At 8 p.m. on April 9, Igor García, a young Venezuelan violinist, stepped on to his balcony in Madrid and played “Hatikvah,” the Israeli national anthem. The beautiful rendition received an ovation from his neighbors, and a video of the performance went viral. Garcia, who is not Jewish, said he always felt a strong connection…
(JTA) — Two municipalities in Spain rescinded their adhesion to the campaign to boycott Israel following legal action by a Madrid-based organization devoted to defending the Jewish state. The city council of Villarrobledo, a city of 25,000 that is located 100 miles southeast of Madrid and is known for its wine industry, scrapped last week…
(JTA) — A synagogue in Madrid plans to present what it is calling the country’s first egalitarian Torah scroll because women participated in its writing. The scroll is slated to be unveiled Saturday at Congregation Bet El in the Spanish capital. Gustavo Surazski, an Argentina-born rabbi and sofer, or Torah scribe, began writing the scroll…
(JTA) — A deputy mayor of Madrid hosted in a municipal space an event honoring Palestinian terrorists from Hamas and other groups who are imprisoned in Israel. The event, titled “International Day of Palestinian Prisoners,” was hosted Monday at the main municipal space of the district of Retiro in the southeastern part of the center…
The Madrid alderman for culture under fire for posting a joke about the Holocaust on Twitter four years ago has resigned. Guillermo Zapata resigned Monday after opposition parties and the umbrella group for Jewish communities in Spain demanded he step down, the Spanish daily El Pais reported. Madrid Mayor Manuela Carmena, who took office on…
Illustration by Kurt Hoffman It was on a trip to Madrid, about four years ago, that I finally understood the paradox of opposites: that there’s no such thing as opposites, really, and that what you get when you try to run as hard as you can in the opposite direction to your upbringing is, well,…
Spanish prosecutors are investigating the actions of an imam from a town near Madrid who called for the destruction of Jews. Salahuddin al Mussaoui of Azuqueca de Henares made the statement in a video that appeared Aug. 25 on the YouTube channel of the Islamic Cultural Center of Azuqueca de Henares, but authorities only now…
A spokesperson for the mayor of a suburb of Madrid apologized for the mayor’s use of the term “Jewish dog” during her mayoral campaign as representative of the country’s ruling party. The office of Mariola Vargas, mayor of Collado Villalba, issued on Friday the apology to the Federation of Jewish Communities in Spain, or FCJE,…
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