As Jerusalemites gathered today to celebrate Yom Yerushalayim, Jerusalem Day, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu paid tribute to the annual commemoration with a special pre-celebration at Mount Herzl. Currently in China on a diplomatic trip, Netanyahu honored the day early, hosting his weekly cabinet meeting at the Mount on Sunday. The meeting inaugurated a new museum at the site, and Bibi invited Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat to the event, using the occasion to highlight the capital’s importance to the Jewish …More

Elie Wiesel, the speaker of Israel's Knesset and two former Israel Supreme Court justices are among those who will select the winner of a new $1 million prize for serving as a role model for Jewish values. The Genesis Philanthropy Group, a consortium of mega-wealthy philanthropist-businessmen from the former Soviet Union, announced the formation of the two committees that will determine the inaugural winner of the Genesis Prize, which will be given out annually. Dubbed the Jewish Nobel Prize by Time Magazine, …More

Rob Lattin is Jspace News' Foreign Affairs Correspondent. In addition to covering foreign affairs for Jspace, Rob is a blogger on Israeli and Middle Eastern foreign policy for the Foreign Policy Association, as well as a freelance writer. He can be reached by email at rob@jspacecorp.com. Anyone trying to justify that Likud is a party that sincerely wants two-states for two peoples, Israel for the Jews and Palestine for the Palestinians, should consider recent events. Several senior Likud ministers who attended …More

The world’s largest Jewish center opened Monday in Ukraine, heralded by hundreds of attendees and high-ranking spiritual leaders from Israel. The Dnepropetrovsk Jewish community welcomed the Menorah JCC, a seven-tower, 20-story complex that cost $60 million to construct. The center includes a Holocaust museum, which is now the largest Shoah museum in Europe. The site includes an Institute of Jewish Culture and an image gallery with dozens of photos of synagogues in the area before the Nazi occupation. In …More

Israel must find a way to halt the illegal squatting of Israeli Bedouin, in order to help the Bedouin and to assert Israel's claim to the land, lawmaker Yuli Edelstein told a special forum. The non-profit research institute Regavim conducted two events last week focusing on the sharp rise of squatting and illegal settling of vast tracts of land in the country’s Negev region. Edelstein, minister of Public Diplomacy and Diaspora Affairs, was the keynote speaker for an emergency public forum, called …More

A group of European rabbis are urging Apple to remove an app called “The Protocols of the Elders of Zion” from iTunes. The Conference of European Rabbis are raising awareness and taking action against 'The Protocols,' notoriously known for being anti-Semitic and harmful to the image of Jews worldwide. Apple has yet to comment on the controversy. The Rabbis said they fear that bigots, neo-Nazis, and conspiracy theorists will use the app version of the publication. The publication was originally …More

Gold-winning American Jewish gymnast Aly Raisman has accepted an invitation from Israel Diaspora Affairs Minister Yuli Edelstein for her and her family to make their first visit to Israel. Raisman, who performs floor routines to the melody of “Hava Nagilah,” won an individual gold medal in her floor exercise last week and a bronze on the balance beam after helping the U.S. women’s team take the gold. The Jerusalem Post reported that Edelstein wrote an impassioned letter congratulating Raisman …More

It’s America’s biggest annual show of support for Israel, and if this year’s marchers have any luck, the sun will be shining on Sunday morning when tens of thousands assemble on Manhattan’s Fifth Avenue for the 48th annual Israel Day Parade. From Jewish day school contingents to the Chai Riders motorcycle club to non-Jewish marching bands to corporate sponsors riding on floats, some 35,000 marchers from 200 organizations will head up the avenue festooned with Israel’s blue and …More

Knesset members have joined forces to strengthen the Diaspora’s bond with Israel. Forty members have agreed to raise awareness about the plight of Jews living outside Israel, in an open forum where officials can bring up and debate important Diaspora issues. The decision came after a study by the Jewish Agency showing 91 percent of participants think Israel should help non-resident Jews. Ninety-one percent also said the Diaspora would stand with Israel against threats from Iran and other menacing …More

Israeli Public Affairs Minister Yuli Edelstein and El Al Israel Airlines CEO Eliezer Shkedi unveiled a replica of Jerusalem’s Western Wall at the Jewish Children’s Museum in Brooklyn last week. The wall forms the centerpiece of a new exhibit titled “A Voyage Through Jewish History,” opening April 1. The museum commissioned a team of designers to recreate a 12 by 24 foot model of the holy site to educate children about Judaism. “Visiting the wall is an experience,” said Rabbi …More

Most college students enjoy all the newfound freedoms of speech and expression that a collegiate atmosphere grants them. Pro-Israel students are no exception to this general rule. However, for one week each year in February or March, pro-Israel students have to work extra hard for their cause. Started in Toronto in 2005, Israeli Apartheid Week is a weeklong series of activities aimed at, as the website explains, “educating people about the nature of Israel as an apartheid system and to build boycott, …More

Public Diplomacy and Diaspora Affairs Minister Yuli Edelstein told WIZO’s Enlarged General Meeting that how Israel treats the Diaspora has changed, saying that the Jewish state is “now willing to invest” in programs like Birthright. [Jerusalem Post]   Roger Cohen writes that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu would be making a huge mistake if he attacked Iran this spring or summer, because it would damage relations with United States President Barack Obama. [New York …More