Construction was started on 1,800 new housing units in Jewish settlements in 2015, with some 40 percent outside of the security fence, according to a new report. Included in the housing starts are 1,547 permanent structures and 253 mobile units, Peace Now said in a report released Sunday. Sixty-three of the buildings were public structures,…
A Muslim organic farmer from upstate New York made an emergency donation of vegetables to a kosher soup kitchen in Brooklyn. Zaid Kurdieh, who with his wife, Haifa, owns and farms at Norwich Meadows Farm, on Friday delivered 800 pounds of high-end organic carrots to Masbia, a network of kosher soup kitchens that provides meals…
Kansas evangelical pastor Mike Bickle, whose controversial endorsement of Ted Cruz’s presidential campaign has raised hackles in the Jewish community, reiterated his support for Israel and the Jewish people. “I have been and remain committed to the spiritual and material defense of Israel and the Jewish people, as is my ministry,” Bickle, founder and director…
A record number of Brazilian Jews are flocking to Israel — and other Brazilians are starting to take notice. The news of the number of Brazilian Jews taking advantage of the automatic Israeli citizenship was reported on the Thursday night edition of Jornal Nacional, Brazil’s leading primetime newscast aired by Globo TV. The three-minute news…
Vice President Joe Biden is “considering coming to Israel in the coming days,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said. A date for the visit has yet to be determined, Netanyahu said Sunday at the start of the weekly Cabinet meeting. “But it is clear that Vice President Biden is a welcome guest in Israel anytime…
A Jewish-Austrian historian who is in jail for omitting his aunt from a Holocaust-restitution application presented proof that he had duly informed the state of her existence. The lawyer for Stephan Templ, a historian whom Austria jailed last year for defrauding it by omitting his aunt from his mother’s 2005 application, presented to JTA several…
Conservative U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia has died, setting up a major political showdown between President Barack Obama and the Republican-controlled Senate over who will replace him just months before a presidential election. Obama called Scalia, who served on the nation’s highest court for nearly 30 years, a “larger-than-life presence” and said he intended…
The death of Justice Antonin Scalia on Saturday means that the normally nine-member U.S. Supreme Court will probably be down to eight when it rules on such divisive issues as abortion, immigration, affirmative action and the power of public-sector unions. With a replacement unlikely to be appointed before the current Supreme Court term ends in…
Poland’s Justice Ministry is working on a bill that will press charges for the use of the term “Polish death camps.” Minister of Justice Zbigniew Ziobro said in interviews over the weekend that details of the proposed new law will be presented this week. Ziobro on Saturday discussed the new bill project on RMF radio….
In a move that Holocaust restitution experts called precedent setting, Serbia’s parliament passed a law offering compensation for Jewish property seized during and after the Holocaust without heirs. The law passed Friday by the Narodna skupstina, or the National Assembly, Serbia’s parliament, offers annual payments of a little over $1 million for the next 25…
Billionaire businessman and philanthropist David Rubenstein has donated $18.5 million to repair and restore the Lincoln Memorial. The donation from Rubenstein, the co-CEO of The Carlyle Group, to the National Park Foundation’s Centennial Campaign for America’s National Parks was announced on Monday, President’s Day. In the past few years, he has given tens of millions…
