World News
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2 Israeli sisters, ages 16 and 20, killed in West Bank shooting
(JTA) — Gunmen shot and killed two Israeli sisters and critically injured their mother in an attack on a car in the West Bank on Friday. First responders responded to what at first was believed to be a car accident at Hamra junction in the northern Jordan Valley, Israeli media reported. They found a car…
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Israeli air strikes hit Gaza and Lebanon in retaliation for rocket attacks
(JTA) – Israeli combat aircraft hit targets in Lebanon and the Gaza Strip after a day of rocket attacks from both areas, as the fallout from clashes at a Jerusalem holy site rolled into their fourth day. The air strikes before dawn on Friday came hours after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu convened a meeting…
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A group of Israeli emissaries toured a Palestinian museum in DC, and came away with questions
WASHINGTON (JTA) — For Rotem Yerushalmi, a professional campus pro-Israel advocate, what stood out during a recent visit to the Museum of the Palestinian People was an exhibit showcasing different villages’ ceremonial dress. She strolled past references to the Nakba, which means “catastrophe” and denotes the dispersion of Palestinians during Israel’s War of Independence. And…
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Now translated into 49 Jewish languages: the Jewish spring ritual of counting the Omer
(JTA) — There are 49 days between the second night of Passover and the holiday of Shavuot, but who’s counting? Jews the world over, in fact, and in languages familiar and obscure. The daily counting of the Omer is an old ritual being given new life this season by the Jewish Language Project at Hebrew Union…
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4 decades later, new trial of alleged 1980 Paris synagogue bomber offers victims opportunity for closure
PARIS (JTA) — The courtroom was crowded but the defendant’s seat was empty on Monday as a landmark trial in French Jewish history got underway, nearly 43 years after the synagogue bombing that Hassan Diab stands accused of orchestrating. An arrest warrant in the 1980 bombing that killed four people and wounded 46 was first…
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George Washington U faces federal investigation over antisemitism charges after clearing professor of them
(JTA) – Little more than a week after it dismissed allegations of antisemitism against one of its professors, George Washington University will face a federal investigation over the same allegations. The U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights will open an investigation into a federal discrimination complaint brought against the university by the pro-Israel…
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Rocket barrage from Lebanon into northern Israel escalates tensions after Temple Mount clash
(JTA) — Dozens of rockets fired from Lebanon hit Israel’s north in a significant escalation of tensions that followed clashes between Israeli police and Palestinian worshipers at a Jerusalem holy site. Israel’s government-run Kan broadcaster said at least 30 rockets had crossed into Israel on Thursday, the first full day of the Passover holiday. All…
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How on-the-rise Jewish indie rocker Blondshell takes inspiration from Larry David and Sarah Silverman
(JTA) — When she sits down to write song lyrics, Sabrina Teitelbaum, who records music under the moniker Blondshell, doesn’t plan to reference her Jewishness. It just spills out in subtle turns of phrase. In her song “Sepsis,” for instance, the quickly-rising 25-year-old rocker sings: “I think I believe in getting saved/Not by Jesus validation/In…
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Embodying a story of trauma and liberation, Ukrainian Jews celebrate Passover amid a new normal
KYIV, Ukraine (JTA) — Yuliia Krainiakova fled her home in Kharkiv, Ukraine, after Russian troops invaded last year and made her way to Berlin, where she and her daughters settled for 10 months with the help of Jewish organizations. After returning to Kharkiv several months ago, she hoped to experience some of the Jewish gatherings…
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An Episcopalian bishop warns his congregation against holding Christian Passover seders
(JTA) — For years, a growing number of Jews have issued the same public request ahead of Passover: Christians, please don’t hold your own seders glorifying Jesus. Now, some Christian clergy are passing that same message onto their followers. Last week, the Episcopal bishop of Missouri, the Rev. Deon K. Johnson, posted an open letter…
