Israeli rabbi bans male handshaking An Israeli Zionist rabbi has issued a ban on handshakes between men, saying the act might lead to sin. The head of the Gur Education Department, Abraham Benjamin Silberberg, said at a meeting with educational officials that handshakes between men is banned because it can cause “sinful thoughts.” According to the new verdict, men can touch only each other’s... 

Blurred face of an Israeli rabbi charged with repeated sexual assaults of his girl students. A prominent Israeli rabbi has been arrested on charges of sexually assaulting his three teenage daughters for more than 10 years. The rabbi, who has not yet been publicly named, is reportedly being charged with multiple accounts of sexual assault and invasion of privacy, Israel’s Ynet news website reported... 

An influential Israeli rabbi has said God should strike the Palestinians and their leader with a plague, calling for their death in a fiery sermon before Middle East peace talks set to begin next week. “Abu Mazen and all these evil people should perish from this earth,” Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, spiritual head of the religious Shas party in Israel’s government, said in a sermon late Saturday,... 

Rabbi Mordechai Elon Israeli police said on Friday they were looking into allegations of sexual abuse against one of the country’s most famous and politically influential rabbis, in a case that has triggered dramatic headlines this week. Mordechai Elon — known as “Rabbi Motti” by viewers of his popular TV show and by many young men in the West Bank settler movement — has...