The Kalamazoo menorah

A small group of Jews from throughout the Kalamazoo area were joined by a handful of interested citizens Sunday while they set up a Hannukah menorah in Bronson Park.
Read more: http://www.mlive.com/news/kalamazoo/index.ssf/2014/12/hanukkah_menorah_raised_in_bro.html

Zidan isn’t a name usually heard at a Jewish circumcision, but a New York couple gave their newborn son the moniker to honor a Druze policeman killed while responding to a terror attack on a Jerusalem synagogue last month.
Read more: http://www.timesofisrael.com/jewish-couple-names-son-after-druze-cop-killed-in-terror-attack/#ixzz3Lu2qPpNC


CIF Watch reports Guardian editorial condemning CIA torture curiously includes image of a Jewish menorah.


One comment posted under the Guardian article reads, "Dubya with the huge shadow of a Menorah in the background. Score one for subliminal antisemitism."
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/dec/14/observer-view-on-torture#start-of-comments

Paul Greenberg asks Can Seafood Be Kosher and Sustainable?


Israel Matzav points to an NYT correction of an obituary.
An earlier version of this obituary misstated the location of Alon Shvut, where Mr. Marks lived. It is in the West Bank, not in Israel.
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/11/books/gil-marks-historian-of-jewish-food-and-culture-dies-at-62.html?smid=fb-share&_r=5



Alon Shvut (Hebrew: אַלּוֹן שְׁבוּת) is an Israeli settlement located southwest of Jerusalem,
...Alon Shvut, literally "oak of return", is a reference to the return of the Jews expelled from Gush Etzion by the Jordanian Arab Legion in 1948 following the Kfar Etzion massacre...
... Alon Shvut is located on the site of the Battle of Beth Zechariah, fought between the Maccabees and the Seleucid army after the defeat of the Seleucids in Jerusalem. The ancient town of Beth Zechariah, in northern Judea, is identified with the ruins of Khirbet Zechariah, less than a kilometer north of Alon Shvut. It was considered the nearest area to Jerusalem whose topography could be exploited by the Maccabees to block the northward advance of the Seleucid army, after the Maccabee defeat in the Battle of Beth Zur.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alon_Shvut


Two versions of an incident- You choose which one to believe.
Israeli settlers torched a West Bank mosque in an apparent revenge attack today, Palestinian officials said, as the US top diplomat headed to Jordan to discuss the spiralling violence.

“The settlers set fire to the whole of the first floor of the mosque” in Al-Mughayir village near the West Bank city of Ramallah, a security official said. Police confirmed the incident and opened an investigation.
http://www.themalaymailonline.com/world/article/israeli-settlers-torch-west-bank-mosque-in-suspected-revenge-attack#sthash.7MQeknDk.dpuf

A fire at a West Bank mosque last month was most likely caused by an electrical fault and not the result of arson, Israel’s police said on Sunday.  
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/15/world/middleeast/arson-ruled-out-in-fire-at-west-bank-mosque-israeli-police-say.html?ribbon-ad-idx=4&rref=world/middleeast&module=Ribbon&version=context&region=Header&action=click&contentCollection=Middle%20East&pgtype=article