American Jewry’s premier international aid agency has launched a UK initiative to promote humanitarian work and global Jewish solidarity among young professionals.

JDC, the Joint Distribution Committee, is offering places on trips run by its young adult arm, Entwine, to learn about its overseas projects.

When former Serb leader Radovan Karadzic recently claimed at his war crimes trial in The Hague that he should be “rewarded” for his actions in the 1990s Bosnian war, Sally Becker suggested on Twitter that an appropriate reward would be a nice “rest” at the Holiday Inn, Sarajevo.

Sean Penn is to visit Israel as part of his work for humanitarian aid organisations.

The actor, who is on screen this year as the rock-star son of a Holocaust survivor in This Must be the Place.

The announcement follows a meeting involving Mr Penn and IOsrael's deputy foreign minister Danny Ayalon in Los Angeles last week.

Turkey has accepted Israel's offer of foreign aid in the wake of an earthquake in the east of the country.

Following the disaster, Israeli President Shimon Peres telephoned his Turkish counterpart, President Abdullah Gul and offered to send search-and-rescue teams, food, medicine, medical staff and equipment.

Israel was among the first countries to offer support to Turkey following the devastating earthquake in the east of the country.

The death toll from the disaster has reached above 200 people and there are fears it could rise significantly.

There are probably not many rabbis helping to provide cleaner water in Myanmar (Burma) or first-aid training to wildlife rangers in Kenya.

But Rabbi Yossi Ives, the minister of Richmond Synagogue, is doing just that through the organisation he has founded to put Jewish humanitarian values into practice.

His enterprise, Tag International Development, supports social action and community-build

More than £169,000 has been raised to help people suffering from the famine in East Africa following a campaign launched by World Jewish Relief.

The aid charity set up a fundraising drive last month as reports of draught and malnutrition in Somalia and its neighbours began filtering through to the international media.