UK news
Arlene Phillips to be government's "dance champion"
The former Strictly Come Dancing judge Arlene Phillips has been appointed a "dance champion" by the Health Secretary.
The choreographer, 66, was dropped by the BBC show in favour of 30-year-old singer Alesha Dixon, in a move which caused public outcries of ageism.
Now Health Secretary Andy Burnham has asked Ms Phillips to become a “dance champion” to get Britain exercising, and encourage people to take part in dance classes.
Police hunt £40m Graff jewel thieves
Two armed robbers stole £40m worth of gems from Graff jewellers in Mayfair, in what has been called the biggest jewel heist in British history.
The shop is owned by Jewish billionaire Laurence Graff, who is the UK’s number one diamond dealer and the 36th richest man in the country, according to the Sunday Times Rich List.
The criminals, who were smartly dressed and posing as clients, pulled out handguns and fired two warning shots at the staff in the New Bond Street store, in a robbery whose details were kept secret by police for almost a week.
BNP councillor's 'Nazi' number plate
A British National Party councillor has come under fire for driving a car with a number plate which seems to spell 'Nazi'.
Cllr. Julian Leppert, 41, who is councillor for Hainault and a close aide to BNP leader Nick Griffin, arrived at Redbridge council meetings in a black Ford Focus with the registartion number NA51 ZCY.
Netanyahu to visit London
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is to make his first visit to Britain since being elected earlier this year.
He will arrive for a two-day visit at the end of August and will hold talks with Prime Minister Gordon Brown at Downing Street.
Fear aboard UK flight from Tel Aviv
A UK-bound flight from Tel Aviv had to make an emergency landing in Budapest last night after the plane lost cabin pressure.
The Jet2 flight with 242 passengers, which left Ben Gurion airport at 6.55pm for Manchester got into difficulties two hours into the journey and oxygen masks were released for passengers.
The pilot had to land in Budapest, where passengers were put up in hotels before flying back to Manchester this afternoon.
London: Mourners gather to support Tel Aviv's gay community
They started by lighting a candle. They sang songs and recited memorial prayers and made speeches of hope.
But above all they remembered Nir Katz and Liz Troubishi, who were murdered on Saturday in an act that has reverberated far beyond the shores of Israel.
The idea of a UK memorial service started with Rabbi Hillel Athias-Robles, assistant rabbi of Northwood & Pinner Liberal Synagogue.
“We needed to come together to share our pain and hopes for the future and because of the sort of society we want to create,” he said.
Give back Golan Heights, says minister
British Foreign Office Minister Ivan Lewis has called for Israel to give back the Golan Heights as part of a peace settlement with Syria.
Mr Lewis, on his first visit to the Middle East, made the call during a press conference in the Syrian capital Damascus after talks with Foreign Minister Walid al-Moallem and his deputy.
Mr Lewis, who is Jewish and the MP for Bury South, said: “We think that there is now a very important opportunity for one of the world’s great conflicts to begin to come to an end.”
Brain disease sufferer may yet star in TV ad
A controversial advertisement which centres on the plight of a Jewish woman suffering from motor neurone disease may be approved to be shown on television, overturning a ban imposed because the advert was considered too shocking to be shown.
Broadcasting watchdog body Clearcast has asked for changes in the advert before it can be shown on TV. Now the Motor Neurone Disease Association, which made the film, is considering whether changes can be made without losing too much impact.
UK seeking millions from Israeli fraudster
A jailed Israeli lawyer has failed in his attempt to prevent the Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA) from trying to seize millions of pounds in assets he held in several London bank accounts.
Mr Justice Foskett, sitting in the High Court in London, ruled last week that even though the money belonged to someone outside Britain, SOCA had the authority to ask the lawyer, Israel Perry, how he and his family had amassed more than £14 million.
Family of ‘starved’ child to seek refuge in Britain
The family of the three-year-old boy allegedly starved by his mother in Jerusalem plan to move to London and be supported by British taxpayers “as soon as possible”, according to the toddler’s grandmother.
The woman said her son and pregnant daughter-in-law would “run to Stamford Hill” with their five children as soon as legal proceedings against the mother are concluded.
Once in Britain, the grandmother said the couple, both in their 30s, would seek housing benefits and the help of the Charedi community in Stamford Hill, where she and other family members already live.
Israel news
Israeli archaeologists banned from world conference
The Israel Antiquities Authority has launched a furious attack on the World Archaeological Congress claiming Israeli archaeologists were excluded from a conference held in Ramallah.
Together with the Archaeological Council of Israel, the IAA claimed WAC officials had “set out with the goal in mind of inserting political issues into the professional archaeological experience” during the Overcoming Structural Violence conference.
Mermaid makes a splash in Israeli town
A mermaid is whipping up a storm in an Israeli seaside town, after dozens of people claim to have caught sight of the mythical creature.
Now Kiryat Yam town council, near Haifa, is offering $1million reward to anyone who can prove the existence of the mermaid.
The elusive mermaid, who only surfaces at twilight, has drawn crowds of tourists with their cameras.
"Many people are telling us they are sure they've seen a mermaid and they are all independent of each other," council spokesman Natti Zilberman told Sky News.
How racism defeated the ‘X-ray rabbi’
He faced down Israel’s most famous family of mystics, became the undisputed leader of Israeli kabbalah, transformed himself into a household name and became the close confidant of tycoons and celebrities.
But now it seems that Rabbi Yaakov Ifergan has finally come up against one immovable barrier — the strictly Orthodox Ashkenazi establishment which is forcing the Sephardi star out of his home town of Netivot.
Analysis: Lieberman's last cabinet meeting?
Yisrael Beiteinu may have 15 Knesset members, as well as several ministries and parliamentary committees, but is still essentially a one-man party.
Avigdor Lieberman handpicked the candidates, decided which spot they would receive on the list and who would become a minister.
But now, he is learning the limitations of his power.
After an investigation which seemed never ending, the police this week recommended pressing charges against Israel’s foreign minister for allegedly money laundering over NIS 10 million (£1.5 million).
Gay rabbi talks of Tel Aviv shooting heartbreak
When Hillel Athias-Robles was a teenager, he would stand for a long time in the street outside the Aguda gay youth centre in Tel Aviv, scared that someone would see him go inside.
As a Charedi yeshivah student, he was terrified of being spotted by someone he knew. But it was worth the risk.
“I knew I’d found a refuge where I could be myself,” he recalled this week, in the wake of the gun attack on the centre.
Police: Don't call Tel Aviv shooting a hate crime yet
Tel Aviv police are investigating additional motives for the attack on a gay youth club on Saturday night, rather than labelling it a simple “hate crime”.
The shooting spree, which resulted in the deaths of 17-year-old Liz Trubeshi and 26-year-old Nir Katz, and the wounding of 11 others, was initially interpreted by the media and politicians as an attack against the gay and lesbian community.
The unidentified shooter was portrayed by the press as someone who hated homosexuals for religious or racist reasons.
In east Jerusalem, an Arab PR coup
Two Palestinian families sitting on street corners in east Jerusalem in the sweltering August heat are at the centre of a media and diplomatic storm this week. The eviction from the homes they have lived in for 53 years has delivered the Palestinian cause a major PR coup.
Hizbollah: 40,000 rockets on Israel border
Hizbollah is training its militia to be able to hit Tel Aviv with long-range missiles, and has stockpiled 40,000 rockets on the border, a report by The Times claimed.
A Hezbollah warehouses which stored Katyusha rockets in southern Lebanon exploded last month, revealing the group was stockpiling rockets in the region, in violation of the UN Security Council Resolution 1701.
UN peacekeeping forces have been blocked from entering the site to investigation the claims.
Barak: We should accept US peace plan
Israel’s Defence Minister, Ehud Barak, has said he expects a new peace proposal from the US administration to arrive in the next few weeks, which he believes Israel should accept.
Mr Barak announced his intention of accepting the proposal at a meeting of the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defence Committee.
Charedi mother to be charged
The mother accused of starving her three-year-old son in the row which sparked the Jerusalem Charedi riots is to be charged with abuse.
Jerusalem State Prosecutor Moshe Lador is said to have been briefed on the case at the weekend and several counts are to be filed with the Jerusalem District Court after a psychiatric evaluation found that she was fit to stand trial.
The strictly Orthodox mother, who has been under house arrest for the past week, has not been allowed to see her son, who was recently released from hospital, but has been in contact with her other children.
World news
David Mamet to make Anne Frank film
The Pulitzer Prize-winning Jewish writer David Mamet is to script a new film version of the diary of Anne Frank.
The film, produced by Walt Disney, will be closely based on the diary of 15-year-old Anne, who died of typhus in Bergen-Belsen concentration camp after hiding in Nazi-occupied Holland for two years with her family.
Mr Mamet won the Pulitzer Prize for his play Glengarry Glen Ross, which was later turned into film starring Al Pacino.
More recently, Mr Mamet received Oscar nominations for his screenplays and The Verdict
NY crash pilot was Jewish businessman
The pilot killed in this weekend's New York plane and helicopter collision was a wealthy Jewish philanthropist who used the plane in which he died in to transport sick people to hospital for charity.
Steven Altman, 60, a property tycoon from Ambler, near Philadelphia, was flying the plane in clear weather, with his brother Daniel and his 15-year-old nephew Douglas when he hit a helicopter and crashed into the Hudson River, Manhattan.
Ex-Nazi commander jailed for Italy massacre
A 90-year-old former Nazi commander has been jailed for life in Munich for ordering the deaths of 14 people in an Italian village during the second world war.
Josef Scheungraber, as a 25-year-old Wehrmacht lieutenant, ordered the massacre of the civilians in 1944 in the Italian village of Falzano di Cortona in Tuscany.
He denied he explicitly told the military police to kill the victims, 11 of whom were locked into a farmhouse which was set alight.
Woman pays $32,000 for dog to fly business class
An Israeli woman has paid El Al $32,000 to reserve the whole of a business class section from Paris to Tel Aviv for herself and her “baby”.
But her baby is boxer dog “Or”, whom she refused to leave alone in the hold, in case he became anxious or scared during the flight.
The 60-year-old woman, named only as “Rivkah,” said she wanted to make sure that she would be able to calm him down.
The airline reportedly removed seats in business class to make room for Or’s cage, and Rivkah also hired a vet to accompany them on the flight.
Restoration for Lebanon's oldest synagogue
Beirut's oldest synagogue, Magen Abraham, was devastated during the Lebanese civil war, but work has finally begun to give it a new lease of life.
Magen Abraham, which was built in 1926 in the traditionally Jewish neighbourhood of Wadi Abou Jmil, fell on the Muslim side of Beirut during the war which lasted from 1975 to 1990.
Two other synagogues still remain in Lebanon, in mountain towns east of Beirut, but they have been closed since the war.
Top German honour for Israeli lawyer provokes outrage
Germany has just awarded one of its highest honours, the “Federal Merit Cross, First Class”, to Israeli lawyer Felicia Langer. A former member of the Israeli Communist Party, Langer is known in Germany, above all, as a ferocious critic of Israel.
Anger over US medal for Israel critic
In the current contentious relationship between the Obama administration and Israel, even symbolic gestures are being taken as signs that the bond between the two countries is deteriorating.
Such is the case with Mary Robinson’s selection as a recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom, America’s highest civilian honour.
The former president of Ireland and UN High Commissioner on Human Rights is among the 16 US and international figures who will receive the medal at an August 12 White House ceremony.
SATC star leaves Oxfam for Israeli cosmetics
Sex and the City actress Kristin Davis is an unlikely champion of Israel, even if her character Charlotte did convert to Judaism in the hit series.
But reports claim the actress, 44, has taken a break from her role as an ambassador for Oxfam International because of her endorsement of Ahava cosmetics, which is manufactured by Dead Sea Cosmetics in the Mitzhe Shalem West Bank settlement.
Oxfam are reported to have said there was conflict of interest because the cosmetics are manufactured in “disputed territory.”
Last Jew of Vilkaviskis goes home
When Eli Rutstein and his family left Vilkaviskis 45 years ago, they were the last Jews to leave the Lithuanian town which had once boasted a Jewish community of thousands.
After they left for Israel, the town’s Jewish past was largely forgotten and its 50,000 residents are mostly now unaware of the role the community once played.
But last week Mr Rutstein, now a 61-year-old father-of-three, returned to his home town and received a hero’s welcome from civic dignitaries and former classmates.
Call to lift German Mein Kampf ban
Germany’s main Jewish representative organisation has renewed its efforts to overturn the state’s ban on publishing Adolf Hitler’s Mein Kampf.
Stephan Kramer, secretary-general of the Central Council for Jews in Germany has called for the publication of a scholarly edition of the book, with footnotes challenging Hitler’s assertions, claiming it would prevent black market printing of the book where neo-Nazi groups profit.
Mr Kramer also argued that continuing to ban the book would glamorise it, and that Germans were sophisticated enough to make up their own minds.
UK news
Arlene Phillips to be government's "dance champion"
The former Strictly Come Dancing judge Arlene Phillips has been appointed a "dance champion" by the Health Secretary.
The choreographer, 66, was dropped by the BBC show in favour of 30-year-old singer Alesha Dixon, in a move which caused public outcries of ageism.
Now Health Secretary Andy Burnham has asked Ms Phillips to become a “dance champion” to get Britain exercising, and encourage people to take part in dance classes.
Police hunt £40m Graff jewel thieves
Two armed robbers stole £40m worth of gems from Graff jewellers in Mayfair, in what has been called the biggest jewel heist in British history.
The shop is owned by Jewish billionaire Laurence Graff, who is the UK’s number one diamond dealer and the 36th richest man in the country, according to the Sunday Times Rich List.
The criminals, who were smartly dressed and posing as clients, pulled out handguns and fired two warning shots at the staff in the New Bond Street store, in a robbery whose details were kept secret by police for almost a week.
BNP councillor's 'Nazi' number plate
A British National Party councillor has come under fire for driving a car with a number plate which seems to spell 'Nazi'.
Cllr. Julian Leppert, 41, who is councillor for Hainault and a close aide to BNP leader Nick Griffin, arrived at Redbridge council meetings in a black Ford Focus with the registartion number NA51 ZCY.
Netanyahu to visit London
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is to make his first visit to Britain since being elected earlier this year.
He will arrive for a two-day visit at the end of August and will hold talks with Prime Minister Gordon Brown at Downing Street.
Fear aboard UK flight from Tel Aviv
A UK-bound flight from Tel Aviv had to make an emergency landing in Budapest last night after the plane lost cabin pressure.
The Jet2 flight with 242 passengers, which left Ben Gurion airport at 6.55pm for Manchester got into difficulties two hours into the journey and oxygen masks were released for passengers.
The pilot had to land in Budapest, where passengers were put up in hotels before flying back to Manchester this afternoon.
London: Mourners gather to support Tel Aviv's gay community
They started by lighting a candle. They sang songs and recited memorial prayers and made speeches of hope.
But above all they remembered Nir Katz and Liz Troubishi, who were murdered on Saturday in an act that has reverberated far beyond the shores of Israel.
The idea of a UK memorial service started with Rabbi Hillel Athias-Robles, assistant rabbi of Northwood & Pinner Liberal Synagogue.
“We needed to come together to share our pain and hopes for the future and because of the sort of society we want to create,” he said.
Give back Golan Heights, says minister
British Foreign Office Minister Ivan Lewis has called for Israel to give back the Golan Heights as part of a peace settlement with Syria.
Mr Lewis, on his first visit to the Middle East, made the call during a press conference in the Syrian capital Damascus after talks with Foreign Minister Walid al-Moallem and his deputy.
Mr Lewis, who is Jewish and the MP for Bury South, said: “We think that there is now a very important opportunity for one of the world’s great conflicts to begin to come to an end.”
Brain disease sufferer may yet star in TV ad
A controversial advertisement which centres on the plight of a Jewish woman suffering from motor neurone disease may be approved to be shown on television, overturning a ban imposed because the advert was considered too shocking to be shown.
Broadcasting watchdog body Clearcast has asked for changes in the advert before it can be shown on TV. Now the Motor Neurone Disease Association, which made the film, is considering whether changes can be made without losing too much impact.
UK seeking millions from Israeli fraudster
A jailed Israeli lawyer has failed in his attempt to prevent the Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA) from trying to seize millions of pounds in assets he held in several London bank accounts.
Mr Justice Foskett, sitting in the High Court in London, ruled last week that even though the money belonged to someone outside Britain, SOCA had the authority to ask the lawyer, Israel Perry, how he and his family had amassed more than £14 million.
Family of ‘starved’ child to seek refuge in Britain
The family of the three-year-old boy allegedly starved by his mother in Jerusalem plan to move to London and be supported by British taxpayers “as soon as possible”, according to the toddler’s grandmother.
The woman said her son and pregnant daughter-in-law would “run to Stamford Hill” with their five children as soon as legal proceedings against the mother are concluded.
Once in Britain, the grandmother said the couple, both in their 30s, would seek housing benefits and the help of the Charedi community in Stamford Hill, where she and other family members already live.
Israel news
Israeli archaeologists banned from world conference
The Israel Antiquities Authority has launched a furious attack on the World Archaeological Congress claiming Israeli archaeologists were excluded from a conference held in Ramallah.
Together with the Archaeological Council of Israel, the IAA claimed WAC officials had “set out with the goal in mind of inserting political issues into the professional archaeological experience” during the Overcoming Structural Violence conference.
Mermaid makes a splash in Israeli town
A mermaid is whipping up a storm in an Israeli seaside town, after dozens of people claim to have caught sight of the mythical creature.
Now Kiryat Yam town council, near Haifa, is offering $1million reward to anyone who can prove the existence of the mermaid.
The elusive mermaid, who only surfaces at twilight, has drawn crowds of tourists with their cameras.
"Many people are telling us they are sure they've seen a mermaid and they are all independent of each other," council spokesman Natti Zilberman told Sky News.
How racism defeated the ‘X-ray rabbi’
He faced down Israel’s most famous family of mystics, became the undisputed leader of Israeli kabbalah, transformed himself into a household name and became the close confidant of tycoons and celebrities.
But now it seems that Rabbi Yaakov Ifergan has finally come up against one immovable barrier — the strictly Orthodox Ashkenazi establishment which is forcing the Sephardi star out of his home town of Netivot.
Analysis: Lieberman's last cabinet meeting?
Yisrael Beiteinu may have 15 Knesset members, as well as several ministries and parliamentary committees, but is still essentially a one-man party.
Avigdor Lieberman handpicked the candidates, decided which spot they would receive on the list and who would become a minister.
But now, he is learning the limitations of his power.
After an investigation which seemed never ending, the police this week recommended pressing charges against Israel’s foreign minister for allegedly money laundering over NIS 10 million (£1.5 million).
Gay rabbi talks of Tel Aviv shooting heartbreak
When Hillel Athias-Robles was a teenager, he would stand for a long time in the street outside the Aguda gay youth centre in Tel Aviv, scared that someone would see him go inside.
As a Charedi yeshivah student, he was terrified of being spotted by someone he knew. But it was worth the risk.
“I knew I’d found a refuge where I could be myself,” he recalled this week, in the wake of the gun attack on the centre.
Police: Don't call Tel Aviv shooting a hate crime yet
Tel Aviv police are investigating additional motives for the attack on a gay youth club on Saturday night, rather than labelling it a simple “hate crime”.
The shooting spree, which resulted in the deaths of 17-year-old Liz Trubeshi and 26-year-old Nir Katz, and the wounding of 11 others, was initially interpreted by the media and politicians as an attack against the gay and lesbian community.
The unidentified shooter was portrayed by the press as someone who hated homosexuals for religious or racist reasons.
In east Jerusalem, an Arab PR coup
Two Palestinian families sitting on street corners in east Jerusalem in the sweltering August heat are at the centre of a media and diplomatic storm this week. The eviction from the homes they have lived in for 53 years has delivered the Palestinian cause a major PR coup.
Hizbollah: 40,000 rockets on Israel border
Hizbollah is training its militia to be able to hit Tel Aviv with long-range missiles, and has stockpiled 40,000 rockets on the border, a report by The Times claimed.
A Hezbollah warehouses which stored Katyusha rockets in southern Lebanon exploded last month, revealing the group was stockpiling rockets in the region, in violation of the UN Security Council Resolution 1701.
UN peacekeeping forces have been blocked from entering the site to investigation the claims.
Barak: We should accept US peace plan
Israel’s Defence Minister, Ehud Barak, has said he expects a new peace proposal from the US administration to arrive in the next few weeks, which he believes Israel should accept.
Mr Barak announced his intention of accepting the proposal at a meeting of the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defence Committee.
Charedi mother to be charged
The mother accused of starving her three-year-old son in the row which sparked the Jerusalem Charedi riots is to be charged with abuse.
Jerusalem State Prosecutor Moshe Lador is said to have been briefed on the case at the weekend and several counts are to be filed with the Jerusalem District Court after a psychiatric evaluation found that she was fit to stand trial.
The strictly Orthodox mother, who has been under house arrest for the past week, has not been allowed to see her son, who was recently released from hospital, but has been in contact with her other children.
World news
David Mamet to make Anne Frank film
The Pulitzer Prize-winning Jewish writer David Mamet is to script a new film version of the diary of Anne Frank.
The film, produced by Walt Disney, will be closely based on the diary of 15-year-old Anne, who died of typhus in Bergen-Belsen concentration camp after hiding in Nazi-occupied Holland for two years with her family.
Mr Mamet won the Pulitzer Prize for his play Glengarry Glen Ross, which was later turned into film starring Al Pacino.
More recently, Mr Mamet received Oscar nominations for his screenplays and The Verdict
NY crash pilot was Jewish businessman
The pilot killed in this weekend's New York plane and helicopter collision was a wealthy Jewish philanthropist who used the plane in which he died in to transport sick people to hospital for charity.
Steven Altman, 60, a property tycoon from Ambler, near Philadelphia, was flying the plane in clear weather, with his brother Daniel and his 15-year-old nephew Douglas when he hit a helicopter and crashed into the Hudson River, Manhattan.
Ex-Nazi commander jailed for Italy massacre
A 90-year-old former Nazi commander has been jailed for life in Munich for ordering the deaths of 14 people in an Italian village during the second world war.
Josef Scheungraber, as a 25-year-old Wehrmacht lieutenant, ordered the massacre of the civilians in 1944 in the Italian village of Falzano di Cortona in Tuscany.
He denied he explicitly told the military police to kill the victims, 11 of whom were locked into a farmhouse which was set alight.
Woman pays $32,000 for dog to fly business class
An Israeli woman has paid El Al $32,000 to reserve the whole of a business class section from Paris to Tel Aviv for herself and her “baby”.
But her baby is boxer dog “Or”, whom she refused to leave alone in the hold, in case he became anxious or scared during the flight.
The 60-year-old woman, named only as “Rivkah,” said she wanted to make sure that she would be able to calm him down.
The airline reportedly removed seats in business class to make room for Or’s cage, and Rivkah also hired a vet to accompany them on the flight.
Restoration for Lebanon's oldest synagogue
Beirut's oldest synagogue, Magen Abraham, was devastated during the Lebanese civil war, but work has finally begun to give it a new lease of life.
Magen Abraham, which was built in 1926 in the traditionally Jewish neighbourhood of Wadi Abou Jmil, fell on the Muslim side of Beirut during the war which lasted from 1975 to 1990.
Two other synagogues still remain in Lebanon, in mountain towns east of Beirut, but they have been closed since the war.
Top German honour for Israeli lawyer provokes outrage
Germany has just awarded one of its highest honours, the “Federal Merit Cross, First Class”, to Israeli lawyer Felicia Langer. A former member of the Israeli Communist Party, Langer is known in Germany, above all, as a ferocious critic of Israel.
Anger over US medal for Israel critic
In the current contentious relationship between the Obama administration and Israel, even symbolic gestures are being taken as signs that the bond between the two countries is deteriorating.
Such is the case with Mary Robinson’s selection as a recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom, America’s highest civilian honour.
The former president of Ireland and UN High Commissioner on Human Rights is among the 16 US and international figures who will receive the medal at an August 12 White House ceremony.
SATC star leaves Oxfam for Israeli cosmetics
Sex and the City actress Kristin Davis is an unlikely champion of Israel, even if her character Charlotte did convert to Judaism in the hit series.
But reports claim the actress, 44, has taken a break from her role as an ambassador for Oxfam International because of her endorsement of Ahava cosmetics, which is manufactured by Dead Sea Cosmetics in the Mitzhe Shalem West Bank settlement.
Oxfam are reported to have said there was conflict of interest because the cosmetics are manufactured in “disputed territory.”
Last Jew of Vilkaviskis goes home
When Eli Rutstein and his family left Vilkaviskis 45 years ago, they were the last Jews to leave the Lithuanian town which had once boasted a Jewish community of thousands.
After they left for Israel, the town’s Jewish past was largely forgotten and its 50,000 residents are mostly now unaware of the role the community once played.
But last week Mr Rutstein, now a 61-year-old father-of-three, returned to his home town and received a hero’s welcome from civic dignitaries and former classmates.
Call to lift German Mein Kampf ban
Germany’s main Jewish representative organisation has renewed its efforts to overturn the state’s ban on publishing Adolf Hitler’s Mein Kampf.
Stephan Kramer, secretary-general of the Central Council for Jews in Germany has called for the publication of a scholarly edition of the book, with footnotes challenging Hitler’s assertions, claiming it would prevent black market printing of the book where neo-Nazi groups profit.
Mr Kramer also argued that continuing to ban the book would glamorise it, and that Germans were sophisticated enough to make up their own minds.
The former Strictly Come Dancing judge Arlene Phillips has been appointed a "dance champion" by the Health Secretary.
The choreographer, 66, was dropped by the BBC show in favour of 30-year-old singer Alesha Dixon, in a move which caused public outcries of ageism.
Now Health Secretary Andy Burnham has asked Ms Phillips to become a “dance champion” to get Britain exercising, and encourage people to take part in dance classes.
Police hunt £40m Graff jewel thieves
Two armed robbers stole £40m worth of gems from Graff jewellers in Mayfair, in what has been called the biggest jewel heist in British history.
The shop is owned by Jewish billionaire Laurence Graff, who is the UK’s number one diamond dealer and the 36th richest man in the country, according to the Sunday Times Rich List.
The criminals, who were smartly dressed and posing as clients, pulled out handguns and fired two warning shots at the staff in the New Bond Street store, in a robbery whose details were kept secret by police for almost a week.
BNP councillor's 'Nazi' number plate
A British National Party councillor has come under fire for driving a car with a number plate which seems to spell 'Nazi'.
Cllr. Julian Leppert, 41, who is councillor for Hainault and a close aide to BNP leader Nick Griffin, arrived at Redbridge council meetings in a black Ford Focus with the registartion number NA51 ZCY.
Netanyahu to visit London
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is to make his first visit to Britain since being elected earlier this year.
He will arrive for a two-day visit at the end of August and will hold talks with Prime Minister Gordon Brown at Downing Street.
Fear aboard UK flight from Tel Aviv
A UK-bound flight from Tel Aviv had to make an emergency landing in Budapest last night after the plane lost cabin pressure.
The Jet2 flight with 242 passengers, which left Ben Gurion airport at 6.55pm for Manchester got into difficulties two hours into the journey and oxygen masks were released for passengers.
The pilot had to land in Budapest, where passengers were put up in hotels before flying back to Manchester this afternoon.
London: Mourners gather to support Tel Aviv's gay community
They started by lighting a candle. They sang songs and recited memorial prayers and made speeches of hope.
But above all they remembered Nir Katz and Liz Troubishi, who were murdered on Saturday in an act that has reverberated far beyond the shores of Israel.
The idea of a UK memorial service started with Rabbi Hillel Athias-Robles, assistant rabbi of Northwood & Pinner Liberal Synagogue.
“We needed to come together to share our pain and hopes for the future and because of the sort of society we want to create,” he said.
Give back Golan Heights, says minister
British Foreign Office Minister Ivan Lewis has called for Israel to give back the Golan Heights as part of a peace settlement with Syria.
Mr Lewis, on his first visit to the Middle East, made the call during a press conference in the Syrian capital Damascus after talks with Foreign Minister Walid al-Moallem and his deputy.
Mr Lewis, who is Jewish and the MP for Bury South, said: “We think that there is now a very important opportunity for one of the world’s great conflicts to begin to come to an end.”
Brain disease sufferer may yet star in TV ad
A controversial advertisement which centres on the plight of a Jewish woman suffering from motor neurone disease may be approved to be shown on television, overturning a ban imposed because the advert was considered too shocking to be shown.
Broadcasting watchdog body Clearcast has asked for changes in the advert before it can be shown on TV. Now the Motor Neurone Disease Association, which made the film, is considering whether changes can be made without losing too much impact.
UK seeking millions from Israeli fraudster
A jailed Israeli lawyer has failed in his attempt to prevent the Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA) from trying to seize millions of pounds in assets he held in several London bank accounts.
Mr Justice Foskett, sitting in the High Court in London, ruled last week that even though the money belonged to someone outside Britain, SOCA had the authority to ask the lawyer, Israel Perry, how he and his family had amassed more than £14 million.
Family of ‘starved’ child to seek refuge in Britain
The family of the three-year-old boy allegedly starved by his mother in Jerusalem plan to move to London and be supported by British taxpayers “as soon as possible”, according to the toddler’s grandmother.
The woman said her son and pregnant daughter-in-law would “run to Stamford Hill” with their five children as soon as legal proceedings against the mother are concluded.
Once in Britain, the grandmother said the couple, both in their 30s, would seek housing benefits and the help of the Charedi community in Stamford Hill, where she and other family members already live.
Israeli archaeologists banned from world conference
The Israel Antiquities Authority has launched a furious attack on the World Archaeological Congress claiming Israeli archaeologists were excluded from a conference held in Ramallah.
Together with the Archaeological Council of Israel, the IAA claimed WAC officials had “set out with the goal in mind of inserting political issues into the professional archaeological experience” during the Overcoming Structural Violence conference.
Mermaid makes a splash in Israeli town
A mermaid is whipping up a storm in an Israeli seaside town, after dozens of people claim to have caught sight of the mythical creature.
Now Kiryat Yam town council, near Haifa, is offering $1million reward to anyone who can prove the existence of the mermaid.
The elusive mermaid, who only surfaces at twilight, has drawn crowds of tourists with their cameras.
"Many people are telling us they are sure they've seen a mermaid and they are all independent of each other," council spokesman Natti Zilberman told Sky News.
How racism defeated the ‘X-ray rabbi’
He faced down Israel’s most famous family of mystics, became the undisputed leader of Israeli kabbalah, transformed himself into a household name and became the close confidant of tycoons and celebrities.
But now it seems that Rabbi Yaakov Ifergan has finally come up against one immovable barrier — the strictly Orthodox Ashkenazi establishment which is forcing the Sephardi star out of his home town of Netivot.
Analysis: Lieberman's last cabinet meeting?
Yisrael Beiteinu may have 15 Knesset members, as well as several ministries and parliamentary committees, but is still essentially a one-man party.
Avigdor Lieberman handpicked the candidates, decided which spot they would receive on the list and who would become a minister.
But now, he is learning the limitations of his power.
After an investigation which seemed never ending, the police this week recommended pressing charges against Israel’s foreign minister for allegedly money laundering over NIS 10 million (£1.5 million).
Gay rabbi talks of Tel Aviv shooting heartbreak
When Hillel Athias-Robles was a teenager, he would stand for a long time in the street outside the Aguda gay youth centre in Tel Aviv, scared that someone would see him go inside.
As a Charedi yeshivah student, he was terrified of being spotted by someone he knew. But it was worth the risk.
“I knew I’d found a refuge where I could be myself,” he recalled this week, in the wake of the gun attack on the centre.
Police: Don't call Tel Aviv shooting a hate crime yet
Tel Aviv police are investigating additional motives for the attack on a gay youth club on Saturday night, rather than labelling it a simple “hate crime”.
The shooting spree, which resulted in the deaths of 17-year-old Liz Trubeshi and 26-year-old Nir Katz, and the wounding of 11 others, was initially interpreted by the media and politicians as an attack against the gay and lesbian community.
The unidentified shooter was portrayed by the press as someone who hated homosexuals for religious or racist reasons.
In east Jerusalem, an Arab PR coup
Two Palestinian families sitting on street corners in east Jerusalem in the sweltering August heat are at the centre of a media and diplomatic storm this week. The eviction from the homes they have lived in for 53 years has delivered the Palestinian cause a major PR coup.
Hizbollah: 40,000 rockets on Israel border
Hizbollah is training its militia to be able to hit Tel Aviv with long-range missiles, and has stockpiled 40,000 rockets on the border, a report by The Times claimed.
A Hezbollah warehouses which stored Katyusha rockets in southern Lebanon exploded last month, revealing the group was stockpiling rockets in the region, in violation of the UN Security Council Resolution 1701.
UN peacekeeping forces have been blocked from entering the site to investigation the claims.
Barak: We should accept US peace plan
Israel’s Defence Minister, Ehud Barak, has said he expects a new peace proposal from the US administration to arrive in the next few weeks, which he believes Israel should accept.
Mr Barak announced his intention of accepting the proposal at a meeting of the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defence Committee.
Charedi mother to be charged
The mother accused of starving her three-year-old son in the row which sparked the Jerusalem Charedi riots is to be charged with abuse.
Jerusalem State Prosecutor Moshe Lador is said to have been briefed on the case at the weekend and several counts are to be filed with the Jerusalem District Court after a psychiatric evaluation found that she was fit to stand trial.
The strictly Orthodox mother, who has been under house arrest for the past week, has not been allowed to see her son, who was recently released from hospital, but has been in contact with her other children.
World news
David Mamet to make Anne Frank film
The Pulitzer Prize-winning Jewish writer David Mamet is to script a new film version of the diary of Anne Frank.
The film, produced by Walt Disney, will be closely based on the diary of 15-year-old Anne, who died of typhus in Bergen-Belsen concentration camp after hiding in Nazi-occupied Holland for two years with her family.
Mr Mamet won the Pulitzer Prize for his play Glengarry Glen Ross, which was later turned into film starring Al Pacino.
More recently, Mr Mamet received Oscar nominations for his screenplays and The Verdict
NY crash pilot was Jewish businessman
The pilot killed in this weekend's New York plane and helicopter collision was a wealthy Jewish philanthropist who used the plane in which he died in to transport sick people to hospital for charity.
Steven Altman, 60, a property tycoon from Ambler, near Philadelphia, was flying the plane in clear weather, with his brother Daniel and his 15-year-old nephew Douglas when he hit a helicopter and crashed into the Hudson River, Manhattan.
Ex-Nazi commander jailed for Italy massacre
A 90-year-old former Nazi commander has been jailed for life in Munich for ordering the deaths of 14 people in an Italian village during the second world war.
Josef Scheungraber, as a 25-year-old Wehrmacht lieutenant, ordered the massacre of the civilians in 1944 in the Italian village of Falzano di Cortona in Tuscany.
He denied he explicitly told the military police to kill the victims, 11 of whom were locked into a farmhouse which was set alight.
Woman pays $32,000 for dog to fly business class
An Israeli woman has paid El Al $32,000 to reserve the whole of a business class section from Paris to Tel Aviv for herself and her “baby”.
But her baby is boxer dog “Or”, whom she refused to leave alone in the hold, in case he became anxious or scared during the flight.
The 60-year-old woman, named only as “Rivkah,” said she wanted to make sure that she would be able to calm him down.
The airline reportedly removed seats in business class to make room for Or’s cage, and Rivkah also hired a vet to accompany them on the flight.
Restoration for Lebanon's oldest synagogue
Beirut's oldest synagogue, Magen Abraham, was devastated during the Lebanese civil war, but work has finally begun to give it a new lease of life.
Magen Abraham, which was built in 1926 in the traditionally Jewish neighbourhood of Wadi Abou Jmil, fell on the Muslim side of Beirut during the war which lasted from 1975 to 1990.
Two other synagogues still remain in Lebanon, in mountain towns east of Beirut, but they have been closed since the war.
Top German honour for Israeli lawyer provokes outrage
Germany has just awarded one of its highest honours, the “Federal Merit Cross, First Class”, to Israeli lawyer Felicia Langer. A former member of the Israeli Communist Party, Langer is known in Germany, above all, as a ferocious critic of Israel.
Anger over US medal for Israel critic
In the current contentious relationship between the Obama administration and Israel, even symbolic gestures are being taken as signs that the bond between the two countries is deteriorating.
Such is the case with Mary Robinson’s selection as a recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom, America’s highest civilian honour.
The former president of Ireland and UN High Commissioner on Human Rights is among the 16 US and international figures who will receive the medal at an August 12 White House ceremony.
SATC star leaves Oxfam for Israeli cosmetics
Sex and the City actress Kristin Davis is an unlikely champion of Israel, even if her character Charlotte did convert to Judaism in the hit series.
But reports claim the actress, 44, has taken a break from her role as an ambassador for Oxfam International because of her endorsement of Ahava cosmetics, which is manufactured by Dead Sea Cosmetics in the Mitzhe Shalem West Bank settlement.
Oxfam are reported to have said there was conflict of interest because the cosmetics are manufactured in “disputed territory.”
Last Jew of Vilkaviskis goes home
When Eli Rutstein and his family left Vilkaviskis 45 years ago, they were the last Jews to leave the Lithuanian town which had once boasted a Jewish community of thousands.
After they left for Israel, the town’s Jewish past was largely forgotten and its 50,000 residents are mostly now unaware of the role the community once played.
But last week Mr Rutstein, now a 61-year-old father-of-three, returned to his home town and received a hero’s welcome from civic dignitaries and former classmates.
Call to lift German Mein Kampf ban
Germany’s main Jewish representative organisation has renewed its efforts to overturn the state’s ban on publishing Adolf Hitler’s Mein Kampf.
Stephan Kramer, secretary-general of the Central Council for Jews in Germany has called for the publication of a scholarly edition of the book, with footnotes challenging Hitler’s assertions, claiming it would prevent black market printing of the book where neo-Nazi groups profit.
Mr Kramer also argued that continuing to ban the book would glamorise it, and that Germans were sophisticated enough to make up their own minds.
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