World Roundup 08/01: Last Pakistani Jew’s campaign to save cemetery
Country: Venezuela
American Jewish groups have urged the government in Caracas to ensure the safety of Venezuela’s 7,000-strong Jewish community after a swastika and a celtic cross were found on a synagogue in the capital. The anti-Semitic graffiti was found alongside the number ‘6 million’ with a question mark.
Country: United States
The 21-year old Jewish New Yorker whose popular T-shirts declare God to be a black woman has spoken about how he likes ‘poking fun at sacred cows’. Dylan Chenfeld, an atheist from Manhattan, has seen his clothing worn by A-list stars such as model Cara Delevingne and Jewish rapper Drake.
Country: Poland
A Jewish heritage museum is to open next year in a reconstructed 17th century baroque synagogue in Leczna, a small town in eastern Poland. Partly destroyed in WWII, the building was rebuilt and retains elements of the former synagogue, including its wooden ceilings, the bimah and the Torah ark.
Country: Angola
The first Chabad-Lubavitch centre is set to open in the sub-Saharan nation of Angola, a former Portuguese colony in east Africa known for its brutal civil war. Hundreds of Israeli, American and European Jews have moved there in recent years, attracted by the country’s vast mineral and petroleum reserves.
Country: Japan
Tokyo has welcomed the opening of its first ever kosher restaurant. ‘Chana’s Place,’ with only 14 indoor seats, has a kashrut certificate and hopes to cater to thousands of Jewish tourists visiting the Japanese capital every year, as well as the hundreds of Jews living in the world’s third most expensive city.
Country: Pakistan
The last self-declared Jew in Pakistan has launched a campaign to save Karachi’s Jewish cemetery. Chand Arif, the site’s self-appointed caretaker, said the rundown graveyard, which has not been visited by relatives of the dead for decades, is at risk of encroachment from a city teeming with up to 20 million people.
Video of discovered previously-unknown #Jewish grave hidden under bushes 1-Jan-2015. Squatters were telling otherwise http://t.co/lajn9vkMqt
— Fishel Benkhald (@Jew_Pakistani) January 1, 2015
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