Section: Jewish Telegraphic Agency (USA)
Polish villagers hold Jewish wedding without Jews
Villagers attending a fake Jewish wedding in the Polish village of Radzanow, Aug 5, 2017. (Jonny Daniels/From the Depths) (JTA) — Nostalgia for Jews is a well-documented phenomenon in Eastern Europe, with cultural and even substantial commercial aspects. In Ukraine, so-called Jewish-themed restaurants with pork-heavy menus compete for tourists,...
Blogger jailed in Azerbaijan asks to be extradited to Israel
JERUSALEM (JTA) — An Israeli blogger who was sentenced to three years in prison in Azerbaijan for illegally entering Nagorno-Karabakh has asked to be extradited to Israel. Alexander Lapshin, who also holds Russian and Ukrainian citizenship, appealed to Israel to extradite him from Azerbaijan, Haaretz reported, citing Lapshin’s attorney. He...
Canada strips citizenship of ex-Nazi for a fourth time
MONTREAL (JTA) — A 93-year-old ex-Nazi stripped of his Canadian citizenship for an unprecedented fourth time is vowing to appeal the decision yet again. Last week, Canada revoked the citizenship of Helmut Oberlander, a retired developer in Waterloo, Ontario, who has been accused of hiding his Nazi past before obtaining citizenship in 1960. The...
Billionaire unjustly jailed in Putin’s Russia to represent Jewish ex-Soviet communities
(JTA) — Eight years after his release from wrongful imprisonment in Russia, the Israeli billionaire Mikhael Mirilashvili was elected to lead the World Jewish Congress Euro-Asian affiliate, representing communities from Ukraine to Singapore. Mirilashvili, who had spent eight years in a Russian prison until 2009 on trumped up charges connected to...
Israeli blogger sentenced to 3 years in prison in Azerbaijan
JERUSALEM (JTA) — An Israeli blogger who also holds Russian and Ukrainian citizenship was sentenced to three years in prison in Azerbaijan for illegally entering Nagorno-Karabakh, which is disputed territory with Armenia. Alexander Lapshin, 40, of Haifa, writes a Russian-language travel blog called Life Adventures that chronicles his trips to 122...
Anti-Semitism, Hungary and Netanyahu: What you need to know
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, left, with Hungarian President Janos Ader in Budapest, July 18, 2017. (Haim Zach/Israeli Government Press Office) (JTA) — To critics of Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister’s visit to Hungary this week was a disgrace and an abandonment of local Jews in their fight against a government...
Hungarian prime minister acknowledges his country’s ‘sin’ of abandoning its Jews to the Nazis
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, left, and his Hungarian counterpart, Viktor Orban, at a joint news conference at the parliament in Budapest, July 18, 2017. (Karoly Arvai/AFP/Getty Images) (JTA) — Hungary committed a “sin” in not protecting its Jewish citizens during World War II and collaborating with the Nazis, the country’s...
Polish former priest indicted for inciting hatred against Jews
WARSAW, Poland (JTA) — The prosecutor’s office in the western Poland city of Wroclaw issued an indictment against former priest Jacek Międlar for “public incitement to hatred based on religious and national differences.” He could face up to 2 years in prison. On Nov. 11, 2016, during the Polish Independence Day, Wroclaw hosted the “March of...
Firebomb hurled at Ukrainian synagogue
(JTA) — Unidentified individuals hurled a firebomb at a synagogue in Lviv and, in a separate incident, wrote anti-Semitic slogans on another Jewish community building in the western Ukrainian city. The incident involving a firebomb occurred on June 30 but was discovered only Monday, according to the Strana news site. The perpetrators may have...
Grave robbers exhume bodies of Holocaust victims from Crimean killing trench
(JTA) — Police in Crimea, a territory that Russia annexed from Ukraine in 2014, are investigating the desecration by robbers of a mass grave of Holocaust victims near the city of Simferopol. The investigation opened Tuesday following the unauthorized exhumations performed last week at the site of a firing trench, where Nazis and their...
