CHIȘINĂU, Moldova — For most of her life, Peruvian-born Yvette Merzbacher wondered where her four paternal great-grandparents were buried. All she knew was that her grandparents came from Bessarabia, and that her grandmother, Liza Bronstein, had emigrated to Lima, Peru, in 1932 with her two older sons, following her husband, Yoil, who had moved there […]
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A Palestinian-led docudrama about the Israel-Gaza war, executive-produced by Jewish director Jonathan Glazer, won a top prize at the Venice Film Festival, drawing what may have been a record ovation. The Golden Lion for best film went to a family drama, “Father Mother Sister Brother,” whose stars include the pro-Israel activist Mayim Bialik. Bialik walked […]
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Despite the near-constant worry over, well, nearly everything, but especially our family’s finances, my mother always made sure my brother and I had brand-new outfits on Rosh Hashanah. The shopping for the outfits was one major way my mother showed love. I have strong, happy memories of being with her in the changing room of […]
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Nearly 200 genocide, Holocaust and legal scholars are calling on the International Association of Genocide Scholars to retract its resolution finding that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza. In a letter finalized on Friday, the scholars charge the association with “critical errors” in its resolution, including failing to consider Hamas’ role in the deaths in […]
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A laugh-out-loud Sukkot story that reimagines the classic tale of the three little pigs; an inspiring work of historical fiction story about a Jewish family in Vienna fleeing Nazi persecution and becoming refugees in Shanghai; and a heartwarming Rosh Hashanah story about two quarreling sisters who promise to be better as the Jewish new year […]
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Hundreds of Hungarian Jews have denounced the Israeli government over its war in Gaza — and the groups that purport to represent them at home, where protests against Israel are largely banned. “The one-sided, extreme statements of the current Israeli government and the domestic Jewish organizations and opinion leaders who dominate Hungarian public discourse do not […]
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Turkish authorities have canceled a concert by Enrico Macias, the French-Algerian Jewish singer who has performed in the country for decades, citing planned protests over his support for Israel. The Istanbul governor’s office announced the cancellation on Wednesday of Macias’s Friday evening concert in the city’s Şişli district, citing “intense calls for protests” as the […]
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After multiple failed attempts, Argentine police have recovered a painting that the Nazis looted from a Dutch Jewish art dealer during the Holocaust. Dutch journalists first spotted the painting, “Portrait of a Lady” by Giuseppe Ghislandi, last month in an ad for a property being sold by a daughter of Friedrich Kadgien, a Nazi finance […]
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When I walked into the small, ramshackle gymnasium that is our humble synagogue on Shabbat morning this past week, pictures of the 14 children from the congregation who would be starting first grade on Monday decorated the walls. It must have been one of their parents who thought to surround the photos with quotes from […]
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DAMASCUS, Syria — “This was a Jewish home, and so was that. These were all Jewish homes,” Badriyah Mousa Shatah said as she walked through Damascus’s historic Jewish Quarter, or the “Harat al-Yahud” as it is known in Arabic. Shatah, who was born in Damascus and has lived in the city all her life, is […]
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