(JTA) — Dr. Miriam Adelson, the wife of casino and hotel magnate Sheldon Adelson, has donated $5 million to a group supporting Newt Gingrich for the Republican presidential nomination.

The donation matches one given earlier this month by her husband to Winning Our Future, an independent committee, or Super PAC, that is run by former Gingrich associates, according to a report in the Las Vegas Review-Journal citing GOP sources. Major media outlets confirmed the report late Monday.

The funding comes just days after Gingrich scored an upset in the South Carolina primary and ahead of a key primary in Florida on Jan. 31.

Super PACs can raise unlimited sums from corporations, unions and other groups, as well as individuals, and indirectly support a political candidate. They cannot by law coordinate with the candidate’s official campaign.

Miriam Adelson, an Israeli by birth, runs two non-profit drug treatment and research centers in Nevada and Israel.

Sheldon Adelson, chairman and CEO of the Las Vegas Sands Corp., is worth more than $21 billion, according to Forbes magazine. He is a major giver to Birthright Israel, which provides free 10-day trips to Israel for Jews aged 18 to 26.
 

In what might be the most pretentious comedy honor ever, Harvard’s Hasty Pudding Theatricals named Jason Segel their Man of the Year. Claire Danes was named Woman of the Year. While both actors will be bestowed with an official Pudding Pot, Segel will get the extra special honor of being roasted. Not Danes though, maybe because she might cry.

To be fair, while roasts are often in good fun, I would personally be very scared of uber rich nerds with an arsenal of witty puns. Be afraid, Jason. Especially since your weiner has been seen in theaters across the nation.

HBO has always tailored their original series to niche markets. They got the single female urbanites with “Sex and the City,” the Creoles with “Treme,” the Aussies with “Flight of the Conchords,” and the perverts with “Taxicab Confessions.” Now they are roping the most coveted T.V. watchers of all: the Jews!

Ben Stiller has reportedly signed on to work with the cable giant to produce, direct, and star in a new show called “All Talk,” written by Jonathan Safran Foer. The show revolves around a Jewish family living in Washington, D.C., and is billed as “politically, religiously, culturally, intellectually and sexually irreverent” (Jews love them some risqué boob tubing). And guess who is set to co-star? Alan Alda! Indeed, Mister M.A.S.H. himself will be sharing the small screen schmaltz with Stiller.

Shooting is set to begin in the fall. Oy gevalt, am I excited!

JERUSALEM (JTA) — European Union foreign ministers called Israeli settlement building "worrying" as the EU’s foreign policy chief left for meetings with Israeli and Palestinian leaders

In a statement released Monday in Brussels, foreign ministers from the EU’s 27 member countries said that "Against the backdrop of worrying developments on the ground in 2011, particularly with regards to settlements, the EU reaffirms its commitment to a two-state solution."

The ministers also said they "welcome the efforts by Jordan" — Israeli and Palestinian negotiators have met four times under Jordan’s auspices in the last month, with a fifth meeting scheduled for Wednesday. The statement called on Israel and the Palestinians to bring "comprehensive proposals" to the Jordan-brokered talks that are trying to lead to the resumption of direct peace talks.

EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton is leaving Wednesday for talks in the region and is scheduled to visit Israel, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. Meetings are planned with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and PA Prime Minister Salam Fayyad. 

Ashton is trying to push the recent talks past Thursday’s deadline set months ago by the Mideast Quartet of the United States, the EU, Russia and the United Nations for the resumption of direct peace talks.

"I’ll be looking for positive signs from both sides that they are prepared to turn this progress into real gestures and negotiations," she said in a statement.
 

JERUSALEM (JTA) — Here are some recent stories out of Israel that you may have missed:

A Moshe by any other name

The Knesset is going on the offensive against offensive baby names.

A parliamentary committee has advanced a bill that would bar parents from sticking their children with insulting or damaging names. Under the measure, the interior minister could refuse to register a baby’s name and would appoint a Public Names Committee of experts, including an educator, a psychologist and a social worker, that the minister and the parents could consult on the name choice. The panel could reject a name it deemed might hurt the child.

Under the current law, the interior minister can refuse to register a name that “could mislead or offend the public.”

Sponsored by Zevulun Orlev of the Habayit Hayehudi Party and Miri Regev of the Likud Party, the bill now moves to committee before it reaches the full Knesset.

Hey soldier, make mine maki

Soldiers who lay down their arms can pick up knives — sushi knives, that is — and be paid by the Israeli government.

Recently discharged soldiers can learn to be sushi chefs on the government’s dime, with the courses costing about $1.2 million. A quarter of the funding will come from the Defense Ministry budget, Haaretz reported.

They are eligible as well to receive grants given to ex-soldiers who work in jobs classified as “priority work.”

The decision to train former soldiers as sushi chefs reportedly is part of an effort to reduce the number of foreign workers employed as cooks in Asian restaurants.

Six courses will be given this year throughout the country, with a minimum of 25 students in each course. Soldiers who graduate from the course will be placed in jobs and also may receive a large grant if they work in the job for which they trained during the first year.

Tel Aviv is the world’s third-largest sushi market in per capita terms, behind Tokyo and New York.

No argument, Israeli debaters rate

Pick a side, any side: Israelis will have their say.  

Brothers Omer, 26, and Sella Nevo, 22, earlier this month won the World University Debating Championships for English as a second language — the third consecutive year that an Israeli team has won first prize at the championships.

The brothers are students at Tel Aviv University; both are studying mathematics and computer science. They outlasted teams from Malaysia, Berlin and the Netherlands in the final round. The final debate centered on the ethics of scientists studying climate change

“We love to talk, discuss, argue and debate,” Yoni Cohen-Idov, the team’s coach and former ESL world champion, told Haaretz. “Israelis do it all the time regardless of competitions.”

I want to ride my bicycle

Tel Aviv city residents and visitors are trading in their cars for bicycles under the city’s expanding rental service.

At least 13,000 people have purchased an annual subscription to Tel Aviv’s bicycle rental service, Haaretz reports. Some 5,500 bicycles are rented each day, half in the city center. Yearly subscriptions are about $64 for city residents and $74 for non-residents.

Now the service will be offered to tourists and other short-term visitors to the city with daily and weekly subscriptions.

The project could soon be expanded to Ramat Gan and Herzliya. 

Record-setting year for couch potatoes

Israelis spent nearly four hours a day watching television, more than any country except the United States and Britain, in 2011 — and more than in any year since figures have been tallied.

The annual report of the Israel Audience Research Board also found that Israelis watched seven more minutes of television in 2011 than the previous year and that reality shows were the most viewed progamming.

The Israeli version of “Big Brother” led the way among Israeli viewers, followed by “Music School,” “Master Chef” and “Ramzor,” a comedy series. 

While some 80 percent of Israeli households subscribe to cable or satellite television, Israelis spent about 60 percent of their time watching broadcast channels rather than cable or satellite programming, which is atypical of other countries..

Facebook face-off vs. ‘Mark Zuckerberg’

An Israeli entrepreneur has changed his name to Mark Zuckerberg in response to a lawsuit against him by Facebook, the social networking site founded by the real Mark Zuckerberg and now its CEO.

Rotem Guez founded a “like” store, where companies can buy “likes” in bulk for their Facebook pages.

Facebook sent a lawyer letter to Guez ordering him to close his business. But Guez insists that it is legal and changed his name to Mark Zuckerberg to see if the company is ready to sue its founder’s “namesake.”  

Ethiopians inspire Peres song

President Shimon Peres wrote a song inspired by a young Ethiopian Israeli girl and the Ethiopian Israeli community.

The popular musician Idan Raichel set the president’s lyrics to music following a personal request from the nation’s most popular politician.

An eighth-grader named Rachel, who leads the choir of the Amit Reishit School in Jerusalem, inspired the song, which Peres wrote hours after watching a performance by Rachel and the choir.

What’s good for the goose

A goose from Europe was sighted in Israel for only the second time in a decade.

A bird watcher in northern Israel espied the Bean Goose, which nests in northern Europe and Siberia, and during the winter migrates to damp areas of Europe. The last sighting in Israel was 2007 in Eilat.

The sighting comes a week after a flock of nine singing swans was spotted in the Hula Valley — their first sighting in Israel in more than a decade.

Googlers love Gilad

The release of kidnapped Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit was the most searched news item by Israelis in 2011.

Shalit beat out “Big Brother,” Syria, Iran and Libya for most searched news item, as well as iPhone 5, the Hapoel Tel Aviv sports club, the medical residents’ strike, trains and Bank Hapoalim, which all made the top 10.

In people searches, Shalit was followed by the names of four Israeli Mizrachi singers: Omer Adam, Eyal Golan, Dudu Ahron and Moshe Peretz.

In the general searches category, online gaming sites and mobile games topped the list, joined by Israeli television shows.

In 1947, eventual JTA president Eleazar Lipsky was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Story. 

[[READMORE]]

The film "Kiss of Death," which was later remade with Samuel L. Jackson and David Caruso, was based on Lipsky’s novel "The Kiss of Death."

Who did Lipsky lose to in the now-defunct Best Story Category? Miracle on 34th Sreet. (Add that to the JTA Christmas timeline.)

Thanks to the ‘miracle’ of YouTube, you can watch the original film in its entirety below:

JERUSALEM (JTA) — Three haredi Orthodox men were arrested for assaulting a woman in Beit Shemesh.

On Tuesday, the woman was hanging posters for Israel’s national lottery when the men reportedly surrounded her car, slashed her tires and stole her car keys. A stone thrown at the car hit the woman in the head.

Police helped the woman and arrested three suspects, Ynet reported. Other attackers reportedly fled the scene and are being sought by police. The woman filed a complaint with the police.

Beit Shemesh has been the scene of tension between haredi Orthodox and city residents as well as visitors over the exclusion of women in the public sphere. The posters did not contain any photos of women.

A meme is emerging from the Republican debates, that President Obama is not doing enough to confront Iran, that his policy has failed.

There may be an argument here that Obama could do more, for instance in accelerating the tools he has to shut out from the U.S. economy third parties that buy oil from Iran or deal with its central bank. The counter argument is that the White House wants to use those tools as leverage to get the third parties to shut out Iran, not as punishment which could alienate the international community and benefit Iran. (A third argument is that sanctions and isolation accomplish bupkis, but since the parameters of "Obama vs. GOP field on Iran" is whether he is doing enough to isolate Iran, we’ll stick to that.)

The candidates have, however, not limited themselves to the "he could do more" frame. Instead, they — well, Mitt Romney, Rick Santorum and Newt Gigrich, among those still standing — have declared a failure Obama’s efforts to keep Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon.

It’s worth examining that claim.

First, there have been reports that means aside from the sanctions — particularly the Stuxnet virus targeting centrifuges, whose origin is still unclear — have in fact hindered the program.

The sanctions are trickier. There are two measures of their success: Are they impacting the Iranian economy? And will they stop the suspected nuclear weapons program?

The first measure is showing signs of success.

[[READMORE]]

The United Nations in 2010 authorized the strictest international sanctions yet, effectively protecting from legal repercussions nations that sanction Iran’s banking and energy sectors. This helped propel the European Union’s resolve yesterday to embargo Iran’s oil. The Iranian rial is plummeting just because the Obama administration has warned that it may use the banking sanctions provision in the law passed last month.

The sanctions, as explained to me by Obama administration officials, senior Israeli officials and Republican sponsors of the law like Sen. Mark Kirk (R-Ill.), are not aimed at shutting down Iran’s energy sector; this could backfire, set off a panic, and drive the price of oil up.

Instead, a delicate game is being played: The Western nations sanctioning Iran want to exert enough pressure on nations buying Iranian crude — China and India principally — to allow them the leverage to force Iran to discount its oil. Press too hard, and a crisis may be precipitated; don’t press hard enough and the efforts are for nought.

Call them the chiropractor sanctions. You don’t want your bones broken, but you don’t want to walk away feeling the same ache.

Less income for Iran means less cash for its suspected nuclear weapons program, and may also mean greater susceptibility within its ruling elites (which are simultaneously broad, diverse and opaque) to dealing with Western demands.

There are signs the pressure is working. The Washington Post’s David Ignatius reported last week that the Chinese are effectively holding out for a discount:

The payments haggle between Iran and China illustrates Tehran’s new vulnerability. According to Kern, the Chinese cut the 285,000 barrels when Iran refused a request for better credit terms. The difference amounted to just 50 cents a barrel, but the Iranians apparently feared that if they gave China a discount, other purchasers would want one, too. 

We’re not in a position to decide "success" or "failure" yet. U.S. officials have told their Israeli counterparts that they expect to see results, in terms of Iran’s acquiescence on the nuclear issue, by March, in time for the next International Atomic Energy Agency report.

Another sub-argument, repeated last night by Newt Gingrich, is simply bizarre: That Obama canceled the joint exercise with Israel because he didn’t want to provoke Iran.

On the record, officials have said it was a joint decision, and I have been told point blank by Israeli and U.S. officials, on background, that it was initiated by Ehud Barak, the defense minister. (Glenn Kessler at the Washington Post and Sara Sorcher at National Journal make similar points.)

A more nuanced conservative argument was succinctly put in a tweet last night by the American Enterprise Institute’s Danielle Pletka:

What’s with all the lefties proclaiming Obama’s toughness on #Iran? Thought we elected him to end stupid Bush Iran policy, not continue it.

Fair enough — well not so fair, because Obama has improved on the "stupid" policy to a degree — but what we need from the candidates is an acknowledgment of the failures of Obama’s predecessors, and not out of any vaunted desire for "fairness" (it’s an election year.)

The Iran tensions between Obama and Congress-plus-GOP-candidates are typical of those of the executive branch which must carry out policy, and legislators and candidates who have the relatively luxury of shaping its ideological parameters.

What the candidates need to tell us is how they would handle that tension better: How would they make sure that the oil Iran does not sell to Europe is sold at well below premium prices to others?

How would they not get into the position of the Bush administration in 2006,  when Republicans in Congress stood silent while the White House gutted sanctions in deference to actors whose help it needed in Iraq and elsewhere?

(JTA) — The Israeli film “Footnote” and veteran Jewish filmmakers Woody Allen and Steven Spielberg are up for Academy Awards.

Oscar nominations were released Tuesday by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

Israel’s hope for its first Oscar was kept alive with Joseph Cedar’s “Footnote,” listed among the five finalists in the foreign-language film category. The story of the rivalry between two Talmudic scholars, who are also father and son, marks the second Oscar nod for Cedar following “Beaufort” in 2007.

The toughest competition for Israel will likely come from Iran’s entry, “A Separation, which won the Golden Globe earlier this month,” and the Polish film “In Darkness.” Agnieszka Holland (“Europa, Europa”), whose Jewish father was killed in the Warsaw Ghetto and whose non-Jewish mother fought in the ghetto’s uprising and was a member of the Polish Underground, tells the true-life story of a dozen Jewish men, women and children who hid in the underground sewers of Lvov for 14 months during the Nazi occupation of Poland.

Allen was tapped for best director and best original screenplay for “Midnight in Paris,” which also was nominated for best picture along with Spielberg’s epic World War I movie “War Horse.” However, Spielberg’s “The Adventures of Tintin,” which won a Golden Globe, surprisingly did not qualify in the best animated film competition.

Aaron Sorkin (with Steven Zailian) was nominated for best adapted screenplay for “Moneyball.” Jonah Hill, the surprise hit of the film after graduating from his shaggy boy roles in “Superbad” and “Cyrus,” was nominated in the best supporting actor category.

Oscar winners will be crowned Feb. 26 at the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood.
 

JERUSALEM (JTA) — Israeli embassies and consulates raised their alert levels after several missions in the United States and Europe received envelopes containing white powder.

The missions received white envelopes with the word "anthrax" written on them, according to reports; the powder inside was found to be flour.

Among the embassies and consulates that received the envelopes Monday were The Hague, Brussels and London in Europe, and New York, Boston and Houston in the United States.

Hazardous materials crews arrived Monday at the Boston consulate and ordered it closed for the rest of the day. The powder was tested on site and found to be harmless, the Boston Globe reported.

The powder was to be further tested and before being disposed, the newspaper reported.