World Report

Friday, August 15, 2003 | by

MINSK (JTA)—Jewish leaders in Belarus called on authorities to erect a memorial to hundreds who died in the Holocaust after their graves were destroyed by the construction and renovation of a soccer stadium.

The mass grave in the town of Grodno near the border with soon-to-be EU member Poland was uncovered when construction workers started renovating the 40-year-old stadium and found bones in the newly removed soil.

Jewish leaders said the desecration of the cemetery in Grodno, where Jews were killed by Nazis on Belarussian soil, was yet another sign of the government's lack of interest in remembering those who died and could spur growing anti-Semitism.

Big donor to Israel busted for illegal fish

CAPE TOWN (JTA)—A major donor to Israel's Ben-Gurion University was arrested for smuggling fish into the United States.

A front-page report in South Africa's Cape Times newspaper on Arnold Bengis, arrested Aug. 6 in New York on charges including smuggling South African lobster and toothfish into the United States, highlighted Bengis' ties to Israel.

Australian yeshiva may be shut down

SYDNEY (JTA)—An eviction notice was served on an Australian yeshiva.

The Sydney Yeshiva is in danger of being closed after Rabbi Joseph Gutnick called in a multimillion-dollar loan he had given the yeshiva, which is run by his brother-in-law, Rabbi Pinchus Feldman.

A court this week rejected Feldman's claim for an injunction against the eviction, but he is trying to persuade another court to issue an injunction in his favor.