Diaspora Jewry
An earlier flight from St. Petersburg with 26 Russian Jews marked the 30th anniversary of the International Christian Embassy Jerusalem’s sponsorship of aliyah from the former Soviet Union.
Nearly 80 percent of Israelis are sabras and more than one-third are minors, according to data released by the Central Bureau of Statistics.
The Middle East media monitoring organization launched a new website in response to rising anti-Semitism in the United Kingdom.
The 2020 winners were chosen in the following categories: science and medicine; community and nonprofit; education; global impact; culture, art and sports; and young leadership.
“The good news at the end of a dramatic week of twists and turns that would make Shakespeare blush is that your ‘Jewish News’ is back,” announced editor Richard Ferrer.
More than 50 synagogues and some 30 community centers or Jewish schools across the globe were targeted for anti-Semitic attacks in 2019.
Roughly half of those surveyed said they were worried that a person wearing a yarmulke or other display of Judaism would be physically assaulted or verbally harassed in public.
According to Israel’s Central Bureau of Statistics, there were 14.7 million Jews worldwide at the end of 2018, which is 100,000 short of the 1925 figures and far short of the 16.6 million estimated to have been alive on the eve of the Second World War in 1939.
The staff, which merged in February in an effort to keep British Jewish journalism financially afloat, will be laid off.
“This funding will help Jewish people practice their religion and way of life without fear of attack or persecution,” said British Home Secretary Priti Patel.
“‘Out of depth, I call you,’ ... those are very powerful words and remind us, especially when we recite the psalms, that we are not the first generation that faces adversity … and that many psalms express hope and confidence in the future,” said Rabbi Jacob Blumenthal, chief executive of the Rabbinical Assembly, the rabbinic arm of the Conservative movement.
In a letter to their communities, 35 Orthodox Jewish leaders and nine medical professionals write, “To all those from out of state considering spending Pesach here in Florida: It’s halachically prohibited and medically irresponsible to come for Pesach.”
