The barmitzvah ceremony is a time-honoured Jewish tradition celebrating when a boy becomes a man – or, for some, when man's best friend does.

The latest trend in US Jewish life is for the "bark-mitzvah", marking the occasion of a dog's second birthday, which translates in human years to a boy's 13th.

Asda has explained why a search for kosher food on its website prompted the response "antichrist".

A JC reader was shocked to discover the word given when he searched whether the supermarket stocked products made by the well-known kosher food company "Manischewitz".

In recent years we've highlighted an airline serving bacon on a flight to Israel and an Israeli cookbook offering recipes dedicated to pig delicacies. But such upsets could be a thing of the past, thanks to the efforts of Israel's Ashkenazi chief rabbi.

A group of Israeli women have stripped off in support of an Egyptian blogger who posed naked to highlight the lack of rights for women in the Arab country.

Aliaa Elmahdy, a 20-year-old student, posted a picture of herself wearing only stockings and red patent shoes. She received thousands of abusive messages, including death threats, following the post.

Israelis reacted with amusement to the latest campaign by clothing brand Benetton, which shows Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas locked in a passionate embrace.

A Jewish florist from New York has recalled his lengthy correspondence with his "pen-pal" Colonel Gaddafi.

Octogenarian Louis Schlamowitz has spent decades writing to a host of leaders and despots, from President Harry Truman to Iran's Ayatollah Khomeini.