President Barack Obama is gradually building support in the U.S. Congress for an international nuclear deal with Iran, working the phones to counter lobbying against the pact and sending a letter to lawmakers urging them to support it. Obama needs to win the backing of one-third of either the House of Representatives or the Senate…
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and then-Defense Minister Ehud Barak both wanted to bomb Iran’s nuclear facilities in 2010 and 2011, but other Israeli leaders blocked the move, Barak said. The retired Labor politician, who was prime minister from 1999 to 2001, revealed the formerly classified information in recordings that aired on Israel’s Channel 2…
The Jewish owner of a Brooklyn cleaning service has been charged with withholding pay from his employees. Samuel Just, 21, the owner of Just Clean was arraigned in Brooklyn Criminal Court Thursday on charges including scheme to defraud and failure to pay wages, after the Workers Justice Project filed a complaint with the Brooklyn District…
(JTA) — The lazy days of August have a special flavor in the rolling hills of the Berkshires, in western Massachusetts. The flowers are blooming in dazzling colors, the corn at roadside farm stands is delectably sweet, the lakes are refreshingly cool, and the area’s picturesque New England villages are chock-full of families wandering between…
Hamas political chief Khaled Meshaal confirmed that his organization is negotiating with Israel over a long-term truce and described the talks as “very positive.” In an interview with a London-based Qatari newspaper published Friday, Meshaal said former British Prime Minister Tony Blair is one of the mediators and that talks have not yet produced an…
Just two weeks after Jon Stewart stepped away from television, Americans are clamoring to get him back as moderator of one of the presidential candidates debates. As of midday Friday, more than 159,000 people had signed a petition for the comedian to be a debate host because he has played “an influential and iconic role…
A Dutch Christian couple who died as a result of their unrelenting efforts to save Jews from the Holocaust were recognized by Israel as Righteous among the Nations. A medal attesting to the distinction, conferred by the Jewish state through the Yad Vashem Holocaust museum, will be given on Aug. 24 by Israel’s ambassador to…
Representative Jerrold Nadler, a New York Democrat, said on Friday he would support the nuclear deal with Iran after President Barack Obama sent him a letter spelling out the merits of the agreement. The deal has flaws but it “gives us the best chance of stopping Iran from developing a nuclear weapon,” Nadler said in…
Israel’s national airline, El Al, accepted a haredi Orthodox woman into its pilot training program. Identified in Israeli media only by her first name, Nechama, the new recruit is a mother of three children in her early 30s from a town near Jerusalem, the news site www.ch10.co.il reported on Wednesday. Nechama, who will be El…
During a meeting with Vladimir Putin, a leader of Reform Jews in Crimea said his community’s situation has improved since Russia annexed the peninsula from Ukraine. Anatoly Gendin, chairman of the Ner Tamid Reform Synagogue in the Crimean capital of Simferopol, thanked the Russian president Monday for what Gendin described as Russian authorities’ attentiveness to…
The Hebrew Language Academy in Brooklyn was ranked 27th among the 150 charter schools in New York City by the city’s Charter School Center. The academy, which grabbed headlines in 2013 when the city Department of Education gave it an “F” grade, earned high marks in the most recent round of state tests. Students at…
