Rugby’s governing body ruled that South Africa’s exclusion of Israel was not discrimination. The Israeli team is skeptical.

(JTA) — Rugby’s global governing body has determined that the South African Rugby Union’s decision to disinvite an Israeli team from an international competition last month was not discriminatory. But the CEO of the Israeli team isn’t buying the argument that the cancelation had to do with security threats, as South Africa argued and World […]

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The Dominican Republic was a haven for Jews fleeing the Nazis. A museum project could tell that story.

SOSUA, Dominican Republic (JTA) — Sitting inside a small wood-frame shul just around the corner from Playa Alicia, where tourists sip rum punch while watching catamarans glide by, Joe Benjamin recounted one of the most uplifting but often forgotten stories of Jewish survival during the Holocaust. “I was bar mitzvahed right here,” he said, pointing […]

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Chabad of Barcelona synagogue hit with anti-Israel graffiti on Israeli independence day

MADRID (JTA) — Vandals defaced the area in front of the Chabad-Lubavitch movement’s Barcelona synagogue with graffiti that read “Why do you kill in Palestine” early on Wednesday. The incident, which occurred on Yom Haatzmaut, or Israel’s independence day, prompted outrage from the Federation of Jewish Communities of Spain, the Israelite Community of Barcelona and […]

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Tens of thousands of Hasidic Jews flood tiny Hungarian town for ‘miracle rabbi’ pilgrimage

(JTA) — As many as 50,000 Jews traveled to a Hungarian town for the anniversary of a noted rabbi’s death this week, marking significant growth for the annual pilgrimage and generating what the town’s mayor called “culture shock” for non-Jewish locals. Since the fall of communism in 1989, Jewish pilgrims have been visiting Bodrogkeresztur, known […]

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Frankfurt can’t cancel Roger Waters concert over his antisemitism record, court rules

(JTA) — Frankfurt’s administrative court ruled that the city can’t cancel a Roger Waters concert after calling him “one of the most widely known antisemites in the world.” Waters, the former frontman of the band Pink Floyd, took legal action and prevailed on Tuesday after Frankfurt officials said in February they would cancel his concert […]

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Polish-Jewish group releases antisemitism report that shows steep increase in incidents compared to EU tally

WARSAW (JTA) — A Jewish association has released what is being called the first report on antisemitism conducted with direct input from Polish Jewish community organizations, counting 488 incidents in 2022 submitted via an online portal and collected through extensive interviews with community members. The incident total released on Monday by the Czulent Jewish Association […]

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UK Labour party suspends senior lawmaker Diane Abbott over comment about Jews and racism

(JTA) — Britain’s Labour Party suspended senior lawmaker Diane Abbott for writing in a letter that Jews, Irish and Traveller people “experience prejudice” but “are not all their lives subject to racism.” Abbott, 69, who has represented a London constituency in parliament since 1987, wrote a letter to the editor of the Observer, a Sunday […]

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