Jerusalem police were on Friday holding five ultra-Orthodox Jewish men who tried to disrupt landmark prayers by women Jewish activists at the Western Wall plaza in the Holy City. Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld told AFP that 1,000 ultra-Orthodox men were kept away from a large group of "Women of the Wall" activists conducting their monthly prayer using prayer shawls, after a court ruled they could do so. "Police arrested three ultra-Orthodox men and detained another two" for public disturbances," Rosenfeld said.

The body governing France's Jewish congregations will meet Thursday for an emergency session over a plagiarism scandal involving the country's Grand Rabbi that has made waves at home and abroad. Gilles Bernheim -- France's highest Jewish religious authority -- last week admitted to plagiarism in his 2011 book "Forty Jewish Meditations" following revelations in French news magazine L'Express.

France's highest Jewish religious authority, Grand Rabbi Gilles Bernheim, was hunkering down away from the media on the weekend after admitting to plagiarism in a book he authored. The scandal broke early in the week, when the French news magazine L'Express revealed Bernheim's 2011 book, "Forty Jewish Meditations", contained purloined writings. After initially denying the accusation, Bernheim, 61, issued a statement on Wednesday from Jerusalem admitting the plagiarism, but blaming it on an unidentified "student" he said had assisted him with research and writing.

The political parties who are to form Israel's next government are likely to sign a coalition agreement on Thursday evening, the head of the new centrist Yesh Atid party said. "It's apparently the end. Or actually the start," Yesh Atid leader Yair Lapid wrote on his Facebook page, saying the signing of the deal was "likely to be tonight." jjm-scw-hmw/bpz