On July 17, the New York Times reported that the Congress for Jewish Culture, one of the few remaining Yiddish organizations in New York, would close their Manhattan office at the end of the month.

The Congress’s office space, on Broadway just off 26th street, was perhaps one of the last heymish places for Yiddish culture in New York. The walls were covered with bookshelves, and old pictures and posters hung on the wall. The Congress had only been there since 2009, but the room was previously occupied by Itche Goldberg, the longtime editor of the journal “Yiddish Culture,” who passed away in 2006 at the age of 102.

More blogs.forward.com

Transportation minister orders that Uvda airport near Eilat be utilized to replace Ben-Gurion Airport beginning noon local time.

Transportation Minister Israel Katz on Wednesday instructed the relevant agencies to immediately open the Uvda airport, the country’s second terminus for air traffic which lies just north of Eilat, in the wake of the spate of flight cancellations announced by major foreign airlines.

Katz convened a meeting of senior civilian aviation officials who recommended that the Uvda airport be utilized to replace Ben-Gurion Airport.

More at jpost.com

Recent research carried out by the Anti-Defamation League shows that 36 percent of Lithuanian adults hold anti-Semitic views. The results are worse than in Latvia or Estonia. Chairwoman of the Lithuanian Jewish community Faina Kukliansky claims she was very surprised by these results.

“The survey results surprised us the most. It was unexpected, and I, for one, don’t really feel much anti-Semitism around. At first, I thought that maybe people did not understand what they were asked, but the questions (of the survey) seem to be very clear, and they were answered by people all around the world. According to those results, a third of my friends should hate or be suspicious of me just because I am a Jew,” Kukliansky told Žinių Radijas radio station.

More at lithuaniatribune.com

ELTA EN

Lithuanian President Dalia Grybauskaitė has appointed Edminas Bagdonas as Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Lithuania to Israel.

20^th anniversary of terrorist attack on Buenos Aires Jewish community center

BUENOS AIRES/NEW YORK – In an unprecedented video message to the World Jewish Congress’ Latin American branch on the occasion of the 20^th anniversary of the terrorist attack against the AMIA Jewish center in Buenos Aires, Pope Francis has expressed his solidarity with the Jewish community of Argentina and made an impassioned call for justice. The video message was recorded by Claudio Epelman of the Latin American Jewish Congress and will be screened at the commemoration in the Argentine capital today.

“Terrorism is lunacy. Terrorism’s only purpose is to kill. It does not build anything, it only destroys,” the pope said in the message in Spanish. “For this reason, I stand side-by-side with all those who have seen lives cut short, hopes destroyed, and ruin. I have said that Buenos Aires is a city that needs to cry, that still hasn’t cried enough. Even if it is commonplace, I repeat: We need to cry,” Francis says, adding: “May justice be done!”

Watch the video by clicking on this link 

by Nerijus Povilaitis

July 15, 2014

The fighting in Israel doesn’t end. Fighters of the terrorist organization Hamas based in the Gaza Strip are attacking the Jewish state with rockets more fervently than ever. Israeli aviation is responding with attacks on terrorist targets, with civilian casualties unavoidable.

Hamas attacks on Israel haven’t caused any great damage yet, with Israel’s Iron Dome defense system knocking most of them out of the sky before they reach the ground, but Israelis are living under continuous stress.Tuesday a rocket fired from the Gaza Strip fatally wounded an Israeli civilian.The 38-year-old man was providing food for soldiers serving in that zone. He is the first Jew to die in eight years of daily violence from both sides of the border. The rocket killed the man near the border crossing point at Erez into Gaza.

The continual whine of the air-raid sirens in the country’s larger cities and running for the bomb shelters have become a dismal part of daily life for Israelis and visitors to Israel.

Lithuanian Jewish Community chair Faina Kuklianksy, who has visited the war zone that Israel has become and will soon be going back at the invitation of the president of the World Jewish Congress, told Lietuvos Rytas [newspaper] that Israelis are standing firm like never before in the face of the danger posed by rockets flying out of the Gaza.

 What impressions have you brought back from Israel at war?

Over 25 countries are represented at the gathering which was organized by the Government Press Office; Netanyahu, Peres to address confab.

More than 100 correspondents, editors, bureau chiefs and publishers of many of the top Jewish media outlets in the world will gather in Jerusalem for the first Jewish Media Summit (JMS) beginning Sunday.

Over 25 countries are represented at the gathering which was organized by the Government Press Office, the Jerusalem and Diaspora Affairs Ministry and the Foreign Affairs Ministry in cooperation with the Tourism Ministry, JNFKKL and the Jewish Agency.

Read more…

France’s Jewish community on Sunday elected the Jewish chaplain of the French army as its new grand rabbi, as it grapples with rising anti-Semitism.

Haim Korsia, 51, was elected to a seven-year term by members of the Central Consistory, the top Jewish religious authority in France, defeating Olivier Kaufmann, the head of a rabbinical school, by a vote of 131 to 97.

Read more…  

The Anti-Defamation League commissioned First International Resources to research attitudes and opinions toward Jews in over 100 countries around the world.