Washington – With confrontational words and deeds intensifying between Iran and Israel, the United States is signaling to Jerusalem that it would prefer at the moment to deal with the Iranian nuclear crisis through diplomacy and the threat of economic sanctions. The latest hostile move came July 9 from Iran, where several medium- and long-range…
Haifa, Israel – An American company that hoped to turn Jerusalem into the “outsourcing capital of the world” is seeing its dream become a nightmare, with hundreds of desks reportedly empty due to layoffs. The operation has been “killed by the currency market,” said the company’s founder and chairman, New York telecommunications mogul Howard Jonas,…
What is a rabbi to a congregant? A therapist? A friend? A conduit to God? These questions were taken up by New York State’s top appellate court in a recent decision that pivoted on the issue of what rabbis can and cannot do in the eyes of the law. The answers the judges gave were…
A Jewish chapel at the Al Asad airbase in western Iraq was the site of an unusual Jewish gathering that began on July 4. Seven members of the American military had flown in from across Iraq for a precedent-setting training for Jewish leaders in that country. Iraq does not have much in the way of…
Los Angeles – As legal troubles at the country’s largest kosher slaughterhouse continue to mount, critics of the Postville, Iowa, plant are urging stronger government action. On July 3, two supervisors were detained by federal authorities in the first instance of management-level arrests at Agriprocessors, Inc. The arrests come on the heels of a sweeping…
Washington – Revelations that a Jewish nursing home hired a detective agency to spy on the relatives of patients seeking better care have drawn anger from the local community a decade after the alleged activity took place. The Hebrew Home of Greater Washington, one of the capital area’s oldest and most prestigious nursing homes, was…
Read an update to this article here. A prominent New York public relations firm has privately acknowledged making fraudulent postings on the Internet about one of its clients, a kosher meat company. An employee at the firm, 5WPR, made the admission to the operator of the blog FailedMessiah.com, Shmarya Rosenberg, during a phone call, according…
When the doors shut at the original 2nd Ave Deli and at Ratner’s delicatessen, the long-standing Jewish establishments on Manhattan’s Lower East Side received elegiac goodbyes in the press and on the streets. For many, these erstwhile eateries were among a number of examples of how the Jewish presence in the Manhattan neighborhood is quickly…
Summer is theoretically a time to kick back and chill. But for kids, that’s not so easy. I remember my fears about camp, which were so much more profound than any anxieties about school. Would I have the right clothes? (No. I was lacking in kicky terrycloth Shabbat outfits.) Would the mean girls be mean…
Washington — A Florida professor acquitted in a major terrorism-financing case two years ago is back in court and may face a prolonged jail term if convicted. Pro-Palestinian activist Sami Al-Arian stands accused of criminal contempt of court for refusing to testify to a grand jury about a Virginia-based Islamic think tank’s possible links to…
Tel Aviv — In a nationwide wave of anger over this month’s so-called bulldozer attack, Israel is resounding with calls to revive the discontinued practice of demolishing the homes of terrorists’ families, beginning with that of the perpetrator of the bulldozer attack. Prime Minister Ehud Olmert himself was the first to raise the demand during…
