Shorts: World

ADL cites rising anti-Semitism in Venezuela

(jps) | Under the leadership of firebrand President Hugo Chavez, Venezuela has experienced a disturbing rise in anti-Semitism, fostered in large part by Chavez's own rhetoric and that of his government institutions, the Anti-Defamation League reported Tuesday, Nov. 7.

The new ADL report details the troubling mix of anti-Semitism and support for radical Islam that — along with anti-imperialism and anti-Americanism — have become the calling cards of the Chavez regime.




Wiesenthal Center: Send Holocaust

criminals to trial

jerusalem (jta) | The head of the Simon Wiesenthal Center called on Serbian authorities to extradite suspected Holocaust war criminals.

Efraim Zuroff made the remarks Sunday, Nov. 5 in a meeting with Serbian Foreign Minister Vuk Draskovic in Jerusalem.

He named Sandor Kepiro, who was convicted for his role in the murder of more than 1,000 people in Novi Sad in 1942 when he was a Hungarian officer and now lives in Budapest; Milijov Asner, who as police chief of Pozega helped send hundreds of Serbs, Jews and Roma (gypsies) to their deaths in Ustashe camps and now lives in Klagenfurt, Austria; and Ivo Rojnica, who as governor of Dubrovnik was an accomplice to the persecution and deaths of hundreds of Serbs, Jews and Roma and now lives in Buenos Aires.

Zuroff urged Draskovic and his government to expedite the extradition of the three to Belgrade for trial.



Germany raps Israeli flights over Lebanon

berlin (jta) | Germany criticized Israel for continuing surveillance flights over Lebanon. "That Israel is still trying to control the airspace over Lebanon despite the international presence of French, Italian and other soldiers runs contrary to every agreement," German Deputy Foreign Minister Gernot Erler said in a newspaper interview published Saturday, Nov. 4.

He was referring to Israeli overflights that have continued in contravention of a U.N.-brokered truce that ended the war with Hezbollah on Aug. 14.

Israel says it needs the flights to monitor continued arms smuggling to the Lebanese militia, which also is a violation of the cease-fire. The tension has led some Western power brokers to suggest that the bolstered U.N. peacekeeper force in Lebanon, UNIFIL, could end up firing on Israeli aircraft.




Jewish organization attacked in Siberian city

moscow (ap) | Unidentified assailants threw gasoline bombs at a Jewish organization's office in a Russian Siberian city and scattered leaflets with threats, prosecutors and activists said Wednesday, Nov. 8.

The incident early Sunday, Nov. 5 in the city of Surgut, about 1,350 miles east of Moscow, caused a small fire to break out in a Jewish community organization office and it was quickly put out, said Timur Kireyev, a spokesman for the Federation of Jewish Communities in Russia.

Regional prosecutor's spokeswoman Tatyana Mashchenko said a criminal investigation had been opened into property damage and attempted crime.

Kireyev said the perpetrators also scattered leaflets depicting skulls and bones in the office.

The incident followed the federation's appeal for regional authorities to do more to protect synagogues and Jewish communities throughout the country.




German publisher is honored by Jewish community

munich (jta) | Germany's Jewish community honored a publisher whose father profited from the disenfranchisement of Jews in Nazi Germany.

Hubert Burda, 66, head of the Munich-based Hubert Burda Media firm, received the Leo Baeck Prize in recognition of his efforts to repair the wrongs committed by the preceding generation.

Burda's father, who joined the Nazi party in 1938, acquired one of Germany's most modern and largest printing presses from the firm of Berthold, Ludwig and Karl Reiss, who were forced under the Nazis to sell at a tremendous loss.

Charlotte Knobloch, head of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, gave Burda the prize in a ceremony Thursday, Nov. 2.

Burda, who took over his father's publishing business in 1966, has been active in building connections between Jews and non-Jews in Germany, promoting close ties with Israel and supporting the revival of Jewish life in his home city of Munich.




WJC president meets with Chinese leader

(jta) | World Jewish Congress President Edgar Bronfman met in Beijing with Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao. The two met Tuesday, Nov. 7 to discuss international affairs, including the Iranian threat to Israel and the rest of the world.

Bronfman and WJC Secretary-General Stephen Herbits also met with the Chinese vice minister of foreign affairs, according to a WJC news release. The meeting was part of a weeklong mission to Asia and Europe.




Frenchman on trial for questioning use of gas chambers

lyon (jps) | A French far-right leader and member of the European Parliament went on trial Tuesday, Nov. 7 for remarks in which he questioned the existence of Nazi gas chambers.

Bruno Gollnisch, the No. 2 in France's National Front Party, is accused of "disputing a crime against humanity" in the trial in Lyon in southeast France.

At an October 2004 news conference, Gollnisch questioned whether the Nazis used gas chambers in the Holocaust, and suggested that the number of Jews killed during World War II might have been exaggerated.

Gollnisch's comments sparked uproar among Jewish and anti-racism groups.




Brits reject quotas for religious schools

london (jps) | Jewish leaders in Britain have welcomed the defeat in Parliament of a bill that would have required new state-supported faith schools to set aside up to a quarter of their places for members of other religions.

The House of Lords rejected the amendment to the Education Act in a 119 to 37 vote.

The measure was sponsored by former education minister Lord Kenneth Baker.

Both the Labor government and the opposition Conservative Party dropped their support for the measure following intense lobbying by religious groups.

The result was a "triumph for common sense," Britain's chief rabbi, Jonathan Sacks, said in a statement.