World

Billionaire German family to make amends for company’s Nazi past
March 25, 2019 / Toby Axelrod, JTA

BERLIN (JTA) — One of Germany’s wealthiest families said it will make amends for its company’s Nazi past. In a spectacular announcement, the Reimann family, worth about $37 billion and the second richest in Germany, announced that new research had shown that the company’s Nazi-era directors, Albert Reimann and… Read more »

Jewish journalist’s Purim prank about fleeing anti-Semitism shocks Holland

Esther Voet is the editor in chief of the Nieuw Israëlietisch Weekblad. (Courtesy of NIW)
March 21, 2019 / Cnaan Liphshiz, JTA

AMSTERDAM (JTA) — The Netherlands’ main Jewish weekly is the kingdom’s oldest commercial magazine and one of its most reputable publications. Which is why many Dutch were shocked to read a column Tuesday by its editor announcing that she is leaving for Israel because of rising anti-Semitism here. “I am… Read more »

Holocaust denier picked as congressional candidate in Spain
March 21, 2019 / Cnaan Liphshiz, JTA

(JTA) — A far-right party in Spain has nominated a Holocaust denier as a congressional candidate. Vox tapped Fernando Paz, a historian, this week to run in the city of Albacete, in the central part of the country, in the April 28 national elections for parliament, the Libertad Digital… Read more »

Brexit is pushing Jews to seek passports from countries that persecuted their ancestors

The Association of Jewish Refugees' Michael Newman, right, and British politician John Attlee in London Nov. 21, 2018. (Courtesy of AJR)
March 15, 2019 / Cnaan Liphshiz, JTA

(JTA) — Portugal used to be little more than a sunny holiday destination to Adam Perry, a 46-year-old Londoner who works in procurement. But following the United Kingdom’s 2016 vote to leave the European Union, Perry, who is a Sephardic Jew, applied for citizenship in the Iberian nation. Since… Read more »

New Zealand Jews ‘sickened’ by mosque shootings that killed 49
March 15, 2019 / Cnaan Liphshiz, JTA

(JTA) — Jewish groups from New Zealand and beyond expressed their horror at the slaying of at least 49 people at two mosques in Christchurch Friday. The New Zealand Jewish Council is ”sickened and devastated” by the attacks, in which at least one armed individual killed dozens of people… Read more »

On this Spanish island, Purim used to be the biggest holiday for persecuted Jews

Members of the Jewish community of Mallorca, Spain, attend a Tu b'Shvat picnic, Feb. 10, 2019. (Cnaan Liphshiz)
March 13, 2019 / Cnaan Liphshiz

PALMA DE MALLORCA, Spain (JTA) — On this island south of Barcelona, Jews celebrate Purim these days pretty much as they do most anywhere else in Europe. There’s the reading of the Book of Esther at the small synagogue near the marina, followed by a costume party bringing together… Read more »

A Jewish comedian is the front-runner in Ukraine’s presidential vote
March 13, 2019 / Cnaan Liphshiz

(JTA) — Ukraine’s presidential elections is shaping up to be a case of life imitating art. The leading candidate in the March 31 vote is Volodymyr Zelensky, a Ukrainian-Jewish comedian who portrays a history teacher turned president in his hit television show “Servant of the People.” Polls conducted throughout… Read more »

Belgium Jewish museum killer sentenced to life in prison
March 12, 2019 /

(JTA) — The French Muslim extremist convicted of murdering four people in a terrorist attack at the Jewish Museum of Belgium in 2014 was sentenced to life in prison. Mehdi Nemmouche, 33, was convicted last week for the 2014 attack that left four dead, including two Israeli tourists. He… Read more »

Pope Francis praises role of women in meeting with Jewish delegation
March 8, 2019 / Ruth Ellen Gruber, JTA

(JTA) — Pope Francis used an audience with the American Jewish Committee to praise the role of women in the world and renew his longstanding condemnation of anti-Semitism. In the private audience Friday – International Women’s Day – he highlighted the “irreplaceable contribution of women in building a world… Read more »

Escape room in Greece drops Schindler’s List name
March 7, 2019 /

(JTA) — An escape room in Greece that had raised the hackles of the Jewish community has dropped the name Schindler’s List. The Great Escape company changed the name to Secret Agent, the German news website Deutsche Welle reported. One of the company’s eight games and among the most popular, Schindler’s… Read more »

I spoke to the creators of Belgium’s anti-Semitic carnival float. They’re not sorry.

A parade float at the Aalst Carnaval in Belgium features caricatures of Orthodox Jews atop money bags, March 3, 2019. (Courtesy of FJO)
March 6, 2019 / Cnaan Liphshiz, JTA

(JTA) — I initially had some sympathy for the creators of an anti-Semitic carnival float in Belgium. Studying their CVs and past creations for the annual carnival of Aalst, I saw that they were a group of some 20 upstanding citizens — a fireman, a technician, an Education Ministry… Read more »

Here’s how young European Jews in far-flung cities are connecting to Jewish studies

The video-based learning program for European Jewish students is supplemented by in-person encounters like this Shabbaton in Berlin in March 2018. (Lauder Foundation)
March 6, 2019 / Ben Harris, JTA

When Jewish physicist Vladimir Osipov emigrated from his native Moscow 13 years ago, he first moved to Holon, a city in central Israel. But it wasn’t until Osipov relocated with his family three years later to a mid-size city in Germany that they felt part of a vibrant Jewish… Read more »

Jeremy Corbyn was hit by an egg at a mosque. This rabbi comforted him.

Rabbi Herschel Gluck shakes hands with a member of the Finsbury Park Mosque the day after a man drove a white van into a group of people on their way home from prayers, June 19, 2017. One person died and 10 were injured. (Claire Doherty/Pacific Press/LightRocket via Getty Images)
March 6, 2019 / Cnaan Liphshiz, JTA

(JTA) — Jeremy Corbyn was hit with an egg while visiting a London mosque, an incident that brought little sympathy from critics of the embattled British Labour Party leader — but an unlikely assist from an Orthodox Jewish first responder. A 31-year-old man named John Murphy was charged with… Read more »

Mahmoud Abbas set to assume chairmanship of major UN bloc
March 6, 2019 / Marcy Oster, JTA

(JTA) — Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas arrived in New York City to assume the chairmanship of a major bloc of developing countries at the United Nations. Abbas on Tuesday will succeed Egypt as the leader of the Group of 77. He is scheduled to address the General Assembly,… Read more »

Vatican will open secret archive on Holocaust-era Pope Pius XII
March 6, 2019 / Ruth Ellen Gruber, JTA

(JTA) — The Vatican secret archive relating to controversial Holocaust-era Pope Pius XII will be opened next year. Pope Francis made the announcement at an audience with managers and staff of the Vatican Archives. In a decision made public Monday, he said the archives would be opened on March… Read more »

Belgian mayor defends carnival float featuring Jews with money and a rat

A parade float at the Aalst Carnaval in Belgium features caricatures of Orthodox Jews atop money bags, March 3, 2019. (Courtesy of FJO)
March 5, 2019 /

(JTA) — The mayor of the Belgian city whose annual parade featured puppets of Jews and a rat atop money bags defended the display, telling the local media that “In Aalst it should be allowed.” Mayor Christoph D’Haese defended Sunday’s float at the Aalst Carnaval from passionate condemnations by… Read more »

It’s not just anti-Semitism: Jeremy Corbyn’s Brexit problem is also a disaster for Jews

Jeremy Corbyn leads the British Labour Party. (Thierry Monasse/Getty Images)
March 5, 2019 / Dan Friedman, JTA

(JTA) — Jews are rarely central to peacetime domestic British politics. But on Feb. 18, Jewishness appeared front and center at Westminster when seven members of Parliament left the Labour Party, citing its inability to effectively oppose an unworkable Brexit and its apparent unwillingness to confront anti-Semitism. Some of… Read more »