Jewish

The New York City Health Commissioner Dr. Thomas Farley has issued a strongly worded statement calling for an end to the circumcision-related rite of "metzitza b'peh," loosely translated as suction with the mouth. Last year, a baby died at Brooklyn’s Maimonides Medical Center from “disseminated herpes simplex virus Type 1, complicating ritual circumcision with oral suction."

The Rabbinical Congress for Peace cited the words of Nobel laureate Professor Israel Aumann who said that that evicting the families “would endanger not only the Jewish presence in Judea and Samaria but also all of Israel."

The OU reps pressed Obama hard on his handling of US-Israel relations and on mandating contraceptive coverage. Obama accused Netanyahu of trying to "act without restraints."

Israel’s Health Ministry is mulling a plan to vastly increase government assistance to couples with fertility difficulties to grow larger families, while decreasing the amount of subsidies to women over the age of 43 who have never succeeded in getting pregnant.

US Glatt kosher deli manufacturer Abeles and Heyman merged with Israeli company Yehiam to help both expand their reach in the US market.

The Aleph Institute, a Chabad-Lubavitch organization catering to the needs of Jewish soldiers and their families, is helping servicemen celebrate the upcoming holiday of Shavuot with 1,000 special military edition Torah books, according to a report on Chabad.org.

Israel Antiquities Authority and the Ir David Foundation announced that a clay seal was discovered bearing the name of the city of Bethlehem, evidence that the city existed during the period of the First Temple in Jerusalem. The find coincides with the upcoming holiday of Shavuot, during which time Jews from around the world focus on the story of the biblical figure Ruth, set in the city of Bethlehem.

Nefesh B’Nefesh organized a special celebration yesterday in Ein Yael, Jerusalem for new Olim to better prepare them for their first Shavuot in Israel.

A group of Jewish children and their parents were targeted in a fierce rock attack Friday night outside the Maale HaZeitim neighborhood in Jerusalem, miraculously escaping serious injury. Jerusalem police who arrived to investigate were also pelted with stones – and left.

The Jewish birthrate per capita of Jewish mothers in Jerusalem is now higher than that of Arab women in Israel’s capital city.

New York rapper Yitz “Y-Love” Jordan, famed black convert to Orthodox Judaism and celebrated artist, has announced that he is homosexual in an interview with Out magazine.

Women who seek the opportunity to do Asanas in an environment which is more Hoshannah than Ganesha – and teach other women to do the same - can now sign up for a special course designed especially for Jewish Yoga aficionadas who want to teach the healing art to others.

Jewish reaction was mixed to the election of the Socialist Party’s Francois Hollande as the president of France while Jewish leaders in Greece expressed concern and disappointment after the fascist Golden Dawn party was poised to enter the Greek parliament for the first time.

Some 5,000 French Jews participated in an aliyah fair in Paris. The fair, organized and run by the Jewish Agency, took place on the Sunday of Francois Hollande's election as their new president, beating incumbent Nicolas Sarkozy—the Jewish community's favorite. A recent poll found that 26 percent of those surveyed said they have considered emigrating due to French anti-Semitism.

Following his victory Sunday, the 57-year-old François Hollande shouted himself hoarse, as he had done so often during the campaign, thanking his supporters for electing him president and promising to unite the whole country. But Richard Prasquier, President of the Jewish-French organizations, says one of the changes the Hollande presidency brings is a boost to the anti-Israel left.

Despite a drop of 0.7% in antisemitic incidents in 2011 over the previous year, the gravity of the problem in Canada is better understood by observing long-term trends: antisemitic incidents have grown twenty-fold since B'nai Brith started monitoring antisemitism thirty years ago, while a five-year view shows a 24.6% rise.

A Vatican representative has issued a call for the world’s foremost religions to unite to take a stand against gay marriage. Archbishop Antonio Mennini, the...

For the Jewish community in Ohio, the newest Cleveland Browns lineman is also a landsman. Mitchell Schwartz will arrive in Cleveland on Thursday, May 10...

Members of the UJA-Federation of New York set a Guinness World Record on April 29 for assembling the greatest number of sandwiches for the...

Jewish support for President Obama has improved significantly in the last year and a half, according to a new survey by the American Jewish Committee .

Israel Antiquities Authority: The seal, discovered during excavations of the drainage channel between the City of David and the Jerusalem Archaeological Garden, "is engraved with the name of its owner: 'Lematanyahu Ben Ho…' ('למתניהו בן הו...' meaning: 'Belonging to Matanyahu Ben Ho…')."

American clothing retailer Urban Outfitters is in hot water for selling a yellow T-shirt with a patch over the breast pocket that looks like a designer's idea of how to improve that old fashioned yellow Star of David that Jews were forced to wear by the Nazis. Make it blue, for one thing, yellow is soooo 1941.

Tens of thousands of Ultra-Orthodox Jews will participate in a huge rally to be held on Sunday evening, May 20, at Shea Stadium in Queens, New York, to combat the evils of the Internet and the damages caused by advanced electronic devices. One of the event organizers said: "This will be a mass rally never before seen in the history of Orthodox Jewry in the U.S." The rabbis behind the event say the Internet creates "many serious family-related problems."

Seven men – including 4 rabbis - happened upon by an Israeli paratrooper in a closed military zone on the Hermon mountains on Monday, were on a mission of their own – to safeguard the sanctity of the Jews of the city of Metulla.

This April, 70 years since the Nazi invasion on Lithuania destroyed the 800-year connection of the country with the Jewish people, a $50 million package was passed to compensate Jewish families whose property was stolen during the Holocaust, according to a report by JTA.

Among its results, the study found that 72% of Polish citizens agree or strongly agree that "Jews try to take advantage of having been victims during the Nazi era," and that 68% of Hungarians share this sentiment. Nearly 70% percent of Hungarians also think that "Jews have too much influence" in their country.

Last Saturday at 7 a.m., Israeli Border Police detained and beat up a nine-year-old Jewish child in Hebron, after he entered a closed military zone near Machpelah House. The Hebron community's spokesman told the Jewish Press: "The border police acted like animals, attacking a child. They only care about attacking Jews."

Christie’s New York will unveil "a rare and splendid example of Renaissance Judaica," an illuminated manuscript Machzor. With more than 400 pages, this manuscript, printed on vellum (calf's skin) is a festival prayer book written in Hebrew, created in Tuscany, and probably Florence, circa 1490. It is being offered at auction for the first time, at a value estimated between $540,000 and 800,000.

In the last week, a sting operation took place where an undercover officer, dressed as an Orthodox Jew, drove through A-Tur and was pelted with stones by two youths. They were promptly arrested, and admitted the act under interrogation. Captain Chayun hopes they will be prosecuted.

Leading Miami Plastic Surgeon Dr. Michael Salzhauer announced Monday that he was canceling his music video contest, based on "Jewcan Sam, A Nose Job Love Song." the song about nose jobs by the punk-rock band, The Groggers. Originally, Salzhauer called on contestants to create their own video for the song, and the best video would win an all-expenses paid trip to Miami.