Iran is backtracking from an interim nuclear agreement with world powers three months ago, Western officials suggested on Sunday, as U.S. and Iranian officials said talks on a final accord would likely run past a June 30 deadline. Securing an historic agreement would end a more than 12-year nuclear standoff between Iran and the West…
A senior Israeli diplomat made a rare trip to Egypt on Sunday to discuss how to re-launch peace talks with the Palestinians, which have been stalled since last year. The visit to Cairo by Dore Gold, director-general of Israel’s foreign ministry, came a week after Egypt appointed its first ambassador to Israel since 2012. The…
American Jews are among the most supportive religious groups of same-sex marriage. Some 77 percent of American Jews expressed support for same-sex marriage, according to data gathered in 2014 by the Public Religion Research Institute. Some 47 percent of American Jews polled said they “strongly favor” allowing gay and lesbian couples to marry legally, and…
The monument commemorating Jewish victims of the Babi Yar massacre in Kiev was desecrated for the fifth time in about a year. Swastikas drawn on the monument were discovered last week by a delegation from the Shorashim organization, which helps immigrants to Israel from the former Soviet Union clarify their Jewish status in dealing with…
A Palestinian woman concealing a rifle was caught trying to cross through the West Bank security fence into Israel. The woman, who had the rifle strapped to her back, told interrogators on Sunday that she had been sent by Hamas to perpetrate a terror attack on Israelis, Israel’s Channel 2 reported. She tried to enter…
The suspect accused of decapitating his boss during an attack on a gas factory in France has confessed, according to French news reports. Yassin Salhi, 35, gave details about the attack and said he had a dispute with his boss at the U.S.-owned Herve Cornara factory near Lyon, the French daily Le Parisien reported Sunday….
A homeless man was arrested in connection with the spray painting of swastikas on several Stanford University buildings. Lucas Joseph Ninow, 19, who has no connection to the university, was arrested last week and charged with one count of felony vandalism, one count of misdemeanor vandalism and one count of a misdemeanor hate crime, the…
Jewish leaders from Montreal and France met to discuss ways for their cities to fight the rising tide of global anti-Semitism and Islamic radicalization. The meeting on Thursday came a day after an Islamist attack on the premises of the factory near Lyon, in which the decapitated body of a man was found and an…
The newly announced future conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic reportedly has refused to give further interviews after two major German media outlets published anti-Semitic comments about him. Kirill Petrenko, 43, a Russian-born Jew, was elected chief conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra on June 21. Currently director of the Bavarian State Opera in Munich, he…
Shots were fired at an Israeli ambulance traveling near the West Bank settlement of Beit El. A burst of at least 15 shots were fired at the Magen David Adom ambulance overnight on Sunday. Several of the bullets hit the ambulance, but no injuries were reported. The gunfire came from a new road connecting the…
An earthquake reported to be between 5.1 and 5.5 magnitude was felt in southern Israel. No damage or injuries were reported in the earthquake that struck on Saturday afternoon. The epicenter of the earthquake reportedly was in the Sinai Peninsula. The temblor was felt in Eilat, Beersheba and Ashdod in the south and also in…
