http://www.jta.org/news/ en zsilberman@washingtonjewishweek.com Copyright 2012 2012-02-09T22:54:00-05:00 http://www.jta.org/news/article/2004/04/14/11443/Workisexpectedto http://www.jta.org/site/Workisexpectedto/#When:09:00:01Z After years of negotiations, work on the Balkans' first Holocaust Museum could begin shortly in the former Jewish quarter in Macedonia's capital city, Skopje. 2004-04-14T09:00:01-05:00 http://www.jta.org/news/article/2004/02/11/11230/PlantorebuildViln http://www.jta.org/site/PlantorebuildViln/#When:10:00:01Z A controversial project to reconstruct Vilnius´ famed Jewish quarter is opposed by some members of the Jewish community, who say the money could be better spent helping poor Lithuanian Jews. 2004-02-11T10:00:01-05:00 http://www.jta.org/news/article/2003/03/23/10081/InMacedoniaaman http://www.jta.org/site/InMacedoniaaman/#When:10:00:01Z Macedonia’s Jews hope to harness a sweeping government restitution plan to fund a Holocaust memorial center for the Balkan countries whose Jewish populations were decimated during World War II. The restitution money may also support the tiny remaini 2003-03-23T10:00:01-05:00 http://www.jta.org/news/article/2003/03/11/10043/yearslaterwith http://www.jta.org/site/yearslaterwith/#When:10:00:01Z In a tobacco factory in Skopje, Macedonia, a small group somberly gathered to recall the day exactly 60 years ago that almost the entire Jewish population of the country was rounded up to be sent to Treblinka. Macedonia’s present-day Jewish communit 2003-03-11T10:00:01-05:00 http://www.jta.org/news/article/2002/10/20/9478/LiberalJewishgroup http://www.jta.org/site/LiberalJewishgroup/#When:09:00:01Z For years, Prague's Bejt Praha liberal Jewish community felt isolated from the official Orthodox community. But now, Bejt Praha is set to become affiliated with the Orthodox establishment. 2002-10-20T09:00:01-05:00 http://www.jta.org/news/article/2002/08/07/9214/SlovakJewsgovernm http://www.jta.org/site/SlovakJewsgovernm/#When:09:00:01Z The Slovak Jewish community is increasingly skeptical that it will reach an agreement with the government on compensation for property seized by the Nazis before next month's general elections. 2002-08-07T09:00:01-05:00 http://www.jta.org/news/article/2002/06/12/9000/Propertyrestitution http://www.jta.org/site/Propertyrestitution/#When:09:00:01Z The Slovak government expects to finalize its proposal soon for compensation of Jewish property seized by the Nazis. 2002-06-12T09:00:01-05:00 http://www.jta.org/news/article/2002/05/09/8870/USstudentsgetha http://www.jta.org/site/USstudentsgetha/#When:09:00:01Z A program in Prague gives American students the opportunity to examine the history and culture of Central and Eastern European Jewry. 2002-05-09T09:00:01-05:00 http://www.jta.org/news/article/2001/07/15/7378/Czechtownhopesto http://www.jta.org/site/Czechtownhopesto/#When:09:00:01Z PRAGUE, July 15 (JTA) — Karlovy Vary's new rabbi has a lot of catching up to do. The Jewish community in the western Bohemian spa town Samuel Abramson joins this month has had no clear guidance for more than 60 years. Now Abramson is hoping that he'll be able to use the approaching High Holidays as a launching pad to re- establish traditional Jewish practice in Karlovy Vary, also known as Carlsbad. "The holiday season is a time of atonement and reflection. So Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur are the ideal opportunities to bring the community together for some special events," Abramson told JTA. "The Jewish community" in the town "does not mark Rosh Hashanah and don't celebrate its deep importance, so I want to use the holiday season to encourage Karlovy Vary's Jews to realize their Jewish identity." In addition to traditional worship, Abramson is planning a series of lessons and seminars to introduce the Jewish community to the basic principles of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur and to outline the differences between the Jewish and Christian calendars. The lessons are particularly targeted to young members of the community, with other topics to be covered by the special holiday lectures including "the difference between Jewish nations and other nations." "The problem is that people in the town have not had a Jewish religious education at school, so I want to try to make up for that through these seminars during the holidays," Abramson said. Abramson says his immediate challenge is to attract the necessary 10 men for a prayer service during the High Holidays. "If I achieve that I will be very pleased," says Abramson, Karlovy Vary's first rabbi since 1938. "I particularly want to focus on encouraging a return to traditional values," said Abramson, who is modern Orthodox. Visitors increasingly are being lured by the town's famous healing waters, as well as the beauty and elegance of the pastel-colored Baroque, Renaissance and Art Nouveau architecture. Among them are increasing numbers of Israeli tourists. Charter flights from Tel Aviv are expected almost to double this summer — from 12 last year to 20 around this year's High Holidays — and Abramson sees the Jewish tourists as a crucial component of the upcoming celebrations. "I'll hope to include Israeli visitors in the celebrations," he said. "This town needs a fresh start and the New Year is the best time to do it. For more than half a century there's been no official rabbi to lead celebrations here — now it's time to start again." 2001-07-15T09:00:01-05:00 http://www.jta.org/news/article/2001/07/10/7362/Rabbitestswatersi http://www.jta.org/site/Rabbitestswatersi/#When:09:00:01Z PRAGUE, July 10 (JTA) — A chance meeting 13 years ago changed the course of Rabbi Samuel Abramson's life. Now he's hoping to bring change and a new sense of spirituality to a Czech town's entire Jewish community. Abramson has just joined the picturesque spa town of Karlovy Vary as its first rabbi in 60 years. If it weren't for that chance meeting, he wouldn't have become a rabbi at all. He left his homeland, Czechoslovakia, in 1988, a year before the fall of communism, and headed to Zurich, where he planned to continue his veterinary studies. There he met Basel Rabbi Israel Lewinger, an Orthodox rabbi and veterinarian. "He inspired me to follow a similar path and made me realize that's what I really wanted to do," Abramson told JTA. The following year he moved to Israel and studied at the Jerusalem Academy of Jewish Studies. In 1993, he returned to Prague to take his final veterinary exams. Now, as he takes up his new post, those qualifications are being put to good use — Abramson oversees kosher standards not just for local food establishments but throughout the country. But the 34-year-old rabbi's primary goal is a more spiritual one. "Decades of communism and fascism have taken their toll and because of this spiritual genocide, Karlovy Vary's Jews are assimilated Jews," he says. "I want to install a new sense of traditional religious life and to strengthen the Jewish spiritual base. I also hope to improve life for the town's Jewish community." One of the benefits of his appointment this month is that the community's 90 members will be able to take part in daily services. Until now, they were restricted to Saturdays. The new rabbi also hopes to expand the number of tourists at his services, who currently number between 15 and 30. "I want people to come to Karlovy Vary for traditional spiritual religious services and worship and particularly want to focus on installing traditional values in children and youths," he says. Abramson first became interested in the post during discussions with Karol Sidon, chief rabbi of the Czech Republic, who praised the town's "lively" Jewish community and mentioned that its numbers were boosted by a large number of spa visitors, many of them from Israel, the United States and Russia. Although based in Israel, where he lived with his wife and three children, he had kept in regular contact with Sidon, Tomas Kraus, executive director of the Czech Federation of Jewish Communities, and Czech Jews. Alexandr Gajdos, leader of Karlovy Vary's Jewish community, welcomed the appointment, saying, "We didn't want to continue our old system of using a lay rabbi." Although Abramson is what is known as modern Orthodox — although he shies away from the term— the community had originally sought a Reform rabbi. "There are certain problems because some members think an Orthodox rabbi is not suitable for Karlovy Vary, but a lot of people did not have a traditional education in Judaism," Abramson says. "An Orthodox rabbi has been entrusted to do the job here and I am taking an Orthodox direction, but I want to be tolerant." Abramson also hopes to offer support to Sidon. "I may do services for other communities" because I want to see more Orthodox rabbis, he says. 2001-07-10T09:00:01-05:00