Category: World News

LVIV, Ukraine (JTA) – Three rabbis sat around a breakfast table in this city’s Tsori Gilod Synagogue, discussing Russia’s war on the country where they work in a mixture of Yiddish, Hebrew and Russian. They named their hometowns as Lugansk, Lvov and Dnepr, the Russian names for Ukrainian cities that have vaulted into international headlines […]

(JTA) — Many in the Libyan-Jewish diaspora know that even if they return to Libya some day, they would never again be able to visit the graves of their parents, grandparents or other loved ones who lived in the country while it was home to more than 30,000 Jews.  A new initiative in one of […]

Roya Hakakian is a poet, author, journalist and advocate for refugees. Every one of these roles is an offshoot of her own life experience as a child and teenager in pre- and post-revolutionary Iran and as an immigrant to the United States. Her poetry appears in many anthologies around the world, her books take a […]

BERLIN (JTA) – In a landmark step, investigators commissioned by Germany’s main Jewish organization have concluded that abuse of power and sexual harassment did occur at Germany’s liberal rabbinical seminary — and some of it, they say, may have crossed the line into illegality. The 44-page “executive summary” of an investigation initiated by the Central Council […]

BERLIN (JTA) — Just days before news of a planned far-right terrorist plot to overthrow Germany’ government has stoked fears about the rise of extremism here, government officials approved Germany’s first-ever program specifically designed to fight antisemitism and promote Jewish life. Approved last Thursday by the entire German Cabinet and presented in Berlin by Felix […]

(JTA) — When Russian troops poured across the Ukrainian border in March, thousands fled from the cities that would be first in their path. But in Kherson, the southern port city with strategic value to the Russians, Rabbi Yosef Itzhak Wolff decided to stay put. His decision to remain put him in line with the […]

When things finally began returning to normal in Australia after nearly three years under one of the world’s strictest Covid protocols, Australian Jews didn’t hesitate to celebrate. In November, Jews with the roots in the former Soviet Union who live in Australia heralded their heritage with a pair of long-awaited festivals in the country’s two […]

BERLIN (JTA) — The head of Germany’s main Jewish organization may have been staked out by a spy for Iran’s secret service, German security investigators have revealed. The newsmagazine FOCUS has reported that Josef Schuster, recently elected to a third four-year term as president of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, may have been […]

(JTA) — Lithuania’s prime minister made what one Jewish organization called an ”important step” by introducing legislation to allocate more than $38 million as restitution for Holocaust survivors and their heirs.  Ingrida Šimonytė introduced the bill in the Seimas, Lithuania’s legislature, earlier this month. If passed it would nearly double the money the government had […]

BERLIN (JTA) – The city of Erfurt in central Germany is home to an impeccably restored medieval synagogue made possible because local Jews had been expelled long before the Nazis began their campaign to destroy Jewish sites. Now, Erfurt’s long-hidden Jewish past is again offering new insights — this time about the genetic history of […]