World

(JTA) — For many observant Jews, the mourning over the destruction of the two ancient Temples in Jerusalem on the fast of Tisha B’Av actually begins three weeks earlier with the onset of a period of mourning during which it’s customary to avoid joyful activities like weddings and music.… Read more »

(JTA) — After their vocal calls for Twitter to take down rapper Wiley’s spree of anti-Semitic tweets went unanswered, Jews in the United Kingdom are taking another approach: silence. British Jewish activists and their allies — including high-profile celebrities, both Jewish and non-Jewish — are staging a 48-hour boycott… Read more »

BUENOS AIRES (JTA) — In the days before the 26th anniversary of the Buenos Aires AMIA Jewish center bombing that killed 85 in 1994, Argentina’s President Alberto Fernandez has conveyed to Jewish leaders his desire to end the decades-long legal case that followed the attack, which has been complicated… Read more »

This story originally appeared on Alma. Jaivet Ealom is the only known person to have ever escaped the notoriously brutal Australian-run refugee detention center on Manus Island. As a Rohingyan refugee fleeing Myanmar’s campaign of genocide, Jaivet found himself imprisoned on the remote island near Papua New Guinea for three… Read more »

JERUSALEM (JTA) — The tens of thousands of Jewish pilgrims who travel each year to Ukraine for a Rosh Hashanah rite will have to make different plans for September. The Ukrainian government has barred the trip to Uman, where the revelers mark the Jewish New Year at the burial… Read more »

(JTA) — The municipal council of Moissac sometimes calls its placid French town overlooking the Tarn River, near Toulouse, “the city of the Righteous Among the Nations.” It’s a reference to how hundreds of locals during the Holocaust helped resistance activists rescue about 500 Jewish children — an occurrence that… Read more »

RIO DE JANEIRO (JTA) — The bombshell news on Tuesday was ironic for some — Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, one of the world leaders who has most staunchly downplayed the potential of the coronavirus pandemic, had contracted the virus. Despite his ardent support of Israel, Bolsonaro’s tempered rhetoric on… Read more »

BERLIN (JTA) — There were approximately 30,000 Jews in the city of Frankfurt before World War II, making it the largest community in Germany. By the time the U.S. military occupied the city in 1945, there were only about 100 left. “Jewish life was destroyed,” said Tobias Freimuller, author… Read more »

(JTA) — This was going to be Jake Offenheim’s 14th straight summer at Camp Ramah in Canada. Then camp was canceled because of the coronavirus pandemic. Offenheim, who was set to be a counselor for the fifth year, couldn’t bear a summer without Ramah — so he re-created it on… Read more »

JERUSALEM (JTA) — Omer Yankelevich is the new minister of Diaspora affairs in Israel, meaning she’s in charge of managing the Jewish state’s relations with Jewish communities abroad. It has never been an easy task, but tensions in recent years between Israel and the United States, as well as… Read more »

JERUSALEM (JTA) — Nefesh B’Nefesh, an organization that helps North Americans immigrate to Israel, said it has received the highest number of applications since its founding nearly two decades ago. In the first half of June, over 900 applications have been submitted to the group for making the move… Read more »

(JTA) — Some 28 Jewish gravestones dating from the 17th century were discovered in the foundation of a wall built to protect a castle in Austria. They were discovered during restoration work earlier this year on the Ebenfurth Castle in the state of Lower Austria, according to Jewish Heritage Europe.… Read more »

(JTA) — Aristides de Sousa Mendes, a Portuguese diplomat who saved thousands of Jews during the Holocaust, will be recognized with a monument at a site in Lisbon that recognizes the country’s greatest figures. The parliament decreed the honor unanimously earlier this month at the National Assembly in Portugal’s… Read more »

(JTA) — A new Holocaust memorial will be built in Vienna engraved with the names of 64,000 Austrian Jews killed by the Nazis. A groundbreaking ceremony was held Monday for the The Memorial to the Jewish Children, Women and Men of Austria who were Murdered in the Shoah, will… Read more »

(JTA) — The Auschwitz Memorial and the site of the former Nazi camp will reopen to visitors on July 1. The memorial and museum said it will open for guided tours and individual entry beginning on that date. Reservations must be made online. It closed to visitors in mid-March… Read more »

(JTA) — The European Union’s foreign policy chief effectively rejected President Donald Trump’s Middle East peace plan and asked the United States to join a new international effort to broker a two-state solution between Israel and the Palestinians. Josep Borrell said Monday that the Trump plan has created a… Read more »

(JTA) — The coronavirus pandemic has done something that no war, natural disaster or other calamity has been able to do for more than 50 years: It’s put a stop to stage performances of “Fiddler on the Roof.” The current North American tour of “Fiddler” was halted on March… Read more »

(JTA) — A group of 37 members of the Peruvian Jewish community flew to Israel on a special charter flight amid high rates of COVID-19 in their native country and street riots that have broken out as a result of a scarcity of food and medical supplies. The group… Read more »

(JTA) — Shuly Rubin Schwartz, an expert on Jewish American history and longtime professor, will be the first woman chancellor in the 134-year history of the Jewish Theological Seminary. Schwartz, who served as provost — also the first woman in that position — will be eighth chancellor in the… Read more »

JERUSALEM (JTA) — Thousands of students in Jerusalem and other cities across the country were sent home Monday to isolation after staff and students were found to have COVID-19. Schools in Israel began opening more than two weeks ago after isolating for nearly two months due to the coronavirus.… Read more »