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Author Richard Zimler says appearances in Britain scrapped because he is Jewish

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Novelist Richard Zimler, shown in 1999, said two organizations did not want him to participate in their events because he is Jewish. (Fairfax Media/Fairfax Media via Getty Images)
Novelist Richard Zimler, shown in 1999, said two organizations did not want him to participate in their events because he is Jewish. (Fairfax Media/Fairfax Media via Getty Images)

Novelist Richard Zimler, shown in 1999, said two organizations did not want him to participate in their events because he is Jewish. (Fairfax Media/Fairfax Media via Getty Images)

(JTA) – An author said he was “shocked and upset” to learn that two British literary events declined to invite him to speak after learning he was Jewish.

Richard Zimler’s newest book is The Gospel According to Lazarus. He wrote in the British daily newspaper The Guardian that his publicist was “turned down by two cultural organizations that had previously shown enthusiasm for hosting an event with me. ‘They asked me if you were Jewish, and the moment I said you were, they lost all interest,” his publicist said. [Read more…]

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Six unknown Holocaust victims laid to rest in Britain

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(JTA) – More than 1,200 people attended a funeral near London to bury the remains of six unknown Jews who died in the Holocaust.

Fifty Holocaust survivors escorted a small coffin carrying the bones and ashes of five adults and one child.

The remains were transferred earlier this month to the office of the chief rabbi from the United Kingdom’s Imperial War Museum, where they had been held since 1997, part of a collection of Holocaust-related items said to have originated at Auschwitz. [Read more…]

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Theresa May survives no-confidence vote amid lawmakers’ warnings about Jeremy Corbyn coming to power

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British Prime Minister Theresa May leaves Downing Street ahead of a vote of no confidence in government in London, Jan. 16, 2019. She narrowly survived the vote and will stay in power. (Dan Kitwood/Getty Images)
British Prime Minister Theresa May leaves Downing Street ahead of a vote of no confidence in government in London, Jan. 16, 2019. She narrowly survived the vote and will stay in power. (Dan Kitwood/Getty Images)

British Prime Minister Theresa May leaves Downing Street ahead of a vote of no confidence in government in London, Jan. 16, 2019. She narrowly survived the vote and will stay in power. (Dan Kitwood/Getty Images)

(JTA) – A vote of no-confidence that could have led to elections in Britain, and the potential of the Labour Party’s Jeremy Corbyn becoming prime minister, narrowly failed to pass in the British House of Commons on Wednesday.

In a parliamentary debate ahead of the vote, several speakers in the House of Commons appealed to colleagues not to topple Prime Minister Theresa May’s cabinet for fear it would lead to the far-left Corbyn replacing her. [Read more…]

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British housing company apologizes for threatening to strip tenants’ mezuzahs

(JTA) – A housing company in the London area apologized to Jewish residents for threatening to take down their mezuzahs if they did not remove the religious object themselves.

Warwick Estates, located on the northern edge of the British capital, wrote in a statement Monday that it was sorry for its “overzealous” letter to residents of Cedarwood Court, near the heavily-Jewish London area of Stamford Hill. [Read more…]

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Prince Charles hosts former child refugees to mark 80th Kindertransport anniversary

(JTA) – Prince Charles met with former child refugees who arrived in Britain on the Kindertransport at the start of World War II.

The Holocaust survivors, who were saved from the Nazis, were marking the 80th anniversary of the organized effort to bring some 10,000 mainly Jewish children under the age of 17 to Britain, where they were cared for. The heir to the throne hosted them for a reception at St. James Palace. [Read more…]

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Britain’s Labour Party tried to define anti-Semitism to satisfy critics. It didn’t go well.

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Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn leaves the stage after delivering an address at Queens University in Belfast, Northern Ireland, May 24, 2018. (Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images)
Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn leaves the stage after delivering an address at Queens University in Belfast, Northern Ireland, May 24, 2018. (Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images)

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn leaves the stage after delivering an address at Queens University in Belfast, Northern Ireland, May 24, 2018. (Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images)

(JTA) – It’s been nearly three years since Jeremy Corbyn became the leader of Britain’s Labour Party, and he has riled British Jews more than any other politician in recent history.

Last week, Great Britain’s three leading Jewish newspapers united in publishing a front-page editorial warning that a Corbyn government would constitute an “existential threat to Jewish life in this country.” In May, the previous president of the Board of Deputies of British Jews said Corbyn has “anti-Semitic views” and that his rising popularity is making Jews ask if they have a future in the country. [Read more…]

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Councilwoman for Scottish Labour Party accuses three British newspapers of working for the Mossad

(Twitter)

(Twitter)

(JTA) – A councilwoman for the Scottish Labour Party accused three British Jewish newspapers of working on behalf of the Mossad after they posted a joint front page article warning that anti-Semitism had eroded the Labour party and posed an “existential” threat to British Jewry.

“If the purpose is to generate opposition to anti-Semitism, it has backfired spectacularly. If it is to get rid of Jeremy Corbyn as Labour Leader, it is unlikely to succeed, and is a shameless piece of cynical opportunism.

“And if it is a Mossad assisted campaign to prevent the election of a Labour government pledged to recognize Palestine as a state, it is unacceptable interference in the democracy of Britain,” Mary Bain Lockhart wrote on Facebook. [Read more…]

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U.K. anti-Semitic incidents at historic high

Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn in London after the United Kingdom voted to leave the European Union, June 24, 2016. (Rob Stothard/Getty Images)

British Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn has called Hamas and Hezbollah his “friends” and defended an anti-Semitic mural, among other scandals involving his party’s policies on anti-Semitism. (Rob Stothard/Getty Images)

(JTA) – British Jewry’s main watchdog on anti-Semitism recorded 727 hate incidents in the first half of 2018, the second-highest six-monthly total on record.

The report by the Community Security Trust, or CST, for this year’s first six months constitutes an 8 per cent drop from the corresponding period last year, CST said in the document published Thursday. [Read more…]

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Britain to lead review of incitement in Palestinian textbooks

(JTA) – The British government and other donors to the Palestinian education system will undertake a review of incitement against Israel and Jews in Palestinian textbooks.

“There is no place in education for materials or practices that incite young minds toward violence,” Parliament member Alistair Burt, a Foreign Office minister, said during a debate Wednesday in the House of Commons, the British parliament’s lower house, on incitement in Palestinian Authority textbooks. [Read more…]

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Trump says U.S. will withdraw from Iran nuclear deal

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President Donald Trump announcing his decision to leave the Iran nuclear deal in the Diplomatic Reception Room at the White House, May 8, 2018. (Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty Images)
President Donald Trump announcing his decision to leave the Iran nuclear deal in the Diplomatic Reception Room at the White House, May 8, 2018. (Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty Images)

U.S. President Donald Trump announcing his decision to leave the Iran nuclear deal in the Diplomatic Reception Room at the White House, May 8, 2018. (Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty Images)

WASHINGTON (JTA) – U.S. President Donald Trump said he would not waive sanctions on Iran by a deadline Saturday, effectively pulling out of the Iran deal.

“I am announcing today that the United States will withdraw from the Iran nuclear deal,” Trump said, speaking at the White House Tuesday. “In a few moments, I will sign a presidential memorandum to reinstate nuclear sanctions on the Iranian regime.” [Read more…]

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