World

Senior Saudi leader and Muslim religious leaders visit Auschwitz

(JTA) — A senior Muslim leader from Saudi Arabia visited Auschwitz with a delegation from the American Jewish Committee. Mohammed al-Issa, the secretary-general of the Mecca-based Muslim World League and a former Saudi justice minister, joined a delegation of Muslim religious leaders from several countries at the site of… Read more »

Belgian police to open hotline for reporting anti-Semitic, racist incidents

(JTA) — Belgian police will open an online hotline for reporting anti-Semitic and racist incidents, and some Jews hope it will replace the country’s discredited anti-discrimination agency. Michael Freilich, a Jewish member of Belgian parliament, announced the hotline’s opening Wednesday. Going in person to a police station is intimidating… Read more »

As number of Holocaust survivors dwindles, educators assess the impact of living testimony

Selma van de Perre, right, is interviewed about her book at the National Holocaust Museum in Amsterdam, Jan. 9, 2020. (Cnaan Liphshiz)

(JTA) — Cancer may have weakened Edward Mosberg’s body, but it has done nothing to dissuade the 94-year-old Holocaust survivor from New Jersey from traveling to his native Poland at least once a year to commemorate the Nazi genocide. “I wouldn’t wish my medical situation on Hitler,” Mosberg told… Read more »

Belgian leader celebrates Holocaust rescuer’s 100th birthday

Maria Nowak at her 100th birthday celebration in her home in Krakow, Poland, Jan. 20, 2020. (Tytus Kondracki)

(JTA) — One week before International Holocaust Remembrance Day, dozens of European officials arrived in Poland for a large commemoration event at Auschwitz. The delegation from the Brussels-based European Jewish Association visited the former Nazi death camp, located about 20 miles from Krakow, on Tuesday. Few of the officials,… Read more »

Monty Python’s Terry Jones cut a ‘Nazi Jew’ scene from the classic comedy ‘Life of Brian’

Graham Chapman, left, and Terry Jones in a scene from Monty Python's "Life Of Brian," which debuted in 1979. (Warner Brothers/Getty Images)

(JTA) — Terry Jones, one of the core members of the Monty Python comedy troupe, died Tuesday night at 77. He had been suffering from dementia. In addition to starring in numerous Python productions, the beloved comedian directed some of the group’s biggest films, including “Monty Python and the… Read more »

With Holocaust summit in Jerusalem, Israel gets dragged into Europe’s memory wars

An aerial view of the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial museum in Jerusalem, Dec. 17, 2019. Dozens of world leaders are set to converge there for a commemoration of the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz. (Moshe Shai/Flash90)

JERUSALEM (JTA) — A major gathering of world leaders in Jerusalem meant to highlight the world’s determination to learn the lessons of the Holocaust has become mired in controversy even before it has started, dragging Israel into a battle over history debates still raging in Europe three-quarters of a… Read more »

Ukraine’s Jewish president heaps praise on Israel in pre-visit interview

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky attends a ceremony welcoming Ukrainians who were freed by pro-Russian rebels during a prisoner exchange at the Boryspil Airport outside Kyiv, Dec. 29, 2019. (Sergei Chuzavkov/AFP via Getty Images)

(JTA) — President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine extolled Israelis as a “united, strong, powerful” and “unique” people in his first interview for an Israeli publication. The Times of Israel published the interview with the Jewish Zelensky on Sunday ahead of his arrival in Israel to attend the World Holocaust… Read more »

Young boys identified as the vandals of Jewish cemetery in Slovakia

(JTA) — Children caused the vandalism of a Jewish cemetery in Slovakia, in which at least 20 headstones were damaged, not extremists as was originally suspected. The gravestones were pushed over, causing some to crack, in mid-December in the northern town of Rajec. Police in the Zilina Region announced… Read more »

Jewish cemetery in Bulgaria vandalized

(JTA) — A Jewish cemetery in northeastern Bulgaria was vandalized. Gravestones were pushed over and broken, and a fence around the cemetery was damaged, the Sofia Globe reported Thursday. Shoumen was home to a Jewish community during centuries of Ottoman rule. The Jewish cemetery in Shoumen dates from the… Read more »