Tag Archive for Jewish World

| February 27, 2014
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The 1st marathon runner was Jewish…not Greek

In honor of Friday’s Tel Aviv Marathon, we note that a run described in the bible predates the Greek myth on which modern marathons are based.

Plus: A note from Jewish Runner Hall of Fame.

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Tomorrow, Friday morning, thousands of runners will be taking to the streets. Yes, it’s the Tel Aviv Marathon, and the perfect time to debunk some myths about Jews and sports, specifically – running.

Pheidippides (Wikimedia)

Pheidippides delivering the message of victory after the Battle of Marathon, Luc-Olivier Merson, 1869.- Photo: Wikimedia

The first modern marathon was at the first latter-day Olympics, held in Athens in 1896.

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Category: Jewish News, The Diaspora | Tags: , , , , , ,
| February 20, 2014
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After Spanish law for exiled Jewish return, Muslims demand equal status

Spanish Muslims say: New law should include all those expelled, otherwise Spain’s decision is ‘selective, if not racist.’

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Spanish Muslims are urging their government to grant citizenship to descendants of Muslims who were expelled from Spain, following a bill granting that right to Jews whose ancestors were forced to leave during the Inquisition.

Spanish passport

The demand was made this week in a statement by the Association for Historical Legacy of Al-Andalus, the Spanish news agency EFE reported on February 17.

“The Spanish state should grant the same rights to all those who were expelled, otherwise their decision is selective, if not racist,” Bayi Loubaris, the association’s president, told EFE.

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Category: Jewish News, The Diaspora | Tags: , , , ,
| February 12, 2014
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Again! Authorities discover more Nazi appropriated art in Gurlitt’s 2nd home

 

60 additional works of art were found by police in Cornelius Gurlitt’s 2nd home, this one in Austria.

Suspicion: As in first find, most were taken from Jewish families by the Nazis during World War II.

By Eli Leon

 

After discovering over 1,400 artworks worth $1.35 billion that disappeared during World War II in a Munich apartment — German authorities did not think they would find anymore masterpieces in the possession of Cornelius Gurlitt — the son of an art dealer who worked with the Nazis during the war.

Gurlitt apartment in Salzburg – Photo: GettyImages

But life is full of surprises and it was reported Tuesday that the 81-year-old Gurlitt was holding 60 additional works — including paintings by the acclaimed Picasso, Renoir and Monet — in a second home in Salzburg, Austria. Continue Reading »

Category: Jewish News, The Diaspora | Tags: , , , ,
| February 10, 2014
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Sochi Jews & Israeli delegates remember Israeli athletes of Munich Olympic Games Massacre

Local Jews and visitors rejoice that they can now raise their prayerful voices in Russia, once the land of the pogroms.

By Reuters

 

 

They gathered Sunday in sorrow and celebration, Jews saying a prayer for the 11 Israeli athletes killed by terrorists at the 1972 Munich Olympics, Jews rejoicing that they could raise prayerful voices in Russia, once the land of the pogrom.

Remembering Munich

Remembering Munich – Screenshot

The Munich massacre visited the specter of terror on the Olympics, introducing a fear felt intensely even today. A band of Palestinians scaled an Olympic Village fence and took members of the Israeli Summer Olympics team hostage.

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Category: Israel News | Tags: , , ,
| February 9, 2014
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Spain grants nationality to exiled Sephardic Jews

 

Spain approves law granting foreign Jews that had chosen to flee rather than convert to Catholicism, the right of dual nationality.

By REUTERS

 

 

The Spanish government approved a law on Friday allowing descendents of Sephardic Jews expelled from the country in 1492 to seek Spanish nationality without giving up their current citizenship.

Marranos: Secret Seder in Spain during the times of inquisition, painting by Moshe Maimon.

Marranos: Secret Seder in Spain during the times of inquisition, painting by Moshe Maimon. – Photo: Wikimedia Commons

Spain’s Justice Minister Alberto Ruiz-Gallardon said Spain owed the Sephardic community a debt for spreading the Spanish language and culture around the world. The word Sephardic comes from Sefarad, or Spain in Hebrew. Continue Reading »

Category: Jewish News, The Diaspora | Tags: ,
| February 8, 2014
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Historic site of U.S. ‘Jewish Expulsion Order’ by General Ulysses S. Grant

A Jewish resident from Mississippi says the house in which Gen. Ulysses S. Grant, issued the expulsion of Jews during the American Civil War, should be made a museum, local media reports.

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A resident of Oxford, Mississippi petitioned Lafayette County authorities on Monday to recognize a home owned by the county as an historic landmark for its significance to both Civil War and American Jewish history, and to stop plans to turn it into a jail, the Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal reported on Wednesday.

A portrait of Ulysses S. Grant

A portrait of Ulysses S. Grant by Ole Peter Hansen Balling – Photo courtesy: Wikimedia Commons

Asher Reese, a Jewish resident of Oxford, who has been researching the property found that the house was the headquarters of Major-General Ulysses S.

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Category: Jewish News, The Diaspora | Tags: ,
| February 6, 2014
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NYT: Iranian president donates $400,000 to Tehran’s Jewish hospital

New York Times’ Tehran bureau chief reports on Twitter that Hassan Rohani has made the donation to the institution, which also serves non-Jews.

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Iran’s President Hassan Rohani has reportedly donated $400,000 to Tehran’s Jewish hospital.

An Iranian Jewish care home for the elderly in Tehran.

An elderly Iranian Jewish woman walks into the Iranian Jewish care home for the elderly in Tehran.- Photo: AFP

Thomas Erdbrink, the New York Times Bureau Chief in the Iranian capital, tweeted the information Wednesday, citing the semi-official Mehr news agency. The Jewish hospital in Tehran also serves non-Jews, he said.

This is not the first time that such a donation has been reported.

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Category: Jewish News, Mid-East News | Tags: , ,
| February 3, 2014
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Israeli columnist & professor, Barry Rubin, dies aged 64

Prolific writer & academic, Barry Rubin, succumbed to his 18-month battle with cancer.

 

 

Professor, political analyst and writer Barry Rubin passed away on Monday at the age of 64.

Barry Rubin

Barry Rubin. – Screenshot from YouTube video by DemoCast.

Rubin’s death was announced on his Facebook page: “To our great sadness, Barry Rubin passed away this morning. He was surrounded by his wife and children. Your love, support, and prayers have been greatly appreciated. There will be shiva and a funeral, details to follow soon.”

According to posts on social media, Rubin had been battling cancer for the past 18 months and had fallen into a coma on Sunday night. Continue Reading »

Category: Jewish News | Tags:
| January 22, 2014
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UNESCO moves Land of Israel exhibit to June

 

The exhibit, “People, Book, Land: The 3,500-year relationship of the Jewish People with the Holy Land,”  was postponed in response to a protest letter from the Arab League, who fear it ‘could damage the peace process’.

By TOVAH LAZAROFF

 

 

 

UNESCO now eyes a June date for an exhibit on Jewish ties to the Land of Israel, after it suddenly canceled the scheduled Monday opening at its Paris headquarters, in response to a protest by Arab states who fear it could damage the peace process.

The exhibit at UNESCO headquarters in Paris just needed to be installed.

Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) to open the exhibit as planned on January 20, or to schedule a new opening. Continue Reading »

Category: Israel News | Tags: , , ,
| January 21, 2014
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Girls allowed to wear tefillin in Modern Orthodox New York high school

 

Two teenage female students break ritual barriers by donning tefillin with the support of their rabbi.

By and Anne Cohen

 

Salanter Akiba Riverdale (SAR) High School, a Modern Orthodox institution in Riverdale, New York, is now allowing girls to wear tefillin.

SAR High School in Riverdale, NY

Salanter Akiba Riverdale High School, Modern Orthodox Yeshiva day school in Riverdale, New York. – Photo:Facebook

Rabbi Tully Harcsztark, head of the school, sent out an email explaining that two girls were granted permission to wrap tefillin at the school’s daily all-girls meeting, reports the Boiling Pot, the online student newspaper of Shalhevet High School in LA. Continue Reading »

Category: Jewish News | Tags: , ,
| January 18, 2014
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White House presses UNESCO on its sudden cancellation of ‘Jews in Israel’ exhibit

 

The U.S. administration is ‘deeply disappointed’ with UNESCO after it succumbed to pressure by Arab League.

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The Obama administration is “deeply disappointed” with a decision by UNESCO, the United Nation’s cultural arm, to cancel the opening of an exhibition on the Jewish presence in the land of Israel and is seeking its placement “as soon as possible.”

UNESCO headquarters

UNESCO headquarters Photo by Unesco.org

Complaints by Arab states led UNESCO to cancel the exhibition, organized by the Simon Wiesenthal Center along with the governments of Canada and Montenegro. It was scheduled to open January 20 at the Paris headquarters of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. Continue Reading »

Category: Mid-East News | Tags: , ,
| January 15, 2014
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King Mohamed VI of Morocco asks country’s Jews to pray for rain

Throughout Morocco, prayers are recited at mosques & synagogues to remedy news of impending drought.

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Prayers were recited at synagogues and mosques across the country at the request of the king upon learning that Morocco may suffer a drought this year.

King Mohamed VI of Morocco.

King Mohamed VI of Morocco. – Photo: AP

At the request of the king, prayers for rain were held over the weekend at synagogues throughout Morocco.

The prayers were recited on Saturday, one day after Muslims said similar prayers in mosques at the request of King Mohammed VI, the Moroccan daily Le Matin reported. The king made the request upon learning that Morocco may suffer a drought this year. Continue Reading »

Category: Mid-East News | Tags: , , ,
| January 9, 2014
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Taglit-Birthright: The most successful Jewish program in the world

 

In Birthright’s 13 years, the program brought more than 350,000 participants to Israel from 64 different countries & infused $825 million into Israel’s economy.

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Since it was launched in 2000, the Taglit-Birthright program has injected more than $825 million into the Israeli economy, according to the findings of an independent study conducted by the global accounting firm Ernst & Young, which were published on Wednesday.

A Birthright Mega Event in Jerusalem, May 9, 2012.

A Birthright Mega Event in Jerusalem, May 9, 2012. – Photo: Emil Salman

The State of Israel contributes $35 million a year to the program’s $110 million budget. The rest of the funding comes from private philanthropists, most prominently casino magnate Sheldon Adelson, the Jewish federations of North America, Keren Hayesod and the Jewish Agency. Continue Reading »

Category: Israel News, Jewish News | Tags: , , , ,
| January 8, 2014
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70 years later: Hitchcock’s long-abandoned Holocaust film restored

 

With the restoration of actual Holocaust imagery almost complete, how will 21st-Century audiences respond to the footage that traumatized the king of thrillers?

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A Holocaust documentary created by thriller film master Alfred Hitchcock based on Soviet and British footage of World War II camps will finally be screened to the public in its entirety nearly 70 years after it was made, The Independent revealed on Wednesday.

Nazi Holocaust

A young woman at the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in Germany shouts ‘Shoot them, kill them as they killed our families’ as Allied troops supervise Germans, 1945. – Photo : AP

The film, which took longer to create than Hitchcock and patron Sidney Bernstein anticipated, was put in the drawer in 1945 when the Allied military government apparently decided that a documentary highlighting the German atrocities would do more harm than good. Continue Reading »

Category: Jewish News | Tags: , ,
| January 8, 2014
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Long Overdue: Greek school to finally present graduation diplomas to Holocaust survivors

The graduation certificates of 157 Jewish students who fled Thessaloniki for their lives or were deported to Nazi concentration camp were found by Greek teacher.

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A teacher at a school in Greece will present recently discovered graduation certificates to 157 Jewish students who fled Thessaloniki or were deported to Nazi death camps, or to their descendants.

Thessaloniki

Thessaloniki. – Photo courtesy: Wikimedia Commons

Antonio Crescenzi, a teacher at the Italian School in Thessaloniki, found a trove of old documents by accident about a decade ago. After sorting through them he realized their significance, he told the Israeli Maariv daily. Continue Reading »

Category: Jewish News | Tags: , , ,
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