Category: World News

From an early age, Eric Rosenthal was passionate about human rights and the idea of tikkun olam — repairing the world. He ascribes his interests to his Jewish roots and upbringing in places like Tunisia, Ivory Coast, Niger and Italy, the remote postings where his father’s career as a U.S. government aid official took the […]

KYIV, Ukraine (JR) — Before their country was plunged into war, the synagogue in Kropyvnytskyi, a city in central Ukraine, was lucky to get 20 people to attend Shabbat services. But two years after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the arrival of more than a dozen Jewish families from the country’s traumatized Eastern regions has invigorated […]

(JR) — Two of the most prominent kosher certification agencies in Canada are suing the national government, claiming that recent regulations around animal slaughter are putting the country’s kosher industry at risk. The Kashruth Council of Canada and the Jewish Community Council of Montreal, along with the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs, an umbrella […]

(JR) — Fans were ejected from a prestigious South American soccer tournament for accusing Israel of genocide as their team, a century-old Chilean soccer squad founded by Palestinian immigrants, qualified for the tournament’s main group stage. Club Deportivo Palestino, whose name means “Palestinian Sports Club,” competes in Chile’s highest tier of professional soccer and wears […]

The town of Kisumu sits on the edge of Lake Victoria in western Kenya. It is the third largest city in Kenya and famous for being the birthplace of President Barack Obama’s father.    MSI Reproductive Choices was there to shoot a video with Empowered, a video company that produces educational video content for PBS. Empowered had […]

(JR) — A U.S. government delegation tasked with monitoring religious freedom around the world cut a visit to Saudi Arabia short after Saudi officials demanded that a prominent rabbi on the trip remove his kippah. Saudi officials told Rabbi Abraham Cooper, co-chair of the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom, to remove his kippah […]

(JR) — The Anne Frank House in the heart of Amsterdam is one of the Netherlands’ most-visited tourist destinations. Outside of the city a memorial commemorates the Westerbork transit camp, where the Franks were sent on their way to Auschwitz and Bergen-Belsen. Several other museums tell the story of Dutch resistance against the Nazis. But […]

(JR) — Protesters opposed to Israel’s war in Gaza demonstrated outside a ceremony to mark the opening of the Netherlands’ first Holocaust museum on Sunday, citing the presence of the Israeli president. More than 1,000 people joined in the protest over the ceremony, which took place in Amsterdam’s historic Portuguese Synagogue. The protesters came from […]

(JR) — Sisters Danielle and Galeet Dardashti grew up with the lore of their grandfather, Younes Dardashti. An Iranian musical icon who sang at the palace of Mohammad Reza Shah, he traversed the country’s concert halls and drew Iranians to their radios every week from the 1940s to the 1960s. Known as the “Nightingale of […]

(JR) — A conference this week marking 25 years since the adoption of international standards for restituting Nazi-looted artwork presented a new set of best practices on the issue that have been adopted by more than 20 countries. The best practices, set out by the World Jewish Restitution Organization, or WJRO, and the Conference on […]