Middle East

 JERUSALEM (Press Release) — Jewish Agency Director-General Moshe Vigdor was appointed Director-General of the Israel’s Board of Higher Education by Israel’s Minister of Education, and will be leaving the Jewish Agency in February. Since assuming his position as director-general in 2005, Vigdor oversaw the Jewish Agency’s strategic change, during which the organization underwent significant reform

By Rabbi Dow Marmur JERUSALEM–Most Orthodox Jews are individuals who wish to serve God in a particular way, often at great sacrifice. I respect them whether or not I agree with them. But there are at least three groups that, though in the diaspora at worst only annoying, are often a menace and worse in

By David Amos SAN DIEGO–The story is told that sometime in the first half of the Twentieth Century, a New York music critic took his seat at Carnegie Hall for a concert of the NBC Orchestra. An elderly lady seated next to him asked, “That man on the podium, Mr. Toscanini, is he also supposed

  MOSCOW (Press Release)–Jewish Agency Chairman Natan Sharansky was named “Man of the Year” by the Union of Jewish Communities of Russia in ceremony at the Kremlin in Moscow at Sunday (Dec. 20). Sharansky received the award at the ceremonial hall of the Kremlin in the presence of Russia’s Chief Rabbi Berel Lazar, Russian Jewish

JERUSALEM (WJC)–Western diplomatic sources have told Arab newspaper ‘al-Hayat’ that Israel has agreed to release 443 of the 450 prisoners Hamas has demanded be freed in exchange for the release of captive IDF soldier Gilad Shalit. In addition, the sources said Israel had demanded that over 100 of the prisoners to be freed will be

JERUSALEM (WJC) — Israel’s Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi Yona Metzger has said that Pope Benedict XVI’s decision to proceed with the beatification of war-time Pope Pius XII made it difficult to continue with Catholic-Jewish interfaith dialogue. However, Metzger emphasized that the Israeli Chief Rabbinate would not cut off relations with the Vatican. On Saturday, Pope Benedict XVI

VATICAN CITY (WJC)–Pope Benedict XVI has moved his controversial war-time predecessor, Pius XII, a step closer to sainthood, declaring that Pius had displayed “heroic virtues” throughout his life and thus been a Christian worthy of imitation. Pius was one of 17 people approved by Benedict on Saturday in a list that also includes Pope John