Memorials for two memorable Jews took place this weekend, though they stood, perhaps, on opposite sides of the political spectrum.
A bank-robbing bandit was no match for a group of boychiks from Brooklyn, being arrest after an armed spree thanks to the assistance of the famous Hasidic Shomrim.
By JTA
Jane Fonda will host an event in Los Angeles focusing on sexual violence during the Holocaust.
Deborah Pinto, wife of Rabbi Yoshiyahu Pinto, who is suspected, along with her husband, of trying to bribe a senior police officer, attempted suicide on Sunday by taking pills. Mrs. Pinto, who was picked up for questioning last Thursday, together with her husband, and was released with him under restrictive conditions, is in satisfactory condition at the Sheba Medical Center in Tel Hashomer.
By JTA
Google introduced a new online historical collection of digitized material, highlighting several Jewish themes, events and institutional partners in its first wave of exhibits.
By JTA
He smuggled goods to Syria in the midst of its civil war and to Iran in the face of international sanctions, but Rabbi A.H. is no arms dealer or James Bond. He’s just a guy selling lulavs.
The Jewish cemetery south of Prague has been vandalized, with over 26 tombstones being knocked over, according to Czech police.
By JTA
An Australian man who allegedly raped a Holocaust survivor two decades ago will face trial.
Rabbi Chaim Kanievsky, who of Israel’s pre-eminent haredi rabbis, issued a public notice on Sunday urging owners of iPhones to burn their devices, comparing the popular cell phones to weapons of war.
By Anav Silverman, Tazpit News Agency
According to a study by Hebrew University’s Professor Sergio DellaPergola, the global Jewish population reached 13.75 million in the past year, with an increase of 88,000 people. Israel’s Maariv newspaper published excerpts of the study last week, reporting that one out of every 514 people in the world is Jewish, less than 0.2 percent of mankind.
By Tibbi Singer
Hadassa Margolis is considering moving out of Beit Shemesh.
By JTA
A New Jersey store reportedly is sending free yarmulkes to Edon Pinchot, the kipah-wearing former contestant on "America’s Got Talent."
The global Jewish population grew by more than 88,000 people over the past year, and now stands at 13.75 million, according to a new study published y Professor Sergio DellaPergola of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
An arson attack at the Achla Pita Grill in Hollywood, Florida may be linked to an arson committed at the same strip mall a year ago against another Jewish business.
By JTA
At President Obama's behest, and to boos from some delegates, Democrats on Wednesday night inserted a few lines into their party platform affirming Jerusalem as Israel's capital.
By JTA
About 50 high-ranking federal and state law enforcement officials met with an equal number of leading American Jewish officials for their first “table top” threat exercise.
3.5% of the young people interviewed attempted suicide.
By JTA
SEPTEMBER 5, 1934 - Mrs. Stephen S. Wise, president of the Women's Association of the American Jewish Congress, who has just returned from a visit to the German refugee centers in Europe, will be hostess this afternoon to 500 Brooklyn women who have pledged to support the establishment of a center in New York City for refugees from Nazi Germany.
Customers at a Hasidic bakery were accosted by two men who yelled ethnic slurs at the them and attempted to run them over with their car.
The sale of a 185-room hotel at the entrance of Jerusalem on August 16 was not just a 17.5 million dollar real estate acquisition by Australian multi-millionaire Kevin Bermeister, but one investment in a broader and more calculated strategy to make Jerusalem a global tourism capital. Up next: a subway system servicing the Old City and a Jerusalem International Airport in the nearby desert.
Recognizing the growing popularity of Mediterranean accented dairy products among the health conscious, Tnuva has announced the debut of a new "taste" within its series of Labaneh low-fat sour cheese spreads.
By JTA
A Jewish student at Michigan State University said he was attacked at an off-campus party in what he is calling a hate crime.
By JTA
Edon Pinchot, a kipah-wearing Jewish day school student, will be performing in the semifinals of "America’s Got Talent."
He was told that since he was wearing the uniform of the “Army of the Zionist State,” he was not permitted to enter the shul.
By Tibbi Singer
Here’s the new method for combating modesty problems: on posters that were displayed publicly on Wednesday in Beitar Illit, Israel, signed by the Committee for the Purity of our Camp, a woman’s picture appeared including her full name and the ‘fact’ that she had gotten married not in accordance with halacha (Jewish law).
Round two in a no-holds barred debate on whether Jews should vote for Obama or Romney for US president took place Wednesday night at the Palm Beach South Jewish Community Center in Boynton Beach, Florida. The joint was jumping: hundreds of people were turned away for lack of space, audience members were shouting, speakers were heckled and interrupted and ugliness prevailed. But unless you were able to squeeze into the room, you'll have to take the word of those who were there. Why and when were cameras barred from the room? According to the panelists, the JCC management knew there were going to be cameras.
German marcher Bäerbel Pfeiffer asked for forgiveness for her grandfather, an electrician who installed the electrified barbed wire fence at Auschwitz-Birkenau.
The camp, part of an ongoing effort called Project Rimon, is focused on a commitment to instill Jewish identity within the campers and use Israel as the common denominator that unites Jews of Russian origin from diverse locales around the globe.
Imagine this: two Jews, one opinion! Who accomplished this miracle? None other than former US president Jimmy Carter.
The Decision comes after the girl's mother applied for a court order in November 2011 to prevent her ex-husband from having the girl baptized.
On August 1, the biggest Jewish American event ever took place – the completion of the daily learning of the entire Gemara, which happens once every 7 and a half years, known as Siyum HaShas – filling of 90,000 seats at New Jersey’s MetLife Stadium. However, a significantly smaller, but just as intriguing group celebrated the event in skirts, scarves and a spirit of sisterhood in Jerusalem.
Joining Romney in the announcement of this new coalition were House Majority leader Eric Cantor and former US Senator Norm Coleman from Minnesota, two out of a short list of Honorary Chairmen. In the announcement itself there was one concrete pledge made. Coleman said that, if elected, Mitt Romney pledged he would make his first foreign trip as president to Jerusalem.
With great emotion and to the joy of Jewish foodies throughout the world, the Queen of Kosher cooking is coming home to rule the roast/roost.
The Online Hate Prevention Institute on Wednesday released a report documenting extensive anti-Semitism and racial hatred on YouTube, prompting the popular video-sharing website to close the account of the most egregious culprit.
More Jewish parents no longer ask their children only to which Ivy League schools will they apply, but in which elite IDF units they want to serve.
An upscale hotel on a Santa Monica, California, beach is an odd place to be singled out from a crowd and removed because you are Jewish.
By Jacob Shamsian, Tazpit News Agency
Hitler’s Mein Kampf is available in almost all Indian languages, but the only book on the Holocaust in India’s national language, Hindi, is an FAQ about the Holocaust published by Yad Vashem. Dr. Navras Jaat Aafreedi has worked and continues to work in spreading accurate information about Judaism and the Holocaust in India.
As Jews around the world conduct the rituals of mourning in remembrance of the destruction of two Holy Temples in Jerusalem and the suffering of exile from the center of Jewish life, an ambitious plan and timeframe are afoot to rebuild Jerusalem and turn it once again into the pulsating heart of the Jewish world.
The Jewish Federations of North America last week rejected the inclusion of the term "Zionism" in a major system-wide planning document.
A renewed outcry for “Temple consciousness” has arisen with a flurry of political, religious, and social activity.
By dvora
The New York Times once asked Rabbi Moshe Feinstein how he became a posek hador, one of the generation’s foremost authorities on Jewish law. Rabbi Feinstein answered that, “people came and asked me questions and they liked what I said and it was accepted, and then more people came and eventually I became widely accepted as a posek.”
The California State Supreme Court on Monday upheld a lower-court decision that gave class-action status to a lawsuit alleging mass desecration of grave sites at Eden Memorial Park, 11500 Sepulveda Blvd, Mission Hills, CA, a Jewish cemetery which is under the care of the Texas-based Service Corporation International, thus clearing the way for injured families to seek hundreds of millions of dollars in damages.
A ban by some Orthodox Brooklyn shopkeepers on customers’ cleavage and bare shoulders has raised the ire of some local consumers.
David Delgado Shorter, a professor at the University of California at Los Angeles, has been given the official green light to continue using university resources to promote the boycott of Israel. Shorter prominently features links to the U.S. Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel on his official class website. The founders of the U.S. Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel have openly stated that their ultimate goal is the dismantling of the Jewish State.
Bob Costas may soon make history by defying the International Olympic Committee and conducting an on-air memorial of his own.
By Tibbi Singer
Haredi consumers are not, by and large, part of Israel's social protest movement, but their shopping savvy, it turns out, is evolving constantly.
By Alex Abel
A spokesperson for Yisrael Beytenu said, “We’ve had 64 years to evolve,” he said. “Demographically, it will be impossible to pass this bill 20 years from now.”
There is great concern in Haredi circles following a severe deterioration in the condittion of Rabbi Yosef Shalom Elyashiv, who has been hospitalized for the past six months in Shaarey Tzedek Hospital in Jerusalem.
The Jewish Hospital in Berlin has suspended all religious circumcisions of children following a ruling delivered by a German court banning the practice.
Andy Statman says the time of Klezmer has passed. Having just received the NEA National Heritage Fellowship in June for his work in bluegrass and Klezmer music, Statman admits Klezmer used to be his substitute for Jewish observance. Now that he is an Orthodox Jew, he no longer feels the need to play the music.
By Jewish Press Staff Reporter
Following more than three years of investigation, Indian security forces have arrested Sayed Zabiuddin Ansari aka Abu Hamza, alleged member of Lashker-e-Taiba (Army of the Righteous) and the Hindi instructor of 10 terrorists who executed the murderous attack in Mumbai in 2008.
Australia’s 2011 census shows that Australia’s official Jewish population has risen to almost 100,000, a rise of 10 percent in five years.
Judea and Samaria are not under occupation rule. This is the central finding of the "Outposts Committee" which was appointed to examine the legal status of Israel in Judea and Samaria.
Abe Foxman, Director of the Anti-Defamation League: "My love and support for Israel is unconditional, it does not depend on the Israeli acceptance of my ideas. My Zionism is not in crisis because my Zionism is not conditioned on an idealized view of what I'd like Israel to be."
A reunion for Yeshiva University High School graduates will take place on Friday, June 22, 2012 at 10 AM, at the YU Gruss Center in Jerusalem. Some 200 Yeshiva University High School alumni residing in Israel will honor Rabbi Zuroff, principal and later supervisor of all Yeshiva University high schools, at the event.
Class action lawsuit against Hebrew National alleges the company is misrepresenting its own kashrut standards “as defined by the most stringent Jews who follow Orthodox Jewish Law."
The Jewish boy's mother said the attacking students had heated the coin on a BBQ grill and pressed it onto the boy's neck, burning through to the flesh. "They say they are going to kill all the Jews, and use offensive language such as 'Jewish pigs' and 'Jewish Satan,'" she said.
A study by the UJA-Federation of New York found that the population of the New York Jewish community - comprising the Bronx, Brooklyn, Manhattan, Queens, Staten Island, Nassau, Suffolk, and Westchester - has grown nearly 10% since the last study in 2002. New York City's Jewish population stands at 1,086,000, with 40% identifying themselves as Orthodox, a 7% increase from 2002.
The Rabbinical Congress for Peace cited the words of Nobel laureate Professor Israel Aumann who said that that evicting the families “would endanger not only the Jewish presence in Judea and Samaria but also all of Israel."
The OU reps pressed Obama hard on his handling of US-Israel relations and on mandating contraceptive coverage. Obama accused Netanyahu of trying to "act without restraints."
Israel’s Health Ministry is mulling a plan to vastly increase government assistance to couples with fertility difficulties to grow larger families, while decreasing the amount of subsidies to women over the age of 43 who have never succeeded in getting pregnant.
By Shalom Bear
US Glatt kosher deli manufacturer Abeles and Heyman merged with Israeli company Yehiam to help both expand their reach in the US market.
The Aleph Institute, a Chabad-Lubavitch organization catering to the needs of Jewish soldiers and their families, is helping servicemen celebrate the upcoming holiday of Shavuot with 1,000 special military edition Torah books, according to a report on Chabad.org.
Israel Antiquities Authority and the Ir David Foundation announced that a clay seal was discovered bearing the name of the city of Bethlehem, evidence that the city existed during the period of the First Temple in Jerusalem. The find coincides with the upcoming holiday of Shavuot, during which time Jews from around the world focus on the story of the biblical figure Ruth, set in the city of Bethlehem.
Nefesh B’Nefesh organized a special celebration yesterday in Ein Yael, Jerusalem for new Olim to better prepare them for their first Shavuot in Israel.
A group of Jewish children and their parents were targeted in a fierce rock attack Friday night outside the Maale HaZeitim neighborhood in Jerusalem, miraculously escaping serious injury. Jerusalem police who arrived to investigate were also pelted with stones – and left.
The Jewish birthrate per capita of Jewish mothers in Jerusalem is now higher than that of Arab women in Israel’s capital city.
New York rapper Yitz “Y-Love” Jordan, famed black convert to Orthodox Judaism and celebrated artist, has announced that he is homosexual in an interview with Out magazine.
Women who seek the opportunity to do Asanas in an environment which is more Hoshannah than Ganesha – and teach other women to do the same - can now sign up for a special course designed especially for Jewish Yoga aficionadas who want to teach the healing art to others.
By JTA
Jewish reaction was mixed to the election of the Socialist Party’s Francois Hollande as the president of France while Jewish leaders in Greece expressed concern and disappointment after the fascist Golden Dawn party was poised to enter the Greek parliament for the first time.
By Jewish Press Staff Reporter
Some 5,000 French Jews participated in an aliyah fair in Paris. The fair, organized and run by the Jewish Agency, took place on the Sunday of Francois Hollande's election as their new president, beating incumbent Nicolas Sarkozy—the Jewish community's favorite. A recent poll found that 26 percent of those surveyed said they have considered emigrating due to French anti-Semitism.
Following his victory Sunday, the 57-year-old François Hollande shouted himself hoarse, as he had done so often during the campaign, thanking his supporters for electing him president and promising to unite the whole country. But Richard Prasquier, President of the Jewish-French organizations, says one of the changes the Hollande presidency brings is a boost to the anti-Israel left.
Despite a drop of 0.7% in antisemitic incidents in 2011 over the previous year, the gravity of the problem in Canada is better understood by observing long-term trends: antisemitic incidents have grown twenty-fold since B'nai Brith started monitoring antisemitism thirty years ago, while a five-year view shows a 24.6% rise.
A Vatican representative has issued a call for the world’s foremost religions to unite to take a stand against gay marriage. Archbishop Antonio Mennini, the “Apostolic Nuncio” (Vatican representative) to Great Britain has proposed enlisting the help of all Christian denominations, as well as Jews and Muslims, to oppose the proposition of legalizing gay marriage […]
For the Jewish community in Ohio, the newest Cleveland Browns lineman is also a landsman. Mitchell Schwartz will arrive in Cleveland on Thursday, May 10 for the Cleveland Browns’ rookie minicamp, having been chosen as the 37th pick in last week’s NFL Draft. In an interview with Cleveland Jewish News, the 22 year-old Brown said […]
Members of the UJA-Federation of New York set a Guinness World Record on April 29 for assembling the greatest number of sandwiches for the needy in one hour. The mitzvah-slathered soiree took place at Temple Beth Sholom in Roslyn Heights and involved 100 volunteers from the local Jewish community, 3,320 slices of bread, and gobs […]
Jewish support for President Obama has improved significantly in the last year and a half, according to a new survey by the American Jewish Committee .
Israel Antiquities Authority: The seal, discovered during excavations of the drainage channel between the City of David and the Jerusalem Archaeological Garden, "is engraved with the name of its owner: 'Lematanyahu Ben Ho…' ('למתניהו בן הו...' meaning: 'Belonging to Matanyahu Ben Ho…')."
By Tibbi Singer
American clothing retailer Urban Outfitters is in hot water for selling a yellow T-shirt with a patch over the breast pocket that looks like a designer's idea of how to improve that old fashioned yellow Star of David that Jews were forced to wear by the Nazis. Make it blue, for one thing, yellow is soooo 1941.
Tens of thousands of Ultra-Orthodox Jews will participate in a huge rally to be held on Sunday evening, May 20, at Shea Stadium in Queens, New York, to combat the evils of the Internet and the damages caused by advanced electronic devices. One of the event organizers said: "This will be a mass rally never before seen in the history of Orthodox Jewry in the U.S." The rabbis behind the event say the Internet creates "many serious family-related problems."
Seven men – including 4 rabbis - happened upon by an Israeli paratrooper in a closed military zone on the Hermon mountains on Monday, were on a mission of their own – to safeguard the sanctity of the Jews of the city of Metulla.
This April, 70 years since the Nazi invasion on Lithuania destroyed the 800-year connection of the country with the Jewish people, a $50 million package was passed to compensate Jewish families whose property was stolen during the Holocaust, according to a report by JTA.
Among its results, the study found that 72% of Polish citizens agree or strongly agree that "Jews try to take advantage of having been victims during the Nazi era," and that 68% of Hungarians share this sentiment. Nearly 70% percent of Hungarians also think that "Jews have too much influence" in their country.
By Tibbi Singer
Christie’s New York will unveil "a rare and splendid example of Renaissance Judaica," an illuminated manuscript Machzor. With more than 400 pages, this manuscript, printed on vellum (calf's skin) is a festival prayer book written in Hebrew, created in Tuscany, and probably Florence, circa 1490. It is being offered at auction for the first time, at a value estimated between $540,000 and 800,000.
By Tibbi Singer
As of now, 62 percent of Jewish voters favor Obama's return—down from 78 percent in 2008—but this number is still more than twice the number who said they would prefer a Republican candidate, according to the survey released Tuesday at a National Press Club briefing. Only 37 percent said Comic Sarah Silverman represented Jewish values well or very well. Eric Cantor only got 38 percent.
According to a Shin Bet investigation, Mohammed Merah entered Israel via the Allenby Bridge from Jordan in September 2010, before traveling on to Afghanistan,where he attended an al-Qaeda training camp. The investigation also revealed that the Shin Bet questioned Merah at the time, but having found nothing to arouse suspicion, permitted him to enter Israel.
Eva Sandler, wife of Rabbi Jonathan and mother of young boys Aryeh and Gavriel - 3 of the 4 Jews murdered in a shooting attack by Mohammed Merah in Toulouse on March 19 - has issued a public letter responding to the thousands of people seeking ways to support her in her time of suffering.
My heart is broken. I am unable to speak. There are no ways for me to be able to express the great and all-consuming pain resulting from the murder of my dear husband Rabbi Jonathan and our sons, Aryeh and Gavriel, and of Miriam Monsonego, daughter of the dedicated principal of Ozar Hatorah and his wife, Rabbi Yaakov and Mrs. Monsonego.
By Orthodox Union and Rabbinical Council of America
The Orthodox Union and the Rabbinical Council of America urge their member synagogues and member rabbis to respond to this time of formidable challenge for Jews around the world with programs of tefilla and divrei hitorerut, prayer and words of inspiration, in a manner appropriate to the severity of the situation.
Images from the Burial of Rabbi Yonatan Sandler, his sons Aryeh and Gavriel, and Miriam Monsonego
Live coverage of the funeral of Rabbi Chaim Pinchas Scheinberg, zt"l
By Jewish Press Staff Reporter
The bodies of the four victims of Monday’s shooting attack at the Otzar Hatorah school in Toulouse arrived at Ben Gurion Airport accompanied by ZAKA volunteers. The bodies were flown out on the midnight El Al flight from Paris to Tel Aviv.
Surveillance footage from the security cameras at the Ozar Hatorah Jewish school in Toulouse indicate that a video camera may have been strapped to the chest of the shooter, who calmly killed a rabbi, his two children, and the daughter of the school’s principal on Monday. The murderer then escaped on his scooter. He is still at-large.
The French magazine Le Point reports that police are investigating the possibility that three soldiers, who had been forced out of the French army because of their neo-Nazi beliefs, committed the shocking murders of Arab French soldiers and Jewish French school children. Their description matches an eyewitness report of a facial tattoo.
By Tibbi Singer
Shortly after returning from France, MK Rabbi Israel Eichler (United Torah Judaism) said anxiety surrounds the French Jewish community: "There is a constant tension, the Jewish community is living in a prison-like situation." Eichler said France poses "a great danger to Jews."
The victims of the shooting attack on the Ozar HaTorah Jewish school in Toulouse, France have been identified and include 3 children, one rabbi.
By Rafi Harkham
Noted Israeli author and Israel Prize Laureate A.B. Yehoshua said that living outside Israel "is a very deep failure of the Jewish people," and lamented that immigration numbers from the United States are "minimal" and "embarrassing." He was equally acerbic regarding the large Israeli ex-patriot community.
By Tibbi Singer
The New Hampshire House of Representative Wednesday defeated by a 246-85 vote a bill that would have allowed photographers, caterers and others to turn away wedding gigs if they had a religious objection to the marriage. "As New Hampshire goes, so goes the nation," and political trends have a way of trickling down to the more populated states.
The Vizhnitzer Rebbe of Bnei Brak, Rabbi Moshe Yehoshua Hager, passed away late Tuesday night. He was 95.
Anti-Semitic slogans scrawled in Calgary and an Audit of Anti-Semitic Incidents conducted by B’nai Brith Canada showing a steady rise in anti-Jewish incidents has prompted a former Israeli counter-terrorism expert to establish a Jewish guard troop for relevant sites throughout Canada.