Italian actor Moni Ovadia resigned from the Milan Jewish community with accusations that it is a “propaganda office” of the Israeli government. The announcement by Ovadia, 67, in an interview published last week in the daily Il Fatto Quotidiano sparked a row in the Italian Jewish world. “I don’t want to stay in a place…
Israeli Finance Minister Yair Lapid and Labor Party Chairwoman Shelly Yachimovich called for greater religious pluralism in Israel. Speaking in separate appearances Monday at a plenary session of the Jewish Federations of North America’s General Assembly in Jerusalem, Lapid and Yachimovich both advocated for the loosening of Orthodox control of Israel’s religious laws. Yachimovich stressed…
Israeli far-right leader Avigdor Lieberman was sworn in as foreign minister on Monday after his acquittal on corruption charges, a development that could further complicate peace talks with the Palestinians. Lieberman stepped down last year when he was indicted. His reinstatement to the role, which Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had held open for him, is…
The American Jewish Committee has called on the New York State Department of Education to fully investigate all incidents of anti-Semitism in New York public schools, especially the Pine Bush system in upstate New York. A lawsuit charges rampant bullying and harassment of Jewish students in the school system system about 90 minutes northwest of…
(JTA) — Saul Kagan, the founder and a longtime chief of the Claims Conference, died Saturday at age 91. Kagan helped found the organization in 1951 to be the main vehicle for negotiating with Germany over restitution for Holocaust survivors. In a statement announcing his death, the Claims Conference credited Kagan with securing tens of…
Israel’s Chief Rabbinate says it does not have a list of Diaspora rabbis whose testimony it accepts, despite turning down the testimony of the rabbis of immigrants wishing to clarify their Jewish and marital status. The Tzohar organization, a group of rabbis that works to make rabbinic services more user friendly for all Israelis, asked…
German trade union leader Michael Sommer has vowed to stand up to unionists who want to boycott goods made in West Bank Settlements. “As long as I am head of this organization, there will never be aresolution that says ‘Don’t buy from Jews,’” said Sommer, 61, chair of the Federation of German Trade Unions, accepting…
The Islamist Hamas group, long shunned by the West and increasingly isolated in the Middle East, has appointed its first spokeswoman, a 23-year-old who used to live in Britain and speaks with a Yorkshire accent. Isra Al-Modallal’s job is to convey the views of the Hamas government that controls Gaza to the foreign media. She…
Swastikas and slogans were spray-painted on about a dozen cars parked outside a mostly Jewish fraternity house at Penn State. The graffiti, spray-painted early Friday morning, appeared to be directed at the Beta Sigma Beta house, State College Police told The Associated Press. A garage and a dumpster also were vandalized.
Israeli President Shimon Peres and United States Ambassador to Israel Dan Shapiro told North American Jewish leaders that they have confidence in U.S. determination to prevent Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon. Addressing a plenary session at the Jewish Federations of North America General Assembly in Jerusalem on Monday, Shapiro stressed the United States’ and…
Secretary of State John Kerry said on Monday he hoped an agreement to end a dispute over Iran’s nuclear program would be completed within months, although Washington was not engaged in a race to seal a deal. Iran and six world powers came close to a preliminary agreement at the weekend during talks in Geneva…
אינעם שמועס באַטייליקן זיך יניבֿ גאָלדבערג, מיכל יאַשינסקי און חיים וואָלף.
