BREAKING NEWS
Jewish Community Centre gets go-ahead
The long-awaited JCC has received unanimous planning permission from Camden Council to build its new home in Swiss Cottage
Advert targeting Jews 'marrying out' pulled
UK news
Ben Uri gallery loses bid for new London home
The Ben Uri art gallery, Anglo-Jewry’s leading art house, has lost out in a bid to move to a new home in the heart of London’s theatreland.
Chairman David Glasser said that while there was “enormous disappointment” that its bid to move the former premises of the Theatre Museum in Russell Street in Covent Garden had failed, an alternative plan would be put into action straightaway that would achieve the same aim.
Chief Rabbi to become Lord Sacks of Aldgate
The Chief Rabbi will officially become a peer on October 27 when he enters the House of Lords as Lords Sacks of Aldgate.
He will be sponsored by Lord Winston and the former Archbishop of Canterbury Lord Carey.
Explaining why he had chosen to nominate the East End of London district, he said; “My late father sold cloth in Commercial Road and my grandmother ran Frumkins wine shop. I wanted not to forget my roots. That’s where I used to help out help when I was a child and where my earliest memories are.”
Jewish Community Centre gets go-ahead
The long-awaited Jewish Community Centre for London (JCC) has received unanimous planning permission from Camden Council to build its new home in Swiss Cottage, north west London.
The former Mercedes showroom on Finchley Road will be razed and rebuilt as a multi-purpose cultural and social building, expected to open in 2013.
Three charged in safety deposit centre raid
Three people have been charged in connection with Operation Rize, a series of raids on safety deposit centres carried out by the Metropolitan Police in June last year.
Milton Woolf, 53, of West Heath Drive, Golders Green, a director of Safe Deposit Centres Limited, the company that controlled Hampstead Safe Depository, Edgware Safe Depository, and Park Lane Safe Depository, has been charged with 24 offences.
Imprisoned by MI5 for writing a letter home to mum
Henry Wuga was just 15 when he was interned early in the Second World War for writing a letter to his parents in Germany.
Almost 70 years later, Mr Wuga confirmed his long-held suspicion that it was only a declaration of his innocence by MI5 that got him released from prison.
Mr Wuga, now 85, with two married daughters and four grandsons, told his story as part of the BBC’s The Week We Went to War series, shown this week to commemorate the outbreak of the Second World War.
Pro-Israel MP's new official is Palestinian activist
One of Israel’s staunchest supporters in Parliament is at the centre of a row over his appointment of a campaigns and communications manager who appears to be strongly anti-Israel.
Barry Gardiner, MP for Brent North in north-west London and a former vice-chair of Labour Friends of Israel, has appointed Joseph Brown, who declared his “continued dedication to the Palestinian cause” after being pictured at an anti-Israeli demonstration in January.
Government anti-terror funding 'is going to radicals'
A key government programme to counter Islamist extremism has given money to groups that have promoted radical ideas, according to a new report.
The TaxPayers’ Alliance, a ginger group monitoring public spending, says that the government should consider scrapping “Preventing Violent Extremism”, known as Prevent, a £50 million-plus scheme which is part of its anti-terrorism strategy.
The TPA, analysing more than £12 million spent on Prevent so far, accused the government of leaving it up to ill-equipped local councils to allocate the money.
Jewish aid to Pakistan breaks down barriers
A charity’s aid work in Pakistan helped to create a more positive image of Judaism, according to a report published this week.
It cites World Jewish Relief as an example of what religious organisations can achieve in providing help overseas.
Authors Edward Kessler and Miriam Arkush, who produced Keeping Faith in Development for the Woolf Institute of Abrahamic Faiths in Cambridge, recommend that faith-based organisations should do more to collaborate over international development to foster inter-religious understanding.
BNP must accept non-whites after legal battle
The British National Party is poised to accept non-white members and candidates of different ethnicities following a legal challenge which accused it of racial discrimination.
BNP leader Nick Griffin indicated that the party will make changes to its constitution after the Equality and Human Rights Commission sought an injunction, claiming the party’s membership rules breach the Race Relations Act.
Foulds makes Booker shortlist
Adam Foulds has become one of six novelists on the prestigious Man Booker Prize shortlist, announced today.
The son of Rabbi Michael Foulds of New Essex Masorti congregation, Adam Foulds has won consistent praise for his work. The Quickening Maze, his third novel, is an outsider on the Booker Prize shortlist at 10-1. The winning novel, whose author will receive a £50,000 prize, will be announced on October 6.
As an “Essex boy”, Adam Foulds has turned his attention to real events for The Quickening Maze, set in and around the High Beach Asylum in Epping Forest in 1840.
Israel newsRussian ship hijack was 'Israeli cover story'
An Israeli source has claimed that the hijack by pirates of a boat which disappeared off the coast was a cover, and that the ship was carrying a Russian missile system to Iran.
The Arctic Sea and its 15 crew members, all Russian, disappeared in July. The ship was then believed to have been sailing to Algeria with a cargo of timber.
The ship was found in mid-August off West Africa, and Moscow claimed the ship had been hijacked by pirates, charging eight men with hijacking and piracy.
Advert targeting Jews 'marrying out' pulled
A controversial advertising campaign which portrayed young Jews who have married out as “missing persons” has been pulled by the Jewish Agency.
Jewish Agency chairman Natan Sharansky pulled the television and newspaper adverts after a storm of criticism from bloggers, journalists and religious leaders.
Israeli healthcare standards 'slipping'
The heated discussions going on in Britain and the United States over the future of public medicine and medical insurance has shifted the spotlight to successful systems in other countries.
In Israel, while there is universal coverage for all residents and a generally high level of treatment, there are complaints of slipping standards.
Abbas in dilemma over settlements
Israel’s approval of 450 new housing units in the settlements this week has placed Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in a vulnerable position, as he may have to make an embarrassing climbdown from his refusal to resume negotiations without a full settlement freeze.
Assimilation ad angers diaspora
A new campaign against assimilation in the diaspora, which is aimed at Israelis, is raising eyebrows in international Jewish organisations.
The television advert shows spoof “missing” posters, featuring young men and women with Jewish names. The implication is that the diaspora youngsters are being “lost” to Judaism.
The advert urges Israelis with a relative abroad who might be interested in Israel to contact MASA, an Israeli-based group that encourages Jewish students to study in Israel.
Israel ponders missed chance over Ron Arad
The basic facts are not new. Israel’s intelligence services have believed for some time that Ron Arad, the Israel Air Force navigator who was taken prisoner in Lebanon 23 years ago, died in captivity over a decade ago. But the new details of the failed efforts to release him were published this week, and in this there is a chilling resemblance to the current situation of Gilad Shalit.
What hijack? The high-sea drama no one will discuss
Ehud Barak’s face remained expressionless. The reporters surrounded the defence minister, asking again and again, “do you have anything to say about the Russian ship?” — but he would not even look at them. His bodyguards cleared a path for him as he stepped into his official car and sped away.
None of the countries allegedly involved in the mystery of the Arctic Sea — the boat that disappeared in the Baltic Sea for several days in July after being boarded by pirates — have any interest in publicity.
More than 700 civilians killed in Gaza- B'Tselem
Israeli officials seriously underestimated the number of Palestinian civilians killed in Operation Cast Lead, a Israeli human rights group has alleged.
A new report by B'Tselem found that 773 civilians, whose names it publishes today, were killed during the Israeli offensive in Gaza in January. B’Tselem says this includes 252 children and 109 women.
Israeli army figures put the civilian death toll at 209, with 89 children killed, but the figures did not include 245 Hamas policeman, whereas B’Tselem’s report counts policeman in its civilian figures.
Ron Arad not dead until we say so, says Israel
The Israeli government has refused to accept a report that the missing air force navigator Ron Arad died in Lebanon in 1995.
The Prime Minister’s Office says it will continue to assume that Lt. Col Arad is alive, unless more conclusive evidence is given to the contrary.
A statement from the PMO said: "The missing aviator’s case is ongoing and until we have conclusive evidence to the contrary, the premise is that Ron Arad is alive. We are doing everything possible to bring him home."
Settlements approved before West Bank freeze
Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu is set to approve hundreds of West Bank housing units ahead of a possible construction freeze, according to Israeli officials.
Mr Netanyahu is expected to support the building of new units, in addition to the 2,500 that are yet to be completed. The new buildings will be based in the West Bank, rather than East Jerusalem.
The US has been pressuring the Israeli government to halt all new settlement construction.
World newsIn New York, rabbis take on bohemians in a bicycle war
On one side of Broadway — a main street in the New York suburb of Williamsburg — bohemian 20-somethings in sunglasses and shorts work on laptops at an outdoor café.
Across the street, Satmar Chasidim in black hats stroll outside the office of Der Yid, the Satmar Yiddish language weekly.
Tensions between the two communities, living cheek by jowl but rarely interacting, have recently risen to boiling point over an unlikely issue — bike lanes on avenues that run through both their sides of the neighbourhood.
Fears over UN Gaza report
A United Nations investigation into the Gaza conflict will be used as a political weapon to undermine Israel and could lead to an upsurge of international antisemitism, the head of a Geneva NGO has warned.
Hillel Neuer, director of the highly respected UN Watch, has said the group is preparing to challenge the report, which is due to be formally presented to the UN Human Rights Commission at the end of the month.
It is widely believed that the report will result in calls for Israel to be prosecuted for alleged war crimes.
Stasi link to Claims Conference lawyer
Turn over any stone in the former East Germany and you are likely to find an agent of the Stasi, the former secret service. And the Claims Conference apparently did just that.
Recently, the Claims Conference — whose successor organisation handles compensation for property stolen during the Shoah — learned that an attorney in its employment had once been “an unofficial employee of the Stasi”.
Many former East Germans worked for the Stasi, though some were listed as informants without their knowledge.
Orthodox women offer de-licing service at $200 a head
To most people, the beginning of the school year in New York means bright September days, shiny new lunch boxes and meeting friends.
But to Dalya Harel it signifies one thing above all else — the start of head lice-hunting season.
Mrs Harel, 48, is founder of LiceBustersNYC, one of a dozen or more lice-removal businesses in the New York area run by Orthodox women.
Her competitors include Adele Horowitz’s Licenders, Susan Sherman’s LiceBGoners and Abigail “The Lice Lady” Rosenfeld.
Group lobbies against Ahmadinejad hotel stay
A high-profile advocacy group is campaigning to stop a top New York hotel from hosting Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad next week.
United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI) was founded by diplomats Dennis Ross and Richard Holbrooke, both of whom serve in the Obama administration, and its president is Mark Wallace, a former US ambassador to the UN.
Egyptian who threatened to burn Israeli books to get UN job
Egypt’s culture minister, Farouk Hosni, who last year said he would burn any Israeli books he found in the country’s libraries, is the favourite to win the UN’s top cultural post in an election that begins next week.
Surprisingly, Mr Hosni’s chances of becoming head of Unesco have been boosted by Israel, of all countries, despite being for years an object of his scorn.
Jane Fonda responds to Toronto Festival row
Actress Jane Fonda has hit back after a row errupted over her signature on a letter which criticised a celebration of Tel Aviv at the Toronto International film festival.
Writing on her blog, Ms Fonda denied she had any anti-Israeli sentiments, and that she was protesting that fact that a film festival was being used to promote a certain country.
More than 50 film directors, artists and writers, including Ken Loach, Naomi Klein, David Byrne and Danny Glover signed the letter which protests against the new "City to City" celebration at TIFF, which this year will focus on Tel Aviv.
Row over Toronto Film Festival boycott
More than 50 film directors, artists and writers, including Jane Fonda, Ken Loach, Naomi Klein, David Byrne and Danny Glover have signed a letter which protests against a celebration of Tel Aviv at the Toronto International Film Festival.
The festival, which is in its 34th year, is launching a “City to City” programme this year, which will focus on Tel Aviv and feature 10 Israeli films.
The artists say the spotlight on Tel Aviv would romanticise the country which they call an “apartheid state”, and claim the festival had fallen prey to the Israeli “propaganda machine”.
Man accused of Nazi murders faces US expulsion
The US has taken action to expel from America a Michigan resident accused of persecuting and killing Ukrainian Jews during World War II.
John (previously Iwan) Kalymon is charged with personally shooting Jews, killing at least one, as a member of the Nazi-sponsored Ukrainian Auxiliary Police (UAP).
Mr Kalymon is also charged with participating in activities where Jews were deported to gas chambers or slave labour camps.
Madonna's Israeli flag YouTube outrage
Madonna caused outrage on Youtube after videos of her wrapped in an Israeli flag at her Tel Aviv concerts were posted on the website.
At the finale of both of her concerts in Tel Aviv’s Hayarkon Park this week Madonna draped herself in the Israeli flag leading hundreds of Palestinian supporters to voice their anger on YouTube.
Several of the posts included antisemitic comments and profane language directed at Israel or Madonna.
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