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Monday November 5, 2007

Shorts: World

Attack thwarted on Israeli embassy in Germany

Records of conversations held between three terror suspects who were detained in Germany in September revealed a plot to attack the Israeli embassy in Berlin, according to an article published Oct. 29 in the German magazine Focus.

Focus reported that a Turk and two German Muslims planned to carry out the attack Sept. 11 and considered a number of targets, including the Israeli embassy.

It is not yet clear whether the suspects were linked to al Qaeda or acted independently. — ynetnews.com

Australian rabbis approve gay rites

Australia’s Progressive movement has paved the way for the country’s first gay Jewish union.

The Council of Progressive Rabbis of Australia, New Zealand and Asia adopted British guidelines for same-sex ceremonies at its biennial conference held last week in Tasmania.

Council chairman Rabbi Jeffrey Kamins said the English model makes an important distinction between the commitment ceremony and a marriage ceremony. — jta

Yad Vashem director gets Legion of Honor

France President Nicolas Sarkozy honored Avner Shalev, director of Yad Vashem, with a Legion of Honor award last week.

France’s letter informing Shalev of the award called him “a man of peace, tolerance and sincerity, the person who has turned Yad Vashem into a place of renown, of mutual exchange for younger generations of all backgrounds and cultures.” — ap

Exhibit: Superman is Jewish

An exhibit at the Museum of Jewish Art and History in Paris shows “that Superman is Jewish,” Samuel Blumenfeld and Yves-Marie Labé wrote in the French newspaper Le Monde.

Even Nazi propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels knew it.

The writers said, “When the ‘Iron Man’ destroyed the Atlantic wall and the Siegfried line well before D-Day ... Goebbels shouted in a meeting that ‘Superman is Jewish.’ What was an insult is now to be taken as something quite evident.” — jta

New Argentine prez good for Jews

Argentina’s first lady and senator Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner’s victory in presidential elections Oct. 27 is positive news for the Jewish community, according to Aldo Donzis, president of the DAIA, the nation’s Jewish umbrella organization.

The government of her husband, Nestor Kirschner, was active in seeking justice for the terrorist attack on the Jewish community building in Buenos Aires in 1994, and initiated projects to fight anti-Semitism, discrimination and xenophobia.

The first lady and now president-elect was active in these efforts, according to Donzis. — jta

Australia commits troops to West Bank

Australia would send troops to the West Bank to support an Israeli withdrawal, an official told Jews in Sydney.

Addressing Jewish leaders as part of the election campaign, Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said last week that Australian troops would join an international force to prevent the territory from being overrun by terrorists if Israel withdrew from the area. — jta

Extremist march banned in Prague

Prague city leaders this week have restored a ban on a march planned for next month by a right-wing extremist group through the Czech capital’s Jewish quarter.

The march had been scheduled to take place Nov. 10, a day after the anniversary of Kristallnacht.

The event was organized by the Young National Democrats, which is linked to the National Resistance, a neo-Nazi group. — ap

German hotel won’t board neo-Nazis

A Holiday Inn in Dresden, Germany, took a stand against hate groups and refused to accept reservations made by members of the Nazi sympathizing National Democratic Party.

In a polite, tongue-in-cheek letter penned by hotel manager Johannes Lohmeyer that was sent to top NDP officials, the chain demanded the group cancel its reservations. Should it fail to do so, Lohmeyer wrote, the hotel would make sure all profits from the stay would be donated the city’s local synagogue. — ynetnews.com

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