Jewish News

European Rabbis Honor Angela Merkel

The Conference of European Rabbis (CER) has decided to award the 2013 Lord Jakobovits Prize for European Jewry to German Chancellor Angela Merkel following the legislation she led to allow circumcisions in her country.According to the prize committee, Merkel will receive the award “to mark her strong record of support for the German Jewish community and her outspoken denunciation of ...

European Rabbi Group Protests Protocols of the Elders of Zion App

A European rabbinical group is protesting a mobile app of the notorious anti-Semitic text “The Protocols of the Elders of Zion.”Rabbi Pinchas Goldschmidt, president of the Brussels-based Conference of European Rabbis, said in a statement Tuesday that he would contact Apple to urge that the company remove the app. JTA’s calls to Apple were not immediately answered.The app, which was ...

European Jews Urge Reversal of Polish Shechita Ban

The European Jewish Association (EJA) has called upon Polish and European Union leaders to help reverse a Polish Constitutional Court ruling banning shechita, or kosher slaughter, in the country.“It has been proven scientifically, that kosher butchering does not allow the animal to feel pain?,” asserted EJA Director General, Rabbi Menachem Margolin, according to the European Jewish Press (EJP).He stated that “there have ...

European Jewry Calls On Obama To Free Jonathan Pollard

In a new twist to the ongoing effort to secure Jonathan Pollard’s freedom, a prominent European Jewish leader has written to President Obama and asked that he commute Pollard’s sentence to time served (the full text of the letter appears below and a copy is attached).Although the calls for clemency for Jonathan Pollard have grown louder and stronger in recent ...

European Jewish Group Fears Israel-Iran Backlash

The head of a major European Jewish group warned Wednesday of a “dramatic increase” in anti-Semitic violence across the continent if Israel attacks Iran to stop its nuclear development program.The US and its allies suspect that Iran is trying to develop a nuclear weapon — a charge that Tehran denies. Israel views a nuclear-armed Iran as a threat to its ...

European Jewish Congress President Receives Top Italian Award

Dr. Moshe Kantor, president of the European Jewish Congress, was awarded the highest decoration to a non-Italian by Italy’s president, Giorgio Napolitano.Kantor was given the Knight Grand Cross of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic award for his work in promoting tolerance and reconciliation, human rights and interfaith dialogue, and his struggle against anti-Semitism and racism, according to ...

European Jewish Communities Ramp Up Security Following Toulouse Attack

Jewish communities throughout Europe have been ramping up security measures over the past 24 hours, in light of the fear that quickly spread since Monday morning’s shooting in Toulouse.“After what happened in France yesterday, police have been deployed outside all schools,” said Sylvan Landau, who has been vice-president of the Union of Jewish Communities in Belgium for the past 40 ...

EU Jewish Buildings Helps Organizations Work Together

Arutz Sheva met with Rabbi Michoel Rosenblum, the Director of the EU Jewish Buildings.EU Jewish Buildings is an initiative which was started in 2004 and which aims to set up infrastructure for Jewish organizations that need a base at the European Union.Rabbi Rosenblum explained that the initiative was founded out of the recognition that European Jewish organizations were not taking advantage ...

Estonian Gas Company Uses Auschwitz Image in Ad

An Estonian gas company used a photo of Auschwitz to advertise their products.The website of the Estonian company GasTerm Eesti on Aug. 23 published a photograph of the front gate of the Nazi camp Auschwitz with the famous inscription “Arbeit macht frei,” or work makes you free. The caption of the photo read: “Gas heating – flexible, convenient, and effective.”The ...

Estonia to Lead Fight Against European Anti-Kosher Bill

Estonia’s prime minister has promised to fight against a European Parliament bill that would force kosher meat to be labeled “unstunned before slaughter.” The special labeling might discourage people from buying kosher meat, thereby causing a sharp drop in demand and an exorbitant rise in prices.Prime Minister Andrus Ansip told the Rabbinical Center of Europe (RCE) and representatives of European ...

Eric Hobsbawm, Jewish British Historian, Dies Aged 95

Eric Hobsbawm, one of Britain’s most eminent historians, has died at the age of 95.Daughter Julia Hobsbawm said Monday that her father died overnight at a London hospital. He had been suffering from pneumonia.Hobsbawm was born in Alexandria, Egypt, to Jewish parents in 1917. He went to school in Berlin during the Weimar Republic, but left for Britain in 1933, ...

Eric Bellucci, brilliant, but troubled man suspected of killing parents, caught in Israel

A fugitive suspected of stabbing his parents to death inside their Staten Island home was captured in Israel while trying to buy a plane ticket to China .Eric Bellucci, 30, was nabbed at about 2:30 a.m. at Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurin International Airport, said Deputy Commissioner Paul Browne, the NYPD’s top spokesman. But when his credit card was rejected the counter clerk realized who he was and alerted authorities.Read More: @ ...