JERUSALEM (JTA) — Egyptian protesters who have been camped out in Tahrir Square in Cairo said they will suspend their activities until after the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. The protesters, who since early July have been demonstrating against the Egyptian military’s handling of the transition to democratic reform, made the announcement Sunday and said [ Read More...]

JERUSALEM (JTA) — An $87 million agreement has ended damages claims for compensation by Jewish evacuees from the Gaza Strip and the West Bank. Israel’s Cabinet approved the agreement Sunday. “The agreement will allow for the completion of the evacuees’ moves to permanent communities and their embarking on a new path,” said a statement issued [ Read More...]

JERUSALEM (JTA) — Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he will form a ministerial committee to address the country’s economic challenges. In the wake of massive protests across Israel, Netanyahu on Sunday said he would appoint a special team of ministers and experts to listen to representatives of the protesters and to submit a plan “to [ Read More...]

(JTA) — Thousands of Israelis gathered for the funeral of Rabbi Elazar Abuhatzeira, a prominent kabbalist murdered by an apparently disgruntled advice-seeker. The 70-year-old Abuhatzeira was buried Friday on Jerusalem’s Mount of Olives, the day after he was killed at a Beersheva yeshiva, where he was receiving visitors. Asher Dahan, 42, reportedly confessed to stabbing [ Read More...]

(JTA) — New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg accidentally addressed Muslim leaders at a Ramadan gathering with a “Shalom.” Bloomberg apparently had intended to say “Salaam aleikum,” a traditional Arabic greeting, to those gathered at the Wednesday event at New York’s police headquarters. But instead the mayor said, “Shalom alaikum.” “Well, it’s common to both [ Read More...]

(JTA) — The purchase of a Jerusalem soccer team by two American Jews reportedly fell through. Ynet, an Israeli news website, reported Thursday that the sale of the Beitar Jerusalem team seems to have fallen apart. According to Ynet, a planned $400,000 transfer from would-be owners Dan Adler and Adam Levin never went through to [ Read More...]

WASHINGTON (JTA) — The United States reiterated its opposition to any unilateral Palestinian attempt to seek statehood recognition at the United Nations. “Let there be no doubt: symbolic actions to isolate Israel at the United Nations in September will not create an independent Palestinian state,” Rosemary DiCarlo, the deputy U.S. envoy to the United Nations, [ Read More...]

By Ron Kampeas WASHINGTON (JTA) — The Anti-Defamation League is seeking Americans born in Jerusalem to back a Supreme Court challenge to the U.S. policy preventing such citizens from listing Israel as their country of birth. “Americans born in Jerusalem, or American parents of minors born in Jerusalem, are invited to join the new ad [ Read More...]

By Penny Schwartz BOSTON (JTA) — Ten years ago, Sonia Saltzman was a frequent business traveler to Latin America for a Boston-based nonprofit job in international micro-lending. Evette Lutman spent more than 10 years working as an attorney representing battered women and serving as a family referee in a Michigan county courthouse. Charles Friedman worked [ Read More...]

WASHINGTON (JTA) — Rabbi Arthur Waskow was arrested at a prayer protest in the U.S. Capitol to bring attention to proposed budget cuts to programs for the poor. Waskow was one of nine clergy who was arrested after refusing police orders to move while praying in the U.S. Capitol. The clergy members called on Congress [ Read More...]