By CNAAN LIPHSHIZ NEW YORK CITY (JTA) – Austria is led by one of the country’s most remarkable politicians in recent decades: Sebastian Kurz, who was elected chancellor in 2017 at just 31 years old. Kurz is immediately striking for a world leader — he’s tall and boyishly handsome, with a mane of slicked-back hair. Since taking the reins, his […]

DC Report By Douglas Bloomfield It’s been coming a long time, but it took on a new clarity in the Bronx two weeks ago. Rep. Eliot Engel, 73, a lackluster Democratic House member who rose to the top less by talent than by longevity, was soundly defeated for nomination for a 17th term by a relative unknown. Until then Engel was […]

By GABE FRIEDMAN NEW YORK CITY (JTA) – Since April, all eyes following the Israeli-Palestinian conflict were glued to July 1. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had negotiated the date into his government coalition deal with his rival Benny Gantz. On July 1, as stipulated in the agreement, Netanyahu could put the topic of annexing the West Bank — a […]

By MARCY OSTER JERUSALEM (JTA) – The discovery of 200,000-year-old fossils in a cave in northern Israel shows that the first humans migrated to Israel during the Ice Age, or 100,000 years earlier than previously believed. The findings were published in the Journal of Human Evolution by Lior Weissbrod of the Israel Antiquities Authority and Mina Weinstein-Evron of the Zinman […]

By JOSH HASTEN (JNS) – Atop a nearly barren mountain ridge at the tip of southeastern Gush Etzion, with breathtaking views overlooking the Judean Desert and the Dead Sea, two American immigrants are building an oasis—a working organic farm and spiritual retreat center—with the hope of turning the site into a global tourist destination. Meet Ari Abramowitz and Jeremy Gimpel. […]

By Ambassador (ret.) Yoram Ettinger, “Second Thought: a US-Israel Initiative” June 26, 2020, https://bit.ly/2YAtM48 On March 28-30, 2020, the US-Israel air forces conducted a joint F-35 jet training exercise over southern Israel.  It took place while most US joint military maneuvers with allied forces were suspended due to the Covid19 pandemic. The exercise highlighted the blossoming, mutually-beneficial US-Israel strategic cooperation, […]

By CNAAN LIPHSHIZ NEW YORK CITY (JTA) – Recently, thousands of Jews in Israel and beyond responded to a plea for help in identifying a couple pictured in a yellowing photograph from 1955. “Everyone, I need help. I found this picture on a Tel Aviv street,” Ariel Plavnik, a 43-year-old tourism salesperson from Kfar Saba, Israel, wrote in Hebrew and […]

(JNS) – Following a reported Iranian hack of Israel’s water infrastructure in April, the country’s National Cyber Directorate took responsibility for overseeing and protecting the water supply system—using, among other things, fish. In addition to high-tech detection systems, Israel also employs fish at the Eshkol water purification site in Beersheva to monitor the water and to detect any changes, according […]

(JNS) – Nearly 100 students from the Jerusalem College of Technology’s Tal and Lustig campuses for women, comprised of religious and Ultra-Orthodox students, completed a 44-hour online hackathon in which they designed and marketed innovative solutions for populations affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. Dating The winning product, announced on June 19, was the design of a virtual platform to enable […]

By ARIEL BEN SOLOMON (JNS) – Tensions have run increasingly high between the Jordanians and Saudis on one side, and the Turks and Qataris on the other over control of the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. Turkey’s Agenda “Turkey’s neo-Ottominism in its foreign policy seeks to re-establish its empire; however, the audience is not Western elites, but is meant for domestic […]