Congregation Beth Elohim of Park Slope, Brooklyn tallied the second highest number of online votes in the American Express Partners in Preservation program and will receive $250,000 for preservation. The contest was run in conjunction with the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission and the National Trust for Historic Preservation.
Israeli supermodel Bar Refaeli was voted No. 1 on the annual Maxim Hot 100 list.
It marked the first time that the international men’s magazine allowed readers to partake in the selection process for the list, which was announced Monday by the magazine. Refaeli, who turns 27 on June 4, beat “Daily Show” correspondent Olivia Munn for the top spot.
In addition to Refaeli, Jewish honorees include actresses Mila Kunis (No. 3), Lea Michele (14) and Scarlett Johanssen (17).
Eight members of a northern Israeli family were killed when their car’s brakes failed and the car rolled down a hill.
The family minivan burst into flames at the bottom of the hill, killing six children and their parents early Tuesday morning.
One daughter, 7, survived because she was thrown out of the car when it overturned.
Dr. Eyal Gur, director of the Plastic Surgery Department at the Tel Aviv Ichilov hospital, and Dr. Arik Zaretsky, head of the Micro-Surgery Division of the Plastic Surgery Department, are preparing to undertake Israel’s first full face transplant, an operation which has only been performed 21 times around the world and is considered the most complex procedure in medicine.
Three women were stopped for questioning after attempting to pray at the Western Wall in Jewish prayer shawls. The women, part of a group of about 40 from the Women of the Wall group, were praying at the wall Tuesday morning as part of their monthly rosh chodesh, or new month, prayer service, The Jerusalem Post reported. A policewoman approached one of the women during the service and asked her not to wear the prayer shawl, or tallit, the way a man would and then adjusted it for her, according to the Post.
A New Jersey woman who was told to “tape down her breasts” has filed suit against an Orthodox-owned lingerie company claiming religious and sexual discrimination.
Laura Odes, a former data entry worker, was fired from Native Intimates after working there for a week. A supervisor for the wholesale firm told Odes that the store owners, who are Orthodox Jews, were not happy with her outfit, saying it was too “distracting” and she was “too hot.”
A Brooklyn man was sentenced to 20 years to life for sexually abusing children in his Orthodox Jewish community.
Michael Sabo, a 38-year-old father of four, confessed to sexually abusing two children. He was sentenced Monday after agreeing to a plea bargain.
The Brooklyn District Attorney’s Office said it had evidence of seven additional victims.
The case has been cited as an example of the difficulties facing prosecutors in convincing abuse victims from the close-knit haredi Orthodox Jewish community to come forward.
Authorities in Cuba are ready to negotiate the status of jailed American Alan Gross, a senior Cuban official said.
"We have made clear to the U.S. government that we are ready to have a negotiation in order to try and find a solution, a humanitarian solution to Mr. Gross' case on a reciprocal basis," Josefina Vidal, the top official in the Cuban Foreign Ministry handling North America, said in an interview on CNN on May 10.
In the wake of the announcement that American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (JDC) Executive Vice President and CEO Steven Schwager will step down as CEO, the organization has named veteran Jewish community executive and leader Darrell Friedman as interim CEO, effective July 1.
Friedman spent 17 years as CEO of The Associated: Jewish Community Federation of Baltimore and has been a strategic consultant to major national and international Jewish organizations.
A suburban New York father is suing his school district over the anti-Semitic taunting of his son.
Robert Slade filed the federal suit last week alleging that officials at Northport High School on Long Island took no action to stop a group of 20 students from traumatizing his son with taunts such as “Jews are disgusting,” “Being Jewish must suck,” “Hitler was a good person” and “My love for you burns like a thousand Jews in an oven.”
