When news outlets reported that the owner of the Atlanta Jewish Times had published an opinion column seemingly suggesting that Israel might be wise to assassinate President Barack Obama, the response from prominent American Jews was fast and furious.

Here was a Jewish newspaper publisher providing fodder for something the Anti-Defamation League regularly deplores as a pernicious anti-Semitic canard: that Jews are more loyal to Israel than the United States.

In his Jan. 13 column, Andrew Adler outlined what he said were three possible responses by Israel to Iran acquiring a nuclear weapon: a pre-emptive strike against Hamas and Hezbollah; a direct strike on Iran; or “three, give the go-ahead for U.S.-based Mossad agents to take out a president deemed unfriendly to Israel in order for the current vice president to take his place, and forcefully dictate that the United States policy includes its helping the Jewish state obliterate its enemies.”

LVIV, Ukraine –The more I thought about it, the more it began to seem like a reasonable choice: I would roam around Europe for six months, visiting Jewish museums, talking to youth groups and covering various community happenings. I would travel from vibrant London to the post-Communist countries of the Eastern Bloc. I would, however, decisively avoid any intersection with my own family’s past.

Like many Jews in the United States, my family history is deeply tangled in the tragedies of Jewish Europe. I was not going to engage with history on anything but an abstract level, however, and then only through the detached eyes of a reporter.

WASHINGTON – In one corner was the Center for American Progress, or CAP, arguably Washington’s leading liberal think tank with reportedly considerable clout with President Barack Obama’s White House. In the other was Josh Block, a pugnacious former spokesman for the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), who aggressively pushed the notion to reporters that CAP has an Israel problem.

Nearly two months after their dispute made headlines, both parties have been left bloodied — and some in the pro-Israel community say they wish the issue had never played out in so public a way.

Say Beit Shemesh and one image comes to mind: religious extremism. The city made news recently when seven-year-old Naama Margolis, who attends the Orot Banot school, was spat on by a religious extremist for not being “modestly dressed” in his opinion.

The incident outraged Israel. Politicians and religious leaders, in Israel and overseas, weighed in on the issue.

On Friday, Dec, 23, Israelis watched a Channel 2 television documentary in which a teary-eyed Naaama said she was afraid to go to school.

On Dec. 28, five days after the documentary aired, a rally was organized in front of Orot Banot that attracted more than 1,000 people from all over Israel, including politicians from the Israeli political spectrum. Media crews from the world over were also present. Beit Shemesh was big news.

From Bibles to novels, English-language Judaica from Israel accounts for much of the inventory on American Jewish bookstore shelves.

A case in point: For the first time in his 27-book run, Rabbi Shmuley Boteach has chosen to work with an Israeli publisher: Gefen will produce the Englewood writer’s forthcoming book, “Kosher Jesus.”

Shoppers at the Feb. 5-26 Seforim Sale at Yeshiva University, the largest Jewish book sale in North America (see sidebar), will find Israeli publishers well represented.

Rabbi Yaacov Haber, a former Monsey pulpit rabbi and co-founder of the year-old Mosaica Press in Jerusalem, says there are practical and emotional reasons for this trend.

Former Teaneck resident Zahava D. Englard credits best-selling authors Leon Uris and Stephenie Meyer for turning her into a novelist.

Uris’ magnum opus, “Exodus,” so inspired Englard as a teenager that she kept nudging her 15-year-old youngest child, Nili, to read it. Nili, however, prefers fantasy novels, like Meyer’s “Twilight” books.

“So to get me off her back, she said, ‘You read “Twilight” and I’ll read “Exodus.”’ And I actually fell in love with it and read the whole series,” says Englard. “After the first book, I thought, ‘I could do this.’ That’s when I decided to write a novel.”

When Maccabi came a-courtin’ last year, Steve Rosner bounced into action.

The American affiliate of Maccabi, the global Jewish sports organization, was looking for someone to help coach the men’s basketball team competing in the 12th quadrennial Pan American Maccabi games, held in São Paulo, Brazil, from Dec. 26 to Jan. 2. The games brought together 2,000 athletes from 16 countries.

“I didn’t really have to think twice about it,” said Rosner of the invitation to coach. “It was something that I jumped at,” said the Closter resident.

PARK CITY, Utah – Call it the Sundance Synaplex.

All this week, crowds of people have been flocking several times a day to Temple Har Shalom in this picturesque ski town, but they were not coming for Shacharit, Minchah, or Maariv services.

Instead, for 10 days the synagogue is serving as one of the venues of the 2012 Sundance Film Festival, with five screenings daily through this Sunday (Jan. 29).

It is the fourth consecutive year that Har Shalom has become the “Temple Theatre” — one of the many elements that make this Reform synagogue unusual.