Jewish Agency for Israel JAFI

Illustrative image of African asylum seekers attending a memorial ceremony to commemorate 14 years since the genocide in Darfur, at Levinsky Park in southern Tel Aviv on Thursday, April 27 2017. (Tomer Neuberg/Flash90)

February 27, 2018, 8:35 pm

Jewish Agency urges Israel to grant asylum to 500 young African migrants

'These youngsters speak fluent Hebrew, are imbued with Israeli culture and are loyal to the State of Israel'

By TOI staff

Illustrative photo of elderly men playing backgammon at a country club in northern Tel Aviv. (Tomer Neuberg/Flash90)

February 16, 2018, 10:12 am

New Jersey foundation gives $5 million to subsidized housing for Israeli seniors

Wilf Family Foundation makes donation to Jewish Agency for projects aimed at helping some 27,000 elderly citizens, half of whom are Holocaust survivors

By JTA and TOI staff

Sam Bloch speaking during a ceremony marking the 60th anniversary of the liberation of the Bergen-Belsen camp on April 17, 2005. (JOCHEN LUEBKE/AFP/Getty Images)

February 6, 2018, 6:27 am

Sam Bloch, survivor who devoted life to memory of Shoah, dies at 94

Bloch organized gatherings for survivors in US and Israel and helped found international fundraising arms of Yad Vashem and IDF

By JTA

Agamesh Mengistu, with her son Ilan, in Washington, DC, Nov. 17, 2017. (Ron Kampeas)

November 21, 2017, 2:35 am

Family of Avera Mengistu wants US help to get him back from Gaza

Ethiopian-Israeli family of troubled man held in Hamas-run Strip believes American Jewish community can be instrumental in creating pressure for his release

By Ron Kampeas

Minister Tzachi Hanegbi addresses the Jewish Agency Board of Governors at the 'Ezrat Yisrael' prayer platform at the Western Wall, October 30, 2017 (Raphael Ahren/Times of Israel)

October 30, 2017, 6:05 pm

Israel insists it won’t fully implement Western Wall egalitarian prayer deal

Addressing Jewish Agency at pluralistic prayer platform, Tzachi Hanegbi vows to improve the site's appearance but rejects Diaspora Jewry's key demands

By Raphael Ahren

Israeli lawmakers and South African Jewish leaders meet with ANC party official and African Union chairwoman Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, center, in Johannesburg on August 14, 2017. (Embassy of Israel in South Africa)

August 25, 2017, 2:07 pm

First-ever delegation of MKs visits South Africa

Lawmakers meet with politicians from the ruling and opposition parties, visit South African Jewish communities

By TOI staff

Young US Jews who immigrated to Israel to join the IDF pose with executives from Nefesh B'Nefesh (center) after their flight lands in Israel on Tuesday, August 15, 2017 (Shahar Azran)

August 15, 2017, 7:01 pm

New immigrants to Israel feted as miracles, and a threat to Iran

233 US olim make their way to their ancestral homeland on a Nefesh B'Nefesh charter flight, among them 68 future IDF soldiers -- and an ambassador's daughter

By Elie Leshem

Iranian-born journalist Neda Amin (L) with David Horovitz (R), founding editor of The Times of Israel, during a press conference at The Times of Israel’s Jerusalem offices, a few hours after she arrived to Israel. August 10, 2017. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

August 15, 2017, 1:33 am

Times of Israel Persian blogger starts Hebrew classes

Iranian-born Neda Amin, who fled to Israel after being threatened with deportation from Turkey, signs up for Ulpan Etzion

By Tamar Pileggi

Part of the draw for scholars attending the 17th World Congress of Jewish Studies at Hebrew University in Jerusalem on August 6-10, 2017, is the chance to catch up with old friends. (Amanda Borschel-Dan/Times of Israel)

August 10, 2017, 4:46 pm

At 70, Jerusalem’s Jewish Studies ‘Olympics’ still a good brain workout

Held every four years, the World Congress of Jewish Studies brings together the field's finest with those who want to walk in their footsteps

By Amanda Borschel-Dan

An illustration of Natan Sharansky's proposal, which will expand the Western Wall and create a permanent egalitarian space in the Robinson's Arch area. (photo credit: Creative Commons/Graphics by Uri Fintzy/JTA)

July 4, 2017, 1:12 pm

Full text: The complete version of the Western Wall compromise from January 2016

Negotiated over three and a half years, this is the 45-page, extraordinarily detailed threshing out of the Western Wall prayer arrangements -- worked out over 11 meetings, approved by Israel, and frozen on June 25 by the government

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks during the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) 2015 Policy Conference, March 2, 2015 in Washington, DC. (photo credit: Mark Wilson/Getty Images/AFP)

June 29, 2017, 9:48 pm

AIPAC leaders meet PM, highlight ‘dissident, discordant voices’ in US over frozen Western Wall deal

NY Congresswoman Nita Lowey urges Netanyahu to honor original agreement for permanent pluralistic prayer area

By Eric Cortellessa and TOI staff

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu delivers a speech at a Jewish Agency Board of Governors gathering in Jerusalem on February 18, 2013. (Kobi Gideon/GPO/flash90)

June 28, 2017, 4:36 pm

Netanyahu and the Wall: He broke it, he must fix it

Op-ed: Non-Orthodox supporters of Israel overseas could convince themselves it was rain, not spit, when ultra-Orthodox MKs over the years denigrated their streams of Judaism as illegitimate. Until Sunday, when the government told them they're just too... well... treif

By David Horovitz

Jewish Agency Chairman Natan Sharansky briefs the organization's emissaries around the world via conference call, June 27, 2017. (The Jewish Agency for Israel)

June 27, 2017, 11:54 pm

Sharansky tells envoys to convey Diaspora’s fury over cabinet moves

Amid anger over Western Wall, conversion decisions, Jewish Agency head says global emissaries should oppose efforts to divorce Israel from world Jewry

By Stuart Winer and TOI staff

Jewish Agency chairman, Natan Sharansky (R) and MK Nachman Shai attend the lobby for strengthening ties with the Jewish world at the Knesset, Israel's Parliament, June 27, 2017. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

June 27, 2017, 3:16 pm

In Knesset, Diaspora leaders vow to undo Western Wall decision

At emergency meeting in parliament, incensed representatives vow they won't rest until pluralistic prayer pavilion reinstated

By Raphael Ahren

Members of the Reform and Conservative Jewish movements hold torah scrolls during mixed men and women's prayer at the public square in front of the Western Wall, in Jerusalem's Old City, on May 18, 2017. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

June 27, 2017, 9:57 am

Jewish Agency takes out ad slamming Western Wall decision

Organization says freezing pluralistic prayer pavilion and granting ultra-Orthodox conversion monopoly 'endangers the unity of the Jewish people'

By TOI staff