Record number of French Jews make aliyah in 2015 – but fewer than predicted

News updates from the World Jewish Congress website – 16 December 2015

Swiss banks release names of holders of dormant bank accounts

List includes more than 2,600 people whose bank accounts in Switzerland have been dormant for more than 60 years.

Lauder praises Orbán, US government for rejecting statue in honor of a WWII-era anti-Jewish minister

„No honors must be given to those who prepared the ground for the mass murder of 600,000 Hungarian Jews’: WJC President Ronald S. Lauder praises Hungarian PM Orbán for his clear words.

Seasoned diplomat Richard Haass tells WJC: Israel, US must get back its relationship of confiding in each other

World Jewish Congress President Ronald S. Lauder welcomes Richard Haass, president of the Council on Foreign Relations.

Record number of French Jews make aliyah in 2015 – but fewer than predicted

16 Dec 2015 More than 8,000 French Jews have moved to Israel this year, according to a report by the newspaper ‘Haaretz’ which is based on the latest statistics from the Israel Ministry of Immigrant Absorption. READ MORE »

There is no Nazi gold train, Polish scientists say – The Guardian

16 Dec 2015 Scientists have quashed a claim by two amateur treasure hunters that they had discovered a legendary gold train hidden by the Nazis in a southern Polish railway embankment. READ MORE »

Artwork stolen by Nazis found… at Israeli museum – Times of Israel

16 Dec 2015 The Museum of Art in the northern Israeli artists’ town of Ein Harod discovered that its collection includes a work looted from Jews in Paris by the Nazis. READ MORE »