Israel’s chief Ashkenazi rabbi said in Berlin that medical training for mohels, or ritual circumcisers, could resolve concerns in Germany regarding circumcision of male children. In meetings Tuesday with government officials and Berlin’s Jewish community, Rabbi Yonah Metzger noted that mohels could be trained and certified by German doctors. But he emphasized that the Chief…
Egypt reportedly is planning to introduce tanks in the Sinai for the first time since the 1973 war with Israel. The plans, part of the country’s attempts to shut down terrorists in the area, are being finalized by Egypt’s newly appointed defense minister, Gen. Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, Reuters reported. The movement of military hardware into…
Casino mogul and philanthropist Sheldon Adelson and his wife have contributed to an independent super PAC to support the congressional candidacy of Rabbi Shmuley Boteach. Adelson and his wife, Miriam, each gave $250,000 to a new independent super PAC, the Patriot Prosperity PAC, which is supporting Boteach’s New Jersey congressional run in a newly redrawn…
Prosecutors in the Bavarian city of Weiden think they have a good chance of bringing an 87-year-old former Auschwitz guard to trial. An investigation of the man – whose name has not yet been released by the Central Office of the State Justice Administrations for the Investigation of National Socialist Crimes – shows that he…
The UJA-Federation of New York will award $1 million in college scholarships to more than 400 students at its 19th annual scholarship presentation. Scholarships from this year’s Rose Biller Endowment Fund range from $1,500 to $5,000 based on a student’s needs. The scholarships, for undergraduate and graduate students, will be awarded in conjunction with the…
Heinz-Christian Strache, a rightist Austrian politician, has accused the leader of the country’s Jewish community of perpetuating anti-Semitic stereotypes. The accusation is the latest in an exchange that began after a caricature depicting a hook-nosed, obese banker with three stars on his sleeve appeared on the Facebook page of Strache, who heads the Freedom Party…
The College of Charleston received $2 million to be split between Jewish life on campus and full tuition scholarships for the children of clergy and religious educators. The Samuel R. and Regina K. Shapiro Endowment Scholarship was announced Monday with an initial $1 million pledge dedicated to a four-year scholarship program for the children of…
A Jewish mother from France locked in a custody battle with a Saudi prince fell to her death from an apartment window in Paris. Candice Cohen-Ahnine died last week, less than a month before she was to see her 11-year-old daughter for the first time in four years. It is unclear whether Cohen-Ahnine’s death was…
A white supremacist couple accused of four West Coast murders, including one because a name sounded Jewish, were indicted on federal racketeering charges. A grand jury in Portland, Ore., indicted David “Joey” Pedersen, 32, and Holly Ann Grigsby, 25, for racketeering activity in violation of the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act after an alleged…
Israel’s seven universities have asked the country’s Supreme Court to reverse a decision to make the Ariel University Center in the West Bank a full-fledged university. The petition filed Monday claims that the decision-making process was flawed and that the Council for Higher Education in Judea and Samaria did not have the authority to make…
Martin Dempsey, the chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, said Israel is facing an “existential” threat from Iran that the United States does not view with the same urgency. Dempsey made the remarks to reporters late Sunday while on a flight to Afghanistan, and they were reported by the French news agency AFP….
