An annual chocolate celebration in France will pay tribute to the Jewish community for the first time, 500 years after European Jewry brought he sweet delight to France in the first place. The city of Bayonne, noted as France’s chocolate capital, will include a nod to Jewish heritage on the region’s Chocolate Day this Friday. The tribute is in reference to the 16th century Portuguese Jews who first brought chocolate to Bayonne when fleeing the Inquisition. “Since we are the inheritors of the …More

A Dutch official said negotiations will be held with the Jewish community concerning a royal ceremony scheduled to take place on Yom Kippur. A farewell party for the recently abdicated Queen Beatrix is currently scheduled for Sept. 14, the Jewish Day of Atonement. A spokesperson for the royal house said discussions were underway to "find the best way to make the day happen,” the news site Spirit24 reported, but the date would not be changed because of scheduling constraints. Last week, the daily NRC …More

The Coliseum has plans to dim its lights in protest of anti-Semitic acts by Hungary’s far-right Jobbik party. The Roman site announced the intention yesterday, with representatives saying the lights would dim on the evening of January 27, International Holocaust Remembrance Day. The Coliseum has a history of dimming its lights in protest of international plights, and the spot is often the scene of peaceful demonstration. Jobbik has taken flak in recent months for a slew of anti-Semitic behavior. In …More

Representing the hundreds of thousands of Jewish students across Europe isn’t an easy task—but it’s one the European Union of Jewish Students happily accepts. The organization is the representative body of European Jewry across the university circuit, organizing lectures, events and training sessions in an aim to promote unity across the board. “The main function is to represent Jewish students in Europe. We have 35 representatives for more than 200,000 students,” said Nathan …More

A Dutch-Jewish writer is making headlines after vowing he won’t pay taxes until his government stops sending funds to Egypt. Leon de Winter, a best selling author in Holland, wrote a column in the De Telgraaf Saturday expressing his outrage at recently exposed remarks from Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi. Morsi has made headlines himself in recent days after a 2010 video surfaced in which the Muslim Brotherhood leader stated Jews are “descendants of apes and pigs.” De Winter called on the …More

The Dutch have a new colloquialism for the word “cool,” and it’s the same as the one for “Jew.” The news surfaced this week thanks to a blog post by Professor Marc van Oostendorp, a Dutch linguist. “One is at first unsettled by it. The word Jew is still a slightly sensitive issue if used improperly,” Oostendorp wrote, referencing its common use by anti-Semitic soccer fans in Europe. But Oostendorp argues the Dutch word for Jew, “jood,” is used to mean …More

The word pogrom is often associated with Holocaust era attacks on European Jewry. But many centuries earlier, a brutal pogrom was enforced on the Jewish community in England, just a stone’s throw away from where Hitler would ultimately begin his Final Solution. In 1190, a collection of Jewish immigrants shipped in with the Normans had set up a thriving business as moneylenders near York Castle. The profession was outlawed as a rule, but tolerated by the monarchy as a necessary evil. Rulers for years had …More

Walking along some cobbled street in Germany, Hungary or Italy, travelers might notice a small bronze plaque, interred into the ground or wall of some unassuming building. The plaques, written in the language of whatever country the item has been installed in, may say any number of things, from names to dates and addresses. The message on each of these plaques, however, is the same—a victim of the Holocaust once lived here. The initiative is called the Stolpersteine Project, and it’s the brainchild …More

Israel’s plastic bottle recycling efforts now surpass those of the United States, and even rival Europe’s, a new report by the non-profit Ela Recycling Association shows. According to the data, over five million plastic bottles and containers have been recycled in Israel in the last decade. That’s 50.3 percent of plastic bottles used in Israel. In contrast, the US recycles only 29.3 percent of its bottles, while Europe stands at an even 51 percent. Israelis also recycle 77 percent of glass …More

Plans to sell pieces of barbed wire from a Netherlands concentration camp have been scrapped, after an outcry from several Jewish groups. The Kamp Amersfoort Foundation announced Monday its intention to sell 50 pieces of Amersfoort wire at 10 euros apiece, in an effort to raise 500 euros in funds for a Holocaust artifact exhibit at the camp. That decision was immediately met with criticism from Jewish groups both local and abroad, and the Foundation decided the next day to cancel the plan. "It seems we have …More

Lawmakers gathered recently to hammer out new Holocaust restitution laws in Europe, during a Prague conference overseen by the World Jewish Restitution Organization. “While progress has taken place since the fall of Communism and subsequent breakup of the Soviet Union, there remains an urgent need to help the tens of thousands of elderly Holocaust victims and their heirs whose property claims remain unsatisfied,” said WJRO President Ronald S. Lauder. WJRO is a sub-group of the World Jewish Congress, …More

Standing with dozens of hungry people in a 
breadline, Collette Quidron counts her blessings. 
 “I enjoy coming here,” says Quidron, a Holocaust survivor with diabetes. “I know everybody and there’s always someone to talk to. If you’re Jewish and need tzedakah, Marseille is as good as it gets.” The breadline, started 18 years ago behind the city's main synagogue, serves about 1,000 poor Jews each week thanks to an annual budget of about $630,000. It is but one arm of an …More