Jewish News

‘Public not ready for religious IDF chief

Pictures of all former Israel Defense Forces deputy chief of staffs hang on the wall of Major-General Yair Naveh’s office. Among them you’ll find Yitzhak Rabin, Ehud Barak, Shaul Mofaz and others. Most of them went on to become the IDF chief.When Naveh leaves office, his picture will be added to the wall too, with the same serious expression reserved for official photos, but ...

Puah Institute Holds 13th Conference

The 13th Conference of the Puah Institute for Halakhah and Medicine took place Wednesday at Yeshurun Synagogue in Jerusalem.Unlike last year’s conference, this one did not involve boycotts and threats from other groups, the way last year’s conference did.Participants included senior rabbis and physicians, including Rabbi Yisrael Meir Lau, who is Chief Rabbi of Tel Aviv, Rabbi Dov Lior, Rabbi of Kiryat ...

Protest Outside Crown Heights Store

About two dozen Satmar Chassidim from Williamsburg began a protest earlier this afternoon.Sporting badges identifying themselves as anti-Israel and anti-Zionist activists, the male protesters garbed in full Chassidic gear held placards denouncing the introduction of non Tznius stores into their neighborhood.The protest was held on Kingston Avenue, between Montgomery Street and Empire Boulevard.A number of police officers were on hand ...

Prominent Jewish-American Politician Arlen Specter Dies at 82

Former U.S. Sen. Arlen Specter, the outspoken Pennsylvania centrist whose switch from Republican to Democrat ended a 30-year career in which he played a pivotal role in several Supreme Court nominations, died on Sunday. He was 82.Specter, who announced in late August that he was battling cancer, died at his home in Philadelphia from complications of non-Hodgkins lymphoma, said his ...

Progressive groups petition to institute civil marriage

The Reform Movement in Israel filed a petition with the High Court on Monday demanding that the government institute a framework for civil marriage in Israel.The Israel Religious Action Center, the Reform movement’s public and legal advocacy arm, along with 11 other organizations constituting the Forum for Free Choice in Marriage, submitted its petition calling on the government to create ...

Profound roots in Israel

Ekev is a paean of praise to the Land of Israel: its beauty, its fruits, its rivers, valleys and hills.Above all, the Bible insists that God has given the land to Israel and so we must do whatever we can to take possession of our divine inheritance.From this perspective, the heinous sin of the desert generation was its refusal to ...

Prof. Weiss: Perhaps PM was never a Jew

“Netanyahu is the head of the ghetto; Netanyahu is selling Joseph,” Bar-Ilan University Professor Hillel Weiss said Sunday night in a scathing attack on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu following his plan to renew the West Bank settlement construction freeze.In an interview to Ynet held on the sidelines of an emergency meeting called by settler leaders, Weiss said, “I can say ...

Prof. Gabriela Shalev joins Hillel Israel

The Center for Jewish Campus Life in Israel (Hillel Israel) announced this week that Professor Gabriella Shalev, Israel’s former ambassador to the United Nations, has agreed to become a member of its Board of Directors.Hillel Israel works to promote pluralistic Jewish identity among students and young adults across the country, at eight centers on campus and in the community.Hillel Israel ...

Prof. Dershowitz: Thank G-d for Israel’s Military Strength

To a packed crowd of over 600 people at a Jerusalem Online U fundraiser at the Palm Beach Synagogue sponsored by William K. Langfan, Harvard Law Professor Alan Dershowitz, in rare form, thundered “Strength comes before peace, there will never be peace without strength. For as Bibi has said, ‘If the Palestinians give up their arms, there will be peace; if the ...

Private owner keeps historic Jewish document hidden

Richard Morgenstern just wants to be left alone. But when you are the multimillionaire owner of one of the most important documents in American Jewish history — George Washington’s Letter to the Hebrew Congregation in Newport, R.I. — avoiding the limelight is not easy. Especially when that document disappeared from public view 10 years ago and you are the only ...

Prisoners Claim to be Jewish for Meals

Officials at a central Pennsylvania prison say some inmates are falsely claiming to be Jewish in order to get kosher meals.Warden Mary Sabol says that has led to a dramatic spike in food costs at the York County Prison.County acting solicitor Donald Reihart says officials must honor valid religious conversions. But he says that’s not the case with many inmates.Reihart ...

Prison Chaplain Receives Russian Medal

Rabbi Aaron Gurevitch, a Chabad-Lubavitch emissary and army chaplain who serves as a liaison between the Federation of Jewish Communities and the military and prison systems, received a gold medal from the Russian Prison Services Administration for his work rehabilitating prisoners and improving their spiritual quality of life.Gurevitch has been visiting prisons across Russia for the past few years, bringing ...