Britannia Radio

Daily Briefing

Thursday, March 31, 2011

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Featured Story Amid violence, pen pals in Congress focus on Israel It happens almost like clockwork: Something happens in the Middle East, and it reverberates across the Atlantic with new letters from the U.S. Congress. Read more » Editors' Picks Battle over Israel in NYC A group called Artists4Israel brought a model of an Israeli bomb shelter to the center of New York, but the display at Washington Square Park quickly turned into a stage for a war of words between Israeli and Palestinian supporters. See Uri Fintzy's video on JTA's Telegraph blog. From the JTA Archives: April Fools' Day lessons Jewish pranksters, seeking inspiration for mischief? Here are more than a dozen examples of Jewish April Fools' Day pranks documented in the JTA Jewish News Archive, which will launch May 3. Comings and goings Dennis Glick abruptly resigned. Rick Jacobs to lead Reform. Andres Spokoiny needs a visa. Ehud Kokia, the doctor, is in. Read JTA's Telegraph blog for all the comings and goings. On 'militant' vs. 'terrorist': JTA responds Following multiple complaints about JTA's use of the term "militant Palestinians" in a headline following last week's Jerusalem bombing, JTA Managing Editor Uriel Heilman explains the thinking behind the headline. Portrait of Jerusalem bombing victim Bible translator Mary Jane Gardner, killed in the bombing attack in central Jerusalem, worked to "give other people the same access to the scriptures" that she had, The Jerusalem Post reports. Jewish youth gone astray Ian Baron's anti-Semitic attack on a Maryland synagogue was a cry for help, the Jewish boy's parents tell The Washington Jewish Week. Obama, Libya and the Holocaust By intervening in Libya, America's leaders are recognizing a role for historical lessons in shaping policy decisions -- a welcome change from the attitudes of some of their predecessors, Rafael Medoff writes in a JTA Op-Ed. Breaking News Students from the University of California, Irvine met with a Hamas leader during a 2009 student trip to Israel. The Brandeis University Hillel has rejected a second membership bid by the controversial Jewish student group Jewish Voice for Peace. Former President Jimmy Carter met with jailed American contractor Alan Gross and said he believes Gross is "innocent of any serious crime." Dozens were injured and arrested at a demonstration outside the Israeli Embassy in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. New York's state budget includes tuition grants for college students attending some private religious institutions, including Orthodox rabbinical schools. A Palestinian human rights group in the Gaza Strip condemned the storage of rockets used against Israel in civilian populated areas. Argentinian Foreign Minister Hector Timerman said he is committed to continuing the investigation of two bombings of Jewish targets in his country. The Reform movement said it was "alarmed" by the passage of a bill in the U.S. House of Representatives reviving a program that funds scholarships at religious schools, while the Orthodox Union supported it. Dennis Glick, the president of B'nai B'rith International, resigned unexpectedly. Traces of radioactive waste from a damaged nuclear reactor in Japan have been detected in the air in Israel. Israel declassified a map of what it says are 950 underground Hezbollah bunkers and weapons storage sites in south Lebanon. An Israeli property company has struck a multimillion-dollar deal in Ireland that could herald further Israeli involvement in the country. Syrian President Bashar Assad blamed recent anti-government protests on "enemies with an Israeli agenda" during an address to the nation. Austria will renovate the site of the Mauthausen concentration camp in a $2.4 million restoration project. Fans of the Minnesota Twins can chow down on Hebrew National this spring.