The U.S. administration has launched an outreach campaign to convince American Jewish leaders and their organizations to support President Obama’s efforts to win Congressional support for a military operation in Syria – but the leaders are wary of joining the fray. Despite the Labor Day weekend, senior White House and administration officials have initiated phone…
President Obama reflected on the High Holidays and offered New Year’s greetings in a conference call with nearly 1,000 rabbis. Obama in the call on Friday afternoon extended the greetings on behalf of himself and the first lady for a sweet, happy and healthy New Year. He noted that the Jewish High Holidays provide an…
Dozens of the world’s literary stars have added their names to an Israeli writers’ petition urging the army and the Netanyahu government not to destroy Palestinian villages in the southern Hebron hills. Renowned Israeli author David Grossman penned the petition, which has now also been signed by Nobel laureates in literature J. M. Coetzee, Mario…
The umbrella group representing Polish Jews petitioned Poland’s constitutional court to reverse a ban on ritual slaughter methods. In a statement released Friday, the Union of Jewish Religious Communities said the petition concerned “a collision of two laws,” a reference to measures enacted in 1997 — one permitting and the other prohibiting ritual slaughter. The…
It was a first in quite some time: The Women of the Wall held a prayer service at the Western Wall and got to worship, sing and even dance at the holiest site in Judaism largely unperturbed. Unlike their controversial “rosh hodesh” service marking the start of each new month in the Jewish calendar, the…
A French imam known for promoting Jewish-Muslim relations said he was physically assaulted in Tunisia by a man who called him a “Zionist.” The attacker of Hassen Chalghoumi, the imam of Drancy near Paris, punched him in the chest and shoved him to the ground on Sunday near Hotel Gammarth near Tunis, the capital of…
A 92-year-old who served in the Waffen-SS, Adolf Hitler’s elite Nazi troops, went on trial on Monday in the western city of Hagen on charges of having shot in the back and killed a Dutch resistance fighter at the end of World War Two. In an televised interview with broadcaster Das Erste, accused killer Siert…
Some 90 percent of the $10 million in funding announced by the Department of Homeland Security to help nonprofit organizations protect themselves from terrorism went to Jewish institutions. The total amount of grants, announced Aug. 29, is slightly up from last year’s $9.7 million. “The Department of Homeland Security has demonstrated a great commitment to…
Israeli supermodel Bar Refaeli has turned her flirt on Simon Cowell, the creator of “X-Factor,” in a new clip ahead of Israeli version’s release. The clip, which aired on Sunday morning, depicts Refaeli driving up to Cowell in a sports car to introduce him to the judges on the Israeli version of the hit reality…
Ruth Bader Ginsburg became the first Supreme Court justice to preside over a same-sex marriage. Ginsburg performed the wedding ceremony of Michael Kaiser to John Roberts at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts on Saturday night. Kaiser, who is president of the center, reportedly is a longtime friend of Bader’s. More than…
Britain’s new chief rabbi, Ephraim Mirvis, who has vowed to remain traditional by barring women rabbis and same-sex marriage, was sworn in on Sunday to face the challenge of uniting the nation’s polarised Jewish community. About 1,400 guests, including Britain’s heir apparent Prince Charles, attended a ceremony at a north London synagogue as Mirvis replaced…
