Matthias Weniger put on a pair of white cloth gloves and carefully lifted a tarnished silver candleholder, looking for a yellowed sticker on the bottom of it.
The candlestick is one of 111 silver objects at the Bavarian National Museum that the Nazis stole from Jews during the Third Reich in 1939. That's when they ordered all German Jews to bring their personal silver objects to pawn shops across the Reich — one of many laws created to humiliate, punish and exclude Jews.
Full StorySticking to doctors' advice, Pope Francis on Sunday skipped his customary weekly public blessing as he convalesces from abdominal surgery in a Rome hospital, but walked a few steps, followed Mass on TV and did some work, the Vatican said.
Francis also ate lunch in his 10th-floor hospital apartment with doctors, nurses, other medical staff and members of his security detail, Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni said in a written statement.
Full StoryPope Francis was "progressively improving" and sitting in an armchair working Friday, following surgery to remove intestinal scar tissue and repair a hernia in his abdominal wall, the Vatican said.
After a restful night, Francis had breakfast and read the newspapers from his armchair, spokesman Matteo Bruni said in a statement. He quoted doctors as saying Francis' condition was "progressively improving and the post-operative course is smooth."
Full StoryTens of thousands of people on Thursday marched in Tel Aviv's Pride parade — an annual celebration that turns the city's seaside promenade into a boisterous festival of rainbow flags, pounding music and colorful costumes.
It was the first time that Tel Aviv has held the parade since Israel's new far-right government, which is stacked with openly anti-LGBTQ+ members, took office.
Full StoryA retrospective exhibition by Artist Majd Kurdieh has started in Beirut, presented by Fann à Porter in collaboration with Zaat.
On the old walls of Assafir building in Hamra, visitors can follow nine years of the artist's creative journey.
Full StoryPope Francis, 86, spent a restful night and was in good condition after a hernia operation, the Vatican said Thursday, as doctors cautioned his age and health issues could affect his recovery time.
"Pope Francis passed a quiet night and managed to have a lengthy rest," the Vatican said.
Full StoryThe sound of children and music echoed down a narrow basement hallway in Israel as they scrambled in a pool of balls, climbed on a jungle gym, munched popcorn and laughed.
The atmosphere changed suddenly on that Saturday last month, as at least a dozen religious men appeared and blocked the entrance, accusing the indoor playground of desecrating the Jewish sabbath by opening for business. Angry parents confronted them, scuffles broke out and in an instant, the center in this mixed city had become a flashpoint symbol of a larger battle between secular and religious Jews in Israel.
Full StoryThe Louvre in Paris is hosting 16 works of art, including 1,500-year-old Byzantine icons, from a museum in Kyiv in order to protect them from the war, it said Wednesday.
"Since the start of the war, like other museums, we have been concerned to see how we can support our Ukrainian colleagues. In the autumn, faced with the intensity of the conflict, we decided to carry out this rescue," Louvre president Laurence des Cars told AFP.
Full StoryPope Francis went to the hospital Wednesday to undergo abdominal surgery to treat an intestinal blockage, two years after he had 33 centimeters (13 inches) of his colon removed because of a narrowing of the large intestine.
The Vatican said Francis, 86, would be put under general anesthesia for the procedure Wednesday afternoon and would be hospitalized at Rome's Gemelli hospital for several days.
Full StoryA real estate deal in Jerusalem's Old City, at the epicenter of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, has sent the historic Armenian community there into a panic as residents search for answers about the feared loss of their homes to a mysterious investor.
The 99-year lease of some 25% of the Old City's Armenian Quarter has touched sensitive nerves in the Holy Land and sparked a controversy extending far beyond the Old City walls. The fallout has forced the highest authority of the Armenian Orthodox Church to cloister himself in a convent and prompted a disgraced priest who is allegedly behind the deal to flee to a Los Angeles suburb.
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