Last year, a globe-trotting Torah rescuer who called himself the "Jewish Indiana Jones" was accused of being a fraud. And now, Baltimore bookshop owner Menachem Youlus has admitted that he is indeed a fraud: “Between 2004 and 2010, I falsely represented that I had personally obtained vintage Torah scrolls — in particular ways, in particular locations — in Europe and Israel,” he said in court yesterday. “I know what I did was wrong, and I deeply regret my conduct.” And he isn't even the real Jewish Indiana Jones! more ›

Further evidence that Jewish food is having a moment (as if sexy gefilte fish wasn't enough): Manischewitz, the 123-year old Jewish, kosher brand best known for manufacturing matzoh and concord grape wine, is starting to create kosher food for gentiles. Yes, that sound you heard off in the distance is the collective rolling of a thousand deceased Bubbies in Boca rolling over in the graves. more ›

The relationship between Jews and Chinese food on Christmas runs deep through history, touching on immigration patterns, religious customs, and plain old pragmatism—what other restaurants are open on Christmas Eve? Of course, Jews aren't the only ones who need to eat on the holiday—there are also all of the Asians who keep their restaurants open, and the legions of Festivus observers across the country. And now, Queen's Kickshaw, the fancy grilled cheese restaurant in Astoria, is hosting a cross-cultural Christmas Eve dinner to bring everyone together under one roof: meet Woks and Lox. more ›

A 65-year-old man has filed a religious discrimination lawsuit against his former Jewish organization employers, alleging his supervisor micromanaged how, where, and when he prayed. Marshall Garvin, an observant Jew from Riverdale, says that when he complained to Na’amat USA President Elizabeth Raider about supervisor Susan Schwartz, he was swiftly dismissed. “No person of any religion should have to go through this. It’s unconscionable for a religious Jewish woman to behave this way,” Garvin told the Daily News. more ›

The NYPD Hate Crime Unit is investigating swastikas discovered scrawled inside an elevator in a Williamsburg apartment building. CBS reports that the swastikas were found inside an elevator at 70 Ross Street in Williamsburg. According to the Post, the same building was targeted earlier this month, when a swastika was etched into the button control panel of an elevator. more ›

While no one would confuse "McCartney" as a Hebrew name, Sir Paul does seem to have a thing for nice Jewish girls. His first wife, Linda, was a member of the tribe, and apparently Macca had talked about converting after marrying her, but "never got around to it." After a brief stint with shiksa Heather Mills, McCartney has once again fallen for a Jew, current MTA board member Nancy Shevell, whom he married last month. And this time, he's being a real mensch. more ›

In many ways, the B110 bus that connects South Williamsburg and Borough Park seems like any other bus. It has a route number and blue bus stop signs like any other city bus, and it's open to the public. But the B110 is operated by a private company, Private Transportation Corporation, which pays the city for the right to provide a public service. And reporter Sasha Chavkin finds that on this bus—which caters to a predominately Orthodox Jewish ridership—special rules apply. Namely, women get the Rosa Parks treatment. more ›

Earlier this week, the Parks Department removed 16 controversial signs in the predominantly Orthodox Jewish neighborhood of South Williamsburg because they were screwed into public trees. The Yiddish signs, first reported on Failed Messiah, roughly translated to: "Precious Jewish Daughter: Please move to the side when a man approaches!" Today the Daily News checks in on the neighborhood and finds that some of the locals feel the city is suppressing their civil liberties. more ›

Rosh Hashanah is here which means Yom Kippur is around the corner and you know what that means? Time for the annual protests of the annual chicken swinging ritual known as kapparot. The generally fatal chicken "swinging" and slaughtering most often performed on the day before Yom Kippur (but can be held anytime between Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur) and has some very vocal adversaries. Opponents, who this year advertised briefly in Times Square, aren't against the ritual so much as they're against the chicken killing. more ›

All this time, we thought Harrison Ford was the Jewish Indiana Jones—but it turns out that Menachem Youlus, who has been going around the world rescuing lost Torahs, has dubbed himself the "Jewish Indiana Jones." But now he's been accused of giving a bad name to Jewish Indiana Jones's everywhere. more ›

Should flight attendants have to be fluent in religious rituals? We wonder because for the second time in a little more than a year a flight has been disturbed when Orthodox Jews praying with tefillin were confused with terrorists getting ready to terrorize. Last January a flight out of LaGuardia was diverted to Philly over the prayer ritual and then yesterday a similar confusion struck an Alaska Airlines flight from Mexico City to LA. After concerns were raised the airplane was swarmed by police, FBI and customs agents when it landed at LAX. more ›

Yesterday, Nick Brooks was charged with second-degree murder for allegedly strangling his girlfriend at the Soho House. Brooks, who previously pleaded not guilty to attempted murder but faced the second-degree murder charge once it was determined that Sylvie Cachay's death was a homicide, has now pleaded not guilty to the murder charge—and records show that he expressed his fears about jail while cops questioned him. The 24-year-old said, "I'm Jewish and I'm worried about getting beat up by white supremacists. I watch the show 'Oz.' I've seen what happens in jail." more ›

An Arizona rabbi was cuffed in the parking lot of his synagogue, accused of raping a 7-year-old girl a decade ago in NYC. According to the victim, now 17, 45-year-old Bryan Bramly sexually assaulted her when she was spending the night at his family's home in 2000. At the time Bramly was finishing up his rabbinical studies, says the AP. She didn't report the incident until August 2009, but officials says they jumped on the case. more ›

The Borough Park rabbi/travel agent accused in hundreds of incidents of sexual abuse was convicted yesterday of molesting a 16-year-old student. Baruch Lebovits could be sentenced to 32 years in jail, after being found guilty on eight counts. "I understand that there are a significant number of Jewish holidays coming up,” said the judge. “And I am sorry." The young victim testified that in 2004 Lebovits offered to let him drive his car, then unzipped his fly and performed oral sex on him. Among the rabbi’s other alleged victims is a young Hasidic man who committed suicide on his honeymoon, by jumping from the seventh story of a hotel. more ›

Chevra Mehadrin, a small group of ultra-Orthodox rabbis, recently announced a ban on lox, claiming a parasite that attaches itself to salmon makes it non-kosher. The Orthodox Union says the bagel topping is safe, despite sometimes carrying a worm called anisakis. "The issue has been resolved in Jewish law for hundreds of years already," Rabbi Moshe Elefant told the Post, dismissing the upstate rabbis’ suggestion. But kosher or not, are New Yorkers really spreading worms on their bagels? more ›

Hotly-anticipated peace talks between supporters and opponents of the recently-erased Bedford Avenue bicycle lane fell short last night when both parties left a discussion at Pete's Candy Store in Williamsburg with the same seemingly irreparable differences that they brought to the table. Supporters of the Bedford Avenue lane insisted that a biking path on Brooklyn's longest road is necessary for both transportation and safety, while a community activist representing South Williamsburg's Hasidic Jewish residents expressed concerns about dangerous biking etiquette. more ›

Reports started coming across the wire earlier this morning that a flight out of LaGuardia Airport was being diverted to Philadelphia due to a bomb scare involving a passenger "who has wires strapped to his head and fingers." Turns out, there wasn't really a bomb on board, instead the plane was diverted because "an orthodox Jewish male put on customary 'tefilin' (sic) straps for his morning prayers." more ›

Earlier this month, celebrated Irish tenor Ronan Tynan lost his regular gig singing "God Bless America" at Yankee Stadium during the formerly forced seventh inning patriotism stretch. The Yankees cut him loose because he got caught making an anti-Semitic remark to a prospective apartment buyer in his building; when the broker told him not to worry because the buyers weren't Red Sox fans, Tynan replied, "I don’t care about that, as long as they are not Jewish." For good measure, he added that some Jewish women who'd seen the apartment were "scary." more ›

The author of the new book Save the Deli has declared that LA has better Jewish delis than NYC, but he only says such hurtful things because he wants to see New York do better. We haven't read David Sax's heretical book, but the LA Times did, and of course they're gloating over there, because Sax says, "The [delis] that are most inspiring, the ones that people cling to, the ones that people enshrine for years and years are the traditional Jewish delis. And Los Angeles just happens to have more of them than any city I've been to." How can that be?! more ›

Ronan Tynan is a celebrated Irish tenor who sings "God Bless America," at Yankee Stadium during the formerly forced seventh inning patriotism stretch. He was supposed to perform at tonight's American League championship opening game between the Yankees and the Angels, but the Yankees have thrown him under the bus following some awkward, anti-Semitic comments Tynan made in his East Side apartment building. more ›

Shocking claim from British newspaper the Daily Telegraph: Iranian leader (and Holocaust denier) Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is Jewish! more ›

With Yom Kippur coming up this Monday, South Williamsburg will be the stage for many a sacrificial chicken slaughter on Sunday. The Jewish ritual known as kapparot raises eyebrows each year, and now Dr. Allan Kornberg, Executive Director for Farm Sanctuary, has released a statement. more ›

Though some bloggers have shrugged off Monday's allegedly rough arrest of a woman who was carrying her pug through the subway as "breathtakingly minor," the incident's certainly major enough to have gotten the attention of New York's top cop. Or, at least a reporter was able to ask NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly whether officer Joel Witriol used excessive force and made sexist remarks while arresting Chrissie Brodigan, who was trying to carry her sick pug out of the subway station. more ›

Look, we try not to pepper these Hasidic stories with cliche Yiddish catchphrases, but if ever an Oy Vey was in order... Just as one Hasidic man pleads guilty to charges of rape, sodomy and child endangerment, another's been indicted on charges of sexually abusing a teenage boy for years. Yesterday David Silverman entered a guilty plea to end his trial, which stemmed from charges that he used MySpace to lure teenage girls from Westchester to a nightclub-style porn set near the Javits Center, where he'd get them drunk and videotape the sex. more ›

[UPDATE BELOW] A reader sent us this photo, taken by a friend, of a special edition Starbucks menorah cup, which supposedly contained the chain's "Hanukkah Blend." This individual claims he bought it at an unspecified location on the Upper West Side, where the barista told him "we're serving it at Starbucks in Jewish neighborhoods for the next two weeks." more ›

Orthodox Jewish fitness buffs are outraged that the Kosher Gym in Flatbush, Brooklyn was sold earlier this month to non-Jewish owners who plan to open the gym on Shabbos and make other non-Kosher changes to the facilities. According to the Jewish Press, gym members recently received a letter announcing the sale, for $2 million, to a "national fitness group that focuses on gender specific clubs." more ›

Somehow, race relations in Crown Heights, Brooklyn have taken a huge hop, skip, and a jump back to the 1980s, when tensions between African Americans and the Jewish community kept the city on tenterhooks. In recent weeks, attacks on young people, both black and Jewish, have driven people to protest in the streets. The Post headlines its article on a neighborhood protest "Jewish Blood Is Not Cheap," echoing the sentiment of one of approximately 300 protestors calling for justice after a 16-year-old young man was beaten and robbed yesterday. more ›

Erstwhile principal and school founder Debbie Almontaser made the front page of The New York Times today. The article is about how a woman who attempted to found a school based on cultural and religious understanding was forced from her position as the principal thanks to the resistance of spirited opponents. more ›