Category: World News

(JTA) — The film producer Daniel Dreifuss has only one surviving photo of a distant relative: his grandfather’s cousin, who fought for Germany in World War I and died in combat two days before the war’s end. He has a few more photos of his grandfather, who also wore the German uniform in WWI — […]

(JTA) — Starting tonight, many Jews around the world will celebrate Purim in the same ways: by reading the story of the heroic Queen Esther, dressing in festive costumes and drinking alcohol. For many of the 900 or so Jews in Bosnia and Herzegovina, it will be the first of two annual Purim celebrations. Since […]

BERLIN (JTA) — A plan to get Germany’s non-Orthodox rabbinical schools back on track after nearly a year of tumult has hit a snag: the country’s main Jewish organization says it can’t fund the group that took control of the schools in January. The Jewish Community of Berlin had announced in a surprise move that […]

(JTA) — Albania’s prime minister announced plans to open a museum in Tirana dedicated to the stories of its citizens who saved Jews during the Holocaust.  The museum will also honor Jewish history and culture, Prime Minister Edi Rama announced while on a state visit to Jerusalem on Wednesday. The Besa Museum will be named […]

(JTA) — Roger Waters, the Pink Floyd bassist who is a leading proponent of the movement to boycott Israel, has been blocked from performing in Frankfurt after the city called him “one of the world’s most well known antisemites.” Waters had been scheduled to perform May 28 at Frankfurt’s Festhalle, which during the Holocaust was […]

WASHINGTON (JTA) — At a time when some European nations are seeking to revise their Holocaust histories to emphasize victimhood, a senior Biden administration official says the United States should keep reminding them of the dark corners of their past.  Ellen Germain, the State Department’s special envoy on Holocaust issues, said she has spent a […]

TAIPEI (JTA) — In what is likely a first, an Israeli chief rabbi visited Taiwan last week, marking a milestone both for the island nation and the Jewish community there. Last week, ​​the Jeffrey D. Schwartz Jewish Community Center in Taipei welcomed Israel’s Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi David Lau on a three-day visit which included a […]

(JTA) — When a pair of professors earlier this month published a paper accusing a group of Wikipedia editors from Poland of revising articles to distort the history of the Holocaust, their research went viral. Most academic articles are seen by dozens or hundreds of people at best. This one, published in The Journal of Holocaust […]

LIMA, Peru (JTA) — Right-wing extremist protesters have targeted Gustavo Gorriti, a prominent Peruvian-Jewish journalist, harassing him with antisemitic chants and posters outside of his home over his website’s investigations into police violence stemming from the country’s ongoing unrest. Jewish and non-Jewish organizations have defended Gorriti since around 30 people protested in front of his […]

(JTA) — At the last minute, Nazi sympathizers from around Europe were blocked from marching in the streets of Sofia, Bulgaria’s capital, on Saturday, to honor Hristo Lukov, the World War II-era leader of a Nazi collaborationist group. The Lukov March had been held by the far-right Bulgarian National Union-New Democracy Party almost every year […]