World News
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The Jewish Sport Report: A deep dive into Jewish memory with Rocky Balboa
This article was sent as a newsletter. Sign up for our weekly Jewish sports newsletter here. Happy February, readers! This month brings us the Super Bowl, baseball’s Spring Training, and the NBA, NHL and NFL All-Star games. This weekend, you can catch Jack Hughes (New Jersey Devils) and Adam Fox (New York Rangers) in the NHL…
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Jewish institutions have a tool for fighting climate change: their bank accounts
(JTA) — The last eight years have been the hottest in recorded history, causing untold damage across the world — and that destruction is not something that we can reverse with the flick of a switch. We can’t instantly turn back the floods in California nor solve its decade-long drought. We can’t immediately end the…
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A Jewish expert on monuments on what Philly’s famous Rocky Balboa statue can teach us about memory
(JTA) — Paul Farber was shocked when he first watched “Rocky” and saw a Star of David on the grave of Rocky Balboa’s coach, Mickey Goldmill. As a Jew and as the founder of the Philadelphia-based Monument Lab, which has explored collective memory through art installations across the country for over a decade, Farber was…
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One rabbi’s lifesaving solution to help Odessa’s vulnerable Jews: jerry-rigged car batteries
This winter, the city of Odessa, Ukraine, feels like the heart of darkness. The city is constant bombardment by the Russian military, freezing nighttime temperatures commonly fall below zero, and electricity is only available for six hours per day: three in the morning and three at night. Amid these desperate circumstances, Avraham Wolff, the chief…
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A rabbi went down with his torpedoed warship in 1943. Today, his cousin ensures his story is not forgotten.
(JTA) — Mark Auerbach was not yet 5 years old when he noticed an unusual stamp in his father’s dresser. The well-worn three-cent stamp featured a drawing of a small group of men and a sinking ship, with the words “The Immortal Chaplains… Interfaith in action.” It piqued his interest, so he asked his father…
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A Minnesota synagogue built an ice rink — and is inaugurating it with a klezmer skate
(JTA) — A forecasted low of -16 degrees in the Twin Cities on Thursday has the stage set perfectly for two frozen Jewish firsts — a Klezmer on Ice festival and a synagogue-run skating rink. Such is life in Minnesota, where bone-chilling temperatures are no match for Jewish festivities. “It kind of shows us the Minnesota-style…
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Orthodox activist Heshy Tischler makes peace with the Jewish reporter who was caught in his riot
(New York Jewish Week) — Not quite two years ago, the Orthodox provocateur Heshy Tischler pled guilty to riling up rioters against the Jewish journalist Jacob Kornbluh during protests against pandemic restrictions in Brooklyn. On Wednesday night, the duo were locked in a more genial altercation — on Tishler’s radio show, where Kornbluh was a guest.…
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Russian missiles reportedly damage a historic synagogue in southeastern Ukraine
(JTA) — Russian missile fire damaged an 113-year-old synagogue in the city of Huliaipole, Ukraine, last weekend. An unconfirmed photo of the synagogue on Twitter shows a massive hole in the building’s exterior; the state of the interior is unclear. Оккупационные войска ударили по синагоге в Гуляйполе Это здание постройки 1909 года регулярно страдает от…
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Ilhan Omar sponsors pro-Israel resolution on day that Republicans kick her off a key committee
WASHINGTON (JTA) — The resolution is called “Recognizing Israel as America’s Legitimate and Democratic Ally and Condemning Antisemitism,” and its cosponsors are a who’s-who of the pro-Israel Democrats, including leading Jewish lawmakers. Also on the sponsor list: Rep. Ilhan Omar, who has been one of Israel’s harshest critics in Congress and who Republicans on Thursday…
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19-year-old American seminary student killed in Jerusalem car accident
(JTA) — A 19-year-old from Long Island was killed in a car accident in Jerusalem on Wednesday night. Adira Koffsky was hit by a car whose driver lost control in a rain storm. A 2022 graduate of Yeshiva University Girls High School, Koffsky was studying in a gap-year program for Orthodox women called Midreshet Amudim,…
