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Passover Hagaddah conclusion “Next Year in Jerusalem” deemed “unhelpful” by Obama administration March 23, 2010 By The Associated Press Shana Habbab (AP White House Correspondent) (AP) — An unidentified Israeli official has confirmed that private discussions between President Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu included a strong request from the President that the upcoming Passover holiday not include the familiar refrain of “next year in Jerusalem”, citing the passage as being provocative and unhelpful for future peace talks.The Administration suggested replacing it with “next year in peace” or “next year in Israel”, but leaving the final wording up to...

RWNB: How are those “uprisings” in Egypt and Libya working out these days? Hillary doesn’t seem to like the direction Egypt is heading and no one likes the Libya situation and yet Obama praises the Muslim uprising as he is commenting on the Jewish Passover. BERLIN – U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton is warning that rising intolerance toward women and religious minorities threatens to hijack democratic transitions around the Arab world and spread violent extremism. Clinton told an award ceremony in the German capital on Friday that she was disturbed by recent developments in post-revolt Egypt in which...

For the past several years I've been putting out a light-hearted '18 Ways You Know Pesach is Coming In Israel' piece to describe the frenetic days leading up to Pesach in the holy city. This year, there are a few additional notable events that are driving the news cycles over here. Apart from the upcoming Mid-East visit of the pope and the ongoing saga of whether Gilad Shalit will be home for Pesach, there's the controversy over the Chametz Law. Never heard of it? Well, since 1986, Israel has had a law on the books that forbids leavened products from...

Happy and Kosher Passover to all FReepers from Alouette & family. May Israel enjoy a blessed and peaceful holiday. Please post your holiday greetings here.

The ceremony has become a tradition ever since the liberation of the Temple Mount during the Six-Day War in 1967 and is seen as an observance of the Jewish obligation to make a pilgrimage to Jerusalem and the Holy Temple three times a year, on Pesach (Passover), Shavuot (Pentecost) and Sukkot (Tabernacles). During the weeklong Pesach and Sukkot holidays, the ceremony is held on the second of the Hol haMoed (intermediate) days. Hundreds of kohanim, Jews who trace their lineage to Aaron, the first High Priest, stood closest to the Western Wall to take part in the special blessings....

Apr. 11, 2006 23:57 | Updated Apr. 12, 2006 2:51 Pessah teddy bears plagued by taxman By HILARY LEILA KRIEGER An American 12-year-old who helped collect 7,000 teddy bears for sick children in Israel for Pessah had no idea that the stuffed animals would be temporarily barred from entering the Promised Land. Shira Goldstein's family spent the first half of this week begging the Customs Authority to let her teddy bears go. But the authorities only agreed to release them after NIS 8,900 in import taxes and duties were paid on Tuesday. "My heart could break. Everybody has stepped to...

Thought about sacrificing a paschal lamb this year? Many of the hundreds – perhaps more than a thousand including the women – who gathered Thursday night at the Western Wall to march a circle around the Temple Mount believe it can become a reality – if not this year in Jerusalem, next. So do many of the hundreds who will gather on Sunday to demonstrate against the police decision to close the Temple Mount to Jews. "Today all we want is the right to pray on the Temple Mount," said Rabbi Yishai Ba'avad, secretary of The Institute for the Establishment...

On Saturday night I was sent off on the Pessah equivalent of a combat mission - shopping. Everyone had the same idea: I'll beat the crowds by shopping a few days before the Seder. The supermarket was bursting with such brilliant crowd-beating people. As an immigrant to Israel who keeps kosher, most of the year I relish being liberated from the Diaspora practice of scavenger-hunting for kosher products. Living in the Jewish state means having the freedom to pick anything off the shelf without using a magnifying glass. Every spring, however, I would regress to shopping like Sherlock Holmes, looking...

Many Israelis disposed of hametz (leavened) products as Pessah approached, while MKs criticized the interior minister's failure to enforce the law prohibiting the display of hametz during the holiday, which begins today. Interior Minister Avraham Poraz came under criticism in the cabinet Sunday for announcing he does not intend to appoint inspectors to enforce the no-Hametz law during Pessah. Advertisement Saying that ministers cannot use their own judgment when deciding whether to enforce the country's laws, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said that matza on Pessah is a symbol that gives Israel it's Jewish character. "I am not a religious person,...

In recent years, Passover has undergone a make-over in the American Jewish non-Orthodox community, one that has converted it largely into a holiday devoted to celebrating human rights, protesting a long list of human rights abuses and promoting fashionable causes. The remake seems designed to make Passover a cosmopolitan holiday, one with a universal message in which all can join, in essence the Jewish answer to the Declaration of the Rights of Man of the French Revolution. Back in the 1960s, a series of Political Correctness Haggadahs were written, in which the message of Passover was turned into a celebration...

IDF Paratroopers in Tulkarm foiled an Islamic Jihad plot to carry out a suicide bombing in one of Israel's large cities over the Pesah holiday. Four Palestinians, including a woman, were arrested by the Paratroopers in Tulkarm on Thursday. The woman was suspected of planning to smuggle a ready-to-use explosives belt into Israeli territory. Neither the explosives belt, nor the potential suicide bomber meant to carry out the attack, have been found. The other three men arrested belonged to the Islamic Jihad and were planning the suicide attack. The suicide bomber who attacked Netanya's Park Hotel last year, killing 29...

The Haggada reading that "in every generation there are those who rise against us to destroy us" will undoubtedly sound a responsive chord amongst Israelis especially at those Seders marred by the absence of a family member killed or maimed by terror or war. We have undergone almost three painful, bloody years during which the prevailing euphoria relating to the "irreversible peace process" has been shattered and exposed as a cruel illusion. Indeed under threat from chemical/biological attack, our children were obliged to take gas masks to school, a chilling reminder of the terrible horrors Jews underwent during the Holocaust....

After three weeks of intense fighting, the American military offensive against Saddam Hussein's regime in Iraq more or less ended last Saturday. The military operation can be compared to smashing down pieces on a chess board by a violent hand and rearranging them according to a new guiding logic. The manner in which the pieces of the Iraqi regime were smashed down and are now being rearranged will serve as a basis for the work of politicians and an inspiration for military planners for years to come. I was privileged to bear witness to large swathes of the chess pieces...

This year's Seder meal will be especially poignant at Netanya's Park Hotel, where one year ago a Palestinian suicide bomber killed 29 and wounded more than 60. "This evening will be very symbolic," says hotel proprietor Corinne Mamami. "All the guests will come to identify with us, to prove that the Palestinians will not destroy us. This is our country and we will not move from it. They will not break our spirit." About 150 paying guests are expected at this evening's service and meal, to be held under unprecedented security arrangements. "We will conduct a regular Seder service," Mamami...

Several projects and events are to take place in the United States in the coming weeks. Here, we highlight three of them. On Sunday, April 6, 2003, the 52nd Annual Israel Folk Dance Festival and Festival of the Arts will be held at the Martin Luther King, Jr., High School in New York City. The Festival is sponsored by the Israeli Dance Institute in partnership with Jewish National Fund and co-sponsored by Bnai Zion. The event will feature Israeli vendors of Judaica and crafts, as well as an audience participatory fashion show, activity booths and hands-on activities for children, Israeli...