יום שישי, כ״ד אב תשפ״וFriday, August 7, 2026
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By JTA
A bipartisan slate of 58 members of Congress signed a friend of the court brief in a case involving a 9-year-old boy who was born in Jerusalem but was denied a request to have Israel listed on his passport as his place of birth. Menachem Zivotofsky was born in western Jerusalem. Neither President Obama nor […]
By JTA
A hearing on a motion to dismiss a consumer fraud case against the company that produces Hebrew National products has been scheduled for Nov. 30 in a federal court. The hearing will be held at the U.S. District Court in Minneapolis. ConAgra Foods Inc., which owns the Hebrew National brand, on July 26 filed the […]
By JTA
(New Jersey Jewish News) – New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie signed into law new sanctions against Iran that prohibit public contracts with any company or person that invests in Iran’s energy and finance sectors. Christie shared the announcement of the new legislation in remarks at a gala in Whippany on Tuesdasy celebrating the merger that […]
By JTA
Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak ordered the Israeli Defense Forces to draft Haredi men as it does other Jewish Israelis. The order came as the Tal Law, which allowed many Haredi men to defer army service, expired on Wednesday. Israel’s Supreme Court overturned the law in February. Israeli law mandates that Jewish Israelis enter the […]
By JTA
Aly Raisman, a Jewish American, won the floor exercise in helping the U.S. women's team to the gold medal in the gymnastics competition in London.
By JTA
A memorial service at Hebrew University in Jerusalem marked the 10th anniversary of a fatal bombing there that killed nine, including five Americans. "A decade has passed since the attack, and it is not only a time to mourn, but also a time to reflect upon the mission entrusted to us," said university President Menachem […]
By JTA
Jonah Lehrer, a staff writer for The New Yorker, resigned hours after Tablet Magazine published an article revealing that he had fabricated Bob Dylan quotes in a recent book. "This was a lie spoken in a moment of panic," Lehrer, 27, said in a statement Monday announcing his resignation. Three weeks ago Michael Moynihan, author […]
By JTA
A Michigan prison inmate has filed a federal lawsuit over the prison's lack of kosher meals. Bradley Sleighter, 54, has been an inmate in the Kent County jail in Grand Rapids since January, where he is serving a nine-month sentence for retail fraud. He said in a lawsuit filed in the U.S. District Court in […]
By JTA
Pelosi (D-Calif.) said that many Republicans "are using Israel as an excuse, what they really want are tax cuts for the wealthy."
By JTA
An eighth-grader from the San Diego Jewish Academy won a science prize at the second annual Google Science Fair competition. Jonah Kohn, 14, won a $25,000 scholarship for his device that uses tactile sound to enhance music for people with hearing loss. "In essence they said that it has given them the best perception of […]
By JTA
An adviser to Palestinian Authority president Mahmoud Abbas visited Auschwitz on Friday. Ziad al-Bandak, a Christian who advises Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Christian affairs, visited prisoner blocs, gas chambers and a crematorium in the Auschwitz-Birkenau complex in Poland, The Associated Press reported. He visited at the invitation of a private Polish foundation that promotes […]
By JTA
Jewish groups were among the 42 religious and secular organizations that told five members of Congress that their recent allegations of Muslim Brotherhood infiltration of the U.S. government were endangering religious freedom. Last month, five Republican lawmakers wrote to various government agencies and asserted that among others, Huma Abedin, a deputy chief of staff for […]
By JTA
An Israeli Arab Knesset member said that Israeli policy led to the deadly recent terrorist attack against Israeli tourists in Bulgaria. "Israel is not a victim, and even when civilians are killed, the occupying Israeli policy is to blame," Channel 10 quoted Haneen Zoabi as saying. "If there was no occupation, no repression and no […]
By JTA
More than 20,000 people in various venues in London attended the British Zionist Federation’s “Minute for Munich” program that was promoted via social media. A short memorial service at the Israeli Embassy that was organized by the Zionist Federation was streamed live online Friday, according to the London Jewish Chronicle. About 200 people marked the […]
By JTA
Israel's Interior Ministry reported that 350,150 Israelis live in Judea and Samaria settlements, an increase of 15,580 from last year. Including eastern Jerusalem and other Jerusalem neighborhoods, the total population of Jews living beyond the Green Line that separates Israel proper from its administered territories is approximately 650,000. (Dani Dayan, chair of the Yesha settlers […]
By JTA
Members of the U.S. House of Representatives will hold a moment of silence for the 11 Israeli athletes and coaches slain by Palestinian terrorists at the 1972 Munich Olympics. “We’re going to give one-minute speeches on the House floor and devote a substantial moment of that to silence on Thursday,” Rep. Eliot Engel (D-N.Y.) said […]
By JTA
A leading Jewish demographer is disputing the findings of a recent widely cited survey on New York Jewry. Len Saxe, a demographer at Brandeis University, told the New York Jewish Week that the survey overestimated the number of Orthodox Jews in the city. He agreed with the finiding that the city’s overall Jewish population has […]
By JTA
Vice President Joe Biden discussed Middle East developments with a group of Arab American leaders. The White House statement did not identify the "thinkers and community leaders" in a statement released Tuesday after the meeting. "In a wide-ranging discussion, members of the group shared their views on developments unfolding across the Middle East and the […]
By JTA
The International Fellowship of Christians and Jews has given $1 million each to the Jewish Agency and Chabad to help them guard against anti-Semitic and terrorist attacks. The money will go to fund infrastructure upgrades and security measures for Jewish communities around the world that are unable to fund security expenses on their own. "There […]
By JTA
Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman told Turkish journalists that Israel has "no reason to apologize" for the Mavi Marmara incident. In a meeting on Sunday with the journalists in Jerusalem, Liberman said that Israel is ready to discuss the incident and would consider the issue of an apology as part of a package including other […]
By JTA
A Swedish citizen of Lebanese origin suspected of planning to attack Israeli targets in Cyprus was ordered held over by a court there. The Cypriot court on Monday ordered the man, 24, detained after noting the similarities between his actions and those of the Bulgarian suicide bomber who killed five Israelis and a Bulgarian bus […]
By JTA
The founder of London's Shomrim patrol carried the Olympic torch in South London. Efrayim Goldstein, 23, was one of 187 people who carried the Olympic torch through the city on Monday. Goldstein wore the official white Olympic uniform and was given a matching yarmulke, according to VIN News. He carried the torch for about a half-mile at 8:30 a.m. After handing off the torch, Goldstein and a group of fellow torchbearers observed a moment of silence in memory of the 11 Israeli athletes and coaches who were killed by terrorists at the Munich Olympics, according to VIN. Goldstein is the founder of the Shomrim Safety Patrol and runs a soup kitchen. According to the nomination for Goldstein, he set up seven charities by the time he became 16.
By JTA
Germany was warned about a possible terror attack against Israeli athletes one month before the Munich Olympics in 1972, Der Spiegel reported. The weekly magazine reported Sunday on its website that despite solid warnings of an attack plan which were received a month before the Games, no action was taken. The Palestinian terrorists, for example, […]
By JTA
Germany's parliament called on the government to step in to protect the right to religious circumcision of boys, as long as it is done by a medically qualified practitioner who avoids inflicting pain. An overwhelming majority of German lawmakers passed a non-binding resolution Thursday urging the administration of Chancellor Angela Merkel to submit a law […]
By JTA
President Shimon Peres said in response to the deadly attack in Bulgaria that Israel will "locate and act against terror all over the world," as the wounded and dead began arriving in Israel. "This was a bloody attack against civilians going on vacation. Many of them lost their lives, others were wounded for no reason, […]
By JTA
A Hebrew charter school in Bergen County, N.J., will not open as expected because the state said it failed to provide some needed documents. Shalom Academy, according to a letter written Monday by Acting Education Commissioner Chris Cerf to the school's founder, Raphael Bachrach, did not provide a certificate of occupancy for educational use and […]
By JTA
The attack, which Israel’s government is blaming on Iran, comes on the 18th anniversary of the terrorist attack on the AMIA Jewish center in Buenos Aires that left 85 people dead. Israel, Argentina and many other governments blame Iranian agents for that incident; Tehran denies the allegations. “All signs point to Iran,” Israeli Prime Minister […]
By JTA
Supporters of Jonathan Pollard called Hillary Clinton's remarks rejecting his possible clemency "a resounding slap in the face" to Israel's leaders and its people.
By JTA
Milton Gralla, a Jewish philanthropist and longtime publisher of business magazines, died in Boca Raton, Fla., on July 11. He was 84. As an active philanthropist for Jewish causes, Gralla and his wife, Shirley, helped support a number of initiatives at Brandeis University, including the Gralla Fellows Program for journalists, the Genesis program for high […]
By JTA
Muammar Gadhafi's mother was Jewish, the late Libyan leader's chief of protocol Nuri al-Samara told Al-Hayat. Last year, a 76-year-old Jewish resident of Netanya told Maariv that Gadhafi was her cousin. "My grandmother converted to Islam but never forgot her roots," Gita Boaron told Maariv at the time. "She would come to visit us, give […]
By JTA
A Philadelphia-area Reform temple will feature a Republican speaker to balance an appearance by U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, the chairwoman of the Democratic National Committee. Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.) is set to speak Monday at the Reform Congregation Keneseth Israel in Elkins Park, Pa., on behalf of President Obama. The synagogue's senior rabbi, Lance Sussman, […]
By JTA
A son of Holocaust survivors, who is running for reelection in the Florida statehouse, has apologized to the Anti-Defamation League after labeling the group “despicable.” The ADL had criticized Sheldon Lisbon after he sent out an email to supporters in June with the subject line, “A vote for Shelly Lisbon is a vote for the […]
By JTA
Attorneys for two Jewish UC-Berkeley graduate students alleging verbal and physical assault by Muslim students have filed a federal civil rights complaint against the university. The federal complaint alleged that “Jewish students have been subjected to a pervasive hostile environment and that the university has failed to take effective measure to cure the situation,” according […]
By JTA
The U.S. Senate voted unanimously to award Raoul Wallenberg the Congressional Gold Medal, the highest civilian award given by Congress.
By JTA
Leaders of two Jewish social action groups addressed a White House forum on faith-based social innovations. Shawn Landres, the founder of Jewish Jumpstart, and Jon Rosenberg, the CEO of Repair the World, were among 13 leaders of faith-based groups and three government officials who participated Wednesday in a Faith-Based Social Innovators Forum convened by the […]
By JTA
An Israeli citizen living in New York was sentenced to prison for organ trafficking. Levy Izhak Rosenbaum, 61, of Brooklyn, was sentenced Wednesday to 2 1/2 years in prison. He had pleaded guilty last Oct. 27 to three counts of organ trafficking and one count of conspiracy in a New Jersey federal court. Rosenbaum had […]
By JTA
The National Jewish Democratic Council, citing peace among Jewish groups, has taken down a petition calling on Republicans not to accept money from Sheldon Adelson, stating: "…we regret the concern that this campaign has caused. And in the interest of shalom bayit, we are going to take down our petition today." The Jewish Federations of North America, the Anti-Defamation League, the Republican Jewish Coalition and Alan Dershowitz called the allegations unconscionable, noting that all had yet to be proven.
By JTA
Europe's main Orthodox rabbinical body is urging Jews in Germany to uphold the commandment to circumcise newborn sons, despite a court ruling in Germany that said circumcising young boys could be considered a criminal act.
By JTA
At the annual ceremony in memory of Zionism founder Theodor Herzl, President Shimon Peres called Judea and Samaria settlements a threat to Israel.
By JTA
Adolf Hitler ordered that the Jewish commander of his army unit during World War I not be persecuted or deported, a German-Jewish publication reported. Susanne Mauss, editor of the Jewish Voice from Germany, found an August 1940 note of the Gestapo ordering that Ernst Hess, a former judge, not be persecuted or deported following an […]
By JTA
Israel's government has budgeted more than $10 million to provide college scholarships and Hebrew language schools to new immigrants. The Cabinet decision Sunday to continue to support financially the Immigrant Absorption Ministry Student Authority is "ensuring the continuation of its joint projects with the Jewish Agency which, due to budgetary constraints, faced uncertain futures," according […]
By JTA
Warm up the defibrillator, the Instant Heart Attack Sandwich has life at New York's 2nd Avenue Deli. A U.S. District Court Judge in Manhattan ruled late last week that the sandwich cannot be confused with the Heart Attack Grill in Las Vegas and thus the deli can keep the sandwich – two latkes stuffed with […]
By JTA
Milan’s Jewish community has condemned a meeting of European extreme right-wing movements held at a Milan hotel Friday and Saturday. In a statement, the Milan Jewish community expressed “alarm” at the meeting, which is to include representatives of Hungary’s Jobbik Party, the French National Front and Britain’s British National Party, among others. They all form […]
By JTA
The United Nations' top human rights body has appointed three independent experts to conduct a fact-finding mission on how Israel's Jewish settlements affect Palestinians. The president of the U.N. Human Rights Council, Uruguay Ambassador Laura Dupuy Lasserre, on Friday named three women to the panel, The Associated Press reported. Dupuy Lasserre said their mission will […]
By JTA
Four students were fined for throwing raw eggs and shouting anti-Semitic taunts at groups of Jews in Northwest London. The students were each fined $642, some of which will be paid in compensation to their victims, the London Jewish Chronicle reported. Each was convicted of using religiously aggravated and insulting words likely to cause alarm […]
By JTA
Rabbi Pesach Lerner will step down as head of the National Council of Young Israel, the organization said. Lerner decided not to resume his role as executive vice president of the organization – a position he has held for more than 20 years – following a six-month working sabbatical, Young Israel said in a statement […]
By JTA
Warsaw prosecutors decided to discontinue an investigation into anti-Semitic entries on Polish on-line forums. The investigation, which ended Tuesday, was undertaken at the request of Polish foreign minister Radoslaw Sikorski. The prosecutor concluded that there was no "public interest" requiring his office to prosecute the perpetrators. In April 2011, Sikorski informed the prosecutor of the […]
By JTA
Online anti-Semitism in Spain doubled in volume last year, according to a Spanish Jewish community monitor. In a report on anti-Semitism in Spain in 2011, the Observatory on Anti-Semitism in Spain counted more than 1,000 anti-Semitic sites and web pages that the observatory says were created in Spain. In 2010 the observatory counted only 400 […]
By JTA
Young Judaea is en route to full independence from Hadassah, the Women's Zionist Organization of America. Hadassah's board had voted for the separation in June 2011, and both organizations announced this week that the move to independence had begun. Simon Klarfeld was hired in December as Young Judaea's executive director. Hadassah will provide $7 million […]
By JTA
The country’s largest Presbyterian church has agreed to vote by week’s end on divesting its portfolio from three companies that it says have resisted the request to stop providing services that aid Israel’s "occupation" of Judea and Samaria. The Presbyterian Church (USA) General Assembly’s Middle East Committee voted 36 to 11 with one abstention in […]
By JTA
Iranian nationals arrested in Kenya may have been planning to attack U.S. or Israeli targets, Kenyan security forces said. Security forces found 33 pounds of a powerful explosive after they arrested the Iranians in June, according to The Associated Press. The explosives were in Mombassa, a coastal city. The AP reported that several hotels on […]
By JTA
The Republican Jewish Coalition is sending two of its top officials to Israel to rally for expatriate votes. The voter registration drive is led by Ari Fleischer, press secretary for GW Bush, and RJC executive director Matt Brooks.
By JTA
The Republican presidential candidate will meet with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and PA Prime Minister Salam Fayyad later this summer.
By JTA
The Museum of the History of Polish Jews, which is set to open next year, will receive a $7 million grant from two Jewish philanthropic foundations. The gift from the Koret and Taub Foundations will finance eight galleries that will take visitors through 1,000 years of Jewish history in Poland. The exhibits will include a […]
By JTA
Peter Madoff, the younger brother of jailed Ponzi scheme operator Bernard Madoff, has been taken into custody by the FBI. Peter Madoff, 66, surrendered himself Friday morning at his lawyer’s office in midtown Manhattan ahead of an expected guilty plea to criminal charges related to the Ponzi scheme, according to the Wall Street Journal. He […]
By JTA
The president of the Austrian parliament announced that the country can prepare to close its General Settle Fund for Victims of Nazi Socialism. The independent body announced this week that it had completed its review of 20,702 claims applications in its 11 years of existence. Of these, 18,154 applicants were awarded compensation for 103,333 material […]
By JTA
The Americafest celebration next week, which will bring campers from the Orthodox Camp Darom in Grenada, Miss., to the Union for Reform Judaism's Henry S. Jacobs Camp in Utica, Miss., was made possible by a grant from the Foundation for Jewish Camp. The celebration will mark the first time the two camps have come together […]
By JTA
The brownstone housing the Chabad Lubavitch of the Loop, Gold Coast and Lincoln Park was to have gone on the auction block Wednesday, but the bankruptcy filing this week gave Chabad additional time to repay a bank loan, the Chicago Tribune reported. The group has found a way to pay its debts but needed more […]
By JTA
Eliyahu Werdesheim will serve three years probation for assaulting a black teenager in Baltimore in 2010, when he was a member of an Orthodox Jewish neighborhood watch. Werdesheim, now 24, avoided jail time for the November 2010 beating of Corey Ausby, then 15, the Baltimore Sun reported. Werdesheim was member of the Shomrim watch group […]
By JTA
The European Union for Progressive Judaism and Hungary’s two Reform congregations took their case against Hungary’s new law on religion to the European Court of Human Rights in The Hague. The two synagogues, Sim Shalom and Bet Orim, said in a statement that they had submitted an application Tuesday to the Court “concerning the violation […]
By JTA
A whistle-blowing Budapest rabbi was questioned by police for what has been described as misuse of sensitive private information stemming from a personal conflict within the Jewish community. Rabbi Zoltan Radnoti this week was finger-printed, photographed, and interrogated at a local police station. The investigation stems from a case last year, in which Radnoti revealed […]
By JTA
A man in an Elmo costume was ejected from Central Park and hospitalized after going on an anti-Semitic rant in the middle of the New York landmark. While the man’s name was not released because he was not arrested. Police said that Monday's incident was not the first time he had been dressed as the […]
By JTA
Sylvia Cuttler Ettenberg, a veteran Jewish educator and founder of Camp Ramah, has died at age 95 Ettenberg was the first female senior administrator at the Jewish Theological Seminary, and was recognized as a dean emerita. The Brooklyn native was at the forefront of many Conservative Jewish educational initiatives, including the Prozdor Hebrew High School […]
By JTA
The search for Guma Aguiar, a Florida businessman and philanthropist who has given millions to Jewish nonprofit organizations, reportedly was called off. Aguiar, the CEO of Leor Energy who lives in Fort Lauderdale, was last seen on the evening of June 19. His yacht washed ashore in Fort Lauderdale the following day, according to reports. […]
By JTA
A Muslim couple in Manchester, England, allegedly purchased items for homemade bombs to be used against Jewish targets, a court in that city was told. “It was jihad at home,” prosecutor Bobbie Cheema told the Manchester crown court on Thursday, according to the Guardian. “Between them they acquired substances, common for gardening, that can be […]
By JTA
The British Broadcasting Corporation “got it wrong” in its reporting of the massacre of the Fogel family by Palestinians in the West Bank village of Itamar, the broadcaster's outgoing director-general said at a parliamentary committee hearing. In March 2011, Arabs entered the Fogels’ home and murdered Udi, 36, Ruth, 35, and their children, Yoav, 11, […]
By JTA
French police said they were investigating death threats made against the country’s chief rabbi. Polices said over the weekend that they are looking for people connected to a photomontage disseminated through Facebook which shows Rabbi Gilles Bernheim with a revolver pointing at his head. The picture shows Bernheim wearing a Star of David on his […]
By JTA
Poland's attorney general has asked the country's Constitutional Court to investigate the constitutionality of ritual slaughter. Andrzej Seremet said that he believes the minister of agriculture, who allowed an exemption to Polish law to accommodate ritual slaughter, violated the constitution. Under Polish law, animals must be stunned before slaughter; the only exception is ritual slaughter. […]
By JTA
Hungarian Jews "feel increasing danger" in a country with a government that condones anti-Semitism, the president of Hungary's Jewish community said. Peter Feldmajer, president of the Federation of Hungarian Jewish Communities, made the remarks Tuesday at a conference on anti-Semitism in the European Parliament in Brussels. Though Hungarian government officials say they want to combat […]
By JTA
Latvian Justice Minister Gaidis Berzins has resigned in protest of plans to offer restitution for Jewish property seized after the Holocaust. Berzins, chair of the rightist All For Latvia-For Fatherland and Freedom Party, announced his resignation on Wednesday, the country’s news agency Leta reported. In 2006, the Latvian parliament blocked a bill proposing $55 million […]
By JTA
The body of a Yemenite Jewish leader who was stabbed to death in an anti-Semitic attack was brought to Israel for burial. Aaron Joseph Zindani, 46, was stabbed in the neck and stomach in a market in the capital city of Sana'a in May. His Muslim assailant accused Zindani of casting a spell on and […]
By JTA
Guma Aguiar, a Florida businessman and philanthropist who has given millions to Jewish nonprofit organizations, is missing. Aguiar, the CEO of Leor Energy who lives in Fort Lauderdale, was last seen around 7:30 PM Tuesday. His 31-foot boat washed ashore in Fort Lauderdale early Wednesday morning, according to reports. A close friend of Aguiar, Rabbi […]
By JTA
The Jewish Federations of North America slammed Israeli Chief Rabbi Shlomo Amar's criticism of the Israeli government's decision to pay the salaries of some non-Orthodox rabbis. "It is a fundamental Jewish virtue to ‘love your fellow as yourself.’ We condemn comments that disparage fellow Jews and, in particular, well-established branches of Judaism that represent 80 […]
By JTA
Doctors reportedly have put former Egyptian dictator Hosni Mubarak on life support as turmoil once again threatens to sweep the country. The state news agency Mena said Mubarak was "clinically dead" when he arrived at the hospital and that doctors used a defibrillator on him several times. The initial report said the efforts were not […]
By JTA
Bolivian Cabinet ministers told the chairman of the U.S. House of Representatives human rights subcommittee that they would look into the case of a jailed Brooklyn Chasidic Jew. Rep. Christopher Smith (R-N.J.) met this week in Bolivia with Minister of Government Carlos Romero and Minister of Justice Cecilia Luisa Ayllon. Jacob Ostreicher has been held […]
By JTA
MoveOn.org joined a growing list of groups and individuals to raise concerns about the congressional candidacy of New York City Councilman Charles Barron. The online liberal group blasted an e-mail criticizing the candidacy of Barron in New York’s Eighth Congressional District in the Democratic primary against Assemblyman Hakeem Jeffries. The two are vying to replace […]
By JTA
An organization in Israel wants to use unmanned aerial vehicles to check the national eruv in problematic spots. The Shabbat Fund has placed a proposal on the table to purchase the UAVs at a cost of more than $6,000 per drone, the Bechadrei Charedim website reported. The drone could save manpower hours and get to […]
By JTA
Receiving the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President Obama, Israeli President Shimon Peres called for a renewal of peace talks with the Palestinians. "Israel and the Palestinians are ripe today to restart" the peace talks, Peres said at the White House ceremony on Wednesday. "A firm basis already exists. A solution of two national states: […]
By JTA
Ron Barber, a former aide to U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, won her seat in a special election. Barber, who decided to run after Giffords formerly resigned her seat earlier this year to recover from a shooting in January 2011, defeated Jesse Kelly, a Republican who suffered a narrow defeat to Giffords in the 2010 election […]
By JTA
The head of the Reform movement in Israel was ejected from a discussion on state funding for non-Orthodox rabbis Tuesday. Gilad Kariv, a Reform rabbi and director of the Israel Movement for Progressive Judaism, was thrown out of Tuesday's debate in the Knesset Finance Committee for speaking out of turn and using aggressive language. Kariv […]
By JTA
A Holocaust memorial monument in the southwest of Hungary was desecrated. The perpetrators broke off several parts of the bronze monument, which stands 3 1/2 feet high and is the shape of a large menorah. Hungarian police said they were investigating the incident. The Federation of Jewish Communities in Hungary said the monument was desecrated […]
By JTA
"We have confronted the Russians about stopping their continued arms shipments to Syria," Clinton said Tuesday. "We are concerned about the latest information we have that there are attack helicopters on the way from Russia to Syria."
By JTA
A bipartisan letter is circulating in the U.S. House of Representatives soliciting signatures on a letter to President Obama asking him to commute Pollard's sentence to time served. The "Dear Colleague" letter is signed by veteran House members Rep. Eliot Engel (D-N.Y.) and Rep. Christopher Smith (R-N.J.).
By JTA
The father of Toulouse killer Mohammed Merah reportedly is suing police for allegedly murdering his son. Mohamed Benalel Merah filed a lawsuit against the RAID elite police who shot his son. “This is a suit against unnamed persons for murder with aggravating circumstances concerning those who gave the orders at the top of the police,” […]
By JTA
A lawyer for Marine Le Pen said the leader of the French far right will sue French-Jewish philosopher Bernard-Henri Levy for libel. Wallerand de Saint-Just said he would submit a libel suit on behalf of Le Pen, president of the National Front party, to the Paris Magistrate’s Court next week. In an article originally published […]
By JTA
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accused Iran and Hezbollah of being involved in the slaughter of civilians in Syria. "We [see] what is happening in Syria where civilians are simply being slaughtered," Netanyahu said during Sunday's regular Cabinet meeting. "We see the horrifying pictures of children and the elderly. This is a slaughter that is […]
By JTA
Gallup has started tracking Jewish voters for the 2012 presidential elections, and its findings are commensurate with other polling, with President Obama enjoying a 35 point lead over Mitt Romney. The poll of 576 Jews culled from the pollster's daily tracking of registered U.S. voters from April 11-June 5, found that Jewish voters favored Obama […]
By JTA
Israel's Chief Rabbinate has agreed to lift restrictions on rabbis from the Tzohar organization conducting weddings. Under the agreement inked Thursday, Tzohar rabbis who meet certain criteria will be able to marry couples. In return, Tzohar pledged to withdraw a lawsuit against the Rabbinate and try to stop legislation that would have taken away the […]
By JTA
Israel's Air Force attacked what it said were two weapons storage facilities in the Gaza Strip.
By JTA
Two suspects have been arrested in connection with an attack on three Jewish teens in Lyon in southeastern France. The two suspects reportedly turned themselves in to police on Wednesday, AFP reported. The "main perpetrator" of the attack has not yet been apprehended, local police chief Albert Doutre said, according to AFP. The attack, which […]
By JTA
Israel's housing and construction ministry announced plans for up to 851 new housing units for Judea and Samaria settlements. Wednesday's announcement came in the wake of the defeat of a bill in Knesset that would have retroactively legalized the Ulpana Hill neighborhood of Beit El. Housing and Construction Minister Ariel Atias said Wednesday evening that […]
By JTA
Police have identified a Jewish family from Tempe, Ariz., the Butwins, as the subjects of a suspected murder-suicide. Police said that James Butwin, a board member of his local synagogue, Temple Emanuel, was the primary suspect in the killing of his Israeli born wife and three daughters. The bodies were found on Saturday in a […]
By JTA
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas called on Israel to withdraw from all lands it occupied in 1967, warning that the two-state solution may not be on the table for much longer. "I would like to address our Israeli neighbors and say we are seekers of peace and freedom and our people made a major sacrifice […]
By JTA
A group of kipah-clad Jewish tourists in Jordan reportedly was harassed and attacked by locals. Arab media reported that Jordanians in the town of Al Karak grew agitated on Monday when they saw a few Jewish men wearing head coverings in the local market. They threw shoes at them and chased them away, the Jordanian […]
By JTA
The City University of New York denied a report that it had created a special minority designation for Jewish faculty (see "Is CUNY Planning a Jewish Quota?"). Rather, a university spokesman told JTA, the university simply had responded to requests by Jewish faculty members to be recruited for focus groups aimed at boosting the recruitment […]
By JTA
U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo and New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg were among the dignitaries who marched in Sunday's annual Celebrate Israel Parade in the Big Apple.
By JTA
Jews living in Asia gathered near the Great Wall of China for the first-ever Limmud event in the world most populous nation. Sunday's program, run by Limmud International, drew nearly 100 Jews from Beijing, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Mumbai, the Philippines, Japan, Singapore, Israel, Britain and the United States. The open Jewish learning program Limmud has […]
By JTA
Israel is equipping submarines built in Germany with nuclear-tipped cruise missiles, according to an in-depth report in Der Spiegel magazine. The magazine also reported Sunday that the German government has known about Israel's nuclear weapons program for decades, despite its official denials. Last month, Israel received from Germany its fourth Dolphin–class submarine, which is slated […]
By JTA
Three Jews wearing yarmulkes were assaulted by 10 people in southeast France in what the French Interior Ministry is calling an anti-Semitic attack. The attack, which occurred on Saturday and was announced by the Interior Ministry on Sunday, took place in Villeurbanne, near Lyon. The attackers, who used a hammer and an iron bar, injured […]
By JTA
New satellite images show possible recent nuclear activity at the Parchin facility in Iran as well as attempts to hide evidence of past activity.
August 7, 2026 
