All posts tagged: Jewish

Dutch court allows rapper Ye concerts in the Netherlands

Dutch court allows rapper Ye concerts in the Netherlands

Published by Sam Flores

AMSTERDAM (AP) — A judge in Amsterdam on Wednesday rejected an appeal by a Jewish organization to block two performances by the rapper Ye, formerly Kanye West, ruling that the concerts are not a threat to public order. Ye has drawn widespread controversy in recent years for a series of antisemitic remarks, leaving Dutch authorities under mounting pressure to cancel the gigs on June 6 and 8. The Central Jewish Council filed the emergency lawsuit on Tuesday, arguing that Ye should be banned from the country for voicing admiration for Adolf Hilter and selling T-shirts featuring swastikas. According to the Amsterdam District Court, there were no grounds to bar Ye from performing. “There are no indications that West’s presence in the coming days will lead to concrete public order dangers,” the court said in a statement. The Central Jewish Council expressed disappointment with the ruling. “The feeling we are getting is that it is okay if you are antisemitic,” Chanan Hertzberger, the organization’s chair, told The Associated Press. Lawmakers in the Netherlands supported a motion …

Canada is failing the Jewish community and Jews are being targeted, Prime Minister Carney says

Canada is failing the Jewish community and Jews are being targeted, Prime Minister Carney says

Published by Sam Flores

TORONTO (AP) — Canada is failing Jewish Canadians and the community is being brutally targeted by hate, Prime Minister Mark Carney said Monday. Carney said across Canada, antisemitism has surged to levels not seen in the post-World War II era. He noted that last year over two-thirds of all religion-motivated hate crimes were directed at Jewish Canadians. Jews make up only 1% of the population. “The horror and shame are global. Our actions must be local. They start with clearly admitting that Canada’s civic compact is failing Jewish Canadians,” Carney said at Holy Blossom Temple in Toronto. Carney said antisemites in Canada have fired bullets at Jewish schools and thrown firebombs at synagogues and attacked community centers. He said they have targeted Jewish-owned businesses and drove Jewish students from common spaces on university campuses. Carney said antisemitism plagues Europe, Australia and the United States. But he said the crisis of antisemitism in Canada is “specific, severe and demands a targeted response.” There has been a sharp rise in antisemitic incidents globally since the Israel-Hamas war …

Inquiry into antisemitism in Australia condemns online hatred and bigotry targeting witnesses

Inquiry into antisemitism in Australia condemns online hatred and bigotry targeting witnesses

Published by Sam Flores

MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — The head of an inquiry into antisemitism in Australia on Tuesday said Jewish witnesses who appeared before it are facing online harassment and bigotry and issued a condemnation. The Royal Commission on Antisemitism and Social Cohesion was created in response to two gunmen allegedly inspired by the Islamic State group slaying 15 people at a Sydney Hanukkah celebration in December. Royal commissions are Australia’s highest form of public inquiry. The commission’s head, former High Court judge Virginia Bell, said Jewish witnesses who testified about their experiences of antisemitism since public hearings began on May 4 have been subjected to online “harassment and intimidation.” “We have received reports from a number of witnesses concerning a dramatic increase in online hate messages after they have given evidence,” Bell said. “Quite what this undiluted level of hatred and bigotry directed towards members of the Jewish community is thought to benefit by those who post these remarks is lost on me,” she added. The commission was recording the “offensive social media posts,” Bell said, and …

Israel allows Orthodox Jewish women to take rabbinic exam : NPR

Israel allows Orthodox Jewish women to take rabbinic exam : NPR

Published by Sam Flores

Rabbanit Batya Krauss leads a women’s study session at Matan – The Sadie Rennert Women’s Institute for Torah Studies in Raanana, Israel. Matan is an Israeli institute dedicated to advanced Torah learning and Jewish studies for women, offering educational programs and leadership training. Ofir Berman for NPR hide caption toggle caption Ofir Berman for NPR JERUSALEM — To be officially ordained as an Orthodox rabbi in Israel, you have to pass a grueling series of exams. And you have to be a man. Now, after a years-long court battle, Israel has finally allowed women to take the official rabbinic exams. Israel’s Orthodox religious authorities still refuse to officially ordain women as rabbis, and most Orthodox communities themselves are resistant to women carrying that formal title. But opening up the rabbinic tests to women could qualify them for other leadership roles, like public servant jobs in Israel running state-funded religious services. Advocates consider it a milestone in an ongoing revolution for Orthodox Judaism, expanding women’s roles as scholarly experts in Jewish religious law. “Women need to …

For Jewish converts, the spring holiday Shavuot takes on special significance 

For Jewish converts, the spring holiday Shavuot takes on special significance 

Published by Sam Flores

(RNS) — Vanessa Bloom recalls her rabbi gently reminding her that she still had time to walk away. But she felt compelled toward the Jewish faith. “I knew my fate was already tied to the Jewish people,” she told RNS. Bloom, a Jewish day school teacher in Los Angeles, was raised in a multifaith family, threw herself into Jewish life at college and co-led local gatherings of the Asian-Jewish Lunar Collective. She’d completed a comprehensive modern Orthodox conversion program study course. Now the final decision was hers. So, she stepped into the mikvah, a ritual bath, and chanted blessings that sealed her commitment to God, the Torah and its teachings. On Thursday (May 21), like millions of Jews around the world, Bloom will celebrate the spring festival of Shavuot, which commemorates the pivotal moment in the Jewish story when God gave the Torah to the Israelites at Mount Sinai, offering a covenant of protection and intimacy, alongside the responsibility of commandments. It’s the culmination seven weeks after Passover that represents spiritual liberation through God’s laws …

Lawsuit targets whites-only Arkansas community after applicant claims she was rejected for Jewish roots, Black husband

Lawsuit targets whites-only Arkansas community after applicant claims she was rejected for Jewish roots, Black husband

Published by Sam Flores

Orwoll characterized the policy as “free association,” not segregation. On its website, Return to the Land describes itself a “private membership association (PMA) for individuals and families with traditional views and common continental ancestry.” Walker’s attorney, Reed Colfax, argued Return to the Land is a racist organization in violation of federal anti-discrimination laws dating to 1866. “Return to the Land’s actions constitute blatant and brazen violations of long-standing federal and state fair housing laws,” Reed Colfax said in a statement posted on the Legal Defense Fund website. “Ms. Walker has been deprived of her housing and civil rights, including the right to purchase land and build housing.” Walker, a real estate broker in and around St. Louis, Missouri, said in the complaint that she learned last summer that the group was selling land in the Ozarks, “an area where she occasionally vacationed.” She was drawn to the listing partly because the asking price was unusually low, and she decided to apply, citing both the investment potential and other possibilities the land offered. During the application …

Jewish man ‘attacked by several men’ in Golders Green after heard ‘speaking Hebrew’ | UK | News

Jewish man ‘attacked by several men’ in Golders Green after heard ‘speaking Hebrew’ | UK | News

Published by Sam Flores

A Jewish man suffered injuries to his face and back after he was allegedly assaulted in Golders Green, North London, the Metropolitan Police has said. The 22-year-old was attacked by five masked men at 2am on Monday after he stepped outside his apartment to make a phone call and was heard speaking Hebrew, the Campaign Against Antisemitism (CAA) said. In a statement, the Metropolitan Police confirmed they were investigating and that the incident is being “treated as an antisemitic hate crime”. The force said: “Police were called at 02:05hrs on Monday, 18 May, following reports that a Jewish man had been assaulted by a number of men outside a property on The Grove, NW11. “Officers attended within six minutes and spoke to the victim, a man in his 20s, who later attended hospital with injuries to his face and back. “The assault is being treated as an antisemitic hate crime. No arrests have been made at this stage and police enquiries continue.” According to the CAA, the alleged assailants chased the man, dragged him across …

Jewish man in hospital after being ‘assaulted by a number of men’ in Golders Green | UK | News

Jewish man in hospital after being ‘assaulted by a number of men’ in Golders Green | UK | News

Published by Sam Flores

A Jewish person was assaulted in the early hours of Monday, police said. The Metropolitan Police was called to a road in Golders Green, north London, shortly after 2am on May 18 to reports a Jewish male had been assaulted by a number of men. The male in his 20s was taken to hospital, where he is being treated for injuries to his back and face, the force added. The alleged incident happened outside a property on The Grove. Police said they are treating the incident as an anti-Semitic hate crime. No arrests have been made and anyone with information is asked to contact the police, the force added. A Met Police spokesperson said: “Police were called at 02:05hrs on Monday, 18 May following reports that a Jewish man had been assaulted by a number of men outside a property on The Grove, NW11. “Officers attended within six minutes and spoke to the victim, a man in his 20s, who later attended hospital with injuries to his face and back. “The assault is being treated …

Australia bans a neo-Nazi network under new law that criminalizes hate groups

Australia bans a neo-Nazi network under new law that criminalizes hate groups

Published by Sam Flores

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — Australia identified a neo-Nazi network as the second organization being banned under its new law criminalizing hate groups and support for them. The group, formerly known as the National Socialist Network and sometimes called White Australia, said it would disband after the government in January passed the law allowing certain organizations to be banned. The law was in response to the antisemitic attack on a Hanukkah celebration at Sydney’s Bondi Beach in December in which 15 people were killed. The National Socialist Network “changed their name, but didn’t change the fact that they were still an organization and were still engaging in the same sort of behavior that met the thresholds for this legislation,” Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke told reporters in Canberra on Friday. Members of hate groups face 15 years in prison The ban, which would take effect at the end of Friday, makes it illegal to support, fund, train, recruit, join or direct the group, including if it reformed under a new name, Burke said. Breaking the …

Iraqi man accused of NYC synagogue plot after attacks in Europe and Canada in response to Iran war

Iraqi man accused of NYC synagogue plot after attacks in Europe and Canada in response to Iran war

Published by Sam Flores

NEW YORK (AP) — An Iraqi national accused of plotting at least 18 terror attacks in Europe in retaliation for the U.S. and Israel’s war with Iran, including firebombing a bank in Amsterdam and stabbing Jewish men in London, has been arrested and charged with supporting Iran-backed terrorist organizations. According to a complaint unsealed Friday in federal court in Manhattan, Mohammad Baqer Saad Dawood Al-Saadi sought to attack a New York City synagogue last month and provided an undercover law enforcement officer with photos and maps of Jewish centers in Los Angeles and Scottsdale, Arizona, that he planned to target. Al-Saadi is also accused of involvement in two recent attacks in Canada: an attack on a synagogue and a shooting at the U.S. consulate in Toronto in March. U.S. prosecutors said he directed and urged other people to attack U.S. and Israeli interests, including by killing Americans and Jews. Al-Saadi posted about the attacks on Snapchat and Telegram and spoke about them in phone calls recorded by an FBI informant whose help he solicited in …