A 23-year-old descendant of Holocaust survivors spotted a man wearing a hat with a swastika on it at the Melbourne train station on Friday and photographed the disturbing sight. The man was spotted shortly after the end of a soccer game and it’s believed he was on the way home from the game. The swastika sighting is just the latest incident in a worrying rise in neo-Nazi activity in Victoria. The Anti-Defamation Commission (ADC), a Jewish Australian group, is involved in a three-year campaign to ban swastikas and the Australian government is leaning toward implementing legislation on the issue.

Iceland has recognized Judaism as an official state religion, a first in its history, Chabad.org reported. The recognition followed a year-long process, during which Iceland’s Rav, local Jews, and an Icelandic attorney outlined the Jewish religion and practices to government officials. “For Iceland to formally recognize the world’s oldest religion is in itself very significant,” said Rabbi Avi Feldman, who serves as Iceland’s only Rav. He and his wife, Mushky, established Chabad-Lubavitch of Iceland in 2018 in the capital city of Reykjavík. Icelanders pay a church tax (sóknargjald) which the government uses to support their registered religion at birth, or, in the case of no religion, the University of Iceland.

Sixteen Chassidim, including a group of five from New York en route to Vienna, were detained in the airport in Frankfurt on their way to Vienna last week for no apparent reason and were held for over 10 hours. The incident was publicized by the Jewish rights group Americans Against Antisemitism (AAA), founded by former state Assemblyman Dov Hikind. “As soon as I gave my papers over to the officer, he looks at me, he says to me, ‘Are you all five together?’” one of the detained men said. “And I said, ‘Yes.’ And he said, ‘You need to step aside.’” “Two more people who are on our flight arrive there,” he said. “They went over with their papers and immediately were told to stand next to us as well. So, we immediately saw that this is a Jewish thing.

One of the last Iraqi Jews in Baghdad, a doctor who treated the poor free of charge, passed away at the age of 61, reports said on Tuesday. Dr. Thafer Fuad Elyahou, z’l, known as “the doctor of the poor” passed away of a heart attack. Edwin Shuker, a Jew born in Baghdad now living in London, wrote about Eliyahou on Facebook: “Thafer was an orthopedic surgeon, who served Iraq with skills and loyalty to the very last day of his life,” Shuker wrote. “Thafer worked under the most challenging of conditions, especially during the long years of war and sanctions. He continued to treat patients in the state hospitals knowing that many of them were not able to pay towards the treatment but always received each and everyone, with a broad smile and a warm welcome.

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.