The organizer of a May event in Texas highlighting cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed said on Thursday that she was the target of a man who federal prosecutors said had intended to behead police officers in Boston. However, Boston Police Commissioner William Evans said it did not seem that Usamaah Abdullah Rahim had developed a…
JERUSALEM (JTA) — Avi Beker, the former secretary-general of the World Jewish Congress and longtime head of its Israel office, has died. Becker died Wednesday of cancer. He was 64. He was hired by the World Jewish Congress in 1985 and served as executive director of the group’s Israel office until 2001, as well as…
A major French telecommunications company partly owned by the government confirmed that it was planning to leave the Israeli market, but said the move was strictly business. The statement by Orange comes a day after its CEO said at a news conference in Cairo that he would cut ties with an Israeli partner “tomorrow” if…
JERUSALEM (JTA) — The attacker who stabbed two Jewish teenagers as they walked to the Western Wall on Shavuot night was a Christian-Israeli. John Kakis, 19, of the Old City of Jerusalem, was arrested in connection with the May 23 stabbing attack that left the teens with moderate injuries, the Shin Bet security service said…
The Iraqi site believed to be the burial place of the biblical prophet Nahum is in danger of being destroyed by the Islamic State, or ISIS. Nahum’s Tomb in Al Ooosh, an annual pilgrimage spot for generations of Iraqi Jews, is 10 miles from territory controlled by ISIS, the Israeli daily Haaretz reported. Until the…
Three Jewish leaders were awarded Bene Merito medals in recognition of their actions in promoting Poland abroad. The medals were conferred upon Polish Chief Rabbi Michael Schudrich; Helise Lieberman, director of the Taube Center for the Renewal of Jewish Life in Poland; and Jonathan Ornstein; director of the Jewish Community Center in Krakow, The national…
Former British prime minister Tony Blair has been appointed chairman of the European Council on Tolerance and Reconciliation (ECTR), a Brussels-based organization dedicated to tackling racism, xenophobia and anti-Semitism in Europe. Last week it was announced that Blair would be standing down from his role as Middle East envoy next month, after eight years struggling…
The CEO of a major French telecommunications company said he would cut ties with an Israeli partner “tomorrow” if it could do so without incurring financial penalties. Stephane Richard of Orange SA, a mobile phone firm in which the French government is a 25 percent shareholder, said at a news conference in Cairo Wednesday that…
Polish authorities suspended the planned construction of a controversial memorial monument at the former Sobibor Nazi death camp, activists against the plan said. The suspension of the plan followed talks last month between the Polish ministry of culture and Yad Vashem, the Holocaust memorial and museum in Jerusalem, over concerns that the proposed construction would…
The fraud trial for an Orthodox Jewish group that promotes so-called conversion therapy for homosexuals opened in New Jersey. In opening statements Wednesday in state Superior Court in Jersey City, an attorney for four former patients accused Jews Offering New Alternatives for Healing, or JONAH, of offering “junk science” and lies, The Associated Press reported….
In remarks carried by several Israeli media outlets, an unnamed senior military officer said that if agreed by its June 30 deadline, the deal would provide clarity on the direction of Iran’s nuclear program. Western powers fear that Iran harbors ambitions to build an atomic bomb and years of talks have centered on eradicating the…
