New York City - Last week, as the scandal over the Bar Mitzvah boiled into the public eye, Correction Commissioner Martin Horn held a high-level meeting with several of the people responsible for allowing an accused felon to throw the catered party. If you recall, the New York Post reported last week that Correction officials allowed Tuvia Stern, a former fugitive accused of fraud, to hold a...

Jerusalem - A dead fetus was found in laundry delivery by a laundromat manager in the Mishor Adumim industrial zone on Wednesday. The manager found the fetus after the load, belonging to Assaf Harofeh Medical Center, had already been washed, and immediately alerted police, who opened an investigation. A Magen David Adom team called to the scene estimated it was around 30 weeks old...

New York - The media coverage of the Bernard Madoff scandal made extensive reference to Madoff’s ethnic and religious background and his prominent role in the Jewish community. Because the scandal broke at a time of great public outcry against financial institutions, some, including Brad Greenberg in The Christian Science Monitor and Mark Seal in Vanity Fair, have reported on its potential to...

New York - It's official: Texting, tailgating, horn-honking, short tempered New York drivers are the angriest in the nation. For stressed out New Yorkers, the irritation of being cut off, slowed down or cursed at by another driver causes anger to boil over, said psychologist David Eigen. "It can make people crazy and the frustration level is enormous," he said. "There's a lot more road rage...

New York City - It is the usual reminder, just a little firmer than in the past. This week, as it has done every couple of years, New York City Transit is starting an advertising campaign asking New Yorkers to remember to “please offer a seat” to disabled passengers on buses and subways. There was a time — who knows if it really existed — when such civility was assumed. However, the...

New York - Recently, the Bar and Bat Mitzvah ceremonies have been in the news. A controversial Bar Mitzvah ceremony took place in a Manhattan jail. In Connecticut, a Bat Mitzvah ceremony seems to have gone completely out of control. All this publicity may have prompted interest in the entire concept of what a Bat Mitzvah is, and how they are viewed from a halachic perspective. The Bas...

Washington - A retired couple accused of spying for Cuba say they're willing to put up their house and sailboat for bond if a federal judge will let them serve house arrest. Walter Kendall Myers and Gwendolyn Myers say they're also prepared to be ordered to stay away from Cuba's equivalent of an embassy if U.S. District Court Judge Reggie Walton grants their request. The couple is due back...

Jerusalem - Rabbi Tuvia Weiss, head of the ultra-Orthodox Eda Haredit's Rabbinic Court, has issued an instruction to his community to refrain from demonstrating against the Gay Pride Parade planned to be held in Jerusalem next week. According to Israel Radio, Weiss instructed the Eda Haredit rabbis to ignore the parade altogether. Sources in the gay community's Open House told Israel Radio...

Poland - The creators of Poland's future Museum of Polish Jews Tuesday in Warsaw launched the Virtual Shtetl website, a portal they hope will build the museum's collection even before its doors open in 2011. "This portal has the potential to become the greatest source of information about Jewish life in Poland prior to the war," project creator and coordinator Albert Stankowski told reporters...

Jerusalem - For 15 years the Military Intelligence has been changing its assessment on when Iran's nuclear program becomes operational. The deadline has been constantly pushed back, from the late 1990s, to the beginning then the middle of this decade, and finally 2009-2010. That changed this week. On Tuesday, Mossad chief Meir Dagan suddenly came along and dismissed the assessment of the...

Brooklyn, NY - He may be the ultimate mama's boy. A Brooklyn man is accused of donning a wig, nail polish and dresses to impersonate his dead mom and collect $115,000 in Social Security and rent subsidies. For six years, Thomas Prusik-Parkin hoodwinked a stunning array of government agencies with his elaborate charade - using a cane, heavy makeup, fake ID and a phony "nephew," law...

Rome, Italy - In response to a request by the Yad L’Achim organization, the Vatican says it will consider asking its church members to “reveal to Holocaust orphans their Jewish past and provide them with accurate information concerning their families.” This is the first time that Vatican officials have related to this matter publicly, Yad L’Achim says. Rabbi Shalom David Lifshitz...

Brooklyn, NY - A stranger molested two 16-year-old Hasidic girls in separate incidents in Brooklyn in less than a week, sources said. The first incident occurred at 5:15 p.m. last Friday in the vicinity of East Third Street, in Kensington. A second fondling incident occurred on Monday at around 8:35 a.m. in the vicinity of Avenue O and Dahill Road in Bensonhurst. The suspect was described...

Albany, NY - Senate Democrats are now calling for a meeting with their Republican rivals as the chaos in Albany drags on without any resolution in sight. The goal is to try to work out a power-sharing agreement now that each party has 31 seats. The Democrats have suggested a daily rotation of Senate leadership -- one day a Democrat rules and the next day a Republican. And so on and so...