A growing bipartisan chorus of U.S. lawmakers said on Sunday that the United States should suspend its $1.5 billion in military and economic aid to Egypt following a violent crackdown on protesters that has left nearly 800 dead. Senator John McCain, a top Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee, said he now supported suspending…
The Israeli economy grew by a surprisingly brisk 5.1% in the second quarter of 2013, in parallel with a steep increase in consumer spending, according to Central Bureau of Statistics figures released on Sunday. The rapid pace of growth in the second quarter, April-June, boosted first-half expansion to 3.4% in annualized terms. That first-half pace…
Israel has looked on at upheaval in Egypt largely in silence, keen to avoid disrupting strategic security cooperation with a military it sees as critical to curbing attacks by Islamist militants in neighbouring Sinai, officials and analysts said. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had aides instruct cabinet ministers to avoid public comment about Egypt, according to…
As many as 100,000 people may be evacuated from their homes near Russia’s border with China if the region’s biggest floods for 120 years get worse, Russian media reported on Saturday. The floods, caused by a month of unusually heavy rain, are not expected to start receding until early September, the head of Russia’s hydrometeorology…
Original documents connected to Oskar Schindler, who saved hundreds of Jewish from the Holocaust, fetched $122,000 at an auction in New York. One letter, dated Aug. 22, 1944, describes permission to move an enamelware factory that was owned by the German industrialist and its workers from Poland, the Associated Press reported. Historians say that move…
The Israeli army fired a missile into Syria after several shells fired from Syria exploded in northern Israel on the Golan Heights. The missile, a Tammuz anti-tank guided missile, reportedly hit and destroyed a Syrian cannon from which mortars fired at Israel had originated. The cannon was located at a Syrian army post. The mortar…
Ryan Braun, the first Jewish baseball player to win the Most Valuable Player award in decades, reportedly plans to admit using performing enhancing drugs. The so-called Hebrew Hammer will also apologize to teammates and baseball officials for his long string of lies about doping, USA Today reported. Braun, the embattled Milwaukee Brewers left fielder, plans…
A town near Rotterdam has signed over its ancient Jewish cemetery to the Dutch Jewish community. City officials from Werkendam re-registered the 19th century cemetery as belonging he Dutch Israelite Religious Community, or NIK, the municipality said this week. The mayor of Werkendam, a town of 25,000, signed the deed of ownership last month. It…
The Anti-Defamation League called for a new version of the Jackson-Vanik amendment to pressure Russia to improve its treatment of gays. Jackson-Vanik was a provision of the 1974 Trade Act that denied favored status to nations that restricted emigration. The amendment was used to pressure the Soviet Union to loosen its restrictive emigration policies. “It…
A cross near the gravesite of a Jewish sage in Uman, Ukraine, was defaced with a Hebrew inscription — a move that could stoke sectarian tensions in the Hasidic pilgrimage site. Hebrew graffiti was discovered Aug. 12 on a cross opposite the grave of Rabbi Nachman of Breslov, the 18th century founder of the Breslov…
A financial broker who was sued six years ago by “Seinfeld” actress Julia Louis-Dreyfus is under investigation for lying on registration forms submitted to the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, according to a regulatory disclosure. Bambi Holzer, a Beverly Hills, California-based broker known both for her frequent television appearances and the dozens of complaints against her…
