A couple who survived the Holocaust and made a fortune investing with Warren Buffett left a $400 million bequest to Ben-Gurion University (BGU), believed to be the largest-ever gift to an Israeli university. The university’s American fundraising arm announced the gift from the estate of Dr. Howard and Lottie Marcus of...

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Israeli politicians and Jewish leaders hailed British Prime Minister David Cameron on Friday after he announced his intention to resign after the UK voted in a referendum to leave the European Union, a move that Cameron campaigned against. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a statement Friday that Cameron was a “respected leader and...

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Israel’s unemployment rate dropped to 4.8 percent, its lowest rate since 1983, the Israeli Central Bureau of Statistics announced Thursday. This places Israel in the range of what economists call the “natural rate of unemployment,” which is caused by people changing jobs, retraining, or moving — what’s expected when an economy is doing well — rather than a lack...

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Israeli President Reuven Rivlin told the European Union that the recent French initiative to restart negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians distances prospects of peace, and suggested a number of alternative avenues where the involvement of the international community could be constructive. “The French initiative suffers from fundamental faults. The attempt to...

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June continues to be a hot month for Israeli startups, with companies raising an amazing $356 million in investments 20 days. Just the first week of the month brought in an astounding $237 million. But instead of slowing down as the global markets indicate is happening in the rest of...

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The Israeli Air Force (AIF) and Lockheed Martin unveiled Israel’s new F-35 fighter jet at Lockheed’s aeronautics headquarters in Forth Worth, Texas on Wednesday. The IAF has purchased 33 of the state-of-the-art fighters, nicknamed Adir — Hebrew for “mighty” — and plans to purchase 17 more by 2021 to complete two squadrons. The planes,...

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The United Nations’ bias against Israel has meant that the international organization “has lost credibility, lost common sense, and more than anything lost its most important asset – its integrity,” former Israeli finance minister Yair Lapid said in a speech Monday night. Lapid, the leader of the centrist Yesh Atid party, the...

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LGBT, Israeli embassy

The first openly transgender officer in the IDF spoke at an LGBT pride event hosted by the Israeli embassy in Washington D.C. on Monday, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency (JTA) reported. “This is the right of the whole world, to be free and to be whoever we want to be,” said Shachar at the gathering,...

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Israel signed an agreement on Tuesday to join an American initiative that helps countries and major companies share cyber defense and intelligence information automatically. Representatives from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, who were in Israel for Tel Aviv University’s annual International Cybersecurity Conference, signed the agreement together with Israeli government officials. “One of the lessons we learned...

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The former Israeli ambassador to the United States advised Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to hold off from quickly signing a new memorandum of understanding on American defense aid to Israel, The Jerusalem Post reported Tuesday. “Israel requires [additional] funding and capabilities to handle the challenges it is facing in the Middle East,” said Michael Oren,...

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