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The official beginning of World War II was September 1, 1939. On that day German soldiers invaded Gdansk after bombarding the city with a military warship. As part of the Polish Government's official series of events marking seven decades since the start of World War II, Poland's Jewish community and the Jerusalem-based "Shavei Israel" organization held a special ceremony yesterday in the Gdansk synagogue to commemorate the outbreak of the war, which paved the way for the Holocaust.  
11 September, 2009

A bearded man in a red velvet skullcap, chain-smoking on Shabbat at a garden cafe while preaching to friends about the Torah, would...

11 September, 2009
Some 80,000 Jews once called the city their home, before they were rounded up into its ghetto by the Nazi occupiers and sent to forced labor or death. The destruction of Polish Jewry marked an end not only to an ancient community but to a vast Jewish religious tradition.
28 July, 2009
In recent years, hundreds of Spanish Catholics have discovered that family customs have roots in hidden Jewish traditions from Inquisition days; many of these new-found 'bnei anousim' are taking part in efforts to improve Israel's image in Europe BARCELONA - It's been more than 500 years since the Spanish Inquisition, but it's still not the easiest thing being a Jew in Spain these days, and it's even harder being a Catholic and discovering one day that you have deep, Jewish roots. But this is what is happening to a number of Catholics in the Mediterranean country.  Many descendants of 15th century 'Anousim' or 'Marranos' – Jews who were forced to outwardly convert during the Inquisition and camouflage their religious practices – are now trying to return to their roots.
15 June, 2009
BARCELONA (JTA) -- On the top floor of this city's Jewish community center, a group whose ancestors were cut off from the Jewish people more than 500 years ago are receiving tips and training to become pro-Israel advocates in the 21st century. “We can use cyberspace to circumvent the traditional media,” Raanan Gissin, a former Israeli government spokesman, tells them.
26 May, 2009
CHURACHANDPUR, India - When Asher Kipgen is asked the Hebrew name of his father, who immigrated to Israel six years ago from a village in the northeastern Indian state of Manipur, he blurts out "Netanyahu" without thinking twice. The real name of his father, who lives in Kiryat Arba, is Natan, but the mention of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's name is no coincidence. Many of the 7,232 members of the Kuki, Mizo, Lushai and Shin tribes carefully followed the elections in Israel, in the hope that the new prime minister of Israel would bring them to the country.
04 May, 2009
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