Jewish News

More than 500 Students Gather for Shabbat Dinner

With exclamations of “Shabbat Shalom” circling, more than 500 Jewish students gathered to celebrate a traditional dinner together at the University of Georgia.On Friday evening the Rohr Chabad House, one of the Jewish ministries on campus, hosted a dinner to bring together students to celebrate the weekly holy day, Shabbat. The same event last year drew a crowd of about ...

More Than 20,000 Londoners Hold Moment of Silence for Munich

More than 20,000 people in various venues in London attended the British Zionist Federation’s “Minute for Munich” program that was promoted via social media.A short memorial service at the Israeli Embassy that was organized by the Zionist Federation was streamed live online today, according to the London Jewish Chronicle.About 200 people marked the Minute for Munich in Trafalgar Square, reciting ...

More than 19,000 Jews move to Israel in 2010

Israeli officials say more than 19,000 Jewish immigrants came to Israel in 2010, a 16 percent increase over last year.The Jewish Agency handles immigration to Israel. It said in a statement Tuesday that about 7,700 immigrants came from the former Soviet Union. About half that many came from North America. Others came from France, Ethiopia and elsewhere.Their average age was ...

More RIF Soap Delivered to Misaskim, As Rabbonim Determine What To Do With The Soap

On January 25, 2011 Misaskim reported that Nazi-era RIF soap was handed over to the organization for burial. The incident received much attention as it opened up raw and painful scars dating back to the days when our parents were young and suffered Nazi atrocities. It rekindled a debate and prompted people to question, research, and delve deeper in an ...

More Haredim to Study in Academia

The Council of Higher Education recently decided to open new study tracks that will allow haredi students to pursue academic degrees in engineering, exact sciences, optometry, banking, architecture and arts.The reform aims to give the haredi public access to the academia, with the goal of doubling the number of haredi students from 6,000 to 12,000 by 2017. The reform, which ...

Montreal, Quebec – Jewish Canadian Man Found Frozen To Death

Montreal, Quebec – The body of Matthew Besner, a 27 year old insurance company employee who had been missing since he stepped out of a Montreal restaurant for a few moments early Sunday morning, was found at 8:15 this morning on the shores of the frozen Lachine Canal fifteen blocks west of the restaurant. Footprints on the north side of ...

Montreal Jews fear ‘gang atmosphere’ amid rise in anti-Semitic incidents

Many in Montreal’s Orthodox Jewish community say they are afraid to leave their homes, due to the “gang atmosphere” that has taken over their neighborhood amid renewed anti-Semitic activity. The Chabad community in the city’s Côte des Neiges district has experienced a number of violent incidences against it over the past few weeks, including the mugging of a visibly pregnant ...

Montreal Jewish leader: Vandalism not always made public

Not all recent acts of vandalism against the Montreal Jewish community have been made public, the head of the Montreal Jewish Federation Combined Jewish Appeal’s security coordinating committee has disclosed.Recent media reports have focused on anti-Semitic incidents directed at five synagogues and a school on January 16. However, the head of the committee, Rabbi Reuven Poupko, told The Jerusalem Post ...

Montreal Court: Stop displaying religious objects in cab

A Jewish taxi driver in Montreal may not display religious artifacts and other objects in his cab, a Quebec court ruled.Arieh Perecowicz, 66, a taxi driver for the last 44 years, lost his much-publicized case Feb. 17 when a municipal court upheld several fines against him for having too many personal and religious objects in his car.He was ordered to ...

Months After Death of Leiby Kletzky, Borough Park Grapples With Protecting Its Kids

In Borough Park, Brooklyn, ultra-Orthodox Jews this week have been gathering and eating in outdoor huts called sukkahs. The festival of Sukkot is also dubbed zman simchaseinu — “the Time of Our Rejoicing” — but for some this year, it’s also a bittersweet time.This past summer, 9-year-old Leiby Kletzky was abducted and murdered. His confessed abductor is scheduled to be in court next ...

Montenegro Jews get Organized, all 10 of Them

The late, great singer Frank Zappa once quipped that every self-respecting country needs its own beer and airline.Add a Jewish community to the list.Since Montenegro gained independence from Serbia in 2006, a handful of Jews there have been busy setting up an organization representing their community in the country, which may count no more than 10 active members.On Tuesday, in a ceremony ...

Montenegro Jewish Community Petitions to Pray

Two Jewish organizational leaders asked Montenegro’s president to help the Balkan country’s small Jewish community build a synagogue.The issue was raised during a visit to Montenegro by Vadim Rabinovich and Joel Rubinfeld, both chairmen of the recently established European Jewish Parliament. Montenegro, an area of the former Yugoslavia that became independent in 2006 and has about 660,000 residents, has a ...