World news roundup: Israeli aid reaches flooded Bosnia

The latest and greatest Jewish news from around the globe:

• Holocaust survivor and author Primo Levi

  United States

The head of California’s UCLA has criticised a proposed ban on student council candidates going to Israel on sponsored visits. Several groups had tried to veto trips sponsored by pro-Israel lobby group AIPAC, but Chancellor Gene Block said he was “troubled by efforts to delegitimise educational trips”.

• Italy

The paint factory in Italy where author and Holocaust survivor Primo Levi worked has reopened as a museum and cultural centre. The Siva factory in Settimo Torinese, where Levi worked for almost 30 years, closed two decades ago. The new complex will host concerts, lectures and other events.

• Bosnia

Israeli aid shipments arrived in Bosnia after floods killed over 20 people. The emergency relief package, which included medicine, food and blankets, were delivered by helicopter because submerged cities were cut off. There is a small Jewish community in the town of Doboj, one of the worst affected areas.

• Floods have caused deaths and extensive damage in Bosnian Herzgovinan towns like Zenica, above.

  Ukraine

A spokesman for the now-defunct Jewish TV news channel JN1, which was based in Kiev, said the introduction of a new Jewish-interest channel in France was an influencing factor in the channel’s sudden closure last month. The spokesman also said the oligarch owners’ political ambitions also had a bearing.

• India

Benjamin Netanyahu has revealed that Israel plans to strengthen economic ties with India after the Asian giant’s election threw up new winners. The Israeli PM congratulated Indian prime minister-designate Narendra Modi and his BJP party on winning the first clear parliamentary majority in thirty years.

• Australia

The Russian-speaking Limmud is to take place for the first time in Australia next year. The conference, which will be held in Melbourne in March, is already popular in New York and the former Soviet Union, and is being rolled out to other countries too, including a first visit to Canada in October.