Brussels - A Hungarian army officer, who saved the lives of around 2000 Jews in Budapest from Nazi persecutions during the last months of Word War II, was commemorated at the European Parliament in Brussels. Captain Laszlo Ocskay, acted consistently against the policies of the “Arrow Cross Militia,” the Hungarian pro-Nazi authorities headed by Ferenc Szalasi. Between October 1944 and...

Washington, DC - The US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia ruled today that certain parts of a lawsuit brought by the Chabad Lubavitch Jewish Orthodox movement against the Russian government could proceed. Lubavitch seeks the return of an archive of 18th century religious texts that it alleged the Russian government had appropriated in violation of international law during World War...

New York - The Rev. John Hagee is extending his regret to Jews. Mr. Hagee, a televangelist and megachurch pastor who had publicly endorsed Senator John McCain, the Republican candidate for president and was repudiated last month by Mr. McCain after a Web site posted a troubling sermon by Mr. Hagee about the Holocaust. In the sermon he gave in 1999, Mr. Hagee said that God allowed the...

Brooklyn, NY - NYPD are on the scene at East 14th Street and Avenue "H" for a suspicious death at location. Chesed Shel Emes responding full crew to the scene, for the 63-year-old female that was found dead...

Florida - Leaders of education and civil-liberties groups --- including a Palm Coast rabbi --- filed a lawsuit today to try to block two proposed constitutional amendments that could help lead to school vouchers in Florida. The lawsuit, filed in Leon County circuit court, challenges two proposed amendments that were approved this spring by the state’s powerful Taxation and Budget Reform...

Washington - Tim Russert, the host of the NBC program "Meet the Press," has died of an apparent heart attack at age 58, his family confirmed. Russert, who rose from the inside world of politics where he was former New York Gov. Mario Cuomo's press secretary and one-time chief of staff to the late Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan, was able to successfully cross over to political journalism and rise...

London - New study shows that Jewish people live longer than their non-Jewish counterparts. Figures compiled by the Office for National Statistics suggest that there are nearly three times as many Jewish people who are 100 or older than there are in the general population. In the 2001 Census, twice the number of those in the Jewish community were 90 or more, compared to the rest of England and...

New York, NY - In the wake of two fatal crane accidents and the abrupt departure of city Buildings Commissioner Patricia Lancaster, the city is requiring that details of all construction-related injuries and deaths be posted on the Department of Buildings' Web site. Also under a separate measure, the agency will have to alert the state to all disciplinary action taken against architects and...

Conover, WI - JTA is reporting that a group of Midwestern Jewish conservative camps returned a shipment of kosher meat from the embattled slaughterhouse Agriprocessors. Camp Ramah Wisconsin received a shipment that a source said was two years past its expiration date. Camp Interlaken, a JCC camp in Wisconsin, received meat dated "late last year," according to operations director Jonah...

Kenosha,WI - Police are investigating the theft of a $30,000 Torah scroll from a St. Louis-area synagogue, a case that is similar to the theft in April of two Torah scrolls valued at $40,000 to $60,000 each from an Orthodox synagogue in Kenosha. Authorities are investigating whether there are connections between those two cases and three other thefts of the sacred Jewish scrolls in different...

Brooklyn, NY - Ikea will give away thousands of dollars worth of gift cards and merchandise — including a sofa for each of the first 35 people in line — when it opens its store here June 18. Ikea Brooklyn will be the Swedish company’s first store and restaurant in New York City, its fourth in the New York-New Jersey area, its 35th in the United States and its 281st worldwide. The...

Rockland County, NY - Efforts by a nonprofit organization to build a religious-education college in Ramapo have raised questions about private, tax-exempt schools in Rockland. Dozens can be found around the county, from colleges on sprawling campuses to schools operating out of single-family homes. But debate has been sparked by the Congregation Rabbinical College of Tartikov's efforts to...

New York City - Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg is funneling another enormous set of ostensibly anonymous grants to hundreds of arts and social services groups through the Carnegie Corporation, spreading them over the next two years as he begins establishing his own philanthropic foundation. The grants, announced on Thursday by the Carnegie Corporation, total more than $60 million for 542...

Warsaw, Poland - A Polish prosecutor has dropped a probe into allegations of anti-Semitism against a Catholic priest who slammed moves to return Jewish properties lost during World War II. Polish law prohibits the public incitement of racial hatred, such as anti-Semitism. Rydzyk created and heads the Catholic-nationalist Radio Maryja -- known for comments with an anti-Semitic, nationalist and...

Buenos Aires, Argentina - The first Orthodox man elected to head Argentina's largest Jewish organization took office amid an angry debate over religious and cultural identity. Guillermo Borger tried to dispel fears that he would favor Orthodox Jews and their beliefs during his three-year tenure as president of the 22,000-member Argentine Israeli Mutual Association, known as AMIA. "AMIA is...