Berlin’s Jewish museum has selected as its new leader a non-Jewish scholar of Jewish studies. Peter Schafer, a German academic who had previously led Princeton University‘s Judaic studies program, will take the reins of the Jewish Museum Berlin as of September 1, according to an announcement made Friday. He will succeed W. Michael Blumenthal, a…
Lithuania’s Parliament passed an amendment recognizing Holocaust-era rescuers of Jews as freedom fighters. The amendment, which entitles the families of rescuers to special state pensions, passed Tuesday by a majority of 72 lawmakers present, the news site 15min.lt reported. The Jewish Community of Lithuania praised the vote. “Finally, the Lithuanian government has expressed its positive…
A Nazi soldier who helped murder Jews during the Holocaust lived undetected in London for 66 years until his recent death, a British Nazi hunter said. The man, a former SS soldier in a unit that massacred Poles and Jews during World War II, was identified as Serhij Woronyj by the Daily Mail, which reported…
Italy soccer star Mario Balotelli may have put the kiss of death on England with his winning goal at their World Cup opener, but now he wants royal recompense if he becomes their savior. England’s second loss in Group D, to Uruguay on Thursday, left them on the brink of elimination. But there is a…
The Belgian government will earmark up to $4 million for improving security around Jewish buildings, a Brussels-based daily reported. The funding is part of the Belgian federal government’s plan to shoulder security costs for the Jewish community following the May 24 murder of four people at the Jewish Museum of Belgium in the capital’s center,…
Israeli troops killed a Palestinian teenager in the occupied West Bank on Friday and arrested 25 people, pursuing a crackdown on Islamist militants and house-to-house searches for three Israeli teenagers who went missing eight days ago. Palestinian medics said Mohammed Dudin, 15, was killed in the village of Dura, near the city of Hebron in…
The Anti-Defamation League welcomed the cancellation of the Washington Redskins trademark by the federal patent office. “The decision by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office represents a significant step forward in fighting prejudice, discrimination and hurtful stereotypes, particularly in the professional sports arena,” the ADL said in a statement Wednesday, after the announcement of the…
Gerry Goffin, the lyricist who co-wrote some of the biggest hit songs of the 1960s with his former wife and longtime collaborator Carole King, died on Thursday at age 75, King said in a message posted on Facebook. Goffin, who died of natural causes at his Beverly Hills home, co-wrote numerous top-40 singles with King,…
The leader of the Reform movement asked his Presbyterian counterparts to join him in a meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to make their case against Israeli practices in the West Bank. Rabbi Rick Jacobs, the president of the Union for Reform Judaism, spoke Thursday in Detroit at the biennial general assembly of the…
At least three rockets were fired from Gaza at southern Israel, including one that was intercepted by the Iron Dome anti-missile system over Ashkelon. Two rockets were fired from Gaza at about 10 p.m. on Thursday toward Ashkelon; the Code Red alarm system was sounded throughout Ashkelon. One of the rockets was intercepted by Iron…
Forty-three Bnei Menashe, who claim to be Jews descended from the biblical tribe of Menashe, arrived in Israel on aliyah. The new immigrants moved to Israel on Thursday from the northeastern Indian state of Manipur. Some 250 Bnei Menashe have made aliyah in June, among 410 who have arrived in Israel since January. Some 900…
