(JTA) — Mervyn Taylor, who was reportedly the first Jewish person to serve as a cabinet minister in Ireland, has died at the age of 89. Taylor, who died of cancer in London Thursday, served for about four years as equality and law reform minister between 1993 and 1997, under Ireland’s Labour party. In total, […]
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(JTA) — Several church groups in Norway are organizing a photo exhibition from the West Bank, to be displayed in a cathedral, whose text states that Palestinians undergo “daily crucifixions.” The exhibition, which has prompted protest by the country’s Jewish community and a pro-Israel group, is part of Church Week for Peace in Palestine and […]
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(JTA) — After a German court criminalized the nonmedical circumcision of boys in 2012, Angela Merkel did something very out of character for the “rule-of-law chancellor,” as she has been nicknamed. Merkel said the ruling, which was brought against a person who circumcised a Muslim child, put Germany at risk of becoming a “laughingstock.” Her […]
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In this image, the narrow galaxy gracefully curling around its spherical companion is an incredible illustration of a genuinely odd and extremely rare event. Credit:ESA/Hubble & NASA, S. Jha / L. Shatz An image ESA/Hubble published in 2020, showed the largest and one of the most complete Einstein rings ever discovered, dubbed the “Molten Ring” […]
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(JTA) — A translator for a Nazi death squad died at home in Ontario at the age of 97, ending a decades-long effort to deport him from Canada for his role in the murders of tens of thousands of Jews. Helmut Oberlander, who was born in Ukraine in 1924, had long said that he was […]
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(JTA) — Ukraine’s parliament has passed a law stating that “antisemitism and its manifestations are banned” in that country. The law, which passed on Wednesday thanks to a majority of 283 lawmakers out of 450, is unusual in that it also proscribes antisemitic sentiment as illegal. Most countries with laws against antisemitism, such as Germany, […]
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(JTA) — A Jewish aide to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky survived an assassination attempt near Kyiv on Wednesday. Several shots were fired at the car of Sergey Nachmanovich Shefir, a former television producer whom Zelensky appointed as his top aide. Shefir was not injured but his driver was hit by three bullets in his leg […]
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(JTA) — Before the Spanish Inquisition, the island of Mallorca had a sizeable Jewish community. Every fall, the island became dotted with the leaf-roofed huts that Jews are commanded to erect during the holiday of Sukkot. But that all changed under the Inquisition’s campaign of persecution that began in 1488 (four years before it started […]
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(JTA) — Several Israeli philanthropists have helped bring to Abu Dhabi dozens of asylum seekers, including female athletes, fleeing Taliban rule in Afghanistan. The rescue operation led by Aaron G. Frenkel, an aviation professional who had helped airlift thousands of Jews out of the Soviet Union, ended on Sept. 6, as 41 asylum seekers from […]
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(JTA) — A Torah scroll that the Nazis stole from for their planned museum on Judaism in Prague will return to use there on Simchat Torah, a holiday that falls later this month and celebrates the seminal Jewish text. Memorial Scrolls Trust, a London-based nonprofit that preserves Torah scrolls and other scripture, on Sunday said […]
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