Israel’s Cabinet approved a government regulation that will reform the conversion process. The regulation approved on Sunday at the regular weekly Cabinet meeting will have the force of law. It can, however, be rescinded by the Cabinet as well. Only one government minister, the Jewish Home party’s Uri Ariel, who serves as housing minister, voted…
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Saturday urged lawmakers to show restraint over Jerusalem’s al-Aqsa mosque, which has been at the heart of rising tension with the Palestinians in recent weeks. Daily clashes between Israeli security forces and Palestinians in the streets of East Jerusalem and the al-Aqsa compound, known to Jews as the Temple…
The head of the World Jewish Congress warned a Swiss art museum that it risks an “avalanche” of lawsuits if it accepts the bequest of a collection of artwork amassed by a man who dealt in art for the Nazis. The Bern Art Museum discovered in May it had been named sole heir of Cornelius…
Israel’s Haaretz newspaper has strongly backed a cartoonist who sparked a storm of controversy by depicting Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as a 9/11 terrorist flying toward the World Trade Center. Editor-in-chief Aluf Benn said critics were “misreading” the comic by senior cartoonist Amos Biderman — and pointedly refused to apologize or retract the explosive work….
A Brooklyn senior citizen was hit with child pornography charges after police found 221 explicit videos on his computer, authorities said. Harvey Epstein, 68, was busted after a probe into so-called “peer-to-peer” sites, which pedophiles often use to trade and download child pornography, said Brooklyn District Attorney Kenneth Thompson. “It is shocking that anyone ……
(JTA) — An anonymous White House staffer apparently isn’t the only one who thinks Benjamin Netanyahu is shy about taking chances. A piece this week in The Atlantic magazine by journalist Jeffrey Goldberg ignited a firestorm with its revelation that an Obama administration official had called the Israeli prime minister “a coward” and “chickenshit.” But…
Jewish day school enrollment in the United States is up 12 percent from five years ago, primarily due to growth in haredi Orthodox schools. Nearly 255,000 students are enrolled in 861 Jewish day schools from the 4-year-old level through 12th grade, according to a new census of the schools conducted by the Avi Chai Foundation….
New York Knicks forward Amar’e Stoudemire has launched a campaign to raise money for the volunteer-based ambulance service United Hatzalah of Israel. The campaign is called “Amar’e Saves,” and people can pledge money per point that Stoudemire scores over the course of the 2014 season, which started Wednesday night. “In today’s society, which is so…
A film festival in Vietnam will mark 20 years of diplomatic relations with Israel. The five-day festival organized by Israel’s embassy opens Saturday at the National Cinema Centre in Hanoi, moving on Nov. 6 to the BHD Star Cineplex ICON68 in Ho Chi Minh City, the embassy announced on its Facebook page earlier this week….
A French appeals court nullified a lower tribunal’s award of damages to the comedian Dieudonne M’bala M’bala for the cancellation of his show for its anti-Semitic content. The Court of Appeals of Poitiers in western France handed down the ruling last week, Le Figaro reported. It exempted an event management firm from the coastal municipality…
Health officials said the condition of Rabbi Yehuda Glick, the activist seriously wounded in a suspected terrorist shooting, is improving. Glick’s medical condition improved slightly on Thursday, a day after the dual U.S.-Israeli citizen who advocates for an increased Jewish presence in eastern Jerusalem was shot three times in the chest and stomach by an…
