No wonder

Stevie Wonder is set to pull out of a performance at a fundraiser for the Israel Defense Forces, a source told JTA.
Wonder's representatives will claim that he did not know the nature of the group, the Friends of the Israel Defense Forces, and that he believes such a performance would be incongruent with his status as a U.N. "Messenger of Peace," according to a source who has read email exchanges between Wonder's representatives and organizers of the event.
Continue reading: http://www.jta.org/news/article/2012/11/28/3113081/petitions-do-not-find-wonder-lovely

Sitting on the fence

A prominent Jewish community leader will seek an urgent meeting with Prime Minister Julia Gillard with the hope Australia will yet oppose a Palestinian seat in the United Nations.
Philip Chester, president of the Zionist Federation of Australia, said time was of the essence before the Palestinian bid is put to the vote in New York on Thursday (around 7.30 am Friday).
''We’re exploring that right now,'' Mr Chester said.
''Our aim is to talk to the Prime Minster at the first instance, others we have to think about.''

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Ms Gillard’s decision on Tuesday for Australia would abstain in the contentious plan to give Palestinians a greater say in the UN caught many observers by surprise.
She was forced to abandon her personal opposition to the plan after a heated cabinet discussion where at least 10 ministers warned she faced a caucus revolt unless Australia at least sat on the fence.
Read more: http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/opinion/political-news/gillard-under-jewish-pressure-over-palestine-20121128-2ad9t.html#ixzz2DVaHZnhh

Politician condemned for racist comments

Lawmakers wore yellow stars and hundreds of protesters rallied on Tuesday to condemn a far-right politician who called for the screening of Jews for national security risks, part of a wave of incendiary racist comments from a populist party.
Marton Gyongyosi, a Jobbik party deputy, on Monday criticized Hungary's foreign ministry for what he said was siding with Israel and said the Middle East conflict presented an opportunity to carry out his plans for background checks.
"I think now is the time to assess ... how many people of Jewish origin there are here, and especially in the Hungarian Parliament and the Hungarian government, who represent a certain national security risk for Hungary," Gyongyosi said. Read more: http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/11/27/3115394/hungarian-politician-denounced.html

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/11/27/3115394/hungarian-politician-denounced.html#storylink=cpy

Toy store donations

An Orthodox Jewish store owner announced a donation of $10,000 worth of toys to Hurricane Sandy victims, according to press reports.


Toys To Discover, an Orthodox Jewish owned toy shop located on 18th Avenue in the Borough Park section of Brooklyn, New York, gave more than $10,000 of toys to children affected by Hurricane Sandy.
Read more: http://www.yourjewishnews.com/Pages/24160.aspx

Fresh acts of vandalism in France

French police reportedly are investigating fresh acts of vandalism in two Jewish cemeteries and a municipal building.
On Monday in Paris, police arrested two men suspected of digging up two corpses at the Pantin cemetery, according to a statement from the municipality.
Continue reading: http://www.jta.org/news/article/2012/11/26/3112851/two-jewish-cemeteries-municipal-building-vandalized-in-france

Norwegian police apologize

The Norwegian Police for the first time have apologized for rounding up Jews and sending them to their deaths during the Holocaust.
“On behalf of the Norwegian police and those involved in the deportation of Norwegian Jews to concentration camps, I wish to express regret,” Norway’s newly appointed police commissioner, Odd Reidar Humlegard, told the newspaper Dagsavisen.
Continue reading: http://www.jta.org/news/article/2012/11/26/3112811/norwegian-police-apologizes-for-deportating-jews-to-auschwitz

Quebec radio host blasted

Members of Quebec’s Jewish community are calling for the firing or yanking off the air of a Cogeco radio talk-show host who appeared to condone a caller’s anti-Semitic statements.
At the same time, they say they are hopeful the incident was an isolated one, particularly with the recent ascension to power of Montreal’s first Jewish mayor.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/quebec-radio-host-blasted-for-comments-about-jewish-community/article5656854/

Deplorable

German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Sunday deplored the "high level of anti-Semitism" in her country, speaking after a meeting with the Central Council of Jews.
Touching on a heated debate on male religious circumcision, she stressed the importance of religious tolerance, while also reiterating Berlin's support for Israel in the recent Gaza conflict.
Read more: http://www.haaretz.com/jewish-world/jewish-world-news/merkel-deplores-anti-jewish-sentiment-in-germany-1.480511

Fading cemetery

Headstones are pockmarked, their inscriptions faded. Stone slabs that have covered tombs for centuries are crumbling. White marble has turned grey, likely from the acrid smoke that spews from a nearby oil refinery.

One of the oldest Jewish cemeteries in the Western Hemisphere, Beth Haim on the island of Curacao, is slowly fading in the Caribbean sun.
Continue reading: http://www.chron.com/news/science/article/Historic-Jewish-cemetery-in-Caribbean-fades-away-4065207.php

Slogan at a synagogue

In the wake of mounting anti-Semitic and anti-Israel incidents, Italy’s Jewish leadership has “forcefully denounced” a “spiral of violence” that has erupted in the country over the past few weeks.

“It would be too long to enumerate the individual episodes, but we cannot refrain from drawing attention to a climate of tension that is increasingly worrying,” said a statement by Renzo Gattegna, president of the Union of Italian Jewish Communities.

Apparently prompted by Israel’s recent rocket attacks on Gaza, anti-Semitic slogans were scrawled on synagogues in several cities – the latest was in Genoa, where the slogan “Israel is a Nazi state” was discovered on the front door of the synagogue on Saturday.
Read more: http://www.jta.org/news/article/2012/11/25/3112711/italys-jewish-leaders-denounce-mounting-anti-semitism

Canadian talk show hosts calls Jews annoying

The Jewish organization B'nai Brith Canada is demanding an apology from a Quebec talk show host who sympathized on the air with anti-Semitic statements.
A woman, who called herself Maria, phoned into Jacques Fabi's late night radio talk show on 98.5 FM last week.
She started by criticizing Israel for last week's bombings. Then she began to attack Jewish people and even lauded the Holocaust.
Read more: http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/story/2012/11/24/montreal-anti-semetic-radio.html

Hidden Jewish past

From Colombian evangelicals to Jews in region with a hidden Jewish past

Courier for Jewish resistance dies

Vladka Meed, a weapons smuggler and courier for the Jewish resistance in Poland during World War II who published a haunting early chronicle of the Warsaw ghetto uprising and remained for six decades a leading force in efforts to remember the plight of European Jewry during the Holocaust, died Nov. 21 at her daughter’s home in Paradise Valley, Ariz. She was 90.
Continue reading: http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/obituaries/vladka-meed-courier-for-the-jewish-resistance-during-wwii-dies-at-90/2012/11/22/96518e5c-34c9-11e2-bfd5-e202b6d7b501_story.html

Anti-Semitism

Five fans of England’s Premier League soccer team Tottenham Hotspur were injured, one reportedly stabbed, in Rome Wednesday in an apparent anti-Semitic attack.
Continue reading: http://www.algemeiner.com/2012/11/22/tottenham-spurs-fan-stabbed-five-victim-of-anti-semitic-attack-in-rome/

Reverend Justin Welby, the new Archbishop of Canterbury (as of the new year) will certainly bring an interesting perspective to his relations with the Jewish community. According to a biography on the Archbishop of Canterbury’s official website Reverend Welby’s “father’s family were German Jewish immigrants who moved to England to escape anti-Semitism in the late 19th century, and integrated quickly.”
Read more: http://www.algemeiner.com/2012/11/22/new-archbishop-of-canterbury-descendant-of-jewish-family/

Two attacks

Students and faculty of a predominantly Jewish school near Paris have reported two attacks and one break-in in the space of 48 hours.

The first attack against students of the ORT high school in Montreuil, an eastern suburb of the French capital, occurred on Nov. 19 just outside the institution’s gates, according to a statement issued by the school. Six young men started hitting a small group of students “in a very determined way and without any provocation or even exchanging words.”
Continue reading: http://www.jta.org/news/article/2012/11/22/3112606/jewish-pupils-attacked-outside-school-in-paris

Disguised as journalists

Hamas love hiding behind the skirts of women and children, now they are pretending to be media to avoid having their sinuses cleared with a Hellfire:
Continue reading: http://www.whaleoil.co.nz/tag/muhammed-shamalah/

The miracle of Israel

Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird hailed the "miracle" of a Zionist Israel Tuesday, as U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton began the hard diplomatic work of brokering an end to the violence.

Speaking to a glittering Jewish community fundraising gala, Baird called the birth of Israel a "miracle to behold," describing it as "a phoenix-like rising ... from a barren desert to the dynamic country we see today."
Continue reading: http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/story/2012/11/21/pol-cp-baird-israel-speech.html

Burning prayer books

French police reportedly arrested two teenagers on suspicion that they burned prayer books at a Jewish cemetery near Lyon in eastern France.
Continue reading: http://www.timesofisrael.com/teens-arrested-after-prayer-books-burned-in-french-jewish-cemetery/

Gravestones destroyed

More than 20 gravestones were destroyed at the Jewish cemetery in Lodz, Poland.
The damage was discovered on Tuesday; it is believed the vandals entered the cemetery on Monday.
Continue reading: http://www.jta.org/news/article/2012/11/20/3112446/gravestones-destroyed-at-polish-jewish-cemetery

Kosher food legislation

A New York senator and congressman on Monday announced that they introduced new legislation in Congress to try to ensure that kosher food pantries receive enough food.
The legislation, sponsored by Senator Kirsten Gillibrand and Congressman Joe Crowley, both Democrats, requires the U.S. Department of Agriculture to make sure it ends up at kosher food banks, according to a press release.
Read more: http://www.thejewishweek.com/news/new-york-news/gillibrand-crowley-announce-kosher-food-supply-bill

Failure to warn

The BBC intentionally failed to warn Jews about the imminent Nazi threat they face, according to newly discovered evidence, the news media reported.
Read more: http://www.yourjewishnews.com/Pages/23988.aspx

Facing a backlash

Queen's University in Canada is facing a backlash from some Jewish alumni over its decision to confer an honorary degree to former U.S. President Jimmy Carter, a strong critic of Israel.
Shimon Fogel, head of the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs, told the National Post newspaper that his organization has received about 50 "angry and frustrated inquiries" from Queen's graduates concerned that the university in Kingston, Ontario, will confer the degree on Carter, the Nobel Peace Prize winner who has described Israel as an apartheid state.
Read more: http://www.jta.org/news/article/2012/11/18/3112256/queens-u-alumni-angry-over-honorary-degree-for-carter

Murdoch tweets

Taking to Twitter Saturday night media mogul Rupert Murdoch asked, “Why Is Jewish Owned Press so Consistently Anti-Israel In Every Crisis?”
Continue reading: http://www.algemeiner.com/2012/11/17/rupert-murdoch-tweets-why-is-jewish-owned-press-so-consistently-anti-israel-in-every-crisis/

Alan Gross' wife suing

Alan Gross' wife sued the U.S. government and the company that contracted his work in Cuba, alleging that their training was inadequate and a factor in his imprisonment.
A media release issued by Scott Gilbert, the family's lawyer, said that the lawsuit he filed Friday on behalf of Judith Gross in a federal court in Washington D.C. seeks to "hold Development Alternatives, Inc. (DAI) and the United States Government accountable for their role in Mr. Gross’ detention and imprisonment, including their abject failure to advise, train and protect him."
Ciontinue reading: http://www.jta.org/news/article/2012/11/16/3112176/judith-gross-sues-government-contractor-on-husband-alans-behalf

Reunion with a holocaust survivor

Some 67 years ago, a broken, emaciated boy looked up and saw an American soldier sitting astride a tank outside the gates of Dachau, the 10th concentration camp the boy had endured during the long war.

The hazel-eyed soldier hopped down and handed the boy rations he was eating. The boy ate with his fingers before dropping to his knees and kissing the soldier’s boots. A radio crackled with orders for the soldier to move on as part of the liberation effort. But first, the soldier hoisted the boy up and handed him a handkerchief decorated with a 48-star American flag.

Yesterday, clutching that flag in a velvet pouch, the boy, now an 81-year-old man of Newton, thanked the family of the soldier in person for the first time.
Continue reading: http://bostonglobe.com/metro/2012/11/12/veterans-day-dachau-concentration-camp-survivor-thanks-family-who-liberated-him/cbkhMQZDqQWkahy0rUN2aI/story.html

Liev Schreiber and the Shomrim

Jewish superstar Liev Schreiber has not suddenly frummed out, although you might think so after seeing paparazzi photos of the actor sporting peyos and tzistzis in the middle of Brooklyn. However, it’s not because he’s suddenly rediscovered his Jewish roots (Halevai…); Schreiber was actually on the set of the film “Fading Gigolo”, in which he plays Ode, a Chassidish, baseball-cap-sporting volunteer for the Williamsburg Shomrim – a neighborhood watch for Chassidish communities.
Continue reading: http://www.jewocity.com/blog/hollywood-star-liev-schreiber-digs-up-jewish-roots/5738

Here's what he looks like as a Shomrim member.

Beinart Banned alliteration

AJC reports: Peter Beinart: Banned from the Atlanta Jewish Book Festival.

The 99-year-old's bar mitzvah

A 99-year-old man living in Australia celebrated his bar mitzvah.
Isaac Volinsky joined a group of about 40 Jews from the former Soviet Union at a Chabad house near Sydney’s Bondi Beach last week for the first time.
Continue reading: http://www.jta.org/news/article/2012/11/12/3111691/jewish-australian-99-celebrated-hiis-bar-mitzvah

Sacked and suing

A FORMER principal of one of Melbourne's top Jewish schools, Bialik College, is suing the school for millions of dollars over his abrupt and mysterious sacking last year. Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/national/education/former-principal-sues-jewish-school-for-millions-20121112-298g4.html#ixzz2C39fViQU

Wheaton College anti-Semitic graffiti

Authorities are investigating anti-Semitic graffiti found this morning on a residence for Jewish students at Wheaton College in Norton, according to a campus-wide e-mail from school President Ronald A. Crutcher.

“Crude and hateful graffiti” was found on the back door of the Jewish Life House at 17 Howard St., Crutcher wrote. Students at the house have reported being targeted before, including derogatory remarks shouted from the street as recently as Friday evening. http://bostonglobe.com/metro/2012/11/11/authorities-investigate-anti-semitic-graffiti-jewish-students-residence-wheaton-college/uC3FVQ82K4Tobo9FiewvGO/story.html

Radicalization begins at home

The radicalisation of the French gunman who killed seven people in March began at home, his brother has said in a new book and documentary.

Mohamed Merah killed three Jewish children, a rabbi and three paratroopers in and around Toulouse over eight days in March before dying in a standoff with police. Merah said he had links to al-Qaida and that he had received training at an Islamist paramilitary camp in Pakistan.
Continue reading: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/nov/11/french-gunman-mohamed-merah-racist

Chanting "yid"

Tottenham Hotspur defended their fans after a second warning from the Society of Black Lawyers that they will face charges for chanting “yid” at Spurs games.

Peter Herbert, the society’s chairman, has set a deadline of Nov 20 for Spurs fans to stop using the word. He warned his organisation will then make complaints to police under the Public Order Act.
Continue reading: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/teams/tottenham-hotspur/9668468/Tottenham-Hotspur-defend-fans-after-fresh-race-warning-from-Society-of-Black-Lawyers.html

New Jewish museum dedicated in Russia

Israel's president has joined Russia's foreign minister in Moscow to dedicate a new museum that explores the history of Jewish culture. The occasion marks a step forward in Israeli-Russian relations. A formal inauguration ceremony took place in the new Jewish Museum for Tolerance in the Russian capital on Thursday, a day before its doors are to open to the public. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and Israel's president, Shimon Peres, were among the first to tour the museum, which spans over 8,500 square meters. The many interactive exhibitions detailing Jewish culture and history in Russia evoked many memories, Peres said. Read more: http://www.dw.de/jewish-russian-leaders-inaugurate-jewish-museum/a-16366822

Rectifying an injustice

A collection of rare posters stolen by the Nazis in 1938, including 19th century advertisements and propaganda, is being sold by the owner's son. Peter Sachs won a battle in a German court last March to retrieve his father's collection of some 4,000 posters from the German Historical Museum. Berlin’s Federal Court of Justice ruled at the time that Sachs, who now lives in the U.S., is the rightful owner of the posters. The judges said that not returning the posters “would perpetuate Nazi injustice.” Read more: http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/161853

Pleading guilty

Detroit Tiger and accused anti-Semite Delmon Young pleaded guilty in Manhattan today to a random, drunken bias attack on a male Midtown tourist from back in April. It's a deal that keeps the free agent outfielder out of jail and will eventually leave him with no criminal record.

The $6.7 million-a-year player had lost $250,000 in salary after being suspended by Major League Baseball for the attack, a bizarre sidewalk beatdown during which he was overheard shouting "F---ing Jews!"
Continue reading:http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/manhattan/tigers_young_pleads_guilty_tourist_WgA1cktGSmEF5XpilffPvI

Skullcap advisory

Finland's Jewish community has advised its members not to wear a skullcap in public for fear of anti-Semitic attacks.  

The recommendation was revealed by the security officer of the Jewish community in Helsinki in an interview to Yle, Finland's national public service broadcasting company in the Swedish language.
Read more: http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4302376,00.html

Seeking volunteers

Just before Shelly Fine went to sleep Tuesday night, he posted his contact information and an appeal seeking volunteers for the Hurricane Sandy relief effort on a popular Upper West Side blog. When the 63-year-old woke up the next morning, he had 163 responses. Together with other volunteers, Fine is helping to orchestrate a grassroots effort to help out at the city's local shelters.
Continue reading: http://www.clevelandjewishnews.com/news/national_world/article_319f2758-279a-11e2-928b-001a4bcf887a.html

Jewish organizations' office closings

A Manhattan office building that houses the Jewish Daily Forward and several Jewish organizations may be closed for several months due to flood damage sustained from Hurricane Sandy.

Citing an unnamed disaster recovery company official involved with the building, where the newspaper has an office on the eighth floor, The New York Times reported Monday that 125 Maiden Lane may remain closed for months while transformers, boilers and other equipment are replaced.
http://www.jta.org/news/article/2012/11/05/3111111/sandy-flooding-closes-office-of-the-forward-limmud-ny-several-jewish-organizations-for-months

A survivor

Morris Sorid has survived colon cancer and the loss of his family to Hitler. And now, a few months shy of turning 101 , he has survived Hurricane Sandy.

“I was nearly destroyed six or seven times in my life,” said Sorid, wheelchair-bound, as he rested in his temporary quarters – the basement library of the New Hempstead retirement home in Kew Gardens, Queens.

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/holocaust-survivor-overcomes-sandy-article-1.1196550

Jewish family assauted over parking space

French police have arrested two men accused of assaulting members of a Jewish family in the family’s home in Nice in a dispute over a parking space.
...“You are only good for killing Palestinian children,” one of the men reportedly shouted. The family was also called “dirty Jews.”
Read more: http://www.jta.org/news/article/2012/11/04/3110996/french-jewish-family-accosted-at-home

Littered with errors

The GCSE religious studies text book on Judaism is so littered with errors that a school has produced its own four-page leaflet of corrections.

It includes picture of a Muslim kneeling in prayer, described as a Jew. One pupil said: "It was so bad, the teacher kept telling us, 'don't listen to this, ignore this, half of this is wrong'."

Continue reading: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/9650954/School-text-book-that-mixed-up-Jews-and-Muslims-withdrawn.html

 

QANTAS reassures

QANTAS has moved to reassure members of the Australian Jewish community that they will be able to fly to Europe and Britain on partner airlines without travelling through the United Arab Emirates after the airline's landmark deal with Dubai-based Emirates.

Senior figures in the Jewish community are believed to have been initially angered by Qantas's decision to sign a joint venture with Emirates in September because of the problems it would cause Israeli passport holders and due to the UAE being a participant in the Arab League boycott of Israel.
Read more: http://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/aviation/qantas-soothes-jewish-concerns/story-e6frg95x-1226509510991

Punishment for U.S. support

The Algemeiner reports Saudi Cleric Calls Hurricane Sandy Punishment for U.S. Support of Israel, Jews .

Preacher deported

France says it has deported a radical Muslim preacher known for his anti-Semitic speeches and calls for violent holy war.

Mohamed Hammami, who preached at the Omar Mosque in Paris, was expelled to his home country of Tunisia on Wednesday.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/10/31/mohamed-hammami-expelled_n_2051923.html?utm_hp_ref=mostpopular

Noah's ark may have been damaged

Noah’s Ark may have been sunk by a modern day storm of biblical proportions.

The replica of the Old Testament boat to be used in filming of Darren Aronofsky’s “Noah” may have been severely damaged at its Oyster Bay, Long Island, set by Hurricane Sandy, a source close to the production told the Hollywood Reporter.

“There are so many fallen trees [blocking the roads], we can’t get any confirmation [of its condition] yet,” said the source.

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/tv-movies/noah-ark-movie-replica-damaged-storm-article-1.1195313#ixzz2AyXh9Y35

Netanyahu set to visit Toulouse Jewsh school

PM Binyamin Netanyahu is set to visit a Toulouse Jewish day school where a radical Islamist terrorist slaughtered a rabbi and three children this year. Al Qaeda-linked Muslim extremist Mohammed Merah's murderous rampage at the Otzar HaTorah school wounded several others. In the prior week, he had killed three French paratroopers of North African ancestry.
Read more: http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/161590