Egyptian police have blocked the border between Egypt and the Gaza strip, after Islamists kidnapped seven members of the force. [Forward] Morocco’s King Mohammed VI is funding the restoration of his country’s Jewish burial sites. [IJN] The London Jewish Cultural Center in Golders Green will host the country’s largest Jewish food festival, Gefiltefest. [Times] South Africa’s chief rabbi, Warren Goldstein, defends Israel amongst his country’s widespread support for the anti-Israel …More

Things haven’t changed that much since 1580, when British sailor Sir Francis Drake called this city on South Africa's southwestern coast as “the fairest Cape in the whole circumference of the earth.” Latter-day travelers seem to agree. In 2012 alone, Cape Town was named the second-best city in the world by readers of Conde Nast Traveller, the favorite city worldwide in the London Telegraph's travel awards, and the best beach destination in Africa by the World Travel Awards. If anything is …More

The Polish Jewish Museum has finally opened. [Forward] How "Hatikvah" became a national anthem. [Times of Israel] Pro-Palestinians attack an Israeli opera singer in South Africa. [Times of Israel] A look at the IDF Air Show in pictures. [Arutz Sheva] Eighty new immigrants join the IDF. [Ynet] The mystery of the "Jew in a bag" is solved. [Ynet] …More

South Africa’s ruling party, the African National Congress, voted to make boycotts, divestment and sanctions of Israel part of its official policy. In a resolution passed Thursday night, at the tail end of its conference this week, the ANC proclaimed it was "unapologetic in its view that the Palestinians are the victims and the oppressed in the conflict with Israel." The conference called on "all South Africans to support the programs and campaigns of the Palestinian civil society which seek to put pressure …More

Up-and-coming Jewish Home party leader Naftali Bennett has come under fire for claiming he would refuse to participate in the evacuation of Jewish settlements in the West Bank. “If I am ever given an order to evacuate a Jew from his home… personally, my conscience won’t allow me to do it,” Bennet said during an interview Thursday night. [Times of Israel] Two UK teens were detained by Jerusalem Police after taking part in Women of the Wall's religious rights protest at the Kotel last …More

A Palestinian youth in Hebron was killed when he pulled a fake gun on a border police officer. [Times of Israel] Are anti-Zionist policies in South Africa tarnishing the legacy of Nelson Mandela? [Forward] New clues surface in the 1982 bombing of Sydney Jewish sites. [Haaretz] A suspicious package was found at a Jewish center in New Jersey. [NJ] Israel and Canada have signed an agreement to strengthen ties and aid. [Algemeiner] Is there some sort of battle going on between Lena Dunham and Gawker we should …More

Twenty rockets from Gaza slam southern Israel. [Algemeiner] South Africa's ruling party endorses anti-Israel boycott. [Times of Israel] The European left and its problem with the Jews. [New York Times] Jerusalem, the city of fun. [Haaretz] "Bieberman" is still up in the polls, just barely beating Labor. [Jewish Press] A French-Jewish Nobel laureate says he doesn't see an anti-Israel bias. [Times of Israel] Are Jews good at sports? A new book says yes. [Tablet] …More

The South African Trade Ministry published a second notice concerning the labeling of Israeli products, despite working with the Jewish community on a compromise. Contrary to the more restricted proposal issued in May, the notice published October 12 in the Government Gazette refers to all products originating from the West Bank, the Gaza Strip and eastern Jerusalem as "requiring an importer, producer, retailer or supplier of the Republic of South Africa to label goods that originate from the Israeli Occupied …More

A Vatican official says Israel is fostering intolerance of Christianity. [Telegraph] A Jewish soccer star gets called to play for the South African national team. [Algemeiner] Why people do (and don't) join synagogues. [Jewish Week] Jewish graves are vandalized in Germany [The Local], while a community in New Jersey was graffitied with swastikas and epitets of "Kill the Jews." [Jewish Press] Jewish life is returning to Bed-Stuy. [The Brooklyn Link] The 2012 candidates are invoking a favored Nazi debate …More

A rumored meeting between Netanyahu and Obama means a strike on Iran is "less and less likely." [Times of Israel] Violence escalates as Jewish youths attack another Arab teen in Jerusalem. [Jerusalem Post] Jewish leaders participate in a security drill with US officials. [Shalom Life] Iran says gay rights are a Jewish plot. [Daily Beast] What the Jerusalem platform fiasco says about the Democrats. [Tablet] A British MP says South African boycott of Israeli products is like the Nazi boycotts of Jewish …More

Witwatersrand University in South Africa has distanced itself from a student association decision to boycott Israel. In a statement released Monday, the university said that it does not share the initiative of the Wits Student Representative Council, adopted August 31, which calls for an academic and cultural boycott of Israel, and for further support of the annual Israel Apartheid Week. "The Executive Committee of Convocation of the University of Witwatersrand, Johannesburg would like to distance itself from …More

An Israeli official has deemed South Africa an "apartheid state," after the nation decided to label products made in settlements as not Israeli. The ruling, which was proposed in May, was passed this week, drawing condemnation from Jewish leaders and applause from pro-Palestinians. Israel’s Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon said “the change that has begun in South Africa over the years has not brought about any basic change in the country, and it remains an apartheid state.” "At the moment, …More