Britannia Radio

FEATURED STORIES Jewish sparklers light up the Fourth Bruce Zoldan standing in the Youngstown, Ohio, retail showroom of his fireworks company. (B. J. Alan Company of Youngstown) Bruce Zoldan and his family own the B.J. Alan Company of Youngstown, Ohio, the second largest importer and wholesaler of consumer fireworks in the United States.Read more » Israelis win the (Jewish) World Cup Watch a JTA video report from this week's second biggest soccer tournament.Read more » Stuart Levey: The man trying to make anti-Iran sanctions work Stuart Levey was given a big stick when the Bush administration made him the first under secretary of the Treasury for terrorism and financial intelligence. But the stick only started to hurt its targets -- terrorist groups and rogue nations -- when he figured out how to soft-talk nations and private businesses into going along. Read more » Op-Ed: Israel: From elusive Utopia to inspired reality Measured against Utopian dreams of a Jewish state with no criminals, corruption or compromises, the real Israel will always fail. Instead, we need to appreciate Israel for its achievements, writes a leading Conservative rabbi from New Jersey.Read more » Op-Ed: Tom Friedman must apologize for slandering Israel The Pulitzer Prize-winning New York Times columnist crossed a line of common decency when he irresponsibly accused Israel of using "Hama rules" in its war against Hezbollah and Hamas, Rabbi Shmuley Boteach writes. Read more »

EDITORS' PICKS Survivors wants answers from Kagan (Miami Herald) Two Holocaust survivor activists want Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan to answer for her role in arguing that U.S. courts do not have jurisdiction in a case involving a European insurance company accused of swindling Holocaust survivors and their victims. World Cup shul (Jerusalem Post) The Lions shul near Ellis Park Stadium, where World Cup games are being played, capitalized on the enthusiasm of Jewish fans to bolster its minyan. Young Israel battle (N.Y. Jewish Week) A showdown appears to be brewing between the National Council of Young Israel and some of its member congregations. What's unclear is whether the heart of the matter is unpaid dues, female presidents or lack of faith in the organization's leadership. Bikini brouhaha in Brooklyn, and more Scantily clad women are protesting a New York City Transit Authority ban on displaying racy vodka ads on buses that pass through certain Chasidic neighborhoods of Brooklyn. Meanwhile, two Brooklyn synagogues are suing the city over a proposed concert they say will create noise during services. News Shticker Kevin Spacey will play Jack Abramoff. Matisyahu is against fur (except for shtreimels). Drake disses Matisyahu. Megan Fox married a Jew. And more from the News Shticker. BREAKING NEWS An Israeli Cabinet minister met with Turkey's foreign minister in Brussels to improve relations between the two countries, according to Israeli and Turkish reports. The United States has dropped deportation proceedings against the son of a Hamas founder who served as a spy for Israel's Shin Bet security service. A list of French citizens who collaborated with the Nazis will be published online. Israel is "seeing to the needs of the civilian population of Gaza," Israel's deputy foreign minister said during a tour of a Gaza border crossing. The U.S. Senate unanimously called for the release of Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit just days after the fourth anniversary of his capture by Hamas. Saudi Arabia's king joined the U.S. call for resumed Israeli-Syrian peace negotiations after meeting with President Obama. Iran has supplied Syria with a sophisticated radar system that could provide an early warning of an Israeli attack on its nuclear facilities, The Wall Street Journal reported. Support for the "Clinton parameters" has increased among Israelis and Palestinians, polls showed. Latvian leaders and international Jewish groups condemned a scheduled march in Riga to mark the anniversary of the Nazi invasion of Latvia. Israeli airstrikes hit several Gaza targets in retaliation for a Palestinian attack that damaged a western Negev factory. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has called for a total boycott on Israeli goods or companies that do business with Israel. The U.S. delegates to a conference on intolerance emphasized working jointly to combat anti-Jewish, anti-Muslim and other hatreds. Rabbi Yehuda Benasouli, the former chief rabbi of Madrid who presided over the Spanish quincentennial reconciliation visit of King Juan Carlos I to a synagogue in his city, has died.