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Daily Briefing

Wednesday, May 4, 2011 Donate Now | Share This Email

FEATURED STORY Anti-sharia laws stir concerns that halachah could be next If proposed state laws to outlaw sharia are successful, they could gut a central tenet of American Jewish religious communal life: The ability under U.S. law to resolve differences according to halachah, or Jewish religious law.Read more » EDITORS' PICKS Peace Post-Bin Laden Ultimately, the killing of America's Public Enemy No. 1 may matter less to Israeli-Palestinian peacemaking than the reconciliation deal between Fatah and Hamas, JTA's Ron Kampeas writes. Firsthand stories of Israel's founding JTA's Dina Kraft reports on an effort to record the stories of Israeli and Diaspora Jews who were part of Israel's War of Independence is part of a project to create a video archive before the survivors die off. Why Israel matters In a pre-Israel Independence Day essay, Stuart Schoffman writes in the Los Angeles Jewish Journal that the Zionist project may be shot through with thorny problems, but it is still the best answer to the question it was designed to resolve -- the so-called "Jewish Question." Carter's view: Support Palestinian unity Former President Jimmy Carter writes in The Washington Post that the United States must take the lead in supporting the interim Palestinian unity government between Fatah and the Islamist Hamas or "the situation in the occupied Palestinian territory may deteriorate with a new round of violence against Israel." BREAKING NEWS The City University of New York has voted not to honor playwright Tony Kushner with an honorary degree at its commencement after a board member objected, citing the Pulitzer Prize winner's statements on Israel. The Obama administration slammed as "outrageous" Hamas' condemnation of the killing of Osama bin Laden. Palestinian rival factions Fatah and Hamas in a formal ceremony signed a unity agreement, repairing a four-year rift. A homeless man was indicted by a federal grand jury on charges of detonating an explosive device outside a Southern California Chabad House. New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg has declared May Birthright Israel month. The National Jewish Democratic Council counseled Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu not to use the Hamas-Fatah reconciliation to back down from peacemaking. The Israeli government said it will authorize some houses in two West Bank outposts because they are built on state land. The office of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu asked Israel's Interior Ministry to postpone consideration of two proposed eastern Jerusalem housing projects. Nazi hunter Dr. Efraim Zuroff was acquitted by a Budapest court of libel charges leveled against him by an accused Hungarian Nazi war criminal. Jerusalem's Shalem Center said it has received a $12.5 million challenge grant in its effort to establish what the center is billing as Israel's first liberal arts college. Judy Gaynor, a Chicago-area human rights and Jewish activist, was named to the federal body that recognizes outstanding high school scholars.