Diaspora Affairs Ministry

Union of Right-Wing Parties chairman Rafi Peretz (R) and National Union faction chair Bezalel Smotrich at the party's 2019 election campaign launch, March 11, 2019. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

June 16, 2019, 10:49 pm

PM said set to appoint Peretz, Smotrich as education, transportation ministers

Likud party confirms leaders of Union of Right Wing Parties to meet Netanyahu on Monday, as reports signal the two will also be offered seats on high-level security cabinet

By TOI staff

National Union MK Bezalel Smotrich, at the Supreme Court in Jerusalem on March 27, 2019. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

June 10, 2019, 11:02 pm

Report: PM blocked MK who seeks Torah rule from serving as Diaspora minister

Netanyahu ally also said to inform Smotrich he was passed over for Justice Ministry because it is key to the premier’s future

By TOI staff

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, center, Cabinet Secretary Tzachi Braverman, right, and Tourism Minister Yariv Levin, left, attend the weekly cabinet meeting at prime minister's office in Jerusalem on January 27, 2019. (ABIR SULTAN / POOL / AFP)

January 27, 2019, 4:42 pm

Netanyahu downplays right-wing anti-Semitism, contradicting Israeli study

PM insists Jew hatred on the ‘extreme left’ and among Muslims is the more pertinent threat, despite government report stating far-right attacks on the rise

By TOI staff

A makeshift memorial stands outside the Tree of Life synagogue in the aftermath of a deadly shooting in Pittsburgh, on October 29, 2018 in which eleven Jews were killed while at Shabbat services. (AP/Matt Rourke)

January 27, 2019, 2:31 pm

2018 was deadliest year for anti-Semitic violence since 1994 – Israeli report

From Pittsburgh massacre to killings of French Holocaust survivor and US student, last year saw highest rates of lethal violence against Jews since AMIA bombing, report says

By TOI staff

A French Jewish new immigrant kisses the ground after arriving at Ben Gurion airport in Israel on July 10, 2017. (Nati Shohat/Flash90)

December 20, 2018, 1:43 am

Israel prepares for major influx of French Jewish immigrants

Government believes some 200,000 are interested in leaving France and is looking to put together an absorption package to entice them to make aliyah

By Stuart Winer and TOI staff

French Jews arriving at Ben Gurion Airport in Israel, November 2, 2016. (JTA/IFCJ)

December 9, 2018, 3:18 pm

Diaspora minister seeks plan to boost French immigration

‘200,000 French Jews want to come here,’ Naftali Bennett tells cabinet, insists ‘assimilation crisis, apathy among Jews’ causing Israel-Diaspora rift

By TOI staff

One of the float-balloons in Israel for the "Unity" parade, taking place December 3, 2018 (Courtesy 2bVibes)

December 2, 2018, 1:42 pm

Excitement swells as massive balloons prep for ‘Unity’ parade

December 3 event in Jerusalem has float-balloons, operators and professional marching band leaders flown in from the US

By Jessica Steinberg

A group of bloggers participating in the Jewish Media Summit, at the President's Residence, November 28, 2018. (Laura Ben-David)

November 29, 2018, 3:37 am

In rare Knesset Q&A, Netanyahu is served soft pitches with a side of adulation

International journalists, bloggers and social media gurus at the Jewish Media Summit meet with Israel’s top leadership and discuss anything but prickly domestic Israeli affairs

By Amanda Borschel-Dan

A Jewish emergency crew and police officers at the site of the mass shooting that killed 11 people and wounded six at the Tree Of Life synagogue, on October 28, 2018, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. (Jeff Swensen/Getty Images/AFP)

October 29, 2018, 8:19 pm

Bennett, Jewish leaders to discuss Israeli help to US synagogues after massacre

Diaspora minister scheduled to meet officials from Conference of Presidents, ADL, Jewish Federation in New York following Pittsburgh attack

By Judah Ari Gross

Education Naftali Bennett speaks to press, prior to the weekly cabinet meeting, at the Prime Minister's Office in Jerusalem, September 16, 2018. (Marc Israel Sellem/Pool/Flash90)

October 9, 2018, 1:10 pm

Bennett protests to University of Michigan over Netanyahu-Hitler comparison

In letter, education minister urges school’s president, Mark Schlissel, to take a stand against ‘vitriolic hatred against the Jewish state’ on campus

By TOI staff and JTA

Rabbi Rick Jacobs, center, and other progressive Jews clashing with security guards in front of the Western Wall in Jerusalem, November 16, 2017. (Noam Rivkin Fenton/via JTA)

June 24, 2018, 11:20 pm

These academics want to mend Israel-Diaspora relations, but can they be saved?

With Diaspora and Israeli Jews increasingly uninterested in one another, initiative seeks to encourage exploration of both communities’ distinctions and commonalities

By Sam Sokol

About 100 "Bnei Menashe" (Sons of Menashe) from India landed at Ben Gurion Airport, on June 25, 2015, immigrating to Israel (Flash90)

March 28, 2018, 12:42 pm

Ministry: Israel should woo 60 million people who have Jewish links to aid state

Seeking converts, immigrants, and Israel advocates, Diaspora Ministry-appointed panel suggests pilot project among 5 million descendants of Jewish converts to Christianity

By Sue Surkes

The desecrated grave site of a daughter of Rabbi Nachman of Breslov in central Ukraine, February 22, 2015. (Photo credit: Oholei Tzadikim)

January 29, 2018, 1:01 am

In ‘striking exception,’ anti-Semitic incidents soar in Ukraine, report says

Israel’s Diaspora Ministry says ‘use of Jews as scapegoats in public discourse has increased’ since 2014 Ukrainian Revolution

By Cnaan Liphshiz

Illustrative image of a hacker, via Shutterstock.

January 25, 2018, 4:45 pm

Diaspora Ministry unveils system for tracking online anti-Semitism

The ‘most advanced’ system of its kind in the world can monitor social media posts against Jews in real time, ministry says

By TOI staff

A screenshot from a video of the scene outside kosher grocery store Promo & Destock in the Parisian suburb of Creteil, that was burned overnight on January 9, 2018, less than a week after it was hit by anti-Semitic graffiti. (Screen capture/AFP)

January 21, 2018, 3:06 pm

Diaspora Ministry sees troubling trends in anti-Semitism worldwide

In press release, ministry says unreleased report has found growing anti-Jewish sentiments in the UK, Germany and among migrant populations in Europe

By TOI staff