Pope Francis’ security detail used an Israeli-made observation balloon to protect the pontiff during his visit to South America. The balloon proved to be more reliable than the unmanned air vehicles typically used and cost only a fraction of the price to operate, Ynet reported Monday. Two of the three Masses led by the pope in…
(JTA) — Sixty-five percent of Latin American Jewish leaders fear that their community could suffer a terrorist attack, a new survey found. That figure climbs to 90 percent of Argentinean Jewish leaders, whose community already has suffered two terrorist attacks: in 1992 on the Israeli embassy in Buenos Aires, which killed 29 and injured 242;…
(JTA) — President Evo Morales of Bolivia called Chile the “Israel of South America” in condemning the expulsion of nine Bolivian officials on Wednesday. The officials were detained in Chile after being accused of smuggling, theft and illegal possession of weapons. They are to be expelled from the country within the next 30 days. Lashing out…
My college study-abroad term in Montevideo, Uruguay, left me with reasonable fluency in Spanish, a fear of slugs in sandwiches, the knowledge of more than a dozen soccer chants — and a deep, visceral love for the Jewish holiday of Passover and its accompanying festive Seder meal. The year before I lived in Uruguay, I’d…
(JTA) — The youthful group of 60 drew their chairs around tables strewn with jars of markers and the occasional Rubik’s Cube, nearby chalkboards at the ready for jotting down big ideas. The conference hall was suffused with a can-do vibe that wouldn’t have seemed out of place in Silicon Valley. But high-tech was not…
The Rabbinate of Uruguay is requiring Jewish couples marrying under its auspices to sign a rabbinic prenuptial agreement. Under the agreement, in the case of a couple that is divorcing civilly, the husband must give his wife a divorce under Jewish law, or a get, the South American country’s Rabbinate said Wednesday in a statement….
When I came across the Zurückgeben grant, which supports creative projects of Jewish women living in Germany, I decided to present a documentary proposal on a Jewish topic. I worked hard to get the figures; concept and team together, but in the last minute the main character of the story desisted on taking part of…
