Prince Charles will make history

Prince Charles will make history on Sunday (Sept. 1) when he attends the installation of Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis at a London synagogue.
It will be the first time a British royal has attended such a ceremony.
Continue reading: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/08/31/prince-charles-chief-rabbi-ephraim-mirvis_n_3845959.html

Lists of Jewish and black leaders found

Federal agents were tracking Ohio resident Richard Schmidt’s imports of counterfeit sports jerseys when they stumbled upon his arsenal of 18 guns, more than 40,000 rounds of ammunition, and bulletproof body armor. Besides the arsenal, he had lists of Jewish and black leaders in Detroit, MI.
Read more: http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2013/08/30/2556291/neo-nazi-felon-stockpiling-guns/

Dismissing Jewish students' complaints

The U.S. Department of Education has dismissed Jewish students' contentions that anti-Israel protests at UC Berkeley created an illegally hostile and anti-Semitic atmosphere on that campus.

The department's civil rights office has determined that the campus protests last year against Israel's treatment of Palestinians, which reportedly included mock military checkpoints, may be upsetting to Jews but "do not constitute actionable harassment," according to a letter from the department released by the University of California on Tuesday.
Read more: http://www.latimes.com/local/la-me-berkeley-probe-20130828,0,7918251.story

Probe of suspected Nazi guards

The head of the special German prosecutors' office that investigates Nazi crimes says a probe of 50 suspected former Auschwitz guards is near complete and may result in charges against many of them.
Continue reading: http://www.nypost.com/p/news/international/former_auschwitz_guards_investigated_ab40sd4sNf6lUeepak8xGO

Young boy mourned

Aaron Tepfer, 10, was supposed to start the sixth grade at a Far Rockaway Jewish school Monday. Instead, hundreds gathered at his funeral service at the school Sunday to mourn the Cedarhurst boy who died after his leg became stuck in a boat propeller Friday.
Continue reading: http://www.newsday.com/long-island/nassau/boy-whose-leg-was-stuck-in-boat-propeller-mourned-1.5952094

Swastikas in Toronto

An anti-semitic incident was reported Thursday in a neighborhood with many Jewish residents in Vaughan, a city in the York region, north of Toronto, Canada. According to Shalom Toronto, the swastikas were painted on parked cars off of Beverly Glen Road.
Read more: http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/171239

Nixon on the Jews

Some Newly Uncovered Nixon Comments on the Subjects of Jews and Black People

Tradition tradition

The New York Times writes about "a pressure to accommodate traditions" in New York.

Two years ago, when the city transferred a female lifeguard at Williamsburg’s Metropolitan Pool to a beach and replaced her with a man, Hasidic women stopped going and felt cheated.

“It’s the only exercise I get,” said Rose Herschkowitz, a Satmar Hasid who swam with her 85-year-old mother.

They turned to their local councilman, Stephen Levin, explaining that wearing bathing suits under the eyes of a male lifeguard would violate the tradition of modestly clothing themselves before men who are not their husbands. Mr. Levin agreed that it was “a reasonable accommodation.” But parks officials did not see it that way, arguing that explicitly assigning lifeguards by gender could violate the First Amendment’s establishment of religion clause, not to mention union seniority rules.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/22/nyregion/hasidic-jews-turn-up-pressure-on-city-to-accommodate-their-traditions.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1& 

 

Blaming the Jews

Jeffrey Goldberg opines about Turkey's Erdogan: A Smart Man With Jews on the Brain.

Daily Mail profile of a Nazi hunter

A German-born Jewish refugee who served in the British Army during World War II has been unveiled as one of the leading investigators responsible for the capture of one of the worst Nazi criminals of the Holocaust.
Throughout his life in Britain, Hanns Alexander never spoke of his involvement in the hunt for Auschwitz commander Rudolph Höss, and the truth was not unveiled until after his death.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2397354/The-Nazi-Hunter-Story-Jewish-refugee-Hanns-Alexander-caught-Auschwitz-commandant.html#ixzz2cVgU3NKG

Calls for boycott not a hate crime

A French court acquitted three activists charged with discrimination and hate crimes for calling for a boycott of Israeli products.
Continue reading: http://www.timesofisrael.com/french-court-acquits-boycott-activists-of-hate-crime/

Incredibly disrespectful

On Thursday, a press release was sent by Hiddush, an organization for religious freedom and equality, to the International Tennis Federation to request that they respect the decision made by the Israel Davis Cup team not to compete on the Jewish holiday of Yom Kippur.
...
The CEO of Hiddush, Reform Rabbi Uri Regev, wrote to the World Tennis Association saying:

"The notion that the Israeli Tennis Association needs to compensate the Belgian Tennis Association in order to respect the holiest day in the Jewish calendar is incredibly disrespectful to the team, their faith, and tradition.”
Read more: http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/170962#.UhHllyz8Lcc

Battle over Torah bells

Unsuccessful mediation to resolve an issue of ownership between New York City's Congregation Shearith Israel and Touro Synagogue in Rhode Island mean that lawsuits will be moving forward between the country's first Jewish congregation and the oldest synagogue in the U.S.
The dispute centers around a set of Colonial-era Torah finial bells, which Touro Synagogue agreed to sell to Boston's Museum of Fine Arts for $7.4 million in order to set up an endowment for the Touro building and a resident rabbi.
Continue reading: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/08/15/touro-synagogue-congregation-shearith-israel-torah-bells_n_3755759.html?ref=topbar

Legal dispute ends

A long-running legal dispute over the use of a Hancock Park home as an Orthodox Jewish prayer house ended Wednesday with the city of Los Angeles agreeing to pay $950,000 in attorney fees and costs to settle the case.
Read more: http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-attorneys-fees-etz-chaim-20130814,0,2856071.story

Rosh HaShanah in Uman

Jewish volunteers have finished building a kitchen the size of a basketball court in Uman, Ukraine, where they plan to prepare 105,000 meals to serve an expected 20,000 Jews visiting and praying at the burial site of Rabbi Nachman of Breslov.
Continue reading: http://www.jewishpress.com/news/jewish-news/new-super-size-kitchen-for-jews-in-uman-for-rosh-hashanah/2013/08/15/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=new-super-size-kitchen-for-jews-in-uman-for-rosh-hashanah

Censorship or subsidies

New government regulations are threatening the pedagogical autonomy of Antwerp’s haredi Orthodox schools and sowing division between hardliners and moderates over whether to bring the community’s school system into conformity with secular educational standards.

Read more: http://www.jta.org/2013/08/14/news-opinion/world/antwerps-haredi-schools-forced-to-chose-between-censorship-and-their-subsidies#ixzz2byshFurH

An apology to Jewish brothers and sisters

Janita Poe writes about certain allegations regarding the Nation of Islam.

Is it true, that members have sent anti-Semitic emails to the Federation, my friends?
If so, I want to stand up as an African American in Alabama who is outraged by that behavior.
...If these charges are true -- if any Nation members have sent hate mail to the Federation – I believe an apology to our Jewish brothers and sisters is in order.
Read more: http://blog.al.com/montgomery/2013/08/anti-semitic_emails_from_natio.html

Protests against construction project

The Jerusalem suburb of Beit Shemesh looked like a battlefield on Monday after around 100 ultra-Orthodox Jews burned trash cans, smashed bus windows, set a field of wild bush on fire and threw rocks at police officers.

...The protesters were demonstrating against a construction project that would appear to be in their own interests – a new complex meant to house some 1,000 Jewish families. The trouble is, it's being built on top of what they say is a Jewish cemetery.
Continue reading: http://worldnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/08/13/20007042-ultra-orthodox-jewish-protesters-israel-housing-project-being-built-on-jewish-graves?lite

Jewish humor

Before there was Prozac, there was Jewish comedy.

There is only one fail-proof cure that I know of for enduring the trials of our times, and that is laughter.

Continue reading review of movie When Comedy Went to School: The Movie That Celebrates Jewish Humor over here.

Calls for boycott

The Nazi-hunting Simon Wiesenthal Centre has called for a global boycott of an Italian company that sells wines featuring images of Adolf Hitler and Nazi slogans on its labels.
Continue reading: http://www.theprovince.com/Hitler+wine+prompts+calls+global+Jewish+human+rights+group/8778986/story.html

Anti-semitic incidents at school

Two parents are suing the Carver public schools for allegedly turning a blind eye while they say their 13-year-old son endured repeated harassment and physical abuse from schoolmates for being Jewish.
Continue reading: http://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/regionals/south/2013/08/10/parents-say-son-was-target-anti-semitic-attacks-carver-middle-high-school/vFl0VCjNHBMIPrLXjiuVJN/story.html

Targeted

Two girls who were the victims of a devastating acid attack on the island of Zanzibar Wednesday may have been targeted because they were Jewish, friends of the pair told police, the UK’s The Daily Mail reported.
Continue reading: http://www.algemeiner.com/2013/08/09/british-victims-of-zanzibar-acid-attack-may-have-been-targeted-because-they-were-jewish/

Banning Shabbos candles

Hasidim looking to vacation on the Welsh seaside are scrambling to find alternate arrangements after Aberystwyth University banned the use of candles in its residences.
Hundreds of Orthodox Jews have vacationed in the resort for over two decades, according to The Telegraph. Hasidim have traditionally taken up summer residence in Petre Jane Morgan, a university housing complex across a footbridge from the main campus.
Read more: http://www.jta.org/2013/08/08/arts-entertainment/ban-on-shabbat-candles-drives-hasidim-from-welsh-seaside-resort#ixzz2bSCDhdXp

Three charged with hate crime

Three people, including a pregnant woman, were charged with a hate-crime Thursday after they shot a Hasidic man in the stomach with a paint-ball gun and yelled an ethnic slur about Jews as they drove through the Jewish community, Ramapo police said.
Read more: http://www.lohud.com/article/20130808/NEWS03/308080033/3-charged-hate-crime-Kaser-paint-ball-shooting?nclick_check=1

Non-kosher food in Poland

During a state visit to Poland in June, Jewish community members said they witnessed Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and other government officials eat non-kosher food – and the community is very angry and upset at the Prime Minister's behavior.

Two months after the visit by Netanyahu and his ministers, members of the community told Arutz Sheva that Netanyahu's eating non-kosher was perhaps the death blow to their efforts to prevent the Polish government from banning shechita, Jewish ritual slaughter – an effort that failed, when the government in Warsaw several weeks ago banned Jewish and Muslim ritual slaughter.
Read more: http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/170702

Auction of Schindler documents

A New Hampshire auction house is offering a collection of documents from Oskar Schindler, the German industrialist who saved more than 1,000 Jewish workers at his factories during World War II, including a letter he signed that paved the way for the rescue chronicled in the 1993 movie "Schindler's List."
Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/us/2013/08/07/nh-auction-offers-schindler-documents-including-letter-paving-way-for-jewish/

Australian elections moved up

Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd on Sunday called an election for September 7, avoiding fears that Jews down under would have to choose between marking Judaism’s holiest day or casting their ballots.

The previous date for elections had coincided with Yom Kippur, provoking the ire of Jewish voters.
Continue reading: http://www.timesofisrael.com/australian-election-dodges-yom-kippur/

Attacking the Jewish lobby

A former deputy prime minister of Australia attacked the “Jewish lobby” for what he considers unfair treatment of pope Pius XII, prompting Jewish groups to accuse him of anti-Semitism.
Continue reading: http://www.timesofisrael.com/australian-ex-deputy-pm-slams-jewish-lobby-over-pius-criticism/

Desecration at the Tomb of the Patriarchs

For the third time this month of Ramadan, Muslims visiting the Tomb of Patriarchs in Hebron have desecrated Jewish religious objects at the site, tearing the Mezuzahs off the doorposts and stealing them. They took advantage of the special visiting privileges the Muslims receive from the IDF during the month of Ramadan, during which, on Fridays and a few special days, the Tomb of Patriarchs is open only to Muslims.
Read more: http://www.jewishpress.com/news/breaking-news/third-time-this-ramadan-tomb-of-the-patriarchs-desecrated-by-muslims/2013/08/04/

Anti-Semitic attacks in Malmo

The Swedish city of Malmo is reporting a record increase in documented anti-Semitic attacks.
Swedish police recorded 60 hate crimes against Jews in the city in 2012, up from an average of 22 in 2010 and 2011, the Sydsvenskan local daily reported. During the first six months of 2013, police reported 35 such attacks in Malmo, putting the city on a pace to break last year’s record.


Read more: http://www.jta.org/2013/08/01/news-opinion/world/reported-anti-semitic-attacks-tripled-in-malmo#ixzz2aoTZABer

Retracting Nazi remarks

Japan's Deputy Prime Minister Taro Aso has retracted remarks suggesting that the country could learn from Nazi Germany's constitutional reform.

Mr Aso said on Monday Japan could "learn the technique" Nazi Germany used to change the Weimar constitution.
Read more: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-23527300