יום שבת, א׳ תשרי תשפ״זSaturday, September 12, 2026
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By JTA
Hungarian Jewish leaders demanded the resignation of a key government appointee and threatened to boycott government-sponsored events marking the 70th anniversary of the Holocaust in Hungary. In an unusually strong statement posted Sunday on its website, the leadership of Mazsihisz, the official Hungarian Jewish umbrella organization, said they were “aghast and find incomprehensible” the “relativization […]
Will the BDS Movement boycott Scarlett Johansson because of her starring in SodaStream Super Bowl ads?
The international Jewish fraternity, Alpha Epsilon Pi (AEPi), located on American campuses across the country, has been accepted as the first frat to be a member of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations. “AEPi is a remarkable organization with affiliates on campuses across the country and provides an array of educational and […]
Israel will honor the late Senator Daniel Inouye, who was one of Congress’ most stalwart pro-Israel legislators, by naming an Arrow missile after him, the first time the honor will have been expressed for someone who is not an Israeli. Irene Inouye, wife of the senator, is scheduled to attend the January 14 cemetery at […]
By JTA
An American Jewish government contractor kidnapped by Al Qaeda in Pakistan again has asked the Obama administration to negotiate with his captors. Al Qaeda released a video message from Warren Weinstein, a former Peace Corps and USAID official, late Wednesday night in which he says he feels “totally abandoned and forgotten,” according to the Washington […]
By JTA
British Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis has called on Orthodox synagogues to ban “partnership” minyan services, where women can lead prayers and read from the Torah. “I know that you are working with our communities to find ways, within the boundaries of halacha, to make prayer, learning, leadership and involvement more meaningful for men and women […]
By JTA
Monaco Royal Charlotte Casiraghi and the French Jewish comedian Gad Elmaleh embraced their first son. The baby, Raphael, was born Tuesday at Princess Grace Hospital Center in Monaco, the AFP news agency reported. “Charlotte Casiraghi and Gad Elmaleh are delighted to announce the birth of their son, Raphael, born in Monaco,” said a statement from the […]
Russian president Vladimir Putin said Thursday he will sign pardon for jailed tycoon and Kremlin critic Mikhail Khodorkovsky "in the nearest future," RIA Novosti reported. Khodorkovsky’s father was Jewish and his mother was Christian. He was Russia's richest man before his arrested in 2003 and was slated to be freed next August. "He has spent over […]
An American fugitive living in Iran told the Christian Science Monitor that he saw six Iranian policemen “detain” Robert Levinson in 2007. The account by African-American Dawud Salahuddin contradicts years of denials by Iran that it was not involved with is disappearance. The U.S. government also has consistently claimed that Levinson traveled to an Iranian […]
By JTA
Alan Dershowitz, one of the country’s most prominent lawyers and a passionate advocate for Israel, is retiring from Harvard Law School at the age of 75. Known for taking on high-profile and often unpopular causes and clients, Dershowitz taught at Harvard Law for half a century. His retirement becomes official at the end of the […]
The Taharat HaBayit organization has been using a 4-wheel-drive jeep to take snowbound women in Jerusalem to the local mikveh, the ritual immersing pool. "The organization's top priority is raising awareness to the importance of the family purity mitzvah," the organization's chairman, Rabbi Yechezkel Mutzafi, explained to the Hebrew-language Yediot Acharonot’s website. "We see it […]
Iran knows nothing about the whereabouts of Robert Levinson, the former Jewish FBI agent who was last seen on an Iranian island in 2007. The American government said at the time he was on a private trip, but it has since been revealed he was working for the CIA. Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif […]
By JTA
A populist leader of a protest group told the La Repubblica newspaper Friday that Italy is “slave to the bankers, like the Rothschilds” and that “It is curious that five or six of the richest people in the world are Jews, but this is something I need to investigate.” The claims by Andrea Zunino, spokesman […]
Robert Levinson, a former Jewish FBI agent, was working directly for the CIA on a mission in Iran when he was last seen in 2007, the Associated Press stated in an investigative report. The U.S. government has claimed that Levinson, who is married and has seven children, traveled to the Iranian resort island of Kish […]
The snowstorm’s delay of Kerry’s meeting with Netanyahu finally gives Abbas a chance to explain why Israel must not exist as a Jewish state.
By JTA
Canadian immigration officials this week ordered a former leader of the ultra-nationalist Jobbik party in Hungary out of the country prior to a speaking engagement in Montreal. Csanad Szegedi was sent back to Budapest on a plane just before he was slated to address a Chabad group. Approximately 200 people who came out to hear […]
Sweden took a break from anti-Semitism Tuesday with the awarding of the Nobel Prize in chemistry to Israel-Americans Aryeh Warshel and Michael Levitt, who were named last month as prize winners “for the development of multi-scale models for complex chemical systems.” The two men and co-winner Martin Karplus each received $1 million from the Royal […]
By JTA
A former hotel security guard pleaded guilty to a federal civil rights charge for defacing a Jewish school’s Torah scroll and prayer books. Justin Shawn Baker, age 25 and an Iraq War veteran, admitted during a plea hearing Monday in a Jackson, Tenn., court to violating the civil rights of students of the Margolin Hebrew […]
By JTA
New York Democratic Congressman Eliot Engel has been appointed chairman of an umbrella body for Jewish lawmakers worldwide, succeeding Italy’s Fiamma Nirenstein, who recently made aliyah to Israel. The steering committee of the International Council of Jewish Parliamentarians named Engel, the senior Democrat on the U.S. House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee, as its chairman […]
How long do you want to live in America before realizing that you have not lived long enough in Israel?
The Puritans in the American colonies were God-fearing settlers who published the Bay Book of Psalms, whose remaining copies are worth millions even though the Puritans were not so religious on typos.
By JTA
Alan Gross’ wife and Washington’s Jewish community are calling on President Obama to prioritize securing his release from a Cuban jail and will attend a demonstration at Lafayette Park outside the White House at noon next Tuesday, the fourth anniversary of his imprisonment. Judy Gross and officials from the Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater […]
It now is official. This year’s rare coincidence of Hanukkah and Thanksgiving will be known as “Thanksgivukkah” where the Boston Tea Party took place, retiring Mayor Thomas Menino declared. The proclamation notes the special “diversity of all its citizens” and the values embodied by both Hanukkah and Thanksgiving, including “unity, hope and gratitude.” Thanksgiving and […]
The auction sale of an illustrated Haggadah manuscript dating back to 1726 is expected to bring in as much as $1.5 million, the London Independent reported Tuesday. An auctioneer discovered it in an Osem soup carton in the garage at a house in Manchester where he was carrying out a routine evaluation for the relatives […]
The Fatah-Hamas divide in itself should have killed the idea of a two-state for two peoples’ paradigm.
The expected birth of a boy to Jewess Lauren Silverman and her Roman Catholic boyfriend and X-Factor Judge Simon Cowell has prompted him to plan a trip to Israel and think about becoming Jewish, the London Mirror reported. He told the newspaper he wants to make a “more informed decision” before he commits to the […]
Netanyahu played one-up on Abbas Monday, inviting to speak at the Knesset. A reciprocal invitation from Abbas for the Prime Minister to speak in Ramallah is not likely.
By JTA
A lifelong exposure to public Christian prayer drove a Jewish woman to sue a small New York town for violating freedom of religion. She won the case, but the Supreme Court might overrule the decision.
Thank God it won’t happen again until 2070, and then in 2165, and then almost never. This may be your last chance to gobble up – or to avoid gobbling up – turkey-filled doughnuts for Thanksgivukkah.
The Israeli government was respectful enough to offer Reform Jews their own location at one of the holiest sites in Judaism in order to pray as they please.
As frustrating as it may be for Israel’s critics, support for Zionism is baked into the DNA of American politics.
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. […]
By JTA
At least 18 Jewish non-profit groups and non-profit groups that support Israeli institutions have notified tax authorities of likely illegal “diversions” of funds in the past five years. The Washington Post on Sunday published its review of more than 1,000 non-profit organizations that have reported such anomalies since 2008, when the Internal Revenue Service began […]
Now here is a real ‘woman at the Wall.” Paula Adbul is in Israel for the first time ever and will visit the Western Wall. At the age of 51, the time finally has come for a Bat Mitzvah.
Berlin’s first Jewish student house opened its doors on Sunday for pro-Israel lectures and activities in response to anti-Israel tendencies commonly found on Berlin’s campuses and for cultural and leisure activities for Jewish students in the German capital. Rabbi Yehuda Teichtal, who is behind the effort and serves as a Jewish community rabbi in Berlin, […]
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 […]
By David Bedein
This blithely written book presents Jerusalem as the home of all monotheistic faiths, disregarding the unique bond between Jews and their ancient capital.
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 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. […]
It's never a good idea to try to convert the Rabbi.
Daniel Blatt was a typical success story of a Jew who left behind his Jewish education. He said that after he produced “Rain on Entebbe,” he came back to his Jewish roots. Blatt died in Los Angeles at the age of 76.
Yiddish words are increasingly seeping into the English language.
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.
A new highway planned for the entrance to Jerusalem and to bring motorists through the Har Nof neighborhood will be named after Rabbi Ovadia Yosef whose home was located there. Transportation Minister Yisrael Katz said Highway 16, to be named in memory of the rabbi, will connect with the entrance to Begin Highway near Sha'arei […]
Non-Jews finally have taken home some Nobel awards, although not officially Nobel Prizes. After an almost embarrassingly large number of Jews who won a vast majority of the prizes awarded this month, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences on Monday honored Eugene Fama, Lars Peter Hansen and Robert Shiller for their "for their empirical analysis […]
By Jewish News Syndicate (JNS)
The Jewish Student Union at the University of California, Berkley has denied membership to a college branch of the self-labeled “pro-Israel, pro-peace” lobby group J Street, citing its violation of the student union’s bylaws through the hosting of speakers who demonize Israel. J Street U’s membership was voted down 8-2, marking the second time the […]
By JTA
A Washington Jewish theater funded in part by the local Jewish federation scaled back its plans to produce a controversial play concerning how Israeli Arabs were treated when Israel became a state. Rather than showing the entire play, Theater J instead will present “The Admission” as a workshop in which viewers will be invited to […]
By JTA
A Brooklyn boy was struck and killed by a van Tuesday night, one month before his bar mitzvah. Samuel Cohen-Eckstein, 12, was hit on Prospect Park West in the Park Slope neighborhood after chasing a ball into the street, the New York Daily News reported. The boy was pronounced dead soon after arriving at nearby […]
By Steven Plaut
American non-Orthodox Jews are intermarrying their way into post-Jewish oblivion, and they’re doing so as a direct result of having emptied their version of Judaism of all meaning.
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 gigantic contribution of Rav Ovadia to Israel cannot be measured, but one indication is the 850,000 people who attended his funeral and a huge number who did not come, knowing there was no room for many more.
Young Jews desperately need to experience both the serious and lighter sides of Judaism.
World Jewry lost one its greatest Torah sages and political leaders Tuesday. Rabi Ovadia Yosef, known affectionately as Rav Ovadia, has passed away at the age of 93, but his memory will be a blessed memory for millions.
By Chabad.org
The Torah they got “is a piece of art. It is one of the most beautiful Torahs anyone's ever seen…”
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.
Rabbi Ovadia Yosef regained consciousness at Hadassah Medical Center in Ein Kerem Wednesday but his condition remains very serious, doctors said. He woke up and recognized family members, who helped him put on tefillin. His physician, Dr. Dan Gilon, said that the rabbi may not have suffered brain damage. The 93-year-old Torah sage and spiritual […]
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 David Bedein
Netanyahu should formulate an interim solution to the "West Bank."
Very few middle aged and older people consider themselves ultra-orthodox. It’s a youth movement.
By Adam Levick
Pretending that the facts of the Holocaust are a matter of serious historical dispute is a classic rhetorical evasion.
Pew survey: U.S. Jewish intermarriage rate rises to 58 percent
By JTA
A fire destroyed two Israeli-owned kosher restaurants in a South Florida shopping plaza, including one that was torched a year ago by arsonists. The early Sunday morning fires that hit the Achla Pita Grill and Bon Ami Cafe at the Emerald Center in West Hollywood are being investigated as suspicious, the Florida Sun-Sentinel reported. The […]
Those who use either chemical, or even conventional weapons to slaughter innocent people must be held accountable.
Doctors reported a “slight improvement” in the health of Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, “Rav Ovadia,” Saturday night, but cautioned that he still is in “very serious” condition. His son, recently elected Chief Sephardi Rabbi Yitzchak Yosef, said that Rav Ovadia briefly opened his eyes during Shabbat and moved his arm. He asked for people to continue […]
By Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks z"l
Could we understand the history of Israel without its prehistory, the stories of Abraham and Sarah and their children?
By Ben Cohen
Rather than the “Lobby” running the administration, it is the administration that runs the “Lobby.”
Does your Sukkah stand up to the challenge as the “best in the world.” The Jewish Agency will be the judge in its “Sukkathon 2013” competition.
Rabbi Philip Berg, founder of the controverisal Kabbalah Centre passed away on Monday
Monday could be Israel’s finest hour for human rights and blackest day for a Jewish state. The court struck down a Knesset bid to detain African illegals for three years, but there are more options.
By JTA
A group of teenagers “of African and North African origins” assaulted ten 13-year-old Jewish students at a public sports center in Paris from the Ner HaTorah Jewish school on Thursday, according to France’s Bureau for Vigilance against Anti-Semitism. There were no serious injuries. The attackers asked the Jews to stop “occupying the area,” the report […]
The IDF is nothing if not innovative. For soldiers who are on the front lines during the Yom Kippur Fast, the army suggests they suck on popsicles to keep their strength without violating to laws of the fast.
Lawrence Summers, who was the first Jew to become president of Harvard University, will replace Ben Bernanke to head the Federal reserve, the Japanese newspaper Nikkei reported early Friday morning. It cited unnamed sources. Bernanke’s term expires in January, and Summers was competing with Janet Yellen, currently the vice chairman of the Fed, for the […]
What would compel a devout Jewish father to take the life of his own child?
Haifa’s Golda Meir Mount Carmel International Training Center promotes peace and the human rights of women.
By Sevda Gözler
We have a big problem with cognitive dissonance in most Arab countries.
Extremist Haredim were at again in Beit Shemesh, breaking into a construction site that they say contains old Jewish graves. The Haredim found the Arab guards even more violent.
By JTA
Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny called for a recount in Moscow’s mayoral election after missing the runoff vote cutoff by one percentage point. He is asking for a recount. Incumbent Sergei Sobyanin, a close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, garnered just over 51 percent of the vote in Sunday’s election to 27 percent for […]
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 JTA
More Jews give to non-Jewish causes than Jewish causes, and Jews overall are more generous givers than non-Jews, according to a new survey called Connected to Give. It found that 76 percent of American Jews reported a charitable contribution in 2012, compared to 63 percent among non-Jewish Americans. The median annual giving rate among Jews […]
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.
By Barry Rubin
The greatest danger for Israel would be to listen to the bad advice of Obama, Kerry, and their supporters.
By JTA
Approximately 90 percent of the $10 million in funding for non-profit organizations announced by the Department of Homeland Security to help nonprofit organizations protect themselves from terrorism went to Jewish institutions this year. The total amount of grants, announced Aug. 29, is slightly up from last year’s $9.7 million, while the total Preparedness Grant Program […]
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.
I was entering 3 months in which my connection to my Judaism would be up to me, and I feared I would lose everything.
Numerous Danish Christian families hid Jews in their homes or farms, and then smuggled them to the seashore.
In a short span of time our shul raised and distributed thousands of dollars for relief organizations.
By Jeremy Rosen
In Judaism sex is regarded as something wonderful, positive, and a gift of God.
By Guest Author
Many Igbo, even while practicing Christianity, nonetheless consider themselves Jewish.
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.”
The rant attacks Hynes for prosecuting sex offender Nechemya Weberman.
By JTA
The recent placing of a crucifix near the Uman grave of Rabbi Nachman of Breslov was an act of “clear provocation,” said Ukraine’s Rabbi Yaakov Bleich, who called for its immediate removal. “Ukraine is not a Jewish country, and Ukrainian Jews respect Christian symbols like crosses,” Bleich told the Jewish Ukrainian news site Еvreiskiy.kiev.ua. “However, […]
By JTA
Alvin Kushner, the former executive director of what is now the JCRC of Metropolitan Detroit, died Monday at the age of 88. Kushner led what was formerly known as the Jewish Community Council of Metropolitan Detroit from 1974 to 1988, where he began his tenure in the 1960s. His term was marked by the Soviet […]
By JTA
Tragedy has brought out the strength of the Kadish family following the summer camp lightning strike that left their 12-year-old son in critical condition. Now he is 13. His Bar Mitzvah will be in a hospital.
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.
New York City has renamed an intersection “Yoseph Robinson Ave.,” in memory of a Jamaican convert who was gunned down while trying to protect his girlfriend during a robbery of a kosher liquor store, The New York Daily News reported Monday. Ave. J and Nostrand Ave. in Midwood is now “Yoseph Robinson Ave.” in honor […]
By JTA
The Jewish Agency for Israel is working on a major initiative in concert with the Israeli government and the philanthropic world to build Israel’s ties with the Diaspora. Tentatively titled The Prime Minister’s Initiative, the program would focus on Israel education in Jewish institutions; Israel engagement on campuses worldwide; educational trips to Israel; and incentives […]
"By your own hand you have raised expectations to a dangerous level - one that might cause the whole region to spin out of control."
September 11, 2026 
