Sunday, November 30, 2025
Fire damages historic Sadigura synagogue in Chernivtsi
The Jewish community of Chernivtsi, Ukraine, was shaken on Thursday evening after a man set fire to the famed Sadigura synagogue known as the "Kloiz Kadisha," causing significant damage to one of the most important buildings in the world of Hasidism.
According to local community reports, the suspect, described by community representatives as a mentally unstable man, entered the synagogue in the Sadigura (Sadhora) neighbourhood when the guard briefly stepped away from the gate. He is alleged to have started a fire inside the building before police, who were called to the scene, arrived and arrested him.
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Tuesday, November 25, 2025
Ultra-Orthodox Brooklyn man who abused child may see 103-year sentence reduced
Nechemya Weberman, an ultra-Orthodox Jewish man from Brooklyn, could be set free from prison after being sentenced to 103 years for child molestation following a court hearing set to take place next month, The New York Times reported on Saturday.
According to the NYT, the court hearing next month will decide if his sentence will be shortened.
Weberman was sentenced in 2012 in a case that brought to light sexual abuse in the local ultra-Orthodox community, and, according to the report, he was handed the longest sentence for sexually abusing a child in the hasidic community.
Five years later, in 2017, Eric Gonzalez was elected as Brooklyn's district attorney. Gonzalez believed the sentence that Weberman received was too long and supported a shorter one.
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Tuesday, November 18, 2025
Virginia school reaches settlement after expelling Jewish students who reported antisemitic bullying
A Fairfax County, Virginia, private school agreed to overhaul its policies, undergo five years of external monitoring, and issue a public apology after expelling three Jewish siblings whose family reported severe antisemitic bullying.
The Nysmith School in Herndon will also pay the family nearly $150,000 to cover attorneys fees and other costs associated with the incident as part of a settlement.
The settlement, announced Tuesday by the Virginia Attorney General's Office, follows a discrimination complaint alleging the Nysmith School ignored escalating harassment, and then removed the victims from the school entirely.
Jeffrey Lang with the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law, oversaw the case.
Lang said the family's ordeal began when one of their sixth-grade daughters, age 11, became the target of a group of students who he said repeatedly harassed the girl because she is Jewish.
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Monday, November 17, 2025
German auction house calls off ‘shameless’ sale of concentration camp artifacts
An auction house in Germany canceled the sale of hundreds of items that belonged to Holocaust victims a day before it was set to take place.
The Felzmann auction house planned to offer 623 artifacts, including letters from concentration camps and documents detailing Nazi crimes, in the western German city of Neuss on Monday. After outcry from a Holocaust survivor group, the auction was canceled on Sunday and its listing disappeared from the house's website by Sunday afternoon.
The auction was canceled shortly after being condemned by the International Auschwitz Committee, a group of survivors based in Berlin. The group's executive vice president, Christoph Heubner, called the sale a "cynical and shameless undertaking" that left survivors "outraged and speechless."
"Their history and the suffering of all those persecuted and murdered by the Nazis is being exploited for commercial gain," Heubner said in a statement on Saturday. He demanded the auction house cancel its event, saying the contents "belong to the families of the victims" and "should be displayed in museums or memorial exhibitions."
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Thursday, November 13, 2025
Competition from Maxi's kosher aisle worries Hasidic community grocer
A few doors down from Lipa's, a Hasidic-run grocery store on Parc Ave., a new Maxi location with a kosher aisle is tightening the competition for grocers in the Mile End neighbourhood.
While Lipa's owner Lezer Adler said he still believes in his business, he's feeling uneasy about the long-term effect of Maxi locations popping up so close by. The Parc Ave. location near St-Viateur St. opened in August, and Maxi opened its 198th branch on Bernard Ave. in October, replacing gourmet grocer Les 5 Saisons.
"God knows what's going to happen, but (Lipa's) is still going. Maybe less than before, but for sure it's still going," Adler said in an interview Thursday.
Maxi's expansion is not unique to Mile End: 13 new locations have opened across Quebec in 2025, according to an email statement from Loblaw, the parent company of Maxi, Provigo and Pharmaprix. Half of the new Maxi locations are in the Greater Montreal area, and two more are set to open before the end of the year.
As Montrealers and Canadians in general struggle to afford groceries, the retail giant is adapting its strategy by pumping out branches of its discount banner. Maxi's buying power lets the chain offer low prices competitors struggle to match — and local grocers fear for their survival.
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Monday, November 10, 2025
Texas man charged with making antisemitic death threats to Jewish conservative pundits
A Texas man was arrested last week in Florida after he allegedly launched a volley of antisemitic death threats against several prominent conservative activists.
Nicholas Lyn Ray, 28, of Spring, Texas, allegedly made his threats between Oct. 8 and Oct. 10 on an X account named "@zionistarescum," according to an arrest affidavit.
His alleged victims included far-right Jewish conspiracy theorist Laura Loomer and conservative Jewish political commentators Joshua Benjamin Hammer and Karol Markowicz. A fourth victim, Seth Dillon, is the Christian CEO of a conservative satire site The Babylon Bee, according to an arrest affidavit.
The @zionistsarescum account was created in September 2025 and the first posts visible on it after Ray's arrest respond to the assassination of Charlie Kirk, the Turning Point USA founder whose killing spurred conspiracy theories about Israeli involvement. Several posts advanced that theory, while others amplify the white supremacist influencer Nick Fuentes, who had feuded with Kirk.
In a message allegedly directed at Dillon, according to the affidavit, Ray accused him of "conspiring with Israel about Charlie Kirk," the Turning Point USA founder who was murdered in September, adding that "these receipts are going to be perfect for display when you get hung bitch."
The affidavit also describes a threat that Ray allegedly directed toward Markowicz, who was born in the former Soviet Union. Ray allegedly wrote, "Russian genocide jew whose family escaped prosecution in American you deserve to be hung."
In another threat directed towards Loomer, Ray allegedly wrote, "why you asking this question as if you aren't gonna soon find out Mossad agent? you gonna get hung from the capitol baby."
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Wednesday, November 05, 2025
Jewish NYFD Commissioner Resigns Hours After Mamdani’ Wins Mayoral Race
New York City Fire Commissioner Robert Tucker has resigned just one day after Zohran Mamdani was elected mayor, sparking speculation about the timing of his departure. Mamdani has previously condemned Israel's actions in Gaza, drawing both national attention and controversy.
Tucker, a Jewish philanthropist and businessman, will step down Dec. 19, according to The New York Post. He plans to return to lead T&M Protection Resources, the private security firm he ran before joining Mayor Eric Adams' administration in August 2024.
Mamdani, 34, a New York assemblyman, has faced heavy criticism from Jewish advocacy groups and political action committees for his remarks on Israel's war in Gaza.
Mamdani called Israel's tactics a "genocide" and accused the country of creating an apartheid state in Gaza.
Former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who ran as an independent after losing the Democratic primary, repeatedly attacked Mamdani over those remarks.
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Tuesday, November 04, 2025
Andrew Cuomo backed by NYC Satmar Hasidic community after rabbi issues ‘unauthorized’ Zohran Mamdani endorsement
Former Gov. Andrew Cuomo secured the backing from leaders of a typically bloc-voting Orthodox Jewish group on Sunday — after a rabbi in the Brooklyn sect reportedly issued an "unauthorized" mayoral endorsement of front-runner socialist Zohran Mamdani.
Cheskel Berkowitz, Avrum Brach and Shulem Yitzchok Jacobowitz — leaders of the Satmar Ahronim community — threw their support behind Cuomo, who is running as an independent, in a public letter following the internal drama, according to the ex-governor's campaign.
"I'm deeply honored to have the support of these respected community leaders," Cuomo said in a statement.
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