Travel and Food

NEW YORK (WJC)–German Chancellor Angela Merkel has been honored for her work in German-Jewish reconciliation with an award from a US group founded by a Jewish survivor of the Holocaust. The Leo Baeck Institute presented its first medal ever to a serving German head of government for Merkel’s work in cultivating a good relationship between […]

AMSTERDAM (Press Release)–Anti-Semitism in the Netherlands nearly doubled in 2009 compared to 2008. Police said that 209 incidents had been documented last year, accounting for nearly a tenth of all discriminatory incidents in the country. Experts said this increase might only be “the tip of the iceberg”. This represented a 48 per cent rise year-on-year

MERCER ISLAND, Washington (WJC)–Anti-Semitic graffiti, including swastikas and references to the Nazi gas chambers, has been spray-painted on the walls of a Jewish high school in the US state of Washington. The epithets in orange, blue and gray paint on the Northwest Yeshiva High School on Mercer Island were daubed late on Thursday last week

JERUSALEM (WJC)–Large riots have erupted in east Jerusalem as approximately 1,000 people joined a funeral procession for a Palestinian killed by an Israeli security guard in Silwan in the early hours of Wednesday. Ten people were injured, including a 35-year-old Israeli who was stabbed in the back near Mount of Olives and three police officers.

NEW YORK (Press Release)–Leaders of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations decried the latest YouTube video attributed to the terrorist organization Hamas that threatens the life of Israeli prisoner Gilad Shalit. The 24-second video shows two masked gunmen standing on either side of Gilad Shalit. As the video fades to black, the

JERUSALEM, Sept. 16 (Press Release)–During her recent visit to Jerusalem, U.S. Secretary of State was interviewed by Maher Shalabi of Palestine TV about issues in the Israeli-Palestinian peace talks.  Here is a transcript: QUESTION: Madam Secretary, thank you for this opportunity. I know that you have a very short time, but it’s clear that U.S. wants

NEW YORK (Press Release)–In a conference call for national Jewish leaders sponsored by the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reiterated his belief that “an historic compromise” to end the conflict between Israel and the Palestinian people is possible. He also reiterated his goal of reaching a framework agreement

By Cynthia Citron LOS ANGELES — Neighbors, a play now having its west coast premiere at The Matrix Theatre, is an angry, nasty,  hateful, and thoroughly mean-spirited take on the “black experience” in America.  Its goal, I would presume, is to make its audience squirm and feel guilty.  Squirm, yes.  Guilty, not so much. Neighbors,

 WASHINGTON, DC  (Press Release)– Four inaugural fellows, including one from San Deigo,  have been selected to serve in a new overseas service initiative for BBYO alumni, the JDC-BBYO Global Service Fellowship, it was announced by The American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (JDC) and BBYO, Inc., the world’s leading pluralistic Jewish teen movement. This fall Ben Becker, Laura

LONDON (WJC)–The convicted Holocaust denier David Irving is set to lead guided tours of former Nazi death camps, including Auschwitz and Treblinka, the British newspaper ‘Daily Mail’ reports. The revisionist historian, who was convicted of Holocaust denial in 2006 by a court in Austria and sentenced to three years in jail, is scheduled to take

CARACAS (WJC)–The leadership of Venezuela’s Jewish community has met with President Hugo Chávez. The Jewish leaders raised the problem of anti-Semitism in state-owned media and asked Chávez to restore diplomatic relations with Israel. During a meeting at the presidential palace in Caracas, Salomón Cohen Botbol, president of the Venezuelan Confederation of Jewish Associations (CAIV), the