A new tax proposal submitted to Congress could bring new federal subsidies to poor Orthodox Jewish families with four or more children. The bill, introduced in early June by Democratic New York Rep. Jerrold Nadler, would extend the Earned Income Tax Credit, a tax subsidy for poor families. The current program provides larger benefits for…
A United Nations human rights body accused Israeli forces on Thursday of mistreating Palestinian children, including by torturing those in custody and using others as human shields. Palestinian children in the Gaza and the West Bank, captured by Israel in the 1967 war, are routinely denied registration of their birth and access to health care,…
More than half those killed killed during Israel’s operation in the Gaza Strip last November were innocent civilians and a third were children, the Israeli human rights group B’Tselem said in a report released this week. The B’Tselem based its findings on Operation Pillar of Defense on statements issued by the Israel Defense Forces, the…
Menachem (Manny) Waks was on a leadership training program in Israel in June 2011 when he made a decision that would radically change his life. Flicking through Melbourne’s The Age newspaper on his laptop one morning, he spotted an article about David Kramer, who was convicted of pedophilia in Missouri in 2008 and now was…
My story about the crushing pressures ultra-Orthodox women face to raise large families touched a raw nerve. The story went live on the Forward’s web site on Monday, March 11. By that night, I was sorting through an avalanche of emails from people within and out of the community, from those who sympathized, and those…
A Palestinian shot by Israeli soldiers during a confrontation with stone-throwers in the occupied West Bank two weeks ago died of his wounds on Thursday, his family and a hospital official said. The incident occurred during protests in support of a hunger strike by four Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails. Mohammed Asfour, 22, was shot…
Palestinian children detained by the Israeli military are subject to widespread, systematic ill-treatment that violates international law, a UNICEF report said on Wednesday. The United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF) estimated that 700 Palestinian children aged 12 to 17, most of them boys, are arrested, interrogated and detained by the Israeli military, police and security agents…
A Bronx synagogue suffered a terrible blow this week: the theft of three sifrey-Torah, or Torah scrolls, each one worth $45,000. The theft at the Orthodox shul, Young Israel of Mosholu Parkway, on East 208th Street in the Norwood Heights section, was discovered by a worker last Sunday. Besides the Torah scrolls, the thief also…
