Pope adviser blasts pro-crucifix bill in Italy: ‘Hands off!’

ROME (AP) — A close adviser to Pope Francis criticized legislation proposed by Italy’s anti-migrant League party to require ports and other public institutions to display a crucifix, saying Wednesday that the religious symbol isn’t “a team emblem” to be shown for political ends.

“If you remove the (religious) symbolism from the crucifix ... it becomes a parody,” the Rev. Antonio Spadaro, editor of the Jesuit magazine Civilta Cattolica, said during a Rome conference on the pope.

A tweet Spardaro posted earlier in the day with a blunt “Hands off!” went viral. The crucifix, he wrote, “screams love to the enemy and unconditional welcome.”

Photo: Whales in a sea of plastic waste

The life-size reproduction of two whales emerge from a sea filled with plastic waste in front of Rome’s Pantheon Thursday, July 5, 2018. With the installation, Greenpeace hopes to raise awareness on pollution, and particularly on the dangers of disposable plastic packages, in the Mediterranean Sea. (AP Photo/Simone Somekh)

See the image here.

Silicon Wadi: Israel’s Arab Tech Boom

Paulus VI is the single, narrow artery that snakes through the old city of Nazareth, choked with a seemingly endless line of vehicles. On either side of the thoroughfare, there is dust and noise and vendors chatting at high decibel in Arabic in relentless heat. For the last two years, a sign above a modern sand-colored building spells out in English, “Microsoft.” The new R&D headquarters of the American giant is just one of the several tech-related initiatives to open in the city in recent years.

Known as Israel’s Arab capital, Nazareth is home to 75,000 residents, most of whom are Muslims. Two years into the implementation of the Israeli government’s $3.85 billion plan for the “social development of Israel’s Arab population,” Nazareth is now pushing to take its place alongside emerging competition from the United Arab Emirates and Jordan to become a hub of Middle Eastern tech entrepreneurship.

Roberto Saviano, Author of ‘Gomorrah,’ Takes on Internet Nazis

Later this month, Roberto Saviano, the renowned Italian journalist, will testify at the first hearing of a trial against 39 Italian neo-Nazis who were accused, among other things, of participating in an online group that incited racial discrimination and violence. For years, between 2009 and 2012, the group held discussions that included white supremacist and anti-Semitic rhetoric on the American hate site Stormfront. (Photo: Francesco Cuoccio / Flickr.)

The Inspiring History of Europe’s Largest Jewish Publishing House

Whether you’re looking for the latest Israeli best-selling novel, the five books of the Torah, or even the translation of the Babylonian Talmud, in Italy, there is one man behind all of these books. He’s called Shulim Vogelmann, and he’s the director of Giuntina, which he claims is the most active Jewish-themed publishing house in Europe.