Yair Lapid opened up about speculation that his political acumen is fading in a sit down with the New York Times. Lapid, the head of Israel’s new Yesh Atid party, shocked the international world last January when his party became the second largest in the Knesset. Since that time, however, Lapid has struggled under his role as finance minister, in particular with regards to an austerity budget that increased taxes and made certain subsidy cuts. “I’m going to be bashed now, and be the …More

German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle met with Israeli leaders Friday in Jerusalem, iterating his nation’s support for the Jewish state. "I'm using the word friendship, which is from our understanding more than a partnership,” Westerwelle told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. “This is not only a strategic alliance; this is a friendship between societies, between peoples and between governments.” He added: "We will do what we can to support the security and a peaceful and …More

Israeli leaders and groups around the world marked the 68th anniversary of VE Day yesterday, a commemoration of Nazi Germany’s surrender. Each year, the anniversary is marked in the Jewish state by parades and celebrations, where Jewish vets come out to remember the victory. “I call on you, young people standing here today: Look toward these fighters, look into their eyes and know that they are role models,” Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat said yesterday at one such rally. Hundreds marched in the …More

As Jerusalemites gathered today to celebrate Yom Yerushalayim, Jerusalem Day, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu paid tribute to the annual commemoration with a special pre-celebration at Mount Herzl. Currently in China on a diplomatic trip, Netanyahu honored the day early, hosting his weekly cabinet meeting at the Mount on Sunday. The meeting inaugurated a new museum at the site, and Bibi invited Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat to the event, using the occasion to highlight the capital’s importance to the Jewish …More

“It felt like Messiah had come,” says Avigail Shlesinger, 81, of the day Jerusalem was liberated from the Jordan army 46 years ago. Shlesinger, who is from a six-generation Jerusalem family, recalls what life was like in the Holy City during the time that the Jordanians were in control from 1948 to 1967. “It was a dangerous era,” she tells Tazpit News Agency. “There were areas in the city like King George Street where barriers had to be built to stop the bullets that Jordanian …More

More young people are choosing to live in Jerusalem than in recent years. The data was released this week by the Central Bureau of Statistics in honor of Jerusalem Day, which will be celebrated tomorrow. The report also showed signs that the city is on an upward track in regard to population as well as attractiveness as a place of residence. The CBS found that 88 percent of those living in the city are pleased with Jerusalem as a whole, a figure that is two percent higher than those living in Tel Aviv and four …More

A stand of pine trees planted during the Jordanian occupation has been illegally cut down by developers to make room for a new housing complex. The 536 pine trees provided one of the last green areas in an otherwise rocky terrain in the Har Homa neighborhood of Jerusalem. Residents have been locked in a battle with the contractors since they noticed the trees were marked to be cut and decided to take their fight to court to prevent the destruction of the small forest. “I saw that all the trees were marked, …More

Nir Barkat has plenty of reason to advocate for Jerusalem. Not only is he local mayor of the city, but he was also raised there. Barkat was born in 1959 and moved with his family to the Israeli capital at a young age. At the age of 18, he joined the Paratroopers Brigade of the IDF, where he served for a total of six years, more than the compulsory time. Barkat was promoted to the rank of Major and received a bachelor’s degree in computer science at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. He used those …More

Judy Lash Balint, JNS.org Tens of thousands will visit the Old City on May 8 for Jerusalem Day, the anniversary of the reunification of Jerusalem during the 1967 Six Day War. While celebrations go on above ground, new excavations underneath and around the Old City are being uncovered and opened to the public, peeling back layers of history and expanding understanding of events in the center of the Jewish universe. Old City expert Rabbi Barnea Selevan, a veteran licensed tour guide and co-director of Foundation …More

War, water pollution and human land development have left critically endangered wildlife in the Middle East on the brink of extinction. At Jerusalem’s Biblical Zoo, researchers are working hard at giving these native species a fighting chance through a unique breeding program. “One of the functions of a modern zoo is to act as a genetic ark for critically endangered species—particularly where their natural environment is disappearing—to ensure that they do not become lost to us …More

The city of Jerusalem is moving forward with a plan to build a cable car system that will bring visitors to and from the Western Wall. One line will connect Dung Gate (the Old City gate closest to the Western Wall) with the Mount of Olives to the east, and a second line will connect Dung Gate with the Khan Theater on Hinnom Ridge to the west, Israel Hayom reported. The system will be able to transport 6,000 passengers per hour. Each of the 1.6 kilometer routes will take around four minutes to …More

Mount Herzl is the resting place of some of world Jewry’s most beloved figures, from Yitzhak Rabin and Golda Meir to Theodor Herzl himself, the man for whom the site was named. Herzl spent a sizable portion of his life dreaming of a Jewish state, and working to convince others that such a dream was possible. He never lived to see his vision realized, but he wrote a year before his death that he hoped his final resting place might one day reside in the home of the Jewish people. “I wish to be buried …More