After months of delay, Al-Watania, the West Bank’s second cell-phone carrier, began its operations this week, offering its customers the latest in telephone technology. And while the company’s customers won’t be able to pick up their new flip phones and call Israel—bureaucratic restrictions and mutual resentments make communications between the Jewish state and its Palestinian ...

Know you don’t want to get swine flu but occasionally forgetful of how best to prevent it? Who better to turn to for advice, then, than an bald, dorky, upper-middle-aged Jewish doctor who awkwardly raps about safety tips? Ladies and gentlemen, we present, courtesy of YouTube, Dr. Mache Seibel’s hip-hop “Five Tips to Avoid H1N1 ...

We’re still not really sure who Taylor Swift is, except that we know Kanye West isn’t a fan, and we have no idea at all who Katy Perry is, but apparently the former went to a birthday party for the latter, at which she had her picture taken with a dude wearing a swastika, and ...

Two people were shot in the legs this morning at the Adat Yeshurun Valley Sephardic synagogue in North Hollywood, California, the Associated Press is reporting. “Police say a man with a handgun entered the building at about 6:20 a.m. and shot two people,” says the wire service, which notes that the police are treating the ...

The Israeli settlement Ma’aleh Adumim, which operates as an independent municipality in the West Bank, is expected to be incorporated into Israel in any two-state solution. Home to about 30,000 residents, 99.8 percent of whom are Jews, Ma’aleh Adumin is the settlement that Israelis pointed to the most when arguing against the Obama administration’s now-scuttled ...

Is it possible that the Woody Allen stereotype of the neurotic, asthmatic, nebbishy Jewish guy actually has some basis in truth? (Don’t all stereotypes?) Reuters is reporting on a recent academic study (conducted in Germany, stereotypically) that finds a link between neurosis and respiratory trouble. “People who are neurotic—they tend to worry a lot and ...

Jerm Pollet on Jewish Body Week from Tablet Magazine on Vimeo.
It’s the final day of Jewish Body Week at Tablet Magazine, and today’s video testimonial is from comedian Jerm Pollet, who is surprised to find himself hot for Jews. But the other content today examines death. With an audio slideshow, we take you on a ...

Wherever you go, as that old Hebrew-school song goes, there’s always someone Jewish—even in Kaifeng, China, as it turns out. The Israeli papers are carrying news of seven Chinese descendents of the Jewish community there who arrived earlier this week at Ben Gurion Airport, made a first stop at the Western Wall, and then will ...

• The United States and allies are close to an agreement in which Iran will ship its uranium to Russia for enrichment, not to weapons grade. But Israel’s defense minister, Ehud Barak, issued a statement saying a must require “the cessation of enrichment by Iran, and not just the removal of the enriched material.” [NYT]
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Last week Tzipi Livni, head of Israel’s Kadima party and opposition leader in the Knesset, attacked the Netanyahu government for isolating Israel on the world stage. “You have managed to beat the president of the United States, Israel’s greatest friend, or at least this is the impression you and your people tried to convey after ...