Munich, Germany - No one needs to explain the horrors of Kristallnacht to Lauren Rid. A Woodmere native, Rid lives near the Munich meeting hall where a speech by Nazi propagandist Joseph Goebbels sparked "the night of broken glass" beginning on Nov. 9, 1938, during which synagogues and Jewish homes and businesses were destroyed in a wave of violence that foreshadowed the Holocaust. Some 100 Jews...

Israel - The 2008 municipal elections will go down in history as a watershed event for haredi politics that will likely have far-reaching implications on the national level. For the first time in Israeli political history, the normally obedient haredi voters showed signs of rebellion. In two haredi centers - Jerusalem and Beit Shemesh - there is a significant haredi contingent that has come out...

New York City - You could mistake it for a typical New York City phone booth. But instead of an image of a phone, the side panels depict folded hands - and the word "prayer" instead of "telephone." Oh, and there's a flip-down kneeler. The Public Prayer Booth was conceived by Dylan Mortimer, a recent graduate of New York's School of Visual Arts who lives in Kansas City. The 29-year-old said he...

Washington - Search engine giant Google launched a new tool on Tuesday that will help U.S. federal health experts track the annual flu epidemic. Google Flu Trends uses search terms that people put into the Web-based search engine to figure out where influenza is heating up, and notify the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in real time. "We've discovered that certain search...

Secaucus, NJ - The 20th edition of Kosherfest opens today amidst growing reports of shortages of glatt kosher meat. Nearly 7,000 trade buyers and exhibitors from 28 nations are gathering here for what organizers say is an “an impressive showcase of an industry that continues to grow year by year.” The show is being held at the Meadowlands Exposition Center, the site of the show’s...

West Hempstead, NY - National Wholesale Liquidators Inc., a family-owned discount retailer, sought bankruptcy protection from creditors without giving a reason. The company, based in West Hempstead, New York listed assets and debt of $100 million to $500 million each in Chapter 11 documents filed yesterday in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Wilmington, Delaware. Sixty-two affiliates also filed...

Jerusalem - Enough of the votes have been counted to declare opposition leader Nir Barkat having won the race for the Jerusalem mayorship, Israel Radio reported early Wednesday morning. With 264 of 707 polling stations' votes counted, Barkat garnered 52 percent of the vote, MK Meir Porush of the United Torah Judaism Party 38%, and Israeli-Russian billionaire tycoon Arcadi Gaydamak...

Brooklyn, NY - After Assemblyman Dov Hikind's bringing of the molestation issue to the forefront several months ago, several young boys have come forward to report they had been inappropriately touched or propositioned by frum strangers in frum neighborhoods as they made their rounds collecting tzedakah door to door or standing on streets. The most recent incident occurred last week in Borough...

Queens, NY - An 80-year-old unresponsive pedestrian was rushed to the hospital by EMS after being struck by a motor vehicle on 108th Street and Jewel Avenue, NYPD Highway A.I.S. units are on the scene for the investigation...

New York -When administering educational evaluations, it is axiomatic that the testing be done in the child’s ‘first language’ so he or she need not silently translate the question before answering. Testing a child is his or her ‘second language’ often skews the results, as incorrect answers on the part of the child may be attributed to the added burden of converting the question from...

New York, NY - Lawmakers, environmentalists, advocates and others will gather Wednesday at a Manhattan synagogue to plan campaigns against global warming now that Democrats have wrested control of both the federal and New York governments. Organizers say 300 to 500 people are expected at Congregation B'nai Jeshurun. State Sen. Eric Schneiderman, a Bronx Democrat and sponsor, says the incoming...

Jerusalem, Israel - Israeli police say they have dispersed a crowd of ultra-Orthodox rioters who tried to disrupt voting at a Jerusalem polling station. Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld says about 30 protesters were trying to stop people from voting in the Jerusalem municipal elections. The protesters were members of a small anti-Zionist sect that considers voting to be recognition of the...

New York - Many of our great sages have described the United States of America as “medinah shel chesed”. For over 350 years, America has been more welcoming to Jews than any other place during our exile. And that hospitality has not been limited to Jews – people from every place on the planet have been able to come here and live, mostly in peace. As we approach the Shabat of Parshat Vaera...

New York, NY - The replacement for the Kosciuszko Street Bridge, built in 1939 and spans Newtown Creek from Brooklyn to Queens, will displace some businesses on both sides of the bridge. Crossing the traffic-choked Kosciuszko Bridge is hard, but tearing it down is proving even more difficult. After a year of bureaucratic delays, the $630 million project to replace the aging span has hit...

Norfolk, VA - The court-appointed receiver for WexTrust Capital predicted that he and his team will be able to recover investor funds from some of WexTrust's real estate projects. However, other heavily mortgaged properties will have to be abandoned because of the cash drain they've imposed on WexTrust, the receiver, Timothy Coleman, told a gathering of WexTrust investors in New York...