President Barack Obama stands behind his nominee for defense secretary, former Republican Senator Chuck Hagel, and Senate delays in Hagel’s confirmation are “unconscionable,” a White House spokesman said on Thursday. Delays in Hagel’s nomination do not send a good signal to U.S. allies or troops, White House spokesman Josh Earnest said. “The president stands strongly…
The jailhouse suicide of an Australian immigrant who may have betrayed Israel’s Mossad has focused attention on the agency’s recruitment of foreign-born Jews who could spy under cover of their native passports. After a three-year blackout was broken by an Australian TV expose, Israel on Wednesday acknowledged that a dual national had committed suicide in…
A French restitution committee reportedly has recommended returning seven valuable paintings looted by the Nazis during the Holocaust from two Jewish families. The paintings are currently part of various collections in France, including the Louvre in Paris. and the museums of Tours, Saint-Étienne and Agen, but the CIVS Holocaust restitution committee determined in December that…
An Israeli soccer player for a British team is sitting out a team visit to Dubai because of tensions between the emirate and Israel. The 25-year-old striker, Itay Schechter, who plays for Swansea City, was prevented from attending the six-day group training session, The Jewish Chronicle reported on Wednesday. The United Arab Emirates does not…
A Los Angeles philanthropist has pledged $30 million to support a vast restoration project for the city’s landmark Wilshire Boulevard Temple. The donation by Erika Glazer, to be paid over a 15-year period, guarantees the financing of a $150 million facelift for the historic Reform synagogue, whose large dome and Byzantine-style sanctuary has earned it…
Designer John Galliano was just getting creative and was not mocking ultra-Orthodox Jews when he stepped out in a hat, pinstripe suit and curls, the Anti-Defamation League said. Claims the bad-boy French coutier was dressing in mock Hasidic attire are a “ridiculous, absurd distortion,” ADL chief Abraham Foxman said in a statement. “This is John…
Swiss authorities turned away only 3,000 Jewish refugees during the Holocaust and not 24,500 as believed, French Nazi hunter and historian Serge Klarsfeld said. Klarsfeld told Switzerland’s Der Sonntag newspaper that the figure of 24,500 came from imprecise archive material processed by the authors of the 1999 Bergier report on Switzerland’s Holocaust-era record and called…
An Australian immigrant, reported to have been recruited by Israel’s Mossad spy agency, was charged with grave crimes before he committed suicide in an Israeli jail, one of his lawyers said on Thursday. The closely guarded case has raised questions in Australia and Israel about the suspected use by the Mossad of dual Australian-Israeli nationals…
Senate Democrats filed a motion on Wednesday to end debate on the nomination of Chuck Hagel as President Barack Obama’s new secretary of defense after Republicans refused to allow a vote, setting up a showdown vote by Friday. Democrats are expected to muster the 60 votes needed in the 100-member chamber to clear a Republican…
Israel broke its official silence on Wednesday over the reported suicide in jail of an Australian immigrant recruited to its spy service Mossad, giving limited details on a closely guarded case. After appeals by local media chafing at Israeli censorship of a story broken by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC), a district court near Tel…
Jack Lew, President Barack Obama’s pick to be U.S. treasury secretary, on Wednesday defused heated questions from lawmakers about his work at Citigroup and managed to find common ground with critics over the need for tax reform. At a hearing on his nomination, Republicans blasted Lew with questions about his investment in a fund linked…
