The Dutch government has advised business owners to refrain from labeling products from the Golan Heights, West Bank and eastern Jerusalem as made in Israel. In a circular written by the Dutch Foreign Ministry, published on Wednesday on the website of the Ministry of Economic Affairs, stores are advised but not required to replace “Made in Israel” labels with a label reading “Product from Israeli settlement (West Bank/Golan Height /East Jerusalem).” This applies to products that require a …More

The Golani Brigade is the oldest, and one of the most respected, brigades in the Israeli Defense Forces. Created on February 28, 1948, during the Arab-Israeli War, the unit was a necessary defense system in securing the Jewish state’s ultimate freedom and independence. The Golani Brigade is under the subordination of the 36th Division and is typically found in the north. Its symbol is a green tree on a yellow background and Golani troops are recognizable by their iconic brown berets. The Golani Brigade is …More

In late August 1948, general director of the Minister of Defense Levi Eshkol, code name Layish, sent the following message to his fellow operatives: “We are prepared to send two ships of ours to meet the Ishmaelite. The ships will go out in order to receive the cargo and will be careful not to enter the sea battle.” The ‘Ishmaelite’ was, in actuality, the Italian freighter Argero, which was loaded with rifles, ammunition and spare parts headed to Alexandria intended to aid the Arabs in the …More

A fence made of chain links and rusted barbed wire once was enough to separate the Golan Heights from Syria. That's no longer the case. A few feet away from what one area resident called a "cattle fence"--one easy to jump if not for the electric current running through it--a newer barrier of crisscrossing shiny steel bars towers high above the heads of nearby soldiers. As Syria’s civil war escalates next door, Israelis have grown concerned that spillover could undermine the sense of security that Golan …More

Daniel Eisenstadt and Michael Granoff are co-chairs of Freedom 25, a coalition focused on promoting the history and lessons of the Soviet Jewry movement to the next generation. The greatest Jewish success story in a quarter century has become unknown to many in less than a generation. On December 6, 1987, when Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev arrived in Washington, more than a quarter-million American Jews -- Democrats and Republicans, observant and secular, and individuals representing the entire spectrum of …More

Robert S. Wistrich is the director of the Vidal Sassoon International Center for the Study of Antisemitism at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and author of the newly published “From Ambivalence to Betrayal: The Left, The Jews and Israel,” University of Nebraska Press, 2012. After the 1967 Six-Day War, much of the radical left in the West predicated its militant anti-Zionism on the illusory notion that the Palestinians represented a revolutionary and “progressive” vanguard that could one …More

Tahl Leibovitz spent much of his adolescence riding New York City’s subways – not for transportation or because of the trains’ allure. The subways were where Leibovitz lived. A troubled home and problems at school got Leibovitz kicked out of both places. Daytime, he wandered. At night, he rode the trains. Now, at 37, Leibovitz is flying to London to compete in the Paralympics, the international event for athletes with physical handicaps that runs August 29-September 6. A world-class table …More

One of 11 children, Yossef Romano was a big, but gentle man. He made aliyah to Israel with his family in 1946 at the age of six, and served in the army during the 1967 Six-Day War. Though he was an interior decorator by profession, Romano became Israel’s middleweight weightlifting champion for almost a decade. But at the 1972 Olympics, he injured his knee during the clean-and-jerk event and was forced to drop out. Hobbling around the Olympic Village on crutches, he was due to return to Israel on September 6 …More

Israel’s only Class A wrestling referee, Yossef Gutfreund, actually wanted to become a veterinarian. Born in Romania in 1931, Gutfreund studied in medical school until he was imprisoned for distributing Zionist propaganda. The athlete left Romania at the age of 17, traveling to Israel and serving in both the 1956 Sinai War and 1967 Six-Day War. Wounded while on tour in Gaza, he refused to be evacuated until the cease-fire was reached. He also tended the burns of a group of Egyptian soldiers abandoned by …More

Writer and psychologist Irvin Yalom publishes a new book that puts him in touch with his Jewish roots. [Israel Hayom] Israeli leaders called for international action to be taken to stop the massacre occurring in Syria. [Israel Hayom] The plans for Kulturfest: The First Chana Mlotek International Festival of Jewish Performing Arts will be announced Tuesday at a gala honoring Neil Sedaka and others at Town Hall in Manhattan. [The New York Times] Sex abuse victims in Brooklyn often do not come forward. [The …More

Forty-five years ago today, the Six-Day War began when the Israel Air Force launched a preemptive strike against Egyptian forces mobilized in the Sinai Peninsula. At the time, Hillel Erman was a 30-year-old staff sergeant serving in a reserve unit of the IDF Paratroopers Brigade. He sat down with us earlier this week and answered a few questions about his memories of the Six-Day War. IDF Blog: Do you remember the lead-up to the war? Hillel Erman: Yes, I remember it well, like it was yesterday. I remember when …More

The Six-Day War in 1967 was a brilliant military victory, a turning point in Israel’s history. Similar glory by Americans on the battlefield no doubt would have led to the production of a half-dozen films with John Wayne single-handedly wiping out the Arab armies. Yet the Israeli film industry has never made a feature on the '67 war. Now two American producers are coming forward to remedy the omission. Their film, tentatively titled “Jerusalem ’67,” is based on the authoritative book …More