Jeremy Corbyn, a Parliament member who is on track to become the head of Britain’s Labor Party, wrote a letter in support of a priest who claimed that Israel and wealthy Jews were behind the 9/11 attack on the World Trade Center. Corbyn defended Rev. Stephen Sizer, who in February posted an article on Facebook…
Six young people were converted to Judaism by a rebel religious court on Monday. The small group of Orthodox rabbis who sat on the beit din and supported the act, led by rabbis David Stav and Nahum Rabinowitz, are all veteran pulpit rabbis and the heads of respected yeshivas. Their defiance of Israel’s Chief Rabbinate…
Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders surpassed front-runner Hillary Rodham Clinton as the leading Democratic presidential candidate in a poll of New Hampshire voters. Sanders, who is Jewish, led Clinton 44-37 percent among the 442 likely Democratic primary voters who responded in the Franklin Pierce University/Boston Herald poll released Wednesday. It was the first survey of voters…
A Jewish woman lost her arm to a severe alligator bite while she was swimming alone in a Florida river. Rachael Lilienthal, 37, of Orlando, was attacked by an alligator in the Wekiva River in central Florida on Saturday afternoon. According to media reports, Lilienthal was repeatedly pulled underwater and bitten by the alligator. Kayakers…
An interfaith organization launched a nationwide campaign against the Iran nuclear agreement featuring a video that recalls a controversial political ad from 50 years ago. The International Fellowship of Christians and Jews, a pro-Israel group, announced the campaign on Tuesday, urging millions of Christians to lobby Congress against the deal reached last month between Iran…
Racist and anti-Semitic symbols including swastikas were painted on more than 30 cars, homes, buildings and signs in a predominately Jewish neighborhood in San Antonio, prompting a police investigation, authorities said on Wednesday. The graffiti was noticed by worshippers as they left morning prayers at an orthodox synagogue on Wednesday, police said. “I want to…
Secretary of Energy Ernest Moniz will make the case for the Iran nuclear deal to American Jews. Moniz, a nuclear physicist, will appear Thursday via a webcast sponsored by the Jewish Federations of North America and the Jewish Council for Public Affairs. He was one of the lead negotiators in the sanctions relief for nuclear…
A haredi Orthodox school in Jerusalem canceled a visit by Israeli President Reuven Rivlin reportedly over his support for the LGBT community following the deadly attack at the city’s gay pride parade. Kehilat Yaakov administrators sent a letter to Rivlin on Tuesday via the Jerusalem municipality nixing the visit, which was scheduled for Sunday, the…
Paris’ decision to celebrate Tel Aviv on Thursday in its annual beach-on-the-Seine festival has sparked controversy, with critics branding it “indecent” after the death of a baby in an arson attack in the West Bank. France has both the largest Jewish and Muslim populations in Europe, and flare-ups in the Middle East have often triggered…
(JTA) — The dredging up of the dual loyalty charge — that lawmakers who reject the Iran nuclear agreement and the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, which is lobbying against it, are more closely aligned with Israel than the United States — illustrates just how tense the debate over the deal has become. The charge…
The top U.S. official combating anti-Semitism said he does not counsel any restrictions on speech in his interactions with foreign officials. “In our interactions with other governments and civil society outside the United States we make very clear that we support freedom of speech and assembly and oppose criminalizing speech – even the most odious…
