Archive for Jewish News

| September 2, 2013
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Jewish group says Vatican assisting in overturning Poland kosher slaughter ban

World Jewish Congress reports Pope is to host meeting to address Poland’s current ban on ritual animal slaughter.

By
 

 

The World Jewish Congress has said the Vatican is getting involved in a divisive issue in Poland over its ban on the ritual slaughter of animals, which has incensed Jews.

Pope Francis poses with a delegation of members of the World Jewish Congress.

Pope Francis poses with a delegation of members of the World Jewish Congress, including its President Ronald S.Lauder, fourth from right next to the pontiff, at the Vatican, Monday, Sept. 2, 2013. – Photo: AP

 

The group said Monday that Pope Francis instructed the Vatican office in charge of relations with Jews to host a meeting next week to discuss the ban, which Jews consider a violation of their religious freedom. Continue Reading »

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| September 2, 2013
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Polish Jews petition kosher slaughter ban in Constitutional Court

Slaughter without stunning first, was made illegal in Poland as of January 1st. About 80 Polish firms, mainly selling kosher & halal products, will participate in an independent lawsuit against the state.

By JTA

 

 

Representatives of Poland’s Jewish communities have petitioned the Polish constitutional court to reverse a ban on kosher and halal slaughter methods.

File:Warszawa t konstytucyjny.jpg

Constitutional Tribunal of the Republic of Poland – Photo courtesy: Wikimedia Commons

A statement released Friday by the Union of Jewish Religious Communities said the petition concerned “a collision of two laws,” a reference to two laws passed in 1997, one permitting ritual slaughter and the other prohibiting it.

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| September 2, 2013
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The Few Jews in Island Struggle to Keep the Faith

With no rabbi, no synagogue & a majority of interfaith marriages, Iceland’s few Jews find unique ways of keeping Jewish tradition alive …with a little help from their friends.

By Jenna Gottlieb, The Forward 
 

Iceland has no synagogue, no rabbis, no Jewish community center or organized structure. In fact, Judaism is not even one of Iceland’s state-recognized religions.

Reykjavík, Iceland's largest metropolitan area, seen from Hallgrímskirkja's steeple.

Reykjavík, Iceland’s largest metropolitan area, seen from Hallgrímskirkja’s steeple. Photo courtesy: Wikipedia Commons

Still, Iceland has about 100 Jews who call this North Atlantic island home. And last year, roughly 50 of them gathered in a hall downtown on Erev Rosh Hashanah for services — a proportion of prayer attendance that rabbis in many other countries would give their left arms to achieve.

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| September 1, 2013
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Azerbaijan’s Jewish shtetl survives among Muslim majority

Over the years, the community known as ‘Mountain Jews’ has endured pogroms by Persian warlords, repression under communism and the rise of post-Soviet nationalism.

 

KRASNAIYA SLOBODA, Azerbaijan (JTA) — Even at 70, Yedidia Yehuda can negotiate a narrow mountain path in northern Azerbaijan with a confidence easily mistaken for carelessness.

Yedidia Yehuda, right, and a childhood friend walking down the stairs that overlook Krasnaiya Sloboda, August 2013. (Cnaan Liphshiz)

Yedidia Yehuda, right, and a childhood friend walking down the stairs that overlook Krasnaiya Sloboda, August 2013. – Cnaan Liphshiz

“You take care not to fall yourself and don’t worry about me,” he tells a visitor following him toward a small town on the northern bank of the Kudyal river, where 2,000 Jews have lived for nearly three centuries in their own shtetl, one of the world’s few remaining all-Jewish towns outside Israel.

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| August 31, 2013
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A Peek at United Hatzalah – Israel’s Rescue Squad

United Hatzalah’s motto: “The Faster you Respond, the More Lives you Save”

By Kochava Rozenbaum

 

Arutz Sheva visited United Hatzalah of Israel’s main center in Jerusalem, where over 2,000 people volunteer and answer hundreds of phone calls a day in order to save lives.

With Jay Leno - United Hatzalah Facebook page

With Jay Leno – United Hatzalah Facebook page

The center responds to over 650 calls daily from dozens of locations across the country. The 24/7 rescue team uses the “best” and most advanced technology, called the Moskowitz Life Compass. The team also uses the Israeli mobile navigation, Waze, in order for respondents to arrive as fast as possible. Continue Reading »

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| August 31, 2013
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Western Wall opens temporary egalitarian section for the public

 

On its first day, the new section called “Ezrat Yisrael,” hosted 6 bar mitzvahs & weddings.

Bennett says he doesn’t want any controversy surrounding the temporary area, ahead of the Jewish High Holy Days.

By Yori Yalon & Israel Hayom Staff

 

On Thursday, Jerusalem’s new temporary egalitarian section at the Western Wall was opened to the public.

Women of the Wall praying at the Western Wall [Archive] – Photo: AP

The provisional space, temporary until the government builds a permanent structure designed for non-Orthodox Jewish streams at the Western Wall, is at the Robinson’s Arch area adjacent to the Western Wall Plaza.

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| August 30, 2013
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U.S. President will visit Great Synagogue of Stockholm on Rosh Hashanah

During U.S. President Barack Obama’s visit to Sweden, he’s scheduled to visit the Great Synagogue of Stockholm on the Jewish New Year.

By JTA

 

President Barack Obama is slated to visit the Great Synagogue of Stockholm during his visit to Sweden.

Great Synagogue of Stockholm – Photo courtesy: Wikimedia Commons

Obama, who will arrive in the Swedish capital Wednesday on the eve of Rosh Hashanah, is en route to the G20 summit in St. Petersburg, Russia, Svenska Dagbladet reported Thursday.

The U.S. embassy in Stockholm confirmed that the president will visit the synagogue and a memorial monument for Raoul Wallenberg, the Swedish diplomat who saved thousands of Hungarian Jews during the Holocaust.

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| August 29, 2013
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BDS places historically distorted anti-Israel advertisement on Vancouver buses

The Jewish community of Vancouver is mulling options to stop another BDS anti-Israel campaign on buses displaying historically distorted anti-Israel advertisement.

By JTA

 

 

The head of the Jewish federation in Vancouver and the Canadian city’s transit agency are at odds over the legality of an anti-Israel ad campaign on buses there.

Disappearing Palestine

historically distorted anti-Israel advertisement

The ads, which went up Tuesday, purport to show the “disappearance of Palestine due to Israeli occupation over the past 65 years.” The ads — 15 bus posters and one large “mural” in a station — consist of four maps spanning from 1946 to 2012 and illustrate “Palestine” shrinking over the years.

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| August 28, 2013
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An American Rabbi Pens, ‘The Bill of Rights of a Jewish Wife’

Rabbi Mendel Epstein from New York writes how he’s disturbed by the outrageous number of women who suffer from the “system” of divorce in the Orthodox community.

By Kochava Rozenbaum

 

The 5 Towns Jewish Times wrote an article last week on the “proliferation of divorces” in the Jewish Orthodox community and on the current system that fails to protect women struggling to “navigate their way through difficult or bad marriages.”

The newspaper interviewed Rabbi Mendel Epstein of Brooklyn, New York, leader of a Jewish community, an experienced judge, and “to’ein”, the Hebrew term meaning “advocate” who represents on behalf of someone in front of a Rabbinical court of law. Continue Reading »

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| August 26, 2013
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Hidden WWII Torah scroll in Polish monastery is returned

The mayor of Dabrowa Tarnowska gave the scroll to conservationists, and today it can be seen in the prayer hall of the former synagogue in southern Poland.

By JTA

 

WARSAW, Poland — A Torah scroll that since 1942 has been hidden in a Tuchow monastery was returned to the synagogue in Dabrowa Tarnowska in southern Poland.

A Torah scroll, a sheepskin document dating from 1155-1225 - Photo: Alma Mater Studiorum Universita' di Bologna

This Torah scroll is a sheepskin document dating from 1155-1225 – Photo: Alma Mater Studiorum Universita’ di Bologna

The Torah was returned earlier this month but reported for the first time on Saturday.

It had been brought to the monastery in Tuchow, approximately 60 miles from Krakow, by an anonymous person who asked the Redemptorist priests to hold the scrolls until the synagogue in Dabrowa again became a place of prayer, according to Father Kazimierz Piotrowski of the Redemptorist monastery in Warsaw.

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| August 25, 2013
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Survey: 34% of Israeli managers lack academic degree

New survey examining education of executives in Israeli labor market reveals 63% lack management degree. Only 1/3 of those with management degree believe it has given them tools to solve managerial challenges.

By Aviv Bertele

 

 

A survey examining the training of executives in the Israeli labor market reveals that some 34% of managers in Israel have no academic degree.

‘Studying is important, but managers need relevant tools’ – Photo: Shutterstock

In addition, 62.9% of executives don’t have a degree in management or business administration, and more than half of those who do hold a management degree only completed bachelor studies. Continue Reading »

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| August 24, 2013
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Israeli olive oil gains recognition

 

 

Producers are seeing brilliant results and rising recognition even though the modern olive-oil industry in Israel is fairly young.

By 

 

As more people around the world reach for a bottle of extra-virgin olive oil for dressing salads, frying, baking and even drinking, a revived ancient industry in Israel is getting attention in global markets and competitions.

Interest in Israeli olive oil mirrors the burgeoning Israeli wine scene, but it’s a newer phenomenon, says Hilla Wenkert, an international olive-oil judge and owner of Olia, a concept store in Tel Aviv stocked with oils made of Leccino, Coratina, Koroneiki, Souri and other varieties grown in Israel. Continue Reading »

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| August 24, 2013
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IDF’s Lebanese connection

 

Lebanese-born Eli Kasheq never thought that he would one day become one of the senior electronic warfare experts for the IDF.  “We can change the entire course of a battle within 10 minutes,” said Eli Kasheq.

By Sigal Arbitman

 

 

Eli Kasheq is a 57-year-old civilian employee who serves as the deputy commander of the Israel Defense Forces’ electronic warfare instructional school and the head of its Arab department.

At his base in Tzrifin, adjoining Rishon Lezion in central Israel, Kasheq makes himself comfortable in his office chair. His office is not the typical IDF office. It is small and stuffy and the walls are adorned with pictures of him in his youth, including wearing a soldier’s uniform during his own military service.

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Category: Jewish News | Tags: ,
| August 22, 2013
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Lebanon Fired 4 Rockets into Northern Israel; IDF No Retaliation yet

Lebanon fires at least 4 rockets toward Israel; residents of Akko, Nahariya urged to stay close to bomb-shelters.

By Gil Ronen and Ari Soffer

 

At least four rockets were fired from Lebanon Thursday afternoon, with at least one confirmed as having struck in the area of Nahariya.

Fired at IsraelSeveral residents have been treated for shock.

IDF Radio reported that bomb shelters in the northern city of Akko (Acre) have been opened for public use, and the IDF is urging residents of the north to remain close to shelters.

The IDF has denied earlier reports from Arabic media that it responded to the rockets with artillery fire. Continue Reading »

Category: Jewish News, Mid-East News | Tags: ,
| August 22, 2013
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Muslim man’s unceasing quest for his Jewish mother

 

 

One day Urdu poet Mahfooz Ahmad Khan received a letter from his unknown London-based Jewish aunt, that made him aware of his Jewish maternal side.

Dr. Navras Jaat Aafreedi, Tazpit

It is the stuff of which films are made and novels are written. His absorbing story is such that it connects three continents, Asia, Europe and North America, five countries India, Israel, Canada, United Kingdom and Pakistan, and two communities seen as natural adversaries today – the Jews and the Muslims.

Family photo: The small child is Mahfooz Ahmad Khan and the bigger child is his brother. The lady holding the elder child is their Jewish mother, Rahmah alias Rehana, and the man on the extreme left is their father, Maqbool Ahmad Khan.

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