A Polish university will symbolically reinstate 262 doctorates, most of Jewish academics, annulled by the Nazis almost eight decades ago. The University of Wroclaw, in the Polish city of the same name, announced Monday that it will restore the degrees at a ceremony on Jan. 22. The announcement is somewhat complicated by the fact that…
Billionaire financier George Soros has urged the West to step up aid to Ukraine, outlining steps towards a $50 billion financing package that he said should be viewed as a bulwark against an increasingly aggressive Russia. Writing in the New York Review of Books, Soros said Europe and the United States needed to balance sanctions…
The United States is again seeking to extradite convicted filmmaker Roman Polanski — this time from Poland — over a 1977 sex crime conviction. Polish officials informed media outlets on Wednesday that they had received an extradition request from Los Angeles prosecutors and that Polanski would likely be brought in for questioning by local authorities…
(Reuters) — The youngest of three French nationals being sought by police for a suspected Islamist militant attack that killed 12 people at a satirical magazine on Wednesday turned himself into police, an official at the Paris prosecutor’s office said. The hooded attackers stormed the Paris offices of Charlie Hebdo, a weekly known for lampooning Islam…
A rabbi whose sex abuse lesson to children divided a Savannah community has decided not to pursue a new contract at his synagogue. Rabbi Ruven Barkan decided not renew his contract with Congregation Agudath Achim and “will be seeking other rabbinic opportunities,” according to a January 6 email from the synagogue board and the rabbi…
(Reuters) — The black-clad gunmen who stormed the Paris office of satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo on Wednesday spoke perfect French and acted like trained Islamist commandos, shooting victims in an apparently well-prepared attack. While police have yet to catch or identify the attackers or explain their motives, amateur video shows at least one shouting “Allahu Akbar,”…
(JTA) — Amid persistent budget deficits, the Jewish community center building in the Detroit suburb of Oak Park may close this spring. The Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Detroit announced Monday that a committee is going to recommend that the building shut down in light of annual losses of $1 million and a total deficit of $6…
President Barack Obama on Wednesday condemned what he called the “cowardly, evil” attack against a satirical newspaper in Paris and offered U.S. assistance to the French government. “We will stand with the people of France, through this very, very difficult time,” Obama told reporters in the Oval Office during an appearance with Vice President Joe…
New York state’s requirement that children be vaccinated in order to attend public school does not violate parents’ religious rights under the U.S. Constitution, a federal appeals court said Wednesday. A three-judge panel of the 2nd Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals in Manhattan also ruled that students who receive religious exemptions from the vaccination law…
(Reuters) — Hooded gunmen stormed the Paris offices of a weekly satirical magazine known for lampooning Islam and other religions, shooting dead at least 12 people, including two police officers, in the worst militant attack on French soil in decades. One of the assailants was captured on video outside the building shouting “Allahu Akbar!” (God…
A car that caught fire outside a synagogue near the site of the deadly attack on the Paris headquarters of the Charlie Hebdo satirical magazine was not related to the attack, the mayor of a Paris suburb said. Mayor Francois Pupponi of Sarcelles, a heavily Jewish suburb of Paris, said the fire that erupted Wednesday…
