World news-roundup: 40,000 expected to attend Ukraine pilgrimage
Your weekly digest of all the latest stories from around the Jewish world
Country: Ukraine
Ahead of Rosh Hashanah, Chasidic leaders have urged 40,000 Jewish pilgrims heading to the Ukrainian city of Uman not to buy from women, in order to ‘preserve modesty’. The annual Orthodox pilgrimage sees Jews visit the final resting place of the Rabbi Nachman of Bratslav, a revered 18th-century luminary.
Country: Lithuania
A battalion of Special Forces soldiers from the Lithuanian military has been deployed to the site of former concentration camp where 5,000 Jews were buried. The grounds of the privatised Seventh Fort in Kaunas are also used for summer camps and private events. The elite unit is training to repel a Russian invasion.
Country: Russia
Researchers have found the grave of an influential Jewish writer and resistance fighter at a former Siberian camp for political prisoners. Pinchus Kahanovich, an anti-fascist fighter, was one of the last century’s most influential writers in Yiddish. His grave was found near the coal-mining village of Vortuka.
Country: Germany
Prosecutors are dropping the case against a former Auschwitz medic with dementia, after he was found unfit to stand trial. Wheelchair-bound Hubert Zafke, 96, is charged with being an accomplice to the murders of 3,681 people. His unit placed the Zyklon-B pesticide crystals into the gas chambers.
Thank you for helping to make Jewish News the leading source of news and opinion for the UK Jewish community. Today we're asking for your invaluable help to continue putting our community first in everything we do.
For as little as £5 a month you can help sustain the vital work we do in celebrating and standing up for Jewish life in Britain.
Jewish News holds our community together and keeps us connected. Like a synagogue, it’s where people turn to feel part of something bigger. It also proudly shows the rest of Britain the vibrancy and rich culture of modern Jewish life.
You can make a quick and easy one-off or monthly contribution of £5, £10, £20 or any other sum you’re comfortable with.
100% of your donation will help us continue celebrating our community, in all its dynamic diversity...
Engaging
Being a community platform means so much more than producing a newspaper and website. One of our proudest roles is media partnering with our invaluable charities to amplify the outstanding work they do to help us all.
Celebrating
There’s no shortage of oys in the world but Jewish News takes every opportunity to celebrate the joys too, through projects like Night of Heroes, 40 Under 40 and other compelling countdowns that make the community kvell with pride.
Pioneering
In the first collaboration between media outlets from different faiths, Jewish News worked with British Muslim TV and Church Times to produce a list of young activists leading the way on interfaith understanding.
Campaigning
Royal Mail issued a stamp honouring Holocaust hero Sir Nicholas Winton after a Jewish News campaign attracted more than 100,000 backers. Jewish Newsalso produces special editions of the paper highlighting pressing issues including mental health and Holocaust remembrance.
Easy access
In an age when news is readily accessible, Jewish News provides high-quality content free online and offline, removing any financial barriers to connecting people.
Voice of our community to wider society
The Jewish News team regularly appears on TV, radio and on the pages of the national press to comment on stories about the Jewish community. Easy access to the paper on the streets of London also means Jewish News provides an invaluable window into the community for the country at large.
We hope you agree all this is worth preserving.
