A gay film festival in Vancouver banned “overt expressions of nationalism” after organizers came under fire over an advertisement featuring an Israeli flag. The advertisement in last year’s guidebook for the Vancouver Queer Film Festival, placed by the local gay Jewish group Yad b’Yad, featured a gay pride flag alongside an Israeli flag. That led…
Pope Francis met Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Saturday, calling him “an angel of peace,” days after the Vatican announced a treaty that formalized its recognition of the State of Palestine. The two met for around 20 minutes in the Vatican and are due to meet again on Sunday at a ceremony to canonize two…
Dozens of Jewish war veterans who fought with the Soviet Red Army in World War II gathered at Times Square to celebrate the Hebrew date of Victory Day. Accompanying the 50-odd veterans — who wore their Soviet uniforms and WWII medals — on Thursday were local rabbis and leaders from New York’s Jewish community, organizers…
A prominent Washington rabbi who pleaded guilty to secretly videotaping dozens of women naked during ritual baths was sentenced to 6-1/2 years in prison on Friday. Rabbi Barry Freundel, 63, pleaded guilty in February to 52 misdemeanor counts of voyeurism. He admitted recording the women between March 2012 and September 2014 using devices installed in…
A Jewish World War I veteran will be posthumously awarded the nation’s highest military honor 97 years after his heroic actions against the Germans. The White House announced Thursday that Sgt. William Shemin, who is Jewish and died in 1973, will be awarded the Medal of Honor in a ceremony on June 2. Shemin’s daughter…
Jewish groups reported that authorities in the Greek port of Kavala want the Star of David to be removed from a Holocaust memorial or they will not permit its display. The American Jewish Committee said Friday that its partner body in Greece, the Central Board of Jewish Communities, reported that municipal authorities had canceled a…
A Jewish 20-year-old sophomore at the U.S. Naval Academy who was killed in Tuesday’s Amtrak train derailment in Philadelphia was given full military honors at his funeral, which was attended by 160 Navy midshipmen. The funeral for Justin Zemser of Rockaway, Queens, who aspired to be a Navy SEAL, was held at the Boulevard-Riverside-Hewlett chapel…
(JTA) — The world soccer federation’s boss, Sepp Blatter, is preparing to travel to Jerusalem and Ramallah in a bid to resolve a dispute over a Palestinian effort to have Israel banned from the association. Blatter, president of the Switzerland-based FIFA, told reporters on Friday that he will meet with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu…
Canada’s professional football league has fined a player for posting anti-Semitic material on his Twitter account. The Canadian Football League (CFL) fined U.S.-born Khalif Mitchell, a defensive lineman for the Montreal Alouettes, an undisclosed amount. He also received the “maximum allowable” fine from his team, which signed him to a three-year contract in February. Mitchell,…
The newly-established Reform Jewish community of Shanghai, China, will receive its first Torah scroll from a sister congregation in Brazil. The donation of the scroll by ARI, Rio de Janeiro’s Progressive congregation, to the Kehilat Shanghai community was announced at a ceremony Wednesday in Rio de Janeiro, where 300 delegates are attending at the World…
At least 21 Palestinians were injured in clashes with Israeli troops in Nablus, Palestinian media reported. The clashes erupted early Friday following a visit by Israelis to Joseph’s Tomb in Nablus, Palestinian security officials told the Ma’an news agency. Over 30 Israeli military jeeps entered the city late Thursday and soldiers took up positions on…
אין קלאַס זענען די סטודענטן אָפֿט געווען אױף פֿאַרשידענע ניװאָען אָבער זי האָט זיך אָפּגעגעבן מיט יעדן באַזונדער.
