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is JTA's Israel correspondent. He reports on Israeli politics, culture, society and economics, in addition to covering Palestinian and regional affairs. A graduate of Washington University in St. Louis and the Columbia University Journalism School, he is the former editor-in-chief of New Voices, the national Jewish student magazine.

Latest

• In case you forgot, Israel’s Chief Rabbinate opposes Women of the Wall

  June 3, 2013 4:00pm

  We’ve got one week to go before the next Women of the Wall service, and the storm of controversy is (predictably) brewing once again. This month, it’s courtesy of Israel’s Chief Rabbinical Council, the Chief Rabbinate’s governing body, which announced today that — after deliberating — it has come to a decision regarding Women of…

• On rabbinic equality, non-Orthodox leaders are hopeful but wary

  June 3, 2013 3:15pm

  Israel’s intention to finally fund non-Orthodox rabbis is potentially a watershed moment, but Reform and Conservative leaders remain skeptical that true equality is on the way.

• Why did Israel’s promising electric car maker fail?

  June 3, 2013 11:54am

  Israeli entrepreneur Shai Agassi was set to finally bring a fully electric car to the masses. That was before he was ousted as CEO of Better Place and the company went bankrupt.

• Water surplus in Israel? With desalination, once unthinkable is possible

  May 28, 2013 3:46pm

  New desalination plants along Israel’s coast could be a game-changing solution to the challenges of Israel’s water needs.

• In protest of Bennett, echoes of JVP

  May 22, 2013 11:10am

  On Monday, 30 young, left-wing Diaspora Jews interrupted a speech by right-wing Israeli Finance Minister Naftali Bennett. The move is reminiscent of an earlier disruption of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s keynote address at the November 2010 General Assembly of the Jewish Federations of North America.

• Meet the laser that guides the Iron Dome (soon to be made in the USA)

  May 21, 2013 2:06pm

  Six months after the Iron Dome defense system rendered Hamas rockets largely ineffective during Israel’s Operation Pillar of Defense in Gaza,  I got a tour of the factory that produces its most vital component: a laser. The system, which can shoot down rockets within a circumference of 65 sq. miles, takes two trucks to transport…

• To haredim, Knesset member Rabbi Dov Lipman now a turncoat

  May 21, 2013 1:09pm

  Dov Lipman has staked his budding political career on his reputation as a moderate haredi Orthodox leader, someone uniquely positioned to broker compromise between Israel’s increasingly polarized secular and religious communities. The problem is that Israel’s haredi leaders say he’s not actually haredi.

• Israeli Paralympian Pascale Bercovitch eyes 2016 Games in Rio

  May 12, 2013 4:28pm

  The French-born athlete lost her legs in a train accident at age 17, but that hasn’t stopped her from representing Israel twice in the Paralympics and becoming one of the first wheelchair-bound volunteers in the IDF.

• After Friday’s confrontation, are more haredi protests ahead?

  May 10, 2013 11:49am

  Friday morning saw thousands of haredi Orthodox youth pack the Western Wall Plaza to protest Women of the Wall’s service there. With police assistance, Women of the Wall were able to conduct their service. But the protest showed how effective haredi mobilization can be. Within days, haredi activists and leading rabbis got thousands of students…

• It ain’t over ’til it’s over: Women of the Wall edition

  May 9, 2013 1:58pm

  Women of the Wall thought they’d won. Turns out, the fight will last (at least) another day.