World Jewish Congress President Ronald Lauder renewed criticism of Hungary’s prime minister for failing to crack down on the ultranationalist Jobbik party. “Unfortunately,” Lauder told the WJC plenary assembly Monday, “we did not hear words about Jobbik and what they’re doing” in Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s speech to the gathering's opening session on Sunday night. “Unfortunately it’s more and more important for governments to placate a group of voters than …More

Ron Lauder is re-elected as head of the World Jewish Congress. [JPost] Descendants honor the Jews of Cape Verde's past. [AFP] Benjamin Netanyahu visits a Jewish Chinese quarter. [JPost] Greece is considering an anti-Semitism, Holocaust-denial bill. [Haaretz] Prisoner X botched an Israeli plan to recover bodies. [Forward] Naftali Bennett steps into the Women of the Wall fray. [Times of Israel] Adam Yauch gets his own park in Brooklyn. [USA Today] …More

Hungary’s prime minister has banned a far-right rally planned for the day before the World Jewish Congress begins. [Reuters] An Egyptian newspaper featured two articles promoting the idea of Jewish people drinking the blood of Christians and Muslims on Passover. [Algemeiner] Italian police have arrested four men, believed to be members of an Islamist terrorist group. [Reuters] The Perry Committee will address the idea of a universal draft enlisting hardei Zionists to serve in the IDF. [Ynet] Members …More

The head of Hungary’s Raoul Wallenberg Association said he was beaten at a soccer match in Budapest. Ferenc Orosz told the Hungarian news agency MTI during a conference Monday on hate speech that “first he was verbally assaulted and then his nose was broken after a match at Budapest’s Puskas Stadium which he attended with his family” the previous day. MTI quoted Orosz as saying that soccer fans standing near him “were chanting for Mussolini and ‘Sieg Heil.’” The …More

The largest number of attendees on record turned out for a pro-Jewish rally in Hungary Sunday, a sign organizers said had to do with rising anti-Semitism in the nation. Some 10,000 took part in the gathering in Budapest, more than double the number that attended last year. Local US and Israeli ambassadors took part in Sunday’s event, which is held to honor the memories of those lost in the Holocaust. The event is held each year, but many associated with the march said this year’s attendance was …More

The Jewish community of Thessaloniki in northern Greece will hold a series of events commemorating the 70th anniversary of the first deportations of the city’s Jews during WWII. On March 15, 1943, the Nazis sent the first convoy of some 4,000 Jews from Thessaloniki to the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp. By August, 49,000 out of the city’s pre-war population of 55,000 Jews had been deported. Fewer than 2,000 survived. Planned events will include a march on March 16 from the city’s Liberty Square …More

The Oxford University Student's Union is scheduled to vote on joining the BDS movement Wednesday. [World Jewish Congress] Last week, a German court dismissed all charges against Rabbi David Goldberg for circumcising an infant after the practice was deemed illegal in Cologne. [Israel National News] In honor of Purim, three Books of Esther kept in the attic of a house in the Warsaw Ghetto during World War II have been returned to Jewish hands. [Ynet] The Independent presents Purim in pictures. [The …More

Jewish leaders are already reacting to news that Pope Benedict XVI will be resigning from his post, the first pontiff to do so in 600 years. Israel’s chief rabbi, Yona Metzger, had warm words for the outgoing pope, saying, “During his period [as pope] there were the best relations ever between the church and the chief rabbinate and we hope that this trend will continue.” “I think he deserves a lot of credit for advancing inter-religious links the world over between Judaism, Christianity …More

French President Francois Hollande has bestowed World Jewish Congress President Ronald Lauder his nation’s highest decoration—the French Legion of Honor. The medal was presented to Lauder yesterday during a ceremony at the Elysée Palace, the official home of each French president. In bestowing the honor, Hollande called the WJC head “a man of peace, of culture and of commitment.” “Since 2007, you have served as World Jewish Congress president, heading an organization that …More

Ronald Lauder, head of the World Jewish Congress, has been banned from the property of Austria's Jewish organization. [Reuters] How the dreidel can act as a symbol of the separation between church and state. [Huffington Post] Hanukkah envy: why even the goyim want to celebrate eight crazy nights. [Tablet] It's here! Make sure to get your copy of the 2013 Nice Jewish Guys calendar. [Huffington Post] A new book explores that ever-elusive breed: the Jewish jock. [Salon] Peeps apologizes for a (hilarious) …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

The president of Colombia received the Shalom Award for peace this week, as he urged the world to recognize Israel as a state for the Jewish people. “Both the people here and the people in Israel have been seeking peace for decades,” Juan Manuel Santos said, as he was handed the prize by the World Jewish Congress on Tuesday. WJC President Ronald Lauder and Latin American Jewish Congress President Jack Terpins were present at the Bogota ceremony. Santos promised at the event to continue to seek an …More