a scathing critique of the organization’s leadership, Ahlquist wrote that national board chair Nicole Mutchnik had told regional leaders that “our sole focus was on an immediate ROI on our activity and we would be looking [for] short-term results only.”

“This is a false assertion and the characterization of Nicole is inaccurate,” Fabes said.

Ahlquist argued that this made it hard to advocate for investing in civil rights issues or in building coalitions with other minority groups, work that often takes “years or decades to earn our place at the table.”

He said that a more forceful emphasis on defending Israel while pulling back on education programs that focused on protecting all minority groups was marginalizing the organization and allowing longtime opponents of the ADL, like the Council on American-Islamic Relations, to increase their influence.

“Our move away from our integrated mission has potentially done irreparable harm for ADL in non-Jewish spaces,” Ahlquist wrote.

Greenblatt has framed the ADL’s turn away from working on issues beyond antisemitism as one meant to pair the organization’s limited resources with a growing number of incidents targeting Jews.

“Our core purpose is to protect the Jewish people — not in an esoteric way, not in some attenuated manner, but right here, right now.”Jonathan GreenblattCEO of the ADL

Fabes noted that the organization tallied the highest number of antisemitic incidents on record in 2019 and then again in 2021 and 2022, and that the synagogue shootings in both Pittsburgh and Poway, California, predated Oct. 7. “The growing crisis underscored our hyperfocus on addressing rising levels of antisemitism,” he said.

But some see this as a false binary.

Lagbold is now a board member at the Jewish Council for Public Affairs, which has argued that preserving democratic norms helps guarantee Jewish safety, and that trading quick wins — like the deportation of college students who protest Israel in ways that some Jews find offensive — in exchange for the erosion of due process is a bad deal. “It’s impossible to separate these issues,” Amy Spitalnick, JCPA’s CEO, said in a text message.

Greenblatt understands this position, and even articulated it in his 2022 book, It Could Happen Here, in which he wrote that “the founders of ADL believed in the simple but powerful premise that America could not be safe for its Jews unless it was safe for all its people.”

Steven Ludwig, a longtime regional board member in Philadelphia, seized on Greenblatt’s previous writing in his resignation letter over the summer.

“Did you mean it when you wrote … ‘There’s still time to stand up for the peaceful, democratic society we want to gift to our children and grandchildren,’” Ludwig asked. “If so, why are you not standing up now?”

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In an interview, Greenblatt described the ADL as stepping into a more service-oriented role amid a “tsunami” of antisemitism. “When Jewish people find their homes or their businesses defaced,” he said, “when Jewish professionals are being boycotted from their lines of work, when Jewish members of unions are being harassed — we stand up for them.”

The ADL has responded to these issues with advocacy and also, increasingly, with practical tools, including several helplines that field complaints of discrimination in K-12 schools and on college campuses, which have yielded hundreds of reports and in some cases federal complaints or lawsuits on behalf of callers. Greenblatt said high-minded advocacy on behalf of civil rights or democratic norms was too abstract for the current moment.

“One could make the argument that protecting democracy protects the Jews,” he said. “But our core purpose is to protect the Jewish people — not in an esoteric way, not in some attenuated manner, but right here, right now.”

And, he added, all the work the ADL is doing defending Jews against antisemitism?

“That’s civil rights work.”

The post The ADL’s turn away from civil rights was years in the making — Oct. 7 accelerated it appeared first on The Forward.

When Beth Israel Congregation was dedicated in Jackson, Mississippi, in the summer of 1875, the occasion was marked with a procession that began in front of City Hall.

A local paper reported that the synagogue was so crowded that many were unable to gain admission. Visitors had come from all over the South: Vicksburg, Canton, New Orleans, Memphis, and beyond. Christians were present and explicitly welcomed. The service concluded with an elegant supper and a ball at Angelo’s Hall on Capitol Street, a venue that could comfortably accommodate 400 people. Much of the crowd remained out celebrating until dawn.

This was a city witnessing Jewish life in public and welcoming it, even though the congregation numbered only about 80 souls. And it was also a city reckoning with the aftermath of hate: The ceremony marked the opening of a rebuilt synagogue, after an earlier Beth Israel building had been destroyed by “an incendiary” the year before.

This history matters now. Jackson has long known a double inheritance: the reality of antisemitism, and the presence of neighbors who showed up to support the Jewish community.

After an antisemitic arson attack on Saturday severely damaged Beth Israel — which was rebuilt after being bombed by the Ku Klux Klan in 1967 — national coverage moved quickly to frame the event as confirmation of a familiar story about Mississippi. One outlet led with the phrase “Mississippi Goddam,” invoking the title of Nina Simone’s civil rights protest anthem as a shorthand for moral condemnation.

Outrage in the face of antisemitic violence is justified. But framing Jackson primarily as a home to deeply rooted hatreds obscures the local reality: a synagogue that has long benefited from relationships with churches and civic partners, and a city where Jewish life has persisted through cooperation, not isolation. When that context disappears, so do the stories of neighbors who still live there, and who will be working to rebuild long after the headlines fade.

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Months before the fire, I wrote for a local Jackson publication about Beth Israel’s history as a civic and interfaith institution in the city. My reporting traced how the synagogue’s 19th-century dedication unfolded as a public event, with Christian leaders in attendance and the building treated as a point of local pride.

And it showed me how significant a source of pride Beth Israel has been to its hometown — one of the truths lost, after the arson, in a rush to define Mississippi as a one-dimensional home of bigotry.

The 1875 reports on the synagogue’s opening lingered on details that newspapers of the time reserved for buildings that were points of civic pride, dwelling on the height of the sanctuary, the carved woodwork of the altar, the light from arched windows, and the number of people the pews could seat. One paper ventured that no small congregation “in the entire South, if indeed the whole country,” possessed as fine a place of worship as Beth Israel in Jackson.

That pride is still evident today, particularly in the swell of interfaith support that followed Sunday’s fire.

As the president of Beth Israel Congregation told the Forward, multiple churches reached out in the days following the arson, offering their sanctuaries as temporary worship space for the congregation while repairs are underway.

Rebuilding, he noted, could take up to a year. In the meantime, Jewish life in Jackson would continue.

That gesture may have been quiet, but it is not small. It means Christian congregations opening their doors not just for a one-night vigil or brief program, but for the long, ordinary work of sustaining religious life: making space for Shabbat services, holidays, study and gathering.

This history is not new. After the 1874 arson, local papers reported that a subscription had been started to rebuild the synagogue and predicted that the call would be “generously responded to.” A year later, the congregation, described as “Spartan-like,” rebuilt, assisted by friends in the wider Jackson community.

When Beth Israel dedicated a new synagogue in 1942, amid World War II, the ceremony again unfolded as a civic occasion. The governor of Mississippi sent greetings, the mayor spoke on behalf of the city, and representatives of Catholic and Protestant churches were present.

In his dedication sermon, Rabbi Julian Feibelman urged that the synagogue be consecrated “to everything that is true and that is blessed in the teachings of our faith,” and called it a house meant for “intercommunication and society — the ethical in life.”

When we treat a place as defined by inevitable hatred, we suggest that the people who actually live there are incapable of building a stronger and more welcoming communal life  — people like Feibelman, who, in that 1942 sermon, said the synagogue aimed to be “a perpetual lamp” within the community. We treat antisemitism as something to fear from a distance, rather than something neighbors can confront together.

That kind of framing leaves out the work that follows violence. Jewish life in Jackson is not something to be guarded from afar. It is sustained locally, as an integral part of the city it has helped shape.

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The post What Jackson, Mississippi’s only synagogue means to its city — in the wake of arson, and beyond appeared first on The Forward.

דעם פֿאַרגאַנגענעם זונטיק האָט דער פֿאָרווערטס לאַנצירט אַ וואָכיקע פּאָדקאַסט אויף ייִדיש, און במשך פֿון פֿינעף טעג האָט ער שוין צוגעצויגן מער ווי טויזנט צוהערער.

די פֿאַרבינדונג צום פּאָדקאַסט, וואָס הייסט Yiddish with Rukhl, קען מען באַקומען דאָ. די פּראָגראַם ווערט טראַנסמיטירט דורך „עפּל פּאָדקאַסט“, „אַמאַזאָן פּאָדקאַסט און „ספּאָטיפֿײַ“.

דערווײַל דינט די פּראָגראַם ווי בלויז אַ פּראָבע פֿון פֿינעף קאַפּיטלען. אויב אָבער די צאָל צוהערער וועט ווײַטער וואַקסן, וועט מען דאָס אײַנפֿירן ווי אַ פּערמאַנענטע זאַך.

דער ציל פֿונעם פּאָדקאַסט איז צו דערמעגלעכן מענטשן וואָס פֿאַרשטייען ייִדיש אָבער קענען זי נישט לייענען (אָדער האָבן נישט קיין צײַט צו לייענען) צו קענען זיך צוהערן צו אינטערעסאַנטע פֿאָרווערטס־אַרטיקלען בשעת זיי שפּאַצירן, פֿירן דעם אויטאָ אָדער וואַשן דאָס געפֿעס.

יעדער קאַפּיטל פֿאַרנעמט זיך מיט אַ געוויסער טעמע. דער ערשטער איז געווען וועגן קאַווע. דער צווייטער, וואָס קומט אַרויס דעם זונטיק, וועט זײַן וועגן ליבע.

מיר פֿאַרבעטן די צוהערער צוצושיקן זייערע באַמערקונגען אָדער פֿאָרלייגן וועגן דעם פּאָדקאַסט אויף דעם בליצאַדרעס schaechter@forward.com.

The post Good news about the new Forverts podcast appeared first on The Forward.

Yiddish culture fans should take a look at the Yiddish Book Center’s recently launched website. Called Yiddish: A Global Culture, Virtual Exhibit, it’s an online version of their marvelous permanent exhibition that can be accessed on your cellphone.

If you know Yiddish, you may have read the Forverts article about the Book Center’s newly-published catalogue of its permanent exhibition. And I’ve described the transformative experience of visiting the exhibition at the Center’s campus in Amherst, Massachusetts. There’s nothing like spending time with the hundreds of Yiddish books on display — not to mention photographs, posters, musical scores, works of art, Yiddish typewriters used by famous authors and a giant linotype press once used to print the Forverts.

But thanks to the website, Yiddish enthusiasts who live far away from Massachusetts can now “visit” the exhibition on their phones. It’s a model of everything a website should be — clearly organized, visually attractive and free. And it makes excellent use of multimedia — not just photographs, but also videos and sound recordings.

Like the exhibition itself, the website is divided into 16 thematic sections,  including “Women’s Voices,” “Theater” and “Press and Politics.” Each photograph or multimedia item is accompanied by a description that’s easy to understand, even for people who aren’t Yiddish mavens. The introductions and the descriptions were written by David Mazower, the curator of the exhibition and author of the new exhibition catalogue.

These are some of my favorite items on the website, but they represent only a small part of what’s available.

• Bold, brilliantly-colored illustrations by avant-garde Jewish artists Esther Karp and Ida Broyner for collections of Yiddish poems by Chaim Krul and Dovid Zitman. These limited edition books were published in Lodz, Poland, in 1921. Both the artists and the poets were active in the important Lodz-based Yiddish cultural movement, Yung-yidish. (To see this object, click here.)

• A postcard (ca. 1910) from Warsaw with a photo of the Yiddish and Hebrew writer Devorah Baron. She was hugely popular in Russia, and was practically the only Jewish female writer of her generation whose photo appeared on commercial postcards. (To see this object, click here.)

• Delightful illustrations by the avant-garde artist Issachar Ber Ryback for a Yiddish children’s book written by the Soviet-Yiddish poet Leib Kvitko, published in Berlin in 1921. Ryback was an innovative Jewish artist active in Kiev (Kyiv today), Berlin and Paris. Kvitko was among the 13 Soviet Jewish writers and public figures executed by Stalin in Moscow on Aug. 12, 1952. (To see this object, click here.)

• Amusing self-portrait doodles by the classic Yiddish writer I. L. Peretz, from his scrapbook. Peretz is revered as one of the “founding fathers” of modern Yiddish literature. The Book Center’s exhibition includes a reconstruction of his salon in Warsaw, where he helped shape an entire generation of young Yiddish writers. The self-portraits in his notebook show a lighter side of his character. (To see this object, click here.)

• A copy of Uncle Tom’s Cabin, Harriet Beecher Stowe’s novel about slavery in the American South, translated into Yiddish and published in 1911. A stage adaptation of Stowe’s novel was popular with American Yiddish-speaking audiences in the early 20th century. (To see this object, click here.)

• A Yiddish bookplate from Warsaw (ca. 1910) with a picture of a young girl reading by the light of a kerosene lamp. (To see this object, click here.)

• A photograph of Yiddish poet Esther Shumiatcher-Hirshbein standing with a geisha in Japan. Shumiatcher and her husband, Yiddish playwright and writer Peretz Hirshbein, were insatiable travelers. The steamer trunk that they carried with them all over the world is in the exhibition as well. (To see this object, click here.)

And some multimedia:

• Contemporary Yiddish actor, translator and scholar Mikhl Yashinsky reading a story (ca. 1908) about Max Spitzkopf, the fictional Jewish Viennese sleuth dubbed “the Yiddish Sherlock Holmes.” Yashinsky recently published his English translation of all 15 Spitzkopf stories. He reads here in English from his own translation. (To listen to this recording, click here.)

• A performance of the 1936 Yiddish song, “Our shtetl is burning” (Undzer shtetl brent), by poet and songwriter Mordkhe Gebirtig. During the Holocaust, Jews sang this song in the ghettos and concentration camps, and quickly came to think of it as a folksong. The performance on the website is by contemporary Jewish singer Bente Kahan. (To watch/listen to this performance, click here.)

• Historic recordings by the famous Yiddish singer-actresses Jennie Goldstein, Nellie Casman, Molly Picon, Pepi Litman and Bessie Thomashefsky. (To listen to these recordings, click here.)

• An animation and reading of “Di Zogerin,” a 1922 short story by Rokhel Brokhes. Both the animation and the reading (in Yiddish) are by contemporary Yiddish actress, artist and scholar Alona Bach. The story describes the bitter life of a woman who served as a “zogerin” (also called a “zogerke”). These were women who recited prayers for other women who couldn’t read Hebrew — at home, in the synagogue or at the cemetery. (To watch/listen to the animation and reading, click here.)

Mazower told me that the website will expand and develop over time. “We plan to delve deeper into certain subjects, and hope to add some themes that space didn’t allow us to include in the permanent exhibition, such as the shtetl, Hasidism, organized labor and Yiddish in Israel,” he said.

You can access the exhibit online on the Yiddish Book Center’s website.

The post You can now enjoy the Yiddish Book Center’s exhibit on your phone appeared first on The Forward.

(JTA) — British Jews are weighing in after authorities said they are considering deeming some circumcisions “a form of child abuse” following deaths from the procedure.

The Crown Prosecution Service, the region’s chief agency for criminal prosecutions, said that while male circumcision is not a crime, it may constitute child abuse “if carried out incorrectly or in inappropriate circumstances,” according to a draft document seen by the Guardian.

This document, which looked at circumcision as a potential “harmful practice” alongside virginity testing, breast flattening and exorcisms, has driven heated debate among Jewish and Muslim leaders since it was revealed this week.

The draft guidance follows a coroner’s report from Dec. 28 about Mohamed Abdisamad, a 6-month-old boy who died in London from a streptococcus infection caused by his circumcision in 2023.

The coroner warned of “a risk that future deaths could occur unless action is taken,” noting that “any individual may conduct a Non-Therapeutic Male Circumcision (NTMC) without any prior training.” He said there was no system to ensure that people who conduct religious circumcisions have accreditation or meet requirements for infection control.

In the past, another coroner raised similar concerns over the 2014 death of Oliver Asante-Yeboah, who developed sepsis after his circumcision by a rabbi. Male circumcision was a factor in 14 deaths in England and Wales since 2001, half of them men over 18 and half boys under 18, according to the Office for National Statistics.

Unlicensed circumcisions are a subject of mounting scrutiny in Europe, raising alarm in some Jewish communities. In May, Belgian police raided three homes in Antwerp as part of an investigation into illegal ritual circumcisions. And in 2024, a rabbi from London was arrested and imprisoned in Ireland for allegedly performing a circumcision without required credentials.

Some Jewish leaders swiftly condemned the Crown Prosecution Service document.

“Calling circumcision child abuse is fundamentally antisemitic,” said Gary Mond, founder of the Jewish National Assembly, to the Jewish News Syndicate.

Jonathan Arkush, co-chair of the Milah UK group that advocates for Jewish circumcision, told the Guardian that the document’s language about circumcision was “misleading” and he would be in touch with the prosecutors.

“The incidence of complications in circumcision performed in the Jewish community is vanishingly rare,” he said. “Circumcision is a core part of our identity.”

Other Jewish voices have urged action to enforce medically safe circumcisions. Rabbi Jonathan Romain, who oversees Reform Judaism’s religious court in Britain, said it was “time to clamp down on rogue practitioners” and called for mandatory training, monitoring and annual reports on the practice.

“Given that it is a longstanding and important tradition among Jews, Muslims and various other cultures, the best way forward is to only permit circumcision if it is practised by someone specifically qualified for it and who belongs to a nationally accredited scheme,” Romain said in a letter to the Guardian.

The Muslim Council of Britain also told the Guardian that it supports strengthening safeguards.

“Male circumcision is a lawful practice in the UK with recognised medical, religious and cultural foundations, and it should not be characterised in itself as child abuse,” said the group. “However, where procedures are carried out irresponsibly, without proper safeguards, and cause harm, they may rightly fall within the scope of criminal law.”

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UN condemns Israel’s closure of East Jerusalem health centre  Latest news from Azerbaijan

Gaza’s medical students help health system decimated by Israel’s war  Al Jazeera

Gaza patients facing death as Israel continues to block medical supplies  Al Jazeera

No essential supplies in truce: Gaza’s healthcare system broken by Israel  Al Jazeera

Bodies of 15 Palestinians returned by Israel, health officials in Gaza say  MPR News

3 in 4 Republicans Under 45 Say They Prefer US Fund Health Care Over Israel  Truthout

Israel is short on doctors, can emigration be the cause?  The Jerusalem Post

Israeli researchers develop SafeWax coating that could cut pesticide use by 50%  The Jerusalem Post

Levin: Science endures at Israel’s missile-damaged Weizmann Research Institute  The Detroit News

Press Release | Jan 05, 2026 — Nature Names Hadassah’s Hospitals #1 in Israel for Scientific Output  Hadassah | The Women's Zionist Organization of America

Red skies over Israel spark online buzz: Experts reveal science behind striking sunset  Ynetnews

Not a Hypothesis: Boycott Against Israeli Science Spreads 'Like a Virus' - Israel News  Haaretz

Iranian missile strike devastates two buildings at Israel’s Weizmann Institute  Science | AAAS

Iranian missile strikes Israel's ‘crown jewel of science'  NBC New York

How we’re rebuilding the Weizmann Institute — and our hopes for a better future  Nature

Israeli team pioneers bacteria ‘factories’ to produce medicine inside the body  The Times of Israel

Israel’s Symbol of Science Will ‘Build Back Better’ After Iranian Attack  Washington Jewish Week

UAE cuts scholarships to UK, warms HE ties with Israel  University World News

Germany and other EU states stall scientific sanctions against Israel  Science|Business

As Israel scrimps on academic research funding, researchers face BDS alone  Haaretz

Escalating Israel–Iran conflict damages science labs  Nature

Israel's science teams conclude olympiad season with record 26 medals  The Jerusalem Post

Israeli Science’s Historic Post-War Opportunity: Health Tech Valley  The Times of Israel

Israel’s security depends on tech education - opinion  The Jerusalem Post

‘Science is happening’: Israeli and Palestinian scientists continue collaborations amid conflict  Nature

In surprising breakthrough, scientists in Israel find cancer may help heal the failing heart  The Times of Israel

Israeli academia is in a maelstrom. This is how we can move forward  The Times of Israel

2 new initiatives strengthen Harvard’s academic engagement with Israel  Harvard Gazette

From heart tissue to DNA samples, Weizmann scientists mourn work vaporized in Iran attack  The Times of Israel

Israel Uses Advanced Science to Trace Origins of Ancient Pottery  GreekReporter.com

Israel’s Weizmann Institute of Science Drops in World Academic Rankings  Palestine Chronicle

Israel Science & Technology: Oil & Natural Gas  Jewish Virtual Library

Hope Walks Again with Israeli Science  The Times of Israel

Israel's biotech moment: How science, data, and geopolitics are converging - opinion  The Jerusalem Post

Bringing Israeli physicians and scientists back home  The Jerusalem Post

Iran missiles severely damage Weizmann Institute labs, 'irreplaceable' samples destroyed  The Jerusalem Post

'We Were Targeted': Iran Put Israel's Scientific Research High on Their Kill List  Haaretz

With 1.3 Million Visitors, Tourism To Israel Began Recovery In 2025  Forbes

Winds of war begin to calm, but tourists unlikely to rush back immediately  The Times of Israel

Israel Tourism Ticks Up in 2025, Still Far Below Prewar Peak  Haaretz

Israel Draws Nearer to Tourism Recovery  TravelPulse

The fate of the Israeli tourism industry  The Jerusalem Post

While war takes toll on Israel tourism, faith-based travel adapts  Travel Weekly

This Is How Tourists to Israel Can Get Out of the Country  TravelAge West

War in Gaza Took a Big Toll on Israel Tourism: 'Where Are All the People?'  cbn.com

Israel’s Tourism and Hospitality Outlook – From Recovery to Reinvention  Hospitality Net

Filipinos reject Israeli tourism amid the Gaza genocide  Mondoweiss

Israel to merge government tourism companies  ANI News

Israel tourism sees recovery, plans 2026 expansion  Travel Daily Media

1.3 million tourists visited Israel in 2025  JNS.org

Israel’s tourism industry remains on brink of collapse despite ceasefire, sector chief warns  Ynetnews

Bethlehem struggles to revive tourism amid Israel-Gaza conflict  CBS News

Israel tourism impact  Travel And Tour World

Tourists return as Israelis head abroad, CBS data shows  The Jerusalem Post

Airlines return as Israel tourism revives  The Jerusalem Post

Tourism in Israel suffers even after Iran ceasefire, long recovery ahead  The Jerusalem Post

Israeli tourists increasingly visiting Japan  The Jerusalem Post

Israel Says it is ‘Open, Safe and Ready to Welcome Tourists’  Travel Market Report

PR News | Targeted Victory Does Media Work for Israel Tourism - Wed., Sep. 3, 2025  O'Dwyer's PR

Israel Needs Our Support as Tourists  The Jewish Link

Israel Reports Tourist Arrivals Increase to Start 2025  TravelPulse

Israel's tourism push: UK flights resume, WTM showcased  The Jerusalem Post

Israel’s tourism sector incurs $3.4B in record losses since Gaza war  Anadolu Ajansı

Israel Tourism Reawakens as UK Flights Return  The Times of Israel

Israel reportedly barred from tourism fair in Italy  The Times of Israel

Israel Appoints New Director General of the Ministry of Tourism  Travel Agent Central

Israel’s Tourist Comeback Stalls After June War Shock  The Media Line

ALEPH to hold festival celebrating Hebrew language  The Jerusalem Post

Israel's Culture Ministry Scraps 2026 Arts Prizes, Ending Decades-long Tradition  Haaretz

Israel Museum celebrates 60 with towering art, color-drenched canvases and historical prints  The Times of Israel

Anoushey Ashraf says Iranians deserve self-determination — not leaders courting Israel  Dawn

Israel culture minister cuts funds for Ophir film awards, says winner defames soldiers  MSN

Israel’s culture minister vows to defund ‘Israeli Oscars’ after film about Palestinian boy wins big  CNN

Jerusalem tribute honors Lanzmann’s 'Shoah' at 40  The Jerusalem Post

How Israeli Football Culture Became a Weapon of Genocide  THE HIND RAJAB FOUNDATION

Israel’s culture minister threatens national film awards after Palestinian story takes top prize  The Guardian

Hamas Is Winning the Culture War  Tablet Magazine

Hollywood stars back boycott as Israel's minister targets film academy  NPR

Drama about Palestinian boy is Israel's Oscar entry amid Hollywood boycott of Israeli film institutions  Jewish Telegraphic Agency

Culture minister says Gaza belongs to Israel, Palestinians merely ‘there as guests’  The Times of Israel

Israeli minister says all Israelis, not just Netanyahu, share responsibility for Oct. 7  Haaretz

Jerusalem highlights: January 16-22  The Jerusalem Post

Israel’s isolation deepens as backlash and international sanctions mount  CNN

Culture minister says ‘Gaza is ours,’ Palestinians are ‘guests until a certain point’  The Times of Israel

Nominees reverse decision to boycott culture minister’s alternate film awards  The Times of Israel

Israel's ‘palace’ of art and architecture in Ma’aleh Adumim marks 15 years  The Jerusalem Post

Israeli TV finds its way back to escapism and crime  The Jerusalem Post

Israeli cinema in crisis as government threatens funding  The Jerusalem Post

Israel Says It Will Defund Film Awards After Palestinian Win  The New York Times

Efforts to punish Israel over Gaza war intensify in sports and cultural arenas  The Times of Israel

Israeli Culture Minister Threatens Tel Aviv Cinema Budget Over Human Rights Film Festival  Haaretz

Israel's culture minister calls a Palestinian-Israeli film's Oscar a 'sad moment'  NPR

Hanukkah lights up festivals across Israel  The Jerusalem Post

Hollywood now has dueling open letters over the Israel film boycott  Houston Public Media

Eurovision Song Contest changes voting rules for Israel  The Jerusalem Post

Gov't says it will cut Film Academy funding after film 'depicting Israel negatively' wins  Haaretz

All the colors come together on the canvas  The Jerusalem Post

Israel Adesanya isn’t favored in return at UFC Seattle  Yahoo Sports

‘It’s a marathon, not a sprint’: Zalgiris, Lo eye big night vs Maccabi Tel Aviv  The Jerusalem Post

Spain's prime minister wants international sports ban for Israel  ESPN

Spanish minister calls for Israel to be banned from sport  Al Jazeera

International sports federations refuse to suspend Israel despite destruction of sports in Gaza and killing of hundreds of athletes  Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor

OPINION - Ban Israel from global sports now, before it is too late  Anadolu Ajansı

Efforts to punish Israel over Gaza war intensify in sports and cultural arenas  The Times of Israel

Israel is committing genocide. Why is it still welcome in global sports?  Sports Politika

Norway vs Israel was months in the planning for authorities, but politics seeped through  The New York Times

Efforts to punish Israel over Gaza grow in sports and cultural arenas  AP News

Spanish PM calls for Israel to be barred from international sport  BBC

Irish governing body overwhelmingly backs call for UEFA to ban Israel  Reuters

Joe Pyfer admits 'many other guys' deserve Israel Adesanya fight 'over me' for UFC Seattle  Yahoo Sports

Israeli Olympic delegation in jeopardy over passport crisis  The Jerusalem Post

Report: UEFA set to vote to suspend Israel over war in Gaza  ESPN

UEFA held meetings with pro-Palestinian campaign over possible Israel suspension after ceasefire - The Athletic  The New York Times

US to fight efforts to ban Israel’s football team from World Cup 2026  Al Jazeera

Israel's sports arenas mark journalist Avi Meller's death  The Jerusalem Post

Israelis face danger, risks in sport contests abroad  The Jerusalem Post

Turning Israel into a sporting pariah is misguided, harmful  The Jerusalem Post

Spanish PM calls for Israel’s ban from sporting events over Gaza genocide  Al Jazeera

United Nations experts ask FIFA, UEFA to suspend Israel as 'necessary response' to conflict in Palestine  CBS Sports

The growing global momentum for a sports boycott of Israel  The New Arab

Israel facing growing backlash from sports world over its genocide in Gaza  Anadolu Ajansı

All’s Fair in Love and Sport: Why Israel Is Not Russia  HonestReporting

Germany beats Israel in World Cup qualifiers  The Jerusalem Post

Court rejects Israeli gymnastics’ appeals to be included in world championships - The Athletic  The New York Times

How Norway vs Israel became football’s most controversial fixture - The Athletic  The New York Times

Avi Meller dies: The voice of Israeli soccer legacy  The Jerusalem Post

Pro-Palestinian groups seek to ban Israel from FIFA 2026  The Jerusalem Post