Russian-Israeli billionaire Arcadi Gaydamak will stop giving charitable donations to Israeli organizations, a spokesman for his foundation told Haaretz this weekend. Gaydamak, who last year started the Israeli Social Justice political party, first gained notoriety for his philanthropic efforts during Israel’s war with Hezbollah in Lebanon in 2006, when he spent $15 million to build… More ▸
Last night, environmental lawyer Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. used some air time on Larry King Live to give a shout-out to Project Better Place, an Israeli startup that hopes to make Israel the first country to wean itself off gasoline-powered cars. Kennedy, who was debating Chevron Oil CEO David O’Reilly, might have overstated Better Place’s… More ▸
The Fundermentalist is now sitting safe at a cafe on the beach in Tel Aviv as the sun starts its descent over the Mediterranean Sea, but it seems that bad luck followed in my wake the past couple of days. I spent Tuesday night on Kibbutz Nachal Oz, 800 meters from the Gaza border and… More ▸
The UJC also took its media tour to check out some programming in the Negev… As JAFI spokesman Jacob Dallal told us, in a nutshell, Sderot is pretty depressing and the Negev is the future of Israel – so they wanted our trip to end on a Zionist upbeat. Net@ was among the more interesting… More ▸
This is the home of Dovid Tourgemond, which was hit by a Kassam in March. The owner of a local stop-n-shop is waiting for government funding to come in to fix the house that he built for $300,000 about 15 years ago. More ▸
Moira Dror, left, is being squeezed by the government, the Palestinians and her own conscience “Do I look like I need therapy?” Moira Dror snaps in an Israeli-Scottish accent when I ask the psychologist sitting next to her if she would mind showing us how she would help Dror deal with her stress. In an… More ▸
Estee Nemeth is embarrassed by her government over the way it has treated the city in which she lives. We met with dozens of residents of Sderot in our two days in their town and the story of this embattled town started to emerge through their frustrations. The 25-year-old, who grew up in Canarsie, New… More ▸
The Fundermentalist has heard that reports of Natalie Portman visiting Rwanda to check out a philanthropy role with the JDC might have been exaggerated. At the same time, however, he has also heard that she may have been in Israel recently to check out Jewish Agency programs, as well as JDC programs. Neither the spokesman… More ▸
The UJC has apparently been largely rebuffed in its efforts to raise another $13.6 million from local Jewish federations in North America for helping Sderot, Ashkelon and the surrounding cities. The organization had already allocated more than $21 million for programming in the region from its Israel Emergency Campaign, started in the aftermath of Israel’s… More ▸
It’s 1 a.m. A rocket landing in the distance sounds like a bowling ball dropping on thick spongy carpet a floor away from you. It feels about the same under your feet. More later after I get some sleep. More ▸
