Free Republic

The Biden administration’s now-suspended Iran envoy Robert Malley helped to fund, support, and direct an Iranian intelligence operation designed to influence the United States and allied governments, according to a trove of purloined Iranian government emails. The emails, which were reported on by veteran Wall Street Journal correspondent Jay Solomon, writing in Semafor, and by Iran International, the London-based émigré opposition outlet which is the most widely read independent news source inside Iran, were published last week after being extensively verified over a period of several months by the two outlets. They showed that Malley had helped to infiltrate an...

A special lecture will be held at the Babylon Jewish Heritage Center this week that will reveal an archive of Iraqi Jews that was found by US Army soldiers in the basements of Saddam Hussein's intelligence building. The one who will tell about the findings is the one who was among the archivists, Dr. Harold Rudd, a consultant to the US Department of Defense who was sent together with the US task force to the basements that were hit by an American bomb. In an interview with Israel National News, Dr. Rudd talks about the rescue operation and the findings...

The coin, the first of its type discovered in Israel, was minted by the Byzantine Emperor Theodosius II, whose edicts led to the abolishment of the Sanhedrin Council and to the large-scale emigration of Jews to the Diaspora.1,600 years after the edict of the Emperor Theodosius II led to the abolishment of the post of the 'Nasi,' the Head of the Sanhedrin, school pupils found a rare piece of evidence reflecting this dramatic moment in Jewish history.In February 2019, four ninth grade students from the Haemeq Hamaaravi High School in Kibbutz Yifat in the Jezreel valley were orienteering in the...

This past week, Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett made headlines in the Jewish world with a sincere expression of his awareness of the “hardship” that’s been faced by Jewish communities throughout the diaspora. Countless Jews are frustrated by the on-again, off-again closure of Israel’s borders to non-Israelis. Israel has faced criticism from Jews and Jewish communities due to the prohibition of most being able to come visit, tour, and see relatives. In fact, the reality of many diaspora Jews being left out, literally, and prevented from coming to visit their relatives in Israel has been the source of some of...

Diaspora Jewry needs de-education to erase the impressions affecting mind and heart to make them feel at home. Op-ed.

For, behold, in those days, and in that time, when I shall bring again the captivity of Judah and Jerusalem, I will also gather all nations, and will bring them down into the valley of Jehoshaphat, and will plead with them there for my people and for my heritage Israel, whom they have scattered among the nations, and parted my land. And they have cast lots for my people; and have given a boy for an harlot, and sold a girl for wine, that they might drink. ( Joel 3:1-3)Joel saw the Day of the LORD, in it’s final manifestation,...

Jewish people make up the lowest share of Europe's population for a thousand years a new study has found, as France sees a surge in emigration due to anti-Semitism. The study, published on Wednesday, found 1.3 million people living in continental Europe, the United Kingdom and Turkey who describe themselves as Jewish - 60 percent lower than in 1970 when there were 3.2 million in the same area. Undertaken by the London-based Institute for Jewish Policy Research, the release of the study comes the week after a teacher was beheaded in a Paris suburb allegedly by a suspected Islamist last...

View of the Old City of Jerusalem (Photo: Yonatan Sindel/Flash90) A new message, begging Jews who live in the diaspora to get to Israel, has been released from an unusual source. Daniel, a Jewish man living in Israel, is known by his first name alone. Daniel was born with autism and does not have the ability to communicate verbally. As a result of his autism, he and others like him are able to tap into a higher level of spiritual truth than most. He explains his situation like this: “I am autistic and I see the world much differently...

My wife kicks my leg under the dinner table whenever guests rail against anti-Netanyahu and Israel critics. The U.N. and college students are also favorite targets. "Save your contrarian opinions for your articles, not the dinner table," she reproaches me. I'm pretty black and blue, as you might imagine. This abridged dinner talk reflects the mounting impatience Israel advocates have because of a siege mentality set in among Israelis and Anglo-olim (immigrants). It incubates from the politics of fear, and they are just not taking it any longer. I have noticed a palpable shift in attitude in the six years...

A natural skeptic, Twain was not taken by the splendor of the Holy Land. He wrote irreverently about the country’s legendary sites. At his peak, Mark Twain was probably the most popular American celebrity of his time. What few realize is that it was an unlikely trip to the Holy Land that established his fame as an author. A century and a half ago, Twain traveled on an excursion with his American church group to Europe and the Middle East. The material he gathered, first published in a San Francisco newspaper, formed the basis of the humorous book that made...

An Indian-American legal luminary has been nominated by US President Donald Trump to a key judicial position on the powerful US court of appeals. Amul Thapar, 47, who in 2007 became the first South Asian Article III judge when he was appointed as a US District Judge for the Eastern District of Kentucky, is the first Indian-American to be nominated by Trump for a top judicial post yesterday. If confirmed by the Senate, Thapar will be part of the powerful US 6th Circuit Court of Appeals, which hears appeals from Kentucky, Tennessee, Ohio and Michigan. Thapar was among the 20...

He might want to talk to his boss about it. Because his boss is the one bringing them here to enrich us and become "part of our story". Just like in New York, Boston and Orlando. Intelligence and law enforcement agencies worry that a surge of violent extremists will eventually move from ISIS-controlled areas in Syria and Iraq into Western nations with the aim of committing terrorist attacks, FBI Director James Comey told Congress on Tuesday. "The caliphate will be crushed," but hundreds of people will remain and become part of a "terrorist diaspora" in the next two to five...

On the Issue of the Orthodox "Diaspora" Introduction It seems, during the course of work on the Great Orthodox Council, that the issue of the "diaspora" will be the most important, in the sense that there is no issue more important than it. Due to serious disagreements that currently exist between the Orthodox Churches, mostly due to historical factors, the other working papers, most of which have been agreed upon, were formulated according to the lowest common denominator of agreement and not at the level hoped for by the people of God. The issue of the "diaspora," however, has remained urgent because...

Interpol (The International Criminal Police Organization) has requested the arrest of the spiritual leader of the Muslim Brotherhood and global Sunni Islamist diaspora, Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi, whose radical past includes praising suicide bombers against innocents as martyrs and describing Nazi leader Adolf Hitler as Allah’s gift to the world. Interpol is charging the terror Sheikh with agreement, incitement, and assistance to commit premeditated murder, facilitating a prison escape, arson, vandalism, and theft. Qaradawi has been known to espouse horrifically anti-Semitic sentiments, often praising figures such as Adolf Hitler and his Holocaust of 6-million Jews. “he managed to put them [Jews]...

Shearith Israel, the very first Jewish Congregation in America, hosts its 2nd annual “Music of The Jewish Diaspora” performance, featuring the Salome Chamber Orchestra. The Spanish and Portuguese Synagogue presents an evening of elegance and sophistication. Set inside the luxurious main sanctuary, a room built to hold 700 people, yet because of its architecture, creates a uniquely intimate setting and vibrant acoustic. The Salome Orchestra, just as Shearith Israel, exquisitely blends the classic culture and history in its roots with the modern spice of our new age. Musical influence has always been a strong aspect of Sephardic culture and is...

I am a Jew from Libya. Although my family and I were forced to flee Libya for Rome after the 1967 war between Israel and its Arab neighbors, I still consider myself to be a proud Jew, a proud Libyan, and a proud Italian. I have been back four times since 1967, but have been forced to leave each time. Although much time has passed, I still feel the freshness of Tripoli's air and its special light: hot, but not blinding. I want to feel that light again -- but in a stable Libya, a country that affirms freedom, justice,...

THE JERUSALEM POST MAY 28 2010 In October 1994, several days after kidnapped IDF soldier Nachshon Wachsman was killed in a failed attempt to save him from his terrorist captors, I was scheduled to teach my weekly graduate seminar at the University of Judaism in Los Angeles. But given the horror of what had just transpired, I couldnÂ’t even imagine simply teaching as planned. I no longer recall what had been scheduled for that day. But what I do remember is that I decided to scrap the usual fare and that I taught a text in memory of Wachsman.As the...

Members of the tiny Jewish community in Sanaa, Yemen’s capital, say they have not received their monthly food rations or any government financial assistance for the past three months. Rabbi Yahya Yusuf, leader of the 65-member community, told IRIN the Jews had been “suffering terribly” of late; many had been finding it very difficult to even feed their children. “We have sold everything we possess to buy food for our families. We even sold our women’s gold rings. We have run out of money,” he said. Yusuf said that two weeks ago they had staged a protest outside government headquarters...

History will record that 2,500 years of Jewish life in Yemen is now over. As The Wall Street Journal reported October 31, the US State Department has completed a clandestine operation which brought 60 of the country's remaining Jews to America. The newspaper quoted Yeshiva University's Hayim Tawil, a Yemeni Jewry expert, as issuing the certificate of death: "This is the end of the Jewish Diaspora of Yemen. That's it." As Israelis and Jews we earnestly appreciate the efforts of the Obama administration on behalf of our Yemeni brethren. THE RESCUE illuminates an often overlooked aspect of the 60-year-plus Arab-Israel...

A Gift by Ari Bussel Writing is a gift, bestowed by heaven. After several weeks of not writing, the urge, the tingling in the fingers, the feeling from within drove the body to do what it resisted. A single flame started burning, gaining strength, feeding and expanding. Soon it would be unstoppable. I often use the metaphor of the child shouting “but the King is naked.” Let me recount a modern day tale of a visitor who came for Sukkot (the Festival of Tabernacles). When the Temple existed, Israelites would go three times a year to Jerusalem, during Passover, the...