World Report

TAIPEI (JTA) -- Promising to remove them within days, a Taiwanese company has apologized for featuring a cartoon of a smiling Hitler in ads to sell German-made electric space heaters.

The announcement came Tuesday after Israeli and German trade officials in the capital of Taipei said they were appalled by the ads, which show Hitler in a brown uniform and black jackboots, his arm raised in a stiff-armed salute. Above him is a space heater and the slogan, "Declare War on the Cold Front."

Tearful reunion ends 80-year separation

TORONTO (JTA) -- A 101-year-old great-grandfather living in Ottawa was reunited with his sister after a separation of more than 80 years.

Benjamin Feinstein and Sara Pyatigorsky hugged and wept last week when they were brought together recently in his small apartment in the Canadian capital.

It was the first time they had seen each other since he left Russia in 1919. Although he had wanted to go to Palestine, Feinstein emigrated to Winnipeg and raised a family of four. Pyatigorsky spent most of her life in Ukraine and came to Cincinnati as a refugee in 1994.

Team named to study Vatican WWII papers

NEW YORK (JTA) -- The Vatican and an international committee of Jewish leaders have announced the composition of a six-member group of Jewish and Catholic scholars who will review published Vatican archives relating to World War II.

The panel plans to help clarify the role of the Roman Catholic Church and of Pope Pius XII during the Holocaust. Tuesday's announcement was made by Cardinal Edward Cassidy, president of the Vatican's Commission for Religious Relations with the Jews, and Seymour Reich, chairman of the International Jewish Committee for Interreligious Consultations. The two groups agreed to form the team in October.

Poll: Germans hold on to anti-Semitism

BERLIN (JTA) -- Forty-three percent of Germans believe that Jews have too much influence in the country, according to a new poll.

Analysts of the poll, which also reported that 41 percent of the respondents believe that Jews are unable to get along with Germans, say the current stalemate over a proposed national Holocaust memorial and the size of a proposed fund for Holocaust-era slave laborers explain the poll's findings.

Menorah will mark teen's murder site

TORONTO (JTA) -- The mayor of Toronto has promised to erect a menorah on the site in a local park where a 15-year-old Russian Jewish student was recently murdered by a gang of youths.

Dmitri Baranovski was sitting with some friends when a gang of about 10 or 12 older youths approached them, demanding cigarettes. When Baranovski asked why they were being hassled, they beat him severely. He died the next morning in a hospital.

No suspects have yet been apprehended. The menorah is expected to be in place before Chanukah begins next week.