Aliyah from down under

        
Global "Aliyah" (ascent) from the Jewish diaspora to Israel is up only about one per cent to 19,200 in 2013, the J-Wire news service reports, citing data compiled by the Jewish Agency for Israel and the Ministry of Immigration and Absorption.
But 265 immigrants from Oceania, mainly Australia and New Zealand, in 2013 represented a 46 per cent increase on the 182 who migrated in 2012.
Continue reading: http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/breaking-news/jewish-migration-from-down-under-rises/story-fni0xqi4-1226792100228

Calls to ban Nicolas Anelka

European Jewish Congress President Moshe Kantor wants the Premier League to ban Nicolas Anelka after the bad boy of French football caused an outcry in his country by celebrating a goal scored with a gesture viewed as being anti-Semitic.
Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/jewish-group-asks-premier-league-ban-anelka-102801654--spt.html

Tweets and deletes

Foreign policy experts criticized reporter Laura Rozen for tweeting, and then deleting, controversial remarks about Jewish influence in American politics, the second time in recent weeks she has made such remarks.
Read more: http://freebeacon.com/rozen-jewish-senators-hold-sway-on-iran-debate/

UK Foreign Office reacts to tweet

The Foreign Office has reacted with disgust to a post from the Twitter account of Iran’s Supreme Leader saying: “The Zionists are just like the Nazis.”
...In an unusually strong reaction, a Foreign Office spokesperson said: “We deplore the tweet. The comments to which it referred were highly objectionable and offensive.”
Read more: http://jewishnews.co.uk/uk-slams-khamenei-tweet-linking-jews-to-nazis/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=uk-slams-khamenei-tweet-linking-jews-to-nazis

Jewish heirs' request refused

The German government has refused a request to hand back two paintings once owned by a Jewish businessman persecuted by the Nazis.

Germany's Finance Ministry says it won't return the 18th-century paintings by Bernardo Bellotto to the heirs of Max Emden because he had already fled to Switzerland when he sold them.

Continue reading: http://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/wireStory/german-govt-rejects-jewish-heirs-demand-art-21259652

French Aliyah

In an overcrowded conference room in the heart of Paris’ 14th arrondissement, a hundred French Jews are losing their patience.
They have gathered at the Paris office of the Jewish Agency for Israel for a lecture on immigrating to Israel, but the agency staff is running behind. Its 20 staffers are coping with a 57 percent jump in the number of French Jews moving to Israel over the last year and a surge of applications. In addition to four weekly public talks, they are struggling to finish 30 applicant interviews each day.
Read more: http://www.timesofisrael.com/surge-in-anti-semitic-attacks-drives-record-levels-of-french-aliyah/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter

Revising a memorial plaque

The Russian city of Rostov-on-Don has agreed to acknowledge the Jewish identity of Holocaust victims killed there by the Nazis.
The municipality’s Memorial Council last week announced its decision to revise a memorial plaque at the Zmievskaya Balka mass grave to mention the Jewish identity of the majority of the approximately 27,000 bodies buried there in 1942, the Russian Jewish Congress said.
Read more: http://www.jta.org/2013/12/17/news-opinion/world/russian-jews-win-rostov-holocaust-commemoration-fight#ixzz2nkqnoHcA

Lev Tahor and child welfare

Ontario child welfare authorities have taken two children into protective custody from the reclusive Jewish group Lev Tahor, the Toronto Star has learned.
Read more: http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2013/12/16/lev_tahor_two_children_sized_by_childrens_aid_from_orthodox_jewish_sect.html

Claim about Jewish bankers

A populist protest leader’s claim that Italy is “slave to Jewish bankers” has drawn condemnation.
Andrea Zunino, spokesman for the Forconi, or Pitchforks Movement, which spearheaded widespread anti-government and anti-austerity protests in Italy last week, made the comment in an interview with La Repubblica newspaper Friday.
Read more: http://www.jta.org/2013/12/15/news-opinion/world/italy-is-slave-to-jewish-bankers-populist-leader-declares#ixzz2nY9x3kfK

Seized items

A Babylonian Talmud from 1793, a 16^th century Hebrew bible, a text of the mystical Zohar — among 2,400 great artifacts of the once flourishing Jewish community of Iraq went on exhibit on November 8 at the National Archives in Washington. Three days earlier, reports had surfaced of the existence of another near-priceless trove — 1,400 works of art unearthed in a Munich apartment building and belonging to Jews of Nazi Germany.
Read more: http://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2013/12/12/seized-iraq-jews-column/3989173/

Light Unto the World Award

A Jewish organization based in the United States (US) will present an award to the Philippines in a ceremony that will recognize the country's gesture of opening its doors for 1,305 Jewish refugees during World War 2.
The American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (JDC), the world's leading Jewish humanitarian organization, will award the Philippines with the Or L’Olam or Light Unto the World Award on Thursday, on the occasion of its centennial anniversary.
Read more: http://www.philstar.com/headlines/2013/12/11/1266927/jewish-group-honor-phl-accepting-refugees-ww2

Blogger crticial of Hasidic leaders wins suit

A blogger who boasts that his critiques of Hasidic leaders in Outremont have revealed “revolting” practices and flushed out “bugs” from darkened corners has successfully defended a libel suit brought against him by three prominent community leaders.
Continue reading: http://news.nationalpost.com/2013/12/09/montreal-blogger-harshly-critical-of-hasidic-jews-wins-libel-suit-brought-against-him-by-three-prominent-leaders/

Vile tweets

Non-Jewish Olympian, Rebecca Adlington, Experiences Vile Antisemitism

5000$ Reward

​Leaders of the New York City Jewish community are calling for the capture of participants involved in the recent rash of violent “knockout” assaults, and are offering a cash award for information leading to their arrest.
The Jewish Community Relations Council of New York (JCRC-NY) announced this week that they’re willing to pay upwards of $5,000 to anyone who can assist local law enforcement to stop the wave of attacks, which have made national headlines in recent weeks and spawned a trend of similar assaults across the country.
Continue reading: http://rt.com/usa/nyc-jewish-knockout-award-864/

European Union regrets

The European Union regrets the attendance at an event it sponsored of an anti-Zionist rabbi who has been accused of Holocaust denial, the parliament spokeswoman has said.

Read more: http://www.jta.org/2013/12/06/news-opinion/world/european-parliament-regrets-hosting-rabbi-accused-of-holocaust-denial#ixzz2mhoSgBLT

Cumbo's Facebook page

A newly elected New York City Council member has angered Jewish groups by linking “knockout game” attacks in Brooklyn to black resentment of Jews.
Councilwoman-elect Laurie Cumbo, who is black, wrote on her public Facebook page that black residents in Crown Heights feared being “pushed out by their Jewish landlords.”
Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/brooklyn/councilwoman-black-jewish-resentment-talk-slammed-article-1.1538099#ixzz2maBHXSih

Loosening restrictions

A top Conservative movement official thinks that Conservative rabbis should be allowed to participate in interfaith weddings.
Now explicitly barred by the movement, the proposal — put forward by Rabbi Charles Simon of the Federation of Jewish Men’s Clubs — is one of a handful of new efforts by Conservative rabbis to loosen restrictions on participation by non-Jews in synagogue life.
Read more: http://forward.com/articles/188511/conservative-rabbis-set-to-debate-opening-the-door/?p=all#ixzz2mLbcP59q

Hasidic man victim of KO game

A Hasidic man walking along a Williamsburg street Sunday night became the latest victim of the ugly “knockout game,’’ in which innocent people are sucker-punched by strangers.
Read more: http://nypost.com/2013/12/02/hasidic-man-targeted-in-knockout-attack/

Karate KO

He wants to pump Jew up! A cop-turned-rabbi is on a quest to toughen up city Jews being targeted by “knockout” thugs.
“If Jewish kids started fighting back, they wouldn’t get picked on so much,” said Gary Moskowitz, a seventh-degree karate black belt. “I’m just trying to encourage the Jewish community to do that.”
Continue reading: http://nypost.com/2013/12/01/karate-rabbi-wants-to-train-jewish-kids-to-combat-knockout-thugs/

Supreme leader of the Palestinian Muslims warns

The supreme leader of the Palestinian Muslims and guardian of Islam's most sacred shrine in the Old City of Jerusalem has warned of an uprising and regional war if Jews attempt to take greater control of the al Aqsa Mosque complex.

The warning came amid advancing efforts in the Israeli parliament to try to take administrative control of the sacred Islamic site which Jews also lay claim to as it sits on the remains of their Second Temple.
Read more: http://news.sky.com/story/1175709/sacred-shrines-become-ticking-time-bomb