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Barcelona resumes ‘sister city’ relationship with Tel Aviv, reversing former mayor’s decision

By ORGE CASTELLANO

(JTA) — Six months after Barcelona’s then-mayor severed the Spanish city’s relationship with Tel Aviv over what she said were Israel’s “apartheid” practices, her successor is renewing the ties.

Jaume Collboni, who became mayor in June, this week announced the restoration of the 25-year “sister cities” relationship between Barcelona and Tel Aviv.

Collboni’s decision elicited relief from the Federation of the Jewish Communities of Spain, which had said...

Fan ejected from US Open match after chanting Nazi phrase at German player Alexander Zverev

By JACOB GURVIS

(JTA) — A spectator was ejected from a U.S. Open tennis match early Tuesday morning after allegedly chanting a Nazi anthem at German player Alexander Zverev.

During the fourth set of Zverev’s match against No. 6 Jannik Sinner, the No. 12 seed approached the umpire’s chair, pointed toward the stands and said, “He just said the most famous Hitler phrase there is in this world. It’s not...

Barcelona resumes ‘sister city’ relationship with Tel Aviv, reversing former mayor’s decision

By ORGE CASTELLANO

(JTA) — Six months after Barcelona’s then-mayor severed the Spanish city’s relationship with Tel Aviv over what she said were Israel’s “apartheid” practices, her successor is renewing the ties.

Jaume Collboni, who became mayor in June, this week announced the restoration of the 25-year “sister cities” relationship between Barcelona and Tel Aviv.

Collboni’s decision elicited relief from the Federation of the Jewish Communities of Spain, which had said...

US officials call for Yad Vashem’s ‘independence’ amid reports that Netanyahu plans to fire Holocaust memorial’s director

By RON KAMPEAS

WASHINGTON (JTA) — The top U.S. officials charged with combating antisemitism and Holocaust denial called on Israel to sustain the independence of Yad Vashem amid reports that its chair could be fired.

Public statements by Ellen Germain, the State Department’s special envoy on Holocaust issues, and Deborah Lipstadt, the State Department’s special envoy to monitor and combat antisemitism, represent an unusual intervention in Israeli governance. They come...

US assistant secretary for arms control to visit Israel, Turkey

(JNS.org) – Mallory Stewart, assistant secretary of state for arms control, verification and compliance, will visit Jerusalem and the Turkish capital Ankara, the U.S. State Department announced.

Stewart will meet with Foreign Affairs Ministry officials in Jerusalem “for discussions on strategic stability, multilateral arms control, responsible uses of artificial intelligence and space security,” per a State Department readout.

A lawyer, Stewart has held her current position since 2022, previously...

Meta’s handling of ‘SpongeBob’ Holocaust denial post is taken up by independent Oversight Board

By ASAF SHALIA-SHALEV

(JTA) — Meta’s independent Oversight Board is scrutinizing a post featuring a “SpongeBob SquarePants” character, in what could be a landmark case for how its platforms Facebook and Instagram moderate Holocaust denial.

The board, which issues non-binding rulings on the company’s moderation decisions, announced on Thursday that it has taken up a case involving the company’s response to complaints about a meme posted in September 2020.

In...

98-year-old German man charged with accessory to murder at Nazi concentration camp

By JACKIE HAJDENBERG

(JTA) — A 98-year-old German man accused of working as a guard at a Nazi concentration camp is being charged with 3,300 counts of accessory to murder.

Local prosecutors in the town of Giessen, north of Frankfurt, are accusing the man of having “supported the cruel and malicious killing of thousands of prisoners as a member of the SS guard detail” at the Sachsenhausen concentration camp near...

Berkeley AEPi shellfish dump wasn’t antisemitic vandalism, police and fraternity say

By EMMA GROSS

(J. Jewish News of Northern California via JTA) — Police investigating shellfish dumped on the grounds of the Jewish fraternity at the University of California, Berkeley, say they are no longer treating the vandalism as a potential hate crime.

Alpha Epsilon Pi had said it interpreted the strewn shellfish as “act of antisemitic vandalism” because shellfish is barred by Jewish dietary laws. But the fraternity, university and...

After leading minister joked about Nazis, Finland moves to criminalize Holocaust denial

By ANDREW LAPIN

(JTA) — The government of Finland agreed on a policy to combat racism and Holocaust denial on Thursday in the wake of multiple racism and neo-Nazi scandals that have rocked the administration in its early months.

The governing coalition’s parties agreed on the content of a statement submitted to Finnish parliament that calls for “non-discrimination in Finnish society,” according to a press release, and for new legislation...

The UK’s defense secretary is Jewish, a first since the 1990s

By GABE FRIEDMAN

(JTA) — Analysts have been scrutinizing the record of Grant Shapps since he was appointed the United Kingdom’s new defense secretary on Thursday.

A fact that may not appear on his resume: he has said that he was once president of a branch of the BBYO Jewish youth movement.

Shapps, a veteran Conservative member of parliament, previously held other Cabinet-level roles under a series of prime ministers...