Brazilian federal police raided the Rio de Janeiro church on Friday of the pastor who led his congregation in praying for a second Holocaust for Jews, JTA reported. The raid was part of an operation named “Shalom” against Pastor Tupirani da Hora Lores, who prayed that G-d should “destroy the Jews like vermin.” Last year, a Jewish group discovered an online video of da Hora Lores leading his congregation in shouting “Massacre the Jews, G-d, hit them with your sword, for they have left G-d, they have left the nations.” “G-d, what you have done in World War II, you must do again, this is what we ask for in our prayers to you: Justice, justice, justice!” The congregants are heard fervently repeating the pastor’s words.

Jewish groups in Switzerland joined Muslim groups in protesting a ban on face-coverings as an infringement on religious freedom after a referendum was passed to ban them on Sunday, JTA reported. In a statement, Rabbi Pinchas Goldschmidt, the president of the Conference of European Rabbis and a Zurich native, said that the Swiss “has a long history of trying to curb migrations through banning religious practice.” As an example he mentioned the Swiss ban on shechita in 1892, which is still binding today, saying that it was passed to stop the Jewish migration from Russia due to pogroms.

John Joseph Brown, 88, died peacefully overnight at his home in Queensbury on February 6, 2021. John was an army veteran and a real estate agent. For decades, (1977 -2019) he was selected to serve as the non-Jewish buyer of “chametz”, during Pesach by rabbis from New York and around the world. John actively performed this duty until 2019. John was an expert in the laws revolving around the purchasing of chametz, and took the responsibility very seriously, and was overjoyed to do it. John was a friend of Rabbi Mordechai Willig from Riverdale, and a legend in the Willig family, in the Riverdale Jewish community. John even sold the Young Israel shul its property in 1975.

The NBA has fined Meyers Leonard $50,000, the maximum allowed by league policy, and suspended him from using all Miami Heat facilities and activities for one week in response to his use of an anti-Semitic term. Commissioner Adam Silver, in announcing those sanctions Thursday, also said that he believes Leonard “is genuinely remorseful” for using the slur. “Meyers Leonard’s comment was inexcusable and hurtful and such an offensive term has no place in the NBA or in our society,” Silver said. Leonard will also be required by the league to participate in a cultural diversity program. He has already met with representatives from the Anti-Defamation League, a prominent Jewish organization that works to stop extremism and delivers anti-bias education.

A Singaporean man was arrested for plotting a stabbing spree of Jews outside a shul in Singapore’s central business district, security officials said on Wednesday. Amirull Ali, a 20-year-old full-time soldier in the Singapore Armed Forces (SAF), plotted to murder at least three Jews as they exited shul after Shabbos davening. He planning the murders in frightening detail. “Ali was very serious and made detailed preparations,” said Law and Home Affairs Minister K. Shanmugam. “He had a knife prepared for the attack. He carefully studied the human vascular system and decided to target the abdominal area to cause heavy bleeding which would cause a quick death.

Half a year after the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain established diplomatic relations with Israel, discreet Jewish communities in the Gulf Arab states that once lived in the shadow of the Arab-Israeli conflict are adopting a more public profile. Kosher food is now available. Jewish holidays are celebrated openly. There is even a fledgling religious court to sort out issues such as marriages and divorces. “Slowly, slowly, it’s improving,” said Ebrahim Nonoo, leader of Bahrain’s Jewish community, which recently hosted an online celebration of the Purim holiday for Jews in the Gulf Arab region. Nonoo is among the founders of the Association of Gulf Jewish Communities, a new umbrella group for the tiny Jewish populations in the six Arab monarchies of the Gulf Cooperation Council.

A man with a knife tried to enter a kosher grocery store opposite a Jewish school in Marseille on Friday morning but was overpowered by the school security guards before he could enter. Security guards at the Yavne Jewish high school spotted the man, who was wearing a towel on his head, exiting his car holding a knife. They followed him and wrestled him to the ground when he tried entering the kosher grocery store. Police were called and detained the man, who is in his 60s and has a prior criminal record. Interpellation #Marseille #cacher pic.twitter.com/KlDorGSCe5 — Pierre Sautarel (@FrDesouche) March 5, 2021 The children in the school were locked inside for a short period while the police searched for explosives.

David Mintz, who was known for his invention of Tofutti, the first pareve ice cream substitute, as a solution for a dessert for fleishig meals, died on Wednesday at the age of 89, Collive reported. Mintz was born in Williamsburg and studied in Tomchei Temimim in his youth. He maintained his connection with the Lubavitcher Rebbe when he went into business and the Rebbe continuously supported him during his many years of experimentation to develop the first kosher pareve ice cream. When Mintz asked the Rebbe for a bracha to open a kosher restaurant on the Upper East Side, the Rebbe told him he would succeed if he was very careful with the kosher products he used, Minitz later told JEM’s Here’s My Story. The restaurant was extremely successful and he also offered takeout and catering.

A science professor at a university in central Michigan who claimed sinister forces were targeting him and breaking into his home has been fired months after using racist, anti-Semitic and homophobic slurs on Twitter. Thomas Brennan announced in a Twitter posting Saturday he’d been fired, and Ferris State University later confirmed he was dismissed last week, The Detroit News reported. The Big Rapids-based university, which put Brennan on administrative leave in November as it investigated, declined further comment. The Torch, the university’s student-run newspaper, first reported about the tweets in November.

Activist Toyin Agbetu resigns from panel examining city landmarks following Jewish News reports on his problematic past comments on Jews