The Israeli Air Force was one of the first institutions created after the founding of the Jewish state. Established on May 28, 1948, the IAF is the aerial arm of the Israel Defense Forces. The IAF began as a small unit of light aircraft, coming from the Sherut Air, the aerial arm of the Haganah. The IAF was also influenced heavily by its precursor group, the Palestine Flying Service. To begin with, the IAF consisted of donated planes that were refurbished. Upon its founding, a series of World War II craft were …More

The Israeli Navy marked 40 years since the naval battles of the 1973 Yom Kippur War with a commemorative evening Wednesday, May 22, at Haifa’s International Convention Center. The event, honoring veterans of the Yom Kippur War from the Israeli Navy, was attended by many naval commanders, including Navy Commander in Chief Vice Adm. Ram Rothberg. Delivering the evening’s address, Vice Adm. Rothberg addressed the Yom Kippur War veterans themselves, many of whom were in attendance. The naval chief noted …More

Kosovo unveiled a plaque commemorating its Jews who perished in the Holocaust. Prime Minister Hashim Thaci was scheduled to unveil the plaque Thursday in Pristina at the site of the country’s last synagogue, across the street from the parliament. “This is the place where the last Synagogue of Kosovo stood until 1963,” the plaque reads in Albanian, Hebrew, English and Serbian. “This plaque is raised in memory of Kosovo Jews that perished in Nazi camps during Holocaust. People of Kosovo …More

Cpt. Joshua Louis Goldberg made history more than once during his extensive military career. The Belarus-born captain was the first rabbi to serve as a US Navy chaplain, when he was installed in World War II. He was also the first rabbi to reach the rank of captain in the Navy, and the first to serve a full active-duty career. Born January 6, 1896, Goldberg received his education in Russia and Tel Aviv. At age 18, he served in the Imperial Russian Army, but deserted to flee Russia. He immigrated to the US in …More

In 1991, the Israeli government set out on a covert mission to bring members of the Ethiopian Diaspora to the Jewish state. Tensions were high in the African nation, as Mengistu Haile Mariam’s government was near overthrow. Jewish groups grew wary of what this might mean for Ethiopia’s Jewish population. These Jews, known as Beta Israel, numbered in the thousands. Under Mariam, Ethiopian Jews faced difficult paths to aliyah. But with military wins by Eritrean and Tigerean rebels, Mariam’s power …More

Georges Moustaki, a French singer and songwriter known as “The Wandering Jew,” has died. Moustaki died early Thursday at his home in Nice, France, following a long illness, the French news agency AFP reported. He was 79. The Egypt native won his nickname in France for his simple musical style and melancholic ballads. In addition to singing his own songs, he wrote and composed in the 1960s for such renowned artists as Edith Piaf, Yves Montand and Juliette Greco. Among the more famous of the hundreds …More

The government of Lithuania has asked Israeli President Shimon Peres to head an international advisory board on the restoration of the Vilnius Great Synagogue. “The [restoration] project is an important part of the effort to both preserve and restore Vilnius’ Jewish heritage, and I think that President Peres could bring valuable guidance and insight to our project,” Vilnius Mayor Arturas Zuokas said, according to the Baltic Review news site. The restoration and construction project could be …More

Many Jewish visitors to Moscow will make a trip to the city’s celebrated Choral Synagogue. Except perhaps for the odd Instagram photo or status update, most will do so without much fanfare. But when 50-year-old Golda Meir visited the shul in 1948, a crowd of 50,000 Muscovites cheered her arrival. “As we had planned, we went to synagogue on Rosh Hashanah,” Meir wrote in her autobiography. “The street in front of the synagogue had changed. Now it was filled with people, packed together like …More

In 1933, Helen Keller’s “How I Became a Socialist” was placed on a list of books set for burning by a group of German students. The historic activist was none too pleased with the news. Keller’s work made it onto the list for being “un-German,” an unattractive quality in 1930’s Nazi Germany. Keller’s response? She decided to write a letter personally to the student body, taking the young “advocates” to task for trying to “kill …More

The Air Force Museum is the only museum in Israel where the entire staff is made up of soldiers on active duty, including tour guides who speak five different languages: Hebrew, English, Spanish, French and Russian. The logistic workers, plane mechanics, administrators and photographers are all soldiers as well. Now, to introduce your personal tour guide: Cpl. Rom Aloni, 20 years-old, serves as a guide in the museum as part of his regular army service. Cpl. Rom Aloni next to the MiG-23 and the MiG-21 airplanes …More

Boruch Spiegel, a Warsaw Ghetto hero and one of the last remaining fighters from the famous uprising, died earlier this month at the age of 93. Spiegel was one of an estimated 750 Jewish fighters that rose up against the Nazis in the spring of 1943. The resistance held off Nazi forces for a month, a surprising feat for the poorly armed Jewish prisoners. While the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising was ultimate unsuccessful, it remains today as one of the most iconic instances of Jewish-led Nazi resistance. Spiegel is …More

Among Budapest’s trendy bistros, cafes and bars stands the world’s second largest synagogue. Like the Lower East Side of Manhattan or the East End of London, urban gentrification has had its way with Budapest’s District VII, transforming the once run-down area into a neighborhood of pricey coffees and young artists whose signature works appear to be their hair. Yet despite the neighborhood’s profound changes, one rare constant has remained: the 154-year-old Dohány Street …More