יום חמישי, ז׳ אלול תשפ״וThursday, August 20, 2026
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By JTA
The senior class of Yeshiva of Flatbush in Brooklyn was kicked off a flight Southwest Airlines flight from New York to Atlanta on Monday for being “non-compliant.” Flight attendants said the students did not stay seated and continued to use their mobile devices in advance of takeoff, despite their requests as well as from the […]
By JTA
The kidney of a 3-year-old Israeli boy was successfully transplanted to a 10-year-old Palestinian Authority boy. The parents of Noam Naor decided to donate his kidneys after their son was declared brain dead nearly two weeks ago after falling from a window in his parents’ apartment. One kidney went to an Israeli child, and the […]
By JTA
The winning word in the 2013 Scripps National Spelling Bee was not spelled correctly, according to the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research. Arvind Mahankali, 13, of Bayside Hills, NY, defeated 10 other finalists on May 30 in National Harbor, Md., after spelling the Yiddish-derived word “knaidel,” a traditional Jewish dumpling. But the New York-based YIVO, […]
By JTA
Let’s say you are a Chabadnik and want someone to try putting on tefillin. He puts on his Google Glass and the blessing flashes before his eyes. But is it kosher?
By JTA
The synagogue in Sochi in Russia has been renovated and a new Torah scroll acquired ahead of the city’s hosting of the Winter Olympics next year. Rabbi Ari Edelkopf, director of the Jewish Community of Sochi, told JTA the renovation was completed this month and “will help our synagogue serve not only thousands of local […]
By JTA
A letter handwritten by Alfred Dreyfus, a French Jewish soldier who was wrongly convicted of treason in 1894, was sold at auction for nearly half a million dollars. The letter, which Dreyfus sent from prison to government officials in an attempt to clear his name, was sold Wednesday for $492,000 at an auction organized by […]
By JTA
The Federation of French-speaking Students in Belgium (FEF), a body boasting some 120,000 students in the country, has almost unanimously called for “a freezing of relations with Israeli universities.” The move was initiated by the University of Louvain (UCL), according to Belgian daily newspaper Le Soir. The 2012 the General Assembly of the Louvain students […]
By JTA
The Polish Academy of Sciences has dismissed historian Prof. Krzysztof Jasiewicz following an interview in which he partly blames Jews for the Holocaust. Jasiewicz, 61, will lose his position as head of the Department of Analysis of Eastern Issues on June 1 but announced that he will appeal the decision. In the interview, which was […]
By JTA
A federal judge dismissed on Tuesday a lawsuit filed against the U.S. government by Alan Gross, the American-Jewish contractor imprisoned in Cuba since 2009. Judge James Boasberg of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia ruled that under federal law, the government cannot be sued for injuries that occurred in another country. Gross […]
By JTA
Babylonian script in a Torah scroll provided a key clue to realizing that an Italian Torah previously thought to be three centuries actually is the world oldest Torah, dating back to the 11th or 12 century.
By JTA
Chicago Rabbi Larry Dudovitz, 45, of the 6400 block of North Albany Avenue was arrested on Saturday on suspicion of sexually assaulting a 15-year-old boy in 2006, and is being held on $100,000 bail. Dudovitz is facing charges of criminal sexual assault of a victim between the ages of 13 and 17, police said. Dudovitz, who […]
By JTA
Burglars stole Judaica artifacts worth approximately $30,000 from a Jewish family in northern London while they were sleeping, The Jewish Chronicle reported. The thieves took menorahs, a Seder plate and silver cups, among other items, from the Palmer family home in Edgeware. Howard Palmer said the items were “totally irreplaceable.” Two of his five children […]
By JTA
The Rome Jewish community leadership gave a rousing send-off to journalist and former Italian parliament member Fiamma Nirenstein ahead of her departure for Israel on aliyah Sunday. She will live in the Jerusalem neighborhood of Gilo. Born in Florence, Nirenstein was elected to Parliament in April 2008 as a member of the center-right People of […]
By JTA
Israeli Finance Minister Yair Lapid will grant nearly $14 million in aid to Ariel University. The money, which was pledged by the previous finance minister, Yuval Steinitz, will be transferred in two stages, Haaretz reported Sunday. Attorney General Yehuda Weinstein earlier this year blocked the transfer of the money, which had been approved during the […]
By JTA
An African tribe, ‘Sons of Israel,” says it is descended from Jews and is "chosen.” Their language resembles Hebrew. They use the Star of David. But they are practicing Muslims.
By JTA
The electric car company Better Place, which had pledged to erect electric car charging stations throughout Israel, filed for bankruptcy in an Israeli court on Sunday. The company, based in Palo Alto, Calif., fired about half of its staff in October 2012. Better Place provides charge spots and battery-switch stations for the Renault Fluence ZE, […]
By JTA
A bid by the Israeli government to legalize four Judea and Samaria settlement outposts is neither “appropriate” nor “constructive” but should not prevent the resumption of peace talks, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said. “Our position on settlements and outposts and on the legalization is that we are opposed to it,” Kerry said Friday […]
By JTA
Public health officials discovered a case of measles at a kosher grocery store in the Orthodox community of Spring Valley, N.Y. The Rockland County Health Department advised anybody who was at the Hatzlacha Grocery Store, located at 80 West Spring St., between 1:30 and 4:30 PM on Wednesday to contact their doctor. High-risk groups for […]
By JTA
Chelsea Clinton, who has said her marriage fueled her interest in interfaith relations, will head a multi-faith institute at New York University. Clinton, 33, the daughter of former President Bill Clinton and former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, will co-chair the university’s Of Many Institute, which will “develop multi-faith dialogue and train multi-faith leaders,” […]
By JTA
Casino tycoon Sheldon Adelson and his wife, Miriam, donated another $40 million to the Birthright Israel Foundation. Their latest gift brings the couple’s overall donations to the program to $180 million. “Sheldon and I are committed to improving the world through cultural exchange and educational opportunity,” said Miriam Adelson in a statement released Wednesday by […]
By JTA
A number of bills targeting Iran’s suspected nuclear weapons program have advanced in the U.S. Congress. The U.S. House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee on Wednesday approved and sent to the full House a bill backed by Reps. Ed Royce (R-Calif.), the chairman of the committee, and Eliot Engel (D-N.Y.), its senior Democrat, that would […]
By JTA
Former Minister of Science and Technology, Professor Rabbi Daniel Hershkowitz was appointed the new president of Bar-Ilan University. Hershkowitz’s appointment was approved unanimously on Monday during a meeting of the university’s board of trustees. He will begin serving in October, at the start of the 2013-14 academic year. The Haifa native succeeds Moshe Kaveh, who […]
By JTA
Two New Jersey men, indicted in March for arson and attempted murder and terrorism, pleaded not guilt in a New Jersey court this week. Anthony Graziano of Lodi and Aakash Dalal of New Brunswick, both 21, were arrested after the northern New Jersey’s Bergen County bombings, one of which injured Beth El Congregation Rabbi Nosson […]
By JTA
An Israeli soldier was killed in a mine explosion in the southern Golan Heights. The soldier was taking part Tuesday in a minefield-clearing operation, according to the Israel Defense Forces, and was killed when an old anti-tank mine exploded. Two other soldiers were injured. The mine reportedly was cleared and marked before it exploded. The […]
By JTA
“A majority of the claims made by the person who wrote the anonymous letter were refuted by Mr. Domnitser,” the report said.
By JTA
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry has named Ira Forman, who led President Obama’s reelection campaign in the Jewish community, as his envoy to combat anti-Semitism. The State Department announced the appointment Monday, the same day it released its 2012 report on religious freedom that recorded a “continued global increase in anti-Semitism.” Forman replaces Hannah […]
By JTA
Vandals spray painted the Jerusalem home of a long-time board member of the Women of the Wall (WOW) with vicious graffiti, the first time opponents to WOW have resorted to vengeance. Some of the graffiti sprayed on the door and stairwell of Peggy Cidor’s apartment read in Hebrew: “Women of the Wall are wicked,” “Peggy, […]
By JTA
An anonymous letter sent to the Claims Conference’s Frankfurt office in 2001 identified five cases where restitution was approved for ineligible claimants.
By JTA
A Hungarian martial arts fighter was disinvited from an event in Prague because of his Nazi tattoos, including one reading “death to the Jews.” Some of the sponsors of the Heroes Gate martial arts tournament told organizers that Attila Petrovszki from Hungary could not attend the May 17 event because he had a tattoo of […]
By JTA
CIA director John Brennan made an unannounced visit to Israel to discuss the situation in Syria with Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon on Friday. They reportedly compared intelligence assessments on Syria and its two-year civil war and talked about Israel’s intent to continue striking shipments of advanced weapons destined for Hezbollah from Iran via Syria. […]
By JTA
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry will be in Israel and the Palestinian territories next week in his bid to revive the peace process. “These meetings are to follow-up on ongoing discussions as we continue to assess how best we can support the parties in getting back to the table and in having dialogue leading […]
By JTA
The Jewish Community of Prague documented a tripling of online instances of anti-Semitic hate speech last year. The increase, which the community links to a Jewish politician’s presidential bid, among other factors, was documented in an annual report on anti-Semitism published Tuesday. The community documented 82 instances of online hate speech on Czech websites in […]
By JTA
A swastika was painted on the Wellington Jewish center, which houses the city’s only Orthodox congregation and is the focus of Jewish life in New Zealand’s harbor city capital,” according to its website. Jewish officials said the swastika was painted on the back wall, and they reported the incident to police. “It was fairly minor […]
By JTA
The opening of a music club and disco in a 19th century Jewish learning center in Krakow is sparking controversy. The club, called Mezcal, which is also a Mexican alcoholic beverage, opened Saturday night in the former Chewra Thilim Beit Midrash in the heart of Krakow’s Jewish district, Kazimierz. The rundown building, built in 1896, […]
By JTA
The Obama administration added the names of four Iranian companies and an individual to those sanctioned for assisting Iran’s suspected nuclear weapons program. “Iranian private sector firms should heed the risks incurred by conducting business with those who support Iran’s proscribed nuclear activities and should choose to focus their activities on legitimate international commerce,” the […]
By JTA
Israel's Justice Minister Tzipi Livni ordered her ministry on Thursday to draft legislation that would make the gender-based segregation of women illegal. "Discrimination against women in public places, in public services, cannot be allowed," she said in a radio interview. She wrote on her Facebook page, "Removal of women from the public sphere is damaging […]
By JTA
Israelis by a 4-to-1 margin are more confident than Palestinians in how President Barack Obama a handles his foreign policy, according to a Pew Research Center poll released Thursday. The survey revealed that 61 percent of Israelis "express confidence in the American president to do the right thing regarding world affairs," as opposed to 15 […]
By JTA
Italian tax collectors have ordered the president of Rome’s Jewish community and a TV reporter to pay the court fees of convicted Nazi war criminal Erich Priebke, who lost a lawsuit against them in 1996. “I won’t pay,” Jewish Community President Riccardo Pacifici told Italian media, but under Italian law, “all parties involved” must pay […]
By JTA
Semen Domnister, the former Claims Conference employee who was charged with leading a $57 million fraud scheme at the Holocaust restitution organization, was found guilty Wednesday by a U.S. District Court jury in Manhattan after a four-week trial. Domnitser and two others, Oksana Romalis and Luba Kramrish, were found guilty on all counts., and 28 […]
By JTA
Graffiti scrawled in a bathroom in a Yale University science building threatened an arson attack on the Slifka Center for Jewish Life on the campus. The graffiti was discovered late last month but was first reported in the local media on Tuesday. A Slifka Center board member said the news of the graffiti was not […]
By JTA
A teenager in Winnipeg who attacked a Jewish student in a racially motivated assault will be sentenced next month, following his conviction on charges of assault with a weapon. The 17-year-old high school student used a lighter and attempted to burn the hair of a 15-year-old female Jewish student at his high school in November […]
By JTA
German police arrested on Monday one of the 10 most wanted Nazis, 93-year-old Hans Lipschis, who is facing charges of complicity in murder as a former guard at the Auschwitz extermination camp. State prosecutors in Stuttgart are preparing an indictment against Lipschis, a native of Lithuania who was a guard at Auschwitz from the autumn […]
By JTA
Former Arizona congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords was awarded the John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Award in Boston on Sunday for pushing for policy changes aimed at reducing gun violence. Giffords, Arizona’s first Jewish representative in Congress, has become an advocate for stricter gun control after being shot in the head in 2011. Earlier this year, […]
By JTA
Two former associates of New York Democratic mayoral candidate John Liu were convicted in an illegal campaign fundraising scheme uncovered in an FBI investigation, according to CBS New York. Jurors heard secretly recorded tapes that prosecutors said showed Liu’s two associates, Jia “Jenny” Hou and Xing “Oliver” Wu Pan, plotted to cheat the city out of […]
By JTA
Denmark and Finland have jumped on the bandwagon of pro-Palestinian Authority countries to update their Palestinian diplomatic missions to embassy status. The countries made a joint announcement Saturday on the sidelines of a meeting of Nordic foreign ministers in Stockholm. “We hope that the intention to give, for all practical purposes, the Palestinian Missions in […]
By JTA
Approximately Jerusalem residents, including Meretz party supporters, protested on front of City Hall Saturday night against a plan to close a new movie theater complex on Shabbat and Jewish holidays. The complex, which includes restaurants and a 15-screen movie theater, is set to open this summer. It will close on weekends in keeping with an […]
By JTA
U.S. officials reportedly told Israel that the United States has improved weapons capable of destroying Iran's underground nuclear site in Fordow. The Wall Street Journal, quoting unnamed American officials, reported Thursday that the United States had assured Israel that advanced features added to its bunker buster bombs vastly improved its ability to destroy underground facilities. […]
By JTA
An Orthodox Jewish woman from Monsey, N.Y. is suing the Lancome cosmetics firm, claiming that its 24-hour makeup does not last as long as advertised and thus prevents her from looking good all Shabbat. Rorie Weisberg of Monsey, N.Y. said in her lawsuit that Lancome's Teint Idole Ultra 24H foundation does not last 24 hours […]
By JTA
The Shomron (Samaria) Regional Council moved its offices to the site of Tuesday’s lethal terrorist attack and posted a sign “Eviyatar” at what is intended to become a new outpost in memory of the victim, 31-year-old Eviyatar Borovsky of Yitzhar. “The Zionist response is to deepen Jewish roots in the land," said Samaria Regional Council […]
By JTA
The FBI has arrested a Los Angeles man who allegedly operated a Ponzi scheme targeting the city's Iranian Jewish community. Shervin Davatgarzadeh, also known as Shervin Neman, was taken into custody on suspicion of defrauding $3 million from mostly Jewish Iranian-American investors, the FBI said. According to the indictment, Davatgarzadeh posed as a hedge fund […]
By JTA
Fred Lafer, a longtime leader of several Jewish institutions, died Tuesday in New Jersey after suffering from leukemia. Lafer served as president and chairman of The Washington Institute for Near East Policy beginning in 2000. He also was chairman of the executive committee of the Shalom Hartman Institute of Jerusalem's board of directors. He also […]
By JTA
Gravestones and bones from an 18th century Turkish Jewish cemetery 20 feet underground were unearthed during construction on an underground tunnel in the city of Izmi, the Hurriyet Daily News reported Wednesday. The gravestones were left in the ground and the bones were delivered to representatives of Izmir's Jewish community, who will rebury them in […]
By JTA
President Obama cited the Jewish striving for freedom and the U.S.-Israel bond in his Jewish American Heritage Month declaration. "Jewish immigrants from all over the world wove new threads into our cultural fabric with rich traditions and indomitable faith, and their descendants pioneered incredible advances in science and the arts," Obama said Tuesday in declaring […]
By JTA
Israel's national soccer team will be making its first New York appearance in decades for a match against Honduras at Citi Field on June 2. The match will coincide with New York’s annual Celebrate Israel parade, according to an announcement on Tuesday by the New York Mets, who play at the Queens ballpark. It will […]
By JTA
The Philharmonic Orchestra of Monte-Carlo will perform a “Violins of Hope” concert in Monaco featuring Several violins of Jewish Holocaust victims murdered by the Nazis The concert will be held May 5 at Monaco’s Grimaldi Forum, and the stories of their owners will be told, according to a report in the Nice, France Matain daily. The […]
By JTA
In a speech to the Anti-Defamation League, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder urged Americans to protect the rights of Muslims and other minorities in the wake of the Boston Marathon bombing. "The battle for the safety and rights of all Americans -- all Americans -- must be our common endeavor," Holder told a conference in […]
By JTA
For the first time in the history of the Masorti movement, its rabbis performed conversions to Judaism in Portugal. The two conversions were performed in the Portuguese capital at a Beit Din rabbinical court of three judges, who recognized Juliana Fernandes da Silva and her life partner Edgard Pimentel as Jews. Though the Masorti movement […]
By JTA
The IDF said it will stop using shells containing white phosphorus, although the military’s controlled use of them is legal. Phosphorus generally is used to set up smokescreens to hide troop movement and was used in the Operation Cast Lead campaign in the winter of 2008-2009. The material can cause serious burns, but Hamas claimed […]
By JTA
An Israeli invention will allow nursing mothers to measure how much milk her baby drinks at a feeding, and how much milk she has available in her breast. The device, MilkSense, is the first product to be developed by the Israeli startup Bradley and Luka. MilkSense uses electromagnetic signals to measure the amount of milk […]
By JTA
A Dutch chief rabbi said his community was “vexed” because a farewell event for the Dutch queen was scheduled on Yom Kippur. “Jews are again faced with a reality in which they don’t belong and that is painful,” Holland’s chief interprovincial rabbi, Binyomin Jacobs, told NRC Handelsblad on April 26. On Yom Kippur, the Day […]
By JTA
A small, rightist British party suspended one of its local representatives over reports she posted antisemitic comments online. Anna-Marie Crampton of the U.K. Independence Party in East Sussex was dropped as a candidate in Thursday's election for the council of the town of Crowborough south of London because of comments on Jews made on her […]
By JTA
Supermodel Kate Upton will not go to the prom with a Jewish day school student from Los Angeles, after indicating that she might attend (Jewish Teen Asks Kate Upton to Prom over You Tube, Gets a Maybe). Jake Davidson told the Los Angeles Jewish Journal Wednesday that Upton would not attend prom with him, presumably […]
By JTA
Singer Neil Diamond will donate royalties from his hit song "Sweet Caroline" to help victims of the Boston Marathon bombing. The song, which has become the unofficial anthem of healing for the city of Boston in the wake of the attacks, has been played during the eighth inning of every Boston Red Sox home game […]
By JTA
Rabbi Shmuel Rabinowitz, the rabbi of the Western Wall, said rabbis must weigh whether to oppose a compromise proposal over egalitarian prayer at Judaism's holiest site. In a statement Thursday, Rabinowitz vowed to fight against "the slightest deviation" from customary practice at the Western Wall. However, he left unclear whether the compromise forged by Jewish […]
By JTA
Anti-Semitic incidents in Canada rose last year by nearly four percent, continuing a 10-year-old trend that has sewn anti-Semitics acts double, according to B'nai Brith Canada's annual review. The number of anti-Semitic incidents in the country increased from 1,297 incidents in 2011, to 1,345 cases in 2012. Holocaust denial has soared. The average increase for […]
By JTA
A Bedouin citizen of Israel who has been jailed in Egypt for 12 years went on a hunger strike. Ouda Tarabin has been imprisoned on charges of spying. He was sentenced in absentia to 15 years in jail in 2001. Tarabin said in a letter to Israel's ambassador to Cairo that Israel was "violating its […]
By JTA
A new report claims that professor and rabbi Michael Broyde may have created a second fake persona to engage in online discourse. Broyde, who admitted earlier this month to publishing letters in journals and gaining access to a rabbinic association under a fake name, may also have used a second fake persona, according to a […]
By JTA
Lithuanian police said they discovered Nazi slogans drawn on a former concentration camp after Adolf Hitler’s birth date. The slogans "Heil Hitler," “Jews out” in German and a swastika were scrawled on the pavement near the HKP 562 labor camp in Vilnius, Evelina Pagounis of the Vilnius police told the French news agency AFP. The […]
By JTA
The Polish government has drafted regulations to reduce animals’ suffering but still allow ritual slaughter. In a statement Tuesday, Polish Prime Minster Donald Tusk said the new regulations, which must be passed in parliament, may require the introduction of rotating cages in which the animal is placed before its throat is cut, according to a […]
By JTA
Defending Israel’s legitimacy is a “huge part” of her work as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Susan Rice told a Reform Judaism event Sunday evening. “It’s a huge part of my work to the United Nations,” she said at the launching of this year’s social activists’ Consultation on Conscience, organized by the Religious Action […]
By JTA
The two brothers suspected of the Boston Marathon attack were motivated by radical Islam, but were not connected to a terror group, investigators say. Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, 19, who is recovering from injuries sustained during a day-long manhunt, including some that may be self-inflicted, was interrogated by U.S. officials. Some of the unnamed officials spoke to […]
By JTA
Security at the Israeli Embassy in Kathmandu, Nepal, detained an Iranian man believed to be planning a terror attack on the embassy and on Israeli visitors. The man, caught scouting the building, was discovered to have a fake Israeli passport, which he acquired in Kuala Lumpur sometime after March 31 and used to enter Nepal, […]
By JTA
Irwin Jacobs, the founding chairman and CEO emeritus of Qualcomm, is making a $133 million gift to Cornell University and the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology for a joint institute. Jacobs and his wife Joan Klein Jacobs said on Monday that the gift will create the Joan and Irwin Jacobs Technion-Cornell Innovation Institute. The funds will […]
By JTA
A new home for Lone Soldiers in Israel was opened in Ramat Gan with a special ceremony marking the conclusion of the $5 million project launched by Friends of the Israel Defense Forces, headed by Elias and Lila Kalimian and family of Great Neck, N.Y. Thousands of young men and women from around the world […]
By JTA
Israeli gymnast Alexander Shatilov won a gold medal in the men's floor exercise final at the European Artistic Gymnastics Championships in Moscow. Shatilov shared the first-place podium on Saturday with Max Whitlock of Britain. It was the first gold medal in international competition for Shatilov, 26, who finished sixth in the floor exercise finals at […]
By JTA
A Brooklyn woman pleaded guilty to charges that she stole $1 million from a Jewish cemetery on Staten Island. Ilana Friedman, 51, admitted to grand larceny in Staten Island Supreme Court on Tuesday. Friedman, former director of the United Hebrew Cemetery, stole the money over a six-year period. Friedman and her husband, Arthur, the cemetery's […]
By JTA
Two leading Orthodox rabbis in Winnipeg are split over part of a bill, proposed last December, which would require any school that receives provincial funding to allow students to create a gay-straight alliance club. Fearing that Christian schools will be forced to accept such clubs, many Christian leaders in Manitoba have opposed the bill. But […]
By JTA
A high school student was arrested for making a bomb threat on Facebook against his suburban New York Orthodox yeshiva. The 16-year-old, a student at the Mesivta Ateres Yaakov School in Lawrence, Long Island, was arrested at the all-boys school on Tuesday. He was charged with making a terrorist threat, a felony, and aggravated harassment, […]
By JTA
A report released by the Council of Europe says that Greece could legally ban the neo-Nazi Golden Dawn Party, but Greece has rejected the idea. The Council of Europe is based in Strasbourg, France and runs the European Court of Human Rights. The 32-page was issued Tuesday by the council’s human rights commissioner Nils Mutinies, […]
By JTA
More than 44 percent of participants in a survey on Warsaw teenagers' attitudes to Jews said they would rather not have Jewish neighbors. The findings of the survey of 1,250 students in 20 high schools in the Polish capital were published Tuesday in the Polish media. Commissioned by the Jewish community of Warsaw, the survey […]
By JTA
Israeli Independence Day celebrations in Boston were muted and security was increased in the wake of bombings that left three dead and dozens injured at the finish line of the Boston Marathon. Mike Rosenberg, director of community relations at Maimonides, a Jewish day school in suburban Brookline, said an event Tuesday commemorating Israel's 65th anniversary […]
By JTA
ADL's Abe Foxman said he's "outraged" at last week’s decision by the Israel Broadcasting Authority to bar Israel's contestant in the international Eurovision music contest from wearing a dress by designer John Galliano. Galliano lost his job as the top designer at Christian Dior two years ago after being arrested for making anti-Semitic statements at […]
By JTA
Do you remember where you were when Sandy Koufax said he would not play on Yom Kippur. The National Museum of American Jewish History is looking for you.
By JTA
German Chancellor Angela Merkel will receive a top award from Europe's mainstream Orthodox rabbinic body, the Conference of European Rabbis. It announced Monday that Merkel will be awarded the 2013 Lord Jakobovits Prize for European Jewry for her dedication to the German Jewish community and "outspoken denunciation of anti-Semitism throughout Europe." The award will be […]
By JTA
A French Jewish group which last month sued Twitter for hosting anti-Semitic content has lodged a fresh complaint against the company and accused it of lying. The latest complaint by the Union of Jewish Students of France, or UEJF, was filed on April 12 with the Paris Public Prosecutor’s office against Twitter President and Director […]
By JTA
Following the resignation of France’s chief rabbi in a plagiarism scandal, the Vatican reaffirmed its support for his position against same-sex marriage. Rabbi Gilles Bernheim, 60, stepped down April 11 after admitting that he had falsified his academic record and had not authored some of the writings published under his name. These included an essay […]
By JTA
Tens of thousands of people participated Friday afternoon in the funeral procession of Rabbi Yaakov Yosef, the eldest son of Shas spiritual leader Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, former Chief Rabbi of Israel and of the most influential rabbis in Israel. Yaakov Yosef died Friday afternoon at the age of 66, succumbing to a long struggle with […]
By JTA
Rabbi Michael Broyde, a leading Modern Orthodox figure, confessed to using a fake persona to infiltrate a rival rabbinic organization and herald his own work in scholarly journals. A lengthy exposé on The Jewish Channel on Friday detailed how Broyde, a member of the Rabbinical Council of America who once was said to be on […]
By JTA
A New York immigration lawyer who fraudulently presented himself as a rabbi was sentenced to a four-year prison term. Earl Seth David, 49, was sentenced Thursday in U.S. District Court in Manhattan for passing himself off as Rabbi Avraham David in order to swindle illegal immigrants in their bid for naturalization. He also was forced […]
By JTA
Poland's Jewish community does not want a planned monument to righteous gentiles to be erected near the Museum of the History of Polish Jews, which is due to open this month on the site of the Warsaw Ghetto. "The community of Polish Jews will never forget the heroism of people who, despite the threat of […]
By JTA
Israel's contestant in the international Eurovision music contest was barred from wearing a dress by designer John Galliano, who lost his job as the top designer at Christian Dior two years ago after being arrested for making anti-Semitic statements at a Paris bar. The Israel Broadcasting Authority, which sponsors the Israeli contestant and broadcasts the […]
By JTA
Carrying signs reading “Don’t Deport My Bubbe” and “What Would Moses Do?,” Jewish demonstrators representing several organizations participated Wednesday in the Rally for Citizenship in Washington. The Jewish groups rallied on the west lawn of the Capitol alongside Latinos, Catholics, Unitarians, union members and women's groups. Members of Jews United for Justice, HIAS, the American […]
By JTA
Ex-New York Rep. Anthony Weiner, who was forced out of office by a scandal, is considering a run for New York City mayor. Weiner, 48, and his wife, Huma Abedin, submitted to an extensive profile in this weekend's New York Times Magazine in part because Weiner is testing the waters for a possible run in […]
By JTA
The parliament of Portugal is scheduled to vote on whether to naturalize descendants of 16th-century Jews who fled the country because of religious persecution. The motion will be brought to a first reading on Thursday by Portugal’s Socialist Party and is expected to pass, as it has the support of the ruling Social Democratic Party, […]
By JTA
Guatemala has recognized Palestine as a state, which it believes will help bring about a peace agreement with Israel. It joins several Latin American countries that have recognized a sovereign state of Palestine in the last two years. The Guatemala's president's office said in a statement that it decided to "recognize the State of Palestine […]
By JTA
Illinois Rabbi Samuel N. Gordon and public relations executive Maureen Schulman are the newest members of the U. S. Holocaust Memorial Council, appointed on Tuesday by President Barack Obama. Rabbi Gordon is the founding rabbi of Congregation Sukkat Shalom in Wilmette, Ill. and is vice president of the Central Conference of American Rabbis. He also […]
By JTA
The rabbi of the Western Wall said he "can live with" a plan presented by Jewish Agency Chairman Natan Sharansky for a permanent prayer section at the Western Wall where women can organize minyans, even one for men and women together. Sharansky briefed Rabbi of the Western Wall and the Holy Sites of Israel Shmuel […]
By JTA
A Marc Chagall painting stolen more than 10 years ago was discovered in the home of former Italian soccer star Roberto Bottega. Italy’s art-theft police said Monday that “Le Nu au Bouquet,” painted in 1920 by the renowned Jewish artist and reportedly worth $1.3 million, was found in the Turin home of Bottega, formerly of […]
By JTA
Explosives that detonated on Tuesday morning near the Gaza border were planted by terrorists, the IDF Spokespersons' office said in a tweet. They detonated while the Israel Defense Forces engineering unit was working near the fence. The unit was searching for explosive charges they believed to be buried in the area following intelligence reports. The […]
By JTA
Anti-Semitic attacks in Russia have remained rare in 2011 and 2012, even as anti-Muslim vitriol spread, according to a new report by a Russian-Jewish group. “During the reviewed period, the number of attacks of anti-Semitic character in Russia has remained relatively low,” according to the report published last week by the Euro-Asian Jewish Congress. The […]
August 14, 2026 
