|  | Among the themes of the Book of Ruth is a fascinating subplot with mystical underpinnings touching on reincarnation and the transmigration of spiritual energies.
| | | | | |  | The World Jewish Congress opened in Budapest Sunday, with hundreds of representatives of worldwide Jewish communities in attendance, even as Hungary has come under fire for rising anti-Semitism.
| | | | | |  | Greece's neo-Nazi Golden Dawn party has once again launched a vicious attack on a leading Jewish organization and has charged that the "Zionists" are in control of United States and Greek policy.
| | | | | |  | Hundreds of Jewish worshippers on Sunday completed an annual pilgrimage to Ghriba, Africa's oldest synagogue on the Tunisian island of Djerba.
| | | | | |  | A District Court judge ruled that the Reform-Jewish Kotel Women are not violating a High Court ruling when they pray with tallit prayer shawls and read from Torah scrolls in the women's section of the Kotel Plaza.
| | | | | |  | Jewish Agency Chairman Natan Sharansky was given a green light by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to pursue his plan for a permanent egalitarian prayer space at the Western Wall.
| | | | | |  | Australia's prime minister signed a declaration about combating anti-Semitism, saying the bigotry "pollutes our world right now."
| | | | | |  | The head of the security network for U.S. Jewish organizations said the community is "standing vigilant" following bombings at the Boston Marathon.
| | | | | |  | A rare find in Jerusalem: archaeologists have uncovered a ritual pool from the Second Temple era near a highway construction site.
| | | | | |  | The archbishop of Vienna, Cardinal Christoph Schonborn, has expressed opposition to suggestions of adding Jewish and Muslim high holidays to the list of official Austrian holidays.
| | | | | |  | | Following two years of decline, there was a "considerable escalation" in the level of violent acts and vandalism against Jews in 2012, according to the global anti-Semitism report for 2012. | | | | | |  | Holocaust survivors living in Israel say the country isn't doing enough to help them, and some are resorting to skipping meals and medicine.
| | | | | |  | About 45 percent of 1,900 Britons polled favored banning Jewish ritual slaughter and 38 percent said they favored banning non-medical circumcision.
| | | | | |  | President Obama cited the Israeli national anthem's invocation of an ancient Jewish longing for a homeland in his Passover message.
| | | | | |  | The Union of Jewish French Students sued Twitter for about $50 million for failing to honor a court ruling to identify users who posted anti-Semitic hate speech.
| | | | | | | | A string of anti-Semitic events and incidents have been recorded in Ukraine, Poland and Hungary in recent days.
| | | | | |  | At the opening of the Knesset session which will ratify the new government, Binyamin Netanyahu said that his objective as Prime Minister is to "ensure the future of the Jewish people" by ensuring the future of the State of Israel.
| | | | | | | | Prosecutors in Poland are investigating reports of the kosher slaughter of cow, which may have violated Polish law.
| | | | | |  | The Re-constructionist Rabbinical Association has elected an openly gay rabbi to lead the national rabbinic organization.
| | | | | |  | It's rare that an Orthodox rabbi chooses to omit an important Jewish ritual in his holiday celebrations.
| | | | | |  | A federal court judge rejected a Jewish attorney's request to exclude Jews from a jury involving a client facing charges of lying about joining the Taliban.
| | | | | |  | | The ritual dinner will take place in the old center of the town of Ribadavia on March 25, the first seder night, and is being organized by the municipality's tourism department in partnership with the Center for Medieval Studies. | | | | | |  | Every so often something comes around that manages to capture the spirit of Jewish tradition in a new and exciting way.
| | | | | |  | Finnish police have informed several members of the country's Jewish community that a neo-Nazi activist has been gathering information about them.
| | | | | |  | No matter what anyone says, you are "actually Jewish."
| | | | | | | | Belgium saw a 30-percent increase in the number of anti-Semitic complaints filed in 2012, according to a government agency.
| | | | | |  | An Israeli advocacy group filed a lawsuit seeking the recognition of all Orthodox conversions performed in Israel.
| | | | | | | | France saw an increase of 58 percent in anti-Semitic incidents in 2012 compared to the previous year, according to a report by the French Jewish community.
| | | | | |  | The Greek neo-Nazi Golden Dawn Party questioned the country marking International Holocaust Remembrance Day, calling it "unacceptable."
| | | | | |  | A synagogue in Siberia was lightly damaged by a meteorite that fell nearby.
| | | | | |  | The Anti-Defamation League posthumously honored Varian Fry, an American journalist responsible for aiding thousands of Jewish refugees during the Holocaust, with the Jan Karski 'Courage to Care' Award.
| | | | | | | | Ten women participating in a women's prayer service at the Western Wall, including Israeli-American Rabbi Susan Silverman, sister of the comedian Sarah Silverman, and her 17-year-old daughter were arrested for wearing prayer shawls.
| | | | | | | | Anti-Semitic incidents in Britain rose 5% over the previous year, making 2012 the third worst year on record.
| | | | | |  | | For many, the debate is largely a nominal question of principle, as legal workarounds afford French gays de facto equality in most areas | | | | | |  | Monday's event is planned for Drancy, a suburb of the French capital where tens of thousands of Jews were confined in 1942 before being transported to extermination camps during the German Nazi occupation.
| | | | | |  | | Celebrating what Israel's ambassador to Japan called a "miracle," Jews gathered at the opening and dedication of the metropolis' new Jewish ritual bath, the mikvah last week. | | | | | |  | Ex-prisoners and liberators of the Nazi death camp attended the ceremony on Sunday, International Holocaust Memorial Day, at the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum.
| | | | | | | | | "While this is a time for mourning and reflection, it is also the time for action," Obama said in the statement released Sunday. | | | | | | | | Amid the rise in hate crimes aimed at the Jewish community in France, the World Zionist Organization conducted a survey to calculate the level of anti-Semitism among French citizens
| | | | | |  | | In a statement, the Southern California school's board said the appointment of an Orthodox woman to head the institution was "groundbreaking." | | | | | | | | Anti-Semitism could destroy the history of French Jewry, the leader of France's Jewish communities said.
| | | | | |  | Polish prosecutors have launched an investigation into a Swedish artist's claims that he used the ashes of Holocaust victims in his artwork, an official said Tuesday.
| | | | | |  | | The "New Year for Trees" is the season in which the earliest-blooming trees in the Land of Israel emerge from their winter sleep and begin a new fruit-bearing cycle. | | | | | | | | Reform and secular groups filed a petition with the High Court Sunday, demanding the removal of Rabbi Shmuel Rabinovich as Rabbi of the Kotel and the Holy Places.
| | | | | |  | A cache of 1,000-year-old documents written by the Jewish community in Afghanistan provides unprecedented insight into medieval Jewish community in central Asia.
| | | | | | | | Hungary reportedly intends to raise pensions to Holocaust survivors by 50 percent in 2013, the 70th anniversary of the extermination of Hungarian Jewry.
| | | | | |  | The new party Am Shalem has taken a stance opposite the traditional hareidi parties, and is urging the hareidi community to change its stance on employment and the army.
| | | | | |  | | The nearly 3,000-year-old temple was unearthed by the Israel Antiquities Authority during excavations at the Tel Motza archaeological site west of Jerusalem. | | | | | |  | The University of Cambridge posted online thousands of pages from fragile religious manuscripts.
| | | | | |  | A French historical association plans to turn a graveyard near Strasbourg into France's first "interactive Jewish cemetery."
| | | | | |  | Israeli and Jewish officials in Denmark on Wednesday warned Jews to avoid openly wearing religious symbols and dress when moving about Copenhagen amid rising anti-Israeli sentiments.
| | | | | | | | President Barack Obama released his yearly message Friday, wishing Jewish people around the world a happy Hanukkah.
| | | | | |  | | Share tributes for friends and family, plant trees in Israel and set yahrzeit reminders on this new site that merges modern day technology with traditional Jewish rituals. | | | | | |  | The Tenth of Tevet is a Jewish fast day marking Nebuchadnezzar's siege of Jerusalem 2,500 years ago. What's the message for us today?
| | | | | |  | A Dutch Holocaust museum will hand out pieces of barbed wire from a Nazi concentration camp to visitors to be kept as souvenirs.
| | | | | |  | The Norwegian Police for the first time have apologized for rounding up Jews and sending them to their deaths during the Holocaust.
| | | | | |  | More than 20 gravestones were destroyed at the Jewish cemetery in Lodz, Poland.
| | | | | |  | | The IDF informed the High Court that it would begin drafting 18 year old Hareidi students beginning next summer. | | | | | |  | Seventy years ago Aryeh Sadeh’s life was saved thanks to Oskar Schindler, a German businessman who saved thousands of Jews during the Holocaust.
| | | | | |  | | The Torah scrolls were found in four Jewish centers that were destroyed during Hurricane Sandy in the seaside community of Belle Harbor, located in the New York City borough of Queens. | | | | | | | | The Western Wall is not Orthodox just as it is not Reform, the rabbi of the Western Wall, Shmuel Rabinowitz, said.
| | | | | | | | The number of anti-Semitic incidents in the United States declined by 13 percent in 2011, an annual audit of anti-Semitic incidents found.
| | | | | |  | The organizers of a Copenhagen event celebrating diversity asked Danish Jews refrain from displaying the Israeli flag "for security reasons."
| | | | | |  | It was the "Night of Broken Glass" in Germany, Kristallnacht, a national pogrom of death and destruction of Jewish property and the rounding up of Jews, and Dietrich Hamburger was in hiding.
| | | | | |  | | As Jews, we always look to the Torah for a deeper perspective. What light does the Torah shed on the wonderful trait of thankfulness? | | | | | |  | | Twenty Holocaust survivors belatedly celebrated their coming-of-age Monday in a moving Bar Mitzvah ceremony at the Western Wall. | | | | | |  | Anti-Israel attitudes in Norway may be fueling anti-Semitism there, the international security organization OSCE warned.
| | | | | |  | The seven-towered 538,000 square foot Jewish community center opens to the public this Sunday with a 10-hour schedule of events.
| | | | | |  | Our task on these eight nights is to rededicate the Temple, in our own times, in our own lives; each night illumines a new aspect of self, lighting a new alcove of our inner House of Holiness.
| | | | | |  | | What I learned from a guy who fell to earth from the edge of outer space at the speed of sound. | | | | | |  | "May the day come when all our enemies, who today are planning our destruction, will stand before us and hear our prayers and say 'Amen.'"
| | | | | |  | The IDF will begin to draft hareidi-religious 16 to 19-year-olds, but "will wait till after election" for 20 to 28 year olds, says Defense Minister Ehud Barak.
| | | | | |  | | Some 1 million American Jews, or one in 6 - are actively seeking Jewish expression and engagement outside of synagogue life, according to a new study. | | | | | |  | | The Anti-Defamation League withdrew from participating in a national Jewish-Christian interfaith dialogue after church leaders asked Congress to reevaluate U.S. military aid to Israel. | | | | | |  | | Unidentified assailants near Paris wounded a Jewish woman in her sukkah, one of three serious incidents in the last week and indicative of a reported 45 percent increase in anti-Semitic attacks in France in the first half of this year. | | | | | |  | | Finland's third largest party, True Finns, has demanded a ban on the ritual circumcision of minors. | | | | | |  | | A haredi Orthodox sect has pledged not to impose gender segregation in the streets of Jerusalem's Mea Shearim neighborhood. | | | | | |  | | The warnings come amid a recent push by the haredi Orthodox to keep their community away from the temptations of the outside world, notably the Internet. | | | | | |  | | On Kol Nidre, we sing for our lives. At the minyan where I pray, as a lay "shaliach tzibur," or service leader, I was asked to lead the singing this year, and I was starting to wonder if I was up to it. | | | | | |  | | At the height of rejoicing, one of the old soldiers, dancing with a Scroll of the Torah in his arms, puffed his shirt open, disclosing deep scars on his chest and shoulders, and sang, 'Torah, Torah, I love thee.' | | | | | |  | | Can ridding oneself of a year's sins really be as simple as tossing a piece of bread into the water? | | | | | |  | | Israeli President Shimon Peres in a Rosh Hashanah message called Diaspora Jews "full partners" with Israel. | | | | | | | | | In a Rosh Hashanah greeting, the president of the European Commission warned of a rise of racism and anti-Semitism in Europe. | | | | | |  | | The reservoir has an approximate capacity of 250 cubic meters, making it one of the largest water reservoirs from the First Temple period to be discovered in Jerusalem. | | | | | |  | | The IDF Rabbinate is purchasing 400 new shofars for use during the Hebrew months of Elul and Tishrei. | | | | | |  | | Berlin became the first of Germany's 16 states to declare the practice legal following a Cologne court ruling in June that non-medical circumcisions on children amounted to a criminal offense. | | | | | |  | | More than 1,000 Germans Jews and non-Jews formed a "flash mob" Saturday in response to a leading rabbi advising Jews to keep a low profile and not wear the head covering that singles out Jews. | | | | | |  | | The participants who gathered Sunday with Israeli flags at Sergels Torg, a square in the Swedish capital that often sees large demonstrations, sang the Israeli national anthem "Hatikvah." | | | | | |  | | Jewish and Muslim religious leaders from 18 European countries will gather in Paris this week to discuss the increasing prohibitions against religious practices in Europe. | | | | | | | | | After an attack on a rabbi in Berlin, Gideon Joffe, the head of the Berlin Jewish community, said he would "not recommend that any Jew go around in parts of Berlin with a kipah." | | | | | |  | | Seder Nashim, created in the 16th century by Rabbi Meir Benbenishti, was originally written in Ladino because most women in Europe who used it did not know Hebrew. | | | | | |  | Why is everything determined on an annual basis? Can’t an eternal and infinite God plan a little further in advance?
| | | | | |  | | A court in Bavaria is considering criminal charges of committing bodily harm against a local rabbi, in the first known case to arise from an anti-circumcision ruling in May. | | | | | |  | The ruling would affect Jews, Muslims and Sikhs, who would be forbidden to wear kippahs, hijabs, and turbans.
| | | | | |  | The false description of a Jewish circumcision in the mainstream Danish media: Untrained rabbis mutilating hysterical babies while black-clad men stand around praying.
| | | | | |  | | The enthralling discovery that Henry David Thoreau's ideas have their roots in Jewish consciousness. | | | | | | | | | A new edition of a user-friendly guide to making a modern Jewish wedding has changed its approach to same-sex weddings and liturgical options for ceremonies involving transgendered persons. | | | | | |  | People come to Shiloh because it was the first capital of the Jewish nation, it was a spiritual center where the Tabernacle - housing the ark, the menorah, the table, and everything needed to serve God was sitting.
| | | | | |  | | Twenty United States Congressmen have written to the German ambassador expressing “deep concern” over a recent court ruling banning circumcision of children. | | | | | |  | | Calls to create a partition between two sections of the Temple Mount, one for Jewish use and the other for Muslims, are gaining momentum, as police prepare to close off the Mount to Jews for five straight days. | | | | | |  | | Duke University has acquired a collection of the papers of Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel, including some items that have never been available to scholars. | | | | | | | | | Norway's ombudsman for children's rights has proposed that Jews and Muslim replace male circumcision with a symbolic, nonsurgical ritual. | | | | | |  | | A bipartisan bill that would ensure recognition of the plight of 850,000 Jewish refugees displaced from Arab countries since Israel's War of Independence in 1948 has been introduced to the U.S. Congress. | | | | | |  | | Remains of thousands of Jews massacred by the Romans on the Temple Mount during the destruction of the Second Temple may have been uncovered, says a veteran archaeological journalist. | | | | | |  | | Addressing a symposium on preventing genocide, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said that Holocaust denial and Israel criticism that crosses into anti-Semitism require vigilance. | | | | | | | | | Two hospitals in Switzerland decided to temporarily suspend circumcisions of infants unless it is medically required, following a German court ruling. | | | | | |  | | Torah Sage, head of the worldwide Lithuanian-hareidi yeshiva world, and leading Torah luminary of this generation, Rav Yosef Shalom ben Chaya Musha Elyashiv, passed away in Jerusalem at the age of 102. | | | | | |  | Dozens of elderly non-Jewish Poles who risked their lives to save Jews during the Holocaust were honored in Warsaw.
| | | | | |  | | As difficult as the dating scene can be for many men, it is often more challenging for the fairer sex, especially in the Jewish community. Here's why... | | | | | | | | | The Tzohar rabbinical organization, which helps to involve non-religious couples and their families in religious wedding ceremonies, is introducing a brit milah program. | | | | | |  | | The latest battle over religious pluralism in Israel has unleashed a new barrage of criticism and calls for reform aimed at the Orthodox-controlled Israeli Chief Rabbinate. | | | | | |  | | The Central Conference of American Rabbis, the rabbinic arm of the Reform movement,, does not have statistics on how many of its 2,000 Reform rabbis in North America officiate at intermarriages, but said it's about half. | | | | | |  | | A monumental synagogue building dating to the Late Roman period (around the 4th-5th centuries CE) has been discovered in archaeological excavations at Huqoq in the Galilee. | | | | | |  | | Like many European Jews whose survival of the Holocaust led them far afield, Zygmunt Mandel relates a gripping, heartbreaking tale. His final stop before attaining his ultimate destination, Israel, in 1943 is striking: India. | | | | | | | | | Germany's top Jewish leader called on the federal Parliament "to ensure religious freedom" following a Cologne court ruling that said circumcising young boys on religious grounds amounts to grievous bodily harm. | | | | | |  | Leaders of a given generation are only as great as the people of that generation.
| | | | | |  | | A Norwegian political party said it will seek to outlaw circumcision in Norway, claiming it should be "a criminal offense." | | | | | |  | | Hungarian Jews "feel increasing danger" in a country with a government that condones anti-Semitism, the president of Hungary's Jewish community said. | | | | | |  | | Israeli police detained a woman wearing a tallit at the Western Wall and later questioned her for four hours. | | | | | |  | | The Orthodox Union in formal comments expressed its concerns on pending Obama administration regulations mandating employer-sponsored health plans for contraceptives and sterilization. | | | | | |  | | Anti-Semitic incidents recorded in the Netherlands dropped by nine percent this year, according to the annual monitor report by the country's watchdog on anti-Semitism. | | | | | | | | | The chief rabbi of Amsterdam warned that an agreement allowing kosher slaughter in the Netherlands ultimately could ultimately eliminate the practice. | | | | | |  | | Anti-Israel and anti-Semitic graffiti was spray-painted on the Yad Vashem Holocaust museum in Jerusalem. | | | | | |  | Under the agreement signed Tuesday, animals can continue to be ritually slaughtered as long as they lose consciousness within 40 seconds of their throats being cut.
| | | | | |  | Jews living in Asia gathered near the Great Wall of China for the first-ever Limmud event in the world most populous nation.
| | | | | |  | The Rabbinical Assembly's Committee on Jewish Law and Standards, which sets halachic policy for the Conservative movement, voted unanimously to provide Conservative rabbis with guidelines on performing same-sex marriages.
| | | | | |  | | Haredi Orthodox extremists are suspected of causing irreparable damage to an ancient mosaic on the floor of a fourth century synagogue in Tiberias. | | | | | |  | | The rally to caution haredi Orthodox Jews about the dangers of the Internet drew a crowd of more than 40,000 men to Citi Field, most of them wearing black hats. | | | | | |  | The Maharal of Prague on Shavuot and the essence of man.
| | | | | |  | | Orthodox conversions in Israel are down by 31 percent over the past two years, according to a new report. | | | | | |  | | After a 34-year translation project, the Hebrew and Christian Bibles were published for the first time this week in an Eskimo language. | | | | | |  | | A new museum in Tel Aviv offers two fun-filled free days honoring the holiday of Shavuot, which is also celebrated as the 3,025th birthday of greatest Jewish king ever. | | | | | |  | A renowned philosopher and author who was sent to Auschwitz as a 10-year-old boy and spent five years in the death camp before his liberation in 1945, addresses the concept of belief in God after the Holocaust.
| | | | | |  | | Hundreds of Jews gathered on Tunisia's Djerba Island as part of a pilgrimage to the 2,500-year-old El Ghriba synagogue. | | | | | |  | Forget the red string. What exactly is Kabbalah?
| | | | | |  | The new center will welcome anyone interested in learning about the Jewish people, their culture, traditions and way of life.
| | | | | |  | | This small country took a barren desert, surrounded by enemies, and turned it into a lush land, wealthy in its values, and remarkable in its achievements for the region, and for the world. | | | | | |  | In the final analysis, Jewish history makes no rational sense.
| | | | | |  | The significance, customs and mechanics of counting the Omer.
| | | | | |  | | Gay and lesbian students will be ordained as Conservative rabbis in Israel. A seminary statement said the decision comes following a "long process." | | | | | |  | | President Obama will commemorate the Holocaust at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, less than a week after the official Holocaust Remembrance Day. | | | | | |  | A true "Jewish" story from the Titanic's ill-fated voyage.
| | | | | |  | | A delegation of Gypsies from Europe will participate in commemorations to be held on Holocaust Memorial Day this year. | | | | | |  | | Leaders of the Israeli Reform and Conservative movements sent a letter of complaint to the Israeli government charging that Israeli hotels discriminate against non-Orthodox Jews. | | | | | |  | | Hundreds of Jews from Israel and around the world celebrated Passover this year by returning to the desert that was the site of the Jewish people's wandering after leaving Egypt. | | | | | |  | | A team of volunteers started the Passover season last month packing goods for delivery to Jewish soldiers around the country and serving overseas. | | | | | |  | | A monument to victims of the Holocaust was dedicated in Puerto Rico, in front of the Puerto Rico Capitol Building. | | | | | |  | Most ex-mobsters don’t keep kosher or observe Shabbat - but then, most ex-mobsters don't convert to Judaism in prison, or go on to donate their time speaking to Jewish educators.
| | | | | |  | | Slovakia sent a train from its Poprad station to Auschwitz to commemorate the first transport of Slovak Jews, in 1942. | | | | | |  | | Jewish organizations hosted a Seder for members of Congress to highlight the importance of fighting hunger in America. | | | | | | | | An Israeli hotel denied the use of a Torah scroll to a group that intended to use it in a mixed-gender service.
| | | | | |  | Discussing the relationship between Israel and Diaspora Jews, Israeli writer A.B. Yehoshua at a public lecture called American Jews "partial Jews."
| | | | | |  | The stranger-than-fiction true story of Swami Vijayananda.
| | | | | |  | | Anti-Semitic incidents in Switzerland have reached their highest number since 2003, and many of them were considered "grave." | | | | | |  | The Year 1 prototype is the first silver shekel struck in Jerusalem by Jewish forces rebelling against the Romans.
| | | | | |  | | A new study found that Jews are the most internationally migratory of all the world's major religious groups. More than 3.6 million Jews are international migrants. | | | | | |  | | Israel's chief rabbis and other senior rabbis have called on Jews not to visit the Temple Mount because it is against Jewish law. | | | | | |  | | French Prime Minister Francois Fillon advised Muslims and Jews to forego ritual slaughter practices he deems un-modern, sparking controversy. | | | | | |  | | The dedication of a new Torah scroll is always a cause for celebration. But for the small yet proud Jewish community in South Korea, such a dedication Sunday meant so much more. | | | | | |  | The street corner was busy. Too busy. There was certainly no place for God in this scene.
| | | | | | | | Unsurprisingly, the UN has not said a thing. But why is the Israeli ombudsman's report on the Temple Mount still hidden from the public?
| | | | | |  | Members of the Berlin Philharmonic will perform at the opening of an exhibition at New York University showcasing portraits of Auschwitz survivor, David Friedman.
| | | | | |  | How do the Jewish, and especially chassidic, mystical teachings regard marijuana as a way of getting closer to God?
| | | | | |  | | Not all IKEA's are made equal. In Israel, the chain's trademark in-store restaurants are kosher. | | | | | |  | Religious freedom is a precious thing, and we shouldn't be too quick to renounce it for the Muslims, since we could be tightening our own noose.
| | | | | |  | | Members of the Minnesota Rabbinical Association have signed a statement opposing a state ballot initiative that would ban same-sex marriages. | | | | | |  | Believed to be the first of its kind, an online Spanish yeshiva offers daily classes where participants can ask questions and receive instructor responses in real time.
| | | | | |  | Religious freedom is at risk in Sweden, where the government is trying to force Chabad emissaries to send their children to public school.
| | | | | |  | | A prominent Orthodox rabbi in Toronto has condemned the latest book by celebrity Rabbi Shmuley Boteach and pronounced it is "forbidden" for anyone to buy or read it. | | | | | |  | When I woke up on Shabbos morning, I had to make one of the most important decisions of my life...
| | | | | |  | | Two Orthodox groups protested the Obama administration's decision to require some religiously affiliated institutions to cover contraception as part of their employee health plans. | | | | | |  | Reports began surfacing last month that an exceptionally rare collection of ancient Judaic manuscripts, some of them dating back more than a millennia, were discovered in a cave in northeastern Afghanistan.
| | | | | | | | | The suspension of Amsterdam's chief rabbi for signing a statement on "curing" homosexuality is "verging on fascism," a committee of Orthodox Jews told a Dutch newspaper. | | | | | |  | | The chief rabbi of Amsterdam was suspended from his position for signing the "Declaration On The Torah Approach To Homosexuality." | | | | | |  | | A British nun who saved dozens of Jews in Rome during the Holocaust has been advanced on the road to sainthood. | | | | | |  | Why was the most important quote of the year "Oh wow, oh wow, oh wow"?
| | | | | |  | There is no gentle way to tell the story of what happened during World War II in this small Bavarian town.
| | | | | |  | | An explosive thrown through the window of a New Jersey synagogue and residence is being treated as attempted murder, a Bergen County prosecutor said. | | | | | |  | What is behind the most famous Jewish prayer?
| | | | | |  | | While Jews were deported in WWII, Holland's government looked on. The Queen was too busy. Dutch parties are still undecided about apology. | | | | | | | | | The European Centre for Jewish Students concerned over new study which finds a 17% increase in intermarriage among European students. | | | | | |  | | A bill that would allow couples wishing to marry to register with any rabbinate in the country passed a preliminary Knesset reading. The new law also would be a boon to converts to Judaism. | | | | | |  | Corrections officers in the Russian metropolis joined Jewish community officials in dedicating a synagogue in the city's newly opened Yablonevka Prison.
| | | | | |  | A tiny clay seal that likely certified the purity of ritual objects used in the Second Temple was discovered in an excavation near the Temple Mount.
| | | | | |  | Some 700 people lit Chanukah menorahs simultaneously at a suburban New York synagogue in a bid to break a world record.
| | | | | |  | | The roads of Samaria, so often poorly lit throughout the year, will glow this week with the giant public Jewish menorahs used for the Festival of Lights. | | | | | |  | | US President Barack Obama issued his well-wishes to world Jewry on Tuesday to mark the occasion of the lighting of the first Hannukah light in 2011. | | | | | | | | The Rabbinical Council of America said it will not take a position on so-called reparative therapy for gays.
| | | | | | | | | A bill to ban ritual slaughter was withdrawn by the Dutch Senate days before a scheduled vote. | | | | | | | | | A rabbinic leader has quit the Conservative rabbinical seminary in Israel, reportedly over its policies toward gay students. | | | | | |  | Guests can watch twinkling angels scale a ladder in the sky, and decipher Egyptian hieroglyphics, all before stepping through the Sea of Reeds and into Mt. Sinai Experience Theater, where a rotating 10-foot turntable frames a 3-D story of Moses' life.
| | | | | |  | | Israeli Chief Sephardic Rabbi Shlomo Amar slammed Hillary Clinton for the U.S. secretary of state's criticism of the haredi Orthodox establishment in Israel's treatment of women. | | | | | |  | The Chabad-Lubavitch run Aleph House, gives civilians and soldiers a Jewish base while they're away from home.
| | | | | | | | Since the genders are different, it would be counterproductive to force them to conduct themselves identically.
| | | | | |  | Allen Small, 83, and Leon Bakst, 86 were honored for the extraordinary measures they took in resisting the Nazis.
| | | | | |  | | College students who were intimidated by the substantial price of the ritual item are being assisted financially through a new campaign. | | | | | |  | | A rare collection of stamps, letters, ID cards and other documents of the Nazi era was donated to the Los Angeles Museum of the Holocaust. | | | | | | | | | An Orthodox rabbi, Steve Greenberg, who is openly gay, officiated at a same-sex wedding. | | | | | | | | | Faced with a full-on media blitz by the Royal Dutch Medical Association to sway public opinion against the ritual circumcision of infants, Dutch Chief Rabbi Jacobs is choosing a cautious route in response. | | | | | |  | | Two new films have been uploaded to the virtual cinema site of the Spielberg Archive - one depicting scenes from the Warsaw Ghetto, and the second showing the first settlements along the Dead Sea. | | | | | |  | | Jewish groups have joined Christian and gay advocacy groups in condemning an Islamic scholar in Canada for making anti-Jewish and anti-gay statements. | | | | | |  | | More than six decades after Nazi forces and sympathizers destroyed the New Synagogue of Konigsberg during the Kristallnacht series of pogroms, the Jewish community will rebuild the 1896 edifice. | | | | | |  | | Can the finite mind of man actually grasp the infinite wisdom hidden within each Jewish law? | | | | | |  | The brother's story, though particularly dramatic, is typical of Jewish families separated by the corrosive effects of Nazism and Communism.
| | | | | |  | | Jewish and Muslim clergy, along with scholars, will meet to talk about halachah and shariah, the religious laws of their faiths. | | | | | | | | For millennium of exile, Jews always turned toward Jerusalem. What memory were they eager to preserve?
| | | | | |  | | A group of European rabbis has called on the pope to condemn the latest anti-Semitic remarks by a Holocaust-denying Catholic bishop. | | | | | |  | According to leading Hebrew University of Jerusalem archeologist Dr. Eilat Mazar, compelling evidence of the Bible’s depiction of the reign of King Solomon has been found.
| | | | | |  | | "The site of Auschwitz-Birkenau, where over 1 million Jews were murdered during the Shoah, has become a key symbol of the Holocaust and of absolute evil." | | | | | |  | | The haredi Orthodox Jerusalem neighborhood of Mea Shearim will require gender separation on city streets during Sukkot, apparently ignoring an Israeli Supreme Court order. | | | | | |  | Our world has become so consumed with ostentation and extravagance. Sukkot teaches us the lesson of desire.
| | | | | |  | | Israel is spending Friday preparing for Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the Jewish year. Police have upped their alert across the country, particularly near synagogues. | | | | | |  | | Joseph's Tomb was vandalized with swastikas and other graffiti. Israeli soldiers discovered the damage early Thursday, shortly before more than 1,000 Jewish worshipers came to pray at the tomb. | | | | | | | | | The number of anti-Semitic incidents in the United States increased for the first time since 2004, according to the Anti-Defamation League's annual audit. | | | | | | | | | California Gov. Jerry Brown signed a bill that prevents the state's municipalities from banning male circumcision. | | | | | |  | | Ukraine marked the 70th anniversary of the massacre at Babi Yar, one of the deadliest of the Holocaust. | | | | | |  | | Pope Benedict XVI sent out a High Holidays message auguring peace, justice and friendship in the Jewish New Year. | | | | | |  | | Israeli officials have upgraded beach facilities at the Dead Sea to cater to the needs of the observant Jewish public. Beginning Monday, men and women who wish to swim separately can do so in style. | | | | | |  | | Internet users can now view the Dead Sea Scrolls online. | | | | | |  | | President Obama discussed the Middle East and education policy in a pre-Rosh Hashanah call with rabbis. | | | | | |  | | It is vital that future generations understand that in spite of the survivors' harrowing experience during the Holocaust they maintained their spirit, embraced their Jewish identity and never lost hope. | | | | | |  | Elijah the Prophet showed me what it means to be a Jewish princess.
| | | | | |  | Hundreds in Albania joined together to dedicate a Torah scroll. Locals believe this is the first time the Jewish community in Tirana has done so since World War II.
| | | | | |  | | Hundreds of New Yorkers will band together Sept. 29 to hear the 100 traditional blasts from a ram’s horn as they unite with fellow Jews for a special Rosh Hashanah moment amidst the surroundings of Central Park. | | | | | |  | | A Jewish burial society in Australia is believed to be the first in the world to offer live web streaming of funerals over the Internet. | | | | | |  | | A mikvah uncovered during construction will be restored in a museum as the oldest testament to Jewish life in Holland to date. | | | | | | | | Top Jewish clergy joined a religious gathering to combat Islamophobia as the 10th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks nears.
| | | | | |  | | John Lennon and the Jews is intentionally provocative and compulsively readable: two massive virtues in themselves. It is also problematic. | | | | | |  | | Jews who had to leave Greece during World War II can now reclaim their Greek citizenship. | | | | | |  | A new Sefer Torah has been dedicated by the Jewish community in Geneva, Switzerland in the name of kidnapped Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit.
| | | | | |  | | Vandals have defaced the monument in the eastern Polish town of Jedwabne that commemorates the hundreds of Jews burned alive in a barn there by their Polish neighbors in July 1941. | | | | | |  | | Understanding God's manifestations in both male and female imagery, we can begin to unify our connection to the transcendence reality. | | | | | |  | | The son of a Jewish woman and an Arab man struggles with his identity. A true story. | | | | | |  | | More than 300 people who survived the Holocaust as children are meeting in Warsaw - a first for Poland. | | | | | |  | | Napoleon was the only government leader that gave Jews equality when most other nations kept them in bondage. | | | | | |  | Chabad-Lubavitch emissary Rabbi Yaacov Gaissinovitch last week presided over the 4,500th circumcision he has carried out in the Ukraine.
| | | | | |  | State legislative leaders from both the majority and opposition parties unveiled a permanent display for the Parliament of New South Wales' prized silver Chanukah menorah.
| | | | | |  | | Yeshiva University's graduate school of Jewish studies will award a doctorate in Talmud to a woman, Shana Strauch Schick, for the first time. | | | | | |  | | The litmus test of "spirituality" is morality. Any form of "spirituality" that makes no moral demands on a human being, that does not seek to bring him closer to God, or bring out the Divine potential of man, is bogus or evil spirituality. | | | | | |  | | The revised measure turned the state's kosher law into a labeling and disclosure law; all food labeled as kosher must contain information about the person giving the kosher certification. | | | | | |  | The disintegration of the American Jewish community and how to reverse it.
| | | | | |  | | The rules on the Temple Mount are unique for Jews. Police have barred a group of women who allegedly broke the rules and sang. | | | | | |  | | Facebook, citing free speech, has rejected a request by Holocaust survivors to remove some pages that espouse Holocaust denial. | | | | | |  | | The naming of a Jewish child is a most profound spiritual moment. The Sages say that naming a baby is a statement of her character, her specialness, and her path in life. | | | | | |  | | From the Holocaust to the Israeli flag, what is the deeper meaning of this six-pointed Jewish symbol? | | | | | |  | | An American Orthodox Jewish man reportedly bought the diaries of notorious Nazi war criminal Josef Mengele in a controversial auction. | | | | | |  | The Jewish religion provides a beautifully structured approach to mourning which is divided into five stages.
| | | | | |  | | The writings of Auschwitz's "Angel of Death," Dr. Josef Mengele, are for sale by auction. | | | | | |  | | Restoration work in the old Jewish Quarter of Vilnius, Lithuania led to an emotional discovery - the finding of the site of the Holy Ark of the Great Synagogue of Vilnius. | | | | | |  | A synagogue in the Otradnaya district in north Moscow suffered minor damage after unknown assailants threw six Molotov cocktails at the structure.
| | | | | |  | | My experience preparing the deceased for Jewish burial. | | | | | |  | | Historic breakthrough: Six centuries after their forcible conversion, a leading hareidi rabbi rules a Spanish island's Chuetas are Jews. | | | | | |  | | It is often the physical aspect of a ritual that not only adds to but impresses on us the importance of the ritual, so that we remember it long after the ritual is over. That is what Jewish hand signs are all about. | | | | | |  | | What put shechitah, or kosher slaughter, in the crosshairs was an unlikely convergence between animal rights activists and Holland's far-right, anti-Muslim movement. | | | | | |  | | A Jewish view of Heaven and Hell. | | | | | |  | | One of the few surviving anti-Nazi leaflets from Munich University in World War II is to be presented by Britain to the British Holocaust Center this week. | | | | | | | | | Those who deny Jews or Israel their freedom will lose, or fail to gain, their own. | | | | | |  | | On Monday afternoon, as authorities ordered a full-fledged evacuation for Los Alamos - site of the nation's nuclear weapons research facility. Officials warned that the flames were far from under control. | | | | | |  | | With today's high cost of burial - casket, tombstone, plot of land, many are opting for cremation. What is the Jewish position? | | | | | | | | | Colorado will end Medicaid coverage for routine circumcisions on July 1. The measure was announced as part of a package of cuts aimed at balancing the state budget. | | | | | |  | Jews and Muslims have teamed up in San Francisco to file a petition to block a measure that would ban circumcision of male children. Both faiths carry out the practice.
| | | | | |  | | More than a dozen graves at the Mount of Olives cemetery in Jerusalem were vandalized, the latest in a series of attacks on one of Judaism's oldest cemeteries. | | | | | |  | Yale University is launching a new program for the study of anti-Semitism, the school's provost said in a statement.
| | | | | |  | | One of the most ancient tales from the Torah has been illuminated in the newest style of CGI animation to form a three-dimensional world where characters and cities exist in an animated platform on the computer. | | | | | |  | A select group of suburbanites is putting the Jewish Bible to the test by reviewing an as-yet unreleased new version with a broad-based commentary as part of their regular Torah study sessions.
| | | | | |  | A growing number of transgender Jews are opening up about their status, taking leadership roles in the synagogue and trying to carve out a place in the Jewish community for those who fall outside the standard definitions of male and female.
| | | | | | | | | A controversial vote will take place in Holland's parliament which could determine the future of Dutch Jewry as one party proposes that religious slaughter without stunning the animal first be outlawed. A Jewish and a Muslim delegation will speak on the issue. | | | | | |  | | In the course of routine refurbishing work, a Dutch woman found two mezuzah scrolls wrapped one inside the other in her house. Realizing this was a significant find, she set out to find who had put them there. | | | | | |  | | The Tunisian government forces patrol the capital's streets each night, and search anyone who is out after curfew. The security situation has put a damper in Shavuot plans for the Jewish community. | | | | | |  | Legislation currently on the desk of Texas Gov. Rick Perry would protect the freedom of Jewish homeowners to follow the Torah's injunction to "write [these words] upon the doorposts of thy house and on thy gates."
| | | | | |  | South African Jews recently welcomed a new arrival to the synagogue in Johannesburg’s Hyde Park suburb, greeting the "immigrant" from Israel with joyous singing, dancing and a lavish meal.
| | | | | |  | | God may chastise angels for singing at the drowning of the Egyptian army. But God does not chastise Moses and the Children of Israel for singing at the Egyptians' drowning. | | | | | |  | President Obama participated in a wreath-laying ceremony at the memorial to the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising in Poland's capital city.
| | | | | |  | The Conservative movement ordained its first openly gay rabbi during ceremonies at the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York.
| | | | | |  | | Why for thousands of years has there has been so much attention paid to Jews? And why, today to Israel, the one Jewish state? | | | | | |  | Venezuela's largest Jewish advocacy group has protested to the government a state-run radio broadcast that positively referenced the anti-Semitic "Protocols of the Elders of Zion."
| | | | | |  | | Bay Area medical professionals and clerics have mobilized against attempts by a local anti-circumcision group to enact a citywide ban against the practice. | | | | | |  | The "Arbeit Macht Frei" sign stolen from Auschwitz and cut into three pieces has been repaired after it was stolen from the former Nazi concentration camp.
| | | | | | | | A measure seeking to ban male circumcision will appear on the November ballot in San Francisco.
| | | | | |  | | President Obama hosted a reception for Jewish American Heritage Month, in which he reiterated his "unshakeable support and commitment to the security of the State of Israel." | | | | | |  | Memphis' Jewish community is pitching in to help neighbors inundated by several weeks of major rain storms and flooding.
| | | | | |  | | My journey through the camps showed me that my challenge is not to walk proudly into a gas chamber. My challenge is to pray even on the days when it seems like there is nothing to pray for. | | | | | |  | | It's not every day that you see a group of men soaring high above the Seattle skyline, donning the Jewish prayer boxes known as tefillin while anxiously prepping for their very first skydiving jump together. | | | | | |  | The umbrella organization for Jews in Norway is opposing a proposed amendment that would ban ritual circumcision on boys younger than 15.
| | | | | |  | | The World Memory Project is building the world's largest online database of information on victims of the Holocaust and asks the public to provide information on victims of the Holocaust. | | | | | |  | | Is it inappropriate to be celebrating the death of Osama Bin Laden? Is that a Jewish value? | | | | | |  | | Some lesser-known facts, odd alliances, and daring rescues during the Third Reich. | | | | | |  | President Obama emphasized Jewish military service in his proclamation naming May as Jewish American History Month.
| | | | | |
|  | | The Academy of Jewish Religion in Riverdale is set to ordain Kaya Stern-Kaufman, 47, under the title of "Rabba." | | | | | |  | | After the murder of Ben Yosef Livnat and the attack on three other Israelis, the IDF said visitors should visit the tomb "in the coordinated entries and not independently, because the dangers are clear." | | | | | |  | Congregation Beth David in San Luis Obispo, Calif., says it must raise $1.3 million by May 5 or the bank will foreclose on its $3.3 million loan. The building would be put up for auction on May 17.
| | | | | |  | Arsonists broke into Corfu's only synagogue and burned the community's prayer books and torah scrolls Tuesday morning.
| | | | | |  | President Obama in his Passover message "prayed for peace" for Israel while calling for the alleviation of injustice against those "not yet free" in the Middle East.
| | | | | |  | | Find VirtualJerusalem's Afiko-Man and win an awesome prize! | | | | | |  | | That God is not doing well in the Western world may trouble God. But it is we humans who should be most troubled. | | | | | |  | Some 5,500 Ethiopian immigrants will celebrate the seder together in 16 absorption centers throughout Israel.
| | | | | |  | | What does it take to organize the world's biggest Passover seder? 130 kilos of matza, 3,000 hard boiled eggs, 100 kilos of haroset, and 2,000 portions of gefilte fish. | | | | | |  | | Nearly 1,000 Jewish books were rescued from the rubble of what was New Zealand’s largest Hebrew library, Chabad house in Christchurch . | | | | | |  | Anti-Semitism in Canada is on the rise, and much of it has gone digital, according to the latest audit by B'nai Brith Canada.
| | | | | | | | | Holland appears set to enact a ban this week on shechita, the practice of kosher ritual slaughter. | | | | | |  | | Passover is coming and I have entirely missed the point. | | | | | |  | | With Passover quickly approaching, members of the devastated nation’s small Jewish community are making plans to celebrate the holiday’s signature Seder meals in Tokyo. | | | | | |  | The synagogue in the Russian capital's Detention Center No. 2, known as Butyrskaya prison, is the fifth operating in the country's prisons.
| | | | | |  | | The Committee for the Sabbath will meet to discuss El Al's new arrangement in which flights leaving on Shabbat use El Al planes and crews, but are officially registered as Arkia or Israir flights. | | | | | |  | | Israel's Chief Rabbinate has suspended interfaith dialogue between Jewish and Muslim religious leaders in Israel until terror attacks on Israel are denounced. | | | | | |  | | A New York synagogue apologized to its members for screening a video about the murders of five members of the Fogel family in the West Bank settlement of Itamar. | | | | | |  | | A Dutch-German Holocaust survivor promotes a boycott of Israel on his speaking tour in which he states that life for a Jew in occupied Holland was "better than life for a Palestinian in the West Bank." | | | | | |  | Jewish relief efforts in Japan are focusing on the hard-hit city of Sendai, keeping two shelters in the coastal port stocked with food and distributing fresh bread from a local bakery.
| | | | | |  | | Out of nowhere, in the middle of a war zone in Southern Lebanon, this little IDF fortress suddenly came alive with the spirit of Purim. | | | | | |  | | Purim teaches us how to relate to God in a time when seas don't split, when bushes don't burn, when plagues don't befall our enemies. | | | | | |  | Pro-Israel and Jewish organizations in a German city are fighting back against a local group that used images of bloody oranges to call for a boycott of Israeli products.
| | | | | |  | | Purim is our paradigm for how to respond to murderous designs against us - to resolutely come closer to God and to each other. | | | | | |  | Purim is about costumes, outrageous Purim spiels and drinking until you can't tell the difference between Mordechai and Haman. Or is it?
| | | | | | | | | The horrific attack in Itamar is a wake up call to the entire Jewish people. | | | | | |  | | Scientists found that those with anti-Semitic tendencies also were likely to be xenophobic against Muslims, and resentful of homosexuals and women. | | | | | |  | Macedonia inaugurated a memorial center dedicated to the country's Jewish Holocaust victims.
| | | | | |  | A number of Jewish groups have expressed concern at congressional hearings on terrorism that focus on Islam.
| | | | | | | | Israel and UNESCO have signed an agreement to promote Holocaust education and combat its denial.
| | | | | |  | | How does one experience great joy on what for me is the saddest day of the year? | | | | | |  | | While the closing paragraphs to this famous essay by Mark Twain are wide and well known, few have read the entire piece. | | | | | |  | Two Torah scrolls buried under the rubble of the Chabad house in Christchurch, New Zealand, have been saved.
| | | | | |  | | A closer look at the process of creating Jewish families through adoption. | | | | | |  | The latest bit of Jewish technology to help the absent-minded was born of a need for compassion: meet the iYarzheit.
| | | | | |  | | The Foreign Ministry's instructional system will bring every new ambassador and cadet who is accepted to the Foreign Ministry to visit the Cave of Patriarchs in Hevron. | | | | | |  | Dozens of North American Orthodox rabbis protested to Israel's Interior Ministry following reports that converts under Orthodox auspices are being denied the right to immigrate.
| | | | | |  | Germany's first newly built Reform synagogue since World War II was dedicated during ceremonies in the city of Hameln.
| | | | | | | | What is it about this name Sha-dai that affords protection and gives us strength when facing the world?
| | | | | | | | If the legislation passes, it would make Holland the first European Union country to ban kosher slaughtering.
| | | | | |  | | As many as 10,000 Jews who escaped to Japan during WWII owe their salvation to the actions of one man and his wife, who defied everything but their own morals to save lives. | | | | | |  | Among the 377 new IDF officers who received their ranks in a festive ceremony yesterday are 18 females and 83 religious officers.
| | | | | |  | The Baltimore Sun reports that a mikveh ritual bath found under the Lloyd Street Synagogue in Baltimore is believed to be the oldest in the United States.
| | | | | |  | The completion of the first Torah scroll inked from beginning to end in South Africa has stirred massive pride for dwindling Jewish communities once thought forsaken.
| | | | | |  | In initial statements, Jewish groups congratulated Egyptians on ousting Hosni Mubarak and expressed hope for continued peace with Israel.
| | | | | |  | According to Kabbalah, the Shovavim period is an especially fortuitous time for rectifying sexual transgressions such as adultery, pornography addiction, etc.
| | | | | |  | A Holocaust survivors' organization praised the Catholic Church for changing a new English translation of the Bible to eliminate the word 'holocaust.'
| | | | | |  | Prominent scientists show the efficacy of trust in God to treat anxiety.
| | | | | |  | Holocaust survivors are set to picket a golf tournament in South Florida sponsored by the international insurance company Allianz.
| | | | | |  | U.S. Sen. Joe Lieberman is writing a book on the benefits of the Sabbath.
| | | | | |  | Hitler's Eastern front military headquarters in central Ukraine will be turned into a museum.
| | | | | |  | Some 150 Mideast Muslim leaders, as well as Jewish clergy and Christian representatives, visited Auschwitz together.
| | | | | |  | Gangs in Tunisia set a synagogue on fire, which burned a Torah scroll, and damaged Jewish-owned cars Monday night as chaos and sabotage began to break out after the revolution two weeks ago.
| | | | | |  | New Brazilian President Dilma Russeff said at a Holocaust Remembrance Day ceremony that "The Holocaust is not and will never be just a historic moment."
| | | | | |  | Turkey held its first state ceremony in memory of the victims of the Holocaust.
| | | | | |  | Heavy snow in New York caused the postponement of a special U.N. General Assembly meeting commemorating International Holocaust Day.
| | | | | |  | | "The State of Israel has come to understand that a strong Jewish Diaspora is a strategic asset for Israel. We are losing 500 Jews a day to assimilation," warned the Jewish Agency Director-General. | | | | | | | | A joint project between Yad Vashem and Google will make public access to Nazi-era documents and photographs easier.
| | | | | | | | Anti-Semitism around the world appears to be strengthening, despite fewer incidents in 2010, according to a new report.
| | | | | |  | UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called the Holocaust "the darkest chapter in history" at a synagogue service remembering the victims.
| | | | | |  | | The Talmud will be translated for the first time into Italian thanks to an official collaboration between the Italian government and the Italian Jewish community. | | | | | |  | | The Yad Vashem Holocaust Museum in Jerusalem has been is now using youtube to fight Holocaust denial in Persian. | | | | | |  | A neo-Nazi group of white supremacists posted a list of "influential" Italian Jews to its website. One Italian official said the list "reminds us of the most shameful page in our history."
| | | | | |  | The extraordinary metamorphosis of Hitler's nephew's grandson.
| | | | | |  | Anti-Semitic vandals in Quebec went on a rampage Sunday and targeted four synagogues and a school, causing thousands of dollars in damage.
| | | | | | | | The Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp attracted some 1.38 million visitors in 2010.
| | | | | |  | A liberal Orthodox rabbinic group in the United States voted down a proposal to admit women members.
| | | | | |  | | Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has extended a moratorium on a civil conversion bill for another six months. | | | | | |  | Most haredim tend to see it as advantageous to them to live settlements in segregated from the general Israeli public, in pure haredi towns.
| | | | | |  | | It may make Dr. Hawking feel better referring to the infinite Creator of the universe as "the laws of nature," but from where I come from, most people call this "God." | | | | | |  | | The practice of gender segregation may continue on bus lines serving the Orthodox community, known as "Mehadrin" lines, as long as passengers are not coerced and no violence erupts. | | | | | |  | A Southern California synagogue is having its third annual “blessing of the animals in honor of Tu b’Shevat, the 15th day of Nissan.
| | | | | |  | One chazan adapts the Kabbalat Shabbat Friday night service to the melodies of John Lennon and Paul McCartney.
| | | | | |  | Jewish marathon runners are racing to complain about the timing of the Chicago Marathon, which is set for the day after Yom Kippur.
| | | | | |  | A bomb threat to an NYC synagogue was discovered the same day a state report declared that hate crimes against Jews rose significantly.
| | | | | |  | "We, rabbis of the Israel Movement for Progressive Judaism, oppose interfaith marriages, but consider professional and social contacts between all of Israel's residents to be positive, regardless of race, religion or sex."
| | | | | |  | More than two dozen Israeli rabbis' wives have signed a letter urging Jewish women not to date or work with Arab men.
| | | | | |  | A major publisher of Jewish books is moving into the digital age while trying to strike a balance between technology and Jewish observance.
| | | | | |  | A Manhattan judge has ruled that an original copy of Schindler's List can be sold.
| | | | | |  | The Aliyah of the Falash Mura from Ethiopia to Israel is being delayed because of an outbreak of chicken pox at the transition camp in Gondar.
| | | | | |  | After discovering that an anti-Israel group was planning to run Israeli War Crimes" ads on buses running through downtown Seattle, the response has been overwhelming.
| | | | | |  | | It is estimated that there are some 6.5 million people in the United States who are either Jewish by religion or who self-identify as Jewish. The figure represents a 20 percent increase in the number of Jews since 1990. | | | | | | | | The Yad VaShem Holocaust Memorial Project has succeeded in identifying four million of the estimated six million Jews murdered in the Holocaust.
| | | | | |  | | A large part of Hungarian society, both Jewish and non-Jewish, is convinced that anti-Semitism has increased in Hungary since the fall of communism. | | | | | |  | Authorities in Alexandria are preparing plans to restore the Egyptian city's historic Eliyahu Hanavi synagogue.
| | | | | |  | Prince Harry of Great Britain visited the Holocaust memorial and museum while in Berlin for a children's charity benefit.
| | | | | |  | | The main cause of increasing hostility to Jews is “anti-Semitism among Dutchmen of Moroccan descent.” The Dutch Parliament will meet to discuss the issue. | | | | | |  | The ancient synagogue on top of Masada celebrated the completion of the first Torah scroll to be written on the historic mountaintop in 2,000 years.
| | | | | | | | Germany will donate $80 million to the Auschwitz-Birkenau Foundation,to preserve and restore the memorial at the site of the Nazi concentration camp.
| | | | | |  | A new synagogue was opened in Kiev this week. The prayer center was built in honor of a fallen IDF naval commando.
| | | | | |  | A new internal tourism initiative brings groups of secular Jews to hareidi-religious neighborhoods and homes, smashing stereotypes and creating new bonds among Jewish groups that drifted apart over centuries.
| | | | | |  | If an elite brand is about lifestyle and excellence and a success worth coveting, then Judaism is not just a nation and not just a religion; it's also a brand, probably the greatest brand in the history of mankind.
| | | | | |  | The idea of opening the rabbinical seminary is to train liberal halachic rabbis who will be well suited to meet the needs of Canadian Jewry.
| | | | | |  | World Jewish Congress officials met with Pope Benedict XVI and separately with senior Italian officials, praising Italy for its support of Israel.
| | | | | |  | When you get right down to it, the military’s dog tag classification forced me to reclaim my Judaism.
| | | | | |  | Amendment 205 is the clause that would have required that all meat and meat products that are kosher slaughtered to be pejoratively labeled as "meat from slaughter without stunning."
| | | | | |  | "If we experience a drought for two months, God is saying something."
| | | | | |  | An Aboriginal man re-enacted his great-grandfather's 1938 march to the German Consulate in Melbourne -- the only known private protest against the Kristallnacht pogrom.
| | | | | |  | A retail chain in Japan has removed a Nazi costume from its shelves after a Jewish group requested its withdrawal.
| | | | | |  | A Nazi memorabilia collector was found guilty of desecrating Jewish graves with swastikas in a Chicago cemetery.
| | | | | |  | The German capital erected a Menorah at the Brandenburg Gate, once a symbol of Nazi power.
| | | | | |  | Close to 50 members of Amish Christian communities in the U.S.and Switzerland visited Israel last week to apologize to the Jewish People. "You were God’s people long before we were."
| | | | | |  | | The first Shabbat service in 50 years was held at a synagogue in Australia's outback. | | | | | |  | Posters warning Parisiens to beware the "Jewish Mafia" (La Mafia Juive’) have been plastered all over the French capital..
| | | | | |  | Jewcology is the first internet portal of its kind. Its goal is to tackle environmental issues through Jewish tradition.
| | | | | | | | New Zealand’s Jewish community has won an 11th-hour agreement from the government to allow the kosher slaughter of poultry.
| | | | | |  | After decades of steady decline, the total number of Jews in the world increased slightly in 2010.
| | | | | |  | In today's hostility to Israel, scholarship, archeology, sociology and history is the new means in an old war. Jewish history is being quietly airbrushed away.
| | | | | | | | Conservative leaders met last month for an outreach workshop focused on sensitizing Conservative educators to the needs of children who have non-Jewish family members.
| | | | | | | | The state's Department of Agriculture and Markets will eliminate the jobs as part of a statewide effort to achieve $250 million in work force savings.
| | | | | |  | San Francisco-area Jewish organizations condemned a proposed ballot measure to outlaw Jewish ritual circumcision in the city.
| | | | | |  | The chief rabbi of the northern Israeli city of Tzfat may be suspended for calling on Safed's Jews not to rent apartments to non-Jews.
| | | | | | | | The case against New Zealand’s ban on kosher animal slaughter will be heard in the High Court in Wellington later this month.
| | | | | |  | After serious vandalism in the ancient Jewish cemetery at Jerusalem's Mount of Olives, a group of leaders and activists team up to protect and refurbish the heritage site.
| | | | | |  | The Chabad House in Koh Samui, Thailand, has plans to rebuild after major flooding destroyed the Jewish center last week after torrential rains.
| | | | | |  | The government has decided to allow the eligible members of the nearly-8,000 strong Falash Mura tribe in Ethiopia to immigrate to Israel over the next four years.
| | | | | |  | Israel's chief rabbis have called for a public day of fasting and prayer in order to bring rain to the parched country.
| | | | | |  | The head of state-owned French railway company SNCF made an unprecedented show of regret for the company’s responsibility in sending some 76,000 Jews in France to Nazi death camps.
| | | | | |  | The Lord’s Prayer, widely considered to under-gird the foundation of Christianity is utterly, totally, fully Jewish, a theological expert said.
| | | | | |  | American intelligence officials created a 'safe haven' for Nazis in the US after World War II, a secret U.S. Justice Department report said.
| | | | | | | | Conversation about kashrut has come from the grass roots, and youth groups in Reform circles as part of the movement’s readiness to examine once-discarded Jewish rituals for spiritual potential.
| | | | | |  | The government of the Netherlands will restitute a valuable painting to the estate of prewar Jewish art dealer Dr. Max Stern.
| | | | | |  | The head of Italy's Jewish community criticized Vatican policy but called for strengthened Catholic-Jewish ties.
| | | | | |  | Sculptures by artists whose works were publicly ridiculed by the Nazis are on display in Berlin.
| | | | | |  | More than 4,000 guests attended the final banquet of the annual conference of Chabad emissaries.
| | | | | | | | A graphic photo exhibit chronicling the Nazi massacre of Jews at Babi Yar is on display at a meeting against anti-Semitism in Canada.
| | | | | |  | | Free medical screenings and a clean-up day were part of a U.S. bridge-building group's third season of Muslim-Jewish 'twinning' events. | | | | | |  | Two Jewish student groups are sponsoring Israeli Occupation Awareness Week at Brandeis University.
| | | | | |  | The Ritalin Rush has triggered some sobering responses. What's the Jewish perspective on this quick fix?
| | | | | |  | Rabbi Alina Treiger, born in Ukraine, is the first woman ordained in Germany since Regina Jonas, who was ordained in 1935 and was murdered in Auschwitz in 1944
| | | | | |  | Pope Benedict XVI told a delegation from the Anti-Defamation League that he would continue to fight anti-Semitism.
| | | | | |  | A former Brooklyn car service driver accused of leaving notes reading 'Kill Jews' around New York's Long Island was arraigned on a hate crimes charge.
| | | | | |  | A mega-million dollar visitor’s center in Tzfat has opened a new window to the ancient past for those who want to understand the ancient art of the Jewish scribe.
| | | | | |  | Recognizing Israel as the Jewish state is the critical litmus test.
| | | | | |  | A Muslim-owned supplier in Johannesburg canceled an order placed by a South African Jewish group with comments about 'blood money' and 'crimes against humanity.'
| | | | | |  | Nearly a third of the gravestones in a 200-year-old Jewish cemetery in northeastern France, near the German border, were smashed Friday night in an act of violent desecration.
| | | | | |  | As more details on the story of an Palestinian Authority Arab ex-con on his way to converting to Judaism after serving a 12-year term in prison are revealed, the more astonishing it becomes.
| | | | | |  | Rabbi Steinsaltz is heralded for translating the Babylonian Talmud into Hebrew, but he himself has become a figure of controversy.
| | | | | |  | A high school where a group of students played a highway chase game called 'Beat the Jew' will study a new tolerance curriculum.
| | | | | |  | Romania once had the third-largest Jewish community in Europe. It has now dwindled down to 3,000 people.
| | | | | |  | Israelis have been asked to leave their yarmulkes at the border when entering Jordan. Tefillin and other religious articles also are not allowed into the country.
| | | | | |  | A museum dedicated to Polish Righteous Gentiles is slated to be built in Poland.
| | | | | |  | One research center says while Islamic terrorist groups like Hamas and Hizbullah hate Zionism, they admire its success.
| | | | | |  | Australia’s first Jewish lawmaker for the federal Liberal Party paid homage in his maiden speech to family members who perished in the Holocaust and one who survived.
| | | | | | | | A slaughterhouse that supplies kosher meat to London-area stores has stopped kosher slaughter following a protest by McDonald's.
| | | | | |  | A meeting of Mideast bishops declared that Israel cannot use the Bible to justify territorial claims to land in Israel. It also criticized Jewish settlement of Jerusalem.
| | | | | |  | As part of an initiative to help hareidi-religious soldiers integrate their religious practices with their IDF service, the army is working to provide a professional matchmaker for soldiers.
| | | | | |  | Hundreds of residents of northern Samaria and guests from all over Israel participated in a Torah-welcoming ceremony at a Yemeni synagogue.
| | | | | |  | The German Historical Museum has dedicated an exhibit to the fascination Hitler held for the 'Volk,' the ordinary German citizen.
| | | | | |  | New IDF recruits are the first to take part in a special program, Shiluvim, that allows soldiers to split their time equally between active military duty and Torah study.
| | | | | |  | | A new law passed in the Brazilian city of Porto Alegre will require its public schools to teach about the Holocaust. | | | | | | | | The entire collection of 900 manuscripts comprising about 30,000 Dead Sea Scrolls will go online in a project launched by the Israel Antiquities Authority.
| | | | | |  | Tentative plans for a new Chabad House in Mumbai feature a memorial to the emissary couple slain in the 2008 attacks in the Indian city.
| | | | | |  | | There is no other form of racism which you can compare to the centuries-long hatred of anti-Semitism. They didn’t learn the lesson from the Holocaust, they are even downplaying the Holocaust itself. | | | | | | | | A group of North American rabbis has launched an online campaign to support women who want to pray at the Western Wall with Torahs and prayer shawls.
| | | | | |  | | Jewish Voice for Peace, based in Oakland, Calif., was on the list released by the ADL of the most influential and active anti-Israel groups in the United States. | | | | | |  | | A searchable database of more than 20,000 objects has gone online. At least half of the objects, searchable by item, artist and owner, have not been restituted to their original owners. | | | | | |  | | The Orthodox Union ruled that women may not lead Friday night Kabbalat Shabbat services if men are present. | | | | | |  | | Six female scribes in four countries worked for seven years on the first Torah scroll entirely written by a group of women. | | | | | |  | | Perhaps the event of the Chilean miners for whom we all prayed and cheered will help us apply this important lesson in our lives. | | | | | |  | | The European Jewish Congress warns that some Jewish communities in Europe are 'teetering on the brink' due to national endorsement or neglect of anti-Semitism, leaving some of them in great danger. | | | | | |  | | It is likely the first time that a man under investigation for mass murder has sued his accusers. | | | | | |  | | The loyalty oath, which must be approved by the full Knesset, would require non-Jewish immigrants to swear allegiance to Israel as a 'Jewish and democratic state.' | | | | | | | | | The Orthodox community appears unsure about how to act on other issues involving gays beyond sex, such as discrimination and anti-gay violence. | | | | | |  | | 10,000 people in Kharkov participated in the city's Days of Jewish Culture soaking in music and dance performances, workshops, concerts, art exhibitions and more. | | | | | |  | | Some children cry for chocolate. Others cry for toys or licorice. My children will cry for the pain of their people. | | | | | |  | | 14-year-old child prodigy Moshe Raziel Sharify filed a suit with the Supreme Court asking that the Rabbinate be forced to grade an ordination exam he took. | | | | | |  | | Just as marriage is a metaphysical reality - two souls fusing together to create one complete soul - so too divorce is a metaphysical reality. | | | | | |  | | The remains of 11 Torah scrolls were buried in a ceremony held in Bnei Brak. The scrolls were damaged in a fire during the holiday of Sukkot. | | | | | |  | | The original documents of the Nuremberg Laws were placed on display at the National Archives in Washington. | | | | | |  | | Barely 150 kilometers from Iran, one of the biggest Jewish schools in central Asia has opened its doors in Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan. | | | | | |  | | An 81-year-old German woman, a former president of a banned right-wing extremist group was convicted in Munich of Holocaust denial. | | | | | |  | | Rabbis from West Bank settlements visiting a vandalized mosque brought replacement Korans to replace burned holy books. | | | | | |  | | Some claim that the presence of the desecrating demonstrators at the Shimon HaTzadik site in Jerusalem encourage Arab neighbors to follow every protest with violent attacks. | | | | | |  | | After a group of rabbis reached out conveying the deep sensitivities within the community to the same-sex marriage issue, the paper will stop future same-sex marriage announcements. | | | | | | | | | A Jerusalem municipal planning committee approved a plan to make sweeping changes to the Western Wall plaza. | | | | | |  | | An attempt to unify the two religious-Zionist Knesset factions failed this week as the parties disagreed over how to respond to pressure for a second Judea and Samaria construction freeze. | | | | | |  | | Two Jewish lawmakers were sworn into Australia’s new parliament wearing kipot and taking their oath on the Old Testament. | | | | | |  | | Protesters marched in Mea Shearim a day after Israel's Supreme Court ruled that men and women cannot be segregated on its main street. | | | | | |  | | The Israel Museum has restituted a Paul Klee drawing to the estate of the Jewish art collector who owned the work before it was looted by the Nazis. | | | | | |  | | Nearly two-thirds of Israeli Jews believe that non-Orthodox converts to Judaism should be considered Jewish, a new Israeli government survey reveals. | | | | | |  | | Canada's two major Jewish advocacy groups are clashing over a cartoon. | | | | | |  | | Members of the Biblical priestly class, Kohanim, blessed tens of thousands of worshipers at the Kotel (Western Wall) on Sunday morning. | | | | | |  | | JCall, a new European Jewish lobby, launched a German branch and called on Israel to continue its moratorium on construction in West Bank settlements. | | | | | |  | | Jewish students at the University of Texas want to change the date of next year's football game against rival Oklahoma because it falls on Yom Kippur. | | | | | |  | | Two Torah scrolls rescued from thieves were given to the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, which has found new homes for them. | | | | | |  | | The Auschwitz museum will not allow Holocaust denier David Irving to give a tour at the site of the former concentration camp. | | | | | |  | | A Russian Jewish leader urged the head of Moscow State U to take steps to drop a history textbook considered by many to be anti-Semitic. | | | | | |  | | A Jewish high school in Washington State was defaced with anti-Semitic graffiti. | | | | | |  | | Venezuelan Jewish leaders met with President Hugo Chavez to discuss the increase in anti-Semitic attacks in the state-run media. | | | | | |  | | An Australian columnist who accused the pro-Israel lobby of being “a ferocious beast” that “lunges from its lair, fangs bared” was cleared of breaching press standards. | | | | | |  | | The national Transportation Security Administration issued a special alert noting that Jewish travelers may be carrying the four species through the airport and security checkpoints. | | | | | |  | | On the last opportunity for sincere repentance, we must rouse ourselves to pray with concentration, feeling and intensity, despite the weariness. | | | | | |  | | A Chabad House in New Zealand completely escaped any trace of damage, unlike other buildings in the area affected by a major earthquake. | | | | | |  | | Swastikas, the symbol of the Nazi SS and nationalist statements were found painted on the entrance of the main synagogue in earlier this week. | | | | | |  | | An annual initiative will provide more than 50,000 secular Israelis with free Yom Kippur prayer services. | | | | | |  | | Time Magazine's cover story 'Why Israel Doesn't Care About Peace' asserts that Jews in Israel are too obsessed with making money to have time for peace. | | | | | | | | | As Jews around the world prepare to celebrate Yom Kippur, the United States is reporting a shortage of Torah scrolls in the U.S. military. | | | | | |  | | Irving criticized Polish authorities for turning Auschwitz into a 'money-making machine,' and accused them of building fake watchtowers | | | | | |  | | A Yom Kippur machzor translated for the first time into Portuguese will be distributed to Jews in Brazil's Amazon. | | | | | |  | | Unidentified attackers attempted to fire bomb the only synagogue in Bishkek, the capital city of Kyrgyzstan an hour before Rosh HaShanah services were scheduled to begin. | | | | | |  | | Guilt enters the world hand in hand with the spirit of forgiveness. God forgives. He doesn't expect us to get it right all the time. | | | | | |  | | IDF soldiers are among the first to heed the call of the Shofar which heralds the start of Rosh HaShanah. | | | | | |  | | A Hebrew University demography professor has announced there were more Jewish births in the past year in Israel than any other time in the history of the State. | | | | | |  | | Four teens who vandalized an upstate New York Jewish bungalow colony in April have publicly apologized and read their essays on the Jewish New Year to the court. | | | | | |  | | The president called for Jews around the world to work together with those in Israel “for the benefit of the generations to come,” with an emphasis on Zionist education in the Diaspora. | | | | | |  | | The European Union's trade chief apologized for saying that rational discussion about Israel was impossible with Jews and that the Jewish lobby is the most influential in Washington. | | | | | |  | | Libya will allow two Italian Jewish women to visit their ancestral homes. | | | | | |  | | The Mormon Church and a Jewish group have resolved a dispute over the church's posthumous baptisms by proxy of Jewish Holocaust victims. | | | | | |  | | Thilo Sarrazin made headlines for his comments on Muslim immigrants and Jews, saying that Jews 'have a particular gene,' and Muslim immigrants to Europe would not integrate into their society. | | | | | |  | | In an interfaith protest against a church’s call to burn Korans on Sept. 11, one rabbi has asked Jews instead to read from the Koran during Shabbat services that morning. | | | | | |  | | A French high school teacher was suspended for spending too much class time on the Holocaust. Inspectors said she 'exploited students by brainwashing.' | | | | | |  | | German police are investigating an arson attack that damaged the funeral chapel of a Jewish cemetery in Dresden. | | | | | |  | | Elie Wiesel will be teaching at a Southern California university that features a large bronze bust of the Nobel laureate at its library entrance. | | | | | |  | | Yoseph's life shows that you really can change, that you are not stuck with the hand you are dealt. He was a pillar for our generation. | | | | | |  | | Iraq's Tourism Ministry is calling on Israel to return an ancient Torah scroll that it says was illegally smuggled out of the country. | | | | | |  | | Following the opening of the first-ever Zionist editing group aimed at defending Israel on Wikipedia, a group of PA journalists plan to join the fray and create their own. | | | | | |  | | Silence is the biggest danger that we face. Incitement against Jews in Europe by radical Islamists presents a threat to everyone and it is everyone's obligation to speak out against it. | | | | | |  | | Right-wing extremism on the Internet is increasing in Germany. Hateful material in disguise includes antisemitic songs on youtube, and Holocaust denial. | | | | | | | | | The original Nuremberg Laws documents were transferred to the National Archives in Washington, where they will reside permanently. | | | | | |  | | The head of the company developing Jerusalem's light rail system said there could be gender-segregated cars on the trains. | | | | | |  | | Livia Shacter made a lot of people happy just by getting on a plane. Shacter, a 93-year-old great-grandmother of 35, made Aliyah a few days ago. | | | | | | | | | The Cave of Patriarchs (the Biblical Cave of Machpela) in Hevron will be open to the devout all night long during the Ten Days of Repentance between Rosh HaShana and Yom Kippur. | | | | | |  | | The death threat came in the form of a letter stating: "Dirty Jews, we’ll get you all, accompanied with nine bullets." | | | | | |  | | The pig's head reportedly had a Star of David engraved on its forehead and wore a black hat with side-locks attached to it and was discovered last Saturday at a synagogue in Lithuania. | | | | | |  | | A former US Senator is exploring his Jewish roots of which he found out four years ago. | | | | | |  | | More and more Jewish religious life is moving online. Synagogues stream worship services over the Internet to reach homebound congregants. | | | | | |  | | Rabbi Cherlow speaks about Zionism and the terrible disgrace of the publication of a Torah work that causes a desecration of God’s Name. | | | | | |  | | Within hours of receiving word of a Jewess trapped in an Arab village with her four children, Yad L'Achim rescued the five and found them a safe haven outside Israel. | | | | | |  | | Efraim Zuroff has spent the last 30 years bringing suspected war criminals to justice. Now, he offers Jewish communities across the United States a window into his work. | | | | | |  | | A group of 22 young Poles who recently discovered they have Jewish roots is visiting Israel. | | | | | |  | | Arabs are fighting plans for an elevator to allow disabled Jews to reach the Western Wall, claiming the project is a threat to the Al Aqsa mosque on the Temple Mount. | | | | | | | | | Despite the more than 60 years that have passed since the Holocaust, many survivors still hope to find missing relatives, or in the case of young survivors, to find clues to a missing past. | | | | | |  | | As the Hebrew translation of Rabbi Meir Kahane hits shelves, the author - his wife Rebbetzin Libby Kahane sits down for an interview. | | | | | |  | | The mental health needs of the Orthodox community are not being sufficiently addressed, according to a new study from Yeshiva University. | | | | | |  | | Hispanic gunmen allegedly shot a Chasidic man in the stomach in Brooklyn. | | | | | |  | | "No Muslim in his right mind, female or male, should deny the Holocaust, how can a person deny physical evidence, something that's beyond doubt?" | | | | | |  | Five Toronto synagogues and a Jewish day school are the latest beneficiaries of Canadian government money to guard against hate crimes.
| | | | | |  | Rabbi Kook was the first Chief Ashkenazi Rabbi of the Jewish population in the Land of Israel in modern times, and had great love and respect for the secular Zionist movement.
| | | | | |  | | The Germany city of Bremen will help the local Jewish community pay for repairs to the historic cemetery in Hastedt, which was damaged by unknown vandals. | | | | | |  | | Jews have come out swinging against a new Iranian Holocaust denial website that showcases anti-Semitic imagery, Jewish conspiracy theories, Holocaust denial and factual inaccuracies. | | | | | |  | | The small Jewish community in New Zealand has won an interim battle for themselves and for kosher consumers around the world. | | | | | |  | | A fire at the Majdanek concentration camp has destroyed a barracks and thousands of prisoners' shoes displayed on the site. | | | | | |  | | The largest school system in Rhode Island is removing the Jewish High Holidays as vacation days after more than 30 years. | | | | | |  | | The Alrov Group, owner of luxury Jerusalem hotels, has purchased the Lutetia Hotel in Paris - Nazi headquarters that later housed Jewish refugees. | | | | | |  | | A U.S. court ruled that the Russian Federation must return sacred documents to the Chabad-Lubavitch movement. The texts fell into Russian hands when the Rebbe fled Poland during World War II | | | | | |  | | The U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum condemned Romania's release of a coin commemorating an anti-Semitic church leader. | | | | | |  | | A hareidi-religious rabbinic council in Israel is preparing to ban the 'Jewish burka.' The garment is being worn by a tiny group of Jewish women who live in a Jerusalem suburb. | | | | | |  | | A $200 million, 10,000-seat replica of King Solomon's Temple will be built in Sao Paolo, Brazil. | | | | | |  | | How do you balance an abstract evocation of Jews and Jewish life with the real thing? Shabbatons for non-Jews might just be the answer. | | | | | |  | | Dozens of Orthodox rabbis have signed a statement of principles calling for the acceptance of gays in the Orthodox community. | | | | | |  | | Florida prison inmates requesting kosher food will be able to join a meal plan supervised by the Aleph Institute. | | | | | |  | | Wikipedia has become the new battleground for Israel's PR image. | | | | | |  | | A new iPhone application teaches the recitation of the Kaddish, the mourner's prayer recited daily in synagogue. | | | | | |  | | New Jersey has given final approval to open the state's first Hebrew-language charter school. | | | | | |  | | Yad Vashem will honor William Cooper, an indigenous Australian who led a protest march against the mistreatment of Jews in Germany following Kristallnacht in 1938. | | | | | |  | | The leader of Conservative Judaism's flagship institution said the movement is debating a name change. | | | | | |  | | The gelatin saga is nearing a close. Strauss Dairies will not have to admit it produced non-kosher food, but will compensate consumers for having used gelatin. | | | | | |  | | Hackers replaced a list of Buchenwald victims with far-right slogans and links to Holocaust denial sites, officials at the concentration camp's memorial said. | | | | | |  | | "We are all Jews here. They are Jews, you are Jews. How can you hate each other? Everyone else hates us; we have to love each other." | | | | | |  | | With changes in DNA testing and computer technology, Jewish genealogical research is more accessible than ever. | | | | | |  | | A Maryland synagogue was vandalized with swastikas and anti-Semitic epithets. | | | | | |  | | Israel's Chief Rabbinate has ordered rabbis to stop singing under the chupah, saying it "cheapens the Rabbinate." | | | | | |  | | Peres mentioned Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who has denied the Holocaust, saying, 'I wish I would see him here.' | | | | | |  | | Several rabbis protested the inclusion of their names in a hateful artistic display, where they were alleged to have called to murder Jews who do not follow Torah law. | | | | | |  | | St. Petersburg University's Academic Commission voted unanimously to establish a Department of Jewish Culture as part of the university's faculty of philosophy. | | | | | |  | | Israel's conversion bill reportedly will not reach the Knesset floor until October. | | | | | |  | | The main finding of a poll commissioned by the Knesset Television Channel is that half of the Israeli public wants the Holy Temple to be rebuilt. | | | | | |  | | A French organization named “'The Strength of the Name' has been formed to help Jews change their French last names to their original Jewish ones. | | | | | |  | | Advocates for Ethiopian aliyah hope Israel’s minister of immigrant absorption's visit to the African country will begin the process that will bring 7,500 additional Ethiopians to Israel. | | | | | | | | | A YouTube video of a family singing and dancing at Auschwitz has received more than half a million hits and mixed reaction. | | | | | |  | | Five years after Hurricane Katrina, New Orlean’s hard-hit Jewish community points to the grand-opening of a mikvah as evidence of the region’s continuing rebirth. | | | | | |  | | A woman activist returned to the Wall holding a holy Torah scroll in violation of a High Court order defining acceptable behavior at the religious site. | | | | | |  | | 10,000 Jews gathered at the old gates of the Temple Mount Monday night and declared their allegiance to the holy site. | | | | | |  | | A Polish performance artist burned down a barn to commemorate a Nazi pogrom dedicating his act to 'those ignorant who know nothing about Jews' input in Poland's history.' | | | | | |  | | Al Aqsa TV continues its unabated televised anti-Semitic incitement, claiming that Benjamin Franklin warned Americans about the Jews. | | | | | |  | | A Canadian man who has called for the "extermination" of Jews in Canada has been charged under a rarely used hate crimes law. | | | | | |  | | A practicing Muslim and an Orthodox Jew have been chosen to run a New Jersey township. | | | | | |  | | Some 15,000 former Berliners who survived the Holocaust have been invited back at German taxpayer expense over the years. | | | | | |  | | Shoaib Choudhury, a Muslim Zionist tells his story in Bangladesh. “Political Islam and hate speech are our biggest enemies.” | | | | | |  | | Yad Vashem criticized a former Israeli Air Force captain caught on camera painting pro-Palestinian graffiti on the walls of the Warsaw Ghetto. | | | | | |  | | Demographers estimate that nearly 150,000 Red Army Jewish soldiers were killed during World War II. | | | | | |  | | After a lengthy review of plans by a local council, Cambridge, England’s Chabad-Lubavitch center will now be able to convert a garage into the city’s first Jewish ritual bath. | | | | | |  | | Yemeni Jews demanded an end to the delay in the execution of a man sentenced to death for killing a Jewish man after saying that Yemen Jews should convert or be killed. | | | | | |  | | The 'Three Weeks' of gradually-increasing mourning over the destruction of the Holy Temples and Israel's exile begins today with the fast of the 17th of the Hebrew month of Tammuz. | | | | | |  | | "We feel Elena Kagan turns traditional Judaism on its head - from a concept of a nation of priests and holy people to, 'Let's homosexualize every segment of society.'" | | | | | |  | | A showdown between the Supreme Court and the parents of students at a haredi Orthodox school found guilty of discriminatory practices has brought already strained secular-religious relations in Israel to a fever pitch. | | | | | |  | | Jewish leaders in New Zealand appear certain to launch legal action against the government over its controversial new law banning kosher slaughter. | | | | | |  | | Elie Wiesel has launched a global campaign to free former Russian oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky, who is on trial in Moscow for embezzlement. | | | | |
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