A historic synagogue in the Australian outback mining city of Broken Hill was defaced with Nazi and Islamic symbols. The curator of the synagogue arrived at work Monday to prepare for a visit by tourists and found the front of the building had been vandalized. Margaret Price, the coordinator of the Synagogue of the Outback…
Conservative Jewish synagogues are focused more on operations than youth engagement, and are more than twice as likely to have a cantor than an associate rabbi, a new survey of synagogue staffing found. About 50 percent of Conservative synagogues employ a youth director, but in only about 12 percent is that a full-time position, according…
A far-right Jewish activist who set fire to a Jewish-Arab school in Jerusalem was sentenced on Tuesday to three years’ imprisonment for the attack that targeted a rare symbol of co-existence in the holy city. The defendant, Yitzhak Gabbai, 24, is a member of Lehava, an anti-Arab group. A Jerusalem court found that he and…
Israeli security forces shot dead two knife-wielding Palestinian assailants on Tuesday in the occupied West Bank, Israeli authorities said, as a wave of Palestinian stabbings, car rammings and shootings entered its third month. Nineteen Israelis and a U.S. citizen have been killed since Oct. 1. Israeli forces have killed 97 Palestinians, of whom 58 were…
Sheldon Silver, one of New York state’s most powerful politicians for two decades, was convicted on Monday of abusing his office to collect as much as $4 million in illegal bribes and kickbacks. A federal jury in Manhattan found Silver, 71, guilty of all seven counts he faced, including fraud, extortion and money laundering, following…
Jewish refugee advocates blasted Republican presidential candidate Ben Carson’s comments after a visit to a Syrian refugee camp in Jordan for underestimating the scope and complexity of a global crisis. Carson, a leading candidate in the race for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination, visited the Zaatari camp for refugees fleeing Syria’s civil war over the…
Joseph Silverstein, a renowned violinist, concertmaster and conductor, has died. Silverman died Nov. 22 in Boston of complications from a heart attack. He was 83. Well known for his decades-long career with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, where he served as concertmaster for 22 years and as its assistant conductor from 1971 to 1984, Silverstein also…
The National Women’s Studies Association voted to join the international Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement against Israel. The vote on the BDS referendum passed 653 to 86 at the organization’s annual conference earlier this month, the association announced last week. Slightly more than a third of the members voted. The recommendation to join the BDS…
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas accused Israel of violating “international laws related to the environment” at the United Nations climate conference in Paris Thursday. But in the same speech, he also said that he was open to peace negotiations with Israel. “Our hand is still extended in peace to our neighbors,” he said. As for…
Australian lawmaker Josh Frydenberg said the grand mufti of Australia “failed in his leadership” by not condemning the Paris terrorist attacks. Ibrahim Abu Mohammed, the grand mufti, originally expressed sorrow over the deaths of at least 130 people in the wake of the attacks, but did not specifically condemn them. Media reports on the initial…
Spain’s king honored Sephardic Jews at a ceremony recognizing a new law that confers citizenship on the descendants of those banished during the Inquisition. “Dear Sephardim, thank you for your loyalty,” King Felipe VI told representatives of Sephardim from various countries at the royal palace on Monday, The Local-Spain news website reported. “Thank you for…
דער שוועדישער פֿאַרלעגער ניקאָלײַ אָלניאַנסקי האָט דערציילט ווי ער האָט אָנגעהויבן אַרויסגעבן קינדערביכלעך אויף ייִדיש.
