New Haven, CT - Paul Bass ’82, the editor and founder of the online newspaper The New Haven Independent, was mugged Saturday night in the Westville neighborhood of the city. Bass, who is also a political science professor at Yale, wrote about the incident on the Independent. He said that as he was walking home from synagogue with his wife and a friend Saturday evening around 7 p.m., two boys...

Leeds, UK - A historic Jewish cemetery in Leeds has closed after engineers branded it dangerous. Leeds Jewish Orthodox Cemeteries (LJOC) has been forced to close Hill Top Cemetery due to subsidence causing the ground to collapse. The structural problems are thought to be due to the Gildersome site lying over a labyrinth of coal mining tunnels and mine shafts. No further burials will take...

Williamsburg, Brooklyn's Satmar community was sadness-stricken this evening upon the passing of leading philanthropist Mr. Chaim Lax after a long struggle with cancer. He was 59. A mogul in the diamond industry CEO of Dynamic Diamond Corp, Lax was equally well-known in the Jewish community and beyond as a towering baal tzedakah who disbursed millions, in New York, and Israel especially for...

Orlando, FL - When Walt Disney first made Orlando one of America’s premier tourist destinations, visitors who ate kosher had to bring their own food. Over the years, the options increased with the opening of at least two kosher restaurants. Recently, the Holiday Inn International Drive Resort in Orlando joined with Kosher Kats Marketplace, a retail kosher business, in launching the Kosher...

Melbourne, Australia - Police are investigating allegations officers made “rude and inappropriate” remarks to Jewish women who flouted pedestrian crossing rules. Orthodox Jews are forbidden to touch anything electrical on holy days. As was reported here on VIN News, last month, two women were fined $57 each for crossing on a “red man” because their religion prevented them from...

Sydney, Australia - A former Australian federal judge and high-profile Jewish community member pleaded guilty to perjury. Marcus Einfeld, a former executive member of the New South Wales Jewish Board of Deputies, councilor of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry and patron of the Australian Association of Jewish Holocaust Survivors and Descendants, faces a maximum jail term of 10 years for...

Chicago, IL - The 194 Room Luxury Park View Hotel, a prestigious, completely refurbished boutique hotel, standing in the heart of Chicago's upscale "Gold Coast" neighborhood, is being offered for sale. The property, which is located at 1816 N. Clark Street, has 194 guest rooms and over 2,000 square feet of meeting space. A 3,000 square foot ground level space is occupied by the upscale...

Buffalo Lake, MN- In developments that are likely to cripple the availability of kosher beef in large parts of America, three of the five largest slaughterhouses producing kosher beef have halted production this week. All eyes have been on the nation’s largest kosher slaughterhouse, in Postville, Iowa, which stopped producing beef last week due to a series of legal problems and arrests at...

New York - Who knew all it would take to settle down the market was to flip the calendar to November? After all the turbulence and violent swings of October, this first day of November was like a nice fall breeze blowing in. Stocks barely fluttered as investors held off on any fast moves until we see what happens on Tuesday, whether John McCain or Barack Obama will be the next U.S...

Jerusalem - Israel's ultra-Orthodox Jewish community is planning a day of prayer to encourage continued funding of its schools. Since the onset of the global financial crisis, many donors have scaled back support and others have stopped completely. The campaign's promoter, Chevy Weiss, said Monday that some six thousand families have been hit hard by the crisis and were short on food and...

Toronto - The Canada Revenue Agency has revoked the charitable status of the Choson Kallah Fund of Toronto, saying it has become little more than a method of beating the tax man. The agency says the group's original charitable aim of helping poor families became secondary to offering a tax shelter. It says the group issued $177 million in tax receipts. The agency says the charity lent its...

Northampton, MA - Rabbi David Seidenberg of Northampton, Mass., has written a prayer in Hebrew and English that can be recited just before voting. Posted on his web site, and distributed through e-mail, it includes a voter pledge to heal the world and a wish for the country to "pursue righteousness and to seek peace." "There still is so much hope and feeling connected to this election and I...

New York City - Sitting through just over four hours of public testimony during which he was both praised and vilified did not change Mayor Bloomberg's mind on the topic of extending term limits. Calling the extension from two four-year terms to three "the right balance for democracy," the mayor signed into law the controversial bill that will enable him (not to mention most of the Council...

Washington - AFTER President McCain or Obama takes the oath of office in January, he may have a shiny new black limousine to go along with his not-so-new White House. General Motors is believed to be putting the final touches on a new First Car. An analysis of unauthorized photographs taken while the car was being tested last summer on public roads suggests that the presidential ride will be a...

Brooklyn, NY - The gentrifying core of Bushwick occupies only a few blocks, and for Rabbi Menachem Heller, 29, herein lies the problem. As an emissary of the Chabad-Lubavitch movement, a branch of Hasidic Judaism that emphasizes outreach to less observant Jews, Rabbi Heller wants good access to the hipster arrivistes. Unfortunately, his current spot is too far away from the few hangouts – a...