By JTA
The European Union launched an online survey into how Jews experience anti-Semitism in nine member states. Results will be published in an EU report next year, Henry Nickels of the European Union Fundamental Rights Agency said Tuesday at a European Jewish Parliament conference in Brussels. Nickels' Vienna-based intergovernmental body and the Institute for Jewish Policy […]
Despite obviously losing the voice vote, the DNC leadership decided to pretend it won the vote, and restored God and Jerusalem to their platform.
By JTA
Berlin declares circumcision legal only if performed by a doctor. Brit Mila by a Mohel is still illegal.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met with Italian Foreign Minister Giulio Terzi this afternoon, reiterating his call on the international community to “set a clear redline for Iran” as well as for economic sanctions “to be intensified.”
3.5% of the young people interviewed attempted suicide.
Also missing is what had been a solid commitment to isolate Hamas. Instead, the only pre-conditions imposed are the same for all Arabs in the area - "we will insist that any Palestinian partner must recognize Israel's right to exist [not to exist as a Jewish State, just to exist], reject violence, and adhere to existing agreements." That's it. There have also been changes regarding Israel between the 2008 Republican Party Platform and the one just passed in Tampa at last week's Republican Party Convention - and those appear to be more favorable to Israel.
By JTA
Sen. George McGovern, the Democratic Presidential candidate, greeted American Jews today on the occasion of the High Holy Days. "Mrs. McGovern joins me in wishing our Jewish friends and Jews around the world a happy, healthy and prosperous New Year," the South Dakotan said.
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.
By JTA
Guma Aguiar, a Florida businessman and philanthropist who went missing in June, left his tefillin on his abandoned boat.
By JTA
John Burton, the chairman of the Democratic Party in California, apologized to those who took offense at his remarks comparing Republican statements to Nazi propaganda.
The Weekly Standard is already advancing the speculation that Debbie Wasserman Schultz be let go from her post as DNC chair following her blatant lie regarding Republicans, Israel, and Israel's ambassador Michael Oren. In a TV appearance Tuesday night, Debbie Wasserman Schultz was asked about the Michael Oren email. But instead of acknowledging her misstatement, […]
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.
By JTA
A group of some 20 African migrants is trapped between Israel's border fence with Egypt and Israeli soldiers who have been ordered not to let them in.
By JTA
The 2012 Democratic Party platform omits language recognizing Jerusalem as Israel's capital and suggests that military force is "on the table" as an option for addressing the Iranian nuclear issue.
The Western Wall checked out fine in a test of its stability by engineers.
By Tibbi Singer
Back in August, Hadassah Magazine interviewed Debbie Wasserman Schultz, and one of their question was: "Why did you call on both parties to refrain from challenging each other over support for Israel?" The DNC chair answered: "What the Republicans are doing is dangerous ... Israel’s ambassador Michael Oren, has said this." Then she repeated the allegation at a DNC convention forum. So the ambassador sent out an email.
In the upcoming days, the US and the Egyptian Air Forces will run a joint 10-day training exercise. The goal of the exercise is to share knowledge and expertise on joint offensive actions. There is no word on who the joint imaginary enemy will be. The US team arrived yesterday at the Egyptian army base […]
Analysts found that among the 19 million followers that President Obama has on Twitter, 30% are fake accounts, and another 40% are inactive accounts. Mitt Romney on the other hand has only 900,000 Twitter followers, but only 15% of his are fake, and 30% are inactive. Source: Mashable
Reuters reports that Egypt plans to replace the tanks it embedded into the Sinai with armored personnel carriers.
Video: Syrian Martyr Brigade rebels show off the crashed remains of a Syrian Mig and its pilot, after claiming to have shot it down.
By Tibbi Singer
Israel's Supreme Court on Monday ordered the Minister of Religious Affairs Yaakov Margi and the Chief Rabbinate Council to explain why they not allow single women to immerse in state-run mikvahs.
By JTA
Haredi rabbis in New York are accusing the city's Department of Health of "spreading lies" in order to pass a law mandating that parents sign a consent waiver in order to use the circumcision-related rite of metzitzah b'peh. The health department is scheduled to vote next week on the waiver for the use of direct […]
By JTA
Israel's transportation minister has threatened to withdraw funding for a Tel Aviv bicycle rental project if it allows the bicycles to be used on Yom Kippur. Israel Katz said Sunday that the operating of the Tel-O-Fun project on Yom Kippur "is crossing a red line and breaking all the norms. The Tel-o-Fun project is important, […]
Last night, Defense Minsiter Ehud Barak decided that Nitzan Allon, head of the IDF Central Command, will not sign his approval for Ariel University to be recognized as a fully accredited university. This decision brought about a very angry reaction from right wing government factions.
"The blood of the Oslo murdered is a thousand times more dear to me than the tears dropped for the one who killed them, with help from the Arabs."
The Egyptian army has slowed down its all-out attack on terrorist enclaves in the Sinai, several weeks after its initial, aggressive spurt on August 5. The terrorist culprits who murdered 15 Egyptian Border Guards remain at large, and the lack of progress appears rooted in political uncertainty back in Cairo. Here's one unexpected aspect of what was touted as a jihad against the murderers: the Egyptian government is going through unofficial channels, employing negotiators to talk to the Sinai terrorists. This has enraged the secular law and order types at home.
By JTA
The Israeli daily Ma'ariv, which has been in existence since 1948, will cease its daily print edition, and will instead provide only internet news during the week. The weekend Ma'ariv edition will be sold every Friday and on holidays, according to the newspaper's editor. No exact date for the changes has been announced. The board […]
By JTA
Rabbi David Wolpe of Sinai Temple in Los Angeles confirmed that he will deliver the invocation at the Wednesday evening session of the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte, North Carolina. His sermon will focus on the ideals animating the United States, Wolpe said, and will precede speeches by Elizabeth Warren, Democratic candidate for the U.S. […]
Following the High Court of Justice's ruling from last week, the residents of the community of Migron, in the Benyamin region, were forcibly removed from their homes this morning. Large police forces arrived at the community early this morning, knocking on doors and serving the residents a court order to evacuate their homes. A few families offered passive resistance, but most of the fifty families left on their own accord.
Police uncovered attempt to poison and kill a Jewish family in Raanana in what they are calling a criminal/nationalist attack.
Israel Army Radio reports that the army has completed distributing eviction notices to the residents of Migron. One resident announced that he will not be expelled from his home quietly. Dozens of activists who arrived overnight to support the Migron residents are currently surrounded by "Yassam" police inside one of the buildings.
After the Supreme Court finally ordered to evacuate the residents of the Judea and Samaria village of Migron from their homes by September 4, some families have begun on Saturday night to leave their homes voluntarily. For the first time since the court's decision, dozens of police officers and IDF soldiers have moved into the community. The soldiers arrived before dawn and blocked the village entrance. Some residents have barricaded themselves in their homes and refuse to leave.
Aryeh Eldad wrote on his Facebook page that from what he knows, the settlement of Migron will be forcibly evacuated by security forces on Sunday morning. He calls on Migron supporters to make their way to Migron to try to prevent the expulsion, and not to use violence against the security forces. Eldad adds that after Migron, […]
For the first time in 2,000 years, there will be no Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur services at the Eliyahu Hanavi Synagogue in Alexandria in 5773, reports Daniel Greenfield in "In The Point." This was the last active synagogue in Egypt. The Egyptian authorities' excuse for the shut-down, effectively outlawing High Holiday services in the […]
In the wake of Egyptian President Morsi's recent visit to China, Morsi returns to Egypt with 8 partnership deals and a 71 million dollars gift to his government. The deals are in the fields of agriculture, environment, communications, tourism, as well as to import Chinese cars for the Egyptian police force. One of the deals […]
The remaining two Bat Ayin children, ages 12 and 13, accused of firebombing an Arab taxi were released from police custody on Friday morning without charges. They will remain under house arrest for one additional week. The third child, age 12, who was released without any additional conditions a few days ago reported that the […]
By JTA
Israeli Paralympic swimmer Inbal Pezaro finally brought Israel its first medal in London. Pezaro, 25, took a bronze in the 50-meter freestyle final in the S5 disability swimming class. She finished with 37.89 seconds, coming in respectively behind a Ukranian and a Spanish swimmer. The athlete, swimming since the age of 5, was paralyzed at […]
By JTA
After an attack on a rabbi in Berlin, Gideon Joffe, the head of the Berlin Jewish community, said he would "not recommend that any Jew go around in parts of Berlin with a kipah." On Tuesday, Rabbi Daniel Alter of Berlin was violently attacked while picking up his daughter from a piano lesson. He currently […]
By JTA
Iran has doubled its production of uranium enrichment centrifuges at one of its underground facilities. The expansion, reported by the UN International Atomic Energy Agency, comes amidst mounting pressure from the West and increased talk of a preemptive attack by Israel, which believes Iran has a clandestine nuclear weapons program. The number of enrichment centrifuges […]
By JTA
President Obama’s approach to Iran has made Americans “less secure,” Mitt Romney said in his speech accepting the Republican presidential nomination. “Every American was relieved the day President Obama gave the order, and Seal Team Six took out Osama bin Laden,” Romney said Thursday evening at the Republican National Convention. “On another front, every American […]
UPDATE: 7:30 AM - Police forced destroyed the 5 buildings of Ramat Migron, and then moved over to the Oz Zion outpost, and destroyed two building there. Altogether 3 minors were arrested. ---------- An unusually large number of police officers, SWAT and border police arrived at the Ramat Migron outpost at 2:15 Friday morning. Ramat […]
By Tibbi Singer
It’s been more than six years that attorney Dov Weisglass, Ariel Sharon's chief of staff and one of his closest confidants, is convinced that what caused Sharon’s collapse, in addition to the blood thinning drugs he was taking at the time, was a broadcast on Channel 10 Television the night before, about corruption investigations against the prime minister.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has decided to speak at the U.N. General Assembly next month in order to speak “the truth about Iran’s regime of terror,” which he said “constitutes the greatest threat to world peace.”
On Thursday evening Arabs launched a massive rock attack on Israeli cars driving on Highway 60, near Ofra. Numerous cars were damaged and one Israeli was injured. MDA services treated the injured Israeli on the spot and then evacuated him to a hospital. IDF forces are searching the area for the rock throwers.
Honenu, the Israeli legal rights and aid organization announced that the two remaining minors from Bat Ayin who were arrested by police on suspicion of being involved in the August 16th firebomb attack on the Arab taxi will be released on Friday morning.
IDF Spokespersons Office: Sergeant Yonatan Ben-Yishai, 20, died of his wounds Thursday morning. Ben -Yishai was injured on Monday during a training exercise in Golan Heights.
From initial reports it appears that the man was engaging in auto theft at the time and threatened the police officer with a knife prior to being shot. He was shot in the neck, and ran a few yards before dropping dead. The exact circumstances of the incident are currently being investigated by Machash—Dept of Policemen Investigation, the police internal affairs unit of the Justice Ministry.
A suspected terrorist snuck over the Jordan border late Wednesday night and into a Jordan Valley settlement. Residents have been told to stay indoors while security forces search for him. Update: The infiltrator was caught at 2:00AM on Thursday.
So far, one of the Bat Ayin minors, ages 12-13, arrested in suspicion of throwing the firebomb on the Arab taxi has been released. The Legal Rights organization Honenu reports that the police have not allowed the two other children, still being detained, to talk with lawyers. They furthermore claim that the police are not […]
A 53-year old Jewish Rabbi walking with his daughter south of Berlin was attacked by four youths, possibly Arabs. According to reports, one of the youths asked the Rabbi if he was Jewish. After answering in the affirmative, the youths blocked his exit, attacked him, and threatened to kill his daughter. The Rabbi was hospitalized […]
Israeli police are concluding an investigation that a senior official in the Ministry of Defense embezzled more than NIS 2 million earmarked for defense purposes. Details of the investigation have not yet been publicized.
Levi Aron, who killed and dismembered 8 year old Leiby Kletzky in July 2011 pleaded guilty to kidnapping and killing Kletzky, in return he received 40 years to life in prison. Leiby Kletzky had been walking home from his Brooklym camp when, after getting lost, asked Aron, a store clerk, for directions. Aron then kidnapped […]
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called the Non-Aligned Movement summit in Iran a “disgrace” to humanity, during a meeting with the Prime Minister of Lower Saxony, Germany, David McAllister.
By JTA
Edon Pinchot, a kipah-wearing Jewish day school student, won cheers from the live audience and the judges in the semifinals of "America’s Got Talent." Pinchot, 14, of Skokie, Ill., performed One Direction’s “What Makes You Beautiful” on the popular NBC reality show and received a standing ovation from the live audience. Judge Howie Mandel told […]
By JTA
Israel's Supreme Court ruled that the Judea and Samaria outpost of Migron must be evacuated by Sept. 4.
By Tibbi Singer
If we would examine several reality shows in the context of human experiments, it’s doubtful if it were permitted under the Helsinki Declaration."
By JTA
The Migron outpost in the West Bank was not evacuated as scheduled.
By JTA
Lily Hyde will leave the Sir Moses Montefiore Jewish Home in Sydney on Wednesday morning for Tel Aviv, where she will be reunited with her family. She is believed to be the oldest Australian ever to immigrate to Israel.
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."
By JTA
A silver menorah stolen from a rabbi’s Brooklyn home was returned. The 3-foot menorah belonging to Rabbi Yehezkel Zion was stolen last week from the family’s Borough Park home.
By JTA
Gilad Shalit marked his first birthday since being freed from Hamas captivity.
By JTA
Republican senators plan to introduce a non-binding resolution pledging military, economic and diplomatic backing for Israel should it strike Iran.
By Tibbi Singer
“Rav Ovadia Yosef is not what the newspapers make him out to be. Rav Ovadia uses his influence on the Israeli public and also on the Israeli government,” Rabbi Fruman told the Palestinian officials. Abbas addressed the Iranian threat against Israel, and, surprisingly, expressed his objection to permitting Iran to possess a nuclear bomb, thus dragging the entire region into great danger.
Delegates to the Republican Convention have been pouring into Tampa for the last several days. The delegates have been pouring in, but thus far, despite predictions that Hurricane Isaac might bring with it heavy rain and driving winds, there has been 'nary a cloud in the sky. Lynne Kessler Lechter serves on the National Women's Committee of the Republican Jewish Coalition. Lechter told The Jewish Press that on Saturday night she attended a dinner for Republican Jewish Coalition leadership at the home of Ambassador Mel and Betty Semble...
Monday night, Bar Ilan University president Professor Moshe Kaveh informed lawyers representing the committee of heads of Israeli universities that he is withdrawing Bar Ilan University from the petition to the Supreme Court to annul Ariel University's accreditation.
A group of 16 retiree couples ages 50 to 80 made Aliyah to Israel in mid-August on Nefesh B’Nefesh charter Aliyah flight that left out of JFK airport in New York. The retirees joined their children and grandchildren who had made Aliyah over the last decade.
“They do not think it’s possible. They do not think it’s in the cards. I think that is one of the reasons diplomacy has failed – and it has failed,” he said.
By Tibbi Singer
Following the minor storm that erupted on Monday over Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's request to rearrange his portfolio which is in a blind trust—a request he eventually rescinded—Forbes Israel decided to dig into that portfolio, to find out how rich is Bibi. It turns out he's not crazy rich, and incidentally, close to half of the Netanyahus wealth is invested in their penthouse in the affluent neighborhood of Rechavia in downtown Jerusalem, and a villa in Caesaria.
A Jewish civilian was stabbed by a Palestinian terrorist near Ma'aleh Levonah. A group of residents from the town of Ma'aleh Levonah went down near the Arab village of Khan Luban to photograph and document the illegal land grab and construction that was occurring near their town. A group of Palestinians then attacked them with stones, axes […]
By JTA
Rabbi Asher Lopatin of Chicago is set to succeed Rabbi Avi Weiss next year at the helm of Yeshivat Chovevei Torah, the Modern Orthodox rabbinical school founded by Weiss. Lopatin is the spiritual leader of Anshe Sholom B'nai Israel Congregation, a high-profile Modern Orthodox synagogue in the Lakeview neighborhood of Chicago that counts Mayor Rahm […]
By JTA
Rabbi Meir Soloveichik is scheduled to deliver the opening invocation at the Republican National Convention. “It is an extraordinary privilege to deliver an invocation at a cherished ritual of American democracy,” said Soloveichik of the invocation, which he is scheduled to deliver on Tuesday in Tampa, Fla. Soloveichik is the director of the Straus Center […]
It turns out, the ambassador's position appears to simply be the opinion of Rachel Corrie's parents, the plaintiffs in the case against the government of Israel.
By Tibbi Singer
On Monday morning, approximately two million children started the new school year 5773 in preschools and schools across the country.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu marked the opening day of the school year telling students in Efrat that Efrat and Gush Etzion will always remain part of Israel.
The committee for permits in the state comptroller’s office has allowed Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on August 15 – at his own request – to make changes in his investment portfolio, both overseas and locally. The request comes in the wake of threats by the PM to attack Iran’s nuclear facilities in the near future. But it appears that Netanyahu's financial move was done in full transparency and in complete adherence with legal procedure.
A small group of religious Jews accomplished what Israel's foreign ministry could not in 3 years of attempted diplomacy - namely, to meet with representatives from the Turkish government and attempt to heal the Turkey-Israel rift. From August 15 - 17, Shas MK Nissim Ze'ev, Shas deputy finance minister Yitzchak Cohen, the chief Rabbi of Geneva, Professor Mordechai Kedar of Bar Ilan University and other leaders met with no less than twenty Turkish parliamentarians.
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 JTA
Residents of Migron said they will not leave the Samarian outpost until the Israeli Supreme Court rules on a request to halt their evacuation.
Cabinet Secretary Zvi Hauser arrived in the last hour to visit the new neighborhood established to accommodate the residents of Migron who are slated to be evicted from their homes today following a Supreme Court hearing.
By JTA
A 500-year-old Sephardi women’s prayer book is being reissued in Hebrew.
The Hadassah Foundation announced 13 mini-grants for organizations serving Jewish young people in 11 states.
By JTA
An Estonian gas company apologized for using a photo of Auschwitz in its advertising.
Three young residents of the Gush Etzion community of Bat Ayin, aged 12-13, were on Sunday on suspicion of involvement with the Molotov cocktail incident that took place a week and a half ago. Jewish residents of the Gush Etzion region noted that rocks and firebombs are frequently thrown at Jewish cars in the area in which the firebomb was thrown. “The determination that Jews threw the firebomb is hasty and most irresponsible,” say residents of the area.
The Santa Monica hotel owner claims she never did or said the things the jury determined she did.
Rav Ovadia Yosef said on Saturday night that we should focus specifically on Iran, and say, "May the good Lord obliterate them, destroy them…"
At 9:05 AM, a barrage of 2 rockets hit Sderot, and hit two factory grounds in the industrial park. One of the rockets, hit a building. This is the second this year that factory buildings was hit. MDA treated one person with light injuries.
By Tibbi Singer
Among the items that Tzohar is calling for will be to elect new rabbinical court judges who would be more open to the needs of the general public, not just the religiously observant sectors; and new guidelines for managing the marriage, divorce and conversion processes in Israel – three areas that have been particularly alienating to secular Israelis.
The Obama campaign seems to have no clue as to which rabbis would enhance the president's clout among Jewish voters, and which are political hemlock.
On Friday, several thousand Egyptians protested against the Muslim Brotherhood and their new Egyptian president Morsi. Protesters marched in Cairo and Alexandria. The Muslim Brotherhood organized a counter-protest at the same time. In clashes between the pro and anti Morsi protesters, at least 13 people were injured.
Neil Armstrong, the first man to walk on the moon on July 20, 1969, died at age 82 on Saturday, July 25, 2012. “That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.”
The latest Flytilla attempt landed in Jordan on Saturday. The anti-Israel activists plan to attempt to cross over into Israel via the Allenby Bridge tonight and tomorrow.
A US Jury found Samsung guilty of patent infringment of key features of Apple's iPhone and iPad. The jury awarded Apple over $1 Billion dollars for damages ($1,049,393,540 to be exact). While in the issue of Samsung's claims against Apple, Samsung was awarded nothing.
By JTA
"Paying tribute to this man who disparaged the U.S.-Israel relationship on Iranian television and empathized with Iran's nuclear weapons program – on top of the history of his hate-filled newsletters – is a national disgrace," the National Jewish Democratic Council said in a statement. Matt Brooks, the director of the Republican Jewish Coalition, said the video tribute was a "small price to pay" for denying Ron Paul a convention speech, and his delegates the opportunity to vote for him – agreements that the Romney campaign apparently extracted in exchange for the tribute.
As many as five people were shot Friday in front of the Empire State Building in New York, a spokesman for the New York Fire Department said.
It is still early in the day, but according to Arab news outlets, 200 people in Cairo have begun protesting against Egyptian President Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood takeover. The protest is expected to get larger as evening approaches and the temperature cools down.
Rivlin said, “If we don’t attack [Iran], we will lose our deterrence with our enemies. If Israel keeps threatening and threatening, but in the end doesn’t act, it will place us in a bad strategic position. Israel’s deterrence capabilities are a strategic asset that has no equivalent.” Rivlin then went on to attack specific individuals, such as Kadima head Shaul Mofaz, and the various former intelligence chiefs, condemnibg what he believes is their need to comment in real-time on the Iran situation, because otherwise they won’t be considered “in.”
The Iran threat does not scare Rabbi Dov Lior. The rabbi of Kiryat Arba/Hebron believes that it is forbidden, and there is actually no reason to leave Israel because of a life-threatening situation. In a halachic response made public in the B’sheva newspaper, Rabbi Lior wrote that “it is clear that the goyim are always […]
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).
A Gazan Arab was captured Thursday evening after he crossed the North Gaza security fence near the Zikim army base. The man was unarmed, and IDF forces captured him.