Dina Wein Reis gets 19 months for corporate fraud

INDIANAPOLIS - A New York socialite who pleaded guilty last year to a federal charge that she duped corporations out of millions of dollars has received a 19-month prison sentence.A federal judge in Indianapolis also ordered Dina Wein Reis on Tuesday to pay $7 million in restitution to her victims and fined her $1 million. Reis had pleaded guilty in May 2012 to a federal charge of conspiracy to commit wire fraud.The Indianapolis Star reports Reis...

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Yeshiva Bochur Who Was Imprsioned In Japan Becomes a Chosson

Mazel tov to Yaakov Yosef Grunewald, one of the bochrim who was imprisoned in Japan on becoming a chosson. His kallah is a daughter of R’ Yudel Yaakov. The L’chaim was held in Bnei Brak this week, attended by many rabbonim including Rabbi Moshe Shaul Klein Shlita, rav of the Ohr Chaim neighborhood as well as many of those who worked tirelessly for his release.It was an emotional moment when one of the other former prisoners, Yoel Ze’ev Goldstein...

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A Life Under Terror

House of the rising sunWhen I moved to Beit Shemesh 13 years ago with my family, we joined a warm, embracing community that was part of a culturally diverse city. Unfortunately, this diversity reared an uglier side several years ago when religious extremists began threatening, harassing and attacking women in public. For years, our reaction had been to overlook abusive spitting, name calling and assault directed at us by ultra-Orthodox men, in the...

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US cargo plane crash in Afghanistan kills 7

KABUL, Afghanistan — A civilian cargo plane owned by an American company crashed at Bagram Air Field, north of the Afghan capital, soon after takeoff on Monday, killing all seven people aboard, the US-led military coalition said.The Taliban quickly claimed responsibility for downing the Boeing 747-400, but NATO said in a statement to The Associated Press that the Taliban "claims are false." The coalition says the cause of the crash was being investigated...

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Holocaust survivor dies, leaving $40M to no one

Holocaust survivor and New York property developer Roman Blum left no heirs, no surviving family members — and $40 million.Now, in the absence of an heir, the state of New York will probably take over the money — the largest unclaimed estate in the state's history, the New York Times reported Sunday.According to the Times, when Blum died last year at 97, his body remained unclaimed in the Staten Island University Hospital morgue for four days, until...

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J'lem: 5 students suspected of assaulting non-Jewish detectives

A young student from Jerusalem's Mercaz Harav Kook national-religious yeshiva was arrested Tuesday, a day after he and his friends attacked two police detectives speaking Arabic to each other.Five students heard the Jerusalem Police detectives' conversation and approached them. They exchanged words with the detectives and returned to the yeshiva building. After several minutes, they returned to the spot armed with tear-gas spray cans. The students...

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At last moment, BBC drops documentary on Jewish exile

A last-minute decision by the BBC to drop a documentary that questions the extent of the Jewish exile after the Roman destruction of Jerusalem in 70 CE was a mixture of “incompetence,” “political naiveté” and “lack of courage,” the Israeli filmmaker behind the project has charged.The film “Exile: A Myth Unearthed,” which theorizes that many modern-day Palestinians could be partially descended from Jews who never left the region, was due to be shown...

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Hungary: Racist fans attack Jewish leader

The head of a Hungarian anti-racism group said far-right soccer fans shouted "Sieg Heil" and attacked him, breaking his nose days before the country is due to host the World Jewish Congress.Ferenc Orosz, chairman of the Raoul Wallenberg Association, told Reuters he was assaulted after arguing with a group of supporters chanting the Nazi slogan at a match between the Hungarian teams Videoton and Ferencvaros in Budapest on Sunday.The campaign group...

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IDF failed to inform defense minister of battle drill on Lebanon front

The Israel Defense Forces neglected to give Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon advanced notice of its intention to hold a large battle drill on the Lebanese front that began Monday, handing a blow to the upper ranks of Israel's defense establishment.Some 2,000 Israel Defense Forces reservists were called up for the simulation, which was coordinated as part of the army's yearly drill plan. The timing of the drill is especially sensitive, however, due...

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Shock as Police Probe Jewish Obstetrician in Wife’s Death

A prominent Central New York Jewish obstetrician is being investigated in his wife’s death, cnycentral.com reported.Leslie London Neulander, of Fayetteville, NY, was found dead in a shower in the family home in Fayetteville in September of 2012. She was 61. The Onondaga County Medical Examiner ruled Neulander’s death an accident, but that has not stopped investigators from probing the case.Speculation has centered on Neulander’s husband, Dr. Robert...

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Rome - Pope Accepts Peres' Invitation To Israel

Rome - Israeli President Shimon Peres invited Pope Francis on Tuesday to visit Israel, at his first meeting with the new pontiff who has appealed for peace in the Middle East.The pope accepted the invitation “with willingness and joy,” a Vatican spokesman said, but there was no indication when a trip would be made.“I am expecting you in Jerusalem, not just me but the whole country of Israel,” Peres told the pope in the presence of reporters after...

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Italy - Italian Police Arrest Four Islamist Suspected In Planning Attacks In US And Israel

Bari, Italy - Italian police on Tuesday arrested four of six men they suspect are members of an Islamist militant cell which was planning attacks in the United States, Israel and Italy, though no specific targets were named by police.The men aimed to train militants and send them abroad, para-military police said, and are suspected of conspiracy to commit international terrorism and inciting racial hatred.They were arrested in Andria in the southern...

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Daily News reporter Simone Weichselbaum wins national award

Please excuse us while we kvell.Daily News reporter Simone Weichselbaum has won a national award for her “piercing, respectful, accurate and often entertaining” coverage of multicultural Brooklyn and its various Jewish communities.Weichselbaum, a Brooklyn native, will receive the 2013 Be’chol Lashon Media Award in San Francisco next month.“She writes with authority whether reporting tragic tales of violent crime . . . or, at the other extreme, the...

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Bullying and racism of the OU

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The Women of the Wall eye further court fight for Western Wall rights

JERUSALEM  - Women seeking equal prayer rights at the Western Wall are planning a further challenge to Jewish Orthodox tradition at the site after a court ruling bolstered their cause, an activist said on Sunday.The Women of the Wall movement hopes to have its members read from a Torah (holy scriptures) scroll at the Jerusalem site, a ritual reserved under Orthodox practice for men only, when it holds its monthly prayer session there on May...

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Secretary Napolitano Praises Jewish Community For Post-Attack Security

Jewish leaders gathered this week at the first-ever Jewish Communal Security Summit in New York to strategize with top experts in the field regarding how best to ensure the safety of the community.The conference, held April 24 and 25 by the Secure Community Network (SCN) at the offices of The Jewish Federations of North America (JFNA), was particularly timely coming on the heels of the Boston Marathon attack earlier this month.  U.S. Secretary...

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NY - Jewish Couple Sued by Housing Board for Charging for Shabbat Parties

NY - A Central Park West condo board has filed a lawsuit against a Jewish Australian couple for violating condo rules by renting out their two units beyond the 30 day limit, and hosting large Shabbat dinners and cooking classes.DNAinfo.com  is reporting that the lawsuit came about after Gavin and Jodi Samuels ignored a request by the Olmstead Condominium board to address the violations, which have already resulted in a $5,500 fine against them.According...

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Rabbi charged for giving drugs to prisoner

A rabbi from Afula was indicted Friday for providing a prison inmate convicted of murder with drugs. According to the charge sheet, Rabbi Menachem Schweib, who ran a seminary at the Shita prison in northern Israel, gave a prisoner named Itamar Sha’altiel cigarette boxes containing an unknown drug, Channel 2 reported.  Schweib allegedly did so on at least three separate occasions. In return, he was reportedly provided with money and other goods....

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Lag Ba'omer In Kiryas Joel

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NY Post Editorial Slams City For Going After Jewish Dress Code In Williamsburg Stores

 Is City Hall about to take action against the dress codes at Manhattan’s top-flight restaurants? Of course not. And that only underscores the hypocrisy that all too often animates this administration. Because the city is going after Hasidic-owned store-owners who ask their patrons to dress modestly.The city’s Commission on Human Rights has cited seven small stores in the Hasidic section of Williamsburg for discrimination. Their offense? Posting...

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Petition to keep John Galliano from teaching at Parsons

Fashion students say hiring John Galliano is just as bad as hiring a KKK supporter. A petition launched on Change.org aims to keep the ex-Dior designer from teaching a masters class at Parsons The New School for Design in New York City.“Imagine if the school were hiring a person who publicly voiced support for the KKK — there would likely be backlash because it's not right to have someone like that teaching at a school,” the petition reads.“But...

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Julio Acevedo, 'Hit and run driver who killed Orthodox Jewish couple and their unborn child' refuses to accept any guilt in jailhouse interview

The New York man accused of killing an entire Brooklyn family in a brutal hit-and-run crash last month leading to his arrest across state lines is defending himself while saying 'accidents happen.' 'Sure I played a part, I couldn't stop. Accidents happen,' Julio Acevedo told WABC News in a jailhouse interview while being held without bond on three counts of vehicular manslaughter in the March 3 crash. Nachman and Raizel Glauber, as well as their...

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KIRYAS JOEL - 50,000 expected for Lag Ba’omer

KIRYAS JOEL — Tens of thousands of Satmar Hasidim are expected to descend on Kiryas Joel Saturday night and dance for hours around a giant bonfire for an annual religious celebration known as Lag Baomer.The holiday honors a revered scholar who wrote parts of the Talmud and other sacred Jewish texts almost 2,000 years ago. The celebration, which marks the anniversary of the death of Rabbi Simeon bar Yochai, originated in the Israeli village where...

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Oy Vey! Republicans in Florida Want to Ban Orthodox Jewish Women From Divorcing

Republicans in Florida have been so riled up by the anti-sharia brigade that they may have ended up stuffing another minority that actually likes Republicans. They have also managed to bring together the American Civil Liberties Union, the Anti-Defamation League, and the League of Jewish Women in frustration at some pending legislation. You see, a bill that sailed through the Florida House and looks certain to get through Florida Senate will effectively...

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Lag Baomer: Traditional Torah Walk in Tzfat

 A 180-year-old Lag Baomer tradition was upheld on Shabbat (Saturday) in northern Israel, when dignitaries walked with the ancient Torah scroll from the Abo House in Tzfat to the tomb of Rashbi (1st century sage Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai) at Meron.Rabbis, Knesset Members, mayors, heads of religious councils, and delegations from communities in the Galilee, the Golan and Samaria all took part in the event. Also in attendance were former Justice...

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Western Wall rabbi: Sharansky plan might be no good

JERUSALEM — Shmuel Rabinowitz, the rabbi of the Western Wall, said rabbis must weigh whether to oppose a compromise proposal over egalitarian prayer at Judaism's holiest site.In a statement April 25, Rabinowitz vowed to fight against "the slightest deviation" from customary practice at the Western Wall. However, he left unclear whether the compromise forged by Jewish Agency for Israel Chairman Natan Sharansky, which would create a permanent site...

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Rabbinical judge suspected of abuse of power

Police on Wednesday finished a probe of Avraham Chaim Sherman, a judge on the Great Rabbinical Court of Jerusalem.Officers from the National Fraud Investigative Unit suspect Sherman of breach of trust, obstruction of justice and abuse of power in his ruling in a divorce proceeding.Police handed over the case to state prosecutors on Wednesday, who will decide whether to pursue an indictment.The Lahav 433 – National Crime Unit said that following...

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Haredi group: Resist draft with all your soul

A new organization operating under the name “Fortress – the center for protection from draft issues," has issued an instructional booklet pledging assistance to young haredim who receive orders to appear at IDF recruitment centers, and providing counsel on how to get out of it.The 32-page guide opens with the declaration, "The unbearable acts are before us in full intensity.” The texts of the guide are in line with statements made by haredi rabbis...

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