Paris – As a French celebrity philosopher, Alain Finkielkraut belongs to a tiny group of VIPs who get to lead normal, paparazzi-free lives despite having film star-like recognizability here. Unlike most countries, France makes celebrities out of intellectual heroes. They’re revered, quoted and featured regularly on primetime television and even in film. But unlike many [...]

Jerusalem – After operating for more than a century, the iconic Lendner Bakery in Jerusalem’s Mea She’arim quarter has closed. A notice posted on the doors of the landmark bakery at the corner of Leib Dayan Street and Moshe Dov Lendner Street said: “The Lendner Bakery, which was established by Rav Moshe Dov Lendner in [...]

The Hague – A Dutch right-wing senator said that Jews during the Holocaust were driven to gas chambers “like meek little lambs.” Toine Beukering, who on Tuesday joined the Eerste Kamer — the upper chamber of the Dutch parliament — made the assertion in an interview published Saturday by the Telegraaf daily. A lawmaker for [...]

Bloomington, IN – Pete Buttigieg, the mayor of South Bend, Indiana who has emerged as a strong contender for the Democratic presidential nomination, said there are signs that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is “turning away from peace.” “Just as an American patriot may oppose the policies of the American president, a supporter of Israel [...]

Portland, Maine – The U.S. Department of Justice is backing three families who are suing to force the state of Maine to pay tuition for some students to attend religious high schools. The “Statement of Interest” filed Monday supports a lawsuit that targets the state’s longstanding tuition policy for students in districts that don’t have [...]

Washington – The meeting between acting Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan and his Chinese counterpart began with all the hallmarks of a routine staged and scripted session between two uneasy rivals. First came the posed photo, as the two men shook hands with broad smiles in front of their nations’ flags, and then they moved quickly [...]

New York – Jogging solo in Florida in near 80 degree Fahrenheit heat, Theresa Winterhalter’s New York City Marathon experience last November looked much different to what you would expect from the world’s biggest marathon. The 54-year-old was one of 424 people to finish the iconic race’s first “virtual marathon”, an event that race organizers [...]

Minneapolis – Minnesota campaign finance officials said last week that U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar misused campaign funds in violation of state rules. They also revealed that she had filed joint tax returns with her husband years before they were legally married and at a time when she was married to another man. The revelation put [...]

Paris – French President Emmanuel Macron downplayed the death of an oak tree he had offered U.S. President Donald Trump last year on Tuesday, saying people shouldn’t read symbols into everything and that he would send the American leader a new tree. The two men celebrated the special relationship between the United States and France [...]

Yarmouth, MA – Ryan Cooper was a 20-something Californian unsure of his place in the world when he struck up a pen pal correspondence in the 1970s with Otto Frank, the father of the young Holocaust victim Anne Frank. Through dozens of letters and several face-to-face meetings, the two forged a friendship that lasted until [...]