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World

Demonstrators in Moscow protest Vladimir Putin's re-election, including one carrying a sign reading "We are not an opposition, we are your employers!" with the word "fired" over a drawing of Putin's face, March 5, 2012. (Freedom House via CC)

No surprises in Putin victory, but question for Russian Jews is what comes next

Posted under News, World on March 5th, 2012. Leave a Comment »

(JTA) — With Vladimir Putin’s re-election as president of Russia pretty much a foregone conclusion, the question facing Russia was never what would result from last weekend’s election but what would happen after the vote. Thousands of protesters turned out Monday in a Moscow saturated with police and soldiers to protest an election that European [...]

Ruth Feigenbaum, founder of the Support Group of Families of the Terminally Ill in Zumbabwe, with AIDS orphan Ruth Thabini Dube. (Courtesy SGOFOTI)

In face of desperate African poverty, Jewish woman provides a beacon of hope

Posted under News, World on March 2nd, 2012. Leave a Comment »

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa (JTA) — Two years after moving to Zimbabwe from South Africa 20 years ago, Ruth Feigenbaum noticed that her gardener, James Phiri, was losing weight and looking ill. With the help of a physician friend, Phiri was diagnosed: Like nearly one in seven Zimbabweans, he was infected with HIV. Feigenbaum and her [...]

Seeking Kin: Restoring the lost legacies of European Jewish composers

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

BALTIMORE (JTA) — Do the names Pavel Haas, Gideon Klein, Erwin Schulhoff and Viktor Ullman ring a bell? How about Ferdinand Hiller, Ignaz Moscheles, Henry Herz, Giacomo Meyerbeer and Karl Goldmark? They mean everything to Michael Wolpe, an Israeli pianist who considers himself first and foremost a composer — and a lover of the beautiful [...]

Syrians demonstrate in the coastal city of Banias against the regime of hard-line leader Bashar Assad in the spring of 2011. (Syrian Freedom via Creative Commons)

As Syria crackdown intensifies, debate in U.S. rages

Posted under World on February 23rd, 2012. Leave a Comment »

As the Syrian government intensifies its assault on opposition strongholds, the debate is heating up in Washington over how to end the bloody crackdown and bring about regime change. The Obama administration has tried to ratchet up pressure on the Syrian regime through international diplomacy and strong economic sanctions. But U.S. efforts have run into [...]

In a Ukrainian Jewish orphanage, Tikva, economic downturn hits home

Posted under News, Religion & Jewish Life, World on February 20th, 2012. Leave a Comment »

ODESSA, Ukraine (JTA) — In a colorful room at the Tikva Children’s Home here, 30 young boys stand in two straight lines and wait for the cue signaling that they are to start singing. The children, students in a music class, are performing “Mind Your Manners” by the Philadelphia-based duo Chiddy Bang. It isn’t just [...]

French President Nicholas Sarkozy addressing guests at the CRIF dinner, Feb. 8, 2012. (Erez Lichtfeld courtesy of CRIF)

Ahead of French elections, Sarkozy makes pitch to Jews

Posted under News, World on February 17th, 2012. Leave a Comment »

PARIS (JTA) – Trailing in the polls and with elections just 10 weeks away, French President Nicolas Sarkozy went to one of his most reliable bases of support — French Jews — to drum up enthusiasm. On the morning of Feb. 8, Sarkozy met at Elysees Palace with released Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, who holds [...]

Evan Kaufmann, a U.S.-born hockey player whose great-grandparents were killed in the Holocaust, is now representing the German national team. (Courtesy Eishockey Magazin)

Great-grandson of Auschwitz victims taking the ice for Germany

Posted under News, Religion & Jewish Life, World on February 17th, 2012. 1 Comment »

WEST BLOOMFIELD, Mich. (JTA) — More than 65 years ago, Evan Kaufmann’s great-grandparents were murdered in the Auschwitz death camp. Now he is taking the ice for the German national hockey team. Following a successful hockey career at the University of Minnesota, Kaufmann tried out for several professional clubs in the United States before being advised [...]

After the New Delhi attack, fears that Iran-Israel attacks could escalate

Posted under Israel, Middle East, News, World on February 14th, 2012. Leave a Comment »

WASHINGTON (JTA) — Iran and Israel appear to be locked in an assassination contest. Israeli leaders blamed Iran for two assassination attempts late Sunday and early Monday — in Tbilisi, Georgia, and in New Delhi, India. The bomb in Tbilisi was disabled before it could be activated, and the attack in India wounded the wife [...]

News Analyses: Alexander Levin’s got a name (and cash), but does he have a plan?

Posted under News, World on February 6th, 2012. Leave a Comment »

NEW YORK (JTA) — Ukrainian Jewish leader and real estate mogul Alexander L. Levin came to New York last month to launch the latest international Jewish organization with a grandiose name. Called the World Forum for Russian Jewry, this one aims to harness the power of Russian-speaking Jews the world over. At the launch event [...]

Each stone at the Treblinka memorial represents a Jewish town or city that had its people exterminated at the camp. (Little Savage via CC)

New technology points to missing Holocaust-era mass graves at Treblinka

Posted under News, World on February 6th, 2012. Leave a Comment »

(JTA) — Scientists using ground-probing electronics may have discovered the missing mass graves at the site of Treblinka, one of the Nazis’ most notorious death camps. No actual bodies were found and the graves were not excavated, in keeping with Jewish law, but bones and bone fragments were discovered in the ground, according to Caroline [...]