(JTA) — Days after allegations of sexual abuse by former Jewish youth program participants appeared in the media, the Conservative movement announced it would implement new safety measures and investigate how program officials have handled complaints. In the announcement, the CEO of the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism, Rabbi Jacob Blumenthal, said the reports of…
(JTA) — Lithuania’s government has shelved controversial plans to build a flashy conference center on what used to be a Jewish cemetery in the capital city of Vilnius because of how the COVID-19 pandemic “has changed the conference tourism market and environment.” The Chancellery of the Government of Lithuania made the statement to the news…
(JTA) — A woman is suing Bob Dylan for sexually abusing her when she was 12 under a New York law that temporarily lifted limitations on such lawsuits. The woman, identified in court documents as JC, says the Jewish rock star groomed and exploited her in his room at the Chelsea Hotel over six weeks…
(JTA) — Two major humanitarian crises are eliciting the involvement of Jewish aid organizations, although it is unclear whether much can be done from afar to support Afghans now that the Taliban has retaken their country. An earthquake struck Haiti early Saturday, killing nearly 1,300 with the death toll likely to rise. Meanwhile, a tropical…
(JTA) — Poland’s president signed into law a bill that will restrict Holocaust restitution claims by Jews and others who had property stolen by the Nazis or Soviet-backed occupation forces during the World War II era. The law, signed Saturday by President Andrzej Duda, gives all property restitution claims a 30-year time limit from the…
(JTA) — Video from a packed engagement party is roiling the Jewish community of Melbourne, Australia, amid a growing outbreak of COVID-19 that has extended yet another stringent lockdown there. Compliance with local rules has been spotty across Melbourne during the latest lockdown, which comes after a year and a half of intense restrictions meant…
(JTA) — After the Cathedral Road Synagogue in Cardiff, Wales, closed in 1989 amid amid a steep decline in the local Jewish population, its stained-glass windows went missing. Now, some of the once-majestic synagogue’s stained-glass panels have resurfaced — in a backyard chicken-coop renovation that a British garden supplies company just declared best budget shed…
(JTA) — Antisemitic porn videos are trending on adult content websites, which ignore calls to remove them, an Israel-based watchdog group said. The nonprofit group, Fighting Online Antisemitism, or FOA, has identified dozens of videos on major adult content sites, including xvideos and XNXX. Some feature actors dressed as Nazi officers acting out rape scenes…
WASHINGTON (JTA) — Sen. Ben Cardin, a Maryland Democrat, is one of Israel’s staunchest defenders in Congress — and he thinks Republican attacks on one of President Joe Biden’s nominees as anti-Israel is “ridiculous.” Dilawar Syed, a longtime business leader, would be the most senior Muslim official in U.S. history if Congress confirms him to…
(JTA) — Los Angeles’ Greenblatt’s Deli and Fine Wine Shop shuttered abruptly on Wednesday, ending nearly a century-long run for a fixture of Jewish food on Sunset Boulevard. Opened in 1926 and run by a single family since the 1940s, Greenblatt’s described itself as a “wine merchant that fronts as a deli.” Eater reported that…
(JTA) — A Belgian town is removing from a local square most of its references to a group of Latvian soldiers who were part of Nazi Germany’s SS forces, following allegations that the square honored them. Briviba Square in Zedelgem, a small town 70 miles west of Antwerp, contained a statue of and a plaque…
