World News

(JTA) — The actor Noa Nishby has gone to bat for Israel on U.S. college campuses as an official emissary of her home country. The philanthropist Miriam Adelson has underwritten multiple organizations dedicated to building pro-Israel sentiment in the United States. And now both prominent Israeli-Americans have publicly joined what is turning out to be…

This article was sent as a newsletter. Sign up for our weekly Jewish sports newsletter here.  Hello, Jewish Sport Report readers! Thank you to all who joined us in person and online for our event last night, “Jews on First: A Celebration at the World Baseball Classic.” And to those of you new to the…

(JTA) — Saudi Arabia has taken significant steps this week toward better relations with two countries that see each other as sworn enemies: Israel and Iran. On Thursday, the kingdom set terms for what it would need from the United States as a price for normalizing relations with Israel: a security agreement of some kind…

(JTA) — In the early 1960s, a Bulgarian-born scientist named Raphael Mechoulam was caught carrying five kilograms of, as he called it, “superb, smuggled Lebanese hashish” on a bus from Tel Aviv to Rehovot. But he wasn’t planning on smoking the stuff. Mechoulam was a fledgling researcher keen on exploring the science behind cannabis, a…

(JTA) — Last July, Abby Meyers helped lead Team USA to a gold medal in women’s basketball at the Maccabiah Games, or the “Jewish Olympics,” in Israel. Starting next week, she hopes to embark on a run towards another championship: a Division I NCAA tournament title. Meyers, a graduate transfer at the University of Maryland,…

(New York Jewish Week) — Israeli celebrity chef Eyal Shani, who currently boasts 40 restaurants worldwide, became a sensation on these shores when he opened Miznon in 2018 at Chelsea Market. There, he introduced New Yorkers to a new style of Mediterranean street food that eclipsed the usual falafel, hummus and shawarma offerings. Locals and tourists…

WASHINGTON (JTA) — Twenty Jewish Democrats called on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to suspend legislation that would remove much of the Israeli Supreme Court’s power, and to work out a compromise with the opposition. The letter sent Thursday cited efforts by Israeli President Isaac Herzog to convene the governing coalition and opposition for negotiations.…

(JTA) — Aaron Davidson has never been to Israel. He isn’t Jewish. He began serving in his position, Utah County clerk, just two months ago. But the policies he oversees in his office in Provo, Utah, could have an impact more than 7,000 miles away — in the halls of Israel’s parliament, the Knesset, in…

(New York Jewish Week) — Mayor Eric Adams is famous for his love of the city’s nightlife, and that mood was on display last Thursday as he hobnobbed with more than 100 people at the 40/40 Club, an upscale bar and restaurant in the Barclays Center, while dining on lamp-warmed samosas and chicken skewers. The…

This is a developing story. WASHINGTON (JTA) — A gunman shot and wounded three people outside a cafe on Dizengoff Street in Tel Aviv, striking a lively area of the city on Thursday night, the beginning of the weekend in Israel. It is the latest act of violence in a period of escalation in the…