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Naomi Seidman, left, explains the layout of a Torah page to a Muslim-Jewish text study class in Berkeley while co-instructor Hatem Bazian looks on, Feb. 2, 2010.

Jewish-Muslim study course grounds interfaith dialogue in sacred text

Naomi Seidman, left, explains the layout of a Torah page to a Muslim-Jewish text study class in Berkeley while co-instructor Hatem Bazian looks on, Feb. 2, 2010. (A.H. Sellars) Read more »

NIF fracas: Defending Israel or destroying democracy?

By Leslie Susser · February 8, 2010

A campaign against the New Israel Fund -- a U.S.-based organization that funds civil society activists in Israel -- has sparked a fierce debate over the limits of free speech, the financing of NGOs, the dictates of loyalty to the state and, ultimately, over the fundamental values of Israel's Zionist democracy. Read more »

Top Stories

Im Tirtzu founders say their fight is against anti-Zionists, not left-wingers

By Ben Harris

With calls for a "second Zionist revolution," the founders of an Israeli student group embroiled in a controversy over the New Israel Fund say that Israel has lost its sense of purpose. Read more »

Will Israel’s response to Goldstone be enough?

By Uriel Heilman

With its report on its own investigation of its wartime conduct in Gaza, Israel says it has fulfilled the conditions required by the Goldstone report on the Gaza war. So will the charges of Israeli war crimes cited by Goldstone now just go away? Read more »

Op-Ed: The vital center and Modern Orthodoxy

By Shmuel Hain

In the face of escalating controversy over Modern Orthodoxy, Rabbi Shmuel Hain of Yeshiva University argues for shifting focus to the center and to substance. For example, he says, stop fighting over the decision by two rabbis to bestow a feminized version of the title rabbi to a woman, and instead focus on discussing how to create positions for female scholars to serve as spiritual, pastoral and educational resources that will be widely accepted. Read more »

The Jewish agenda in Washington for 2010

Following President Obama's State of the Union address and the start of the new congressional year, JTA asked Jewish organizations operating in Washington the following questions: "What is the one goal you hope the administration and Congress will achieve this year, and what advice would you offer them to make it happen?" Read more »

Blogs

The Fundermentalist

Galperin to leave D.C. federation to take senior spot with JAFI

Misha Galperin has notified the board of the Jewish Federation of Greater Washington that he will leave… Read Blog »

Capital J

Barnea: U.S. Jewish leaders press Bibi to block NIF probe

Yediot’s Nahum Barnea, by many accounts Israel’s most respected political columnist, reports… Read Blog »

The Telegraph

Oren at Irvine

Watch the video of Israel’s ambassador being heckled throughout his speech at UC-Irvine. Read Blog »

The Wandering Jew

Guest Post: Final Thoughts from Panama

Rabbi Joshua Kullock with some final observation about the UJCL convention, held last week in Panama.… Read Blog »

Quibbles and Kibbitz

Dershowitz went too far in slamming Goldstone

Americans for Peace Now CEO Debra DeLee chastises Alan Dershowitz for his “character assassination”… Read Blog »

Photos and Videos

Alpine skier Michael Renzin, left, and the brother-sister ice-dancing team of Roman and Alexandra Zaretsky comprise the Israeli delegation for the Winter Olympics in Vancover, Canada. (The Olympic Committee of Israel / Flash90 / JTA) Some 150 seniors diced a ton of fruits to make what was called the largest Russian fruit salad in an event marking the New Year for Fruits in Moscow at the Chabad-Lubavitch Shaarei Tzedek senior center, Jan. 31, 2010. The fruit salad was later distributed to the needy. (Chabad.org) The IDF relief team in Haiti waits to board an El Al plane home, Jan. 27, 2010. All Haitian patients under Israeli care were transferred to other hospitals. (Joe Shalmoni) Two South American immigrants to Israel dance at a Jewish Agency for Israel welcoming ceremony in Jerusalem on Jan. 28, 2010, for some 100 new olim from South America. (Brian Hendler) Actor Sean Penn, right, greets Joseph, a 20-year-old Haitian who received life-saving surgery, at the Israel Defense Forces Medical Corps field hospital in Port-au-Prince. (Joe Shalmoni) Israeli President Shimon Peres speaking before the German parliament, or Bundestag, in honor of International Holocaust Remembrance Day, on the 65th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, Jan. 27, 2010. (Office of the President of Israel) Capt. Ori Nurick leads in transporting an injured woman into the Israeli army's field hospital in the Haitian capital Port-au-Prince, Jan. 22, 2010. (Joe Shalmoni) Rabbi Shaul Offen, right foreground, reading the Torah at the Israel Defense Forces Medical Unit Field Hospital Camp, Port-au-Prince, Jan. 22, 2010. (Joe Shalmoni) Israeli President Shimon Peres, flanked by NASA administrator Charles Bolden and Rona Ramon, widow of the Israeli astronaut Ilan Ramon, displaying a special plaque presented by Bolden showing photographs that Bolden took from space while on a space mission to launch the Hubble telescope. (Office of the President of Israel) The Israel Defense Forces' medical and rescue team in Port-au-Prince rescuing a Haitian government worker who was trapped for five days before evacuating him to an IDF field hospital, Jan. 17, 2010. (IDF / Flash90 / JTA)

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  • Alpine skier Michael Renzin, left, and the brother-sister ice-dancing team of Roman and Alexandra Zaretsky comprise the Israeli delegation for the Winter Olympics in Vancover, Canada.
  • Some 150 seniors diced a ton of fruits to make what was called the largest Russian fruit salad in an event marking the New Year for Fruits in Moscow at the Chabad-Lubavitch Shaarei Tzedek senior center, Jan. 31, 2010. The fruit salad was later distributed to the needy.
  • The IDF relief team in Haiti waits to board an El Al plane home, Jan. 27, 2010. All Haitian patients under Israeli care were transferred to other hospitals.
  • Two South American immigrants to Israel dance at a Jewish Agency for Israel welcoming ceremony in Jerusalem on Jan. 28, 2010, for some 100 new olim from South America.
  • Actor Sean Penn, right, greets Joseph, a 20-year-old Haitian who received life-saving surgery, at the Israel Defense Forces Medical Corps field hospital in Port-au-Prince.
  • Israeli President Shimon Peres speaking before the German parliament, or Bundestag, in honor of International Holocaust Remembrance Day, on the 65th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, Jan. 27, 2010.
  • Capt. Ori Nurick leads in transporting an injured woman into the Israeli army's field hospital in the Haitian capital Port-au-Prince, Jan. 22, 2010.
  • Rabbi Shaul Offen, right foreground, reading the Torah at the Israel Defense Forces Medical Unit Field Hospital Camp, Port-au-Prince, Jan. 22, 2010.
  • Israeli President Shimon Peres, flanked by NASA administrator Charles Bolden and Rona Ramon, widow of the Israeli astronaut Ilan Ramon, displaying a special plaque presented by Bolden showing photographs that Bolden took from space while on a space mission to launch the Hubble telescope.
  • The Israel Defense Forces' medical and rescue team in Port-au-Prince rescuing a Haitian government worker who was trapped for five days before evacuating him to an IDF field hospital, Jan. 17, 2010.
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