More than 350,000 Jews are living in West Bank settlements, a 4.5 percent increase over last year, according to the Israeli government. Peace Now, which monitors settlement growth, claimed that the number is inflated. According to the Times of Israel, Israel’s Interior Ministry reported that 350,150 Israelis live in West Bank settlements, an increase of…
A public relations expert who was paid by the Shas party to serve as a consultant to Interior Minister Eli Yishai stands to earn hundreds of thousands of shekels from another client if he convinces the Interior Ministry to liberalize restrictions on the use of migrant labor in the construction industry. The PR consultant, Ronen…
The Great Synagogue in Radauti, Romania, was rededicated after a full restoration. Dignitaries including rabbis, the president of the Federation of Romanian Jewish Communities and the mayor of Radauti took part in a rededication ceremony Wednesday. During the ceremony, a mezuzah was nailed to the doorpost of the ornate building and commemorative plaques were unveiled….
Multiple charges against a former Chabad-Lubavitch youth leader in Melbourne have been dropped. Aron “Ezzy” Kestecher, 27, was charged last year with four counts of indecent acts on a child under 16. All four charges were withdrawn Tuesday, a spokeswoman for the Department of Justice confirmed. Kestecher revealed the news on Facebook, writing “All charges…
The International Olympic Committee has rejected an in-person appeal to hold a minute of silence at the London 2012 Opening Ceremonies in memory of 11 Israeli athletes murdered at the Munich 1972 Summer Games. Widows of two of the athletes presented a request in person for the minute of silence to IOC President Jacques Rogge…
Members of the U.S. House of Representatives will hold a moment of silence for the 11 Israeli athletes and coaches slain by Palestinian terrorists at the 1972 Munich Olympics. “We’re going to give one-minute speeches on the House floor and devote a substantial moment of that to silence on Thursday,” Rep. Eliot Engel (D-N.Y.) said…
The Let the Animals Live association filed a complaint on Wednesday against the reality TV show “Beauty and the Geek” because it said the most recent episode included a challenge that involved the cruel exploitation of animals. The task required participants to go into a compartment containing snakes, rodents, lizards and stick insects, pick them…
Shani Reflow cannot stop shaking, sleeps only in fits and starts and keeps her cell phone on full volume. She has been in this state since her children came home at dawn on Friday and told her they had just fled a shooting rampage at a local movie theatre. It is now clear that the…
A young American woman who had moved to Israel was killed in a landslide this week in India, where she was vacationing with friends, the Cleveland Jewish News reported. Hadas Ben Shoshan was hiking in northern India Tuesday when a rock fell on her leg. Her friends ran to get help, and people gathered at…
Vice President Joe Biden and Mitt Romney continued their respective campaigns’ sparring over Israel. In a speech Tuesday in Reno, Nev., to the Veterans of Foreign Wars annual conference, Romney, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, said President Obama had distanced the United States from Israel. “Even at the United Nations, to the enthusiastic applause of…
The Conference of European Rabbis will lobby against recent circumcision bans by advocating legislation supporting the practice. This week, hospitals in Switzerland and a province of Austria announced that they would stop allowing ritual circumcision. The German lower house of parliament passed a non-binding resolution last week to protect the religious circumcision of infant boys…
