Britannia Radio

FEATURED STORIES New Zealand Jews plan to fight for shechitah Chickens being kosher slaughtered on New Zealand's South Island in 2009. A new law banning shechitah is being challenged by the country's Jews. A new law barring kosher slaughter in New Zealand likely will face a fight from the country's Jews, whose strategy in dealing with the crisis is being questioned by Australian Jewish organizational leaders. Read more » 'The Man Who Saved Tel Aviv' to get his due in D.C. Lou Lenart, 89, to be recognized at parade for his flying exploits as a U.S. Marine and pioneer in the Israel Air Force. Read more » Op-Ed: Prosecution was overzealous in Rubashkin case The unusually severe sentence of 27 years in prison for Agriprocessors executive Sholom Rubashkin is a victory for a prosecution that pursued a win-at-all-costs strategy, but the government's handling of the case has sullied the U.S. justice system, the CEO of OU Kosher writes. Read more » Op-Ed: UC Irvine sets standard with suspension The University of California, Irvine decision to suspend the Muslim Student Union for its actions during a speech by Israeli U.S. Ambassador Michael Oren is a positive step for the campus and perhaps for higher education in general, writes the Hillel Foundation's executive director in Orange County. Read more »

EDITORS' PICKS Hamas' gains (Economist) What will Israel's eased restrictions on Gaza imports do for the organization that oversees, taxes and licenses commerce in the strip -- Hamas? American Jews, but not Zionists (N.Y. Times) As president of the 68-year-old American Council for Judaism, Stephen Naman is trying to take the Israel out of Judaism. Intermarriage: Loss or gain? (Free Press) The Detroit Free Press visits the intermarriage debate. N.Y.'s Hebrew charter school (N.Y. Times) Arabs, Christians and religious Jews are among those enrolled in New York's first charter school. Others are planned. BREAKING NEWS Israel's ambassador to the United States denied reports that he called the relationship between Israel and the U.S. a 'tectonic rift.' Haredi Orthodox fathers who defied a court order to send their daughters to an integrated Ashkenazi-Sephardic school were released from jail. The family of Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit and thousands of supporters began a protest march to mark the four years of his captivity. Elie Wiesel has launched a global campaign to free former Russian oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky, who is on trial in Moscow for embezzlement. A New Zealand comedian apologized for making anti-Semitic jokes. Adm. Michael Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff of the U.S. military, made an unscheduled visit to Israel. Turkey's prime minister said his country has closed its airspace to Israeli planes. A coalition of international Jewish organizations sympathetic to the Palestinians will send a flotilla to Gaza to try to break Israel's blockade of the Hamas-run strip. The web pages of a North Kansas City, Mo., website-hosting computer were hacked to display an anti-Israel image. Masked gunmen set fire to a United Nations-run summer camp in Gaza. Three Israeli Arabs who allegedly are part of a global jihad cell were charged with the murder of an Israeli cab driver. The departure of a Gaza-bound Iranian ship carrying aid and activists has been postponed after Egypt said it would prevent the ship from using the Suez Canal. An Iranian delegation visiting Germany refused to tour a concentration camp memorial and museum, according to reports. Non-Jewish Poles who protect and preserve Jewish culture in Poland were recognized during the annual Festival of Jewish Culture in Krakow. About 200 Palestinian protesters clashed with Israeli police in an eastern Jerusalem neighborhood. Israel's Air Force struck a weapons storage facility and two terror tunnels in Gaza. Israel is "the assassin arm of the United States" and will one day be "put in its place," Hugo Chavez told Syrian President Bashar Assad. Israeli troops killed one suspect and injured another who crossed into Israel with sacks of drugs. Respected art historian Daniele Di Castro, the director of the Jewish Museum of Rome, has died.