International

UK sanctions Jewish settlements

The United Kingdom, France and Canada will ban goods produced in the West Bank settlements and Jewish neighborhoods of East Jerusalem, British Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband told Parliament on Sept. 8, stating that all such communities were deemed by his country to be illegal.

In the middle of a devasting war, Zelensky honors Sharansky

President Volodymyr Zelensky awarded a medal of honor on Aug. 27 to Natan Sharansky in Kiev for his efforts to help Ukraine and preserve the memory of the Holocaust there.

The Vilna of legend, the Vilnius of reality

Archaeologists have uncovered the full floor of Lithuania’s historic Great Synagogue in Vilnius, revealing treasures nearly erased by Nazi and Soviet occupations — and exposing rifts between Lithuanian Jews over how to preserve and interpret what survived.

Herzl’s grandparents reinterred in Israel

When World Zionist Organization officials working with the Israeli Foreign Ministry opened the grave of Theodor Herzl’s grandfather on July 29 in Zemun, Serbia, they found it empty. Shimon Leib Herzl was not buried beneath his tombstone. So they kept digging to the side of his wife Rivka’s grave and found his remains there, according to Yizhar Hess, the WZO’s acting chair, who was present at the exhumation.

Brothers separated by war in Ukraine; reunited in Poland

It was a surprise reunion. For the last nine years, Moshe Galinkin had been unable to see his younger brother Daniel, first because of travel restrictions imposed during COVID and then because of the war in Ukraine.

Hitler’s birthplace now a police station

How do you stop neo-Nazis from meeting up at Adolf Hitler’s birthplace? Station officers there around the clock. That is just what the small town of Braunau in Austria has done, by turning Hitler’s first home into a police station.

‘Mapping’ Jewish tourists in Italy

An online campaign calling on people in Italy to surveil and report the whereabouts of Jewish and Israeli tourists, or anyone suspected of having ties to “Zionists,” has sparked anger among Israeli diplomats, local Jewish leaders and Italian politicians.

Chess legend Polgár turns down offer of Hungarian president

The Jewish chess legend Judit Polgár has declined an invitation to become Hungary’s president, a largely ceremonial position that would have increased the visibility of one of the country’s most celebrated Jewish figures.

Where does the UK’s new prime minister stand on Israel, Jews?

Andy Burnham officially became Britain’s new Labour prime minister on Monday, July 20, replacing Keir Starmer, who resigned following the party’s disastrous showing in local elections in May. Starmer left behind a mixed record on anti-Semitism. He purged the party of its image as hostile to Jews under former party leader Jeremy Corbyn. But at the same time, attacks against Jews in Britain rose dramaticallly in the aftermath of the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas terror attack on Israel. Uncertainty is at a high.

World Cup chant points to AMIA trial after 32 years

If the phrase Argentina’s Jewish community has adopted to mark the 32nd anniversary of the worst terrorist attack in the country’s history sounds familiar to their compatriots, it’s intentional: “Today we cannot lose . . . our memory” echoes the soccer-mad nation’s World Cup slogan.

Latest News

Where were you when…?

There are moments in history seared into collective memory. 
 Twenty-five years ago, the world was tilted on its axis when terrorists hijacked multiple airliners, destroyed lower Manhattan and murdered 2,977 people. We have never fully recovered.