World

‘It’s separating families’: How the unprecedented coronavirus lockdown is affecting Italy’s Jews

A man and woman stand outside the Milan Cathedral with protective masks and sanitizing gels, Feb. 23, 2020. (Andrea Diodato/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

(JTA) — The outbreak of the coronavirus in northern Italy forced Claudia Bagnarelli to make a painful choice. “To keep visiting my 94-year-old mother, I needed to stop seeing everyone else in my life,” Bagnarelli, a Jewish ballet teacher from Milan, said Monday. To avoid the risk of infecting… Read more »

Passover in the time of coronavirus: Cancellations mount at kosher resorts

Sunrise in the Canazei area, which hosts a kosher Passover package that is being forced to shut down due to coronavirus concerns. (Frank Bienewald/Getty Images)

NEW YORK (JTA) — For the past three years, Esther Possick and her son have avoided the hassle of hosting Passover at their Long Island home by traveling to kosher hotels in foreign locales. In 2017, they spent the holiday at a resort in Stresa, a resort town on… Read more »

3 attackers assault Jewish man wearing a kippah in Brazil

RIO DE JANEIRO (JTA) — Three attackers assaulted a kippah-wearing Jewish man walking on a street in Brazil while yelling anti-Semitic slurs. They held down the 57-year-old victim, broke his teeth and tore his kippah with a pocketknife on Thursday in Jaguariuna, a city of 50,000 located in southeastern… Read more »

Simon Wiesenthal’s granddaughter leads march marking 75 years since Mauthausen’s liberation

Dozens participate in a memorial ceremony at Mauthausen, the sprawling Nazi concentration camp that held nearly 200,000 prisoners during the Holocaust, including famed Nazi-hunter-to-be Simon Wiesenthal, March 1, 2020. (Larry Luxner)

MAUTHAUSEN, Austria (JTA) — Under a bright blue sky, with Austria’s snow-capped Alps in the distance, Racheli Kreisberg set foot for the first time in her life inside Mauthausen — the sprawling Nazi concentration camp that held nearly 200,000 prisoners between 1938 and 1945. Fewer than half of the… Read more »

The Vatican unseals secret archive on Holocaust-era Pope Pius XII

(JTA) — The Vatican unsealed its secret archive relating to the controversial Holocaust-era Pope Pius XII. Critics accuse Pius of having turned a blind eye to Jewish suffering, and researchers hope the archive will reveal why the pope did not intervene to help the Jews during the Holocaust. The… Read more »

Drunken man beats up journalist in Ukrainian synagogue

(JTA) — A drunken man broke into a synagogue in western Ukraine and assaulted a congregant after shouting about “beating up the kikes.” The incident occurred Tuesday in Vinnytsia, according to a Facebook post by Eduard Dolinsky, the director of Ukraine’s Jewish Committee. The man, who was identified by… Read more »

I enjoyed the Belgian carnival that featured anti-Semitic floats. Then I searched for homes in Israel.

Men wearing suits portraying haredi Jews with an ant's abdomen and legs at the annual procession of the carnival in Aalst, Belgium, Feb. 23, 2020. (Cnaan Liphshiz)

AALST, Belgium (JTA) — I probably spend an unhealthy amount of time thinking about the Holocaust. Partly as a consequence of covering Jewish news in Europe at a time of rising anti-Semitism, Holocaust associations often come to mind in my daily life — on crowded trains, for example. But… Read more »

1 in 5 Europeans says secret Jewish cabal runs the world, survey finds

PARIS (JTA) – A secret network of Jews influences global political and economic affairs. That’s the feeling among a fifth of the 16,000 respondents to a survey among Europeans from 16 countries. The same number also agreed with the statement that “Jews exploit Holocaust victimhood for their own needs.”… Read more »

Marseille mayor signs letter calling Tel Aviv ‘ex-Palestine’

PARIS (JTA) — The French municipality of Marseille described Tel Aviv as part of “former Palestine” in an official letter to a resident who was born in the Israeli city. Mayor Jean-Claude Gaudin signed the letter, which was sent on Feb. 5 informing the resident that he was registered… Read more »

Carnival float in Spain features Nazi uniforms and trains with crematoria

(JTA) — At a carnival procession in Spain, participants dressed like Nazis and Jewish concentration camp prisoners while dancing next to a float evoking crematoria. The Israeli Embassy in Madrid on Tuesday protested the display this weekend at the annual carnival procession in Campo de Criptana, a town situated… Read more »

Deed on Montreal-area home contains clause preventing sale to Jews

(JTA) — A Montreal-area home contains a clause in its deed preventing its sale to a Jewish person. It is the second home near that Canadian city in Quebec discovered to contain such a “servitude clause” barring sale to anyone of Jewish origin, CTV News reported. In January, it… Read more »