Israel at 70
New Bible seeks to connect modern and ancient Israel
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JERUSALEM (RNS) — A new Hebrew-English Bible with a distinctly Israeli flavor will be published in honor of Israel’s 70th anniversary.
Holocaust remembrance
At Auschwitz, thousands join the March of the Living to honor the dead
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OSWIECIM, Poland (RNS) — This year a record 12,000 youths and adults from nearly 50 countries — one third of them non-Jews — took part in the march.
March of the Living
At Auschwitz, remembering the Holocaust after the passage of a contentious Polish law
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KRAKOW, Poland (RNS) — Swirling around Thursday’s annual march are questions about Poles’ willingness to grapple with some of their forebears’ participation in the Holocaust.
anti-Semitism
Charlottesville mayor says social media fed hatred and violence at 2017 rally
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JERUSALEM (RNS) — Mike Signer, the former mayor of Charlottesville, Va., began receiving anti-Semitic messages in early 2017, when, for the first time, he started to speak publicly about being Jewish.
Middle East
‘Ignorance’ feeds anti-Semitism in the Arab world
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JERUSALEM (RNS) — How to deal with the problem was the challenge posed at a conference in Jerusalem.
Israel
Jerusalem tax spat pits heaven against earth
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JERUSALEM (RNS) — An ethereal city graced with sunlight so bright it turns the white stone skyline gold at sunset, Jerusalem is also an earthbound city whose teachers must be paid and whose garbage must be collected.
refugees
In Israel, a rabbinical plan to hide Africans facing deportation
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JERUSALEM (RNS) — ‘If someone had told me 10 years ago this would happen, I’d have said a Jewish state would never send desperate refugees away to their deaths,’ said Rabbi Susan Silverman, sister of comedian Sarah Silverman.
Judaism
More Israeli ultra-Orthodox Jews buck tradition and head for the army, higher ed
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JERUSALEM (RNS) — ‘My father didn’t serve and neither did my nearly 100 cousins, not that I hold it against them,’ said one ultra-Orthodox soldier.
holidays 2017
In Christ’s birthplace, olive wood artisans carry on a Holy Land tradition
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BETHLEHEM, West Bank (RNS) — Artisans in and around Bethlehem specialize in carving wood from a tree that makes several appearances in the Bible. They consider the work — a millennium-old tradition — holy. But clashes between Israelis and Palestinians threaten this year’s Christmastime sales.
Israel
Celebrating Hanukkah where the dominant winter holiday isn’t Christmas
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(RNS) — Hanukkah in the Holy Land gives Jews who have immigrated to Israel a sense of belonging they don’t feel anywhere else.
Holy Land
Cheers, rage and shrugs after Trump recognizes Jerusalem as Israel’s capital
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JERUSALEM (RNS) — The president made the declaration despite world leaders’ warnings that the move would further incite an already volatile region and make it harder to restart peace talks between Israelis and Palestinians.
bridging divides
Middle East’s Samaritans link Muslims and Jews
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MOUNT GERIZIM (RNS) — Every Samaritan has both a Hebrew name and an Arabic name, and Samaritans are fluent in both languages — but not fully accepted by either Muslims or Jews, community members say.
book
Some think interfaith dialogue goes nowhere. A veteran rabbi begs to differ.
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JERUSALEM (RNS) – ‘No one living in Northern Ireland, South Africa or Bosnia-Herzegovina 30 or 40 years ago believed their conflicts would end, but they did,’ said Rabbi Ron Kronish.
religion and state
Kosher? Historic ruling lets Israeli diners decide
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JERUSALEM (RNS) — The court’s kashrut ruling comes at a time of mounting legal challenges to the ultra-Orthodox religious establishment’s control over everything from Jewish marriage and divorce to who is considered a Jew and who isn’t.
Museum of the Bible
After the Hobby Lobby scandal, a spotlight on antiquities sales in Israel
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(RNS) — “The removal of artifacts from a country belongs to the imperial era and this should not be happening anymore,” said Gabriel Barkay, a renowned Israeli biblical archaeologist. “It dates to a time when archaeologists thought the nations where they excavated were primitive and saw themselves as the guardians of cultural treasures.”