Police in the city of Greifswald in former East Germany believe neo-Nazis are behind the destruction of 11 “stumbling block” Holocaust memorials. The vandalism was discovered on Nov. 9, the 74th anniversary of the Kristallnacht pogrom against Jews. According to Die Welt newspaper, the brass plaques, which bear the names of murdered Jews and are…
More than 500 rabbis urged the release of Alan Gross, citing an assessment by a U.S. radiologist that the American contractor jailed in Cuba might have a cancerous growth. “We would urge your government to release Mr. Gross on humanitarian grounds,” said the letter sent Sunday to Cuban President Raul Castro. “Alternatively, if despite his…
At least 50 rockets fired from Gaza have struck Israel since Saturday night, according to the military and Israeli news reports. A factory in Sderot sustained a direct hit Sunday morning and several buildings and two cars in the Sha’ar Hanegev municipality were also damaged in attacks. At least three Israelis have been wounded. The…
A former Dutch prime minister reportedly said that the Jewish state should have been established in Germany. “Jews need a safe place. Why couldn’t they get a safe place in Germany, at the time?” Dries Van Agt said on Nov. 8 during a seminar Nijmegen, according to the Dutch daily Telegraaf. The paper described Van…
EgyptAir is allowing its stewardesses to wear Islamic headscarves if they wish on flights to Arab states and will expand the practice to the rest of the network, an official said on Sunday, ending a restriction imposed in Hosni Mubarak’s era. It follows a similar move to allow presenters on state television’s flagship news broadcasts…
Israel will stop collecting tax revenues for the Palestinian Authority and not hand over any money if President Mahmoud Abbas continues to seek observer state membership of the United Nations, Israel’s finance minister said on Saturday. “If the Palestinians continue to advance their unilateral move they should not expect bilateral cooperation. We will not collect…
The wife of Alan Gross, the Jewish contractor jailed in Cuba for crimes against the state, said she hopes President Barack Obama’s re-election will soon help lead to her ailing husband’s release from the communist-ruled country. Gross, 63, has been locked up in Cuba since December 2009 for his work on behalf of a semi-covert…
Israeli tank fire killed four Palestinians and wounded 25 in the Gaza Strip on Saturday after an anti-tank missile hit an Israeli army jeep wounding four soldiers, and Palestinian fighters fired rockets into southern Israel in a new flare-up of fighting. In a major clash that carried the risk of escalation, Palestinian militants vowed to…
Two New York City dentists have filed a $5 million lawsuit against the contractor at a nearly completed 90-story luxury apartment building, blaming it for the collapse of the top of a construction crane during superstorm Sandy. The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Manhattan on Friday, said the contractor, Australia’s Lend Lease Construction…
Seminal author Philip Roth, whose novels explored modern Jewish-American life, has told a French magazine that he will write no more books because he has lost his passion for it. The author of such novels as “American Pastoral”, for which he won a Pulitzer Prize, and “Portnoy’s Complaint” slipped his retirement announcement into an interview…
President Barack Obama, fresh from his re-election victory, will have to turn his attention quickly to naming a new Treasury Secretary, one of the most powerful positions in world finance. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner will stay through inauguration day, Jan. 21, the White House said, leaving Obama to find someone else to take on the…
