Jews news stories on Newser

Christopher Columbus: Secretly Jewish?

Neal Colgrass — Mon, 21 May 2012 16:00:03 CDT

Christopher Columbus was an Italian explorer from Genoa, right? Not according to a recent round of scholarship, which portrays him as secretly Jewish and seeking a new land for his people during the Spanish Inquisition, CNN reports. Evidence suggests that Columbus was a "Marrano," meaning he secretly practiced Judaism to...

Samaritans: Wiped Away by History and Biblical Rewrites

Neal Colgrass — Sat, 14 Apr 2012 15:15:00 CDT

Looks like the Jews were once the other worshipers of Yahweh. According to archeological evidence, Samaritans had a dazzling shrine and the Jews only a so-so Temple of Jerusalem about 2,500 years ago, Der Spiegel reports. What's more, the Bible once described Moses as telling his people to travel...

Nazi Game Raises Furor at London School of Economics

Mary Papenfuss — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 00:31:00 CST

A Nazi drinking game played by students from the London School of Economics sparked a brawl and ended with a broken nose, reports the Guardian . The row occurred during a ski trip taken by 150 members of the school's athletic union to Val D'Isere in France. The confrontation occurred after...

Israeli Women Refuse to Move to the Back of the Bus

Mary Papenfuss — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 02:02:35 CST

Calling Rosa Parks. Israeli women are refusing to move to the back of the bus despite pressure from Orthodox Jews who believe in the segregation of the sexes. An 18-year-old female soldier recently boarded a Jerusalem bus and was ordered by an ultra-Orthodox man to the back. "I said I...

WikiLeaks Cables May Imperil Baghdad Jews

Neal Colgrass — Sat, 08 Oct 2011 13:59:05 CDT

Baghdad's few remaining Jews are being warned to flee after WikiLeaks published cables including their names last month, McClatchy reports. An Anglican priest working with the US embassy is trying to persuade the city's last Jewish members—all nine of them—that they are in danger. "Most want to stay,...

Paris Mosque Saved Jews From Nazis

Matt Cantor — Tue, 04 Oct 2011 14:49:05 CDT

A touching but little-known Holocaust story: Paris’ Grand Mosque rescued Jews from the Nazis by providing them with Muslim identities. It wasn’t a straightforward movement, the New York Times reports. Instead, Jews were helped case by case, and no one knows for sure how many were saved—figures range from...

Letter Baring Hitler's Jewish Hatred Goes on Display

Mary Papenfuss — Tue, 04 Oct 2011 03:12:48 CDT

A Jewish "hate letter" written by Adolf Hitler will go on public display for the first time ever in a Los Angeles museum. The four-page typed letter, written years before Hitler came to power and believed to be his first significant writing about Jews, expresses his disdain for Jews and...

Mel Gibson: I Don't Have a Jewish Problem

John Johnson — Sat, 10 Sep 2011 09:48:03 CDT

So why would Mel Gibson decide to produce a movie about a famed Jewish warrior given his, er, Jewish problem? Easy, explains TMZ . Gibson doesn't think he has a Jewish problem. It quotes sources "very close" to Gibson as insisting that he doesn't hate Jews and that, wait for it,...

Polish Monument to Massacre of Jews Vandalized

Kate Schwartz — Thu, 01 Sep 2011 09:39:34 CDT

A horrifying story with a cruel twist: Vandals have graffitied a monument in Poland that marked the spot where as many as 400 Jews were burned alive in a barn during World War II. But in addition to defacing it with a spray-painted green swastika, they wrote the unthinkable: "They...