Category Archives: Judaism

Israel’s West Bank plans condemned by leading British Jewish figures

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Simon Schama and Sir Malcolm Rifkind among those warning that annexation ‘would have grave consequences’ for Palestinians

Some of the most prominent and respected names in British Jewry have raised alarm over the Israeli government’s plans to annex parts of the West Bank, saying such a move would be an existential threat to Israel.

Among more than 40 signatories of an unprecedented letter to the Israeli ambassador to the UK are Sir Ben Helfgott, one of the best-known Holocaust survivors in Britain; the historians Sir Simon Schama and Simon Sebag Montefiore; the former Conservative foreign secretary Sir Malcolm Rifkind; the lawyer Anthony Julius; the philanthropist Dame Vivien Duffield; the scientist Lord Robert Winston; the former MP Luciana Berger; the Times columnist Daniel Finkelstein; and the author Howard Jacobson. 

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Prague revamp reveals Jewish gravestones used to pave streets

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Find confirms speculation communist regime raided synagogues for building materials

Dozens of paving stones made from Jewish headstones have been found during redevelopment work in Prague’s tourist district, confirming speculation that the former communist regime raided synagogues and graveyards for building materials.

Tuesday’s discovery came in the opening phase of a £10.6m facelift project in the city’s landmark Wenceslas Square, scene of the some of the Czech Republic’s most dramatic historic events and a frequent site of political protest.

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Calls to seal off ultra-Orthodox areas add to Israel’s virus tensions

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Rules enforcement highlights problem of getting message across to minority community

It wasn’t a typical police operation. Two Israeli officers were to go undercover, although not posing as drug dealers or arms traffickers. For this particular assignment, they were to disguise themselves as ultra-Orthodox Jews.

Their mission on Friday was to bust an illegal gathering in a synagogue. People were praying together, a practice that is now against the law in the era of the coronavirus. Once the officers got inside to confirm the crowd, more units barged in and dispersed people.

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The Sultan’s Trail was good practice for lockdown | Adrian Chiles

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My experience on the Sultan’s trail found that two Christians, two Muslims, a Jew and two atheists could live peaceably together, although the mountain scenery seems a lifetime away now

Back in early autumn I went on a pilgrimage from Belgrade to Istanbul with six others to film a television programme that airs on Friday. At the best of times, the mountains of Bulgaria would feel a lifetime away, but now it all feels so much further.

I took part because I enjoy talking about faith, and love walking. Our route was part of the Sultan’s Trail, a long-distance footpath from Vienna to Istanbul. It marks the 16th-century marches taken by Suleiman the Magnificent and his Ottoman armies as they conquered Belgrade and most of Hungary before the Viennese held out against them. The trail is styled the “path of peace”, along which all cultures and religions can come together.

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Religious festivals cancelled or scaled back due to coronavirus

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All major world religions are limiting large gatherings and physical contact to halt transmission of Covid-19

Events to mark important religious festivals could be cancelled or curtailed in the coming weeks because of the coronavirus crisis.

Next month, most of the world’s major religions have festivals involving large gatherings of people. Easter is on 12 April (a week later for Eastern Orthodox churches); Passover begins on 8 April; Rama Navami, an important Hindu festival, is on 2 April; while the Sikh festival of Vaisakhi is a few days later. The Islamic holy month of Ramadan begins around 23 April.

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Auschwitz survivors share their stories on 75th anniversary – video

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World leaders have gathered to hear the stories of Holocaust survivors 75 years after the liberation of the death camp. Batsheva Dagan, Stanisław Zalewski and Marian Turski shared their experiences of life inside Auschwitz and warned that it could happen again if minority rights are not protected

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Auschwitz survivors to return after 75 years for memorial ceremony

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Those making trip to former Nazi death camp fear lessons of Holocaust are being forgotten

More than 200 survivors are to gather at the former Nazi extermination camp of Auschwitz, many probably for the final time, to commemorate the 75th anniversary of its liberation.

As rows over the make-up of the international guest list at the memorial ceremony threatened to overshadow Monday’s event, survivors who drew on harrowing memories of their incarceration warned the lessons from the atrocities sanctioned by Adolf Hitler’s administration and carried out often by ordinary Germans were in danger of being forgotten.

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Auschwitz survivor who had an impact | Letters

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In a London hospital near the end of her life, Denise Fluskey’s mother, a Holocaust survivor, came face to face with a doctor she had made a big impression on when she spoke at his school

My mother, Esther Brunstein, was a survivor of the Łódź ghetto, Auschwitz and Bergen-Belsen. She spoke at the official opening of the Holocaust galleries in the Imperial War Museum, and at the first Holocaust Memorial Day in this country in Westminster Hall, London.

She died three years ago. She spoke and wrote extensively and beautifully about her experiences, but I wish to pay tribute to her with this anecdote.

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‘Talk less, do more’: World Jewish Congress leader’s call to halt antisemitism

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Ronald Lauder’s Auschwitz memorial address will demand action against a rising tide of hatred

The president of the World Jewish Congress has accused leaders of contributing to the “drip, drip method” of spreading antisemitism, comparing it to the defamation campaigns that culminated in the Holocaust.

Ahead of the 75th anniversary on Mondayof the liberation of the Nazi death camp at Auschwitz-Birkenau, Ronald Lauder said that governments spent too much time talking about the dangers of antisemitism and not enough time tackling it.

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Leaders warn against antisemitism at World Holocaust Forum – video

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Representatives from Europe, Russia and America warned against the resurgence of antisemitism at a memorial event at the World Holocaust Forum in Jerusalem. Prince Charles, representing Britain, said the lessons of the Holocaust were ‘searingly relevant to this day’

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‘A blessed initiative’: secular Israel rejoices over Sabbath buses

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Minibuses that run on Friday evenings and Saturdays buck state’s religious restrictions

Tel Aviv is one of Israel’s most dynamic cities, but the latest local craze could appear fairly humdrum to outsiders – a bus service that runs at weekends.

Packed 19-seat minibuses fill up fast with passengers, who excitedly gossip about the new routes. People patiently queue at bus stops, knowing they might have to wait for two or three buses to pass before there is a space. Still, they are upbeat. “It’s a pleasure,” said Ben Uzan, a 30-year-old electronic engineer. “It’s a blessed initiative.”

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Revealed: how the Caribbean became a haven for Jews fleeing Nazi tyranny

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Thousands of refugees rebuilt their lives on Trinidad and other islands. Their little-known story is now told in a new book

All cemeteries have stories to tell, and the one on Mucurapo Road in Port of Spain, Trinidad, is no exception. Among the names carved on headstones are Irene and Oscar Huth, Erna Marx, Karl Falkenstein, Willi Schwarz and Otto Gumprich. Hebrew inscriptions are adorned with a Star of David.

Five years ago, Hans Stecher joined his mother, father and aunt in the Jewish section of Mucurapo cemetery. Aged 90 when he died, he was the last of about 600 Jewish refugees from Nazi Europe who ended up in Trinidad as they sought sanctuary from persecution and violence.

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Academic quits C of E body over chief rabbi’s Labour antisemitism comments

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Gus John lambasts Justin Welby’s support amid church’s ‘woeful’ record on racism

A leading campaigner against racism has resigned from a Church of England advisory body in protest at the archbishop of Canterbury’s support for the chief rabbi’s comments last week on antisemitism in the Labour party.

Gus John, a respected author and academic, said: “As a matter of principle, I cannot continue to work with the Anglican church … after the archbishop of Canterbury’s disgraceful endorsement of the chief rabbi’s unjust condemnation of Jeremy Corbyn and the entire Labour party.”

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The future of burial: inside Jerusalem’s hi-tech underground necropolis

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With a dire shortage of land for graves, the holy city is reviving an ancient custom of underground burial – with lift access, LED lighting and golf buggies

Cool air from deep inside the mountain lightly wafts through cavernous arched tunnels. Along the walls of the subterranean passages, rows of human-sized chambers have been dug into the rock. It is unmistakably a catacomb.

Yet this mass tomb is not a relic of the Roman empire. It was made with huge electric diggers, and the walls are lined with concrete. People will enter by lift, and those with limited mobility will be able to use a golf buggy to traverse the necropolis.

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Remove hook-nose sign language gesture, Jewish group demands

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Calls for ‘racist and humiliating’ gesture to be removed from online guide to Flemish signing

An organisation representing Jewish communities in Europe are demanding the removal of a “racist and humiliating” depiction of Jews as having large hooked noses from an online dictionary of Flemish sign language.

The portrayal is one of more than 10,000 signs on a visual online guide recognised by the Flemish government as a “knowledge and coordination centre” for sign language in the Flanders region of Belgium.

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Dead Sea scrolls study raises new questions over texts’ origins

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Salts used on Temple scroll are not common to Dead Sea region, researchers find

The Dead Sea scrolls have given up fresh secrets, with researchers saying they have identified a previously unknown technique used to prepare one of the most remarkable scrolls of the collection.

Scientists say the study poses a puzzle, as the salts used on the writing layer of the Temple scroll are not common to the Dead Sea region.

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Trump doubles down on claim that Jewish Democrats are ‘disloyal’ – video

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The US president has renewed his attack on four Democratic congresswomen who have been critical of Israel, and reiterated a longstanding antisemitic trope implying that American Jews had divided loyalty to America and to Israel. Over almost 24 hours he has repeatedly described Jewish Americans who vote for Democrats as showing ‘either a total lack of knowledge or great disloyalty’

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‘Shameful’: US Jews respond to Trump’s apparent use of antisemitic trope

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Jonathan Greenblatt said Trump’s charges of ‘disloyalty’ have ‘long been used to attack Jews’ while J Street called remarks ‘dangerous’

Prominent American Jews have reacted with dismay and disdain to Donald Trump’s renewed adoption of a longstanding antisemitic trope after he described Jewish Americans who vote for Democrats as showing “either a total lack of knowledge or great disloyalty”.

Accusing Jewish Americans of having dual loyalties to the US and Israel, as the president referred to in remarks from the Oval Office on Tuesday, prompted charges that he had embraced a slur long used against Jews. Jonathan Greenblatt, chief executive of the Anti-Defamation League, pointed out on Twitter that charges of disloyalty “have long been used to attack Jews … It’s long overdue to stop using Jews as a political football”.

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Holocaust historians divided over Warsaw ghetto museum

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Director hits back at critics who say the institution, backed by Poland’s populist party, will distort wartime history

The museum of the Warsaw ghetto is not due to open for several years, but is already shaping up to be one of the most contentious museums in Europe.

Backed by Poland’s populist government, which has been accused of rewriting history to fit its political agenda, the museum has caused a bitter spat between historians of the Holocaust about how best to tell the tragic story of Warsaw’s Jews.

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All Germans urged to wear kippah in protest against antisemitism

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Call for solidarity follows warning that Jews wearing cap face abuse and attacks

Germans of all faiths and none are being urged to wear kippah skullcaps on Saturday as a symbol of solidarity with the Jewish community, after a steep rise in antisemitic attacks.

Protests across the country have been called by the government’s antisemitism ombudsman after he triggered a heated debate when he warned Jews last week not to wear the kippah because of the increasing likelihood of being attacked.

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