Berlin, Germany - Europe’s largest Jewish cemetery, located in east Berlin, is a vast jungle of overgrown headstones and crumbling monuments decaying so fast that the city has mounted a campaign to rescue it. Weissensee Cemetery’s grand tombs date to the heyday of Jewish life in Berlin in the early 20th century, but they have been left untended and fallen into disrepair because the sons...

East Rutherford, NJ - The Giants and the Jets face moral and public-relations questions as they negotiate the possible sale of the naming rights to their new stadium. Some say a 30-year deal could go for $25 million. One serious suitor appears to be German insurance and financial services company Allianz, a Munich-based insurer and financial services company with disturbing connections to Nazi...

Monsey, NY - Today, the talmidim of Yeshiva Darchei Noam, where I serve as Dean, moved into our new building after living in rented quarters for 11 years so you can well imagine how hectic things were in my office yesterday. Amid all the activity yesterday, I fielded several anguished calls from my dear chaver and colleague Dr. Benzion Twerski describing the pressure he was undergoing and the...

Borough Park, NY - I am taking a few minutes to make some statements in response to the article about my departure from Dov Hikind’s project and the events that triggered this. Firstly, I have extreme respect for Dov Hikind, and I share in his mission to make a difference in this painful and destructive issue. I was eager to join with him to create a Task Force that would actually lead to...

Borough Park, NY - A prominent Orthodox rabbi and psychologist has been intimidated into quitting as head of a just-formed task force dealing with rabbinic sex abuse of minors, organized by Assemblyman Dov Hikind this week. Dr. Benzion Twerski told The Jewish Week [confirmed by VIN News] Wednesday that he was quitting the task force because “I was prosecuted in the street for daring to join...

Kiryas Joel, NY - Orange County elections officials are investigating why a polling station in Kiryas Joel apparently closed 15 to 30 minutes ahead of the 9 p.m. scheduled closing time in Tuesday's primary. Officials say it's unclear at this time what happened but are interviewing poll workers and sheriff's deputies assigned to the site. A county-wide primary was being held Tuesday for the...

Brooklyn, NY, In meetings with leading Rabbonim in Boro Park, the Matnas-Chaim (Gift of Life) Bone Marrow Foundation, in conjunction with the Bikur Cholim of Boro Park, stepped up its efforts for broad community acceptance of its “Roeh-Es-Hanolad” campaign. The heads of Matnas-Chaim and Bikur Cholim briefed the rabbonim on the significant number of Jews who will be saved as a result of a...

Kiryas Joel, NY - Assemblywoman Nancy Calhoun announced today that she has asked State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli and State Attorney General Andrew Cuomo to look into the public monies of over $10.5 million spent by the Village of Kiryas Joel to build a Women’s Health Care Center. The facility was designed for mothers and their newborns. The price tag on the facility was just over $3 million...

Borough Park, NY - At a packed fundraiser at the home of Yankel Hass in Boro Park, Hasidim from all sects showed their support of Joe Lazar. The fundraiser which had over 150 attending throughout the evening addressed one of the most important issues facing the Boro Park Jewish Community: lack of affordable housing. “Our community rests on how we get housing for our young families,” Chaim...

Washington DC – Today, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) released its fourth annual report on the most corrupt members of Congress. CREW’s Most Corrupt Members of Congress provides a detailed analysis of the unethical and sometimes illegal activities of 24 congressmen and women who have most egregiously betrayed the public’s trust. CREW also has launched the...

Queens, NY - A press conference will be held today to announce the unsealing of a criminal complaint charging New York State Assemblyman Anthony Seminerio with honest services fraud relating to his alleged receipt of hundreds of thousands of dollars in corrupt payments from various entities with business before the State of New York. Credit to the documents NY Times ...

New York - Among the questions and very controversial issues that continue to be bitterly debated, serving as a source of constant friction, false accusations, and hostility in the relations between Orthodox and the rest of the Jewish and Zionist world, is false accusations that many Gedolim fled the Nazis while leaving behind their chasidim. this topic and has recently surfaced on many...

New York, NY - The city is working to make its streets safer for elderly residents. Flushing, Queens is now the second of five pilot neighborhoods to make safety improvements for older pedestrians. The efforts include changing traffic signals to allow more time for crossing, and shortening the crossing distances. Since 1990, pedestrian fatalities in New York City have decreased by 62 percent ...

Boca Raton, FL - For nine years, Chabad of East Boca has met in rented space. On the brink of building its own permanent synagogue, the chabad was stuck on the question of parking. The City Council on Tuesday approved rules that could more than double the number of spaces required at the chabad, which is planned as a two-story synagogue in the Golden Triangle neighborhood by Mizner Park...

Elad, Israel - Following several days of uncertainty, a child that was initially denied entrance to an Orthodox school was finally allowed to attend, as the result of a court order. Tel Aviv's administrative court ordered the Beit Yaakov School in the central city of Elad to admit the child to the first grade. The child's parents asked for the court's intervention after their child was denied...