December 23, 2013
JERUSALEM (JTA) — The United States in 2007 rented an apartment directly across the road from then-Defense Minister Ehud Barak, it was reported in the wake of revelations that the U.S. and British intelligence were spying on Israeli leaders.
Washington said the apartment was rented for a Marine working in the U.S. Embassy’s security department, Yediot Acharonot reported Sunday, adding that Israeli intelligence discovered that a large amount of electronic...
December 22, 2013
(JTA) — The former president of an Atlanta synagogue was one of two people killed in an airplane crash in a city neighborhood.
Peter Mallen, 67, the founder of a high-tech textile company and president of The Temple in Atlanta from 2004 to 2006, was piloting the plane when it went down in a northwestern neighborhood of Atlanta and exploded into flames last week near Interstate 285, the Atlanta Journal...
December 22, 2013
NEW YORK (JTA) — Edgar Bronfman, the billionaire former beverage magnate and leading Jewish philanthropist, died Saturday at the age of 84.
As the longtime president of the World Jewish Congress, Bronfman fought for Jewish rights worldwide and led the successful fight to secure more than a billion dollars in restitution from Swiss banks for Holocaust victims and their heirs. As a philanthropist, Bronfman took the lead in creating and...
December 19, 2013
NEW YORK (JTA) — Four minors were arrested in connection with what are believed to be “knockout game” attacks in Brooklyn, DNAinfo New York reported.
The New York Police Department arrested a 14-year-old girl and three other youths, aged 10 and 11, for involvement in three assaults in the borough in October and November.
The victims were three Jewish children: one was punched, one was hit with a rock and...
December 19, 2013
(JTA) — A suburban New York City man was arrested for allegedly assaulting seven men in so-called knockout game attacks.
Darryl Mitchell, 20, of North Amityville on Long Island will be arraigned Wednesday in Suffolk County Criminal Court and charged with attacks that date back to April, according to reports. Two of the victims were over 65.
He was arrested Dec. 4 after four attack victims identified him from pictures....
December 19, 2013
(JTA) — Actor Sean Penn told The Associated Press that he was with Jacob Ostreicher, the New York businessman who returned to the United States this week after being held in Bolivia since 2011.
In an e-mail Tuesday, Penn said Ostreicher was safe and receiving medical care in an undisclosed location.
Penn said Ostreicher had been removed from Bolivia in a “humanitarian operation” in order to save him “from the...
December 19, 2013
WASHINGTON (JTA) — Elie Wiesel urged Congress to enhance sanctions on Iran and the Obama administration to demand the “total dismantling” of Iran’s nuclear infrastructure.
“Our nation is morally compromised when it contemplates allowing a country calling for the destruction of the State of Israel to remain within reach of nuclear weapons,” the Nobel Peace laureate and Holocaust memoirist said in a public letter posted in a full-page New York...
December 17, 2013
WASHINGTON (JTA) — The membership of the American Studies Association endorsed its national council’s call for a boycott of Israeli universities.
Two-thirds of the 1,252 members who voted approved the boycott, according to an ASA announcement Monday, a day after the deadline for voting.
At the time of the vote, there were 3,853 eligible voters, meaning a third of the membership participated.
The membership-wide canvas was unprecedented and was undertaken...
December 17, 2013
BOSTON (JTA) — Alan Dershowitz, one of the country’s most prominent lawyers and a passionate advocate for Israel, is retiring from Harvard Law School.
Dershowitz, 75, who is known for taking on high-profile and often unpopular causes and clients, has taught at Harvard Law for half a century. His retirement becomes official at the end of the week.
While at a conference last week in Israel, he confirmed to the...
December 15, 2013
SAN DIEGO (JTA) — The Union for Reform Judaism has sold off half of its headquarters in New York and is investing $1 million from the proceeds to overhaul its youth programming.
The sale of one of the union’s two floors at its midtown Manhattan headquarters closed on Dec. 11. Rabbi Rick Jacobs, the movement’s president, announced the sale in his speech the following day at the Reform biennial in...
