New Jersey - Amid this recession, families across New Jersey are struggling to keep up with basic needs, including securing the education of our children, yet the state chooses not to do all it can to assist private education in this crucial endeavor. Private education in New Jersey is a more complex issue than simply favoring or opposing school vouchers. It is about the right of parents to...

Sioux Falls, SD - The man who founded Agriprocessors Inc. testified today that he spent “every penny” he could gather to keep his kosher meat plant afloat after it was raided by immigration agents. Abraham Aaron Rubashkin, who opened the Postville slaughterhouse in 1987 to process kosher meat, told jurors that he mortgaged his home, two buildings that he owned and his store in Brooklyn...

New York - Five men who were detained and deported following the Sept. 11 attacks have reached a $1.26 million settlement with the U.S. government. The men sued the government over the roundups that put them in federal detention and the abuse they say they suffered while they were there. They were among more than 170 Arab and Muslim men jailed for immigration law violations at the...

Israel - Security forces today arrested another man in connection with the case of alleged Jewish terrorist Ya'akov Teitel. Yossi Shpinoza, Teitel's neighbor from the Shvut Rachel settlement, has been arrested some two weeks ago after his association with Teitel came to light, but was released after only a few hours. He was rearrested again today on suspicion of involvement with Teitel's...

Washington - Germany's Chancellor Angela Merkel on Tuesday paid tribute to the six million Jews and other victims who perished during the Holocaust, which she called a "break with civilization." In an address to a joint session of US Congress, Merkel also expressed regret for the "hatred, destruction and annihilation Germany brought over Europe and rest of the world," during World War II...

New York - David Friehling, the accountant for con artist Bernard Madoff, pleaded guilty for his role in the largest U.S. Ponzi scheme and said he helped Madoff and “others” prepare phony tax returns. Friehling, 49, entered his plea today in Manhattan federal court. He has also reached a cooperation agreement with the government and is helping prosecutors with their probe. He becomes the...

India - Details of negotiations and phone conversations between 26/11 terrorists at Nariman House in Mumbai and the Israeli Embassy in Washington were revealed at the Mumbai special court on Tuesday. The court heard a CD of telephone conversations between the terrorists who attacked Mumbai in November 2008 and Israeli officials. So was Israel negotiating or buying time? The court heard...

New Jersey - Gov. Jon Corzine this morning cast his ballot at the Elks lodge on Washington Street. "There you go, folks," Corzine said as he emerged from the voting booth and laughed when asked whom he voted for New Jersey governor. Just after 9 a.m. independent candidate Chris Daggett showed up at Fellowship Village to cast his vote. Republican New Jersey governor candidate Chris...

New York City- In traditional Election Day fashion, the two mayoral candidates started the day by casting their ballots — presumably for themselves. The Democrat, William C. Thompson Jr., the city comptroller, voted at 7:20 a.m. in Public School 242, on West 122nd Street in Harlem, not far from his home. He was accompanied by his wife, Elsie McCabe, and 12-year-old stepdaughter, Erin...

New York - “If we don’t vote, we don’t exist.” Those words, spoken with passion and conviction by my dear chaver Rabbi Yehiel Kalish, stopped me in my tracks during an enjoyable dinner that we were sharing. Rabbi Kalish ought to know. He serves as National Director of Government Affairs and Midwest Director of Agudath Israel of America. He is charming, engaging, and extraordinarily...

New York - Go to any simcha today, and as soon as the band begins any tune by a particularly legendary composer, everyone is suddenly dancing with the melody on their lips. But who could move people like few could? Who continues to elicit such a visceral, soulful reaction from his music, years after his passing? There could only be one answer: the one and only Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach, of...

New York City - Just in time for the election, New York Magazine checks in on New York City architecture and development during the Bloomberg years. Instead of dwelling on the development delays and failures of recent years -- cough, Atlantic Yards, cough Willets Point, cough, Coney Island -- the magazine puts a positive spin on things. The Bloomberg administration has been "doggedly smuggling...

New York - There are people who go through their daily routine oblivious to the suffering and pain that exists around them. Our daf, however, indicates that perhaps we should stop and empathize with others around us that suffer pain and agony. The Gemorah in SHabbos tells us Ma Hu Rachum veChanun af attah rachum veChanun – just as Hashem is merciful and kind – so too must we be merciful and...

Beit Shemesh – The Jerusalem District Court handed down a four-year prison sentence to the mother from Beit Shemesh convicted of abusing six of her twelve children. Her husband was sentenced to six months for similar offenses. The mother, who along with her husband was convicted of aggravated assault and child abuse, would beat her children using various objects, pull out their hair and even...

Israel - A Knesset Law Committee meeting scheduled to prepare a bill aimed at prohibiting anyone from obtaining alcoholic beverages for minors deteriorated into a discussion of whether or not a grandfather should be allowed to give his grandson kiddush wine without the consent of the child's parents. The bill, proposed by Kadima MK Yohanan Plessner, is one of a series of legislative acts aimed...