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US Secretary of State John Kerry will offer Israeli and Palestinian negotiators a political trade-off: Israeli recognition of the 1967 lines as a basis for the future Palestinian state, in return for Palestinian recognition of Israel as the state of the Jewish people, Palestinian sources told the Saudi daily Al-Watan on Sunday. According to the sources, the mutual recognition will constitute the core of a framework agreement to be signed by the end of January, and negotiated in greater detail during the following months. "The coming weeks will be difficult for the Palestinian and Israeli sides, since they will need...

For two thousand years, he has been worshiped and adored. Multitudes look to him each day. And yet nobody really knows the face of Jesus. That has not stopped humanity's imagination, or its yearning to draw Jesus as close as possible. So when this Christmas season brought a torrent of debate over whether Jesus was a white man, it struck a sacred nerve. "That statement carries a whole lot of baggage," said Rockwell Dillaman, pastor of the Allegheny Center Alliance Church in Pittsburgh. "Political baggage, spiritual baggage, emotional baggage. Especially in a culture like ours where the relations of white...

A paradigmatic characteristic of all bigotry is to take a fault that is widespread among all cultures, races, religions and nationalities and to attribute it singularly to one group. For example: “Blacks are violent.” “Jews are cheap.” “Asians are sly.” “Gays are pedophiles.” “Women are irrational.” “Romanies (gypsies) cheat.” The truth, of course, is that all groups have some among them with these negative characteristics. The bigots who make these claims correctly point to the fact that some members of these groups display the negative characteristics attributed to the groups as a whole. But the bigotry consists of singling out...

Annika Hernroth-Rothstein is a Jewish political activist in Sweden who is fed up with her country’s moves toward outlawing the core practices of her faith. Living in a country that prides itself on being a model of diversity and openness – which has even invited every Syrian seeking refuge — Hernroth-Rothstein decided to file for asylum in her own country. Swedish activist Annika Hernroth-Rothstein filed for asylum in her own country. (Image source: truthandfiction.wordpress.com) She has conceded that her application is a publicity stunt, but in an article in Mosaic Magazine announcing her decision, she wrote: Absurd?  No doubt. I...

Israel braces for reaction to proposed law that would allow Jews to pray in the grounds of Jerusalem's al-Aqsa mosque. Occupied East Jerusalem - Until a few weeks ago, most Israeli and Palestinian pundits dismissed the possibility of a Palestinian uprising in the near future. However, a draft Israeli law granting Jews the right to pray at the al-Aqsa Mosque esplanade - one of the three most holy sites in Islam - is forcing some observers to reconsider their previous assessments. The draft law, which is being discussed in the Israeli parliament, the Knesset, would designate "time and space" for...

Josh Barry, of Camp Hill, Penn., wants to know why the president of the local teacher’s union thinks he’s a neo-Nazi after he complained about a classroom assignment that he believed to be biased. “I’m Jewish and my wife is half-black, half-white,” Barry told me in a telephone interview. “I am the furthest thing from a neo-Nazi.” Last week, his daughter’s eighth grade American History class at East Pennsboro Middle School was asked to analyze a New York Times story about the recent government shutdown. Barry, who said he is a registered independent, read the story and then read a...

You will not indoctrinate my child,” he wrote. “If you are going to present articles with a slant to one side you are morally and ethically required to present the opposing views, to give an opportunity for the student, your captive audience, to come to their own conclusions.” Barry also reached out to the principal, who defended the teacher’s assignment and allegedly told him The New York Times story was not slanted. On Friday the story took a bizarre turn. A friend of Barry’s received a telephone call that he says came from Cydnee Cohen, the president of the East...

Police have charged three people over an alleged anti-Semitic attack in Sydney's eastern suburbs early this morning. Four men and a woman were walking home from the synagogue in Bondi shortly after midnight when a group of about eight young men began yelling anti-Semitic insults at them. Police say the confrontation soon turned into a physical fight. They arrested two 17-year-olds and a 23-year-old ...

WND senior reporter Aaron Klein displays a Jewish demeanor in his appearances on Fox News, according to Department of Homeland Security adviser Mohamed Elibiary. The unusual comment came in an email exchange in which Klein had asked Elibiary to comment on a recent tweet in which he warned the tea party against attempting to change the U.S. political landscape through “Christianist Xenophobia.” Elibiary further charged some “white identity/privilege types” have a problem with a “black president” and “brown Mexicans.” “If #TeaParty wants US revived then we must swing Blue seats Red & that is only achievable thru Libertarianism, not Christianist...

... The advent of the Internet has not seen off the format of the book, nor is its demise coming anytime soon. Yehuda Miklaf, a Jerusalem-based bookbinder, has a backlog of orders, and his highly regarded editions are still in demand. Despite the specialized and somewhat exclusive nature of Miklaf’s work, his burgeoning trade testifies to the fact that books remain very much in the cultural domain and will for some time to come. Born Seamus McClafferty (he converted to Judaism in 1986 and moved to Jerusalem with his wife), Miklaf hails from Nova Scotia. In 1968 he moved to...

As Russia prepares to mark 70 years since the Sobibor revolt, one Jewish officer finally finds his rightful place as the hero of the story. ------ Russia was set to mark Monday the 70th anniversary of a revolt at the Sobibor death camp led by a Red Army officer, the biggest and most successful prisoner escape under the Nazi regime. Ahead of the anniversary, President Vladimir Putin ordered the defense ministry to come up with a plan to "immortalise the memory of heroes who raised a revolt" at the extermination camp in occupied Poland on October 14, 1943. The order...

Iran’s supreme leader promises in a newly released audiotape the destruction of Israel and Palestinians’ return to that land. Fars News Agency, an outlet run by the Revolutionary Guards, last week posted an audiotape of excerpts of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s speeches to Palestinian officials and others with a title “Palestine will surely become free.” In the audiotape, which is partly in Arabic, Khamenei gives blessings to those who fight against Israel and says, “Peace be upon the children of our nation, peace be upon the brave jihadists in Palestinian and Lebanese resistance. Today the Islamic world and the whole world...

FULL TITLE: Orthodox rabbis 'plotted to kidnap and torture Jewish men with cattle prods and karate so they would divorce their wives' Two Orthodox rabbis have been arrested for allegedly plotting to kidnap and beat Jewish men - using cattle prods and karate moves - so that they would divorce their wives. Mendel Epstein and Martin Wolmark were arrested following a sting operation with an undercover agent posing as unhappily married woman in New Jersey, the FBI announced on Thursday. Orthodox rules allow only a man to initiate a divorce, but the rabbis allegedly told the woman they would torture...

For three years, Shalom Yoran survived the German occupation of Poland even as he saw his fellow Jews slaughtered by the Nazis. When he and his family inevitably became targets themselves, his mother knew she would not escape. “Go, my beloved children,” she told Mr. Yoran and his brother, Musio, as they fled into a field to escape German gunfire. “Try to save yourselves and take vengeance for us.” That was in September 1942. The brothers disappeared into the woods and went on to spend the rest of World War II fighting the elements, injury, illness and the Nazis. After...

It has been written that Lloyd Douglas may have written the novel “The Robe” in answer to a fictional question: what happened to the Roman soldier who won Jesus' robe through a dice game?

NEW YORK — Anthony Weiner got into a shouting match with a Jewish voter while campaigning for mayor on Wednesday after the man called him “disgusting” and said he should “stay out of the public eye” for the sexting scandal that has derailed his bid for City Hall. The confrontation happened as Weiner was campaigning in the Borough Park section of Brooklyn — a heavily Jewish neighborhood where he was also heckled in July after he admitted he had continued to engage in sexual chats with women he met online even after he was forced out of Congress for similar...

The Sanctity of Human Life A Message from the Rebbe Rabbi Menachem M. Schneerson The month of Tishrei, the first month of the year on the Jewish calendar, is generally a time for introspection when we pause to reflect on how well we have conducted ourselves in the past year, and resolve to improve further in the New Year. Thus, it is interesting to consider why it is that Rosh Hashana, which is the first day of the Jewish year, commemorates not the first day of creation, but rather the sixth--the day that man, Adam was created. The introduction of...

The Quebec province in Canada has adopted a new Charter of Quebec Values, prohibiting skullcaps and other religious garments to be worn during public service. According to the charter, employees in the public service system -including doctors, nurses, teachers, and government officials – will not be allowed to wear any religious symbols or garments while working, including a Star of David, cross, kippot, burqa or turban. According to Ynet, leaders in the Jewish community, including Lawyer and Political advisor Eric Maldoff who lead the delegation and Jewish Federation president David Cape, met with Bernard Dranville, the Canadian minister responsible for...

SUFFERN, N.Y. (CNS) -- Maria Amman is still smiling. Paralyzed for half her life, 13-year-old Maria, a Palestinian from the Gaza Strip, recently underwent a procedure to regain the ability to breathe on her own, thanks to the kindness and skill of a Jewish surgeon on the staff at Good Samaritan Regional Medical Center in Suffern, N.Y. Dr. Mark Ginsburg, chief of thoracic surgery at Good Samaritan, was assisted by Israeli surgeons at Hadassah Medical Center in Jerusalem in successfully implanting a phrenic nerve pacemaker in Maria. She has been paralyzed from the neck down and unable to breathe without...

The prayer shawl that Myron Slobin received when he was bar mitzvahed in 1955 will have a new home Sept. 8 when Slobin, spiritual leader of the Siouxland International Messianic Fellowship, presents it for dedication to the Rev. Jim Wilson, pastor of the Glendale Baptist Church. The shawl, or tzitzit will replace the runner on the church’s communion table which was accidentally damaged by the Messianic Fellowship which has been meeting on Fridays at the church for about 3 years. “It’s very significant to the Old Testament ties and to the Bible,” Wilson said of the tallit. “It’s something that’s...