September 23, 2022
By LARRY LUXNER
(JTA) — When Rosh Hashanah begins on Sunday night, Temple Beth Shalom in San Juan, Puerto Rico, plans to be holding services — whether or not power has been restored after Hurricane Fiona devastated the island Sept. 18, leaving devastation in its wake.
“Thank God the temple has solar panels,” said Salatiel Corcos, the synagogue’s past-president. “They’re not in very good shape because they were damaged, but we will...
September 21, 2022
By LARRY LUXNER
BAKU, Azerbaijan — It’s a Muslim country that’s friendly toward Jews. It has an ancient culture virtually free of antisemitism that also boasts the world’s only all-Jewish mountain village outside of Israel. And it has a young population of Jews eager to learn about Jewish history and traditions.
Welcome to Azerbaijan, which on Sept. 11 became the first Muslim-majority country ever to host a Limmud FSU conference,...
September 20, 2022
By RON KAMPEAS
(JTA) — Iran’s leadership has returned to Holocaust denial, its leader made clear in an interview with “60 Minutes,” after distancing itself from the phenomenon.
“Historical events should be investigated by researchers and historians,” Ebrahim Raisi, the Iranian president, said in an interview on the CBS News flagship broadcast Sunday when he asked if he believed the Holocaust occurred. “There are some signs that it happened. If...
September 19, 2022
By PHILISSA CRAMER
(JTA) — As Britons poured out their sadness over the death of their 70-year queen, they deposited tributes to her all over London — including at a garden designated for memorializing victims of the Holocaust.
Grace Dean, a reporter for Business Insider in London, tweeted on Sunday that the Holocaust Memorial Garden in Hyde Park, not far from Buckingham Palace, had turned into “a makeshift Queen Memorial...
September 19, 2022
By RON KAMPEAS
(JTA) — Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan told a group of Jewish leaders that he planned to visit Israel, the clearest sign so far that he is intent on resetting a long-troubled relationship.
Erdogan also told a room full of leaders of American Jewish organizations that antisemitism is a “crime against humanity,” a meeting participant told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency. The meeting Monday afternoon, convened under the...
September 19, 2022
By TOBY AXELROD
(JTA) — Germany’s flagship airline has joined with a major American Jewish advocacy organization to combat global antisemitism, four months after igniting a scandal when its agents barred dozens of Jews from boarding a plane in Frankfurt.
Under the terms of the partnership announced last week, American Jewish Committee staffers will train employees of the Lufthansa Group to identify and respond to antisemitism. The airline is also...
September 16, 2022
By FAYGIE HOLT
(JNS.org) – Canada says it will be instituting policy changes as it relates to funding programs through Canadian Heritage after it was revealed that money was going to an organization whose co-founder and main speaker has a history of antisemitism.
As JNS reported in late August, the Community Media Advocacy Centre had received more than $133,000 Canadian in federal funding for anti-racist education. Yet its co-founder, Laith...
September 16, 2022
By TOBY AXELROD
(JTA) — Germany’s public broadcaster, Deutsche Welle, has revised its code of conduct to require support for Israel’s right to exist, and employees who fail to do so may now be fired.
The move announced Sept. 1 preceded a court order last week that DW reinstate a former employee fired who was fired after the company determined she had made comments about Israel that could be construed...
September 02, 2022
By RON KAMPEAS
(JTA) — The student magazine at the University of Adelaide in the state of South Australia called for “death to Israel” in an article.
The Aug. 4 article in On Dit, written by one of its editors, Habibah Jaghoori, was prompted by the three-day conflict last month between Israel and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad in the Gaza Strip. The conflict killed close to 50 Palestinian civilians.
“The...
September 01, 2022
By JACOB GURVIS
(JTA) — Days before a ceremony marking the 50th anniversary of the Munich Olympics massacre, the Israeli victims’ families have reached an agreement with Germany, avoiding a planned boycott.
Last month, the families of 11 victims of the 1972 attack threatened to boycott the Sept. 5 ceremony in Munich, calling Germany’s compensation offer “a joke.” According to The New York Times, Israeli President Isaac Herzog had planned...
