JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
(JTA) — Dozens of paving stones cut from Jewish headstones were unearthed during redevelopment work in Prague’s tourist district. The discovery, confirming Jewish community suspicions that communist authorities in the 1980s used Jewish grave markers for building materials, came Tuesday in Wenceslas Square, an iconic pedestrian public square and the site of demonstrations, celebrations and…
The Czech Republic is joining the United States in changing its recognition of Israel’s capital. Following President Trump’s White House announcement on Wednesday that the United States recognized Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, the Central European nation — one of Israel’s closest diplomatic allies — followed suit, declaring on its foreign ministry’s website that…
(JTA) — A group of children saved from the Nazis by Sir Nicholas Winton, known as the “British Schindler,” unveiled a monument in Prague to their parents. The monument, called the Farewell Memorial, is comprised of a replica of a train door from 1939, with the imprints of hands of children on one side, and…
He’s the most visible Jew in Prague. And yet, Rabbi Manis Barash, a bearded, black-hatted Hasid who’s been the Chabad rabbi here for 20 years, has never experienced an anti-Semitic incident. By contrast, his Chabad colleague, Rabbi Shneur Kesselman, the most visible Jew in Malmo, Sweden, has been called the most persecuted Jew in Europe….
A plaque honoring Jewish industrialist Emil Kolben was erected in the Czech capital. Kolben, who died in the Holocaust, co-founded CKD, one of the most important industrial firms in the former Czechoslovakia. The monument located in the heart of Prague’s Vysocany district where Emil Kolben’s machinery empire was based, was unveiled by his granddaughter-in-law, Andree…
The publishers of a book containing Adolf Hitler speeches were cleared of hate-crime charges in the Czech Republic, spurring concerns from the country’s Jewish community. The Brno municipal court ruled Wednesday that it found no evidence that the 2012 book put out by a Brno-based publishing house, Guidemedia, promoted Nazi ideology. The court said the…
No Jews have lived in this nondescript little town 80 miles southeast of Prague since the Holocaust, but driving in, you can’t miss the synagogue. Rose-pink and ochre, with fanciful arched windows and a central peaked roof flanked by two squat towers, it rises dramatically over the rooftops, dominating the otherwise drab surroundings. Inside, chandeliers…
“We lost Europe,” was the way one Foreign Ministry official put Thursday morning when Germany announced it would abstain on Palestinian non-member observer state status, rather than vote against it. Indeed, twelve European Union member states elected to abstain altogether — including the United Kingdom, Poland, and the Netherlands — while fourteen voted in favor,…
