Since her death, Amy Winehouse has been honored through various charities, musical tributes, and more. Now, the Jewish songstress might also be immortalized on the streets of her home city. Rumors are swirling that a street in London will be named after Amy, with options like Winehouse Way and Winehouse Street being considered. The street would be located near the King’s Cross Station if completed. "To think that our surname would be indelibly linked with London through the naming of a street after Amy is …More

Amy Winehouse is to be awarded the first "star" on London's Music Walk of Fame. The star will be unveiled when the attraction launches in September on what would have been her 30th birthday. Organizers announced earlier this month that they have been given the green light to honor the world's top music legends with sidewalk tributes in the London borough of Camden, where dozens of the UK's biggest acts cut their teeth. Bands like The Clash, Oasis, Blur, Madness, and The Libertines all have strong links to the …More

A viral outbreak among chickens in the United Kingdom has the kosher community worried about a chicken shortage for Passover. Kashrut supervisors are reporting “up to 80 percent [of the chickens] treifoth,” rendering most of the birds unsuitable for use at the Passover table. The virus is similar to a 2012 outbreak in which a virus caused the chicken’s tendons to stiffen and break and impacted approximately 25 percent of the bird population. In the London outbreak, kashrut supervisors are noting …More

The life of Sir Julius Vogel got off to a rather inauspicious start. Born in London in 1835, Vogel’s childhood was not a happy one. The son of Phoebe Isaac, from a well-known Jewish merchant family, and Alpert Leopold Vogel, a Christian from Holland, Vogel was abandoned by his father and his younger brother died before he turned six. Some accounts, like the 1875 Otego Witness’ report reprinted in New Zealand’s Star newspaper, claim that Julius was orphaned as a young child and left in the care …More

A member of the UN peacekeeping force charged with monitoring the cease-fire between Israel and Syria is missing, the United Nations said Monday. [Fox News] Nearly 60 percent of Britain's Jews live in London, a new study shows. [Times of Israel] Israel has bought doorless vehicles specifically for transporting IDF troops inside military bases from China. [Haaretz] Two controversial Egyptian and Qatari films are simultaneously examining Jewish communities that once lived in the Arab world. [Jerusalem Post] New …More

Anti-Semitic incidents in Britain rose five percent over the previous year, making 2012 the third worst year on record. The Community Service Trust, British Jewry's security unit, reported Thursday that there were 640 reported anti-Semitic incidents, compared to 608 in 2011. Some 100 of the incidents were reported as part of a new joint program with the Metropolitan Police Service, the police force of the Greater London area. Under the new program, there was a reported 55 percent rise in anti-Semitic incidents …More

The family of a Jewish woman from London is calling on the international Jewish community to help find a bone marrow match. Sharon Berger is battling myelodysplastic syndrome, a pre-leukemic syndrome, and without a bone marrow transplant she may soon die. "It really is a race against time, my mom's chemotherapy started this week which means that in six weeks’ time she will need a bone marrow transplant, and a good match has not yet been found," Sharon’s daughter Jonni Berger explained. To help her …More

Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis has big shoes to fill. Appointed this week as the 11th British chief rabbi, he will succeed Jonathan Sacks, an internationally renowned author and public intellectual who speaks frequently on moral, philosophical and theological affairs. The widespread assumption among British Jews has long been that a Mirvis chief rabbinate would be quite different, that he would focus on internal Jewish community issues rather than trying to emulate Sacks. But Mirvis has different ideas. When he takes up …More

Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis has been selected as Great Britain’s next chief rabbi, ending years of speculation over who would earn the designation. Mirvis, 55, originally from South Africa, was the frontrunner for the post early out, but the decision still took months longer than expected. In 2010, Britain’s sitting chief rabbi, Jonathan Sacks, announced his intention to retire at the end of this year. Mirvis served as chief rabbi of Ireland from 1985 to 1992 and has been an active head of London’s …More

Shraga Zaltzman has spent years building up his network of business contacts. So when a young man stepped into his London office last month looking for a job, despite having a relatively empty resume, Zaltzman was able to help. Noticing that the man had taken a three-week course in invoice discounting, Zaltzman phoned a senior executive at General Electric. Within three days the man had a meeting and an unpaid internship in their invoicing department. "Now he will have GE on his CV and if he does well, they …More

New York University's Tel Aviv program was suspended for the rest of the semester, and its students and faculty were evacuated to London. The university is considering whether to reopen for the spring semester, according to NYULocal, a student news blog. The northern Tel Aviv campus was evacuated due to the current violence between Israel and Gaza terrorists firing rockets into Israel. The 11 students may transfer to NYU overseas campuses in London, Prague or Florence, or return to New York, according to the …More

One writer ponders a return to life with rockets in Tel Aviv, as Hamas fires on the city bringing first sirens since 1991. [Tablet] A look at some of the journalistic misrepresentations already taking place concerning Pillar of Defense. [Tablet] And some more. [Algemeiner] A London Times political cartoon outlines the Hamas human shield technique. [Algemeiner] How Orthodox women keep their physical distance from the opposite sex at college. [Forward] University of California rejects Israel divestment bill. …More