A prominent New York oncologist testified that he referred patients afflicted with a cancer caused by asbestos to a law firm affiliated with former New York Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver. Dr. Robert Taub said during Silver’s corruption trial in Manhattan federal court on Wednesday that he hoped that by referring the patients, his clinic at…
When an Israeli government minister shelved his controversial proposal to expel the country’s stray cats this week, it seemed local animals were safe. But an Israeli municipal head has now suggested transferring crocodiles from the West Bank to a foreign country. The Yafit settlement discovered a small croc on its grounds Wednesday, according to Haaretz….
Canada’s just-elected Liberal government will stop making Israel a partisan issue, the country’s new foreign affairs minister said. Stephane Dion, a former leader of the Liberal Party, said Canada can help Israel more by returning to its role as an “honest broker” and improving relations with other Middle East nations than continuing the staunchly pro-Israel…
Temples and synagogues affiliated with the nation’s largest Jewish movement should take specific steps to embrace transgender people, a U.S. conference of Reform Jews urged on Thursday in approving a groundbreaking resolution. In a resounding voice vote, Reform Judaism embraced some of the most far-reaching policies for transgender men and women seen among any of…
The Palestinian Authority’s representative to the United Nations accused Israel of harvesting the organs of Palestinians killed while attacking Israelis. Israel’s U.N. envoy responded by calling the PA’s accusation a “blood libel.” “A medical examination conducted on bodies of Palestinians returned after they were killed by the occupying power found that they were missing organs,”…
Birthright Israel co-founder Charles Bronfman called on the Reform movement to displace Chabad as the largest provider of Birthright trips to Israel. Speaking to a crowd of thousands Wednesday night at the biennial conference of the Union for Reform Judaism, Bronfman noted that 75 percent of participants on Birthright — which provides free, 10-day trips…
Maria de Belem, a presidential candidate in Portugal, pledged her support for a legislative initiative to reinstate posthumously an army captain who was persecuted for promoting Judaism. The initiative to reinstate Arthur Carlos de Barros Basto, who died in 1961, was restarted by the Jewish Community of Porto last week. The community sent on Oct….
A prominent Hebrew University professor was shouted down by two dozen protesters at the beginning of a lecture at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis. The protesters delayed the speech by Moshe Halbertal, a member of the New York University Law School faculty, for 30 minutes on Tuesday afternoon, the Washington Post reported. Halbertal, who…
A Brooklyn man accused of punching an Orthodox Jewish man and knocking the cellphone from his hand was arrested. Christian Rojas, 36, allegedly assaulted the Jewish man, who was on his way to synagogue in the Crown Heights section of Brooklyn, early Wednesday morning, WABC News reported. The assault took place just hours after the…
Several Jews, including Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen and Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, appear on Forbes magazine’s 2015 list of the “World’s Most Powerful People.” The list, published online Wednesday, ranks 73 people — all but nine of them men — in order of most powerful. While admittedly subjective, the ranking assesses the power “along…
Israel has made an initial request for its annual U.S. defense aid to increase to as much as $5 billion when its current aid package, worth an average $3 billion a year, expires in 2017, U.S. congressional sources said on Wednesday. Israel wants $5 billion per year in military aid for 10 years, for a…
