Section: Jewish Telegraphic Agency (USA)
U.S. commerce secretary visits her Jewish roots in Ukraine
(JTA) – U.S. Secretary of Commerce Penny Pritzker visited the Ukrainian village where her Jewish ancestors lived in the 19th century. Marina Poroshenko, the wife of Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, accompanied Pritzker on her visit Tuesday to Bolshi Prytsky, 55 miles southeast of Kiev, the news agency Regnum reported. During her working...
US religious freedom report: Anti-Semitism ‘major problem’ around globe
(JTA) — Anti-Semitism “continued to be a major problem around the globe,” the U.S. State Department’s annual International Religious Freedom Report for 2014 found. The 17th annual report, which was released Wednesday, noted that anti-Semitic incidents rose significantly in Western Europe during the 2014 Gaza War between Israel and Hamas as...
Pre-aliyah conversion project launched in Ukraine
(JTA) — A program to help prospective immigrants begin converting to Judaism before they immigrate to Israel was launched in Ukraine. The program, titled “Maslul,” Hebrew for path or course, was launched Thursday at the Galitska Synagogue in Kiev with funding from the Harry A. Triguboff Foundation. Among those attending the launch was the...
In Putin’s policing of Middle East, some see a boon for Israel
Russian President Vladimir Putin, left, greeting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Moscow, Sept. 21, 2015. (Israeli Embassy in Russia/Flash90) (JTA) — As a defiant Russia again flexes military muscles in the Middle East and Eastern Europe, Cold War analogies are, perhaps, unavoidable. The deployment last month of Russian warplanes in...
What Syria’s refugees think about Israel might surprise you
Germany is struggling to process and accommodate the 10,000 refugees streaming into the country every day. (Uriel Heilman) BERLIN (JTA) – Israel’s government is in cahoots with Syrian President Bashar Assad. America wants to keep the Syrian civil war going for as long as possible. Russia is outmaneuvering the United States on the global...
Senior rabbi: Russian Jews ‘insecure’ about future in country
(JTA) — A senior Russian rabbi condemned the government’s listing of a Jewish welfare group as a foreign agent, calling it part of a policy which is making Jews insecure of their future in Russia. Boruch Gorin, a Chabad rabbi who acts as a senior aide to Russian Chief Rabbi Berel Lazar and as editor-in-chief of the highbrow “L’chaim”...
Body of missing Israeli man found in river near Ukraine pilgrimage site
JERUSALEM (JTA) — The body of an Israeli man who was missing in Uman since Rosh Hashanah was found floating in a river near the grave of the founder of the Breslov Hasidic movement. Amir Ohana, 28, was found Saturday by volunteers from the ZAKA rescue and recovery organization. He was wearing his Shabbat clothes but without shoe or socks, and it...
Israeli man missing in Uman following holiday pilgrimage
JERUSALEM (JTA) — An Israeli man went missing in Uman in the Ukraine during the annual Rosh Hashanah pilgrimage. Amir Ohana, 28, has not been seen since Tuesday, when he went into the forest to meditate, according to reports. Ohana, the father of 3, reportedly has a serious medical condition. Because of his illness, he was not able to purchase...
Moscow’s Reform rabbinic institute welcomes first class
MOSCOW (JTA) — A newly-established rabbinical seminary in Moscow for Reform Jews received its first class, made up of seven students. The seven — four women and three men — began attending the Moscow Rabbinic Leadership Institute, also known as Machon, earlier this month, the World Union for Progressive Judaism said in a statement Thursday....
Why Putin embraces Jews, but not gays
Russian President Vladimir Putin, left, is greeted by Russia’s Chief Rabbi Berel Lazar in Moscow, June 13, 2013. (Alexander Zemlianichenko/AP Images) For the Kremlin, the interfaith roundtable last Thursday at Kazan’s Hall of Culture provided the perfect propaganda moment. Before the meeting, dozens of journalists snapped pictures of...
