Category: World News

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 […]

(JR) — Toronto is home to one of the world’s largest Jewish communities, nearly half of the 335,000 Jews in Canada. But until last week, the city did not have a dedicated Holocaust museum. The Toronto Holocaust Museum opened its doors on Friday, with a ribbon-cutting ceremony attended by an array of dignitaries and Holocaust […]

LA PLATA, Argentina (JR) — Israel won third place in the U-20 World Cup on Sunday, capping a historic run in its first-ever appearance at the tournament by beating South Korea 3-1. Local Jews and Israeli visitors made up a large portion of the crowd of over 15,000 at the stadium in La Plata, Argentina, […]

LA PLATA, Argentina (JR) — The most successful run in Israeli soccer history came to an end on Thursday, as the country’s under-20 team lost in the semifinals of the FIFA U-20 World Cup to Uruguay. The 1-0 loss means Israel will play the winner of the other semifinal match between Italy and South Korea […]

(JR) — Intense flooding caused by the collapse of the Kakhovka dam in eastern Ukraine is threatening to force most of the remaining 600-700 Jews in the Kherson area to leave, according to the city’s chief rabbi. Rabbi Yosef Wolff told the Times of Israel that about 80% of the region’s Jews had already left […]

BUENOS AIRES (JR) — Over the past two weeks, Israel’s soccer team has thrilled South American Jews with a historic run at the FIFA U-20 World Cup in Argentina.  The thousands of locals who have shown up with Israeli flags have watched the under-20 team, in their first-ever appearance in the tournament, repeatedly come from behind […]

(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 […]

(JR) — The chief rabbi of Poland sent an angry letter to the mayor of Kazimierz Dolny, condemning the eastern Polish town for throwing a festive children’s bubble party on the site of a former Jewish cemetery where the dead are still buried. The Kazimierz Dolny authorities filled the former cemetery with bubbles for Children’s […]

(JR) — The city of Vienna will tilt the statue of an antisemitic former mayor 3.5 degrees to the right in order to shift the viewer’s “perspective on it,” a move that some Jewish leaders are calling an inadequate way to deal with a dark chapter of the city’s history. The city’s Twitter account announced […]

MADRID (JR) — Ada Colau, Barcelona’s left-wing mayor who made headlines for breaking off the city’s long-standing relationship with Tel Aviv, was unseated in Sunday’s municipal elections after eight years in power.  She was defeated by Xavier Trias, the right-wing candidate from the Junts party, a former mayor who Colau had previously unseated in 2015. […]