HaBayit Shel Benji is named for Benji Hillman, a British-born IDF soldier who fell in the 2006 Second Lebanon War. It now hosts 50 lone soldiers. Benji Hillman and the rest of his family immigrated to Israel from London in 1983. He joined the Israel Defense Forces in 1998, going on to serve as an officer. Benji was sent to the front lines during the Second Lebanon War. Three weeks after his wedding, he fell in combat. Years later, his parents decided to commemorate his life by founding HaBayit Shel Benji--Hebrew …More

Rome's Jewish community leaders praised Fiamma Nirenstein, a journalist and former Italian Parliament member, in a sendoff ahead of her move to Israel. The Rome Jewish Community board, along with representatives of other Jewish organizations and the Israeli ambassador to Italy, toasted Nirenstein on Friday at a ceremony held before Shabbat. The Florence native was scheduled to move permanently to Israel over the weekend. “Her contribution in the last legislature was decisive, and not to be able to see her …More

In 1991, the Israeli government set out on a covert mission to bring members of the Ethiopian Diaspora to the Jewish state. Tensions were high in the African nation, as Mengistu Haile Mariam’s government was near overthrow. Jewish groups grew wary of what this might mean for Ethiopia’s Jewish population. These Jews, known as Beta Israel, numbered in the thousands. Under Mariam, Ethiopian Jews faced difficult paths to aliyah. But with military wins by Eritrean and Tigerean rebels, Mariam’s power …More

A female solicitor in Rawtenstall, England was fined for telling a colleague she “could not stand Jewish people.” [LT] The Yale University Slifka Center for Jewish Life was threatened with an arson attack on Shavuot. [NHR] John Galliano was removed from his upcoming teaching position at Parsons The New School for Design, after a protest by the school’s Jewish Students Union. [Forward] Two women have volunteered to attempt to save the Canadian Jewish News, which plans to close its operations …More

A young Russian immigrant received her Israeli citizenship Wednesday, and will now be able to represent Israel in official gymnastics tournaments. Twelve year-old Ksanya Kasrin has been waiting for this day for six years. Until recently, she registered for international competitions with her Russian passport, not as a part of Team Israel. Kasrin is currently ranked third in Israel, and recently won the Bronze medal in a Russian competition for her age group. She is considered a great talent and hope for …More

As part of its Yom Hazikaron commemorations, the Knesset honored fallen soldier Michael Levin, a Philadelphia-born man who made aliyah and was killed in the Second Lebanon War. Levin immigrated to the Jewish state in 2002 at the age of 17. He joined the Paratroop Brigade, cutting short a vacation in the US to rejoin his squad at the outbreak of the war with Lebanon in 2006. On August 21 that same year, he was killed by a Hezbollah sniper in the southern Lebanese village of Ayta a-Shayeb. He was just 21. Last …More

Darkness descended on the airport in the Ethiopian capital of Addis Ababa, and the Hercules aircraft opened up. The red lights flashing from inside the plane, the hot air whizzing off the propellers, and the great roar of the engine combined to create a surreal scene as the Ethiopian Jewish olim (immigrants to Israel) continued their march towards freedom in the land of Israel. While the sounds first appeared nightmarish to the Ethiopian olim, it also provided a great sense of relief – the relief of the end …More

A member of the Muslim community calls on the Arab League to end their boycott on purchasing Israeli-made goods. [New York Times] All-Ukranian Jewish Congress president, Vadim Rabinovich, was the target of a car bombing earlier this week. [Israel National News] After going on Birthright, Jewish students return to Israel for humanitarian and volunteer work. [Haaretz] A comedy series at Baruch College highlights female Jewish comediennes. [Jewish Week] Jewish Home and Likud parties are headed toward final …More

Arielle Adler wasn’t born in Israel, but that didn’t stop her from making the Jewish state her homeland. Adler immigrated from the US in 2011 and joined the Israeli armed forces, a story the IDF shared today via Facebook. “When Cpl. Arielle Adler made aliyah in 2011, she was constantly told that her Zionist vision was naive and that she would become jaded after seeing the real Israel,” the IDF said. “She disagreed — and it shows…Israel is stronger because of people …More

On February 11, 1986, Natan Sharansky made history, crossing the Glienicke Bridge in East Germany into freedom in the west. That moment was the culmination of nine years of international work on the part of the Jewish community to see Sharansky freed from Soviet prison. Sharansky was born in 1948 in the Ukraine. To fight off anti-Semitism, Sharansky’s parents downplayed their Judaism at all costs, resulting in an adult Sharansky who knew little about his own religion. Following the Six Days War, however, …More

Rabbi David Hartman, a Jewish professor who founded Jerusalem’s prestigious Shalom Hartman Institute, died Sunday at the age of 81. Hartman was born in Brooklyn in 1931 and studied at the Yeshiva Chaim Berlin and the Lubavitch Yeshiva, receiving his rabbinical degree from Yeshiva University in New York in 1953. He earned a doctorate in philosophy from Montreal’s McGill University and served as rabbi at that city’s Congregation Tifereth Beth David Jerusalem, a synagogue he founded …More

A group of Jews from Yemen arrived in Israel via Doha on a Qatari flight, the Iranian Fars news agency reported. The Fars report on Sunday cited the Palestinian Arab-language weekly al-Manar, which quoted "informed sources" as saying that the undetermined number of Jews from Yemen had landed in Israel. Israel is planning to bring more Yemeni Jews in the coming months, according to Fars. The Jewish community of Yemen last year numbered an estimated 130, with 50 living in the capital Sana’a in a compound …More