The wife of slain Jewish captive Warren Weinstein said the aid worker’s family was devastated by his death in an American drone strike — and slammed the U.S. government for “inconsistent and disappointing” assistance during his years in captivity. Like other American families whose relatives have been killed over the past year after being held hostage…
Dozens of Portuguese Jews were set to convene on an island in the Atlantic Ocean for the rededication of the country’s oldest intact synagogue. Thursday’s rededication ceremony at the Sahar Hassamain synagogue on Sao Miguel, located 900 miles west of Lisbon, follows renovations that began last year. The repairs cost hundreds of thousands of dollars,…
In his Independence Day address, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu praised troops’ fighting spirit in Gaza. Netanyahu’s praises came in the Hebrew-language version of a video released by his office at the start of Israel’s 67th Independence Day, which this year falls on April 23. The English-language version contains no such reference but celebrates the…
Poland was still waiting for the United States to apologize for remarks by an FBI official that it says implied complicity in the Holocaust during World War Two, a government spokeswoman said on Thursday. FBI director James Comey’s remarks, published in the Washington Post last week, prompted an outcry in Poland and drew condemnation in…
President Barack Obama will not meet Israel’s prime minister before the June 30 deadline for the Iranian nuclear talks, Obama reportedly said. Obama told Jewish leaders last week that a face-to-face meeting with Benjamin Netanyahu would probably end with Netanyahu publicly complaining about the president’s policies on Iran, unnamed sources familiar with the meeting told…
The NBA’s Atlanta Hawks are set to be sold to a group led by businessman Tony Ressler, the team announced on Wednesday, in a deal precipitated by the release last year of a racially charged email by the team’s current owner. The deal, which must be approved by the NBA Board of Governors, comes after…
(Reuters) — Prominent U.S. litigator David Boies is squaring off against another top American attorney, Alan Dershowitz, in a legal fight centered around a woman who says she was trafficked for sex as an underage girl. Boies and his firm are representing Virginia Roberts, who is a possible witness in a defamation lawsuit in Florida state…
Jews are overwhelmingly supportive of same-sex marriage, with nearly 3 out of 4 backing it, according to a new survey by the Public Religion Research Institute. Of the 724 Jews surveyed, 47 percent said they strongly favor allowing same-sex couples to marry legally and 30 percent said they favor it. Nine percent of respondents said…
NEW YORK (JTA) – Pope Francis will confer papal knighthood on Rabbi Arthur Schneier of Manhattan’s Park East Synagogue. Schneier, the founder of the Appeal of Conscience Foundation and a Holocaust survivor, is being honored for his work promoting peace and mutual understanding, according to Vatican officials. Schneier will formally become a knight of Saint…
(JTA) — A group of 23 anti-Semitism watchdog groups called on Northwestern University’s president to take additional steps to combat anti-Semitism on campus following swastika incidents. In a letter to Morton Schapiro, the groups said that they were concerned about a letter Schapiro sent to the campus community after two swastikas were found last week…
(JTA) — Academic and author Cornel West, an outspoken critic of Israel, will remain as a speaker at a UCLA conference honoring the late Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel, despite protests from the campus Jewish community. The May 3 conference, titled “Moral Grandeur & Spiritual Audacity,” is organized by the UCLA Jewish studies department. Among the…
