Warsaw Ghetto insurgent Boruch Spiegel dies at 93. [Haaretz] The EU says it is preparing to add Hezbollah to its terrorist list. [Times of Israel] Despite rift, Israel-Turkey trade continues to flourish. [Algemeiner] A European airline wants to make special Auschwitz routes. [Arutz Sheva] The sister of yesterday's Israel bank shooter says perpetrator was "damaged." [Ynet] Bin-Laden's son-in-law wants to keep his Jewish lawyer. [Tablet] …More

A US Jewish leader says Hungary should be more outspoken against anti-Semitism. [Washington Post] The brutal murder of a Jewish nurse in Cleveland is puzzling police. [Forward] Turkey and Israel close in on a reconciliation deal. [Times of Israel] Two women in Iowa have been denied unemployment benefits, after being fired for burning "gingerbread Jews." [Times of Israel] An alleged Auschwitz guard is arrested in Germany. [Ynet] The Israeli Pet Travel Agency helps you make aliyah with your dog. [Jewcy] …More

In a rare press interview, former Israeli Defense Force chief Gabi Ashkenazi sat down with CNN’s Christiane Amanpour to talk about Syria, Iran, and Israel’s newly mended fences with Turkey. Israel’s strategy relating to Syria is currently a popular topic on numerous news outlets, and Tuesday’s interview was no different. Ashkenazi said the West could consider “lethal assistance” in dealing with the two-year long conflict, saying, “Weapons, in order to help them to topple …More

Bones and grave sites from an ancient Turkish Jewish cemetery were recently unearthed during the construction of an underground tunnel. The remains in the Turkish city of Izmir were found more than 20 feet below ground, the Hurriyet Daily News reported Wednesday. According to Hurriyet, the gravestones were left in the ground and the bones were delivered to representatives of Izmir's Jewish community. The bones will be reburied in the Altındag Jewish Cemetery, which remains open to Jewish burials, Izmir Jewish …More

Turkey declined to agree to a meeting of NATO's Mediterranean Dialogue group including Israel and six Arab countries. Egypt also declined to convene the group for the first time in five years, the Turkish Hurriyet Daily News reported. The Mediterranean Dialogue, founded in 2004, is intended to contribute to regional security. Along with Israel and Egypt, the other participating countries are Morocco, Tunisia, Mauritania, Algeria and Jordan. Turkey declined the meeting despite Israel's recent apology for the …More

Wherever Jews went, they built homes, communities, and of course, neighborhood synagogues. Many of those synagogues have been destroyed or abandoned as a constantly migrating people left for more hospitable lands or, in the case of World War II, faced much worse. But still some remain. In Istanbul, Turkey, for instance, the 15th-century Ahrida Synagogue symbolizes the migratory nature of the Jewish people. One of the Istanbul’s 16 synagogues in use today and located in Balat, the city’s historically …More

After a rocky Euroleague season thus far, Maccabi Tel Aviv smashed Besiktas in the “Top 16,” last week in Turkey. The game was pretty much over from the first five minutes of the first quarter, and ended in a crazy score of 101:58 for Maccabi. Coach Blatt said that Assistant Coach Goodes joked about having to now pay compensation to the Turks, referring to the recent change in the relations between Israel and Turkey due to PM Netanyahu’s apology to Erdogan. He also sent an arrow towards the …More

An Israeli Thai boxer won the bronze medal in the World Cup held in Bangkok, Thailand on Wednesday. Ilya Skabronski beat the Vietnamese Champ on his way to a historic match against Umid Hussein, from Iran. While other Iranian athletes have refused to compete against Israeli opponents in the past (most recently in Judo), Hussein took the ring with the Israeli, and was knocked out in the second round. “I was determined to beat him,” Skavronski told Ynet. “The Iranian worked very hard, he even …More

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said normalization of relations with Israel will not take place until Israel fulfills its part of the agreement. Turkey and Israel agreed to normalize ties after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu apologized for Israel's 2010 raid on the Mavi Marmara ship as it attempted to break a maritime blockade of Gaza. In the phone call, Netanyahu agreed to compensate the families of nine Turks killed in the ensuing violence when Israeli naval commandos boarded the ship. Erdogan …More

In a surprising turn of events Friday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu issued an apology to his Turkish counterpart, ending three years of frozen relations and marking a move toward battling the potential for unrest overflow from Syria. The move came via a phone call at Ben-Gurion Airport just as US President Barack Obama readied to board a plane for Jordan. Obama reportedly spoke first to Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, then handed the phone to Netanyahu to continue. The Prime …More

World leaders are biting back at comments by Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan comparing Zionism to crimes against humanity. US Secretary of State John Kerry, in just his first few weeks at the post, met with Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu recently, calling Erdogan’s comments an obstacle to peace. "We not only disagree with it, but we found it objectionable," Kerry said at a news conference. "I believe there is a way forward but it obviously gets more complicated in the aftermath such …More

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has reportedly rejected Defense Minister Ehud Barak’s offer to write an apology to his Turkish counterpart for possible “operational errors” during the IDF raid of Mavi Marmara in May 2010. Relations between Turkey and Israel have been strained since the incident, which resulted in the death of nine activists. Israeli daily Haaretz, citing unnamed Foreign Ministry sources, reported Sunday that Netanyahu vetoed Barak, who has repeatedly advocated an …More