News

ODESSA, Ukraine (JTA) — Arkady Kesselman, a 20-year-old Jewish student, was set on leaving his native Ukraine for the West last winter. In a war-torn nation losing about 1.2 million citizens each year, where the average monthly salary is about $300, it’s not an unusual decision. But Kesselman has… Read more »

(JTA) — The eastern German city of Dresden has passed a resolution declaring a “Nazi emergency.” The Dresden City Council passed the motion last week saying that the city needed more support from state and federal sources to deal with rising far-right sentiment. Dresden is the headquarters of the… Read more »

(JTA) — Three German teenagers are under investigation for allegedly playing anti-Semitic songs and singing along after a visit to the site of the Buchenwald concentration camp in the center of the country. German police are investigating the three 14-year-olds from Grunberg, in western Germany, police for incitement to… Read more »

(JTA) — Several identifiably Jewish men and boys were attacked in a string of assaults in the Borough Park community of Brooklyn on the same night. Three of the attacks late Friday night involved the same passenger car over five blocks, the Yeshiva World News reported. Surveillance cameras captured… Read more »

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (JTA) — A quote from the late Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel will be the centerpiece of a mural painted in a public square in Buenos Aires. The city government and the Latin American Rabbinical Seminary held a contest to design the mural to honor human rights… Read more »

WASHINGTON (JTA) — The Trump administration quintupled to $25 million rewards for information leading to the return of Robert Levinson, the Jewish American last seen in Iran 12 years ago. The $20 million allocation from the State Department Rewards for Justice announced Monday is in addition to the $5… Read more »

JERUSALEM (JTA) — An Israeli businessman will turn over to Yad Vashem a letter written by an 11-year-old Polish girl killed in the Holocaust after its sale by auction was blocked by a Tel Aviv court. Dudi Zilbershlag agreed to give the letter to the Holocaust memorial museum in… Read more »

(JTA) — Iran will inject uranium gas into 1,044 centrifuges at its underground Fordow nuclear enrichment plant. Iranian President Hassan Rouhani made the announcement during a speech Tuesday broadcast live on national television, the state-owned PressTV reported. The centrifuges had been spinning without the gas to produce stable isotopes… Read more »

JERUSALEM (JTA) — A day after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu asked the country’s police commissioner to investigate a murder threat against him on social media, police arrested a suspect. The Israel Police’s Lahav 433 cyber unit launched an investigation on Monday after this Facebook post: “Israel Police, prepare… Read more »

(JTA) — A time capsule from 1906 was unearthed at the site of the former home of Pittsburgh’s Tree of Life congregation. The time capsule was removed from the cornerstone of the building located in the city’s Oakland neighborhood. The site was most recently the location of the Pittsburgh… Read more »

(JTA) — In August, Liad Goldberg visited her sister in a Russian jail. It had been four months since Naama Issachar had been arrested at a Moscow airport while on a layover and accused of drug smuggling, and Goldberg was seeing her sister for the first time since the… Read more »

(JTA) — An umbrella group of more than 50 Jewish organizations from across the ideological spectrum condemned calls by Democratic presidential candidates to condition military aid to Israel on its approach to making peace with the Palestinians. “We are deeply troubled by recent statements that would place conditions, limitations,… Read more »

(JTA) — A white supremacist has been arrested for plotting to blow up a synagogue in Colorado. Richard Holzer, 27, was charged for planning to attack Temple Emanuel, a congregation in Pueblo of 35 families whose building dates to 1900. According to an affidavit describing the charges, Holzer is… Read more »

(JTA) — As the old saying goes, two Jews, three opinions. Add one headache for the Taliban. Meet Zabulon Simentov, 66, who is believed to be the last remaining Jew in Afghanistan. Emran Feroz recently profiled Simentov for Foreign Policy and uncovered some incredible stories about the feisty Afghan… Read more »

(JTA) — Russian President Vladimir Putin claims that his country is aiding the Jews of Syria. Except it’s unclear whether any Jews actually remain in Syria after more than eight years of civil war. “We also help representatives of Judaism, we help Jews also in the restoration of their… Read more »

(JTA) — Presidential candidate Joe Biden says it would be a “gigantic mistake” to condition aid to Israel on stopping settlement expansion. The former vice president told a Wall Street Journal reporter it would be “absolutely outrageous” for the United States to take that approach — a position that… Read more »

(JTA) — An employee and a student of the University of Oregon have filed a federal complaint alleging that the school failed to report anti-Semitic hate crimes. According to the complaint filed in September, which was shared with the Register-Guard daily, the university listed only one hate crime in… Read more »

LIVINGSTON, N.J. (JTA) — A new 11,000-square-foot shopping center here is home to 15 storefronts, including a bank, pet shop and clothing store. There’s a health center with a dentist and doctor’s office and a ShopRite supermarket. A traffic guard monitors the crosswalk, which is bisected by a plant… Read more »

(JTA) – After nearly a decade in power, Britain’s Conservative Party is in tatters. Years of failing to negotiate a deal with the European Union to follow through with Brexit have led to internal party discord and roiled public frustration. Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s controversial push to leave the… Read more »

JERUSALEM (JTA) — “The state of Israel will never surrender to hatred,” Benny Gantz told tens of thousands of Israelis who gathered to remember murdered prime minister Yitzhak Rabin. “The children of Israel will no longer grow up in a state some of whose leaders sanctify hatred,” Gantz also… Read more »