JERUSALEM (AP) — For the first time in Yad Vashem’s 63-year history, live music echoed through the halls of Israel’s national Holocaust memorial in a somber tribute to the works of musicians who created a vibrant cultural life in the Terezin concentration camp before they were sent to their deaths. Standing upon replicas of train tracks and against a backdrop … Read More
JERUSALEM (AP) — While the European refugee crisis has captured the world’s attention, Sol Messinger is one of the few who can personally relate to the harrowing images of desperate families fleeing to safety by sea. The 84-year-old retired pathologist from Buffalo was aboard the SS St. Louis, the famed trans-Atlantic liner carrying nearly 1,000 Jewish refugees from Germany in … Read More
LOD, Israel (AP) — After years of abuse and death threats, Duaa Abu-Sharkh had finally divorced her husband, agreeing even to give up custody of her four young children and family property to escape his violent grip. Then, one night in late September, as the 32-year-old mother was dropping off her kids after a rare visit, a masked gunman dragged … Read More
JERUSALEM (AP) — As the senior representative of ultra-Orthodox Jews in Israel’s government, Health Minister Yaakov Litzman is unapologetic about the insular lifestyle he advocates, despite irking mainstream Israel and endangering its long-term economic prospects. He insists that shirking compulsory military service, rejecting secular education and raising large families on state subsidies all serve the noblest of purposes: a life … Read More
Shimon Peres was laid by dozens of world leaders who praised Israel’s former president and prime minister for pursuing peace with an indefatigable spirit and optimism, even though his vision of a “new Middle East” was never fulfilled. The AP’s Aron Heller reports for CTV from Jerusalem. [url href=”https://www.aronheller.com/articles/peres-remembered-for-tireless-peace-efforts-laid-to-rest/”] [url href=”https://www.facebook.com/CTVNewsChannel/videos/1196444223750240/” content=”Watch the Video” target=external]
JERUSALEM (AP) — Shimon Peres was laid to rest Friday by dozens of world leaders who praised Israel’s former president and prime minister for pursuing peace with an indefatigable spirit and optimism, even though his vision of a “new Middle East” was never fulfilled. At a high-powered funeral befitting the globe-trotting Peres, speakers including President Barack Obama recalled a seven-decade … Read More
JERUSALEM (AP) — Thousands of Israelis flocked to parliament Thursday to view the casket of Shimon Peres, paying final respects to the former president and prime minister whose life story mirrored that of his country. Dignitaries began arriving for a funeral that is expected to be Israel’s largest since that of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, Peres’ partner in peace who … Read More
JERUSALEM (AP) — Israel on Wednesday mourned the death of Shimon Peres, a former president and prime minister whose life story mirrored that of the Jewish state, as the government began preparations for a funeral that is expected to bring together world leaders and dignitaries. Peres, celebrated around the world as a Nobel Prize-winning visionary who pushed his country toward … Read More
TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — Seventy years after the most daring attempt of Jewish Holocaust survivors to seek revenge against their former tormentors, the leader of the plot has only one simple regret — that to his knowledge he didn’t actually succeed in killing any Nazis. Joseph Harmatz is one of the few remaining Jewish “Avengers” who carried out a … Read More
JERUSALEM (AP) — Forget the handshake that wasn’t — Israel is delighted with something much more unusual: international athletic success. While an Egyptian judoka’s refusal to shake hands with his Israeli opponent at the Rio Olympics reverberated worldwide, in Israel the focus is on national Olympic medals — something far more novel than Middle East tensions. The country entered the … Read More
JERUSALEM (AP) — Recently retired NBA All-Star Amare Stoudemire insists he has plenty of basketball left in him. Arriving in what he called “my favorite city in the world” for a new chapter as a player for Hapoel Jerusalem, Stoudemire says he came to Israel to win – and to continue a spiritual journal to trace his Hebrew roots. Hosting … Read More
JERUSALEM (AP) — The stories have been circulating in Israel for decades: Newborn babies and young children of Jewish immigrants from Arab countries mysteriously disappeared shortly after arriving in the country, purportedly snatched away and given to childless couples of European backgrounds. Although a series of inquiries have dismissed claims of abductions, the accusations of a conspiracy have lingered. Now, … Read More
JERUSALEM (AP) — Elie Wiesel never lived in Israel, but on Sunday the country mourned the death of the esteemed author and Nobel peace laureate as though it had lost a national icon. A frequent visitor who was fluent in Hebrew, Wiesel was a confidant of prime ministers and a towering cultural figure so revered that two premiers considered nominating … Read More
METULLA, Israel (AP) — A frontier town that juts into a hostile neighboring country and has a long history of militants firing upon it doesn’t seem like a typical place to seek serenity. But that’s exactly what you will find in Metulla, Israel’s most northerly point, which is engulfed by Lebanon on three sides but which is home to a … Read More
JERUSALEM (AP) — Oscar-winning actress Helen Mirren said Wednesday she was a “believer” in Israel and rejected efforts to boycott it. Mirren showered Israeli artists with praise and said she opposed both the efforts by pro-Palestinian groups to boycott them and the decision of some international artists to shun Israel. “I think that art is an incredibly important way of … Read More