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Benjamin Netanyahu greets arrivals as part of pledge to bring all Ethiopians of Jewish lineage to IsraelHundreds of Ethiopian immigrants on Thursday arrived at a festive ceremony at Israel’s international airport, as the Israeli government took a step towards carrying out its pledge to reunite hundreds of families split between the two countries.Some 300 people landed on the Ethiopian Airlines flight, with many waving...

Soviet Union’s collapse may be responsible for exodus from eastern EuropeEurope has lost almost 60% of its Jewish population over the past 50 years, mainly as a result of the collapse of the Soviet Union after which many Jews left eastern Europe as borders opened, a study shows.Only about 9% of the global Jewish population now lives in Europe, compared with nearly 90% in...

Sombre Yom Kippur provides only a temporary pause to debate about tighter lockdownCoronavirus – latest updatesSee all our coronavirus coverageIsraeli politicians are considering whether to tighten an already paralysing second coronavirus lockdown by bringing in controversial measures to limit people’s ability to protest and pray together.Life in the country of 9 million ground to a halt on Sunday night and into Monday for Yom...

New law hailed as justice for families of refugees – and could benefit thousands of BritonsTens of thousands of British citizens are among the many descendants of Jewish refugees who can apply for Austrian citizenship from Tuesday under a new law that campaigners say finally delivers a measure of historic justice for their ancestors’ expulsions under Nazi rule.About 120,000 Jewish refugees fled persecution after...

Diaries and manuscripts turn spotlight on little-known acts of endurance and braveryFrom quiet acts of bravery, to overt acts of rebellion, Jewish resistance to the Holocaust took many forms, yet research shows they remain largely unacknowledged in traditional UK teachings about the genocide.A new exhibition, drawing on thousands of previously unseen documents and manuscripts, is placing some of the little-known personal stories of heroism,...

New centre in Greek city will be lifeline for Sephardic Jews, mostly descendants of Spanish exilesFive centuries after they were expelled from Spain and eight decades after they were almost annihilated in the Holocaust, the small community of Sephardic Jews that lives on in the Greek city of Thessaloniki is looking to its past to help safeguard its future.On Tuesday, Thessaloniki’s Jewish community signed...

Archaeologists say find at Israeli excavation offers first proof of mind-altering substances being used in JudaismIsraeli archaeologists say they’ve found cannabis residue on artefacts from an ancient temple in southern Israel providing the first evidence of the use of hallucinogenics in the ancient Jewish religion.In a research paper, the authors say the discovery from an eighth-century BC shrine at Tel Arad offers the first...

Those making trip to former Nazi death camp fear lessons of Holocaust are being forgotten‘I see it as a chance to finally say goodbye’: Auschwitz survivors tell their storiesMore than 200 survivors are to gather at the former Nazi extermination camp of Auschwitz, many probably for the final time, to commemorate the 75th anniversary of its liberation.As rows over the make-up of the international...

Five survivors who will return for Monday’s liberation ceremony recall their experiences at the Nazi death campFive survivors of Auschwitz, one of whom is returning for the first time since her incarceration, have told their stories to the Guardian to mark the 75th anniversary of the liberation of the Nazi extermination camp, which is being commemorated on Monday.Aged in their late-80s to mid-90s, they...

Ronald Lauder’s Auschwitz memorial address will demand action against a rising tide of hatredThe president of the World Jewish Congress has accused leaders of contributing to the “drip, drip method” of spreading antisemitism, comparing it to the defamation campaigns that culminated in the Holocaust.Ahead of the 75th anniversary on Mondayof the liberation of the Nazi death camp at Auschwitz-Birkenau, Ronald Lauder said that governments...

Minibuses that run on Friday evenings and Saturdays buck state’s religious restrictions Tel Aviv is one of Israel’s most dynamic cities, but the latest local craze could appear fairly humdrum to outsiders – a bus service that runs at weekends.Packed 19-seat minibuses fill up fast with passengers, who excitedly gossip about the new routes. People patiently queue at bus stops, knowing they might have...

Priceless volume that survived centuries after exile of its persecuted owners finally returns to GaliciaOn a summer’s day in 1476 a scribe called Moses Ibn Zabarah put the finishing touches to an enormous and magnificently illustrated Hebrew Bible commissioned by the son of a wealthy Jewish family from Galicia, north-western Spain.“The blessed Lord grant that he study it, he and his children and his...

With a dire shortage of land for graves, the holy city is reviving an ancient custom of underground burial – with lift access, LED lighting and golf buggiesCool air from deep inside the mountain lightly wafts through cavernous arched tunnels. Along the walls of the subterranean passages, rows of human-sized chambers have been dug into the rock. It is unmistakably a catacomb.Yet this mass...