World news-roundup: Der Spiegel reveals Germany spied on Israeli PM for years

Country: Canada

The only Jewish radio station in Canada has closed due to lack of listeners and advertisers. Radio Shalom, an AM and internet-based station in Montreal, broadcast 24/6 and was staffed almost entirely by volunteers. It was criticised for broadcasting ‘religious, Sephardi beliefs’ and having no female voices.

Country: Germany

Weekly magazine Der Spiegel has revealed that the German intelligence service spied on the Israeli prime minister for several years. The report, which also showed that the BND kept tabs on the UK’s Ministry of Defence, is at odds with recent German declarations about not spying on friendly governments.

Country: Belgium

Military officials in Brussels have hit back at reports that the soldiers guarding synagogues in the Belgian capital had no bullets in their rifles. The country’s defense ministry was reacting to a claim by a senior Charedi rabbi following the terror attacks last month, but declined to be precise for ‘security reasons’.

Country: Netherlands

The bank account of a fake Jewish doctor is the subject of a Dutch court battle after a scammed investor sought to force a bank to reveal the man’s identity. The impostor, who called himself Robby Dias de Oliveir, took more than £200,000 before disappearing. The ‘deal’ was done on a handshake.

Country: United States

The congregants of a Lower East Side synagogue in New York City are suing a rabbi for trying to sell their shul for $13 million. Chasidic Rabbi Samuel Aschkenazi, who does not worship there, attracted the attention of the FBI after trying to sell the 26,000 sq ft building to developers to convert it into flats.

Country: Ukraine

Holland’s chief rabbi has defended ‘misleading’ Dutch Christian Zionists who were caught pressuring Ukrainian Jews into making Aliyah. Rabbi Ya’akov Dov Bleich defended Christians for Israel after a Belgian Christian was secretly filmed telling an elderly Ukrainian lady: ‘You have to go to Israel.’