Shorts: World

Samson recast as Jewish terrorist

A British Columbia choir is preparing a production of Handel's 1743 oratorio in which Samson is presented as a Jewish suicide bomber.

Simon Capet, music director of the Victoria Philharmonic Choir, said he wants to make the biblical story of Samson relevant to modern audiences by drawing a comparison to the 1946 bombing of the British headquarters at the King David Hotel in Jerusalem by the militant Zionist group Irgun.

"Is there any difference between pulling down a pillar or blowing a bomb?" Capet was quoted as saying. Victoria Rabbi Itzchak Marmorstein wrote in a March 29 editorial, Toronto's National Post newspaper that, in the name of political honesty, the choir should have cast Hamas or al-Qaida as the terrorists. — jta




French graves are desecrated

Fifty-three headstones were broken off of graves in France over the weekend. Police have opened an inquiry but have not yet made any arrests.

The municipality of Lille condemned the desecration as an "outrageous act of anti-Semitism." Lille Mayor Martine Aubry visited the cemetery Sunday morning April 1, and the new French Interior minister, Francois Baroin, expressed his indignation. "We will employ all our means to find out as soon as possible who is responsible for these intolerable acts," Baroin said.

Franc Hanon, a member of the Lille Jewish community whose great-uncle's grave was desecrated, said, "I feel horrified and saddened by what I see today. This is a symbol of cowardice and of anti-Semitism." — jta




Rabbi nabbed for shoplifting is hospitalized

Brazil's best-known rabbi, who was charged with shoplifting in Florida, was hospitalized for what doctors termed a mood disorder.

The Albert Einstein Israelite Hospital in Sao Paulo said Rabbi Henry Sobel was admitted last week after taking large quantities of insomnia-treatment drugs that "cause potential states of mental confusion and amnesia."

Sobel asked for a suspension from his duties as chief of the Sao Paulo Rabbinate after the media reported that he had been charged with stealing expensive ties during the Florida trip.

He was arrested March 23 after a surveillance camera in a Louis Vuitton shop showed him picking up a tie and then leaving empty-handed. Four other ties were found in his car. Sobel was released the following day on bail. — jta




German firm reaches accord with Jewish heirs

The heirs of the Wertheim family received one of the largest compensation payments ever from Holocaust-related restitution. In a settlement announced last week in Duesseldorf, the KarstadtQuelle corporation agreed to pay the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany $117 million for the last remaining major pieces of property formerly belonging to the family.

The settlement was negotiated by the Claims Conference during months of secret meetings; they will administer the settlement. Some funds will go toward Claims Conference-funded programs for Holocaust survivors, and the rest will go to the Wertheim heirs.

Ida and Abraham Wertheim ran one of Germany's largest department store chains, but lost their property after they fled Nazi persecution in 1939. Speaking for some 50 members of her family, Wertheim heir Barbara Principe of New Jersey said she and her family were "glad we have finally reached this agreement with KarstadtQuelle AG to end the legal battle over Wertheim." — jta




Ten percent of Swiss are anti-Semitic, says study

Ten percent of the Swiss population is anti-Semitic, according to a recent study.

The 10 percent, the study said, had "systematic anti-Semitic attitudes," meaning across the board, Swiss news outlet NZZ online reported, while another 28 percent held some anti-Semitic views. Alfred Donath, president of the Swiss Federation of Jewish Communities, told Swiss news agencies that the 10 percent figure was "worrying," but noted that it had remained constant in recent years.

Thirty-seven percent of those polled had a positive attitude toward Jews, and 55 percent said they held the country's Jewish community of some 20,000 in high regard. But the majority of respondents, 54 percent, said Israel is governed by religious fanatics and 50 percent believed Israel is carrying out a "war of extermination" in the territories. The study was carried out by the GFS polling institute for Switzerland's Federal Commission against Racism in cooperation with the Jewish weekly magazine Tachles. Results were based on a poll of 1,030 people. — jta




6,000 books donated to Kiev

The American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee donated 6,000 books on Jewish history and culture to two Kiev educational and research institutions. The donated books, in English and Yiddish, went to the Kiev Institute of Jewish History and Culture and to the Kiev-Mohyla Academy, a leading Ukrainian state university. — jta