World News
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Itzhak Perlman gets personal in an intimate, anecdote-filled performance
(New York Jewish Week) — Like so many people, I feel like I’ve known Itzhak Perlman my entire life (thank you, “Sesame Street”). And now, I finally had the opportunity to see and hear the Israeli-American violin virtuoso perform in person. And not just perform: At a fundraising event Tuesday for the nonprofit Amit Children,…
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Times Square Margaritaville left synagogue ‘homeless,’ suit says
(New York Jewish Week) — A synagogue is suing the developer of the Margaritaville Resort in Times Square, saying he reneged on a promise to house the synagogue in the new entertainment complex and left it “homeless.” According to a lawsuit filed last week, developer Sharif El Gamal had initially promised to find a new…
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Jewish community groups host Afghan, Ukrainian evacuees for Thanksgiving meals
(JTA) — Four and a half feet of snow had just fallen on East Aurora, New York, but Kim Kaiser and her fellow volunteers through Jewish Family Services of Western New York weren’t willing to compromise on their Thanksgiving plans. Those plans involved joining a community Thanksgiving feast on Tuesday night, two days before the…
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Jewish security group credited with averting NY attack says an antisemitic murder in Arizona could have been prevented
(JTA) — A top Jewish community security consultant accused the University of Arizona of ignoring antisemitism as a warning sign in a case that culminated in the shooting death of a professor. “Professor Thomas Meixner lost his life because antisemitism is not being taken seriously enough,” Michael Masters, the CEO of the Secure Community Network,…
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Bosnian Jews mourn Moris Albahari, one of Sarajevo’s last Ladino speakers
(JTA) — Moris Albahari, a Holocaust survivor, former partisan fighter and one of the last Ladino speakers in Bosnia and Herzegovina’s dwindling Jewish community, passed away at the age of 93 last month. It is believed that he was one of four native Ladino speakers remaining in a country where the Judeo-Spanish language once flourished…
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There’s no beer at the World Cup in Qatar, but there are kosher bagels
(JTA) — Qatar may have caused an uproar by banning alcohol at the World Cup soccer tournament in Doha this month, but for religious Jewish fans, some kosher offerings will be available, thanks to two rabbis. Rabbi Marc Schneier, from New York, and Rabbi Mendy Chitrik, the Hasidic Chabad-Lubavitch movement’s emissary to Istanbul, worked with…
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When I heard Dave Chappelle’s monologue, all I could think about were my classmates’ Holocaust jokes
(JTA) — I don’t find Dave Chapelle’s “Saturday Night Live” monologue funny, unlike my classmates who draw inspiration from him. About a year ago, in my eighth-grade English class, I was listening to my classmates talk about Holocaust denial. Some of them were joking, sure, but that didn’t make it any better. We’d been reading…
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Following threat against Jewish community, Gov. Hochul signs bills to help prevent hate crimes
(New York Jewish Week) – Days after two men were arrested at Penn Station and charged with planning an attack on a synagogue, Gov. Kathy Hochul signed legislation meant to combat hate and bias crimes. The bills would require mandatory hate crime prevention training for individuals convicted of such crimes, as well as establish a…
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Harrison Ford will fight Nazis again in forthcoming ‘Indiana Jones’ sequel
(JTA) – Indy’s going to sock it to the Third Reich once more. The fifth movie in the Indiana Jones series will plop Harrison Ford’s heroic archaeologist into “a castle swarming with Nazis” in the year 1944, according to new plot details revealed in Empire Magazine this week. Digital de-aging technology will be used to…
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Ethiopian Jewish holiday of Sigd gets a boost in the US with picture books and new resources
(JTA) — Synagogues and Hebrew schools in the United States looking to help their communities celebrate Sigd, an Ethiopian Jewish holiday, have gotten a helping hand this year, thanks to Sigal Kanotopsky. Kanotopsky is the first Ethiopian Jew to hold a regional leadership position at the Jewish Agency for Israel, a nonprofit agency associated with…
