The trial begins in the Friends of the Israel Defense Forces case against the Hotel Shangri-La. [The Jewish Journal] Families in the Migron outpost will be evicted on August 21. [The Jewish Journal] Only four percent of Jews cast their votes based on how candidates view Israel. [Gestetner Updates] Seventy-nine North American cities will host Jewish or Israeli film festivals in 2012, exposing tens of thousands of Jews to a view of Israel. [The Algemeiner] Jewish settlers react to Dani Dayan’s New York …More

How “Hava Nagila” became a phenomenon. [The Jewish Daily Forward] Lanyadoo uncovers a 2600-year-old-secret about the Latin alphabet. [Seattle Pi] How Jewish are the children of secular Israelis in America? [Haaretz] Maine Gov. Paul LePage apologizes for his “insensitivity to the word” after Jewish groups complained about his description of the IRS as the “new Gestapo.” [AJC] Why Steven Kramer believes that Jews have a legal right to Israel. [Jewish Times of South Jersey] MJ …More

The Jewish population has grown more Democratic and liberal than it was throughout the 1980s and into the 1990s, according to a new study. [Los Angeles Times] Dutch Jewish author and Holocaust survivor Berthe Meijer passed away at 74. [Fox News] The UK Board of Deputies is “dismayed” by this week’s decision by the Church of England’s Synod to pass a motion endorsing a program that sends people to the West Bank to “experience life under occupation.” [ynet] India’s …More

Former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert is acquitted of major corruption charges, but is convicted of breach of trust. [Reuters] Palestinian soccer player Mahmoud Sarsak is released by Israel after staging a hunger strike for more than 90 days. [The Washington Post] Two Palestinian youths from the West Bank were arrested yesterday on suspicion of igniting a large fire as a nationalistic act near Kibbutz Ma’ale HaHamisha two weeks ago. [Israel Hayom] Rabbi Jason Miller gives his solution to the Jewish status …More

U.S. presidential candidates are looking to Israelis for help in the 2012 presidential election. Candidates are courting the more than a quarter-million Israelis who hold American citizenship, some of whom were born in Israel and have never even visited the U.S. Candidates running in next year's U.S. presidential and congressional races have asked eligible Israelis to vote for them and their pro-Israel positions, almost confirming the adage that Israel is the 51st U.S. state. The sheer number of Israelis who can …More

Will President Obama lose the Jewish vote after complaining about Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu? Probably not. At a meeting of the G20, when exchanging what he thought were private comments with French President Sarkozy about Netanyahu, Obama said, 'Youre fed up with him? I have to deal with him every day.' The conversation with Sarkozy was sparked by Obamas complaint that the French president had not informed him in advance that France would support the Palestinians in their bid for UNESCO membership. …More

France, Britain and Columbia are planning to abstain from voting on the Palestinian bid for UN membership, according to reports by CNN and the BBC. The three nations made their positions clear to fellow members of the Security Council Thursday afternoon at a meeting of the admission committee currently considering Palestine’s application for statehood. None have officially announced their abstentions, but diplomats at the closed-door meeting relayed the information to the media. A UN diplomat also said …More

Canada’s federal government voted to supply no additional funds to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization after the body admitted Palestine as a full member. Canada joins Israel and America in restricting its contributions to the organization as retribution for the positive vote. In what he called a “measured” response, Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird told reporters Tuesday that Canada would offer no further “voluntary” payments to the cultural …More

Not only is all politics local, all politics is personal. And no issue, with the possible exception of preservation of the State of Israel as a Jewish state, is more personal to most American Jewish women voters than reproductive rights, including access to legal abortion. So much so that 30 years ago a group of Chicago Jewish women founded JACPAC, now a leading political action committee, whose primary criteria for candidate support are that the candidate be pro-choice, as well pro-Israel. Thirty …More

American Jews have long proved a solid voting bloc for the Democratic Party, with about four out of five voting for President Obama in 2008, according to exit polls. Jewish voters are driven by a broad range of concerns, but for some the security of Israel is dominant. Now, with the peace process in the Middle East at a stalemate and Palestinians taking their case for statehood directly to the United Nations, Republicans are stepping up their efforts to peel off Jewish voters. While this constituency is clearly in …More