Shorts: World

Jews pray for rain

london (jta) | Jews outside of Israel begin praying for blessed dew and rain. On Thursday, Dec. 4, the only secular date on the Jewish religious calendar, Jews outside of Israel began inserting words asking for rain into the Shmoneh Esrei prayer.

The benediction, which means "Bestow dew and rain for a blessing," is said until Passover. Jews in Israel began inserting the prayer on Sukkot.




Scholars fight against 'Protocols'

venice (jta) | Some European scholars have called for measures to be taken against hate literature, including "The Protocols of the Elders of Zion."

Following a two-day seminar this week in Venice, academics from 38 European universities called for hate literature targeting any single faith to be considered an assault on all faiths.

They urged research into the creation and dissemination of hate literature and related conspiracy theories in order to combat them.

The seminar was organized under the auspices of UNESCO by the Simon Wiesenthal Center's campus arm and Olokaustos, a Venice-based Holocaust studies center.




Hungarian Gypsy blasts Jews

prague (jta) | Hungarian Jews have too much power, a leader of the Hungarian Roma, or Gypsy, community said.

"There is a minority in Hungary that has much influence over the government. It's no secret what minority that is; it's the Jews," Miklos Lakatos said on Hungarian television.

Two organizations in the Roma community distanced themselves from Lakatos' words. Both Jews and Gypsies often are the target of oral abuse by Hungarian extremists.




Torah auctioned to save Jewish school

london (jta) | The London School of Jewish Studies raised more than $800,000 in an auction of rare books in New York.

One lot in the Thursday, Dec. 4, auction, a 15th-century Maimonides Mishnah Torah, was sold for $43,125.

The school — formerly known as Jews' College — has been auctioning books in the face of severe financial difficulties. Another auction is planned for March 2004.




Vandals put swastikas on French graves

paris (jta) | Vandals desecrated tombs at a Jewish cemetery in southern France, carving swastikas and other Nazi symbols into the headstones, officials said Tuesday.

Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin condemned the attack in Marseille as a "hateful manifestation of anti-Semitism."

Seven tombs at the Trois-Lucs cemetery were covered with graffiti or damaged by pelted rocks, said Alain Marc, an official at the regional prefecture.




Funding cut after anti-Semitism report

brussels (jta) | European legislators blocked funding for a center that reported Muslims were responsible for anti-Semitism.

A member of the European Parliament said the $240,000 was being held up until a controversy surrounding the report was cleared up.

The Vienna-based E.U. Monitoring Center on Racism and Xenophobia suppressed the report, but it was released this week by European Jewish groups.