Jews Happy to be Living in Jerusalem, Arabs Not So Much

Original Article

Jerusalem is Israel’s biggest city, the Central Bureau of Statistics announced Monday. In a slew of Jerusalem-related statistics, released in honor of Jerusalem Day, to be celebrated later this week, the CBS announced that at the end of 2011, there were 804,400 people living in the city, 499,400 (62%) of them Jewish. Of the rest, 281,000 (35%) were Muslim, 14,700 (2%) Christian, and 9,000 (1%) “other” or no declared religion. In addition, 200 Druze lived in the city. Continue reading

Diaspora Affairs: ‘We are ready to fight’

Original Article

Eduard Dolinsky has a youthful face and composed expression that belie his intense responsibilities. As the executive director of the Ukrainian Jewish Committee, the main representative body of Ukrainian Jewry, Dolinsky is on the front lines of the Jewish community’s battle against the Svoboda party, a far-right nationalist faction that is widely perceived as anti-Semitic. Continue reading

Masada, tragic fortress in the sky

Original Article

When you glance at it from the highway, Masada looks much like any other mountain in the Judean desert. Yet it was on these heights, and in the middle of this dreary landscape, that King Herod the Great erected a luxurious desert fortress. And it was here, as well, that a group of besieged and desperate Jews fought the Romans with inhuman valor, then placed their belongings in a corner, set each pile afire, and committed a well-publicized mass suicide. Continue reading