By JTA
A group that seeks to convert Jews to Christianity removed from its website references to a scheduled fundraiser appearance by George W. Bush, though a Bush spokesman said the former president still plans to attend (GW Bush Fundraising for Proselytizers of Jews in America and Israel). Bush was scheduled to headline a Nov. 14 fundraiser […]
Providing comfort on the Q train.
By Jewish News Syndicate (JNS)
The upcoming international Bible museum in Washington, D.C., which has yet to be named and is slated for opening in 2017, will seek to partner with Israeli museums and others around the world to “share the history, story, and impact of Jewish and Christian texts.” The international Bible museum is an initiative of Steven Green, […]
By JTA
It cost just over $30,000 to make and is currently being manufactured in Friesland in the northern Netherlands.
By JTA
In a display of the changes the group has experienced this year, Women of the Wall held a peaceful prayer service under police protection at the Western Wall to mark the group’s 25th anniversary. Absent from Monday’s service, which the group said drew at least 800 worshipers, were large crowds of Orthodox girls who had […]
An impossible-to-find apology announcing a refund "for all who attended" doesn't quite cut it as a "heartfelt apology" for the "bigoted and hurtful behavior" of equating Jews with greed.
Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif will preside over a crucial meeting Sunday to discuss his country's relationship with the U.S. following the drone strike which killed Taliban Chief Hakimullah Mehsud, Xinhua reported. Pakistani officials claim the U.S. has wrecked their government's peace dialogue with the Taliban. Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan said meetings of […]
By JTA
A Jewish convert to Islam pleaded guilty to inciting violence, including a call to leave Chabad headquarters in New York “a message from Islam.” “Yousef Mohamid Al-Khattab (a.k.a. Joseph Cohen), 45, of Atlantic City, New Jersey, pleaded guilty Thursday to using his position as a leader of the ‘Revolution Muslim’ websites to use the Internet […]
By JTA
Twelve percent of Americans harbor deeply anti-Semitic attitudes, according to a new poll conducted by the Anti-Defamation League. The figure marks a decline of 3 percentage points from the last time the ADL took such a poll, in 2011, but approximately the same number as in an ADL poll in 2009. The latest ADL national […]
The American Freedom Alliance, a Los Angeles based think-tank and activist network, held a forum and rally last Sunday at the Luxe Bel Air Hotel in LA, and Rev. Jesse Lee Peterson of BOND, an organization helping "men and their families regain control of their lives and overcome life’s challenges," released statements about the event […]
By JTA
Quebec’s agricultural minister is looking to tighten regulations for kosher and halal meat production. “We want the slaughter to happen in the most complete conditions of hygiene and cleanliness,” Quebec Minister of Agriculture François Gendron said, in comments reported by Montreal radio station CJAD last week. The minister said he would announce a plan for […]
Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks, former Chief Rabbi of the UK, will join the faculties of Yeshiva University and New York University
By JTA
Get set for the silly jokes and serious attempts to compare Thanksgiving with Chanukah. You may have only one more chance in your lifetime to enjoy, or suffer, cranberry latkes.
The new law that the Knesset passed Monday night to allow couples to register for marriages wherever they want will help prevent civil marriages abroad and stop a wave of assimilation, according to the Tzohar Rabbinical Organization “Local rabbinates functioned as mini-monopolies, causing widespread resentment among both religious and secular couples,” the Tzohar group said. […]
A seemingly minor law on where couples can register for marriage permits passed the Knesset and opens a new era in which Israelis will not be at the mercy of Haredi rabbis’ demands.
By JTA
Pope Francis reaffirmed his commitment to fighting discrimination and furthering Jewish-Catholic dialogue. During an audience at the Vatican Thursday with a 60-member delegation from the Simon Wiesenthal Center, Francis said that he has “repeated many times, in recent weeks, the church’s condemnation of any form of anti-Semitism.” Such condemnations were just part of the solution, […]
Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks told an audience at Eastern College on Thursday, Oct. 24, that he intends to dedicate the rest of his life working with students. He said he wants to support and encourage students to do great things for others.
By David Wilder
Tomorrow, together with literally tens of thousands here in Hebron and Kiryat Arba, we will read in the Torah how Abraham, almost 4,000 years ago, purchased the Caves of Machpela for us, his children.
The Vatican suspended indefinitely Germany's "bling bishop" on Wednesday, for his luxury lifestyle, following calls in Germany for his dismissal. "The Holy See deems it appropriate to authorize a period of leave from the diocese for Franz-Peter Tebartz-van Elst," the Vatican said in a statement. "The Holy Father has been continuously and objectively informed of the […]
By Chabad.org
Originally published at Chabad.org. Chabad Lubavitch emissaries will begin arriving in New York next week from all parts of the world for the Kinus Hashluchim—the annual get-together of emissaries, their parents, friends and supporters, and a record number are expected to attend this year. Organizers have spent more than six months planning for the Chabad […]
More than 200 of the rarest and most important Biblical manuscripts and texts were on display Wednesday night in an historical “Book of Books” exhibition at the Bible Lands Museum Jerusalem. Among the manuscripts are the original fragments from the Septuagint, the earliest New Testament Scriptures, exquisite illuminated manuscripts, rare texts from the Cairo Geniza […]
American Shia Muslims were attacked in Saudi Arabia during the hajj. Their crime? They are Shia instead of Sunni Muslims. Plus, they are Americans.
The warped “Jewish and democratic” equation is about to be bent out of shape again with Yesh Atid bills to allow homosexual “unions” and public bus transportation on the Sabbath.
By JTA
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will not meet with Pope Francis during a visit to Rome, as the Israeli leader’s office had announced. The Vatican reportedly never was asked to schedule a meeting for this week, and due to complex and conservative Vatican protocol cannot schedule a visit with one week’s notice, which would be insulting. […]
Long-running hostility and violence towards Egyptian Copts by Muslims continued when gun-wielding motorcyclists attacked a church wedding party on Sunday in northern Cairo
By Jewish News Syndicate (JNS)
Nearly one-third of Syria’s native Christians have fled their homes during the Syrian civil war, according to Syrian Christian leader Melkite Greek Catholic Patriarch Gregorios III Laham. He said that more than 450,000 Christians out of an estimated 1.75 million have been displaced or have left the country since the Syrian civil war began in […]
By JTA
Representatives of the Jewish community of Gdansk, Poland, said the torching of a mosque had “frightening connotations” of the Nazi-inspired Kristallnacht pogroms against Jews. The association was inescapable, three of the city’s Jewish leaders wrote in a statement Thursday. “On the eve of the 75th anniversary of Kristallnacht, during which synagogues were burned in the […]
By Jewish News Syndicate (JNS)
With the backdrop of positive steps on Jewish-Catholic relations under Pope Francis I, more than 50 leaders from both faiths gathered in Madrid, Spain, on Oct. 13 for the International Catholic-Jewish Liaison Committee (ICJLC) summit to further religious cooperation. The ICJLC, the official Catholic-Jewish dialogue group, was formed in 1967 shortly after the Second Vatican […]
America as a melting pot is the biggest threat to Jews, who want to be so politically correct that even the name “Redskins” draws the ADL to ruin the party just when Americans finally have a fun issue.
By JTA
The University of California, Berkeley is launching a Center for Jewish Studies. The university made the announcement of the center, for which it allotted $1 million, on Wednesday. The center will be inaugurated Oct. 30. “The center will expand the breadth of Jewish studies scholarship here, connect more students to the wealth of Jewish studies […]
By Kosher Today
Overlooked in the eulogies and praise of Rabbi Ovadia Yosef is the role he played in the development of the kosher certification, Badatz Beit Yosef, under the leadership of his youngest son Rabbi Moshe Yosef. The Beit Yosef kosher standard meticulously follows the standards of Rabbi Yosef Caro, the author of the codification of Jewish […]
U.S. Treasury Secretary Jack Lew and Nobel Laureate Robert Aumann are among ten individuals who have been named 2013 Orthodox Jewish All Stars by Jew in the City, the organization dedicated to re-branding Orthodox Jews and Judaism to the world through digital media. The awards will be presented on November 24 in New York City. […]
This is the first time StandWithUs has posted ads in Canada.
Jews visit Rachel’s Tomb Tuesday to pray that she cries for them. Today, the anniversary of her death, the Palestinian Authority has failed to turn it into a Muslim holy site. Chalk up one for the truth.
By Aryeh Savir, Tazpit News Agency
Israel's Tourism Minister Dr. Uzi Landau held an unprecedented meeting on Monday with His Beatitude Fouad Twal, the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, to discuss enhanced cooperation regarding pilgrimage to the Israel. "This meeting heralds the beginning of enhanced and prolonged cooperation between the ministry and the Catholic Church. Pilgrimage serves as a bridge for peace, […]
Thirteen Jews were arrested for being on the Temple Mount for praying.
Well over 150,000 people spontaneously crowded Jerusalem to mourn Rav Ovadia. The previous night, leftists rounded up 30,000 people to mourn Oslo. The difference was not just in numbers but also in the heart.
Temple Mount Institute official and professional tour guide Yehuda Glick, an American, sent us his version of events as of last Thursday.
6,000 commemorative medallions are being recalled.
Many Jewish women suffer as “agunahs,” unable to re-marry because their husbands refuse them divorces. Four Jews, two of them rabbis, allegedly took the law into their hands and beat husbands until they agreed.
Sometimes anti-Semitism is its own best antidote because it makes its sewage makers look as ignorant as they are. After a Council of Europe body said circumcision violates human rights, its leader rejected the idea.
A new law Turkish law breaks a 90-year-old ban on Muslims wearing the veil at university or at government work offices and reflects the growing Islamic influence on the once secular government. The secular Turkish republic in 1925 banned civil servants from wearing overt symbols of religious affiliation, That presumably includes the kippa, for those […]
The 300-year-old manuscript that was found in a heap of garbage.
By JTA
Israeli President Shimon Peres called on the Council of Europe to reconsider a resolution condemning male ritual circumcision. In a letter issued Sunday to Thorbjorn Jagland, secretary general of the Council of Europe — a pan-European intergovernmental organization — Peres wrote that he was “sorry to hear” of the resolution. The resolution, which was passed […]
Jewish Home chairman Naftali Bennett wrote in his Facebook page that Rav Ovadia was one of the greatest spiritual leaders of our nation.
No matter how secular Israeli Jews may appear, the glow of Torah burns somewhere inside almost everyone. Peres was not pretending when he called Rav Ovadia his “teacher.” His tears were real.
The sound of heavy gunfire was reported, as well as army jets and F-16 fighters hovering in formations over several cities.
By Jewish News Syndicate (JNS)
Egyptian authorities turned back more than 100 Palestinians on their way to Mecca as part of their Hajj pilgrimage, citing security reasons. Reports say that the Egyptian military is considering military action inside of Gaza if terrorism in the Sinai Peninsula continues. Egyptian aircraft have recently been conducting reconnaissance over Gaza. “The Egyptian army does […]
By Chabad.org
The Torah they got “is a piece of art. It is one of the most beautiful Torahs anyone's ever seen…”
By JTA
Move over Kohn Kerry and let the moviemakers take over. It took five years of negotiations for an IMAX visual tour of Jerusalem, including the three major religions, to come to the screen.
The Women of the Wall are unhappy again. Yes, they can read from the Torah, but now that have no scroll. It was damaged by dampness, and WoW blames the government for lack of proper storage.
A resolution that calls male ritual circumcision a “violation of the physical integrity of children” was passed overwhelmingly by the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe. The council, a pan-European intergovernmental organization that strongly influence European Union decisions, debated and passed the resolution on Tuesday, as reported here. The resolution was based on a […]
By Jewish News Syndicate (JNS)
The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) welcomed the Vatican’s announcement of the canonization of Popes John Paul II and John XXIII, citing their groundbreaking work in denouncing antisemitism and building positive Jewish-Catholic relations. “For us in the Jewish community, Popes John Paul II and John XXIII have already been saints for a long time. They are towering men […]
16 year-old NCSY board member, Orly Ohayon, is in critical condition and her mother was killed when a car struck them on their way to shul erev Yom Kippur.
By Chabad.org
Some 300 people came specifically because of the floods.
By Aryeh Savir, Tazpit News Agency
Dr. Mazar estimates the treasure was abandoned during the Persian conquest of Jerusalem, in 614 CE.
By JTA
‘What’s good for the Jews is good for the Muslims,” says a French Islamic website citing the closure of a city street for Jews through the High Holidays. It demands the same for Muslim street prayers.
By Jewish News Syndicate (JNS)
Israeli Tourism Minister Uzi Landau says that he hopes to create a program modeled after Taglit-Birthright Israel trips for young Evangelical Christians, as part of an effort to increase Christian tourism in the Jewish state. “The Christians have a problem with their next generation too,” Landau said, Ynet reported. “We are looking to get closer […]
There has been another improvement in the medical condition of Rav Ovadia Yosef, who is still in the ICU at Hadassah Ein Kerem Medical Center. Rav Yosef spent Rosh Hashanah and Shabbat in prayers, accompanied by family members. Doctors will conduct a complete evaluation of his condition on Sunday, to weigh his discharge. He has […]
The Women of the Wall was so focused on Haredim that the girls forgot to ask Jordan for permission to pray in their own minyan. Now maybe the WoW will wake up to reality and pray on the Temple Mount.
On Sunday, Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis was appointed as the United Kingdom's new chief rabbi. Rabbi Mirvis is the Britain's 11th chief rabbi. Besides being a congregational rabbi, Rabbi Mirvis previously served as the chief rabbi of Ireland from 1985 to 1992. Rabbi Mirvis was born in South Africa in 1956. He moved to Israel in […]
By Jewish News Syndicate (JNS)
Facebook “does not permit hate speech, but distinguishes between serious and humorous speech.” If so, Holocaust denial and praise for Hitler apparently can now be called harmless humor.
Researchers were able to establish that this was later a place of Jewish dwellers.
By Anav Silverman, Tazpit News Agency
Jerusalem Sacred Music Festival attracts array of international musicians.
By JTA
A plan by Quebec’s government to ban “religious symbols,” including the kippa, among public sector workers has elicited worry from religious minorities in the Canadian province. The bill would seek to ban public employees from wearing large Christian crosses or religious headwear such as that worn by Sikhs, Muslims and Jews while at work. Richard […]
Netanyahu demands that that Mahmoud Abbas recognize Israel as a Jewish state, but if it wants foreign journalists to do so, perhaps it should not call Rosh HaShanah-Yom Kippur-Sukkot “autumn holidays.”
His son, the recently elected Chief Rabbi Yizhak Yosef, took his place teaching the class last night.
The Jews’ worst enemies are Jews. Tom Cantor says he was born into a Jewish family. He is trying to convince Maryland Jews they can be Jews and Christians. Even worse, he says “I love my people.”
Holocaust survivors have at least two ways to take revenge against the Nazis. One is to overcome the past and bring a new family into the world. The other is to donate a Torah. Marge Fettmen did both.
Rabbi Yitzchak Yosef, newly elected Chief Sephardi Rabbi of Israel, said in a recent Torah lesson that he often threatened students in his yeshiva that they must enlist in the IDF if they did not learn Torah. Delivering a “shiur” (Torah lesson} in Kfar Chabad, Rabbi Yosef said that youth who are not able to […]
This fascinating find will be presented at Megalim's Annual Archaeological Conference which will take place on Thursday, August 29th in the City of David.
By JTA
Jewish volunteers have finished building a kitchen the size of a basketball court in Uman, Ukraine, where they plan to prepare 105,000 meals to serve an expected 20,000 Jews visiting and praying at the burial site of Rabbi Nachman of Breslov. The new kitchen, donated by philanthropist and entrepreneur Steve Bogomilsky of Florida, replaced a […]
By JTA
One of Western Europe’s largest Hebrew bookstores has closed down in Amsterdam as its former owners prepare to move to Israel. The Samech bookstore has been supplying Hebrew-language books to members of Holland’s Jewish community for nearly 40 years and possessed a stock of 100,000 books, according to the website of the Dutch Israelite Religious […]
By JTA
The Milan Jewish community has broken off relations with the Milan Islamic Associations Coordination (CAIM) following verbal attacks on Israel made by the group’s spokesman. A statement from the Jewish community said it had decided to break ties with CAIM, which links more than 30 Muslim groups in the Milan area, after the association’s spokesman […]
A new Arab Christian political party vehemently opposes BDS and the release of convicted Arab murderers, but whether it is the Holy Grail of Arabs fully supporting the Jewish State remains an open question
By JTA
Jewish Agency Chairman Natan Sharansky will release his full plan for a compromise among religious groups at the Western Wall in two weeks, Haaretz reported. Under Sharansky’s plan, first reported in April, an existing egalitarian section of the wall known as Robinson’s Arch would be expanded and a unified entrance would be built leading […]
The Western Wall rabbi Wednesday may have taken the first step towards surrendering the Kotel to Muslims. He asked women and Temple Mount activists to respect Muslim sensitivities and to stay away.
By JTA
A French senator said she will complain to police over death threats she received after proposing special labels for halal and kosher meat. Sylvie Goy-Chavent of the centrist UDI party will lodge a complaint with police over the threats and online “calls for civil war and a call for the Israeli government to attack France,” […]
In Old Jerusalem, you need an archaeologist before you can build a restaurant. That is how the Israel Antiquities Authority discovered a 19-foot high Crusade-era hospital building.
Black hat extremists in Beit Shemesh are giving Israel a black eye again. A Haredi couple tells a woman to go back to the bus. Police arrest them, and rioters smash bus windows.
By Jewish News Syndicate (JNS)
Rebels linked to Al-Qaeda have abducted Italian Jesuit Priest Paolo Dall’Oglio, a well-known advocate of Christian-Muslim dialogue and a vocal critic of the government of President Bashar al-Assad. The Vatican’s envoy to Syria, Archbishop Mario Zenari, told Vatican Radio that he has no official confirmation of Dall’Oglio’s abduction, who reportedly was kidnapped in the rebel-held […]
Chabad rabbis who had boarded a flight from the Ukraine to Israel via Moscow convinced six boys going on a Birthright Israel program to wear tefillin for the first time in their lives. “How would you like to put on tefillin now? We can’t think of a better preparation for going to the Holy Land,” […]
By JTA
Unknown assailants robbed $50,000 from Haredi Jews last week at the Uman headquarters of a nonprofit group that works to accommodate the tens of thousands of followers of the Breslover rebbe who will pour into the city for the High Holidays in September, Ukrainian authorities said. The Ukrainian newspaper Segodnia reported that the money was […]
Cory Booker is not your average Torah student. First of all, he is Black. And Christian, And he on his way to replace the late Frank Lautenberg as NJ Senator.
By JTA
Pope Francis said at an on-board airplane news conference Monday that he may visit Israel as early as next year. On his return flight from Brazil to the Vatican, the pope said he was considering a visit to the Holy Land next year, according to The Associated Press. Pope Francis accepted an invitation to visit […]
Kerry finally has tripped over himself, bared his not-so-hidden agenda and stated that the Palestinian Authority is a country. Asked later about the slip of the tongue, he asked, “Did I say that?”
Rabbi Ratzon Arusi withdrew his candidacy for Chief Sephardi Rabbi, one hour before balloting began Wednesday afternoon. His withdrawal leaves three candidates in the race. On Tuesday, Be’er Sheva Chief Rabbi Yehuda Deri and Jerusalem Rabbinical Court head Rabbi Eliyahu Abergel quit the race. The remaining candidates are Hazon Ovadia yeshiva Rabbi Yitzchak Yosef, son […]
By JTA
A European rabbinical group has created a union to include every mohel - ritual circumciser - in an effort to standardize ritual circumcision and combat attempts to ban it. Based on the model of Britain’s Initiation Society, the Union of Mohalim in Europe seeks to “unite approved mohalim across Europe under a single banner, ensuring […]
A Cleveland area synagogue is raising funds to help Ursuline College repaid serious damage caused by a tornado that ripped through its athletic center on Saturday. No one was injured because the twister tore through the area in the pre-dawn hours, tearing the off the roof and blowing away one wall. The conservative B’nai Jeshurun, […]
By JTA
The number of anti-Semitic incidents dropped 14 percent nationwide last year, but vandalism rose, according to the Anti-Defamation League’s annual Audit of Anti-Semitic Incidents that was released Monday. New York and New Jersey saw increases in anti-Semitic incidents. Nationwide, the audit counted 927 anti-Semitic incidents reported during the 2012 calendar year, a 14 percent decline from […]
Being considered the most quotable Jewish website by the worst Jew haters must mean the website has arrived…
Rav Ovadia Yosef, the same rabbi who last month call national religious Rabbi Stav “evil,” now says he really loves knitted kippa Jews. Well, most of them. Their political leaders still are Amalek. Happy Tu B'Av.
By JTA
Chulalongkorn University, a prestigious institution in Thailand, issued an apology Monday for a mural of Adolf Hitler painted outside one of its buildings. The university apologized in a statement following criticism of the mural painted outside its Faculty of Fine and Applied Arts building, The Associated Press reported. The mural, which was meant to be […]
In the summer of 2010, Begolly urged jihadists on the AMEF to “write their legacy in blood.”
The Babylonians and Romans destroyed the Holy Temples long ago. Since 1967, the site of the ruins returned to Jews, but Muslims have de facto rule. Police barred Jewish entry on Tisha B’Av and now face a lawsuit
Orthodox Jewish institutions have been stunned by charges and evidence of sexual abuse, particular concerning children. The organization of Orthodox rabbis – RCA – has issued guidelines to prevent abuse.
Who says Netanyahu does not want peace with Abbas? He picked up the phone to wish him greetings on Ramadan. Why didn’t Kerry think of that? Maybe Arabs will call tonight and wish Bibi a good fast.”
By JTA
Poland’s chief rabbi said he will resign if a definitive ban on kosher slaughter is imposed in the country. “I cannot imagine serving as chief rabbi in a country in which the rights of the Jewish religion are curtailed, as I would not be able then to serve properly my coreligionists,” Rabbi Michael Schudrich wrote […]
The media would be screaming its lungs off if Jews had vandalized a Muslim prayer room in the Patriarch’s Cave but did not even whisper when Muslims desecrated Jewish rooms. Happy Ramadan month.
Jerusalem police allow Arabs to keep Jews from entering the Temple Mount, just like they used to allow Haredim to keep women away from the Kotel – until it was not politically correct.