Tzipi Livni joined a score of leaders at Mauthausen Sunday, commemorating the 68th anniversary of the death camp’s liberation. "We who weren't there cannot and may not forget. The numbers engraved on the arms in Auschwitz are engraved on each of our souls," the Israeli justice minister said. "I came today as justice minister of the Jewish state to say together with you ‘never again.’” Livni added: "It is not for us that we do not want the world to forget, it is for the future of …More

The oldest male survivor of the Holocaust passed away late last month at the age of 107. Leopold Engleitner was a Jehovah’s Witness imprisoned by Nazis for “conscientious objection.” He served time at a handful of concentration camps, including Mauthausen, refusing to renounce his faith in exchange for freedom. He was eventually released after agreeing to serve as a farm slave laborer for the rest of his life. When ordered to join Hitler’s army, he hid rather than join up. He was freed …More

Anti-Semitism in Hungary is causing an influx of Jewish immigrants to Austria, the head of Vienna’s Jewish community said. “I am pleased people are coming, but the circumstances that force them to leave Hungary due to the political situation, due to anti-Semitism, don’t please me at all,” Oskar Deutsch, president of the Vienna Jewish community, is quoted as telling the Austrian Press Agency, APA. Ariel Muzicant, Deutsch’s predecessor as leader of Austria’s Jewish community of …More

Hilde Zadek didn’t start out to be a representative of her people. The famed opera singer, born in what is now Poland in 1917, was a typical young Jewish girl when attending grade school--she made friends, enjoyed sports, played on the playground. Then the Nazis came to power, and Hilda’s path took a serious turn. Zadek and her family were fortunate enough to make aliyah to British Mandate Palestine in 1934, but not before young Hilde felt anti-Semitism firsthand. Zadek, now 95, recently related the …More

The number of anti-Semitic incidents documented in 2012 by Austria's Jewish community doubled from the previous year, the leader of Vienna's Jewish community said. Oskar Deutsch told the Kurier newspaper that the Jewish community registered 135 such incidents last year, compared to 71 in 2011. Still, Jews increasingly are immigrating to Austria from neighboring Hungary because of anti-Semitism in that country, he said. In comments published Monday, Deutsch named Hungary, Sweden, Norway, Finland, France and …More

White House officials reach out to Jewish groups to answer questions on Hagel. [CNN] Israel is experiencing some uncharacteristic weather. [Algemeiner] An Austrian Jewish leader says anti-Semitism is growing. [ABC] Bulgaria has fired its chief investigator in the Burgas bombing case. [Times of Israel] The wife of a Hamas MP says it is a woman's duty to encourage her children to kill themselves in the name of jihad. [Times of Israel] Jewish weddings are seen as a tourism booster in Spain. [Haaretz] Howie …More

A historic menorah, made from the headgear of a 19th century soldier, went on display in Jerusalem this week. The artifact is currently on view at the Museum of Italian Jewish Art and features the Hapsburg dynasty’s double-headed eagle emblem as well as the initials of a 1700’s-era emperor. The plates came from the ceremonial helmet of an Austro-Hungarian soldier, though the identity of the original owner is unknown. The menorah is thought to have been constructed sometime before 1835. The menorah …More

A Russian politician wants to buy the home where Adolf Hitler was born---in order to destroy it. Frantz Klintsevich, a member of parliament in the Russian government, is making a bid to raise funds and purchase the small building in the Austrian town of Braunau-am-Inn. The plan came after the town’s mayor announced his intention to convert the building into luxury condos. “I would buy this property in the blink of an eye if I had that kind of money myself, but I do not,” Klintsevich told the …More

The word Kristallnacht is as embedded in the Jewish culture as the terms we would learn later, like Holocaust, Auschwitz and Buchenwald. The Night of Broken Glass marked a turn in the rise of Adolf Hitler’s final solution, culminating in an evening of terror followed by the largest Jewish round ups the community had seen to date. Tonight, Shabbat candles will be lit next to Yahrzeit flames as we remember the 74th anniversary of this historic tragedy, when nearly 100 Jews were killed, 30,000 were sent to the …More

The Simon Wiesenthal Center had appealed to Austria’s interior ministry, after a rabbi reported verbal abuse on the street. Rabbi Schlomo Hoffmeister reported that spectators at a soccer match in Vienna shouted “Jews out!" and gave a Nazi salute. The rabbi also said nearby police did nothing to stop the spectacle, with one officer saying, “It’s just soccer.” Austria, like much of Europe, has strict laws against displays of Nazism, including the notorious salute. In response, the …More

Barack Obama's Jewish backing slips in Florida. [Boston.com] A Jewish governor is touting Obama in swing states. [Forward] Experts say aliyah rates aren't affected by Iran concerns. [Jerusalem Post] Israel will help restore a lake in Africa. [Ynet] Austria will investigate an alleged anti-Semitic cartoon. [ABC] An op-ed writer thinks the divide between the US and Israel is greater than we think. [Jewish Week] Tablet says the media has a blind spot when it comes to Orthodox women. [Tablet] Jewish …More

The Conference of European Rabbis will lobby against recent circumcision bans by advocating legislation supporting the practice. This week, hospitals in Switzerland and a province of Austria announced that they would stop allowing ritual circumcision. The German lower house of parliament passed a non-binding resolution last week to protect the religious circumcision of infant boys after a district court ban on the practice outraged Muslims and Jews. “Our fears that the court ruling in Cologne, Germany, …More