Category: World News

(JTA) — Hanukkah may be considered a “minor holiday,” as rabbis will say, but its resonance and unique traditions offer a great window into Jewish communities around the world. We’ve rounded up eight images, one for each candle of the menorah, that give a snapshot into how Jews — and, in a couple instances, how […]

(JTA) — Israel’s National Library accepted 22 volumes of archives from the Irish Jewish Family History Database, which tracks over three centuries of Jewish life in Ireland. The database, which was compiled by Stuart Rosenblatt, president of the Irish Jewish Genealogical Society, includes everything from burial and birth records, compiled by a Jewish midwife in […]

(JTA) — A 97-year-old German woman whose trial for aiding Nazi crimes was briefly derailed when she fled last year has been convicted of complicity in 10,500 concentration camp murders. Irmgard Furchner was 95 when she was arrested and charged with crimes related to her work as a secretary at the Stutthof concentration camp in […]

(JTA) — Jim Carr was close to death from myeloma, a blood cancer, when he gave one of his last interviews to the Canadian national broadcaster, the CBC. The Jewish Liberal member of the Canadian parliament from Winnipeg went on air ostensibly to speak about the passage of a bill he authored promoting an environmentally […]

(JTA) — Yes, Lionel Messi will forever be the face of Argentina’s long-awaited World Cup championship on Sunday. But the voice of the victory belongs to the Argentinean Jewish sportscaster who cried as he announced the win. Andres Cantor, a prominent soccer announcer, responded to Argentina’s game-winning penalty shot with his signature elongated “Gooooooool!” In […]

BERLIN (JTA) — The fight over control of Germany’s Reform rabbinical school has taken a new twist — one that appears poised to shatter longstanding institutions within liberal Judaism here, and reforge them into something new. The Central Council of Jews in Germany announced Thursday that it is bringing in an outside expert to help […]

This article was produced as part of JTA’s Teen Journalism Fellowship, a program that works with teens across the world to report on issues that impact their lives. TURIN (JTA) — The ancient Jewish community of Turin, in northern Italy, located in the multi-ethnic neighborhood San Salvario, isn’t hard to find. Visitors just need to […]

TAIPEI (JTA) — Asian-Jewish cuisine is a complex tapestry. Jewish communities have existed across Asia for longer than many might assume, especially near major historical trade routes in places such as India, Singapore and Indonesia. Other communities developed during and after World War II. Some were part of or assimilated into local cultures, while others […]

(JTA) — In the days before Hanukkah, which starts Sunday night, a few men and women from two Conservative institutions in Israel will travel to the small Jewish community in Chernivtsi, Ukraine, with a supply of needed items. Amid the power outages stemming from Russian attacks, the volunteers will have blankets and  sweatshirts for the […]

(JTA) — Lord David Young, a British-Jewish member of the House of Lords who advised Conservative governments in the United Kingdom from Margaret Thatcher to David Cameron died on Thursday at the age of 90.  Young also worked as a businessman and ran Jewish charities before and after becoming a favorite fixer for Thatcher in […]