Evelyn Kozak, the world’s oldest Jewish person, died Tuesday at the age of 113. Kozak was buried in Brooklyn, after suffering a heart attack on Monday. Kozak’s family immigrated to the US after fleeing persecution in Russia, and she was born in New York on August 14, 1899. She spent much of her adult life in Miami, running a popular boarding house. As she grew older, she became more and more religious, ultimately taking up the tradition of covering her head at the age of 110. She also kept kosher …More

Vladimir Putin has declared the decades-old debate over the Schneerson Library over. "From this moment, I consider the question of the Schneerson Library to be closed,” the Russian president said Thursday. Since 1991, leaders of a Brooklyn-based Chabad-Lubavitch Jewish group have been trying to regain possession of the library of Rabbi Joseph I. Schneerson, who led the Chabad-Lubavitch movement before his death in 1950. In January, a Washington judge ordered Russia to pay a fine of $50,000 for every day …More

Israeli pianist Boris Giltburg won a prestigious piano competition on Sunday--the Queen Elisabeth Music Competition in Brussels. Giltburg, 28, of Tel Aviv, was named the winner in the piano category for his “impeccable and unusually moving rendition of Sergei Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 3,” the Belgian-Jewish magazine Joods Actueel reported. The Moscow-born musician is the second Israeli to win the international competition, which began in 1951; Miriam Fried won in the violin category in …More

The synagogue in Sochi in Russia has been renovated and a new Torah scroll acquired ahead of the city’s hosting of the Winter Olympics next year. Rabbi Ari Edelkopf, director of the Jewish Community of Sochi, said the renovation was completed this month and “will help our synagogue serve not only thousands of local Jews, but also Jews from around the world who come to Sochi for business and the thousands expected during the Winter Olympics.” The previous Winter Olympics, held in 2010 in …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

US officials told the Wall Street Journal on Thursday that another round of Israeli airstrikes could soon target a new Russian transfer of advanced anti-ship missiles. Israeli and Western intelligence services believe the Yakhont missiles, which have been sold by Russia to Syria in recent years, could be transferred to Hezbollah within days, the newspaper reported on its website Friday. At the same time, the New York Times reported Friday that the Yakhont missiles have already been delivered to Syria’s …More

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu returned to the Jewish state this week following a visit to Russia earmarked by attempts to stop Russian supply of arms to Syria. Russia is in the process of reportedly delivering hundreds of advanced S-300 missile systems to Syria. While Moscow responded that it would continue to uphold existing weapons contracts, press secretary Sergey Lavrov indicated his government would consider cessation of future sales. "We have already gone through with some of our previous …More

A young Russian immigrant received her Israeli citizenship Wednesday, and will now be able to represent Israel in official gymnastics tournaments. Twelve year-old Ksanya Kasrin has been waiting for this day for six years. Until recently, she registered for international competitions with her Russian passport, not as a part of Team Israel. Kasrin is currently ranked third in Israel, and recently won the Bronze medal in a Russian competition for her age group. She is considered a great talent and hope for …More

The world’s largest and most expensive Jewish Museum opened to great fanfare in Russia late last year. And although it has only been open for less than six months, the Jewish Museum and Tolerance Center in Moscow has become a must-see for any visitors to the Russian capital. A high profile project, its construction cost around $50 million, to which Russian President Vladimir Putin donated a month’s wages. Israeli President Shimon Peres, who was born in what is now Belarus, flew to Moscow for the …More

The story of Munkacs is unfortunately all too common. Called Mukacevo today, it is located in Ukraine, and was once a thriving Jewish center. The Jews called the town by its Hungarian name, Munkacs, or in Yiddish, Munkatch. In January 1941, just before the German invasion, the city had a Jewish population of 13,488, 42.7 percent of the entire town population. In 1938, Munkacs was annexed to Hungary, following the Munich Conference agreements. The Jewish economy struggled after annexation, and education and …More

Today marks the 110-year anniversary of the Kishinev pogrom, an anti-Jewish riot in today’s Republic of Moldova that left approximately 49 Jewish citizens dead, over 500 wounded and 2,000 families homeless. The riot was triggered when a popular anti-Semitic newspaper in Russia reported the death of a small Christian boy and suicide of a young girl as caused by the hands of Jews. It was believed that the murders were committed in the name of blood libel, an archaic belief that the blood of children was …More

Israel’s largest producers of root vegetables put out more than 200,000 tons of product in 2012, a recent activity report stated. Yaham cultivates massive amounts of root vegetables for the Jewish state, like onions and potatoes. While Israelis enjoy a large portion of that effort, the produce is also exported around the world, adding necessary commerce to Israel’s economy. "We produce and market root vegetables from 14 communities at western Negev,” said Dror Tanuri, CEO of Yaham. “Our …More