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NY congregation can evict tenants of historic Touro Synagogue, Rhode Island judge rules
(JTA) — A Rhode Island judge has ruled in favor of a historic New York City synagogue that is seeking to remove the leadership of the congregation that meets at another historic synagogue building — Newport’s famed Touro Synagogue.
The ruling, issued Thursday, would evict the leadership of Congregation Jeshuat Israel, or CJI, which has been meeting at the Touro synagogue, America’s oldest, since the early 1900s.
Congregation Shearith Israel in New York City, also known as the Spanish and Portuguese Synagogue, owns the Touro building and has complained in recent years that CJI has failed to be a good steward of the site.
The two congregations have been in and out of court for at least a decade. CJI has been leasing the site for a symbolic $1 a year since the early 1900s. Shearith Israel, the nation’s oldest Jewish congregation — it was established in Manhattan in the 17th century and has occupied several different buildings since — refused in 2021 to renew CJI’s lease and ordered the congregation to vacate the premises by Feb. 21, 2023.
In June, the dispute reached the courtroom of Superior Court Judge Maureen Keough. In a lengthy decision read from the bench on Thursday, Keough said she could find no reason to rule in favor of the tenants but stayed the eviction until September. At that point, a hearing will take place to decide whether the congregation can remain in place while any appeals are underway, meaning that CJI is likely to remain in place at least through this year’s High Holidays, which begin on Sept. 15.
Louis Solomon, the parnas, or president, of Shearith Israel, welcomed the ruling.
“We’re committed to not only reviving the community but reviving the place Touro has in the hearts and minds of Jews all over America,” he told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
Michael Crane, an attorney for CJI, declined to comment. Louise M. Teitz, CJI’s co-president, did not respond to a request for comment.
The arrangement between the two Orthodox congregations has been tense for over a decade, and boiled over when CJI tried, in 2012, to sell a valuable set of Torah adornments from Touro’s inventory. In 2019, the U.S. Supreme Court effectively confirmed the New York synagogue’s ownership of the building and its pricey artifacts by declining to take up a challenge to its claims.
During the latest trial, Teitz noted the lengthy tenancy of CJI, saying its leadership had long maintained the integrity of the building and grounds, and had hired its rabbis.
“This is the only building that we have worshiped in for almost 140 years, and it is our, I guess I would call it our spiritual home, and we have provided services and a full-time rabbi who is there 24-7,” Teitz, a law professor at Roger Williams Law School and an adjunct law professor at NYU Law School, said in court on June 29. “I think all of us think of in a way as synonymous with the congregation because we have preserved and nurtured and cared for the building for so long.”
In turn, Shearith Israel has said that the congregation has not been forthright about the millions of dollars it would need to repair the building, which was built between 1759 and 1763. The New York synagogue also objected to decisions made by the CJI board, which included erecting a gravestone at Touro’s historic cemetery for a still-living donor without the New York synagogue’s knowledge.
Services at CJI are currently led by an interim rabbi, Stephen Belsky. According to Solomon, Shearith Israel has been in conversation with another congregation in Providence, Ahavas Israel, that is interested in holding services at Touro. Ahavas Israel was incorporated as a Rhode Island nonprofit corporation on April 4, 2023, and, according to a website called Jewish Newport, is not currently holding services.
The fight between the New York and Newport congregations stands in sharp contrast to the historical concord that the Touro Synagogue represents. After a visit to Newport in 1790, President George Washington wrote a letter to the congregation that is considered a landmark statement of religious freedom and tolerance.
In a previous statement to JTA, Teitz wrote on behalf of her board that she was “devastated that our Congregation has become the target of a shameful power grab by another Jewish congregation that over the years has not provided us or Touro any meaningful support at all. We condemn this destructive attack on our congregation and displacement of our community, and call upon Shearith Israel to let Jeshuat Israel live and pray in peace.”
In statements from the bench, Keough regretted that the two congregations had not solved their differences in mediation.
“If there was ever a case that cried out for mediation, based on what I’ve read it’s this one. It’s clear to me how passionate everyone is about this,” Keough said, according to the Providence Journal. Going to trial, she said, “should be a last resort. I’m sad we’ve gotten here.”
Solomon said Shearith Israel is excited about the future of Touro under a new board of overseers that it would appoint. He said current members of CJI would be welcome to join the congregation.
“We have 15 things that we want to program. We want to have scholars there. We want people to come up for the summers there,” he said. “I think it’s a time to heal and a time to grow.”
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The post NY congregation can evict tenants of historic Touro Synagogue, Rhode Island judge rules appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
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New ‘Report It’ App Allows Users to Expose Antisemitic Incidents in Real Time
Car in New South Wales, Australia graffitied with antisemitic message. The word “F**k” has been removed from this image. Photo: Screenshot
The Combat Antisemitism Movement (CAM) launched this week a new mobile app that allows users worldwide to quickly and securely report antisemitic incidents in real time.
Report It is available for download in the Apple Store and Google Play. Users can easily share details of antisemitic incidents through the app – such as date, location, and even photos or videos – and verified reports are then forwarded to local leaders, law enforcement, media outlets, and community organizations who can intervene and respond when necessary. Users of Report It also have the option to remain anonymous when reporting an incident and their personal details are never shared.
“Research and reports have consistently demonstrated that the overwhelming majority of antisemitic incidents are unreported, frequently because of a mistrust of authorities, a lack of awareness of reporting systems, bureaucratic hurdles, and excessive ‘red tape,’” CAM CEO Sacha Roytman said in a released statement. “With Report It, we are giving every individual a quick, safe, and effective way to shine a light on hate, hold perpetrators accountable, and drive meaningful change. Together, we can fight back against antisemitism and build safer, stronger communities.”
A survey commissioned by CAM last year revealed that 3.5 million Jewish Americans personally experienced antisemitism following the Hamas-led terrorist attack in Israel on Oct. 7, 2023. CAM’s Antisemitism Research Center (ARC) has monitored more than 12,000 antisemitic incidents across the world in the last half decade, including acts of graffiti, vandalism, harassment, discrimination, incitement, threats, and violence.
Each submission on the Report It app “contributes to a clearer picture of the scale of antisemitism and strengthens advocacy for stronger protections and policies,” CAM said in a press release. “CAM calls on individuals everywhere to join the fight against antisemitism: See it. Report it. Stop it.”
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Europeans Likely to Initiate UN Sanctions Process on Iran on Thursday, Sources Say
France’s President Emmanuel Macron, Germany’s Chancellor Friedrich Merz, and Britain’s Prime Minister Keir Starmer pose as they meet on the sidelines of the two-day NATO’s Heads of State and Government summit, in The Hague, Netherlands, June 24, 2025. Photo: Ludovic Marin/Pool via REUTERS
Britain, France, and Germany are likely to begin the process of reimposing UN sanctions on Iran on Thursday but hope Tehran will provide commitments over its nuclear program within 30 days that will convince them to defer concrete action, four diplomats said.
The trio, known as the E3, met Iran on Tuesday to try to revive diplomacy over the nuclear program before they lose the ability in mid-October to restore sanctions on Tehran that were lifted under a 2015 nuclear accord with world powers.
Three European diplomats and a Western diplomat said Tuesday’s talks did not yield sufficiently tangible commitments from Iran, although they believed there was scope for further diplomacy in the coming weeks.
They said the E3 had decided to start triggering the so-called snapback of UN sanctions, possibly as early as Thursday, over accusations that Iran has violated the 2015 deal with world powers that aimed to prevent Tehran from developing a nuclear weapon.
The West says the advancement of Iran‘s nuclear program goes beyond civilian needs, while Tehran denies it is seeking nuclear weapons.
The UN process takes 30 days before sanctions that would cover Iran‘s financial, banking, hydrocarbons, and defense sectors were restored.
“The real negotiations will start once the letter [to the UN Security Council] is submitted,” the Western diplomat said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
A German foreign ministry spokesperson said triggering the snapback remained an option for the E3. The British and French foreign ministries did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Tehran has warned of a “harsh response” if sanctions are reinstated.
NUCLEAR INSPECTORS
UN nuclear inspectors have returned to Iran for the first time since it suspended cooperation with them in the wake of Israel and the United States’ attacks on its nuclear sites in June, Iranian state media reported on Wednesday.
International Atomic Energy Agency chief Rafael Grossi said on Tuesday they had been allowed into the country, although there was no agreement on what they would actually be allowed to do there or whether they would have access to nuclear facilities.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi also told lawmakers Tehran had not reached an agreement on how it would resume full work with the watchdog, parliament news agency ICANA reported.
The E3 have offered to delay the snapback for as much as six months to enable serious negotiations if Iran resumes full UN inspections – which would also seek to account for Iran‘s large stock of enriched uranium that has not been verified since the attacks – and engages in talks with the United States.
Iran has been enriching uranium to up to 60 percent fissile purity, a short step from the roughly 90 percent of weapons-grade, and had enough material enriched to that level, if refined further, for six nuclear weapons, before the strikes by Israel started on June 13, according the IAEA.
Actually producing a weapon would take more time, however, and the IAEA has said that while it cannot guarantee Tehran’s nuclear program is entirely peaceful, it has no credible indication of a coordinated weapons project in the Islamic Republic.
Iran and the United States had held several rounds of talks before June.
One diplomat said Iran had shown signs of readiness to resume negotiations with the US in Tuesday’s meeting with the E3. An Iranian source said it would only do so “if Washington guarantees there will be no [military] strikes during the talks.”
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Iran Link to Australian Synagogue Attack Uncovered Via Funding Trail, Spy Agency Says
A flag flutters above the Embassy of the Islamic Republic of Iran in Canberra, Australia, Aug. 26, 2025. Photo: Australia’s Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has expelled Iran’s ambassador, accusing Iran of orchestrating at least two antisemitic attacks on Australian soil. Photo: REUTERS/Peter Hobson
Australia’s intelligence agency traced the funding of hooded criminals who allegedly set fire to a Melbourne synagogue, linking the antisemitic attack to Iran, officials said, even as those charged with the crime were likely unaware Tehran was their puppet master.
A 20-year-old local man, Younes Ali Younes, appeared in Melbourne’s Magistrates Court on Wednesday charged with the Dec. 6 arson attack on the Adass Israel synagogue and theft of a car. He did not enter a plea and did not seek bail. His lawyer declined to comment to Reuters.
A day earlier Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said Australia’s intelligence agencies had shown the attack, and another in Sydney last year, were directed by the Iranian government, and expelled Tehran’s ambassador, becoming the latest Western government to accuse Iran of carrying out hostile covert activities on its soil.
Security services in Britain and Sweden warned last year that Tehran was using criminal proxies to carry out its violent attacks in those countries, with London saying it had disrupted 20 Iran–linked plots since 2022. A dozen other countries have condemned what they called a surge in assassination, kidnapping, and harassment plots by Iranian intelligence services.
Australia’s spy chief Mike Burgess said a series of “cut outs,” an intelligence term for intermediaries, were used to conceal Iran‘s involvement in the attacks, and warned that it may have orchestrated others.
Security forces “have done rather extraordinary work to trace the source of the funding of these criminal elements who’ve been used as tools of the Iranian regime,” Albanese told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation on Tuesday.
The investigation worked backwards through payments made onshore and offshore to “petty and sometimes not so petty criminals,” he said in parliament on Wednesday.
Albanese was briefed by the Australian Security Intelligence Organization on Monday on evidence of a “supply chain” that he said linked the attacks to offshore individuals and Tehran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. Australia’s diplomats in Iran were discreetly told to leave, making it out of Iranian airspace just after midnight, he said.
A public announcement, with Albanese flanked by his spy chief and foreign and home affairs ministers, came on Tuesday, prompting accolades from Israel.
Iran‘s Foreign Ministry said it “absolutely rejected” Australia’s accusation.
The turning point in the investigation came weeks earlier, as Australian Federal Police and the Australian Security Intelligence Organization (ASIO) seized mobile phones and digital devices from suspects arrested in Victoria state over the synagogue attack – and highlighted a stolen blue Volkswagen Golf sedan used in unrelated attacks.
CCTV footage of the night of Dec. 6 released by police shows three hooded figures unloading red jerry cans of fuel from the boot of the car, one of whom was wielding an axe, at the entrance of the synagogue and setting it alight before speeding away.
Victoria’s Joint Counter Terrorism Team alleged Younes, 20, stole the car to carry out the attack and recklessly endangered lives by setting fire to the A$20 million synagogue when people were inside, a charge sheet shows. No one was wounded in the attack.
A co-accused, Giovanni Laulu, 21, appeared in court last month on the same charges.
Police have referred to the sedan as a “communal crime car” linked to other attacks that were not politically motivated.
In a press conference on July 30 to announce seven search warrants had been executed and a man arrested over the synagogue attack, the Australian Federal Police’s then deputy commissioner Krissy Barrett said it was politically motivated and involved offshore criminals.
“We suspect these criminals worked with criminal associates in Victoria to carry out the arson attack,” she said, also confirming a major Australian crime figure deported to Iraq in 2023 was “one of our ongoing lines of inquiry.”
Police were working with the Five Eyes intelligence network that also includes Britain, the United States, Canada, and New Zealand, she said.
Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke told ABC Radio on Wednesday that those involved locally would not have necessarily known “who had started it.”
“You have a series of intermediaries so that people performing different actions don’t in fact know who is directing them or don’t necessarily know who is directing them,” he said.