Israel’s Foreign Ministry rejected New Zealand’s new ambassador because he also is the envoy to the Palestinian Authority. Jonathan Curr had been scheduled to arrive in Jerusalem this week to present his credentials to Israeli President Reuven Rivlin. The trip was canceled, Haaretz reported. The prior two New Zealand ambassadors to Israel also were accredited…
The Rev. Bruce Shipman, an Episcopal chaplain at Yale University, resigned in the wake of his letter to The New York Times that blamed rising anti-Semitism in Europe on Israel. The Episcopal Church at Yale issued a statement on Sept. 4 announcing that Shipman, “on his own initiative, had resigned as Priest-in-Charge of the Episcopal…
An Orthodox Jewish man was forced to leave his home in England after criticizing Israel’s Gaza operation at a protest rally. The Greater Manchester home was vandalized twice with eggs and graffiti and smashed windows, and his car was sprayed with red paint, the Manchester Evening News reported Sunday. The man moved out after he…
All women of Ashkenazi descent should be screened from age 30 for the BRCA gene mutation that causes breast cancer, an Israeli study recommends. The study, by a research team headed by Ephrat Levy-Lahad of Shaare Zedek Medical Center, was published Friday in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United…
The serial killer Jack the Ripper was identified through DNA as a Jewish barber who immigrated to London from Poland. Businessman Russell Edwards, an amateur Jack the Ripper sleuth, and molecular biologist Dr. Jari Louhelainen of Liverpool John Moores University made the discovery through DNA traces found on a shawl recovered from one of the…
An Israeli polygamist and cult leader was convicted of several sexual offenses including raping his wives. Goel Ratzon was convicted Monday in Tel Aviv District Court in charges including rape, sodomy, indecent assault, and sexual abuse within the family. He was cleared on one charge of sexually enslaving one of the women the he called…
The police chief of the popular Greek tourist island of Hydra was photographed giving the Nazi salute while on a trip to Germany. The Ethnos Sunday newspaper published the picture of Lt. Yiorgos Kagkalos, which it reported was taken in 2011 during a visit to the Nuremberg Transport Museum. The publication follows persistent reports suggesting…
Violence increased in eastern Jerusalem a day after the death of a Palestinian teen a week after being shot by Israeli troops during a demonstration. Muhammad Abd Al-Majid Sunuqrut, 16, died Sunday morning in Hadassah Ein Kerem hospital. Following news of the teen’s death, protests began in eastern Jerusalem, which has been the scene of…
Bruce Levenson, a co-owner of the NBA’s Atlanta Hawks, is selling his stake in the team after self-reporting a racially insensitive email he sent two years ago. Levenson and NBA Commissioner Adam Silver announced the sale on Sunday in separate statements. Levenson voluntarily reported the email, in which he racially stereotyped African-American fans, to the…
The foreign ministers of the Arab League agreed to cooperate on an international and regional level to combat the Islamic State, or ISIS. The ministers, who met Sunday in Cairo, also said their countries would take all necessary measures to fight ISIS terrorists. “What is happening in Iraq, and the presence of an armed terrorist…
A Hasidic New York Police Department officer was promoted to sergeant, making him the department’s highest-ranking Hasid ever. Joel Witriol of Brooklyn attended Friday’s promotion ceremony in traditional Hasidic garb, according to the New York Post. His Sabbath observance will be accommodated at his new post in the 13th Precinct in Manhattan. Witriol joined the…
