Israeli military figures and religious students are objecting to the selection of supermodel Bar Refaeli to front an ad campaign aimed at raising Israel's public image. Brig. Gen. Yoav Mordechai, a spokesman for the Israel Defense Forces, criticized the choice of Refaeli because she did not serve in the Israeli military in a letter Sunday to the Foreign Ministry. "The choice of a representative who did not serve in the military as an official presenter on behalf of Israel conveys the message that we ignore and …More

Yuval and Liran's campaign to legalize surrogacy in Israel for gay couples got a new boost yesterday, as Joan Rivers and the stars of "Fashion Police" threw their weight behind the effort. The Jewish celebrity was photographed with a sign reading, "We want them to have a baby too!” The gesture came after Jewish LBGT group A Wider Bridge sent the story to "Fashion Police" head writer and Joan’s close friend, Toni Tripoli. “We’re so touched by the story, and the cast would be happy to do …More

The family of a Jewish woman from London is calling on the international Jewish community to help find a bone marrow match. Sharon Berger is battling myelodysplastic syndrome, a pre-leukemic syndrome, and without a bone marrow transplant she may soon die. "It really is a race against time, my mom's chemotherapy started this week which means that in six weeks’ time she will need a bone marrow transplant, and a good match has not yet been found," Sharon’s daughter Jonni Berger explained. To help her …More

More than half of all donations made to Israeli politicians’ campaigns over the past two years came from overseas contributors. Donations to political campaigns by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during that period amounted to $311,000, with 96.8 percent coming from outside Israel, according to Haaretz in a front page report on Friday. The paper wrote that Netanyahu received donations from several members of the Falick family from Miami, Florida. In total, the paper found that Israeli politicians raised …More

President Obama received a rabbinical endorsement this week, in the form of “Rabbis for Obama.” The group includes more than 600 rabbis who added their names to a list yesterday, in a show of support for the president leading up to November’s election. A majority of the spiritual leaders are Reform and Conservative, though there are some Orthodox rabbis included. The complete list can be viewed at barackobama.com/rabbis. The rabbis are representing their own views, not the views of any unions …More

A series of pro-Israeli billboards began popping up this week along suburban New York streets. StandWithUs, an Israeli advocacy group, began its ad campaign Monday at Metro-North railway stations in Westchester County, with a total of 75 billboards to promote the Jewish cause. Its goal: To dispel untruths and common misconceptions about Israel. Jspace caught up with Roz Rothstein, CEO of StandWithUs, to learn more about the campaign and what the group hopes to achieve through this outreach project. Jspace: How …More

A 29-year-old Jewish Obama campaign staffer collapsed in the president's campaign headquarters in Chicago and died. Alex Okrent died on July 13. He was a member of the campaign's advertising department, according to the Chicago Sun-Times. He had worked on Obama's 2008 presidential campaign and his 2004 U.S. Senate campaign, the newspaper reported. Obama personally Tweeted: "A beloved member of our campaign family, Alex Okrent, passed away today. Our prayers are with his loved ones. We will miss you, Alex. -bo." …More

NoCamels Team, NoCamels - Israeli Innovation News International pop star Justin Bieber has joined Children’s National Medical Center in Washington DC for a new fundraising campaign named Music Makes it Better. The campaign, launched this week, is powered by the Israeli fundraising platform give2gether. According to the campaign organizers, its objective is to raise $25,000 to fund services like music and art therapy for children treated at the center. “Music and art and creativity are important …More

Facebook and Twitter campaign Just One Minute was inaugurated today to support an online petition requesting a moment of silence at the upcoming London Olympic Games in memory of the Munich 11. Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon released a one-minute video in support of the cause, urging the International Olympic Committee to dedicate just one minute of silence during the opening ceremony in honor of the Israeli athletes murdered in 1972. “Please, help us call on the International Olympic …More

A campaign flyer connected to a US Senate candidate in Maryland notes the number of Jewish senators now serving. A flyer for C. Anthony Muse, a Democratic state senator and an African American, points out that there are no African Americans serving in the US Senate while highlighting the 12 Jewish senators in office. According to the Muse campaign, the flyer was “misleading and inaccurate,” but when pressed by the Baltimore Sun about who was responsible for sending it out, the campaign’s …More

Remember those Israeli ads aimed at luring Israeli expats home that American Jews found so offensive last fall? After a brouhaha over them erupted in early December, the Israeli prime minister said he was pulling the ad campaign. It turns out the Israeli Ministry of Immigrant Absorption is still running a modified version of at least one of the ads (though it's hard to see anything offensive in this watered-down version). …More

The Israeli government has canceled a viral ad campaign encouraging expat Israelis to return to the Jewish state after a wave of complaints from American Jews. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered the campaign canceled after receiving a letter from the Jewish Federations of North America calling the message "outrageous and insulting." Under the umbrella slogan "It's time to return to Israel," ads and billboards depicting everyday situations showed how Israelis and their American children risk losing touch …More