Archive for Jewish News

| April 30, 2014
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40 year debate: Did archaeologists find the last Maccabean king hidden in Jerusalem?

 

For 4 decades, the crucified remains with broken jaw have confused scientists, but maybe the last Hasmonean king has been discovered in an ossuary buried under a private house in Jerusalem.

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In 1970, a rock-cut tomb was discovered by workers building a private house in Jerusalem’s Givat Hamivtar neighborhood. Inside the two-chambered burial, dating back to the first century BCE, archeologists found a decorated ossuary – a limestone box containing the bones of the deceased – and an enigmatic Aramaic inscription affixed to the wall.

The nails and part of the lower jaw found in the Abba cave ossuary (Ariel David)

The nails and part of the lower jaw found in the Abba cave ossuary.

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Category: Innovations & Discoveries, Jewish News | Tags: ,
| April 29, 2014
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70 yeas later French town accepts credit for saving over 1,000 Jews

The French village of Le Chambon-sur-Lignon and its neighbors finally agreed to a memorial for saving over 1,000 Jews during the Holocaust.

By Moshe Gilad

 

 

The tranquility of the place is deceptive. The center of the small town of Le Chambon-sur-Lignon, in the heart of France, looks almost deserted. Green hills surround the town. Few cars drive down the main street that goes through it. On one side of the street is an old stone building, the church.

The memorial museum in Le Chambon-sur-Lignon.

The memorial museum in Le Chambon-sur-Lignon. – Photo: The Le Chambon-sur-Lignon museum

Across the street, on the brick wall of a building, is a sign with a line in Hebrew: “The memory of the righteous shall be everlasting.”

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Category: Jewish News, The Diaspora | Tags: , , ,
| April 29, 2014
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Doctors Say Surgery Successful For Ukrainian Mayor Shot in Back & Sent to Israel

Haifa hospital reports the emergency surgery performed on Gennady Kernes’ gunshot wound to his back in Ukraine was successful, and he will remain in Israel under observation.

By AFP and Arutz Sheva

 

The mayor of the east Ukraine city of Kharkiv, who was wounded critically after being shot in the back by an unknown assailant, has been flown to Israel for treatment, local officials and the Israeli hospital treating him said Tuesday.

Mayor of Kharkiv, Ukraine, Gennady (Moshe) Kernes – Photo: Reuters

Yury Sydorenko, director of information at Kharkiv city council, said Israeli doctors decided after examining his wounds that mayor Gennady Kernes could be transported and he was flown out early Tuesday. Continue Reading »

Category: Israel News, Jewish News | Tags: , ,
| April 28, 2014
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Canada’s PM Harper posts on the Holocaust: Educate & Remember

PM Stephen Harper asks all Canadians to commemorate the victims & survivors of the Holocaust and to “combat anti-Semitism of all forms.”

By LAUREN IZSO

 

Canada’s Prime Minister Stephen Harper is urging Canadians to commemorate the victims and survivors of the Holocaust in honor of Holocaust Remembrance Day, and “combat anti-Semitism in all its forms.”

Stephen Harper prays at Western Wall

Canada’s Prime Minister Stephen Harper prays at Western Wall during his 2014 visit to Israel

He referred to the event as “one of the darkest chapters in human history,” and stressed the “importance of Holocaust education and remembrance.”

“On this occasion, Canadians from all backgrounds remember the horrors of the Shoah, pay tribute to the innocent victims and honor the brave survivors,” he posted to his official Facebook page Sunday night. Continue Reading »

Category: Jewish News | Tags: ,
| April 28, 2014
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WATCH: Traffic stops in Israel as sirens sound for Holocaust Remembrance Day

No where else in the world, can one see such a display of honor throughout an entire country, as cars stop on the highways and pedestrians freeze in place to solemnly reflect on the 6 million murdered Jews.

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In Israel, Holocaust Remembrance Day begins quietly every year, on the eve of the Jewish calendar day of 27th of Nisan, a date which usually falls sometime in late April or early May.

10 am Yom Hashoah - Holocaust Remembrance Day Siren in Israel April 28th, 2014 - YouTube Screecshot

10:01 am Yom Hashoah – Holocaust Remembrance Day Siren in Israel April 28th, 2014 – Matan Horenstein/YouTube Screenshot

On Monday morning at 10 A.M., as schools and many places of work gathered at special assemblies, a two-minute siren wailed across the country – bringing Israel to a literal halt.

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Category: Israel News, Jewish News | Tags: ,
| April 25, 2014
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Canadian FM visits Auschwitz extermination camp memorial

 

FM Baird visited the memorial museum that documented the Nazi atrocities & preserves the memory of the victims.

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Canadian Foreign Minister John Baird paid a visit on Thursday to the memorial museum at the World War II Auschwitz-Birkenau German Nazi death camp.

Canada’s Foreign Minister John Baird

Canada’s Foreign Minister John Baird, second right, walks through the ill-omened “Arbeit Macht Frei” (Work Sets You Free) gate of the World War II Nazi German death camp of Auschwitz in Oswiecim – Photo: AP

Baird and Canadian ambassador to Poland, Alexandra Bugailiskis, walked through the “Arbeit Macht Frei” (Work Sets You Free) gate though which inmates were brought into the camp from across Europe to face death either in its gas chambers or from forced labor, starvation and disease.

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Category: Jewish News, The Diaspora | Tags: , ,
| April 24, 2014
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As anti-Semitism escalates in Ukraine, Jewish immigration to Israel rises

 

U.S. Vice-President Joe Biden gave a sharp warning during his visit to Ukraine as anti-Jewish incidents continue to plague the country.

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In the past week alone, there have been reports of a synagogue being fire-bombed in the south-eastern city of Nikolayev, the desecration of the tomb of Dov Ber Schneerson, brother of the late Lubavicher Rebbe, in Dnepropetrovsk and the vandalizing of the Holocaust memorial in Sevastopol.

Pro-Russian activists

Pro-Russian activists at the barricades in Donetsk, eastern Ukraine. – Photo: AP

Those incidents followed the distribution in Donetsk of a leaflet calling on all Jews to register with the self-declared, pro-Russian authorities. Continue Reading »

Category: Jewish News | Tags: , , ,
| April 24, 2014
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Spanish town with ‘Kill Jews’ in its name votes to change it

 

 

The Spanish village’s 56 registered voters have marked May 25 as the day to decide whether to keep the name or revert to its original name.

Researchers believe Jewish residents that converted to Catholicism, changed the name to convince Spaniards they opposed Jews.

The Associated Press and Israel Hayom Staff

 

The tiny Spanish village of Castrillo Matajudios, the second word of which means “Kill Jews,” will hold a referendum next month to decide if it should change its name, which offends outsiders and embarrasses some residents, its mayor said Tuesday.

The Castrillo Matajudios flag – Photo credit: Wiki Commons

The village’s 56 registered voters will be asked on May 25 whether they want to keep the name or change it to the similar but non-offensive name it once had, Mayor Lorenzo Rodriguez Perez said.

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Category: Jewish News | Tags: , ,
| April 24, 2014
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Analysis – Abbas sends message to US & Israel: ‘Meet my demands, or else…’

 

Just a week before the Israel-PA peace talks deadline of April 29, PA president Abbas has clearly tried every possible maneuver to exert pressure on the US & Israel to get what he wants.

By KHALED ABU TOAMEH
 

 

Wednesday’s “historic” agreement between Hamas and Fatah should be seen in the context of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’s efforts to send a message to Israel and the US concerning the crisis in the peace talks.

Mahmoud Abbas and Ismail Haniyeh - Photo: REUTERS

Mahmoud Abbas and Ismail Haniyeh – Photo: REUTERS

Abbas’s message: Look what I’m capable of doing if you don’t comply with my demands.

The timing of the Fatah-Hamas accord is not coincidental. Continue Reading »

Category: Jewish News | Tags: , , , ,
| April 23, 2014
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Tunisian gov’t normalizes relations with Israel for Jewish tourism

 

The new Israel-Tunisia relations is aimed at bring more Jewish tourists to yearly pilgrimage to the El Ghriba Synagogue.

By AFP

 

TUNIS – Mehdi Jomaa, the head of the Tunisian government, urged officials on Tuesday to avoid creating controversy on the coming normalization of relations with Israel.

Tunisian Tourist Minister Amel Karboul says that Jewish pilgrams are key to seeing profits from tourism. (Photo: AP)

Tunisian Tourist Minister Amel Karboul says that Jewish pilgrams are key to seeing profits from tourism. – Photo: AP

The decision was made with the intention to help boost tourism to the country by making it easier for Israeli Tunisian Jews to make the yearly pilgrimage to El Ghriba Synagogue on the island of Djerba where many visit during the May holiday of Lag BaOmer. Continue Reading »

Category: Jewish News | Tags: ,
| April 23, 2014
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Metal Chisel Thought To Build The 2nd Temple Unearthed Under Western Wall

Archaeologist who discovered the ancient metal chisel says ‘For 1st time in 2000 years we have a tool of the builders of the Kotel (Western Wall).’

By Iddo Ben-Porat, Ari Yashar

 

An astonishing archaeological discovery has been made at the feet of the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. The find is an ancient chisel, which apparently was used by the builders of the Western Wall of the Second Temple.

Chisel found on Temple Mount – Photo: Clara Amit, Courtesy of Antiquities Authority

Archaeologist Eli Shukrun, who managed the excavations and found the rare tool, told Arutz Sheva that the chisel is “a moving discovery.” Continue Reading »

Category: Innovations & Discoveries, Jewish News | Tags: , , ,
| April 22, 2014
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PLO Leaders to Meet Exiled Hamas Official in ‘Unity Talks’

 

Palestinians making another attempt at reconciling Gaza’s militant Islamist movement with its PLO rivals, hoping to form a united ‘consensus government’.

By i24news

 

A senior Cairo-based Hamas official crossed Monday from Egypt into the Gaza Strip ahead of a new attempt to reconcile the militant Islamist movement and its Palestine Liberation Organization rivals.

Mousa Abu Marzouk from Hamas ( AFP )

Mousa Abu Marzouk o Hamas – Photo: AFP

Mussa Abu Marzuq, head of external affairs in the movement’s political office, was seen entering the Hamas-ruled coastal strip through the Rafah frontier crossing.

A delegation of the PLO is to go to Gaza from the West Bank on Tuesday for talks with Hamas, members said.

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Category: Jewish News | Tags:
| April 20, 2014
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Will Bill & Hillary Clinton have Jewish grandchildren?

 

Looking at the responses generated by Chelsea Clinton’s announcement, it’s anybody’s guess.

By

 

 

Chelsea Clinton’s announcement Thursday afternoon that she and Jewish hubby Marc Mezvinsky are expecting their first child has set off a fairly predictable wave of reactions Jewish-wise, not unlike the interest their 2010 wedding generated.

File photo: Chelsea Clinton and her husband Marc Mezvinsky. February 9, 2011.

Chelsea Clinton and her husband Marc Mezvinsky. February 9, 2011.- Photo: AP

Interfaithfamily.com quickly seized the pregnancy as an “opportunity to share with ALL expecting parents” its various resources for new interfaith parents, including a booklet called “To Circumcise or Not: That is the Question.”

Meanwhile, at the other end of the spectrum, The Jewish Press chose this headline: “Chelsea Clinton Pregnant With Non-Jewish Child.”

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Category: Jewish News, The Diaspora | Tags: , ,
| April 19, 2014
Comments Off on Egyptian authorities foil attempts at smuggling Jewish religious artifacts

Egyptian authorities foil attempts at smuggling Jewish religious artifacts

 

Egypt’s Antiquities Minister said the smugglers planned to send the Jewish religious artifacts to Belgium.

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Authorities in Egypt say they have seized a cache of Jewish religious artifacts that smugglers wanted to ship to Belgium at one of the country’s main ports.

Crown seized by officials in Damietta, Egypt, April 18, 2014

Crown from a cache of Jewish religious artifacts seized by officials in Damietta, Egypt, April 18, 2014 – Photo: AP

Antiquities Minister Mohammed Ibrahim said in a statement Friday that officials found the artifacts while searching cargo Thursday at the coastal city of Damietta.

AP

Items from a cache of Jewish religious artifacts seized by officials in Damietta, Egypt, April 18, 2014 – Photo: AP

Among the artifacts are a cylindrical wooden box plated in silver, which would have held Torah scrolls.

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Category: Jewish News | Tags: , ,
| April 17, 2014
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Putin sends Passover greeting saying Russian Jews make huge contribution

Putin praises the Jewish community’s  work to ‘preserve stability & consensus in the general public and actively participates in the education of the younger generation as well as charity & humanitarian endeavors.’

By JTA

 

Russian Jews are making an enormous contribution to strengthening Russian society’s cohesion, President Vladimir Putin wrote in a holiday greeting to the Jewish community.

Rabbi Berel Lazar, a chief rabbi of Russia, at the Kremlin in Moscow.

Putin meets with Rabbi Berel Lazar, a chief rabbi of Russia, at the Kremlin in Moscow. – Photo: Shturem.net

Putin sent the greeting on Monday, the news site shturem.net reported Thursday, after meeting Rabbi Berel Lazar, a chief rabbi of Russia, at the Kremlin in Moscow.

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