(JTA) – Israeli diplomats in North America rejected a talking point handed down to them from Jerusalem to blame Liberal Jews for the Western Wall controversy. The top diplomats refused to repeat the narrative that Jonathan Shechter, a top advisor to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, handed down to them earlier this week in telephone…
Simone Veil, a French politician and Holocaust survivor who secured the legalization of abortion in France in the 1970s, died at her home in Paris on Friday, her family said. She was 89 years old. A Jewish survivor of the Nazi death camps at Auschwitz-Birkenau and Bergen-Belsen with the prisoner number 78651 tattooed on her…
Here’s a Chicago fun fact: You know that statue on East Wacker Drive at Lake Street, right in front of the river, of George Washington with two random colonial guys? Well, the one on the right is Haym Salomon, a Polish-born Jew who funded Washington’s army by negotiating foreign loans at rock-bottom interest rates and…
North Carolina Pride has scheduled its annual NC Pride march on Yom Kippur, drawing a backlash from LGBTQ Jewish groups. The organization released a statement noting that the parade is traditionally held on the last Saturday in September, which happens to coincide this year with the holiest day on Judaism’s calendar. (NC Pride is held…
(Variety.com) — Former “Bachelor in Paradise” contestant Corinne Olympios has ended her investigation into the events that led to production on the ABC reality series being briefly shut down, Olympios announced Thursday. “I felt victimized by the fact that others were judging me through conflicting and unsubstantiated reports, while I myself had no recollection of…
An ultra-Orthodox girls school in London failed a government inspection. The reason? The school continues to not teach LGBT awareness. “This restricts pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural development and does not promote equality of opportunity in ways that take account of differing lifestyles,” inspectors reported. Vishnitz Girls School has 212 pupils aged three to…
(JTA) — Four Jewish members of Congress criticized Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s suspension of an agreement to build a non-Orthodox prayer space at the Western Wall. Reps. Eliot Engel, Nita Lowey and Jerry Nadler of New York joined Rep. Ted Deutch of Florida in criticizing Netanyahu for reneging on the deal in a Sunday Cabinet vote. The…
(JTA) — The World Jewish Congress protested a United Nations forum on the Palestinians, describing it as “anti-Israel.” “This week, a United Nations body will once again vilify the State of Israel,” the group said Thursday, the first day of a two-day forum at the U.N. headquarters in New York titled “Ending the Occupation.” The…
(JTA) — The Orthodox rabbinical council in Lakewood, N.J. responded to the arrest of community members on charges of welfare fraud by declaring “[t]here is no such thing as ‘justified’ theft.” The statement follows the arrests of at least seven couples in the community’s haredi Orthodox community on charges of illegally obtaining government benefits. The four couples…
Israel’s intelligence agency, the Mossad, is launching an investment fund to support high-tech startups and capitalize on emerging technology, Haaretz reported reported earlier this month. The fund, called Libertad, will invest in firms in exchange for the rights to use the products and technology it develops. The agency plans to start investing later this month,…
JERUSALEM (JTA) — Three AIPAC leaders reportedly told Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that “we have lost the incentive to act for Israel” and of a “crisis of faith” among American Jews in the aftermath of the freezing of the Western Wall agreement. Outgoing president Lillian Pinkus, her successor, Mort Fridman, and managing director Richard Fishman…
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