Holocaust survivors experience lingering effects from the trauma they suffered in their younger years, increasing the chances of cancer and heart disease, according to a recently published Hebrew University study. The study examined the death records of 22,000 people who were followed from 1964 to 2016, comparing the death rates of Holocaust survivors from cancer and heart disease to non-survivors. Female Holocaust survivors had a 15% higher mortality rate and a 17% higher risk of death from cancer, the study showed. Interestingly, the study showed that the overall mortality rate of male Holocaust survivors wasn’t higher than non-survivors but they had a staggeringly 39% higher risk of dying from heart disease and a 14% higher risk of dying from cancer.

In a rare critique of the French justice system, French President Emanuel Macron said that “going crazy” due to taking drugs is not a valid excuse for a lack of criminal responsibility. “Deciding to take drugs and then ‘going crazy’ should, not in my view, take away your criminal responsibility,” Macron told the French daily Le Figaro in an interview published on Monday, AFP reported. “I would like Justice Minister [Eric Dupond-Moretti] to present a change in the law as soon as possible,” he added. France’s highest court ruled last week that the killer of Sarah Halimi cannot stand trial for her grisly murder because he was too high on marijuana to be criminally responsible for his actions.

Iran’s Quds Force deputy commander has died of a heart attack, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps announced on Sunday. Brig. Gen. Mohammad Hosseinzadeh Hejazi, who died at 65, served as deputy commander of the Quds Force of Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard. The unit directs foreign terror groups such as Hezbollah and Hamas, and Hejazi frequently traveled between Iraq, Lebanon and Syria. Hejazi was one of the key planners of the 1994 bombing at the AMIA Jewish center in Buenos Aires, Argentina, in which 85 people were killed. In 2011, Hejazi’s name was added to the sanctions list of the Council of the European Union for his role in the crackdown protests following the 2009 win of former Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

As news headlines report on the latest Israeli sabotage at Iran’s Natanz nuclear site, the Jews in Iran are battling a serious COVID wave along with the rest of the country. At least four Iranian Jews recently passed away of the coronavirus, B’Chadrei Chareidim reported. The virus wave, Iran’s fourth, is especially severe in the cities of Tehran and Isfahan, both of which house Jewish kehillos. On the order of Chief Rabbi Rav Yehuda Gerami, the shuls in the cities are closed. Many young Iranian Jews have contracted the virus, with some of them becoming seriously ill and requiring respiratory assistance. A number of Jews are fighting for their lives in Iran’s overcrowded hospitals.

Israel’s top court on Thursday upheld a Cabinet minister’s decision to temporarily block a prominent academic from receiving the country’s highest honor after he called on the EU to halt funding for an Israeli university located in the Shomron. Oded Goldreich was nominated for this year’s Israel Prize in mathematics and computer science by a panel of judges. But shortly after the nomination was announced, nationalist groups called for his disqualification, claiming he supported the Palestinian-led international grassroots BDS boycott movement against Israel. Last month, Goldreich and hundreds of other academics signed a petition calling on the European Union to halt funding for Ariel University, located in the Shomron, saying it legitimized Israeli settlements.

Like so many mothers, Raul Artal’s insisted that her son was going to be a doctor. But there was a history — and heroism — behind her ambitions for him. A determined Jewish doctor in a concentration camp in 1943 delivered Artal in a barn, despite his feet-first position — and saved the lives of both mother and son. His mother was right: Now, Artal, 78, is a retired obstetrician himself. “I’ve heard that story so many times, I could become nothing else” but a doctor, he chuckled during a recent interview from his Los Angeles-area home. By birth and by choice, he personifies the theme of this year’s International March of the Living — an educational program that coincides with Israel’s annual Holocaust memorial day.

After two members of the Jewish community in Derba were violently attacked in recent days and security officials reacted with indifference, international pressure eventually resulted in Tunisian authorities announcing an increased police presence in the Jewish community as of Thursday, Kikar H’Shabbat reported. Several days ago, the 10-year-old son of one of the leaders of the Jewish community in Djerba was severely beaten and a few days prior to that a 23-year-old Jewish woman was attacked. The perpetrators tried to choke her and it was only due to the intervention of passersby that her life was saved. Tunisian security forces called to the scene responded to the incident with indifference, writing it off as an attempted robbery.

Alarmed by a rise in online anti-Semitism during the pandemic, coupled with studies indicating younger generations lack even basic knowledge of the Nazi genocide, Holocaust survivors are taking to social media to share their experience of how hate speech paved the way for mass murder. With short video messages recounting their stories, participants in the #ItStartedWithWords campaign hope to educate people about how the Nazis embarked on an insidious campaign to dehumanize and marginalize Jews — years before death camps were established to carry out murder on an industrial scale. The plan is to release six individual videos and a compilation Wednesday over Facebook, Instagram and Twitter, followed by one video per week.

The University of Pennsylvania announced it is not rescheduling its commencement ceremony, scheduled for one of the days of Shavuos, despite a petition requesting the change to enable Orthodox Jewish students and their relatives to participate in the event, JNS reported. The petition to reschedule the commencement was signed by over 1,600 and alumni. About 40 frum seniors received an email on March 24 informing them of the university’s decision not to move the ceremony, according to the university’s student newspaper, The Daily Pennsylvanian, claiming logistical reasons for the decision.

Libyan authorities have quietly made a decision to convert the ancient shul in the Old City of Tripoli into a modern library, according to a report by Kan News, which obtained footage of the damage in the shul. In response to an inquiry, Libyan officials told Kan that the damage was caused by maintenance work to renovate the building but did confirm that there was an attempt to erect a building next to the shul that could have damaged the shul but the work was halted. Dr. David Gerbi, a representative of an international organization for Jews of Libyan origin, told Kan that he still fears the authorities will convert the shul into a library, destroying an integral part of the history of Libyan Jewry, which dates back 2,300 years.