Shorts: World

Paris anti-Semitic march sparks action

paris (jta) | French Jewish officials are meeting with French officials following an anti-Semitic march in Paris.

The meetings follow a recent incident in the Jewish quarter in Paris, in which 30 young men armed with sticks and bats marched down the street yelling "Death to the Jews" and other anti-Semitic insults.

The men, French of African origin, were seeking a confrontation with members of the Betar youth movement and the Jewish Defense League.

The men are believed to belong to Tribu K, a group of extremist blacks known to police for their racist rhetoric against Jews and whites.




Odessa Jews want construction halted

odessa (jta) | The Odessa Jewish community is trying to stop construction on the site of a wartime massacre.

In 1941, the Nazis killed and cremated more than 25,000 people here, mainly Jews. The area has two memorials. The proposed construction site is 300 yards from one of the memorials.

A spokesman for the mayor maintained the site is far enough away from the memorial to make the construction acceptable.




Germans up support for rabbinical school

berlin (jta) | The German government will double its support for the country's first postwar Reform rabbinical school.

Last month the German Parliament approved an annual contribution of $191,000 in federal funds to support the Abraham Geiger College, which will ordain its first rabbinical graduates next September. They will be the first rabbis of any denomination ordained in postwar Germany.

The announcement comes after leaders of the World Union for Progressive Judaism told members of the German Parliament and Chancellor Angela Merkel that the rabbinical program would need $700,000 a year. They asked the government to double its contribution, just as the Central Council of Jews in Germany had agreed to do.




Scottish church: Label West Bank settlement goods

edinburgh (jta) | The Church of Scotland called on European authorities to identify products made in Israel's West Bank settlements.

The call came from the church's General Assembly, which met in Edinburgh last week. At the meeting, a committee reported that the church does not hold any investments directly relating to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.