Argentinian President Cristina Fernandez in a series of 31 tweets called on the United States to include the issue of the Buenos Aires Jewish Center AMIA bombing in its bilateral talks with Iran. The tweets posted Monday night from the president’s official Twitter account also mentioned the pressure that she feels from U.S. Jewish organizations…
Gur Hasidic sect followers were told the day before Simhat Torah that adults would no longer be allowed to dance with children on their shoulders, including their own children, to avoid awakening “the evil inclination.” Jews traditionally dance with Torah scrolls on Simhat Torah, and it is common practice for children to sit on their…
Pope John Paul II and Pope John XXIII, who played key roles in fostering Catholic-Jewish relations, will be canonized as saints. The ceremony will take place next April 27, the Vatican announced Monday. Polish-born John Paul, who reigned from 1978 to 2005, made bettering Catholic-Jewish relations a cornerstone of his papacy. John XXIII, who reigned…
JERUSALEM — An Egyptian doctor was recognized as a Righteous Among the Nations for helping to save a Jewish family during the Holocaust — the first Arab to be so recognized. Dr. Mohamed Helmy was recognized by the Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial, the institution announced Monday. The memorial also cited Frieda Szturmann, a German woman,…
WASHINGTON — Instability in the Middle East presents an incentive to advance Israeli-Palestinian peace, Vice President Joe Biden told J Street’s annual conference. After reviewing an array of countries seized by unrest, including Iraq, Syria, Egypt, Yemen and Bahrain, as well as the threat posed by Iran’s suspected nuclear program, Biden said Monday that he…
The National Jewish Democratic Council named Rabbi Jack Moline, a prominent Conservative movement rabbi, as its new director. Moline, the rabbi at Agudas Achim in Alexandria, Va., since 1987, will assume the post in January, according to an NJDC statement released Monday. He will step down from his suburban Washington pulpit. He chaired Rabbis for…
Amid calls to ban the ritual circumcision of boys in Scandinavia, the Council of Europe is slated to vote on whether to define the practice as a “clear human rights violation.” The definition is included in a report on circumcision and female genital mutilation that was submitted recently to a vote by the Parliamentary Assembly…
WASHINGTON – Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu urged U.S. President Barack Obama on Monday to keep sanctions in place against Iran and to even tighten them if Tehran continues its nuclear advances during a coming round of negotiations with the West. Seeking to ease Israeli concerns about U.S. diplomatic engagement with Iran, Obama said Tehran…
An estimated 6.8 million Jews live in the United States, with 65 percent of them concentrated in six states, according to a new study. The estimate counts 4.2 million American adults who self-identify as Jews; 1 million Americans who identify as having a Jewish background but do not identify as Jewish by religion; and approximately…
Sheldon Adelson, the billionaire casino magnate and prominent Republican donor, has lost a $60 million libel lawsuit in which he claimed a Democratic group spread a false accusation that he had condoned prostitution in his casinos in Macau. At issue was an article published on July 3, 2012 by the National Jewish Democratic Council on…
A ceremony held in a Copenhagen synagogue marked the 70th anniversary of the rescue of most of Denmark’s Jews from the hands of the Nazis. Sunday’s ceremony marked the October 1943 operation in which more than 7,000 Jews were sent by boat to Sweden after they were ordered deported to Nazi concentration camps, the Associated…
