• Vice President Joe Biden hosted folks from most Jewish-American groups to consult on his upcoming trip to Israel. Conspicuously unrepresented: J Street. [Laura Rozen]
• A columnist argued that Syrian President Bashar Assad is cozying up to Iran not out of rational self-interest and power politics but because he’s an anti-Israel ideologue. [JPost]
• Iran announced plans to seek election to the U.N. Human Rights Council in May. Germany’s foreign minister promptly urged countries to oppose the ascension. [Arutz Sheva]
• Crazy story about the Israeli widow of a thief who stole artifacts from the L.A. Mayer Museum for Islamic Art in Jerusalem; her attempts to sell these back to the museum; and, now, her sentencing in California on a charge of receiving stolen property. [LAT]
• A woman tells how she met her husband because they both liked going to and performing at the same Yiddish theater in London. [Guardian]
• An Israeli tourism ad that … you just have to watch it. [Forecast Highs]
Marc Tracy is a staff writer at The New Republic, and was previously a staff writer at Tablet. He tweets @marcatracy.