Dozens of Jewish figures had enormous impacts on the 2010s. (Getty Images/Photo illustration by Grace Yagel)
(JTA) — The 2010s were nothing if not turbulent. The decade brought us unprecedented political polarization, war and increasing conflict in Israel, dozens of horrific mass shootings, and a new age of election hacking and private data collection enabled by the proliferation of social media. It was capped by… Read more »
Police vehicles gather around the synagogue where a shooting took place in Poway, Calif., April 27, 2019. (Xinhua/ via Getty Images)
(JTA) — For many Jews around the world, there’s probably no love lost for 2019. As the year draws to a close, the Jewish community continues to grapple with the continued rise of global anti-Semitism — one major community in Europe is facing the possible election as prime minister… Read more »
Jewish Israelis seen in the West Bank settlement of Shavei Shomron, Nov. 19, 2019. (Amir Levy/Getty Images)
WASHINGTON (JTA) — The list includes names like Peter Beinart, the liberal writer; Jeremy Ben-Ami, the president of the liberal Middle East policy group J Street; and Sheila Katz, the CEO of the National Council of Jewish Women. No, it’s not an ad for a symposium on the Upper East… Read more »
(JTA) — Four graves were destroyed and others covered by rubble as a flood swept through Beirut’s only Jewish cemetery. The flood in the Lebanese capital on Thursday destroyed a retaining wall in the city’s only Jewish cemetery, whose graves date back to the 1820s, according to Agence France-Presse.… Read more »
MANAUS, Brazil (JTA) — A large menorah at a McDonald’s branch has become the only Hanukkah symbol in the streets of Brazil’s largest city in the Amazon region. In a first, the 7-foot-tall, nine-branched candelabrum made of iron in the front yard of the Jewish-owned fast-food restaurant has become… Read more »
JERUSALEM (JTA) — Thousands of immigrants to Israel from the former Soviet Union may have come only to receive an Israeli passport before moving back abroad. The Hebrew weekly Makor Rishon reported that a cottage industry of companies promising expedited Israeli citizenship, and the passport that comes with it,… Read more »
(JTA) — An Albanian Muslim man whose house was destroyed in an earthquake will have it rebuilt by a Holocaust commemoration group in honor of his father’s rescue of Jews. The home of Muhamet Bicaku, 83, was devastated during the Nov. 26 calamity that claimed the lives of at… Read more »
JERUSALEM (JTA) — A Ukrainian court ruling called for the reinstatement of a diplomat who was fired for making anti-Semitic remarks. Israel has expressed its consternation over the ruling, saying it was “confused.” Vasyl Marushchynets, then the Ukrainian consul in Hamburg, Germany, was dismissed last year after his social… Read more »
Colombians celebrate Dia de las Velitas at the Cathedral-Basilica of the Immaculate Conception in Bogota, Dec. 7, 2018. (Lokman Ilhan/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images)
(JTA) — Jews in Colombia preparing for Hanukkah saw something earlier this month that no doubt looked very familiar. On the night of Dec. 7, streets, plazas, windows and porches across the country were lit by thousands of candles in honor of Dia de las Velitas (Day of the… Read more »
Gideon Taylor of the Claims Conference speaks as Israeli President Reuven Rivlin look on in Jerusalem in 2017. (Hadas Parush/Flash90)
(JTA) — A major German industry family will donate tens of millions of dollars to support Holocaust survivors and former forced laborers in the Nazi era. In addition to one-time donations to the Claims Conference and individual laborers, the Reimann family’s JAB firm has created a foundation designed to… Read more »
Labour Party Leader Jeremy Corbyn leaves a polling station after voting in the general elections in London, Dec. 12, 2019. (Yunus Dalgic/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)
LONDON (JTA) — Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s Conservative Party has defeated Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour Party by a large margin in Britain’s general elections on Thursday, exit polls indicate. The Conservatives received 368 seats out of 650 according to the polls by BBC, ITV and Sky News, with Labour lagging… Read more »
Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn does arts and crafts during a visit to Winwood Heights Retirement Village in Nottingham, while on the 2019 election campaign trail. (Joe Giddens/PA Images via Getty Images)
LONDON, England (JTA) — I am a secular Jew and a lifelong British Labour Party voter — two allegiances that once intersected very comfortably. As so many of us do, I inherited my politics. Every time Conservative prime minister Margaret Thatcher was reelected, my mother and her friends held a… Read more »
(JTA) — The United Nations General Assembly passed five resolutions against Israel, but for the first time, 13 countries switched their positions and voted against a pro-Palestine measure. The five resolutions passed Tuesday are among 20 against Israel that the international body will vote on during the 74th session… Read more »
Actor Hugh Grant and Liberal Democrat Luciana Berger speak to a local resident during a campaign event Lodon, the United Kingdom on December 1, 2019 (Leon Neal/Getty Images)
(JTA) — As the United Kingdom nears the final stretch of what is shaping up to be one of its most fateful general elections since World War II, all eyes are on the leaders of its two main parties: Prime Minister Boris Johnson of the Conservatives and Jeremy Corbyn… Read more »
BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (JTA) — The Holocaust Museum of Buenos Aires was rededicated after a two-year, $4.5 million renovation and expansion. The project updates, modernizes and adds new spaces to the institution in the city center of Buenos Aires. The addition of nearly 1,000 square meters, or nearly 11,000… Read more »
NEW YORK (JTA) — Two production companies are teaming up to make a film about WeWork and its founder, Adam Neumann. Universal and Blumhouse Productions have fast-tracked a film written by Academy Award-winning screenwriter Charles Randolph, according to The Hollywood Reporter. It is based on an upcoming book by… Read more »
(JTA) — Amazon has come under fire for selling Christmas ornaments and bottle openers featuring images of the site of Auschwitz. The products were removed from the Amazon website hours after a request by the Auschwitz Memorial and Museum on Sunday morning. “Selling ‘Christmas ornaments’ with images of Auschwitz… Read more »
(JTA) — A Muslim woman wearing a hijab confronted a man on an Underground train in London who was verbally attacking a man and his sons, who were wearing kippahs. The man, in a tirade caught on video, told the family during the Friday ride that they are members… Read more »
(JTA) — Centuries of Christian anti-Semitism led to the Holocaust, the Church of England said in a new report that called for repentance. “God’s Unfailing Word: Theological and Practical Perspectives on Christian-Jewish Relations,” which was released last week, also asked Christians to accept the importance of Zionism for most… Read more »
My heart jumped when I saw the phone number of my oldest son’s school on the screen. “Hello?” “Is this Dr. Skinazi?” “Yes.” “Don’t worry, Lucas is fine. Only — I just wanted to let you know that there was a little anti-Semitic incident at school today.” Breathe in,… Read more »
