A federal appeals court in Washington on Friday rejected a lawsuit filed against the U.S. government by an American contractor imprisoned in Cuba who says he was not warned about the risks of working on the communist-controlled island. Alan Gross and his wife Judy filed the $60 million lawsuit in November 2012 for gross negligence…
(JTA) — Chaim Chesler doesn’t back down easily from a dispute — especially one involving a unique tale of Jewish survival in the Holocaust. But even Chesler, founder of the Limmud FSU Jewish learning conferences, was taken aback by the intense resistance he encountered earlier this month from an elderly lady in the Ukrainian city of…
Following trilateral talks with Jordan and the United States on deescalating tensions in Jerusalem, Israel lifted its age limitation on entrance to the Temple Mount. On Friday, Israel allowed for the first time in two weeks for Muslim men under the age of 50 to enter the Temple Mount compound, which contains the al-Aqsa Mosque,…
Israeli lawmakers approved in a preliminary vote a bill that would shut down a free Israeli daily owned by American billionaire Sheldon Adelson. The vote on the bill intended to shut down the Israel Hayom newspaper passed its first reading by a vote of 43 to 23. There are 120 lawmakers in the Knesset. The…
If there has been a constant target during weeks of unrest in Jerusalem, it is the divided city’s Light Rail, a sleek tram that snakes through downtown, past the ancient walls of the Old City, symbolically uniting Jewish West and Arab East. Launched in 2011 after years of delays and budget overruns, the French-Israeli project…
Rising anti-Semitism in Europe threatens not only Jews but overall European values, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Samantha Power, said at a conference on anti-Semitism in Berlin. The event, which concluded Thursday, was organized by the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe to mark the 10th anniversary of the first OSCE conference…
Signs critical of Israel posted by Students for Justice in Palestine on the Cornell campus were torn down several times. SJP originally posted the signs on the school’s Arts Quad on the morning of Oct. 29, according to a report by Cornell’s student newspaper, the Daily Sun. Another student took down the signs later that…
The head of Budapest’s Jewish community said he filed a complaint with police alleging fraud and embezzlement at the historic Dohany Street Synagogue. David Schwezoff told the Hungarian media last week that the community was at least $400,000 short in ticket revenues from visitors to the synagogue, the Nepszava newspaper reported Monday. The president of…
FBI agents reportedly arrested more than a dozen members of Hasidic communities in Williamsburg, Monsey, and Kiryas Joel this morning in connection with a mortgage fraud investigation. An FBI spokesman confirmed the arrests to the Forward. Neither the FBI nor the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York has made an official…
Germany’s foreign minister said at an international conference on anti-semitism on Thursday that “hatred of Jews” was on the rise once more in his country and across Europe, fueled by spiraling violence in the Middle East. Frank-Walter Steinmeier said Germany’s Jews were subjected to threats and attacks at pro-Palestinian demonstrations, and the conflict between Israel…
A Portland, Oregon, Jewish day school has brought in counselors for teachers and students after a Jewish father killed his wife and turned the gun on himself after fleeing with their two children. Portland police say that Ian Elias, 47, killed his ex-wife, Nicolette Elias, 46, at her home and then fled across town with…
