Section: Jewish Telegraphic Agency (USA)
Israeli mayor refuses to deliver remarks in Poland censored under new Holocaust law
JERUSALEM (JTA) — An Israeli mayor canceled his participation in a ceremony with the mayor of the Polish town of Radomsko after the speech he was to deliver to Israeli high school students was censored by local authorities. Eli Dukorsky, mayor of the northern Israeli city of Kiryat Bialik, refused to deliver the censored speech and the ceremony...
This exiled opposition leader from Maduro’s Venezuela is drawing strength from his Jewish roots
David Smolansky, a leader in exile of Venezuela’s opposition, in Washington, D.C., March 12, 2018 (Ron Kampeas) WASHINGTON (JTA) — David Smolansky has become the exiled face of the resistance to the regime of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro. It doesn’t take long to realize why the major media constantly seek him out for commentary...
Why some Jews in Russia don’t think Putin’s comment about them was anti-Semitic
Russian President Vladimir Putin speaks with Russian Chief Rabbi Berel Lazar, left, and Alexander Boroda, head of the Federation of Jewish Communities, during their meeting at the Kremlin in Moscow, Dec. 28, 2016. (Alexei Druzhinin/AFP/Getty Images) (JTA) — When Boruch Gorin, a well-known rabbi in Moscow, traveled for the first time from Russia...
Putin: Jews may be responsible for US election meddling
Russian President Vladimir Putin at the G20 economic summit in Hamburg, Germany, July 7, 2017. (Sean Gallup/Getty Images) (JTA) — Russian President Vladimir Putin said Jews or other minorities might have been behind attempts to interfere in the 2016 American presidential elections. In an interview with NBC News to air this weekend, Putin denied...
Polish senator calls for Israeli ambassador’s expulsion
(JTA) — A Polish senator for the ruling party said he would not shake hands with Israel’s ambassador and that he favors her expulsion from Poland for saying anti-Semitism was on the rise there. Jan Zaryn said this during an interview published Friday by the wPolsce news site. “If anyone today thinks to equate in any way the rule of the Law...
More women are in charge of Jewish groups in the former Soviet Union, thanks to a communist legacy
Anna Grigolaya, left, with her son and daughter. (Courtesy of Grigolaya) (JTA) — For a man to gallantly open a door for a female stranger is neither common nor universally appreciated in Ukraine, where gender salary gaps used to be illegal and female tank crews fought the Nazis. Throughout the former Soviet Union, the communist revolution...
Russian company names an ice cream ‘Poor Jews’
A company in Russia’s Tartarstan region sells an ice cream cone named “Poor Jews.” (Slavitsa) (JTA) — Jews in Russia’s Tatarstan region are objecting to a new ice cream called “Poor Jews.” The ice cream cone, announced last month by the Slavitsa company in Naberezhnye Chelny, 600 miles east of Moscow, is wrapped in an image of...
Poland’s Holocaust law upends one activist’s decade of progress in interfaith relations
Bogdan Bialek, right, and Michal Jaskulski during a 2016 discussion in Warsaw about the film made about his interfaith efforts in Poland. (Courtesy of the makers of “Bogdan’s Journey”) (JTA) — The Catholic journalist Bogdan Bialek is used to being called a traitor in Poland for his commemorations of Jewish victims of a 1946 pogrom in his...
Polish president not welcome at White House over Holocaust legislation, report says
Polish President Andrzej Duda at the NATO Multinational Corps Northeast headquarters in Szczecin, Poland Nov. 28, 2016. (Sean Gallup/Getty Images) (JTA) — A leading news website in Poland reported that it had obtained documents suggesting that the country’s highest officials are not welcome at the White House over a law limiting discourse...
Winter Olympics 2018: 5 Jewish storylines to watch
(JTA collage) (JTA) — The world is about to revolve around Pyeongchang, a mountainous county in the northern half of South Korea, for the upcoming Winter Olympics. Jewish fans won’t have quite as many standout athletes to cheer for this year as they did in 2016, when multiple American members of the tribe won medals at the Summer Games in...
