News

In response to concerns that the Jewish community may be paying higher insurance premiums because of terrorist threats against it, state insurance regulators have called for a meeting of insurance company officials and Jewish leaders to discuss the issue Sept. 4.
New York State Superintendent of Insurance Gregory V. Serio requested the meeting after Abraham Foxman, national director of the Anti-Defamation League, raised concerns in letters to the White House and congressional leaders.

New York State has announced plans to appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court lower court rulings striking down the stateís kosher laws as unconstitutional. This despite the private concerns of some in the Jewish community that an unsuccessful appeal could potentially upset kosher laws nationwide.

Israeli officials continued their crackdown on Palestinian militants this week, including charging a top Palestinian leader with murder, while early elections suddenly loomed as a possibility and Haifa's mayor announced his candidacy for the Labor Party leadership.
In an indictment unsealed Wednesday in Tel Aviv District Court, Marwan Barghouti, 43, who once was touted as a successor to Palestinian President Yasir Arafat, was branded an "arch-terrorist whose hands are bloodied by dozens of terror actions."

The negative e-mails started soon after word spread that the Hampton Synagogue was asking the tony Village of Westhampton Beach for a proclamation permitting it to erect an eruv, or symbolic boundary, around the synagogue.

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert’s visit to Washington this week to meet with President George W. Bush and address the AIPAC convention afforded him a brief respite from the scandals back home that some analysts believe he may weather for months to come.

The 44th annual Salute to Israel Parade to mark Israel’s 60th birthday was the largest ever and was apparently a victim of its own success.

The event drew so many marchers last Sunday — organizers estimate a record of more than 100,000 — that many groups had to wait up to two hours before they could join the line to march up Fifth Avenue.

Rabbi Mordecai Waxman of Great Neck, L.I., a giant of Conservative Jewry and the only rabbi to be knighted by the Pope for his work in fostering Catholic-Jewish relations, was eulogized at his funeral Tuesday as the "rabbi of rabbis." Rabbi Waxman, surrounded by his family, died at his home Saturday at the age of 85 following a brief illness.
More than 1,000 mourners attended the funeral at Temple Israel in Great Neck, where Rabbi Waxman served as spiritual leader for 55 years. He was slated to retire at the end of this month.

As Agudath Israel of America mourned the death of its longtime leader and visionary Rabbi Moshe Sherer this week, officials of the organization put off for now any discussion of who will inherit the reins of the influential, ultra-Orthodox umbrella group.“The one who is missing is irreplaceable,” said Agudah spokesman Rabbi Avi Shafran of Rabbi Sherer, who died Sunday of leukemia at age 76. For now, Agudah’s vice president, Rabbi Shmuel Bloom, is making day-to-day decisions for the movement, believed to have as many as 100,000 adherents in the United States.

After another horrific week of Palestinian terrorism, punctuated by the killing Sunday of 13 Israelis that brought the Israeli death toll to more than 600 in 22 months, Israeli officials continued to seek new ways to deter future attacks.

Annexation Anxiety