Germany agrees to record $1.4 billion in annual Holocaust reparations as survivors age

(JR) – Conditions didn’t seem favorable in early May as Stuart Eizenstat entered annual negotiations with the German government over reparations for the estimated 240,000 remaining Holocaust survivors around the world. Eizenstat had served as the special negotiator for the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany since 2009, and had analyzed the country’s economic and […]

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Sicily’s Jews have hired their first rabbi in 500 years but still face a battle for acceptance by Italy’s Jewish establishment

CATANIA, Italy (JR) — Rabbi Gilberto Ventura believes his synagogue has the most beautiful view in the world. Located in the tower of a century-old castle on the slopes of Mt. Etna in the eastern Sicilian city of Catania, the synagogue is wedged between a snow-capped volcano and the sun-kissed Mediterranean sea. The 49-year-old Brazil-born […]

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Canadian Army sergeant fined for antisemitic jokes made while conducting training course

(JR) — A German-born sergeant in the Canadian Army was fined roughly $2,200 and given a “severe reprimand” after joking about the Holocaust while conducting an infantry training course. But the 38-year-old officer was not demoted, even though a military tribunal considered handing down that punishment. The sergeant, identified as K.E. Bluemke, pleaded guilty last […]

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