World news-roundup: First Palermo shul opens since inquisition
This week's news from around the Jewish world includes Italy, Guatemala, America and Poland
Country: Italy
Palermo’s resurgent Jewish community is to open of its first synagogue since the Spanish Inquisition, when Jews were expelled from Sicily. At a ceremony on Thursday, the city’s Archbishop officially transferred ownership of a church, built on the ruins of the Great Synagogue of Palermo.
Country: Guatemala
An Israeli grandmother has drowned while tubing down a Guatemalan river on a women-only ‘extreme trip’ designed to test participants’ limits. Hadas Ayash, 60, was part of the Queen of the Desert group, when the accident occurred on Tuesday. Israeli officials arranged for her body to be flown back.
Country: United States
The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) has bought a ‘significant collection’ of work chronicling Sephardic Jewish history in LA. Bought from a shul, it details Sephardic Jews’ migration to the west coast from the Mediterranean, Middle East and North Africa at the turn of the 20th century.
Country: Poland
Non-Jewish Poles have been credited for their show of solidarity with the Jewish community, after dozens donned yarmulkes in a protest at a Warsaw café where a bartender had been accused of anti-Semitic comments. The protesters included Ryszard Schnepf, a former Polish ambassador to the United States.
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