Three U.S. rabbis are among those being considered to become Britain’s chief rabbi. Rabbi Dr. Meir Soloveichik, director of the Straus Center for Torah and Western Thought at Yeshiva University and associate rabbi at Congregation Kehilath Jeshurun, is expected in London in a few days for meetings with British Jewish leaders, the Times of Israel…
Jack Abramoff, the lobbyist who served a jail term for defrauding Native American tribes, is now a radio talk-show host. Abramoff’s show airs Sunday evenings on XM Satellite Radio. Abramoff, who pled guilty in 2006 to felony counts involving fraud, corruption and conspiracy, served three and a half years at a minimum security prison camp…
A son of Holocaust survivors running for reelection in the Florida state house has apologized to the Anti-Defamation League after labeling the group “despicable.” The ADL had criticized Sheldon Lisbon after he sent out an email to supporters in June with the subject line “A vote for Shelly Lisbon is a vote for the Jewish…
Germany’s Jews and Muslims will not be punished for breaking the law if they carry out circumcisions on young boys, Chancellor Angela Merkel’s spokesman said. “For everyone in the government it is absolutely clear that we want to have Jewish and Muslim religious life in Germany,” Merkel’s spokesman, Steffen Seibert, said Friday according to Reuters….
The Obama administration noted a recent reduction in U.N. Human Rights Council actions targeting Israel in defending its decision to rejoin the body. Paula Schriefer, the deputy assistant secretary for international organizational affairs, outlined on Wednesday what she said were U.S. successes on the council, including the the authorization of special rapporteurs for Syria, Belarus…
Israeli organizers expect tens of thousands to take part in nationwide demonstrations on Saturday night to mark the first anniversary of last summer’s social justice protests. But despite efforts to project a unified front, organizers have failed to find a way to prevent two protest marches from taking place simultaneously in Tel Aviv. One, organized…
Dozens of residents of south Tel Aviv and activists from other cities convened on Thursday to urge the government to deport all African migrants. But the organizers stressed that they oppose violence, deeming it both wrong and counterproductive. “It was very hard for me at first to say ‘expulsion,’” said attorney Ronit Cohen-Oren of Tel…
In an unusually frank briefing to senior British civil servants, Sir John Sawers, the chief of MI6, Britain’s foreign intelligence service said that British agents have been active against Iran’s nuclear program since 2008. Despite their efforts though, Sawers said that Iran would likely achieve nuclear capability by 2014. Sawer’s remarks reported today in the…
The Romney campaign never planned a fundraiser in Jerusalem for the fast of Tisha b’Av, a senior campaign official said. The official reached out to JTA on Thursday to push back against reports that a fundraiser during Mitt Romney’s planned Israel visit was scheduled for the Jewish fast day mourning the destruction of the Temples,…
An Israeli citizen living in New York was sentenced to prison for organ trafficking. Levy Izhak Rosenbaum, 61, of Brooklyn, was sentenced Wednesday to 2 1/2 years in prison. He had pleaded guilty last Oct. 27 to three counts of organ trafficking and one count of conspiracy in a New Jersey federal court. Rosenbaum had…
Former Israeli Prime Minister Olmert, following his acquittal on the most serious corruption charges, said he does not intend to return to politics. Olmert, speaking Thursday at a conference in Tel Aviv two days after he was acquitted on corruption charges that prompted his resignation from office four years ago, also said that he would…
