World News
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A bagel and lox giveaway draws a crowd of hundreds in Midtown
(New York Jewish Week) — There are few things in the world that famously impatient New Yorkers will line up for: theater tickets, hot nightclubs and really good food — even more so if it is free. So it was on Thursday morning, when several hundred people stood on line near Bryant Park in Midtown…
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‘We have to be here fighting’: Deborah Lipstadt opens up on her Poland-Germany trip with Douglas Emhoff
BERLIN (JTA) — Second gentleman Douglas Emhoff made headlines late last month during a trip to Europe, where he met with other foreign leaders working to combat antisemitism and returned to his ancestors’ town in Poland. But the trip was originally Deborah Lipstadt’s mission. The historian, an authority on Holocaust issues and now the U.S.…
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Park East Synagogue’s prospective rabbi withdraws from consideration after dispute with congregatnts
(New York Jewish Week) — Days after Rabbi Yitzchak Schochet gave a lecture at Park East Synagogue that led to a confrontation with a member over his views, Schochet announced that he will be staying at his synagogue in London. Schochet, a Chabad-affiliated rabbi who has served as rabbi of London’s Mill Hill United Synagogue…
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A hospital-turned-church-turned-bar in Spain revealed as medieval synagogue
MADRID (JTA) — Archaeologists excavating a town in southwestern Spain have excavated a 14th-century Sephardic synagogue, revealing a fully intact floor plan including a women’s section and ritual baths. The synagogue complex in Utrera, in the province of Seville, is believed to be among the largest ever found on the Iberian Peninsula from the medieval…
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Burt Bacharach, sophisticated Jewish hitmaker of the ‘60s and ‘70s, dies at 94
(JTA) — Songwriter Burt Bacharach, who with his longtime lyricist Hal David turned out a string of hits in the 1960s and ’70s — including “Alfie” and “Raindrops Keep Fallin’ On My Head” — died on Wednesday at his home in Los Angeles. He was 94. Bacharach and David, both Jewish New Yorkers, also wrote…
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Stalwart of Antakya Jewish community confirmed dead in Turkey quake as search continues
(JTA) — The fate of Saul Cenudioglu, the president of the small Jewish community in Antakya, remains unknown, while his wife Fortuna was confirmed dead Thursday morning after an Israeli search team pulled her body from the wreckage of their apartment building. The two were believed to have been buried when their building collapsed in…
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Man charged with making threats against Toulouse Jewish school that was site of 2012 shooting
(JTA) — French authorities have placed under judicial supervision a man who allegedly made threatening phone calls last month to a Jewish school in Toulouse that was the site of a deadly terror attack in 2012. The 34-year-old suspect made 163 phone calls in total, reports show, including some to a hospital and to a…
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Bill to criminalize egalitarian prayer and immodest dress at the Western Wall is shelved after outcry
(JTA) — A proposed Israeli law that would sharply curtail the rights of women and non-Orthodox Jews at the Western Wall sparked alarm on Thursday, leading Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to pledge that regulations at the holy site would “remain exactly the same” as they are now. The bill was submitted by a lawmaker…
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Barcelona mayor severs ties with twin city of Tel Aviv, citing Israeli ‘apartheid’
(JTA) — Barcelona Mayor Ada Colau has announced that the city is no longer twinned with Tel Aviv, citing claims that Israel is guilty of “apartheid,” as well as “flagrant and systematic violation of human rights.” Barcelona and Tel Aviv entered the relationship in 1998 — when both cities jointly signed a “twin city” agreement…
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The quest to replace Park East Synagogue’s 92-year-old rabbi is not going smoothly
(New York Jewish Week) — More than a year after it attracted attention for the abrupt termination of its popular assistant rabbi, Manhattan’s Park East Synagogue was again the scene of a heated squabble on Sunday. And like last time, the spat centered on who will succeed the Orthodox congregation’s 92-year-old spiritual leader, Rabbi Arthur…
