(JTA) — An Israeli professor was asked by the host of a French TV news show why he publicly identifies his religion by wearing a kippah in a clip that went viral on Wednesday. “Many people are asking, why a professor wears a religious symbol in our studio,” the host of CNews pressed Dr. Cyrille […]
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LVIV, Ukraine (JTA) – Three rabbis sat around a breakfast table in this city’s Tsori Gilod Synagogue, discussing Russia’s war on the country where they work in a mixture of Yiddish, Hebrew and Russian. They named their hometowns as Lugansk, Lvov and Dnepr, the Russian names for Ukrainian cities that have vaulted into international headlines […]
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(JTA) — Many in the Libyan-Jewish diaspora know that even if they return to Libya some day, they would never again be able to visit the graves of their parents, grandparents or other loved ones who lived in the country while it was home to more than 30,000 Jews. A new initiative in one of […]
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(JTA) — Nearly 130 Finnish artists will not be working with Kiasma, the modern art wing of Finland’s national gallery, they announced, in protest of a Finnish-Israeli billionaire who supports the gallery and has connections to both countries’ arms industries. The artists had signed the statement by Monday after the museum refused to remove a […]
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Roya Hakakian is a poet, author, journalist and advocate for refugees. Every one of these roles is an offshoot of her own life experience as a child and teenager in pre- and post-revolutionary Iran and as an immigrant to the United States. Her poetry appears in many anthologies around the world, her books take a […]
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(JTA) — Volodymyr Zelensky, the Jewish president of Ukraine, was named Time’s “person of the year” on Wednesday for galvanizing “the world in a way we haven’t seen in decades,” in the words of the magazine’s editor-in-chief. “From his first 40-second Instagram post on Feb. 25 — showing that his Cabinet and civil society were […]
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BERLIN (JTA) – In a landmark step, investigators commissioned by Germany’s main Jewish organization have concluded that abuse of power and sexual harassment did occur at Germany’s liberal rabbinical seminary — and some of it, they say, may have crossed the line into illegality. The 44-page “executive summary” of an investigation initiated by the Central Council […]
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(New York Jewish Week) — A selfish social media influencer, an all-knowing, benevolent ghost known as “Harry the Hanukkah Fairy” and “Tiny Tim” Cratchet, the good-natured ill child from Charles Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol” may seem like they all come from different worlds, but each appears as a character in “A Hanukkah Carol, or GELT […]
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BERLIN (JTA) — Just days before news of a planned far-right terrorist plot to overthrow Germany’ government has stoked fears about the rise of extremism here, government officials approved Germany’s first-ever program specifically designed to fight antisemitism and promote Jewish life. Approved last Thursday by the entire German Cabinet and presented in Berlin by Felix […]
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(JTA) — When Russian troops poured across the Ukrainian border in March, thousands fled from the cities that would be first in their path. But in Kherson, the southern port city with strategic value to the Russians, Rabbi Yosef Itzhak Wolff decided to stay put. His decision to remain put him in line with the […]
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