For someone wandering the cobblestone streets of Mexico City’s Historic Center, where the sound of the cathedral bells fills the air and the streets have names like Jesus Maria, it’s hard to imagine that this neighborhood was once the heart of the country’s Jewish community. But here, where the streets are now crowded with vendors […]

Generations of school children in Austria used to learn that Siegfried Marcus, the master mechanic born in Northern Germany who later came to live Austria, was one of the pioneers of the motor car. He made the first automobile, in which he – to the horror of the neighbors of his workshop – went on […]

Today marks the anniversary of one of the most important events in Jewish history in the past one thousand years. It is an episode that forever altered the destiny of the Jewish people, as well as that of European civilization, giving rise to seismic shifts in spheres as varied as cartography, commerce and mysticism. Scholars […]

The effort and hard work preparing for the Passover seder culminates with the commemoration of our historic exodus from Egypt and thanking the Divine for His kindness. Throughout our history, the annual rite has been observed despite difficult periods for our People. Against all odds, and improvised under harsh conditions, we’ve always strived to conduct […]

On October 16, the 60th anniversary of the roundup and deportation of over one thousand of Rome’s Jews, Italian President Carlo Azeglio Ciampi conferred a gold medal for civilian bravery on the city’s Jewish community. In a ceremony at Portico d’Ottavio, the ruins of an ancient Roman temple which has become the symbol of the […]

How American Jewish Women Made Contributions to Jewry ññ and the World When 23 Jews arrived on these shores from Recife, Brazil in 1654, Governor Peter Stuyvesant immediately wrote to his Dutch West India Company bosses requesting permission to ship back to their point of origin these “members of a deceitful race” who threatened to […]

PETIONVILLE, Haiti – At the once-elegant El Rancho Hotel in the hills above Port-au-Prince, aggressive young men peddle exotic African sculptures next to the taxi stand, and colorful Haitian paintings decorate the reception area. Yet it’s hard not to notice the black, wrought-iron menorah in the middle of the lobby. ”My father was Jewish,” manager […]

East Galicia was once the site of a rich Jewish civilization dating back several centuries. But last March, when I visited what is now West Ukraine, the snow-swept streets and squares were silent. Ancient cemeteries had become marketplaces, ruined synagogues were garbage dumps, mass graves were unmarked and forgotten. The Nazis killed the Jews; in […]

WALTHAM, Mass., March 2 (JTA) — About 350 years ago, in 1654, a small vessel named the Ste. Catherine, or St. Catrina, sailed into the port of New Amsterdam. Most of the ship’s passengers –“twenty-three souls, big and little,” according to an account at the time — were bedraggled Jewish refugees from Recife, Brazil, who […]

“You will never see your land of Israel, your precious Jerusalem, your Carmel, your Galilee. It will never happen. You will never leave Romania.” The Securitate agent glared at her in anger. The Romanian Securitate was the feared secret police, the foundation block of the totalitarian regime imposed on Transylvania by Stalin, and it controlled […]