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Tuesday, April 30, 2013
Iyyar 20, 5773
9:50 pm IDT
Site updated 1 minute ago

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: Tia Goldenberg

April 1, 2013
2:47 am

Iraqi Christians pray during Easter mass at Mar Youssif Chaldean Church in Baghdad on Sunday. The Chaldean Church is an Eastern Rite church affiliated with the Roman Catholic Church. (AP Photo/ Karim Kadim)

Isolated Mideast Christians celebrate Easter

As new pope pleads for peace, Holy Land’s Christian minority flocks to church for holiday services

By Diaa Hadid and Tia Goldenberg

March 30, 2013
7:11 am

Undated file photo of the Tamar Lease natural gas rig, located 90 kilometers west of the city of Haifa, northern Israel. (photo credit: AP/Albatross Aerial Perspective)

Israel faces geopolitical tangle over natural gas

Overseas trade of recently unearthed resources will require Israel to navigate a quagmire that risks angering allies and enemies alike

By Tia Goldenberg

March 29, 2013
2:29 pm

Church of the Holy Sepulchre (photo credit: CC-BY-SA Anton Croos, Wikimedia Commons)

Christians flock to Jerusalem for Good Friday

Hundreds of pilgrims retrace Jesus’s final steps along Old City’s Via Dolorosa

By Tia Goldenberg

March 25, 2013
6:34 pm

Cigarettes for sale with a stamp of approval reading in Hebrew 'Kosher for Passover' at a kiosk in the ultra-Orthodox town of Bnei Brak, near Tel Aviv, Monday, March. 25, 2013. (Photo credit: AP Photo/Oded Balilty)

Rabbis fired up over kosher cigarettes for Passover

For the first time, private kashrut firm certifies ‘chametz-free’ smokes; Chief Rabbinate says they are life-threatening and should not be approved ever

By Daniel Estrin and Tia Goldenberg

February 26, 2013
2:40 am

Israelis pose with life-size images of US President Barack Obama, holding up welcome signs in several languages (photo credit: US Embassy in Tel Aviv/Facebook)

Ahead of trip, Obama is Mr. Popular

While Israelis vie for his attention, in the West Bank the US president’s upcoming tour is received with less enthusiasm

By Tia Goldenberg

February 19, 2013
9:57 am

An Ethiopian Israeli, who asked not to be identified, is seen during an interview with The Associated Press in Jerusalem on February 4, 2012 (AP Photo/Sebastian Scheiner)

Ethiopian birth control revelations ignite debate

Government accused of deliberate effort to curb Ethiopian birth rate, but many see only negligence

By Tia Goldenberg

February 6, 2013
7:34 am

The bombed Israeli tour bus in Burgas, Bulgaria, July 2012 (photo credit: Dano Monkotovic/Flash90)

Israel unlikely to retaliate after Bulgaria report

Netanyahu signals he will step up efforts to press EU to designate Hezbollah a terrorist group rather than take military action

By Tia Goldenberg

December 30, 2012
9:15 am

Shmuel Fortman Hapartzy, the Cain and Abel School for Prophets founder and teacher speaks to students in Tel Aviv, on December 4, 2012 (photo credit: AP Photo/Ariel Schalit)

Tel Aviv school aims to turn Joes into Jeremiahs

To the derision of critics, the Cain and Abel School for Prophets will offer a diploma in Jewish soothsaying

By Tia Goldenberg

December 15, 2012
7:39 am

An Israeli member of the Women of the Wall organization prays just outside the Western Wall in Jerusalem's Old City on Friday (photo credit: AP/Dan Balilty)

To pray like men

Women of the Wall endure taunts, arrests and even plastic chairs thrown at them by angry worshippers, all to worship as they wish at Judaism’s holiest site

By Tia Goldenberg

November 9, 2012
5:45 pm

Defense Minister Ehud Barak (photo credit: Miriam Alster/Flash90)

Barak points to slowdown in Iran’s nuclear arms program

Defense minister says Islamic Republic diverted some enriched uranium to civilian use, delaying their arrival at the ‘red line’ by eight months

By Tia Goldenberg

November 4, 2012
11:32 am

A child walks past the newly-named Umm Kulthum street in east Jerusalem, Oct. 24, 2012, (photo credit: AP/Bernat Armangue)

East Jerusalem, where the streets had no names

For decades local residents used landmarks as their only method of navigation; municipality now working to ensure every building has an address

By Tia Goldenberg

September 24, 2012
10:51 am

This file photo shows female soldiers preparing for a march near Ein Yahav in southern Israel in 2006 (photo credit: AP Photo/Oded Balilty, File)

Border shootout proves mettle of mixed-gender IDF unit

The Caracal battalion, comprised of 60 percent women, patrols the volatile Israeli-Egyptian border

By Tia Goldenberg

March 18, 2012
1:10 am

Image capture of Eretz Nehederet skit about Iranian nuclear scientists. They remark (about Israel) "What a shady regime."

Israelis laugh off Iranian nukes

Comedy routines mock what leaders call an ‘existential threat’

By Tia Goldenberg

February 21, 2012
9:38 am

A vendor sells pictures during the annual pilgrimage to the tomb of Rabbi Abuhatzeira (photo credit: Tsafrir Abayov/Flash90)

Israelis flocking to tombs of sages and rabbis

‘Coming here is being able to speak to God’s secretary,’ says one pilgrim desiring to be blessed

By Tia Goldenberg