JTA: The Global News Service of the Jewish People

Updated 02/07/12 @ 05:53PM EST

• Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman reconfirmed his commitment to a two-state solution during a meeting with U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton in Washington.
• Rabbi Yosef Shalom Elyashiv, considered this generation's leading halachic authority, is in critical condition.
• Two Messianic Jewish organizations condemned a self-styled Messianic rabbi for conducting a church service in which a Baptist bishop was wrapped in a Torah scroll and called a king.
• Two top Hadassah officials are being investigated by the organization for possible misuse of funds.
• A senior official at Susan G. Komen For the Cure resigned after the organization was embroiled in controversy over its attempt to defund Planned Parenthood.

• A box of surgical tools owned by the commandant of the Theresienstadt concentration camp is set to be auctioned.
• An Israeli couple reportedly serving as Chabad emissaries in the Indian city of Kochi are being deported for "suspicious activities."
• At least eight Israelis described as former military personnel are being investigated for drug trafficking in Colombia.
• A painting seized from a Florida museum must be returned to the heirs of its former Jewish owner, a U.S. court ruled.
• The International Court of Justice in The Hague has overturned an Italian ruling that would have forced Germany to pay a pension to an Italian former slave laborer for the Nazis.

• The U.S. State Department in revised travel recommendations on Jerusalem advises visitors to "dress appropriately when visiting the Old City and ultra-orthodox Jewish neighborhoods."
• A Jewish-Arab bilingual school and a Christian monastery in Jerusalem were the sites of the latest graffiti attacks on non-Jewish targets in Israel.
• The faces of young girls modeling Purim costumes in a toy store ad were blurred in haredi Orthodox newspapers in Beit Shemesh.
• Fifty Jewish leaders signed a pledge to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in advance of Tu b'Shvat.
• Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman will meet top Congress members and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton during his U.S. visit.

• The United States and Israel have rescheduled their joint military exercise for around October.
• The United States closed its embassy in Syria out of security concerns, the State Department announced.
• A Knesset member from the left-wing Meretz Party has authored a bill that would provide financial aid to young people who leave the haredi Orthodox fold.
• President Obama expanded Iran sanctions to include parties dealing with Iran's Central Bank.
• Hundreds of Israeli teachers have sent a letter to Israel's education minister opposing school trips to Hebron.

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