Another great week for Israeli athletes across the board in international competitions, as more of Israel’s national teams returned home with medals. Israelis brought home medals in judo, gymnastics and shooting. Sergey Richter won bronze at Ft. Benning, GA in Olympic-style shooting on Monday, adding another medal to his career. The 23-year-old Israeli won the European title in February, and was ranked 4th in the world. This medal is Richter’s second in the current season’s world competition …More

A Jewish man dubbed a hero after the Sandy Hook school shooting is facing attacks from a controversial group known as “truthers.” Gene Rosen, a 69-year-old grandfather, made headlines following the December killings in which 20 children lost their lives, for his part counseling a group of bereft children. According to Rosen’s account, he discovered six fleeing Sandy Hook students on his lawn during the immediate aftermath of the shooting. Rosen, a retired psychologist, stayed with the children …More

Little Noah Pozner was remembered yesterday as an inquisitive boy, with a love of video games and animals and a penchant for mischief. Noah, 6, was laid to rest in a Jewish ceremony Monday, after being brutally killed in Friday’s Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, which left 20 children dead. “The sky is crying and the flags are half-mast. It is a sad, sad day. But it’s also your day, Noah, my little man,” said Noah’s mother, Veronique Pozner, at the funeral. “I’m …More

The Jewish Agency has opened an investigation into today’s hotel shooting in Eilat, which left one hotel worker murdered before police killed the US-born gunman. The attacker, a 20-something man originally from New York, came to the Jewish state through the Oranim program, which the Jewish Agency runs. "In response to the tragic incident in Eilat, the Chairperson of the Jewish Agency, Natan Sharansky expressed his deep sorrow at the loss of life and has appointed a panel to examine the processes by which …More

Jared Lee Loughner pleaded guilty to the shooting attack that killed six and seriously injured then-US Rep. Gabrielle Giffords. The change reportedly was in exchange for a plea bargain that would see Loughner sent to prison for life but avoiding the death penalty for the 19 counts against him, including murder, attempted murder and the attempted assassination of the Arizona congresswoman. “The pain and loss caused by the events of January 8, 2011 are incalculable," Gifford's husband, Mark Kelly, said in a …More

Slovakia’s Jewish community wants state authorities to keep Laszlo Csatary under house arrest in Hungary and stand trial in Slovakia. [The Washington Post] Jews in Denver reach out to the Aurora shooting victims. [The Jewish Week] Australian Jewish leaders will have a moment of silence for the 11 Israelis murdered at the 1972 Munich Olympics in their own country. [The Jewish Journal] Rabbi Shlomo Riskin and Pastor John Hagee tackle Jewish-Christian relations. [The Jewish Week] Sharon Duke Estroff shares …More

“Batman” fans nationwide were excited to finally see “The Dark Knight Rises” at midnight this morning, but fans in Aurora, Colorado had no idea what was coming their way. In the worst mass shooting in Colorado since the Columbine High School tragedy in 1999, 71 were shot and 10 killed inside an Aurora movie theater. Two more victims died at area hospitals. Defense officials told NBC News that two US Air Force reservists and one Navy service member were injured in the shooting. Also in …More

London Kvelling is a series of articles profiling Jewish and/or Israeli athletes at the 2012 Summer Olympics, which begins in London on July 27. For Sergei Richter, the road to the Olympics started in an Israeli Defense Forces youth program. Richter, the first Israeli to officially clinch a berth in this summer’s Olympic games and the sixth-ranked shooter in the world in men’s 10-meter air rifle (according to the International Sport Shooting Federation), was introduced to his sport through a program …More

In a sprawling, humanistic piece of journalism titled “Gabby Giffords & Mark Kelly: Courage and Hope,” Diane Sawyer examines a couple whose life didn’t turn out the way that they had planned. A special episode of “20/20” aired last night on ABC, which told the story of Jewish congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords’ fight to recover from a nearly fatal shooting. Once named the “most positive person in congress,” Gabrielle was a bubbling presence who charmed everyone …More