NEWS ITEM: In its battle against pollution, the Israeli government employs a corps of 300 people to sniff out the sources of bad air. These specialists utilize a basic bodily organ: the nose. Now, they’re coming to the United States to train Americans in odor detection. (Source: Dateline: World Jewry, published by the World Jewish…
Washington – Israel is considering disclosing classified information about alleged nuclear ties between North Korea and Syria due to concern that Washington may downplay the issue as it pursues closer ties with Pyongyang. Israeli sources say that Jerusalem holds information implicating North Korea in a nascent Syrian nuclear program, which was reportedly the target of…
Los Angeles – When Aviva Krieger needs a loaf of challah or kosher groceries to feed her Orthodox Jewish family of five, she routinely visits the stretch of Pico Boulevard that has become this city’s central Jewish shopping district. Now, with the threat of a new city-mandated traffic plan looming over the area, many, including…
When the Democratic presidential contest comes to Indiana in several weeks, Senator Barack Obama will not be the only politician counting on a multicultural coalition. Further down the ticket, in a primary race packed with more than a half-dozen candidates, the state’s only Jewish lawmaker is looking to a biracial, interfaith coalition of voters to…
With a mix of excitement and trepidation, New York’s Museum of Jewish Heritage announced this week that it is planning to stage an exhibition devoted to the writer Irène Némirovsky in the fall. The exhibition, the first museum show ever devoted to the recently rediscovered French author, is in many regards a coup for the…
When Benedict XVI pays his respects at Manhattan’s Park East Synagogue on April 18, it will be the first visit by any pope to an American synagogue. It will also be a crowning achievement for the man who greets him: Rabbi Arthur Schneier. Yet Schneier was not selected for the honor because he represents America’s…
Haifa, Israel – A few months ago, Israeli police planning a sting were hard-pressed to find a convincing small-time dealer who could buy large quantities of drugs without arousing suspicion. In the end, they settled on a novel solution: a Hasidic man who would claim he was buying for students at his yeshiva. The case…
Haifa, Israel – Israel’s restive religious parties exploded in fury last week after a court gave an apparent carte blanche to shops and restaurants to sell bread and other leavened goods during the Passover holiday. Jewish religious law forbids the possession during Passover of bread and similar products, known in Hebrew as hametz. In Israel,…
In the first effort to methodically calculate the amount lost by Jews who fled Arab countries after the creation of Israel, a Holocaust restitution expert estimated that the losses amounted to $6 billion. The study, performed by Sidney Zabludoff and published this month in a journal published by the conservative Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs,…
Washington — Former president Jimmy Carter’s plan to meet with the exiled leader of Hamas in Damascus is drawing criticism from Democrats and Republicans alike. According to an April 9 report in the London-based Arabic daily Al Hayat, Carter is scheduled to meet April 18 with Khaled Meshaal. Carter would become the first American senior…
A shofar blast is not the traditional opening of a Passover Seder. Neither is an invocational prayer to Jesus. But Christ Our Passover is no ordinary Passover gathering. When some 1,300 Christians take their seats inside the Von Braun Center in Huntsville, Ala., on April 15, they will have assembled into one of the largest…
