Travel and Food

GABORONE, Botswana (Press Release)– The University of Haifa’s debating team, Meir Yarom and Michael Shapiro, are World Debating Champions for 2011 .  The team took first place in the English-as-a-second language category at the World Universities Debating Championship (WUDC) currently being held in Botswana, where more than 300 teams from 150 universities representing about 50

WASHINGTON, D.C. (Press Release)–President Barack Obama issued the following statement through the White House press office on Monday: “I strongly condemn the separate and outrageous terrorist bombing attacks in Egypt and Nigeria. The attack on a church in Alexandria, Egypt caused 21 reported deaths and dozens of injured from both the Christian and Muslim communities. 

By Samara Greenberg   WASHINGTON, D.C.  — President Barack Obama bypassed the U.S. Senate Wednesday  and appointed four new U.S. ambassadors to fill empty envoy positions in Azerbaijan, Syria, Turkey, and the Czech Republic. Lawmakers had previously blocked or refused to consider the nominees’ confirmations for months. The appointees can now serve without Senate confirmation until the

WASHINGTON, D.C (Press Release)– Representative Steve Rothman (D-NJ), a member of the House Appropriations Subcommittees on Defense, and State and Foreign Operations, sent the following letter to French President Nicolas Sarkozy requesting that France reconsider its reported plans to sell anti-tank missiles to the Lebanese Armed Forces. The full text of the letter: President Nicolas Sarkozy

NEW YORK (Press Release) — The American Jewish Committee (AJC) is urging the U.S. government to move expeditiously to close any gaps in the otherwise stringent economic sanctions imposed on nuclear-aspiring Iran. A New York Times investigation, published Monday, revealed that sanctions enforcement is not uniform. “Loopholes in our own country’s sanctions regime, now exposed, require

By Rabbi Menachem BarkahanRIGA, Latvia — Here are some of the highlights of 2010 for Shamir, the Jewish community of Latvia:  The Riga  Ghetto  and  Latvian  Holocaust  museum  were  opened in September  2010 http://www.rgm.lv/?lang=en  The Second International Festival of Jewish culture gathered more than 4, 000  visitors  for  10  events  in  Latvia  and  Lithuania, including international  celebrities

HAIFA (Press Release)–New facts are being revealed about another Jewish population that was persecuted during WWII: Indonesian Jewry – of which very little has been known to date. This community suffered greatly under Japanese occupation, and in a study that set out to provide a first and in-depth examination of the causes for the prejudice

THOMASVILLE, Georgia  (Press Release)– Holocaust  artist Elmo Gideon, 86, died Tuesday, December 21, 2010 at his home and studios here after a lengthy illness. He has been described as an “artist who borders on being an elemental force” whose own ambitions guided him in the development of revolutionary paints and sculpting compounds, technique, form and application that

HAIFA, Israel (Press Release)–A new study from the University of Haifa shows that within the private sector high levels of emotional intelligence empower positive attitudes towards the workplace and decrease negative behavior; however, the same effect was not found within the public sector. “The results of this study emphasize the existence of significant behavioral differences

PARIS (WJC)–The President of the Council of French Jewish Organisations, Richard Prasquier, said he was satisfied with the retrial of the self-proclaimed “Gang of Barbarians” who tortured to death Ilan Halimi five years ago. A court of appeal handed stiffer sentences to the two main accomplices of gang leader Yusuf Fofana, who had their convictions

NEW YORK (Press Release) — The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) on Wednesday urged the Greek Orthodox Church to publicly denounce blatantly anti-Semitic comments made by one of its bishops. During an interview with a popular television show in Greece, Metropolitan Seraphim of Piraeus blamed Jews for orchestrating the Holocaust and accused “world Zionism” of a conspiracy