(JTA) After a Polish court tossed out a government regulation permitting kosher slaughter in 2012, Poland’s $500 million ritual slaughter industry was expected to be brought to its knees. Evidence shows, however, that not only was kosher slaughter still being performed in Poland as recently as this month, but also that kosher meat producers had…
Poland’s Prime Minister Donald Tusk said on Thursday he is considering the future of a senior party ally who is alleged to have drunkenly shouted “Heil Hitler!” at a German airport official. The incident involving Jacek Protasiewicz, vice-president of the European parliament, is embarrassing for Poland because it has been trying to put aside wartime…
The conferring of Spanish citizenship to Sephardic Jews will be automatic and independent of the government’s discretion, the country’s justice minister told a delegation of American Jews. Justice Minister Alberto Ruiz-Gallardon made the pledge during a speech Thursday before dozens of members of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations. He was referring…
Israel on Thursday allowed the entry of some 35 Palestinian medical patients from the Gaza Strip after initially barring them because “State of Palestine” had appeared on the letterhead of their application. A Palestinian official said Israel relented and permitted their entry without any change to the logo. An Israeli official said the letterhead had…
Amid reports that kosher slaughter is continuing in Poland in the face of a law prohibiting it, the country’s chief rabbi suspended an aide who appears to have misrepresented the practice to government inspectors. The aide, Michael Alper, wrote a letter to Polish veterinarians in which he asked for permission to slaughter 250 cows after…
An historic synagogue in Essaouira, Morocco is to be refurbished in a joint project with the German Foreign Ministry. It will be the second synagogue to be restored under a special German government program. Tuesday’s announcement came as the Moroccan Ambassador in Berlin, Omar Zniber, launched an exhibit at the embassy’s cultural center of photographs…
The website of a casino operator owned by Jewish billionaire Sheldon Adelson was hacked by unidentified vandals who criticized his support for Israel. The hackers on Tuesday took over the home page of websites run by the Las Vegas Sands Corp., the world’s largest casino operator, owned by Adelson. In addition to criticizing Adelson over…
An Egyptian radio host who calls himself the official voice of Donald Duck on Disney Middle East was fired after sending anti-Israel tweets. Wael Mansour tweeted the news of his firing on February 6, six months after his tweet against Israel. “Disney decided I am no longer the official voice of DonaldDuck in it’s middle-east…
It may be the ultimate testament to Arik Einstein, the Israeli pop singer who died November 26 at age 74, that there won’t be an ultimate testament. He was too deeply enmeshed in the fabric of too many Israelis’ ordinary lives for any one tribute to capture him. He was Israel’s most beloved entertainer and…
In late September, a meeting was sponsored by Encounter, a wonderful organization that wants to ensure that all voices in the Israel-Palestine conflict are heard, to listen to Sam Bahour, a very successful Palestinian entrepreneur. Bahour, born to a Palestinian father and a Lebanese-American mother in Youngstown, Ohio, in effect made aliyah to Palestine in…
Claims that Israeli troops in 2000 killed the Palestinian boy Mohammed al-Dura are “baseless,” an Israeli government committee concluded. The panel of experts made the statement in its 36-page report presented Sunday — Israel’s most comprehensive official response to a disputed video shot by a French television station. According to the report, “there are many…
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