Warsaw, Poland - A synagogue in the southwestern Polish city of Wroclaw was desecrated by unknown people who painted a swastika, the SS symbol as well as the inscription “Jude Raus” (Jews out). The incident at The White Stork Synagogue ('Synagoga Pod Bialym Bocianem') was reported to the local police. Similar graffiti were also found at a nearby Jewish Information Center which had...

New York, NY - Fares are about to go up for cash-strapped straphangers -- and it couldn't come at a worse time, they fumed yesterday. At exactly 12:01 a.m, the single-ride subway and bus fare will go from $2 to $2.25 -- its 15th leap since 1948. The 30-day unlimited card will increase $8, to $89. Though far less painful than a 23 percent doomsday hike prevented only by a state bailout...

Postville, IA - Former Agriprocessors Vice-President Sholom Rubashkin, his father and brother are being sued by Omni National Bank for a $300,000 unpaid loan they made in 2007. The lawsuit, filed at the end of last week in U.S. District Court, claims Sholom, Tzvi and Aaron Rubashkin made the loan in 2007 on behalf of Nevel Properties and it was to be paid off in monthly installments. Sholom...

Manhattan, NY - Cops arrested two teens who have been terrorizing Jewish residents and sites on the lower East Side with eggs, smoke bombs and swastikas. The youngsters kicked off the anti-Semitic spree at 1 p.m. Thursday when, armed with a magic marker and a smoke bomb, they scrawled a swastika on a wall at the United Hebrew Center on East Broadway, police said. They set off the smoke device...

Tehran - Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad vowed to take a tougher approach toward the West during his second term, saying the Obama administration’s criticism of his crackdown on dissent after the June 12 election shows its offer of talks on Iran’s nuclear program isn’t genuine. “If they think the government will be influenced, they’re wrong,” Ahmadinejad told judiciary...

Manhattan, NY - Bernard Madoff would be stripped of all his possessions under a $171 billion forfeiture order handed down only days before prosecutors seek to put the disgraced financier away in prison for the rest of his life. U.S. District Judge Denny Chin entered the preliminary order Friday, ruling that Madoff must give up his interests in all property, including real estate, investments...

New York - World renowned Moroccan singer Jo Amar passed away in New York on Friday at age 79. Amar was an Israeli icon for the first decades of the state's existence, a favorite of the newly arrived Sephardic immigrants in the country. Jo (Yosef) Amar was born in Morocco in 1930, and came to Israel in 1956. Considered the first singer to introduce Moroccan Jewish liturgical music in Israel...

Albany, NY - Gov. David Paterson has called for a rare Sunday session of New York’s Senate after the fractured house again met separately. Paterson’s order for a Sunday evening session comes after the Senate’s Democratic conference met for three minutes and adjourned Saturday. After the Democratic conference left, the Republican-dominated coalition entered the chamber and met for three...

Jerusalem - A man of about 20 fell off a fence and sustained serious wounds during an ultra-Orthodox protest in Jerusalem Saturday. A six-year-old boy and four police officers were also wounded in violent riots in the capital during the day. However, by nighttime a vehicle equipped with a public address system was traveling through Jerusalem's haredi neighborhoods on behalf of the...

Washington - Russia told a U.S. court on Friday that judges have no authority to tell the country how to handle sacred Jewish documents held in its state library that were seized by the Nazi and Soviet armies. The documents are at the center of a lawsuit brought by members of Chabad-Lubavitch, which follows the teachings of Eastern European rabbis and emphasizes the study of the Torah. The...