Far-right Israelis are pressing for an end to an effective ban on holding Jewish prayers at a Jerusalem holy compound once dominated by Biblical temples and now home to al-Aqsa mosque, one of Islam’s most revered sites. Palestinians oppose Jewish worship at the vast stone plaza overlooking Judaism’s Western Wall as a potential threat to…
The Vatican newspaper said on Saturday a decision by scholars to brand a wartime Italian previously praised for saving Jews as a Nazi collaborator was part of an attempt to smear the Catholic Church during the papacy of Pope Pius XII. An article, titled “To Strike at the Church of Pius XII” and written by…
The Chabad rabbi at the center of a scandal surrounding his views on allegations of child sex abuse in Sydney two decades ago has apologized. Rabbi Baruch Lesches, who now runs the Lubavitch community in Monsey, N.Y., issued a statement Monday saying he “deeply regretted” comments attributed to him in news reports Sunday and stressed…
Competitions are for horses, not for artists was the verdict of the great Hungarian composer and pianist Bela Bartok. And there is a part of Israeli pianist Boris Giltburg, declared winner on June 1 of one of the world’s most prestigious and gruelling music contests, that agrees. He won Belgium’s Queen Elisabeth Competition in spite…
Israel carried out air strikes in the Gaza Strip on Monday in response to Palestinian militant rocket fire that broke weeks of relative calm along the frontier. No casualties were reported in the incidents. Six rockets were fired into Israel overnight, causing no damage, police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said. Two of them were shot down…
When a new mall opened in a heavily ultra-Orthodox Jewish Jerusalem neighborhood about two years ago, it was agreed that it would offer a different kind of shopping experience. There would be no posters of models in bathing suits and no mannequins in the store windows. Until recently, the Ramot Mall thrived under these conditions,…
The next governor of the Bank of Israel will be an old governor of the Israeli central bank – none other than Jacob A. Frenkel, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Finance Minister Yair Lapid announced on Sunday. Frenkel last led the Israeli central bank from 1991 to the year 2000. He has spent the last…
At least six rockets were fired Sunday night from the Gaza Strip toward southern Israel, prompting sirens to sound in multiple regions. One of the rockets landed in Rahat, in the Bnei Shimon Regional Council, a second rocket exploded near Be’er Sheva and a third exploded in the Lachish Regional Council. Three more rockets were…
Public Security Minister Yitzhak Aharonovitch has blocked a Palestinian children’s theater festival from opening in East Jerusalem this Saturday night on the claim that the event was “under the auspices of or sponsored by the Palestinian Authority.” According to Aharonovitch, the holding of such an event associated with the PA in Israel contradicts an Israeli…
Former South African President Nelson Mandela’s condition deteriorated to “critical” on Sunday, the government said, two weeks after the 94-year-old anti-apartheid leader was admitted to hospital with a lung infection. The worsening of his condition is bound to concern South Africa’s 53 million people, for whom Mandela remains the architect of a peaceful transition to…
Druze leaders living on the Israeli Golan Heights asked Israel’s prime minister to allow some Druze in Syria to enter Israel. Sources told the Times of Israel that the request to Benjamin Netanyahu, made in a letter last week, covers about 20 families. The letter was given to the director-general of the Prime Minister’s Office,…
דער באַגריף, ייִדישע אױטאָנאָמיע אין גלות — הײַנט פּאָפּולער בײַ קריטיקער פֿון ציוניזם — איז היסטאָריש ניט געװען קײן דערפֿאָלג.
