New emigres joining the military land in Israel

JERUSALEM (JTA) – A charter aliyah flight carrying 127 young men and women who will be joining the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) landed in Israel.

The special Nefesh B’Nefesh-Friends of the IDF flight, carrying a total of 350 new emigres to Israel, arrived early Tuesday morning in Israel.

JERUSALEM (JTA) – Mitt Romney’s policy speech in Israel covered plenty of bases: The presumptive Republican presidential candidate spoke about the status of Jerusalem, the threat of a nuclear Iran, the “tumult” of the Arab Spring and the “enduring shared values” that bedrock the U.S.-Israel relationship.

The Heydukova Street Synagogue is the only synagogue in Bratislava. /FILE PHOTOSKRAKOW (JTA) – Thanks to a new iTunes app, new tourist routes and a towering replica of a destroyed synagogue, two “lost” Jewish cities in Europe are back on the map.

One is the historic Jewish quarter of Bratislava, the Slovak capital, which survived World War II only to be demolished by communist authorities in the late 1960s. The other is Oshpitzin – the prewar Yiddish name for Oswiecim, the once mainly Jewish town in southern Poland where the Auschwitz death camp was built.

Rabbi Jonathan Sacks composed a prayer in memory of the 11 Israeli athletes killed in the 1972 Olympics in Munich. /File PhotosLONDON (JTA) – It was a minor miracle for Leslie Lyndon and the London Jewish community.

When Lyndon carried the Olympic torch through a north London neighborhood last week, it was more than representative of how Jewish Londoners have embraced the Olympic spirit. It was five years since Lyndon, at the age of 63, was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease. No longer able to recall instructions, he needed his stepson Matthew to help him through the day.