Growing up in New York's Orthodox Community, Mordechai Dzikansky, a rabbi's son, did not envision his memoir would be titled Terrorist Cop.

Nor did Mr Dzikansky, 49, who now lives in Ra'anana, foresee that he would go from being a policeman who happens to be Jewish to the Jewish policeman of New York and, ultimately, to New York Police Department's ambassador to the Jewish state.

The founder of clothing chain American Apparel has been accused of sexual abuse by a former employee who is seeking £160 million.

Dov Charney, who comes from a Canadian Jewish family, created the popular and edgy clothing chain in 1991 when he was 22. Still its CEO, the brand now has stores worldwide including eight in the UK.

Former New York governor Eliot Spitzer wasn’t the first political player whose career was prematurely ended by a sex scandal, and he likely won’t be the last.

As Yaniv “Nev” Schulman points out, he’s got a fair amount in common with Facebook creator Mark Zuckerberg.

Both are 26, from Jewish families in New York and live enviable lives surrounded by the latest in geek-dream software. And for both, being part of what Schulman calls “the first Facebook generation” has had unimaginable consequences.

The Broadway comedian was born Sam Joel in Brooklyn to Orthodox parents and spent his childhood learning at a yeshiva school, but chose to enter showbiz and change his name to Zero rather than follow in the family footsteps.

A US gay advocacy group has cancelled plans to allow pro-Palestinian campaigners to host a "Smash Israeli Apartheid" party at its New York headquarters.

The event was due to take place at the city’s LGBT community centre as part of international “Israeli Apartheid Week” at the beginning of March.

The former US President Jimmy Carter is facing legal action from readers who claim he misrepresented Israel in a book about the Middle East conflict.

Mr Carter, who was president between 1976 and 1980, could have to pay more than £3 million if the case is successful.

The dispute is over his 2006 work “Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid”, in which Mr Carter compared the Israeli government to the leaders of apartheid South Africa.

The city now known as the Big Apple began life as a Dutch colonial settlement, taking the name New York in 1664. Chosen as the capital of New Netherland and given municipal rights on February 2 1653, it had a population of just 5,000 by 1700 but by the time of American independence that had grown to about 25,000.

There are now near to 19 million people in New York State; it is estimated that more than 1.6 million of them are Jewish. It wasn’t always that way; the first Jewish community arrived in 1654.

The JC’s longtime Italy correspondent and the only female president of Italian Jewry in history has died at the age of 91.

Tullia Zevi, whose family left their home in Milan for France in the 1930s when the fascist dictator Benito Mussolini instated antisemitic laws, also served in the World Jewish Congress and European Jewish Congress.

From 1983 she spent five years as head of the Union of Italian Jewish Communities, during which time she oversaw the first papal visit to the Rome synagogue in modern history.

A bomb-scare at the Manhattan headquarters of an Israeli bank turned out to be nothing more than a joke birthday card.

The Bank Hapoalim building was evacuated earlier today because of fears that it had been targeted by extremists.

However police, investigating what had set the alarm off, found that the “suspicious package” was actually a musical greeting card.

Security staff raised the alert due to the lack of return address given and a spelling mistake on the address.