New York - We’ve just completed the High Holidays of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. We’ve fasted, begged God’s forgiveness for our transgressions, and hope that we’ve been inscribed for a healthy and happy new year. But wait! We haven’t come to the third holiest day in the Jewish calendar yet – the day when we beseech God to give us a healthy and prosperous New Year, a day when we...

Manhattan, NY - Nobel laureate Elie Wiesel has said that the recent speech in the United Nations by Iran's president, who has called for Israel's destruction, shows that the world has learned nothing from the Holocaust. "Ten years ago, and less, the ruler of a country that announced its aspiration for Israel to be wiped off the map would not have dared appear and speak on the UN's podium,"...

San Antonio, TX - Alon, which means oak in Hebrew, features goods and foods ranging from items for babies to epicurean selections that include organic beef, 400 varieties of cheese, a sushi kiosk, imported beers and a produce department with more than 900 different fruits and vegetables. And San Antonio-based H-E-B is betting the 128,000-square-foot food emporium, which boasts the biggest...

New York, NY - In light of two fires last weekend that claimed eight lives, Fire Commissioner Nicholas Scoppetta urges New Yorkers that smoke detectors are essential. "A smoke alarm is your family's protector," he wrote. "Removing the battery or disconnecting the wire that connects it to your building's electrical system puts everyone's life at risk." On Oct. 11, two parents and three...

Israel - Following a lack of progress in negotiations between Bezeq and the rabbinical committee on communications on the subject of kosher Internet, private companies have sprouted in haredi communities, which offer Internet access and filtering. These companies do not always operate with the approval of the rabbinical committee on communications but rather with approval from local leading...

Germany - Papers which were kept secret for almost 70 years show that the Soviet Union proposed sending a powerful military force in an effort to entice Britain and France into an anti-Nazi alliance. Such an agreement could have changed the course of 20th century history, preventing Hitler's pact with Stalin which gave him free rein to go to war with Germany's other neighbours. The offer of...

Chicago, IL - Former Secretary of State Colin Powell crossed party lines this morning to endorse Sen. Barack Obama for president, the most prominent GOP defection yet of the 2008 campaign. [VIN news reported this endorsement as speculation in August] Obama has courted Republicans all along, but in Powell he gets party crossover plus military credibility. Powell is a retired U.S. Army general...

New York City - Michael Bloomberg met with well-wishers from Crown Heights in City Hall on Friday. Vaad Hakohol's Chanina Sperlin, Moshe Malamud, Eli Slavin and JCRC's Michael Miller spent quality time with the third-term seeking Mayor of New York and gave him a Lulav and Esrog. Mr. Bloomberg was also doing the mitzvah of waving the Lulav and esrog...

Jerusalem - Israel is one of the most dangerous countries in the world for pedestrians, a recent National Road Safety Authority (NRSA) report suggests. According to NRSA's data, Israel is ranked second in the world as far as the number of pedestrians who are killed in vehicular accidents goes, with 37% of all road accident fatalities in the country being those of pedestrians. Topping the list...

Paris, France - Hasidic leader Rabbi Simcha Ashlag will return this weekend to the partial detention he and his personal assistant received in February, in which the two are forbidden to leave Paris. The reason: 44 pounds of drugs found in their suitcases. The rabbi is the grandson of the famous Yehuda Leib Ha-Levi Ashlag, otherwise known as Baal Ha-Sulam (Author of the Ladder). In February...

Washington - Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama raised more than $150 million in September, a stunning and unprecedented eruption of political giving that has given him a wide spending advantage over rival John McCain. The campaign released the figure on Sunday, one day before it must file a detailed report of its monthly finances with the Federal Election Commission. Obama's...

New York City - He's certainly no Scrooge. Mayor Bloomberg was No. 6 in Conde Nast Portfolio's new generosity index, which listed 50 of the nation's mega-rich from most to least giving, taking wealth into account. Hizzoner, worth $11.5 billion, sits on a long list of nonprofit boards, from the New York Public Library to the World Trade Center Memorial Foundation. His pet causes are health...