Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Thursday accused Israeli rabbis of calling for the poisoning of Palestinian water, in what appeared to be an invocation of a widely debunked media report that recalled a medieval anti-Semitic libel. Abbas’s remarks, in a speech to the European parliament, did not appear on the official transcript issued by his…
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will fly to Rome on Sunday to try to fend off pressure from the United States and Europe over his settlements policy and opposition to a French-led effort to forge peace with the Palestinians. Beginning three days of intense diplomacy, the right-wing premier will meet U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry…
— Poland’s government offered to take over from a local authority the responsibility for preserving the grounds of the former Nazi death camp Treblinka, where 870,000 people were murdered. The Ministry of Culture and National Heritage made the offer in a letter it sent last week to the regional government of Mazovia, the Rzeczpospolita daily…
WASHINGTON — Michael Oren, the former Israeli ambassador to the United States, reportedly is counseling Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu not to conclude an agreement with the Obama administration to expand and extend defense assistance to Israel. Oren, the Jerusalem Post reported on Wednesday, a Knesset member with the centrist Kulanu Party, has in closed meetings…
(JTA) – The municipality of Vilnius in Lithuania began dismantled a Soviet-era structure made of Jewish headstones. Vilnius Mayor Remigijus Šimašius removed the first stone from the structure housing an electricity and heating generator on Olandų Street Wednesday, the mayor‘s office said in a statement. The generator was built by the Soviet authorities of Lithuania…
— The president of the World Jewish Congress is not accepting the Michelin travel company’s claims that Israel would not generate enough “gastronomic interest” or “potential readers” for its own restaurant guide. In a letter sent to the Michelin Guide’s editor-in-chief on May 18 and obtained Wednesday by JTA, Ronald Lauder argued that the “facts…
BERLIN — Unknown perpetrators kicked and beat a 21-year-old Jewish man wearing a kippah after slurring him with anti-Semitic insults. The victim, identified as Oliver Geffers of Bonn, was slightly injured in the Tuesday evening attack but did not seek medical help, according to the police report on the incident. The state criminal police agency is investigating….
NEW YORK — New York police allegedly shut down a lane of the Lincoln Tunnel to escort Russian-Israeli billionaire philanthropist Lev Leviev, one of many favors allegedly provided to Jewish businessman Jeremy Reichberg and a partner in exchange for bribes. Leviev — the president of the Federation of Jewish Communities in Russia and chairman of…
— Former reality TV star Tila Tequila accused Sarah Silverman and the Jews of killing Jesus before saying the comedian was next on a “celebrity sacrifice” list. Tequila, born Tila Nguyen, was responding on Monday to a fan’s suggestion that a Donald Trump presidency would bring Jesus back to life. “Jesus will come back too…
— Itzhak Perlman spoke out against Donald Trump a day before the Israeli-American virtuoso violinist is to receive a $1 million prize dubbed the “Jewish Nobel.” In an interview with The Associated Press published Wednesday, Perlman said he is still upset at Trump, the presumed Republican presidential nominee, for mocking a disabled reporter last fall….
While anti-Semitic incidents in the US are still low compared to previous decades, the number of violent assaults jumped dramatically in the last year. In its annual Audit of Anti-Semitic Incidents, the Anti-Defamation League found a total of 941 anti-Semitic incidents in 39 states and the District of Columbia in 2015, compared to 912 in…
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