A radical British Catholic priest has been fined in Germany on charges of Holocaust denial, which is illegal in the country. The $2,400 fine against British Bishop Richard Williamson, 72, stems from an interview he gave in 2008 to the Swedish SVT broadcaster, in which he called the murder of Jews in gas chambers during…
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu looks set to form a new governing coalition after next week’s election, polls show, with the only question being whether he wants to soften its hardline contours. No one party has ever won a majority in parliament in a parliamentary election in Israel, and Tuesday’s ballot could be followed by…
Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) said he does not favor immediate cuts to defense assistance to Israel and favors intelligence and development cooperation, but he believes that Israel would ultimately benefit from economic independence from the United States. Paul, in a conference call Wednesday marking his return from a week-long visit to Israel, said his first…
Orthodox Jewish neighborhoods are growing fast in New York while non-Orthodox neighborhoods have begun to shrink, a new study reveals. The New York community also remains highly concentrated, with four distinct areas that would each qualify as one of America’s 20 most-populous areas. Those are key findings from the Jewish Community Study of New York:…
A 25-year-old Jewish woman has been voted Germany’s sexist female politician. Marina Weisband, 25, a leading member of the “Pirate Party Germany,” took first place in a Playboy online poll with 29 percent of the votes. According to the Bild Zeitun newspaper, 1,000 people took part in the poll. Coming in second was the Left…
he economy was the strongest determinant for Jews who voted for Barack Obama, according to an analysis of polling data. “Not only do Jews hold fairly liberal to progressive positions on economic justice issues, their views on such matters emerge as the principal decision-making fulcrum in their choice for president, as well as for senators…
Israeli forces removed Palestinian protest tents on Thursday from land earmarked for Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank, having evicted activists from the encampment earlier this week, police said. “The area was cleared of all tents,” said police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld. “There were no disturbances.” On Sunday, police evicted 50 protesters from the so-called…
Marc Trestman was appointed head coach of the Chicago Bears on Wednesday in place of Lovie Smith, who was fired at the end of last year after nine seasons in charge. Trestman, who will be the Bears’ 14th head coach since the NFL started in 1920, joins from the Montreal Alouettes of the Canadian Football…
An ad featuring Adolf Hitler placed at a Turkish mall was pulled following complaints by Jewish leaders. The ad at the Sapphire Mall in Istanbul was promoting a wax museum. It featured a large color portrait of the late Nazi leader standing behind a podium. The text read, “If you could meet anyone, who would…
Egyptian President Mohamed Mursi said vitriolic comments he made against Jews and Zionists three years ago had been taken out of context, an explanation that fell short of a U.S. call for him to repudiate the remarks. The New York Times said it had obtained video of a speech by Mursi in 2010, when he…
Algerian forces have freed about 100 of the 132 foreigners who were taken hostage in a gas facility in the Algerian desert, a security source told Reuters. The fate of the others — whether they remained captive or had been killed — remained unclear, he said, as the situation at the plant was “changing rapidly.”…
