Israel’s New National Library

Like many projects in the new Jewish state, “the National Library had modest beginnings, but a soaring vision,” said Lord Rothschild, head of Yad Hanadiv, a charitable foundation in Israel that has contributed untold millions to further the country’s academic, cultural and physical well being, at an inauguration ceremony held Sunday night, March 27, 2011.

The $200 million dollar project will encompass a brand new building across from the Knesset and Israel Museum, and the gargantuan digitization of thousands of books, which will then be made available to scholars all over the world. The present, unique collection includes rare manuscripts handwritten by Maimonides, as well as rare maps, photographs, and Jewish literature from all over the world.

The project is slated for completion in 2016. It is hoped that the library’s expansion will open its collection to ten …

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Jerusalem Bus Bombing Victims

Here is a list of those still hospitalized from the recent bus bombing in Jerusalem along with their Hebrew names compiled by Torah.org.  Please add them to your prayers.

Ad Shapira – Ad is 18 years old and just about to complete high school.  She suffered light orthopedic injuries and is in good condition in hospital.

Daniel Yehuda ben Rachel Nurit – Daniel is 13 years old, and suffered lacerations and shrapnel injuries to his lower extremities, and is likely to be released from the hospital before Shabbat.

David Amoyal – David is the owner of the snack stand next to the bus stop. He told everyone to run away and then called the police, and was on the phone with them when the bomb exploded.  He suffered injuries to his legs and feet and lower body.  He is in …

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Forty Years in Israel

What a day it has been! A bag filled with nails and explosives detonated next to a bus stop near Jerusalem’s Central Bus Station, injuring 39.  A sixty year old woman died of her injuries, and eight others are seriously wounded.  The rest, thank God, will be released soon from the hospital.  And while we in Jerusalem were calling all our children to make sure they are safe, parents in Beersheba and Ashdod were running to their bomb shelters as “code red” warnings blasted through the streets, warning of a bazooka bombardment from Gaza.

This was not the article I had planned to write today.  I wanted to write about the 40 year reunion of our aliyah recently held with friends and neighbors who had lived near us in our first Jewish Agency apartment in a brand new neighborhood built for …

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Iran’s Tsunami on Israel Fails

The terrible catastrophe in Japan and the heartbreaking, brutal murder of young parents, their two small boys, and baby daughter in Itamar by a Palestinian terrorist, have given Iran the idea that they can now send a boatload of weapons to Gaza to help wipe Israel into the sea.  Fortunately, the Israeli army is paying attention. Below, Iranians show how stupid they are, and how stupid they think the rest of the world is.

Iran Denies Sending Arms Ship

“Jerusalem occupation is regime of lies,” says chief of staff, who hopes Israel “will sink into sea” by Dudi Cohen

The Iranian army’s chief of staff, General Atallah Salhi, denied on Wednesday Israel’s claims that his country had sent the arms ship Victoria, intercepted by the IDF en route to Gaza with 50 tons of weaponry on board. “The Jerusalem occupation …

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Naomi Ragen is an American-born novelist, playwright and journalist who has lived in Jerusalem since 1971 and who writes regularly to her mailing list about Israel and Jewish issues. Naomi has published eight internationally best selling novels, and is the author of a hit play (Women's Minyan) which has been performed more than 500 times in Israel's National Theatre (Habimah) as well as in the United States and Argentina. She is a tireless advocate for women's rights in Israel, campaigning against gender segregation on Israeli buses and bias in rabbinical courts.


Naomi is a sought-after lecturer all over the world. If your group is interested in hosting Naomi, please click here.
Women to the Back of the Bus!!
I Am Not Sitting in the Back of the Bus (published in the Jewish Chronicle on 23 Feb 2007) - Why, together with other women, I filed suit to put an end to the primitive and degrading gender-segregated bus lines now popping up all over Israel.

Read my original article about how I was attacked by a religious fanatic because I refused to move to the back (the "women's section") of a Jerusalem bus.

Read about an American woman beaten because she refused to move to the back of a Jerusalem bus.

Read my article explaining why segregated buses are just the latest crazy idea of fanatics with too much free time on their hands.

Read about haredi women who want to sit with their families and don't want to be forced to crowd together in the back of the bus.

Israel Bus Rule Sparks Religious Row - How the liberal western media perceive all this fanaticism.

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