Israel's President Herzog privately meets lone IDF soldiers and families behind closed-door in Melbourne, Australia

Amazing stuff!

"President Isaac Herzog quietly met with some 12 former lone soldiers serving and their parents on Thursday, in a closed-door gathering where no names were released and no photographs were permitted because of growing fears of repercussions and an emerging movement to publicly hound lone soldiers abroad.

The meeting, held on the sidelines of the last day of Herzog’s visit to Australia, underscored both the pride and the unease felt by Diaspora families whose children chose to join the IDF. ..."

Isaac Herzog, Australian lone soldiers meet in Melbourne | The Jerusalem Post "The meeting, held on the sidelines of the last day of Herzog’s visit to Australia, underscored both the pride and the unease felt by Diaspora families whose children chose to join the IDF."

Israeli President Isaac Herzog meets students at Moriah War Memorial College during his state visit following a deadly mass shooting at a Jewish Hanukkah celebration at Bondi Beach on December 14, in Sydney, Australia, February 10, 2026.

Who are the Cochin Jews, one of the world’s oldest Jewish communities?

Amazing stuff!

After Bondi Beach attack, Diaspora Jews can no longer assume safety - opinion

I am afraid this is good advice, but what a horrible outlook for Diaspora Jews!

Hope and pray there will be no more coward mass killers like this father/son pair in Sidney or Hamas!

Bondi Beach attack: Why Diaspora Jews must stay strong | The Jerusalem Post "The Bondi attack did not come out of nowhere – and its consequences reach far beyond Australia."

Iran arrests 700+ for alleged ties to Israel amid rising tensions

Bad news! Collective punishment for Jews living in Iran?

"Iran has arrested at least 700 people since Operation Rising Lion began due to alleged ties with Israel, the Iranian exiled women's organization Association Femme Azadi reported on Thursday night.

"Reports confirm the arrest of rabbis and religious leaders in Tehran and Shiraz, accused, without evidence, of ties to Israel," the organization wrote on its social media. ..."

Iran arrests 700+ for alleged ties to Israel amid rising tensions | The Jerusalem Post "Six additional people have been executed on suspicion of collaborating with Mossad, Israel's public broadcaster KAN News noted."

Iranian Jews pray at the Abrishami synagogue at Palestine street in Tehran December 24, 2015; illustrative.

Ancient Iranian Jewish community in Yazd, Iran, condemns Israeli strikes, supports Iran

Is there a place on earth without any Jews? Just kidding! The Jewish diaspora! They may not always speak with one voice.

"A small Jewish minority in the historic desert city of Yazd condemned Israeli air raids on Iranian soil as “brutality and bestiality” and publicly backed Tehran’s call for a decisive and “crushing” military response, the local news site YazdRasa reported Monday. ..."

Jewish community in Yazd, Iran, condemns Israeli strikes, supports Iran | The Jerusalem Post "A small Jewish minority in the historic desert city of Yazd condemned Israeli air raids on Iranian soil as “brutality and bestiality.”"

Iranian Jews pray at the Abrishami synagogue at Palestine street in Tehran December 24, 2015..

Argentina seeks arrest of Iranian supreme leader for 1994 AMIA attack, which killed 85 people

Good news! This could be a bombshell. However, the man is 85 years old!

Make him a pariah like Putin the Terrible!

I don't know how much the current President of Argentina, Javier Milei, is involved in this, but I suspect he approves of it.

"Argentinian prosecutors have requested an arrest warrant for Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei over his alleged involvement in the 1994 bombing of the AMIA Jewish center in Buenos Aires.

Khamenei, who ascended to his position in 1989, was Iran’s leader at the time of the attack. It killed 85 people and was, at the time, the single deadliest attack against Diaspora Jews since the Holocaust. ...

In 2013, Argentina took steps to jointly investigate the attack with Iran. [Argentinian prosecutor] Alberto Nisman, was assassinated in 2015, hours before he was set to present evidence that a former Argentine president had covered up Iran’s involvement in the bombing.

In 2021, Iran appointed two men to its government who were implicated in the bombing."

Argentina seeks arrest of Iranian supreme leader for 1994 AMIA attack - Jewish Telegraphic Agency "A lead prosecutor argued that the Iran’s supreme leader was behind the decision to carry out the attack."

What a supreme devil incarnate! Pardon my blasphemy!

Fania Brantsovsky, last living Vilna ghetto partisan resistance fighter, dies at 102

Recommendable! R.I.P. A heroine!

"Lithuania’s Jews and Yiddishists around the world are mourning the passing of Fania Brantsovsky, the last surviving member of the Jewish underground in the Vilna ghetto and a keeper of the flame of the city’s once glorious Yiddish past, who died at the age of 102 on Sunday in Vilnius.

Brantsovsky escaped the ghetto in 1942 and fought against the Nazis and their local collaborators in the Rudninkai forest with a group of Jewish partisans under the command of Abba Kovner. ...

It was a role that brought her world-wide acclaim and eventually local hostility, when Lithuanian nationalists began to equate her Soviet liberators with the Nazis, and tried to discredit partisans like her who had once considered the Russians their allies. ...

As a young girl, she was active in the rich Jewish life of Vilnius [Polish back then]. At the time [about 1927], Vilnius was home to more than 60,000 Jews and boasted over 100 synagogues, the largest of which had seating for more than 2,000. With a Jewish community that had been flourishing when Napoleon passed through the city in the 18th century, Vilnius was more than just a religious center. It was home to a rich cultural and political scene, all in the Yiddish language. ..."

Fania Brantsovsky, last living Vilna ghetto partisan resistance fighter, dies at 102 - Jewish Telegraphic Agency "Remaining in Lithuania after the war, she became a keeper of the flame of the city’s once illustrious Yiddish culture."

After long legal fight since 2018, a man from a tiny Ugandan Jewish community is finally approved for Israeli citizenship

Good news! Who is Jewish can be complicated e.g. as this case probably  demonstrates.

"After seven years in court and four conversions, a member of Uganda’s Abayudaya Jewish community is now an Israeli citizen.

Israel’s Interior Ministry, which handles applications for citizenship, this month approved the bid of Yosef Kibita, who first applied in 2018.

Israeli authorities had previously rejected immigration applications from the Abayudaya community, a group of about 2,000 Ugandans who began practicing Judaism a century ago after Ugandan statesman Semei Kakungulu declared himself Jewish and began adopting Jewish practices. The Israeli government considers the Abuyadaya an “emerging” Jewish group and ineligible for citizenship without conversion."

After long legal fight, man from Ugandan Jewish community is approved for Israeli citizenship - Jewish Telegraphic Agency

Congratulations!

Major Jewish event returns to Ukraine, bringing hope amid ongoing war

Very recommendable! 

"Nicole Tolkacheva, 52, has endured nearly two and a half years of war as her native Odesa gets pounded by Russian missiles.

“Every morning, the city checks who and what survived the night,” she said of Ukraine’s storied Black Sea port city. “In this life, you don’t know what’s safer: running to the shelter and risking your life on the way, or staying at home and risking being buried under the rubble.” ...
The May 24-26 event in Uzhhorod, a city of 115,000 near where the borders of Slovakia, Hungary and Ukraine meet, marked the first Limmud FSU event on Ukrainian soil since the war with Russia started in February 2022. Limmud FSU is a nonprofit, nondenominational cultural and educational organization designed to foster community and Jewish identity among Jews from the former Soviet Union. It holds events all over the world — including in North America, Europe, the Caucasus, Israel, and Australia. ...

The region of Ukraine in which the festival took place, Transcarpathia, has changed hands many times over the centuries. It was part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire until World War I, was considered Czech until World War II, and today is part of Ukraine.

“Transcarpathia is a peaceful and tolerant region,” said Uzhhorod Mayor Bohdan Andriiv. “We thank our defenders and protectors for the opportunity to gather here.” 

The deputy governor of Transcarpathia, Ivancho Vasil, also attended and addressed participants.  

Transcarpathia’s Holocaust history — when the Nazis deported nearly all the region’s 100,000 Jews to Auschwitz, where all but a few thousand of them died ..."

Major Jewish event returns to Ukraine, bringing hope amid ongoing war - Jewish Telegraphic Agency

Jewish diaspora in New Spain

The history of the Jewish diaspora is absolutely fascinating! Here is another example!

Faith can move mountains! Never, ever lose faith! Human civilization depends on it!

"Estrella Schmitt [raised in New Mexico], believed she had the perfect life. She was married to the man of her dreams, had the ideal job, and a loving family. Her world turned upside down when she went home to Pueblo, New Mexico, to say goodbye to her dying Abuelita (grandmother) whose last words to her favorite grandchild were Somos Judios, we are Jews. Estrella was left with a lot of questions and a chest full of mementos proving she was a descendant of Spanish Crypto Jews. Confused by this knowledge, she rummaged through the box and found audio tapes of her grandmother’s translation of an ancestor’s journal. The tapes described the harrowing experience her ancestors endured when they left for New Spain in 1597. They fled Spain to practice Judaism in peace, but the Inquisition followed them to the New World where they dared to observe their religion in secrecy. Fascinated by their story, Estrella recounts her family’s odyssey and their fate."

Arizona Jewish Historical Society — AZJHS Book Discussion Group

New Spain around 1819 (Wikipedia)

A railway museum in Livingstone, Zambia offers a clue to the African country's rich Jewish history

Amazing stuff! A living stone indeed!

When Stanley met Livingstone on 11/10/1870 by Lake Tanganyika: "... "Dr. Livingstone ... I presume", Stanley hesitantly inquires. It is indeed he." (Wikipedia)

"... “A tiny [Jewish] population influential beyond its numbers,” is how Oxford historian Hugh Macmillan described this community, which at its postwar peak numbered no more than 1,200.

“Jews have played an important part in Zambian history, especially in commercial business but also in the country’s political and intellectual life,” said Macmillan, co-author of the 1999 book “Zion in Africa: The Jews of Zambia.”
Today, there are almost no Jews living in Zambia, a nation of about 20 million in central Africa. But the influence of their historic presence is continuing to shape the developing nation, particularly as it builds up its medical infrastructure. ...
Unlike the other white Zambians (mainly British colonials) or in neighboring South Africa, the Jews of Zambia had open and equitable relations with Africans, Ron said. “We weren’t like the South African Jews who had nannies and houseboys,” she added. “We weren’t raised like that. When my father’s Indian and Black workers came to the house, they waited in the living room, not the back steps. Their children were my friends.” ..."

A railway museum in Zambia offers a clue to the African country's rich Jewish history - Jewish Telegraphic Agency

The former synagogue of Livingstone, Zambia, is used today as a church.

Amid an Israeli strike, a look at the Iranian city of Isfahan's Jewish community

Always keep in mind: The world and history is complicated!

"Isfahan, located on the route from Tehran to the Persian Gulf, hosts one of Persia's oldest Jewish communities, dating back to various early historical periods as reported by Pehlevi, Armenian, and Muslim sources. ...

there are currently some 1,500 Iranian Jews. The city hosts one central synagogue along with 13 smaller ones. 

According to Jewish Virtual Library, first documented during the reign of Sassanid ruler Frūz in 472 C.E., the city's Jewish community faced persecution, including the execution of half its population. Under Arab rule from 641, the community was notably vibrant, with Isfahan's Jewish quarter, Jayy, becoming so significant that it was called "the city of the Jews." Isfahan was also the birthplace of a Jewish sectarian movement led by Abu 'Isā during the Umayyad era. ..."

Amid an Israeli strike, a look at Isfahan's Jewish community - The Jerusalem Post Amid an alleged Israeli strike, as reported by various news outlets, in Isfahan, there are currently some 1,500 Iranian Jews. The city hosts one central synagogue along with 13 smaller ones. 

Speaking at Miami synagogue, Argentina's Javier Milei reveals he has Jewish heritage

Good news! The roots of the chainsaw man! 😊

Speaking at Miami synagogue, Argentina's Javier Milei reveals he has Jewish heritage - Jewish Telegraphic Agency

Indian Bnei Menashe Jews miraculously survived Oct. 7. Now they're fighting against Hamas in the IDF

Amazing stuff! From the lost tribe in India! Thanks to the Jewish diaspora, Israel has one of the most diversified societies of any Western country.

"In the 2000s, as the small Israeli town of Sderot endured heavy rocket fire, thousands of residents left the city. Around the same time, a new population began moving in: Bnei Menashe Jews from the northeast Indian states of Manipur and Mizoram.

More than 100 Bnei Menashe families called Sderot their home until Oct. 7. The community was deeply proud of what it created: the first synagogue and beit midrash — or Torah study hall — run exclusively by Bnei Menashe Jews. It was a dream, for many, that began halfway across the world in India. ..."

Indian Bnei Menashe Jews miraculously survived Oct. 7. Now they're fighting wars in Israel and India. - Jewish Telegraphic Agency

An estimated 200 young Bnei Menashe men have joined the Israeli military's war effort.

Displaced by ethnic violence, India's Bnei Menashe Jews construct sukkahs nonetheless

The Jewish diaspora never ceases to amaze me! Likewise, India's variety  of religions.

Displaced by ethnic violence, India's Bnei Menashe Jews construct sukkahs nonetheless - Jewish Telegraphic Agency

Five Jewish facts about Guatemala’s new Hebrew-speaking president

Hopefully, he can deliver positive change!

"Guatemala elected a new president on Sunday: Bernardo Arevalo, a center-left former congressman and son of a former president.

In an election that was marred by controversy — and included the government’s disqualifying of multiple opposition candidates — Arevalo was able to emerge victorious by running on an anti-corruption platform. He defeated Sandra Torres, a former first lady who many Guatemalans view as corrupt.

Decades-old statistics put the Jewish population of Guatemala, Central America’s most populous country, at about 900. But despite that small number, Guatemala’s president-elect has a unique history with Jews and Israel. ...

Here are five Jewish things to know about Arevalo:

1. Arevalo is the son of Juan Jose Arevalo, who became Guatemala’s first democratically-elected leader in 1945. On May 14, 1948, under Juan Jose Arevalo, Guatemala became one of the first countries in the world to recognize Israel. After leaving office, the elder Arevalo then served as ambassador to Israel. ..."

Five Jewish facts about Guatemala’s new Hebrew-speaking president - The Jerusalem Post Guatemala’s president-elect has a unique history with Jews and Israel.

11,000 trapped Jewish descendants in Ethiopia await rescue

The enormous diversity and geographic distribution of the Jews Diaspora never ceases to amaze me!

This is real diversity, not the phony, racist diversity of the neo Marxists!

11,000 trapped Jewish descendants in Ethiopia await rescue - The Jerusalem Post The Foreign Ministry is working to help the Israelis and people eligible for aliyah currently trapped in Ethiopia's Gondar region.

India's Bnei Menashe community in crisis as ethnic violence burns synagogues and displaces hundreds

India is widely known for its incredible religious tolerance. However, there are times when it is tested or worse even failing.

The amazing Jewish diaspora!

This happened in the northeast state of Manipur.

The violence does not appear to be directed at Jews, but this Jewish community appears to be associated with another minority involved in the violence.

"... Everything changed on May 3, when rioting broke out between the ethnic majority Meiteis and the tribal minority Kukis, a violent conflagration that had been building up for years. ...
According to Shavei Israel, an NGO that helps “lost tribe” Jewish communities immigrate to Israel, over 1,000 members of the community, or 20% of their total, have been displaced. One community member was killed, and another was shot in the chest and is hospitalized. Two synagogues and mikvahs, or ritual baths, were burned down. ...
“This is one of the gravest crises the Bnei Menashe in India have ever experienced,” said Michael Freund, who has been chairman of Shavei Israel since he founded the organization in 2002. ...
Citing the government’s failure to protect them, Kukis have called for separation from the state of Manipur. As the conflict stretches into its second month, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has yet to comment on the crisis in his country’s northeast. ..."

India's Bnei Menashe community in crisis as ethnic violence burns synagogues and displaces hundreds - Jewish Telegraphic Agency

Israel's chief Ashkenazi rabbi visits Taiwan in milestone moment for the country's Jewish community

Taiwan can certainly use any help to defend against the constantly menacing China!

The Jewish diaspora never ceases to amaze me!

"In what is likely a first, an Israeli chief rabbi visited Taiwan last week, marking a milestone both for the island nation and the Jewish community there.

Last week, ​​the Jeffrey D. Schwartz Jewish Community Center in Taipei welcomed Israel’s Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi David Lau on a three-day visit which included a dedication ceremony for the community center, a regional summit of rabbis and a meeting with Israeli and Taiwanese officials."

Israel's chief Ashkenazi rabbi visits Taiwan in milestone moment for the country's Jewish community - Jewish Telegraphic Agency

Israeli Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi David Lau, third from bottom right, meets with Jeffrey Schwartz, third from left, at the Jeffrey D. Schwartz Jewish Community Center in Taipei. 

As an infant, she was airlifted to safety. Today she's bringing Ethiopian culture alive in Tel Aviv

Melting pot Israel!

"Born on a roadside during Operation Solomon, which airlifted over 14,000 Ethiopian Jews to Israel in 1991, Ashager Araro’s start to life was far from conventional. Her name, meaning “going forward” in Amharic, is fitting, given the nature of her birth en route from her family’s small village of Gondar in Ethiopia to the capital of Addis Ababa in hopes of rescue.

One of approximately 160,000 Ethiopian Jews now residing in Israel, Ashager is part of an integral thread in the Jewish state’s historically rich fabric. ...
Graduating at the top of her class as a lieutenant paratrooper in the Israel Defense Forces, much of Ashager’s tenacity springs from time spent in a male-dominated unit. ..."

As an infant, she was airlifted to safety. Today she's bringing Ethiopian culture alive in Tel Aviv. - Jewish Telegraphic Agency Ashager Araro says "owning and narrating our own stories has the power to educate, inspire and fend off discrimination — often born from ignorance.”