Shorts: World

U.S. Jewish GI killed near Kabul

First Lt. Roslyn L. Schulte, a 25-year-old Jewish intelligence officer, died last week of wounds suffered in a roadside bomb attack near Kabul, Afghanistan. She is the first female graduate of the U.S. Air Force Academy to be killed in action in Afghanistan or Iraq.

Schulte’s funeral was held May 25 at Congregation Temple Israel in Creve Coeur, Mo., west of St. Louis.

“Memorial Day will never be the same,” Rabbi Mark Shook told the hundreds who crowded the synagogue for the service. “No one in this place will ever take Memorial Day for granted again.” — jta

Shabbat dinner held in Reichstag

Representatives of the German parliament and Israeli Embassy in Berlin, along with 200 international guests, attended a historic Shabbat dinner held in the German National Parliament building last year.

The celebration was held in February 2008 but is just now being made public due to security risks.

The Shabbat dinner was the first in the Reichstag since the building’s construction in 1894. The parliament building was burned down by the Nazis in 1933 and reconstructed after World War II.

The event, to celebrate an upcoming marriage, was hosted by German lawmaker Phillip Missfelder; Rabbi Pynchas Brener, chief rabbi of Venezuela, led the ritual aspects of the meal. For the occasion, the Reichstag kitchen was made kosher for the first time and the German government made several special dispensations, such as turning off the building’s metal detectors for the first time ever to allow observant Jews to enter. — jta

Italian Jews start new newspaper

The Italian Jewish community has launched a national publication aimed at promoting broader public awareness of Jewish life, traditions and culture.

The first edition of Pagine Ebraiche, or Jewish Pages, a 48-page tabloid, was printed this month. It is being published by the Union of Italian Jewish Communities.

Jewish Pages was launched at the annual Turin Book Fair, where thousands of free copies were distributed. News, commentary, interviews, book reviews, cultural pieces and other features are offered.

The union said the bimonthly publication, the first of its type and scope in Italy, would supplement the magazines now being published by local Jewish communities in several cities, as well as the growing number of Italian Jewish Web sites.

Some 30,000 to 35,000 Jews live in Italy, most of them in Rome and Milan. — jta

Ukraine bans Holocaust film in schools

Ukrainian officials will not allow schools to screen a film about the Holocaust after pressure from an ultranationalist party.

A Jewish group had organized the screening of “Two Tangos,” which deals in part with Ukrainian collaboration with the Nazis, in seven schools. A regional commission based in Lviv acceded to demands from the Freedom Party, led by Oleg Tyagnybok, to ban the film, Jewish.ru reported.

Popular support for the party has swelled in some recent regional elections, alarming human rights watchdogs.

Tyagnybok was ousted from the mainstream “Our Ukraine” political bloc in 2004 when he praised members of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army, a World War II force that combated Russians and Germans and targeted Jews. He had commended the army for having fought against the Russians, the Germans and “the kikes and other filth who wanted to take from us our Ukrainian state.” — jta

Ex-Israeli running to lead Romania

Nati Meir, a former Israeli, announced his candidacy for president of Romania, Israel’s Channel 10 reported. Meir has been a member of the Romanian Chamber of Deputies from 2004 to 2008.

He became a member of the Romanian Chamber of Deputies on the lists of the Greater Romania Party, but from April 2005 he was an independent member.

Footage reproduced from Romanian television showed Meir announcing his presidency in a press conference while scantily clad Romanian beauties danced around him. — jpost.com