A ceremony on the grounds of Auschwitz officially kicked off a multi-year, $150 million conservation project. The Auschwitz-Birkenau Museum on Wednesday officially opened its Global Conservation Plan, which will take many years of conservation work funded by the Auschwitz-Birkenau Foundation. Israeli Ambassador to Poland Zvi Rav-Ner during the ceremony called the initiative “a holy mission.”…
A retired FBI official told a House subcommittee that the imprisonment of a New York Chasidic Jew in Bolivia is “state-sponsored kidnapping.” Along with the ex-official, Steve Moore, the U.S. House of Representatives human rights subcommittee on Wednesday heard testimony from the family of Jacob Ostreicher, who was arrested a year ago by Bolivian police…
A Jewish British couple was asked to consider dressing up as Holocaust victims to commemorate World War II during the annual Wartime Weekend event. Merton and Barbara Paul said that an organizer for the annual wartime weekend, which is run by the East Lancashire Railway, a preservation society, suggested that the couple wear a yellow…
Israel’s Defense Ministry announced Thursday that it will erect between 20,000-25,000 tents for African migrants at various detention centers by the end of the year. According to an official statement, the Defense Ministry and the Israel Defense Forces will build the tent cities in five different detention centers within a matter of months. Once built,…
Vanity Fair has published an in-depth profile of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in its upcoming July issue, in which Netanyahu emphasized that he is “not a natural politician.” In the article, David Margolick explores Netanyahu’s largely successful effort to “vanquish his domestic foes” such as the Israeli media and the political opposition. In an interview…
The Obama administration “does not accept the legitimacy” of announced plans for up to 851 new housing units for West Bank settlements. “We’re very clear that continued Israeli settlement activity in the West Bank undermines peace efforts and contradicts Israeli commitments and obligations, including the 2003 Roadmap,” Mark Toner, the State Department spokesman, said Wednesday….
The New York City Health Commissioner has issued a strongly worded statement calling for an end to a controversial circumcision-related rite. Dr. Thomas Farley said that direct oral-genital suction, known as metzitzah b’peh, should not be performed during Jewish ritual circumcision, and announced that several hospitals, including those serving the haredi Orthodox Jewish community, have…
The Washington Nationals drafted a 2012 graduate of the Charles E. Smith Jewish Day School in Maryland in the Major League Baseball draft. Max Ungar, 17, played catcher at CESJDS and was drafted by the Nationals in the 36th round of the draft. The Rockville, Md. campus of CESJDS is named after the owners of…
Barbara Walters reportedly helped a Syrian press aide who arranged her exclusive interview with dictator Bashar al-Assad win admission to Columbia University’s prestigious School of International and Public Affairs. The New York Post reported that the legendary newswoman wrote to pal Richard Wald, an official at Columbia’s Graduate School of Journalism, to boost the application…
The government has announced that it plans to legalize 13 of the 18 settlement outposts against which petitions to the High Court of Justice have been filed. Because the 13 outposts are not built on privately-owned Palestinian land, the legalization process could presumably make the petitions against them moot. The remaining five outposts cannot be…
The Jerusalem’s District Court ruled on Thursday that Israel could deport South Sudanese nationals back to their county, thus rejecting an appeal by migrant worker NGOs against a decision by Interior Minister Eli Yishai to halt Israel’s collective defense of citizens form the war-torn country. Yishai said in response to the ruling that he “congratulates…
