Jerusalem - Mayor Uri Lupolianski will not run for another term in November's municipal elections. His party, United Torah Judaism, will elect a new candidate for mayor, who will compete against Russian-Israeli billionaire Arcadi Gaydamak and his Social Justice party. At the moment, the leading candidate is Knesset Member Meir Porush. Lupolianski heads the UTJ faction in Jerusalem...

New York City - As Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly considers a run for City Hall, the likely mayoral candidates are lining up to praise his record and indicating that if elected mayor, they could try to keep him on as commissioner. Businessman John Catsimatidis, a Republican, said he would love to have Mr. Kelly on his team, and the speaker of the City Council, Christine Quinn, a Democrat...

Manhattan, NY - The board of a physically rundown E. Sixth St. synagogue built in 1910 voted earlier this month to replace it with a new six-story residential building that would also contain a synagogue. The directors voted on July 7 to confirm a deal that would see the Kushner Companies demolish Adas Le Israel Anshei Meseritz, at 415 E. Sixth St., and build a new synagogue on the first two...

Monroe, NY - Residents of the Village of Monroe and surrounding areas with village-supplied water are being asked to cut back on unnecessary water use because of the recent dry weather. Village officials urged residents to check faucets and toilets for leaks, limit shower time and use dishwashers and washing machines only with full loads. They also suggest cutting back on watering lawns and...

Minnesota - A group of Conservative rabbis has released long-awaited guidelines for a program that aims to monitor and certify working conditions in kosher food production. The guidelines for the Hekhsher Tzedek program, as it is known, are wide-ranging, with sections devoted to labor standards, the treatment of animals, corporate transparency and environmental impact. In order to evaluate a...

Borough Park, NY - 1000's will gather this weekend to celebrate the 8 'yurzeit' of one of the last Gedolim in America, HaRav Shlomo Halberstam, zt"l the ‘Tazdik’ that rebuild the Hasidic sect 'Bobov', and made it again into a dynasty after WWII. He saw a world in its devastation and presided over its renaissance, teaching the new generation the lessons that had sustained the old. “He...

Washington - A top government scientist who helped the FBI analyze samples from the 2001 anthrax attacks has died in Maryland from an apparent suicide, just as the Justice Department was about to file criminal charges against him for the attacks. Bruce E. Ivins, 62, who for the last 18 years worked at the government's elite biodefense research laboratories at Ft. Detrick, Md., had been...