Shorts: World

Poland gets new chief rabbi

warsaw (jta) | The Union of Jewish Religious Communities in Poland appointed Michael Schudrich as chief rabbi late last week.

Schudrich, who was born in New York and has four Polish grandparents, assumes a role that hasn't been occupied since the 1999 resignation of Rabbi Menachem Joskowicz, who last held the top rabbinical post.




French ban Hezbollah station

paris (jta) | A French court has ordered a satellite company to cease broadcasts from Hezbollah's TV station.

In its decision this week, the Council of State, France's highest administrative court, gave the Eutelstat satellite provider 48 hours to end the broadcasts. Failure to do so would result in a fine of around $6,500 for every day the channel continues to broadcast.

Eutelstat hosts the channel, which broadcasts throughout the 25-member European Union. The decision follows an appeal by Jewish groups and France's public broadcasting authority to the court after the al-Manar station continued to broadcast anti-Semitic material in breach of an agreement it signed with the authority last month.

Among various claims in recent al-Manar programs was the accusation that Jews spread AIDS in Arab countries.