Britain’s umbrella body of Orthodox communities is condemning a London Orthodox synagogue that allows women to hold Torah scrolls. Earlier this year, Golders Green United Synagogue began giving women an opportunity to handle the Torah scroll on Shabbat mornings and festivals, and the change has been well received by members of the community, according to…
A city council member from Geneva has warned his municipality against allowing a public Hanukkah event, which he said would violate Swiss law. “I’m not afraid of being called anti-Semitic, because my request is not directed at a religious community [but at] the authorities, which do not comply with the law by issuing an authorization…
Israeli-American media tycoon Haim Saban, a major donor to the U.S. Democratic party, said on Friday he would back former secretary of state Hillary Clinton with his “full might” should she run for president in 2016. Clinton, 66, whose four-year tenure as U.S. secretary of state ended in February, has said she is considering running…
A toddler was injured in a Jerusalem neighborhood when a three-pound rock was thrown through the window of the car in which she was a passenger. The girl, 2, identified as Avigayil, was hit in the head Thursday evening while travelling through the Jewish neighborhood of Armon Hanatziv, located on the Green Line which separates…
Israel’s Chief Rabbinate issued restrictions on the extent to which mikvah attendants may question and interact with women visiting the ritual baths. According to a letter sent Monday from the Chief Rabbinate to Itim, an organization that helps Israelis navigate the rabbinate’s bureaucracy, mikvah attendants may not question women visiting the baths, nor may they…
Most French Jewish parents enroll their children in private schools because of anti-Semitism, a leader of France’s Jewish community said. Anti-Semitism “affects Jewish families very seriously and is the main reason there are so few Jewish children in public schools,” Roger Cukierman, president of the CRIF umbrella group of French Jewish communities, said Tuesday during…
In his annual statement for Hanukkah, President Obama pointed out how rare it is to have the holiday and Thanksgiving fall together. He even used the recently coined term “Thanksgivukkah” in the statement released on Wednesday. “As the first Hanukkah candle is lit, we are reminded that our task is not only to secure the…
In a Holy Land rich with religious sites, the new Abu Ghosh mosque is rare – as is the hilly village from which it rises. Bankrolled largely by Chechnya and named after its former leader Akhmad Kadyrov, who was slain by Islamist militants in 2004, the glimmering shrine tells of this small Israeli Arab community’s…
In a Holy Land rich with religious sites, the new Abu Ghosh mosque is rare – as is the hilly village from which it rises. Bankrolled largely by Chechnya and named after its former leader Akhmad Kadyrov, who was slain by Islamist militants in 2004, the glimmering shrine tells of this small Israeli Arab community’s…
Global Jewish leader Guiora Esrubilsky, who presided over last summer’s Maccabiah Games in Israel, has died. The Argentinian born Esrubilsky died Tuesday in Miami of a heart attack at the age of 66. Esrubilsky was elected Maccabi World Union President in May 2010. One of his recent successes was the 19th Maccabiah games last summer…
A court in Quebec has ordered 14 children from an extremist haredi Orthodox sect to be placed in foster care and receive psychological support. The children’s parents also were ordered to turn over their passports, the Canadian Broadcast Corporation reported. The parents, members of the Lev Tahor, or Pure Heart, were not present in the…
אינעם שמועס באַטייליקן זיך יניבֿ גאָלדבערג, מיכל יאַשינסקי און חיים וואָלף.
