Israelis in the Diaspora
Many years ago, I took a visiting Israeli academic to lunch in a Toronto club. There were few people present, and nothing about the place was very interesting, including the food.
I was about to apologize for taking my guest to such a dull venue when he exclaimed: “If only we had places like this in Israel!” He then said that being able to have lunch in a quiet club far away from the intensity of his daily life in Tel Aviv was idyllic. He craved it. This was one reason, he said, why he was happy to be in Canada.
Solomon Schechter students discover Israel
MONTREAL— The old saying, “Neither sleet nor rain nor snow” took on new meaning when 21 Grade 6 students arrived in Israel with 10 chaperones in the midst of one of Israel’s strongest winter storms.
Our trip was led by the Solomon Schechter Academy’s Judaic studies director Chani Cohen, executive director Jonathan Kuczer, and myself.
Thousands gather in Tel Aviv rally against Netanyahu
Tens of thousands of Israelis gathered in Tel Aviv’s Rabin Square calling for a change in the government.
“Israel Wants Change,” as the anti-Netanyahu rally held the night of March 7 was titled, attracted up to 40,000 people. The event was organized by the One Million Hands movement, a grassroots campaign against right-wing political parties in Israel that calls for a focus on socio-economic issues.
A new kind of Judaism is emerging in Israel
Some Israeli businessmen are said to have funded a campaign to get their fellow Jewish citizens to the traditional Shabbat table. Their message is commendable, but their ads that ridicule Jews who don’t observe Shabbat in a traditional way have alienated many of those whom they were supposed to attract. Ostensibly non-observant Israelis are scandalized. They insist that their way of life isn’t less authentically Jewish than that of those who denigrate it in the name of Judaism.
12 stabbed and four seriously wounded in Tel Aviv bus attack
TEL AVIV — At least 12 people were wounded, some seriously, when a Palestinian man began stabbing people aboard Tel Aviv’s number 40 bus.
Four victims, including the driver, remained in serious condition following the Wednesday morning attack, which initial reports said injured between 12 and 21 people.
Actor Michael Douglas wins $1 million Genesis Prize
TEL AVIV — Actor and peace activist Michael Douglas is the recipient of the 2015 Genesis Prize.
The decision was announced on Jan. 14 night by the Genesis Prize Foundation. The $ 1 million prize will be awarded by human rights activist and Jewish Agency Chairman Natan Sharansky and the prime minister of Israel in Jerusalem on June 18.
Douglas said he plans to use the $1 million prize money for promoting activities designed to raise awareness of inclusiveness and diversity in Judaism, according to the prize foundation.
Q&A Uzi Landau: Seeking to boost travel to Israel
Uzi Landau has served in the Israeli cabinet in a number of roles over the years, including as minister of internal security, and minister of energy and water. As a member of the Yisrael Beitenu party, he currently serves as the country’s minister of tourism. Landau, who was a member of the Likud party for many years, was in Toronto last month where he met with local Jewish community leaders at a breakfast organized by the Israel Government Tourist Office jointly with the Consulate General of Israel. He spoke with The CJN.
The sad state of Israel’s African ‘infiltrators’
Jewish values – particularly ve’ahavta lere’echa kamocha (love your fellow as you love yourself) – and basic morality have taken me deep into the Negev desert to Holot, the “open” prison for African asylum seekers, on several recent occasions.
According to Israeli government statistics, at the end of 2014, there were nearly 46,500 African “infiltrators” residing in Israel, mostly from Sudan and Eritrea.
