World « AZ Jewish Post

Young Jews entering the gates of Auschwitz-Birkenau Extermination Camp in Poland during the 2010 March of the Living. (March of Living International)

Marking 25 years, March of the Living uniting survivors with liberators in Poland

Posted under Religion & Jewish Life, World on April 18th, 2012. Leave a Comment »

NEW YORK (JTA) — Bernhard Storch grew up in a Jewish family in Silesia, near Poland’s border with Germany. Like many Polish Jews, he moved quickly from town to town as the Nazis advanced in 1939, trying to avoid capture. Before long he was caught and sent to a brutal labor camp. On July 23, [...]

Eva Vavrecka contemplating the horrific living conditions that her mother and grandparents endured in the forest to survive World War II. (Bruce Konviser)

YOM HASHOAH FEATURE: Monument honors helpers of Czech Jewish family that hid in woods from Nazis

Posted under Religion & Jewish Life, World on April 17th, 2012. Leave a Comment »

TRSICE, Czech Republic (JTA) — Nearly 70 years after a Czech Jewish family sought refuge from the Nazis by retreating into a nearby forest and relying on non-Jewish locals for help, an American high school teacher has helped erect a permanent monument to their memory. Last week, several dozen people went to the wooded site [...]

After 21 years, Rabbi Jonathan Sacks is retiring as Britain's chief rabbi. (United Synagogue)

With Sacks retiring, British Jews mixed on relevancy of chief rabbi

Posted under News, Religion & Jewish Life, World on April 16th, 2012. Leave a Comment »

(JTA) — The search to replace Britain’s powerful longtime chief rabbi has gone international, but even as resumes are gathered and interviews conducted, some are questioning whether the position is still relevant and what it means today for the Anglo Jewish community. As chief rabbi, Lord Jonathan Sacks brought international attention to the post as [...]

Djerba Jews spending some time at the El-Ghriba Synagogue on Tunisia's southern island. (upyneroz via CC)

Tunisia’s Jews keep wary eye on political developments

Posted under News, Religion & Jewish Life, World on April 3rd, 2012. Leave a Comment »

TUNIS (JTA) — Tucked on a quiet side street blocks from the Mediterranean Sea, the last kosher restaurant in the Tunisian capital is a thriving center of Jewish tradition in a country of 10 million with nearly an entirely Arab and Muslim population. Yet Jacob Lellouche, who has owned and operated Mamie Lily since it [...]

Richard Hyman, great-grandson of Titanic survivor Joseph Abraham Hyman, in front of the family business his great-grandfather started a year after the ship sank. (J.A. Hyman Titanics Ltd.)

Kosher deli in England a Titanic survivor’s legacy

Posted under News, Religion & Jewish Life, World on April 2nd, 2012. Leave a Comment »

Manchester, England is home to an estimated 20,000-30,000 Jews, roughly 40 percent of whom keep kosher. Three of the community’s six kosher butcher/delicatessen shops are run by Richard Hyman and his wife, Joanna. The 99-year-old family business, known to locals as “Titanics,” was born out of the most famous maritime disaster in history. Richard, 42, [...]

Women raising flags during a demonstration in Paris to protest recent murders in Toulouse, March 20,2012. (Daniel Hoffman)

After Toulouse attack, French Jews are reconsidering Sarkozy

Posted under News, World on March 27th, 2012. Leave a Comment »

PARIS (JTA) — With the first round of France’s presidential election less than four weeks away, the attacks that left four Jews and three French soldiers dead are reshaping the race — but for now it’s not clear exactly how. In the days leading up to the attacks, President Nicolas Sarkozy had managed to close [...]

Mourners surround the bodies of the victims of Monday's shooting at a Jewish school in Toulouse, France, during their joint funeral service in Jerusalem, March 21, 2012. (Uri Lenz/Flash 90/JTA)

Toulouse attack leaves French Jewish community shaken

Posted under Israel, News, World on March 21st, 2012. Leave a Comment »

PARIS (JTA) — When Arie Bensemhoun, a Jewish community leader in Toulouse, woke up Tuesday morning, he thought for a moment that the horrific shooting of three children and a rabbi at a local Jewish school might have been just a bad dream. “Then the reality hit and I knew it was true and it [...]

John Demjanjuk, convicted of war crimes in Germany, dies stateless and in limbo

Posted under News, World on March 19th, 2012. Leave a Comment »

JERUSALEM (JTA) — Though the death last weekend of John Demjanjuk brought a close to the seemingly never-ending quest for justice in the case of a man long accused of being a Nazi war criminal, it also brought a premature end to the legal battle over his legacy. Though Demjanjuk, 91, was convicted by a German court [...]

Ozar Hatorah, a Jewish school in Toulouse, France, was the site of a shooting Monday that killed four people. (Ozar Hatorah)

Toulouse attack leaves French Jewish community shaken

Posted under News, World on March 19th, 2012. Leave a Comment »

PARIS (JTA) — When Arie Bensemhoun, a Jewish community leader in Toulouse, woke up Tuesday morning, he thought for a moment that the horrific shooting of three children and a rabbi at a local Jewish school might have been just a bad dream. “Then the reality hit and I knew it was true and it [...]

Sol Factor, who was given up by a mother who was in a displaced persons' camp, is looking for information about his family tree. (Courtesy Sol Factor)

Seeking Kin: Ohio man born in the Shoah’s shadow searches for answers about his past

Posted under National, News, World on March 14th, 2012. Leave a Comment »

The “Seeking Kin” column aims to help reunite long-lost friends and relatives. BALTIMORE (JTA) — Sol Factor recalls a happy childhood in circa-1950s Boston suburbia with his physician-father Joseph, teacher-mother Bernice and younger sister Rachel. His first life, as Meier Pollak — born in 1946 near a displaced persons’ camp in Germany — remains in [...]