Tag Archive for Jewish World

| September 3, 2013
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Former presidential candidate Ron Paul to keynote largest ‘anti-Semitic’ conference

The Fatima Center, a Catholic organizations is described by human rights groups as being possibly ‘the single largest group of hard-core anti-Semites in America’, will have Ron Paul as keynote speaker.

By J.J. Goldberg, The Forward

 

 

Former Texas Congressman and perennial GOP presidential contender Ron Paul is scheduled to keynote a conference in Canada next weekend of a “radical traditionalist” Catholic organization that’s described by human rights organizations as a major center of anti-Semitism.

Rep. Ron Paul, R-Texas speaks at University of California, April 5, 2012.

In this April 5, 2012 file photo, Rep. Ron Paul, R-Texas speaks at the University of California at Berkeley, Calif. – Photo: AP

Other scheduled conference speakers include John McManus, president of the John Birch Society, the hoary staple of the far right, and Italian politician Roberto Fiore, founder of the neo-fascist Forza Nuova and a close ally of the British National Front. Continue Reading »

Category: Jewish News | Tags: , , ,
| 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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| 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 »

Category: Jewish 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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| August 8, 2013
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Kosher cheeseburger produced in lab

The world’s first lab-grown burger, at a cost of $325,000, could one day offer new possibilities for the kosher palate.

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When the world’s first lab-grown burger was introduced and taste-tested on Monday, the event seemed full of promise for environmentalists, animal lovers and vegetarians.

Another group that had good reason to be excited: kosher consumers.

Cheeseburger and French fries

The world’s first lab-grown burger could be parve and thus paired with dairy products. – Photo: Dreamstime

The burger was created by harvesting stem cells from a portion of cow shoulder muscle that were multiplied in petri dishes to form tiny strips of muscle fiber. Continue Reading »

Category: Israel News | Tags: , ,
| August 1, 2013
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Synagogues on wheels goes deep into Russia

Known in Russia as ‘mitzvah tanks’, traveling synagogues make house calls to homes of Jews who are unable leave home for medical reasons.

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Jewish activists have taken three synagogues on wheels on a journey into Siberia and central Russia.

A Mitzvah Tank at the entrance of the Moscow Jewish community center, June 2013.

A Mitzvah Tank at the entrance of the Moscow Jewish community center, Chabad Lubavitch, June 2013. – Photo Courtesy: Wikipedia

The activists, among them sons of emissaries to Russia for the Chabad movement, are driving three camper vehicles into the Russian outback along three different routes that will take them through dozens of cities over the next three weeks, according to the official website of the Chabad movement. Continue Reading »

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| July 28, 2013
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Dutch teens visit Nazi transit camp in effort to rid anti-Semitism from schools

After 63  years, organizers add the Holocaust’s Kamp Westerbork to the annual high-school cycling trip’s itinerary for first time in effort to instil empathy & understanding about the Holocaust.

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Some 150 teenagers from The Netherlands visited Westerbork, a transit camp for Holocaust victims, in an activity designed to combat recent expressions of anti-Semitism in the city’s schools.

Participants of the Fietsvierdaagse (Four day bicycle tour) ride their bicycles in Drenthe

Participants of the Fietsvierdaagse (Four day bicycle tour) ride their bicycles in near Kamp Westerbork on July 23, 2013. – Photo: AFP

The youths from the eastern Netherlands city of Arnhem arrived at Kamp Westerbork on bicycles on July 25 carrying white roses provided to them by the organizers of the activity, which was planned in cooperation with the Jewish community of Arnhem. Continue Reading »

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| July 27, 2013
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Op-Ed: Poland’s goal of good Jewish relations remains clear

Polish democracy may take a few  missteps every once in a while, but its goal of good Jewish relations remains clear by their actions and investments.

SAN FRANCISCO (JTA) — For the past decade, the Taube Foundation for Jewish Life & Culture and I myself, as Poland’s honorary consul in the Bay Area, have been involved directly in furthering the renaissance of Jewish life in Poland. The renaissance is viewed as a “miracle” in Poland and around the world.
shechita ritual

shechita ritual – Photo: Nati Shohat/Vosizneias.com

At my foundation, we receive communications every day from all corners of the globe congratulating and thanking us for our leadership in the rebirth of Jewish life and culture in Poland. Continue Reading »

Category: Israel News | Tags: , , ,
| July 17, 2013
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Evicted Jewish New Yorker sues landlord over Holocaust Mezuzah

Religious Jew returns home from a vacation to find his ‘priceless, irreplaceable’ Mezuzah missing, and eviction notice instead.

By JTA

An Orthodox Jewish man from suburban New York City sued his landlord for demanding that he remove the mezuzah from his apartment’s doorpost.

Mezuzah - Photo: IsraelandStuff/PP

Mezuzah – Photo: IsraelandStuff/PP

Arye Sachs of North Babylon on Long Island filed a lawsuit this week in Brooklyn federal court, the New York Post reported.

In the lawsuit, Sachs said his landlord ordered him to remove the mezuzah several times and then evicted him, saying “This is a Christian residence.” The mezuzah was missing after he returned home from a trip last month, according to the Post.

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Category: Jewish News | Tags: ,
| July 12, 2013
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Polish Parliament votes to uphold ban on Kosher slaughter

Decision harms both Jews, Muslims. “The completely untrue idea that such slaughter is cruel, or even intentionally cruel, has triumphed,” said Polish Jewish community leaders.

By SAM SOKOL
 

 

The Polish parliament voted on Friday to uphold a ban on Kosher slaughter in the country. A government sponsored bill aimed at legalizing the practice of shechita, Hebrew for ritual slaughter, was shot down in the Sejm in a vote of 222 to 178.

shechita ritual

shechita ritual – Photo: Nati Shohat/Vosizneias.com

The ban went into effect in January. Combined with a decline in meat exports due to Poland’s implication in the European-wide horse meat scandal, the end of local ritual slaughter has caused harm to the eastern European country’s cattle ranchers and exporters.

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Category: Jewish News | Tags: , , ,
| July 10, 2013
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Hundreds of ancient Jewish tombstones discovered in Vienna

Community leaders says trove of Jewish tombstones date back to 16th century.

Vienna city officials estimate up to 800 headstones.

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Vienna’s Jewish community says a historically important trove of hundreds of ancient Jewish tombstones have been recently unearthed, including some dating back to the 16th century.

Tombstones at a small Jewish Cemetery in Vienna, Austria, July 10, 2013.

Tombstones at a small Jewish Cemetery in Vienna, Austria, July 10, 2013. – Photo: AP

Senior Jewish community official Raimund Fastenbauer said Wednesday that the headstones have “high historical value.” He describes their significance as comparable to that of the ancient Jewish cemetery in Prague, the oldest known graveyard of its kind and one of the Czech capital’s most visited tourist sites. Continue Reading »

Category: Jewish News | Tags: , ,
| July 2, 2013
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Jewish War Veterans: U.S. Army ‘seriously’ understates sex abuse in it’s military

Jewish veterans group calls for outside independent body to review & prosecute reported cases of sexual misconduct in U.S. Military.

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Jewish war veterans are calling for meaningful action to be taken to combat sexual abuse in the U.S. military.

U.S. soldiers

Illustration: U.S. soldiers. – Photo by AP

“The Jewish War Veterans of the USA (JWV) condemns the continued prevalence of reported and unreported male and female sexual misconduct in the military and calls for an independent process to review and prosecute these cases,” the group wrote in its Spring 2013 Jewish Veteran magazine.

The magazine called the number of unwanted sexual contacts reported by the Pentagon “alarming” and “seriously understated.” Continue Reading »

Category: Jewish News | Tags: , , ,
| June 19, 2013
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Want to know how Ashkenazi you are? It’s easy to find out.

A growing number of non-Jews are seeking to discover if their ancestors were Jewish.  Jews for Jesus & other gentiles who observe some Jewish practices are eager to uncover Ashkenazi DNA in their chromosomes. For some it gives them credibility in their proselytizing efforts.

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Catherine Afarian calls herself a “love child of the ‘70s.” Her mother discovered that she was pregnant after she had broken off a relationship of less than a year. Afarian has never met her biological father, but her mother always said he came from a big Italian family, and Afarian got a kick out of Italian colleagues telling her she looked just like a “Roman girl.” Continue Reading »

Category: Jewish News | Tags: , ,
| June 17, 2013
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Italian activist killed for saving Jews is candidate for sainthood

 

The Roman Catholic church beatifies Odoardo Focherini, declared a Righteous Gentile by Israel in 1969, saved about 100 Jews during the Holocaust.

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An Italian Catholic activist and journalist who was declared a Righteous Gentile for saving Jewish lives during World War II has formally been put on the road to sainthood by the Roman Catholic church.

The Cathedral of Carpi, Duomo, located in the hometown of Ordoardo Focherini.

The Cathedral of Carpi, Duomo, located in the hometown of Odoardo Focherini. Photo by Wikpedia Commons

 

Odoardo Focherini was beatified – the step before sainthood – at a ceremony Saturday in his hometown of Carpi, near Modena in northern Italy. Continue Reading »

Category: Jewish News | Tags: , ,
| June 12, 2013
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Auschwitz youth center to receive $1.3 million donation from Volkswagen

Volkswagen, which used concentration camp prisoners during the Holocaust, says work at site is an ‘important undertaking’ for staff & company.

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Volkswagen said Tuesday it was donating $1.3 million to the Auschwitz International Youth Meeting Center.

Volkswagen Type 82E

Volkswagen Type 82E Photo by Wikipedia Commons

The automaker made the announcement at a meeting at the company’s headquarters in Wolfsburg, Germany.

Volkswagen CEO Martin Winterkorn said in a statement that the money will be used for educational work and modernization of the facility.

He said Volkswagen has been involved with the center, an educational site located next to the Nazi death camp in Poland, for more than 20 years. Continue Reading »

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