The first soccer game involving an Israeli team at the stadium built for the 1936 Olympics hosted by Nazi Germany was marred by antisemitic abuse aimed at the visiting team’s fans. Union Berlin said Friday it condemned the antisemitic attacks against Maccabi Haifa supporters during the teams’ Europa Conference League game at Berlin’s Olympiastadion the night before. “Intolerable,” the club said in a statement of the physical and verbal abuse first detailed by members of the youth branch of the local German-Israeli society, who attended the game in a mixed block of fans. Union president Dirk Zingler apologized for the fans’ actions.

Shortly after sundown, Yaakov Tabersky presented his firstborn son on a silver platter to a Jewish priest in a ceremony harking back to the biblical exodus from Egypt. The ceremony, known as “pidyon ha-ben,” or redemption of the firstborn, was held in an ultra-Orthodox community in Beit Shemesh, near Jerusalem. Thursday night’s ceremony had added significance because the baby is the great-grandchild of Aharon Biderman, the chief rabbi of the Lelov Hassidic dynasty. Firstborn sons originally made up the priesthood of the ancient Israelites. As described in the Book of Exodus, they were spared from the final plague brought upon the pharaoh, in which God was said to have wiped out the firstborn sons of Egypt, an event commemorated every spring at Passover.

Jews in Iran are celebrating Sukkos in the shadow of a devastating coronavirus wave and most minyanim are being held outdoors in open areas. Although most of Iran’s Jews live in the capital city of Tehran, there are also smaller Jewish communities in the cities of Shiraz and Isfahan. About 2,000 Jews live in the southwestern city of Shiraz, the fourth-most populous city in Iran and the capital of Fars Province. In the video below, a Sukkos minyan takes place in the courtyard of a Jewish school in Shiraz.

In a rare interview with the Israeli magazine Katifa, Rebbetzin Tziporah Gerami, the wife of the Chief Rabbi of Tehran, Rav Yehudah Gerami, spoke about the life of Jews in Tehran. The Rebbetzin said that davka in Islmaic Iran, the right to freedom of religion is respected. “Most if not all of the members of the Jewish community are ma’aminim and are shomer the mesorah – there are almost no kofrim or people who are against religion. But unfortunately, there are people who aren’t knowledgable about religion and we’re trying to change this situation with shiurei Torah and ruchniyus-related activities.” During the time of the Shah, prior to the Islamic Revolution, there were many Jewish-owned businesses open on Shabbos and many Jews didn’t keep kosher.

King Willem-Alexander officially unveiled a new memorial in the heart of Amsterdam’s historic Jewish Quarter on Sunday honoring more than 102,000 Dutch victims of the Holocaust, and the Dutch prime minister vowed that it would remind citizens today to be vigilant against antisemitism. Designed by Polish-Jewish architect Daniel Libeskind, the memorial is made up of walls shaped to form four Hebrew letters spelling out a word that translates as “In Memory Of.” The walls are built using bricks, each of which is inscribed with the name, date of birth and age when they died of one of the more than 102,000 Jews, Roma and Sinti who were murdered in Nazi concentration camps during World War II or who died on their way to the camps.

Afghanistan’s last Jew, Zebulon Simentov, who was evacuated from Afghanistan earlier this month, signed a get for his wife in New York on Erev Yom Kippur. Moti Kahana, an Israeli-American businessman who runs a private security group that organized Simentov’s evacuation, convinced Simentov to grant his wife a get prior to evacuating him and Simentov fulfilled his commitment. He signed the get over Zoom in the presence of two rabbis and Kahana. “I did something good for the new year,” Kahana wrote on Twitter afterward. “I helped a woman receive a get. I’m not sure it’s kosher. There will definitely be arguments – we’re Jews!

A 22-year-old former nursing student pleaded guilty to the murder of one person and the attempted murders of 53 others in connection with a 2019 deadly shooting at a Southern California synagogue on the last day of Passover, effectively ending the possibility of facing the death penalty. John T. Earnest entered a similar guilty plea on July 20 on state charges in San Diego Superior Court and agreed then to serve the rest of his life in state prison without the possibility of parole. Sentencing is scheduled for Sept. 30. In the federal case, sentencing has been set for Dec. 28. Defense attorneys and prosecutors are also recommending a term of life in prison, plus 30 years, according to the plea.

Provocative pro-Palestinian protests outside a Jewish synagogue in Michigan are protected by the Constitution’s First Amendment, a federal court appeals said Wednesday. The court declined to stop the demonstrations or set restrictions in Ann Arbor. The protests have occurred on a weekly basis since 2003, with people holding signs that say “Jewish Power Corrupts,” “Stop Funding Israel” and “End the Palestinian Holocaust.” Members of Beth Israel Congregation, including some Holocaust survivors, said the protests have interfered with their Saturday worship and caused emotional distress. “But the congregants have not alleged that the protesters ever blocked them from using their synagogue or that the protests were even audible from inside the building,” Judge Jeffrey Sutton said.

Thousands of Jews joined the Yom Kippur tefillos at the main shul in Moscow, the Marina Roscha shul. After Ne’ilah, the Chief Rabbi of Russia, HaRav Berel Lazar, spoke works of hisorerus and and jumped and danced with the mispallelim at the end of the emotional tefillah followed by singing “Napoleon’s” March” as is the Chabad Minhag. The Marina Roscha shul, which has 2,000 seats, is part of the vast Moscow Jewish Public Center, with 7,2000 square meters of spacious rooms, including a library, a concert hall, an art gallery, and many classrooms, where a variety of classes and club meetings are held. (YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)

A 16-year-old boy and three other people were detained Thursday in connection with a suspected plan for an Islamic extremist attack on a synagogue in the German city of Hagen, authorities said. The detentions took place on Yom Kippur, the holiest day in Judaism, and two years after a deadly attack in another German city on the Yom Kippur holiday. Police cordoned off the synagogue on Wednesday and a worship service planned for the evening was called off. נער בן 16 ממוצא סורי נעצר בחשד לתכנון פיגוע טרור בבית כנסת בהאגן שבגרמניה. מוקדם יותר היום דווח כי נעצרו קבוצה של 4 קיצונים איסלאמיסטים שתכננו ככל הנראה לבצע פיגוע בבית הכנסת בעיר האגן שבגרמניה במהלך יום הכיפורים. pic.twitter.com/YmGc9Kbar2 — ידידיה אפשטיין ‏