World news-roundup: Lithuania honours those who rescued Jews in Shoah
Country: Lithuania
Officials have unveiled the first road in Vilnius to be named after those who risked their life to save Jews during the Holocaust. Simaites Street, in the Lithuanian capital, is named after Ona Šimaitė, a non-Jewish librarian who rescued dozens by forging identity documents and smuggling provisions.
Country: Morocco
Jewish merchants have been in Morocco’s highlands buying etrogs (or citrons) for holiday of Sukkot. Jews have planted, harvested and bought etrogs from the Atlas Mountains for 2,000 years, but few Jews now live in Morocco, and the country does not have formal diplomatic relations with Israel.
Country: Greece
A Greek minister has resigned following a series of anti-Semitic tweets. Dimitris Kammenos of the Independent Greeks Party stepped down after suggesting Jews did not show up to work on the day the World Trade Center was attacked on 11 September 2001. He said his social media pages were hacked.
Country: Japan
The Land of the Rising Sun is getting used to having a chief rabbi, after the head of Tokyo’s Chabad House was appointed to the newly-created position in September. Rabbi Binyamin Edery was approved by Japan’s legislative body, the Diet, as well as Israel’s Chief Sephardic Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef.
Country: Russia
A former teacher at a Jewish school in Russia is on trial charged with inciting racial hatred. Four students at the Chabad-affiliated Or Avner Jewish school in Yekaterinburg say Semen Tykman told them to ‘kill the Germans’. Tykman’s lawyers say he was referring the Nazis, not today’s Germans.
Country: Canada
Montreal’s Jewish federation has apologised for posting a tongue-in-cheek article about Jewish stereotypes called ‘The 10 Realities of Having a Jewish Best Friend in Montreal.’ Jews were, it said, ‘natural born talkers’ who loved gossip and ‘well-connected,’ which helped with table reservations.
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