World news roundup: Ugandan rabbi launches second parliament bid
Country: Uganda
A rabbi in the East African country of Uganda has launched a second bid for the Parliament. Ordained Conservative Rabbi Gershom Sizomu, a fourth generation Ugandan Jew, announced his intentions last week, after finishing second in 2011. He says he has converted 300 people to Judaism since 2003.
Country: Netherlands
Amsterdam authorities are to reimburse the families of Holocaust survivors for back taxes and fines they paid after failing to pay city taxes while they were in hiding or in concentration camps. Most other Dutch municipalities waived the debts, but the capital’s taxman pursued victims’ families until 1947.
Country: Czech Republic
Israeli and Czech lawmakers unveiled a plaque honouring the author of the first Jewish prayer book to be written by a woman for women. Fanny Neuda wrote ‘Hours of Devotion’ in Lostice, a town 100 miles east of Prague, where she lived in the mid 19th century with her rabbi husband. She died in 1894.
Country: Russia
A 100-year old synagogue in a Muslim area of Russia has been rededicated after renovations. Christian and Muslim leaders joined the small Jewish community of Kazan, in Tatarstan, 500 miles east of Moscow, as Russia’s chief rabbi affixed a mezuzah. Soviet authorities confiscated the shul in 1920.
Country: France
Hundreds attended the belated burial of Holocaust victims, whose remains were recently discovered at the University of Strasbourg, where they had once been preserved as anatomy specimens. One jar had skin taken from the body of a female Holocaust victim after she had been murdered in a gas chamber.
Country: Canada
Jews in Canada’s far north have had a government grant to research Jewish history in the Yukon. This includes the Gold Rush-era Jewish cemetery in Dawson City, which contains the remains of seven unidentified people. The cemetery, called Bet Chaim, or House of Life, was rededicated in 1998.
Keep community journalism free.
Jewish News is free for everyone. No paywall. No barriers. Just trusted journalism for anyone who wants to stay connected to Jewish life in Britain.
If you value that, please support us.
From as little as £5 a month, you can help keep our journalism free and accessible to all.
Every day, we report on the issues that matter to our community. We celebrate achievements, support charities, challenge antisemitism and ensure Jewish voices are heard more widely.
From as little as £5 a month, you can help us continue to:
- Report on the stories shaping Jewish life in the UK and beyond
- Bring our community together through shared stories, events and campaigns
- Celebrate the people, culture and moments that define our community
- Support organisations doing vital work across Jewish Britain
You can make a one-off donation or become a regular supporter. Every contribution helps keep our journalism free, independent and accessible to all.
If everyone who values Jewish News gave a small amount, it would make a real difference to our future.
