An Israeli flag football team forfeited a game on Shabbat. It won the European championship anyway.

(JR) — Israel’s under-17 men’s flag football team won its first-ever gold medal at the 2023 International Federation of American Football’s European Junior Flag Football Championships hosted in Grosseto, Italy, this past weekend. The Israeli team beat Serbia 34-14 in the championship game after defeating Italy in a close semifinal. Israel’s under-17 women’s team and […]

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Barcelona resumes ‘sister city’ relationship with Tel Aviv, reversing former mayor’s decision

(JR) — Six months after Barcelona’s then-mayor severed the Spanish city’s relationship with Tel Aviv over what she said were Israel’s “apartheid” practices, her successor is renewing the ties. Jaume Collboni, who became mayor in June, this week announced the restoration of the 25-year “sister cities” relationship between Barcelona and Tel Aviv. Collboni’s decision elicited relief […]

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After leading minister joked about Nazis, Finland moves to criminalize Holocaust denial

(JR) — The government of Finland agreed on a policy to combat racism and Holocaust denial on Thursday in the wake of multiple racism and neo-Nazi scandals that have rocked the administration in its early months. The governing coalition’s parties agreed on the content of a statement submitted to Finnish parliament that calls for “non-discrimination […]

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A Serbian city’s Jewish community barely survived the Holocaust. Now it might die out.

NOVI SAD, Serbia (JR) — In the heart of downtown in Serbia’s second-largest city, nestled between brick buildings on a leafy street, sits a large synagogue. With its 130-foot-high central dome and faded yellow brick facade, along with its Jewish school and offices on either side, the synagogue’s three-building complex has become a must-see tourist attraction, […]

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A Nazi pamphlet controversy looms large in a local German election — and could affect the national vote

(JR) — The deputy premier of Bavaria, the German state where Munich is located, is ensnared in a scandal that involves a Nazi pamphlet from his high school years and could affect multiple upcoming elections. According to the Süddeutsche Zeitung newspaper, Hubert Aiwanger, now head of the populist Free Voters party, distributed a pamphlet that […]

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