Paul Berger Holocaust restitution money is supposed to heal wounds. But the Lithuanian government’s payment of $40 million to the country’s small Jewish community has reopened a decades-long dispute between Lithuania’s Jewish leadership and a Chabad rabbi from Boston. Arguments over the money have swelled into a debate about who better represents Lithuanian Jewry — […]
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American Chabad rabbi called security risk in Russia, ordered to leave
February 8, 2017 (JTA) — An American rabbi who has worked for the Chabad movement in Russia since 2002 said he and his family are facing deportation under a provision dealing with threats to national security. Ari Edelkopf, a father of seven who grew up in the United States and lived in Israel before settling in […]
Graves of Holocaust victims looted, desecrated across Ukraine
Looters dig up mass graves of Holocaust victims, desecrate remains in search for gold teeth and jewelry. Arutz Sheva Staff Marker of Jewish grave desecrated by looters Press release The remains of Jews murdered during the Holocaust have become the target of grave robbers across the Ukraine, say local Jews, who claim the […]
Ukrainian Jewish leader says community in danger of extinction
ByTamara Zieve In time of crisis, the country’s Jews appeal to Israel for support. The future of Ukraine’s Jewish community “doesn’t look very bright” and is in danger of disappearing altogether, according to one of its leaders, who ended a four-day visit to Israel on Thursday. Eduard Dolinsky, executive director of the Kiev-based Ukrainian Jewish […]
Antisemitic author given top award by Ukrainian president
by Sam Sokol Last week, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko shocked the Jewish community by honouring a man who has falsely accused Jews of perpetrating the worst crimes of the Soviet state. Mr Poroshenko’s office announced it was awarding author Vasyl Kvasnovsky the prestigious Order of Freedom. Mr Kvasnovsky has blamed the Jews for Soviet […]
The Forgotten Holocaust: The Films of Boris Maftsir
An Israeli filmmaker works to revive the neglected, terrible history of Shoah victims in the Soviet Union By Izabella Tabarovsky January 27, 2017 (see http://www.tabletmag.com/jewish-arts-and-culture/222730/films-of-boris-maftsir#) In a series of spellbinding documentaries, Boris Maftsir, an Israeli filmmaker, has been racing to prevent the last traces of the Holocaust in the USSR from vanishing for good. He went […]
Senior Russian lawmaker: Jews still seeking to destroy our churches
January 25, 2017 (JTA) — The deputy speaker of the Russian parliament intimated that Jews are using their positions in the media and government to continue the work of ancestors who “pulled down our churches.” Peter Tolstoy at a news conference Tuesday on plans to move a cathedral in St. Petersburg appeared to blame Jews for […]
‘Shlichut’ under fire: Jewish Agency emissary to Ukraine expects aliya to rise
BySteve Linde 14 January 2017 Roman Polonsky, director of the Jewish Agency’s Department for Russian-speaking Jewry, says aliya from Ukraine has actually tripled in the last three years. UKRAINIAN OLIM prepare to fly to Israel.. (photo credit:SVETLANA MIKHALCHENKO) Although it is hardly reported in the media, two or three and sometimes up to 10 people […]
Lithuania Is Building a Convention Center Over Vilna’s Jewish Cemetery. Here’s How You Can Protest
Locals and top Jewish historians are fighting to prevent the bulldozing of the burial site of one of Europe’s most historic Jewish communities By Yair Rosenberg For centuries, the city of Vilna (today Vilnius) was the center of Jewish life in what was then known as Polish-Lithuania. By the turn of the 20th century, the Lithuanian capital boasted […]
Wiesenthal Center pans Svoboda march but many Ukrainian Jews aren’t worried
While Ukrainian leaders have condemned anti-Semitism, some charge that the government has turned a blind eye to the ascension of racist figures due to their role in combating separatists. JEWS ATTEND the morning prayer at a synagogue in Donetsk, eastern Ukraine, earlier this year. (photo credit:REUTERS) A new year’s torchlight march through downtown Ukraine in […]