JERUSALEM (JTA) — Israel Philharmonic Orchestra conductor Zubin Mehta announced that he will retire in October 2019. Mehta, who has been the musical director of the Israel Philharmonic for 47 years, announced his retirement on Monday, Ynet reported. Mehta, who was born in India, is the son of Mehki Mehta, the founder of the Bombay Symphony…
The Jerusalem municipality, undeterred by a U.N. anti-settlement resolution, is due to consider on Wednesday requests for construction permits for hundreds of new homes for Israelis in areas that Israel captured in 1967 and annexed to the city. Israel is still fuming over the resolution approved last Friday by the United Nations Security Council that…
Israel’s consulate in Taiwan is not happy after local high school students held a Nazi parade as part of holiday celebrations, something that the students reportedly saw as dress-up. “Schools should educate for tolerance and understanding among people, and we are deeply disappointed that this took place in Taiwan,” the Jewish state’s diplomatic mission in…
JERUSALEM (JTA) — France rejected the Israeli defense minister’s comparison of next month’s Middle East peace summit in Paris to the anti-Semitic Dreyfus trial. French Foreign Ministry officials said Monday that the Jan. 15 meeting was being held to “re-affirm” the international community’s commitment to a two-state solution. Earlier in the day, Avigdor Liberman told…
President-elect Donald Trump has reportedly chosen Jewish adviser Stephen Miller to write his inaugural address, continuing to draw on the expertise of an aide who penned many of his campaign trail speeches. “Steve’s a machine,” said Jason Miller, another Trump confidant, in remarks to Politico. “I’ve literally seen him knock out three speeches in a…
Republican President-elect Donald Trump has turned to his long-time company’s top lawyer to serve as a special negotiator for trade deals and other talks, Trump’s team said in a statement on Tuesday. Jason Greenblatt, chief legal officer for The Trump Organization who served as Trump’s adviser to the Middle East, will work as Trump’s special…
(JTA) — Rabbis in Vienna condemned the chief rabbi of Russia for meeting the head of Austria’s far-right Freedom Party. Russian Chief Rabbi Berel Lazar met this week with Heinz-Christian Strache and his delegation at his office in Moscow, the UK Jewish News reported. The meeting came two weeks after the Freedom Party candidate for…
(JTA) — A rabbi and his family have moved to South Dakota, giving the state its only full-time rabbi. Rabbi Mendel and Mussie Alperowitz and their children arrived on Dec. 24 in Sioux Falls, where they will open a Chabad center. The rabbi, who moved from Brooklyn, visited the state twice before deciding to move…
(JTA) — A six-foot tall, 100 pound menorah was stolen from a park in San Francisco. The menorah, which is owned by the local Chabad, had been installed in San Francisco’s Washington Square Park two weeks ago, the San Francisco Gate reported. It was reported stolen on Sunday, and had been lit on Saturday night….
(JTA) — A large menorah and a Holocaust memorial were damaged at a synagogue in Sun City, Arizona. The attack on Temple Beth Shalom is being investigated by the local sheriff’s office, though it has not been classified a hate crime, local media is reporting. The damage was discovered on Sunday morning, the first day…
SANTA MONICA, California (JTA) – Police are investigating a vandalism attack on a Chabad center in Santa Monica. Unknown persons smeared feces and rice on the window of the Living Torah Center on Wilshire Blvd., either late Saturday night or early Sunday, the first day of Hanukkah. Rabbi Boruch Rabinowitz discovered the defacement when he opened the center…
