Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in an Independence Day message that he “appreciate(s) deeply all that America has done for Israel.” The taped video message was played Tuesday night at the Independence Day celebration at the U.S. Ambassador’s residence in Herzliya. Netanyahu did not attend the event, due to a leg injury sustained while…
The Simon Wiesenthal Center submitted the Argentinean Jewish settlement of Moises Ville for inscription as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The Center proposed the city, whose name in Spanish means City of Moses, at the World Heritage Committee meeting of the United Nations’ scientific and cultural arm, which will conclude on July 6 in St….
The Republican Jewish Coalition is sending two of its top officials to Israel to rally for expatriate votes. The voter registration drive led by Ari Fleischer, the press secretary during the George W. Bush presidency and an RJC board member, and Matt Brooks, the RJC executive director, is unusually high profile. Campaigning by both parties…
Orthodox gay activist Chaim Levin is reportedly suing a cousin for abusing him over a period of three years, starting when he was just six years old. Levin charges that his cousin Sholom Eichler, whose family owns a famed Brooklyn Judaica store, molested him in a synagogue and at Eichler’s home, the New York Post…
The Messianic group Israel Restoration Ministries, a California-based group devoted to proselytizing to Jews, has embarked on a summer campaign, the Baltimore Jewish Times reports. The new push to convert Jews from populous Jewish communities is called “Summer Blitz.” It targets communities in New York, Baltimore, Boston, Miami and Chicago through August. Trained representatives are…
Young Judaea is en route to full independence from Hadassah, the Women’s Zionist Organization of America. Hadassah’s board had voted for the separation in June 2011, and both organizations announced this week that the move to independence had begun. Simon Klarfeld was hired in December as Young Judaea’s executive director. Hadassah will provide $7 million…
A large majority of Israelis and Palestinians do not expect a Palestinian state to be established in the next five years. According to a poll conducted jointly by the Hebrew University’s Harry S. Truman Research Institute for the Advancement of Peace and the Palestinian Center for Policy, 71 percent of Israelis and 68 percent of…
Polish billionaire Jan Kulczyk has donated 20 million zlotys, or about $6 million, to the Museum of the History of Polish Jews. The money will come from Kulczyk’s company, Kulczyk Holdings, according to the Warsaw Business Journal. It is the largest single gift to the museum by an individual donor. The whole project is slated…
A partnership of Jewish philanthropies will match $6 million of new donations to Jewish day schools with an additional $3 million. Under the program, called Match, the Avi Chai and Kohelet Foundations will match donations given between August 1, 2012 and May 15, 2013 at 50 cents to the dollar, according to a press release….
Kenyan security forces arrested two Iranian nationals who, they say, may have planned to attack U.S. or Israeli targets in the country. Security forces found 33 pounds of a powerful explosive after they arrested the Iranians in June, according to the Associated Press. The explosives were in Mombasa, a coastal city. The AP reported that…
Archaeologists working in the lower Galilee have discovered remnants of an elaborate synagogue from the Talmudic period at Khirbet Hukuk, where a Jewish city once stood. The synagogue dates back to somewhere between the fourth and sixth centuries, during the late Roman or early Byzantine period. The site is located above the northwestern shore of…
