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The Times of Israel

The one-stop news site
covering Israel, the region and
the Jewish people worldwide

Founding editor:
David Horovitz

Fair, fresh and fast

The Jewish world's
fastest-growing
news site

Writer: Matti Friedman

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December 10, 2012
6:21 pm

Workers uncover the foundations of ancient buildings under a road in the Jerusalem neighborhood of Kiryat Hayovel (Courtesy of the Israel Antiquities Authority)

Remnants of Hasmonean-era community found under Jerusalem road

A salvage dig meant to allow the construction of a new light rail line uncovers a farm society active around the time of the heroes of Hanukkah

By Matti Friedman

December 10, 2012
5:27 pm

The menorah was fashioned, apparently in Italy, from a plate that once adorned the hat of an Austro-Hungarian soldier (Courtesy of the U. Nahon Museum of Italian Jewish Art)

A mysterious menorah from a vanished empire goes on display in Jerusalem

Fashioned a century ago from the headgear of an Austro-Hungarian soldier, a Hanukkah menorah evokes a lost European world

By Matti Friedman

December 4, 2012
10:24 pm

An aerial view of Moshav Bnei Zion in southern Israel (photo credit: Moshe Shai/Flash90)

A fraught civil rights case nears an end in Israel’s High Court

Rights groups are trying to strike down a law allowing residents of rural communities to screen newcomers, a challenge one state lawyer says touches on the ‘essence of our existence here’

By Matti Friedman

December 4, 2012
3:53 pm

Haim Amsalem in Jerusalem, October 23, 2012 (Nati Shohat/Flash90)

A party of one

Renegade rabbi and politician Haim Amsalem, expelled from Shas for taking on the sacred cows of ultra-Orthodox politics, thinks Israel could learn a thing or two from his father’s Judaism

By Matti Friedman

November 28, 2012
7:41 pm

Crowds in Tel Aviv celebrate the UN's vote for partition in 1947 (Courtesy of the Government Press Office, Jerusalem. Photographer: Hans Pinn)

The day that never ended

On November 29, 1947, United Nations delegates voted to partition Palestine. Sixty-five years later, they’re still voting

By Matti Friedman

November 22, 2012
6:42 pm

Ehud Ben-David, 23, in Ofakim on Thursday (Times of Israel/Matti Friedman)

In Israel’s battered south, little joy at ceasefire

Weary after yet another round of fighting and a decade of rocket fire, residents of Ofakim expect a few months of quiet at best

By Matti Friedman

November 20, 2012
6:14 pm

Rahat, a Bedouin town in Israel's south, on Tuesday (Times of Israel/Matti Friedman)

Arab, Muslim, Israeli — and under fire

A day in rocket range with the residents of Rahat, home to 54,000 Israelis and zero public bomb shelters

By Matti Friedman

November 18, 2012
11:26 pm

The campus of Ben-Gurion University, Sunday (Times of Israel/Matti Friedman)

For the flagship university of southern Israel, sirens replace bells

Beersheba’s Ben-Gurion University has been closed since last week because of the fire from Gaza, a reality that would have been unthinkable just a few years ago

By Matti Friedman

October 16, 2012
4:28 pm

The courtyard of the Great Synagogue of Aleppo, as depicted in a detailed model at the Beit Hatfutsot museum in Tel Aviv (Courtesy of Beit Hatfutsot, Museum of the Jewish People)

Amid Aleppo violence, fate unknown for one of Judaism’s greatest buildings

No information has yet emerged about the condition of the Great Synagogue of Aleppo, once the Jewish world’s oldest functioning house of prayer

By Matti Friedman

October 11, 2012
1:05 pm

‘Fortress Israel’ and the abuse of history

Written with more antipathy than knowledge, a new book by a prominent US journalist is a disturbing example of what passes for learned comment on Israel

By Matti Friedman

September 25, 2012
10:27 am

Israeli artillery on the Golan Heights, 1973 (photo credit: CC BY-SA Israel Defense Forces, Wikimedia Commons)

A Yom Kippur melody spun from grief, atonement and memory

How a secular kibbutz scarred by war became the unlikely source of one of the most beloved tunes used on the most solemn day of Judaism’s calendar

By Matti Friedman

September 23, 2012
3:28 pm

A bowl with stone beads dates to an ancient culture that flourished in modern-day Israel 7,000 years ago (photo credit: Courtesy of the Israel Antiquities Authority/Clara Amit)

Beads, etched ostriches among prehistoric remnants uncovered in northern Israel

Archaeologists have unearthed the remains of a 7,000-year-old village at Ein Zippori, including artwork and stone imported from modern-day Turkey

By Matti Friedman

September 21, 2012
1:12 am

Michael Neuenschwander, right, as God (photo credit: courtesy of the Schauspielhaus, Zurich)

How I helped ‘God’ find his earth

A theatrical deity comes to Jerusalem

By Matti Friedman

September 16, 2012
11:14 am

A Rosh Hashanah card from the 1940s. The text reads: "Happy New Year -- A Year of the Development of New Settlement" (Courtesy of the Kibbutz Institute for Holidays and Jewish Culture)

Bialik and Kipling, but no God: How kibbutz pioneers marked Rosh Hashanah

A small institute in northern Israel, set up by Ben-Gurion’s nephew, preserves the kibbutz movement’s effort to build a new, secular Judaism. It may still have something to offer those looking for a Jewish culture outside the synagogue today

By Matti Friedman

September 11, 2012
8:30 pm

Restoration work at Lions Gate in Jerusalem. With completion of work at the gate, a 5-year repair project came to an end (photo credit: Courtesy of the Israel Antiquities Authority)

Restoration work on Jerusalem’s walls complete

A five-year repair project, the first in nearly a century, saw the city’s 2.5 miles of Ottoman walls cleaned and restored — including gates from 1541, bullets from 1967, and modern-day falcon nests

By Matti Friedman

Page 4 of 9
<
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
>

The Times of Israel

The one-stop news site
covering Israel, the region and
the Jewish people worldwide

Founding editor:
David Horovitz

Fair, fresh and fast

The Jewish world's
fastest-growing
news site

Writer: Matti Friedman

Remnants of Hasmonean-era community found under Jerusalem road

A salvage dig meant to allow the construction of a new light rail line uncovers a farm society active around the time of the heroes of Hanukkah

A mysterious menorah from a vanished empire goes on display in Jerusalem

Fashioned a century ago from the headgear of an Austro-Hungarian soldier, a Hanukkah menorah evokes a lost European world

A fraught civil rights case nears an end in Israel’s High Court

Rights groups are trying to strike down a law allowing residents of rural communities to screen newcomers, a challenge one state lawyer says touches on the ‘essence of our existence here’

A party of one

Renegade rabbi and politician Haim Amsalem, expelled from Shas for taking on the sacred cows of ultra-Orthodox politics, thinks Israel could learn a thing or two from his father’s Judaism

The day that never ended

On November 29, 1947, United Nations delegates voted to partition Palestine. Sixty-five years later, they’re still voting

In Israel’s battered south, little joy at ceasefire

Weary after yet another round of fighting and a decade of rocket fire, residents of Ofakim expect a few months of quiet at best

Arab, Muslim, Israeli — and under fire

A day in rocket range with the residents of Rahat, home to 54,000 Israelis and zero public bomb shelters

For the flagship university of southern Israel, sirens replace bells

Beersheba’s Ben-Gurion University has been closed since last week because of the fire from Gaza, a reality that would have been unthinkable just a few years ago

Amid Aleppo violence, fate unknown for one of Judaism’s greatest buildings

No information has yet emerged about the condition of the Great Synagogue of Aleppo, once the Jewish world’s oldest functioning house of prayer

‘Fortress Israel’ and the abuse of history

Written with more antipathy than knowledge, a new book by a prominent US journalist is a disturbing example of what passes for learned comment on Israel

A Yom Kippur melody spun from grief, atonement and memory

How a secular kibbutz scarred by war became the unlikely source of one of the most beloved tunes used on the most solemn day of Judaism’s calendar

Beads, etched ostriches among prehistoric remnants uncovered in northern Israel

Archaeologists have unearthed the remains of a 7,000-year-old village at Ein Zippori, including artwork and stone imported from modern-day Turkey

How I helped ‘God’ find his earth

A theatrical deity comes to Jerusalem

Bialik and Kipling, but no God: How kibbutz pioneers marked Rosh Hashanah

A small institute in northern Israel, set up by Ben-Gurion’s nephew, preserves the kibbutz movement’s effort to build a new, secular Judaism. It may still have something to offer those looking for a Jewish culture outside the synagogue today

Restoration work on Jerusalem’s walls complete

A five-year repair project, the first in nearly a century, saw the city’s 2.5 miles of Ottoman walls cleaned and restored — including gates from 1541, bullets from 1967, and modern-day falcon nests

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