MONTREAL (JTA)—Vandals ransacked a small Montreal synagogue sometime after it closed weeks ago due to the COVID-19 pandemic in what was described as one of the worst local synagogue desecrations in memory. The damage at the Kol Yehouda Sephardic congregation included tallitot, or prayer shawls, and tefillin stuffed in toilets; Torah scrolls cut up and…
(JTA) — AIPAC has canceled its 2021 policy conference, citing the “continued uncertainties created by the COVID-19 pandemic.” Betsy Korn, the president of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, made the announcement in a letter sent to the organization’s membership on Sunday. The annual conference had been scheduled for March 7-9 in Washington, D.C. One…
NEW YORK (JTA) – Norman Lamm, the prolific author and Modern Orthodox rabbi who headed Yeshiva University for nearly three decades, died Sunday. He was 92. As president and chancellor of Y.U., Lamm helped rescue the institution from the financial brink in the late 1970s and rebuild it in the decades that followed into the…
The German parliament voted unanimously Thursday to allow rabbis to serve as military chaplains in the Bundeswher, Germany’s military. Rabbis have not been able to serve as chaplains in the German military since Adolf Hitler expelled them in 1933. Jewish soldiers could only use Protestant or Catholic military chaplains. The change was first put forward…
A Maryland county issued an executive order that permits synagogues to reopen but effectively prohibits kiddush receptions. As of May 29, houses of worship in Howard County may hold services with up to 10 people inside and 250 people outside. However, most forms of physical contact, from shaking hands to sharing food, are prohibited. “No…
BERLIN (JTA) – Germany has recorded the highest number of anti-Semitic crimes nationwide since 2001. And a new wave linked to coronavirus conspiracy theories is expected, Jewish leaders say. Police registered 2,032 anti-Semitic crimes, including two killings, in 2019, according to newly released figures published in the German news media. The total is up 13%…
JERUSALEM (JTA) — U.S. Ambassador to Israel David Friedman told a virtual conference that Jewish illiteracy is the greatest threat to Diaspora Jewry. “The Jewish state, while not without issues, is growing: both religious and secular institutions are thriving, basic Jewish education is available to all and there is little risk of assimilation. The same…
President Trump is set to sign a bill on Thursday providing millions of dollars in grants for Holocaust education, Jewish Insider reported. The bill, called the Never Again Education Act, was passed by the House of Representatives in January and by the Senate earlier this month. It will provide $10 million over five years in…
AMSTERDAM (JTA) — More than 200 people, including a Dutch chief rabbi, are protesting plans in Germany to honor a Holocaust-era official who is said to have both saved and doomed Jews. The call came in a letter that the German ambassador to the Netherlands received Thursday from Hans Knoop, a Dutch-Jewish journalist. It concerned…
(JTA) – This upstate New York resort’s lake, bowling alleys and cabins were the setting for Mrs. Maisel’s Catskills summer retreat. Now it can be yours for a mere $6 million. The Scott Family Resort in Deposit, which has been operating for 150 years, is on the market. The owners had announced in a January…
(JTA) — A bus stop near a synagogue in Minneapolis was vandalized with swastikas. The graffiti was discovered Tuesday on a bench outside Shir Tikvah Congregation. Across the street, “Seig Heil, Heil Hitler, Trump 2020” was written on a traffic utility case, the synagogue said in a message to congregants. Neighbors discovered the vandalism and…
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