Author: Jesse Orine

(JR) — A long-awaited final report has arrived in the investigation of a leading German Reform rabbi and his partner after allegations of abuse of power and sexual harassment against them erupted last year. Clocking in at 806 pages, the report by a prominent German law firm concludes that Rabbi Walter Homolka “was responsible for […]

(New York Jewish Week) — The YIVO Institute for Jewish Research welcomed Lithuania’s president to its Manhattan headquarters Monday to honor the Jews who rescued rare books and documents from the Vilna Ghetto and the non-Jewish Lithuanian librarian who protected the same material from destruction by the Soviets. Lithuanian President Gitanas Nausėda was the guest […]

(JR) — A United Nations committee designated a group of medieval Jewish buildings in Erfurt, Germany, as a World Heritage Site on Sunday. UNESCO, the U.N. Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, also gave the World Heritage designation to a ruins site near the West Bank city of Jericho, angering Israeli officials by describing its location […]

(JR) — A newly uncovered letter provides the strongest evidence yet that Pope Pius XII knew about the Nazi extermination of the Jews as it was happening, the latest in a series of recent discoveries that have transformed the debate over the Catholic Church’s conduct during the Holocaust.  The letter was sent by Rev. Lothar […]

(JR) — Chelsea Football Club has launched a group for Jewish fans, becoming the second English Premier League team to do so this year. The storied London-based club announced its new Jewish supporters group on Friday, timing the launch to Rosh Hashanah, which began that evening. “To celebrate Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, we […]

(JR) — Poland’s justice minister is embroiled in a feud with one of the country’s best-known filmmakers after comparing her award-winning new movie about Europe’s migrant crisis to Nazi propaganda. The director, Agnieszka Holland, is the daughter of a Catholic mother and Jewish father, both of whom were part of the Warsaw Ghetto uprising. Her […]

(JR) — Volodymyr Zelensky met with 32 Chabad emissaries and rabbis Thursday night ahead of Rosh Hashanah, marking the Jewish president of Ukraine’s first official meeting with Jewish leaders since Russia invaded in February 2022. Also in attendance were 15 Jewish soldiers whom Zelensky presented with medals. During the meeting, Zelensky made his latest appeal […]

(JR) — A new synagogue billing itself as a neo-Hasidic congregation has opened in the former East German city of Dresden, without the backing of Germany’s main Jewish communal umbrella organization. The Jewish Community Dresden, or JKD, was founded two years ago by Akiva Weingarten, who received his first ordination in the Satmar Hasidic sect in […]

(JR) — I regularly post Middle Eastern Jewish feminist content on social media, so right when Mahsa Amini was murdered, TikTok’s algorithm flooded my account with videos of women from Iran, giving a play-by-play account of events. Amini was a 22-year-old woman from Kurdistan, visiting her relatives in Tehran. Despite the fact that she was […]