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

Emanuel Sheffer, Israel’s former Men’s National Soccer Team Head Coach, passed away Friday morning at the age of 89. Sheffer is considered the best coach Israeli soccer has ever seen, leading Team Israel to its only World Cup participation in 1970’s tournament in Mexico. Sheffer was born in Poland and made aliyah to Israel in 1950. He started his coaching career with Hapoel Haifa, and later moved on to coaching Hapoel Kfar Saba as well as becoming a member of Team Israel’s coaching staff …More

Bulgarian officials are still on the hunt for the terrorist who killed five Israelis over the summer, the nation’s president and foreign minister told Shimon Peres yesterday. Bulgarian President Rosen Plevneliev said his government is working “day and night” to get to the bottom of the attack, during a Monday meeting with Peres. “Bulgarian institutions are working day and night to find the perpetrators and we won’t be silent until they’re caught,” Plevneliev said. …More

Knesset Speaker Reuven Rivlin has called on the Israeli parliament to disband itself and begin preparing for early elections. “There can be no doubt that the decision to go to early election has been made and all the parties are preparing for elections,” Army Radio and other media quoted Rivlin as saying on Thursday. “It would be best” if the Knesset passed a resolution to disband itself “within days or even hours” of the opening of its winter session on Oct. 15 “instead …More

Thirty-two days after deciding to subsist on only water and cigarettes, social protester Tamir Hajij has ended his hunger strike. The leader of the social protest group “Disappointed by the Likud” has been in front of the Prime Minister’s residence hoping for a meeting with Benjamin Netanyahu since late July. Last week, after a month of fasting, Hajij was hospitalized when he refused water, even in his severely weakened condition. The same day, Knesset Speaker Reuven Rivlin visited him in his …More

Anat Hoffman is executive director of the Israel Religious Action Center. Knesset Speaker Reuven Rivlin apologized to Jamal Julany, one of the victims of a racist attack in Zion Square, during his visit to the 17-year-old. "We are sorry," said Rivlin, a Likud Party leader. He went on to say, "It is hard to see you hospitalized because of an inconceivable act" and "What happened is the responsibility of every leader and member of Knesset." The Jewish month of Elul calls us to evaluate our actions and mend our …More

Several US Jewish groups condemned the public destruction of a copy of the New Testament by Israeli Knesset member Michael Ben-Ari. Ben-Ari, a member of the National Union Party and reportedly a devotee of the late Meir Kahane, invited a legislative aide to photograph him ripping up a New Testament and throwing it in the garbage. Ben-Ari then had the photos sent to Israel's daily Maariv. The book reportedly was mailed to Ben-Ari and the Knesset's other members by a messianic Jewish group called the Bible Society …More

Israeli lawmakers voted down a bill that would have required all Israelis to enlist in the army or perform national service at the age of 18, including the haredi Orthodox and Arabs. The bill, submitted by Avigdor Lieberman and his Yisrael Beiteinu Party, was voted down Wednesday in a preliminary reading by a vote of 74 to 22. Four members of the Kadima Party, which left the government on Tuesday over a failure to arrive at a compromise on a universal draft law, voted for the legislation. Under the proposed …More

Tzipi Livni resigned from the Knesset today, issuing a formal statement to Speaker Reuven Rivlin. In the letter, Livni cited an inability to “abuse” voters’ trust as reason for her leaving, an allusion to her failed attempts at forming a coalition. Livni, once the leader of the opposition and a one-time foreign minister for Israel, was beat out as leader of the Kadima party by former-Chief of Staff Shaul Mofaz just one month ago. Following the announcement of her resignation, the dovish …More

Israeli President Shimon Peres and Knesset Speaker Reuven Rivlin read the names of Holocaust victims from two European towns at the Knesset’s official Holocaust Remembrance Day Ceremony Thursday. [Times of Israel] A German report, published Wednesday, finds that Poland and Hungary display the highest levels of anti-Semitism. [Israel Hayom] Thousands of young people marched from Auschwitz to Burkenau as part of March of the Living to remember the victims of the Holocaust Thursday. [Boston Globe] On April …More

Victims of the attack on a French Jewish day school were laid to rest in Israel today. Rabbi Jonathan Sandler, 30, his sons Arieh, 5, and Gavriel, 4, and 7-year-old Miriam Monsonego, daughter of the Ozar Hatorah school’s principal, were mourned by thousands at a packed memorial service before being buried in Jerusalem. The crowd was a sea of black as gatherers walked with the bodies to the Givat Shaul’s Har Hamenuchot cemetery. The eulogies and words of condolence were plentiful for the families and …More

Israeli President Shimon Peres is planning to join Facebook ahead of his visit to the social network's headquarters on March 6, where he will meet the company’s founder, Mark Zuckerberg. [Ynet] The Orthodox Union has developed a smartphone app to let consumers know what products have been certified by the OU as kosher. [Ynet] Israeli environmentalists are warning that new road construction in Jerusalem could do irrevocable damage to the Jerusalem Forest. [Haaretz] Knesset Speaker Reuven …More