Russia won’t participate in US lawsuit over Jewish documents seized by Nazi and Soviet armies

WASHINGTON — Russia told a U.S. court on Friday that judges have no authority to tell the country how to handle sacred Jewish documents held in its state library that were seized by the Nazi and Soviet armies.

NYC jail bar mitzvah leads to resignations, investigation of favors for Jewish inmates

NEW YORK — It was like any other bar mitzvah, complete with kosher food, singing and a reading from the Torah — except that it was in a Manhattan jailhouse.

Mo. measure would rename highway adopted by neo-Nazis after rabbi who fought for civil rights

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The state’s litter prevention program got an unusual ally last year: A neo-Nazi group adopted a half-mile section of highway in Springfield and picked up the trash.

Text of President Barack Obama’s speech at Cairo University in Egypt

Text of President Barack Obama’s speech at Cairo University, as provided by CQ Transcriptions.

Ohioan becomes 1st black female rabbi in US, to lead predominantly white congregation

CINCINNATI — Describing herself as the “new face of Judaism,” Alysa Stanton became the first black female rabbi in the country during an ordination in Cincinnati.

Obama quotes Quran, Bible, Jewish law, seeking common ground in region where faiths clash

NEW YORK — President Barack Obama showed respect for Islam by quoting from the Quran in his speech Thursday but did so in a way meant to resonate with Christians and Jews as well.

Text of Obama’s speech at Cairo University in Egypt

Text of President Barack Obama’s speech at Cairo University, as provided by CQ Transcriptions.

Vatican defends pope as ardent anti-Nazi, responding to Israeli critics of Holocaust remarks

JERUSALEM — The Vatican defended Pope Benedict XVI on Tuesday as a man of strong anti-Nazi credentials and a peacemaker in the face of mounting Israeli criticism and Arab anger over the Israeli occupation.

Muslim cleric defends commandeering microphone for tirade against Israel at meeting with pope

JERUSALEM — A Muslim cleric who commandeered the stage at a meeting with Pope Benedict XVI to rail against Israel’s harsh treatment of Palestinians said Tuesday he spoke out because he was representing Islam.

Vatican defends Benedict from Israeli critics of Holocaust remarks

JERUSALEM — The Vatican defended the pope Tuesday from a growing chorus of Israeli critics who accused the German-born Benedict XVI of failing to express enough remorse for the Holocaust — a controversy that threatened to eclipse a papal pilgrimage aimed at building bridges between faiths.

Pope, visiting Jewish state, confronts dark history of his native Germany

JERUSALEM — Pope Benedict XVI confronted the dark history of his native Germany on the first day of his visit to Israel on Monday, shaking the hands of six Holocaust survivors and saying victims of the genocide “lost their lives but they will never lose their names.”

Pope in Israel highlights dramatic advances in Jewish-Catholic relations, but bumps remain

In a wall of the tiny museum at Rome’s majestic central synagogue hangs a copy of the 1555 edict of Pope Paul IV that confined the Jews to the ghetto, branding them as killers of Christ.

Benedict follows John Paul’s footsteps in Holy Land but times have changed

VATICAN CITY — Pope Benedict XVI begins a weeklong tour in the Middle East on Friday, a self-described “pilgrim of peace” seeking to strengthen frayed ties with Muslims and Jews and give support to his beleaguered Christian flock in the region.

Struggle for survival: Yemen’s ancient Jewish community feels growing Muslim hostility

KHARIF, Yemen — In this village in northern Yemen, where a kosher butcher slaughters chickens and the school bus carries young boys in side curls along a dirt track to their Hebrew studies, one of the oldest Jewish communities in the Arab world is fighting for its survival.

Former synagogue of renowned late Orthodox rabbi slated for destruction in Belarus

LUBAN, Belarus — The roof has been removed and the windows stripped of their frames and glass. Piece by piece, workers are tearing down the former synagogue where a renowned rabbi served before fleeing the Soviet Union for New York in 1936.