Poland may charge Princeton professor
The district attorney in the Polish town of Krakow is looking into the possibility of pressing charges against Polish-born Jewish American historian Jan Tomasz Gross and the Znak publishing house for “publicly slandering the Polish nation.”
Officials released the statement this week after bookstores in the country began selling the Polish edition of Gross’ book “Fear: Anti-Semitism in Poland After Auschwitz.”
Gross is a history professor at Princeton University. His highly acclaimed book, which was published in the United States in 2006, describes the widespread anti-Semitism and violence toward Poland’s Jews who survived the Holocaust, including a pogrom in the town of Kielce in 1946. — ynetnews.com
Manchester United invited to Israel
The premier English soccer team Manchester United has been invited to play in Israel as part of the nation’s 60th anniversary celebration this summer, according to the Times of London.
Ron Prosor, Israel’s ambassador to Britain, made the formal invitation to team manager Sir Alex Ferguson last week, but the team has not replied.
The national English team played in Israel in March 2007, but Manchester United has never visited the country. A Champions League tie with Maccabi Haifa in 2002 was moved to Cyprus because of security problems in the region.
Smoking ads use Nazi imagery
The use of a yellow Star of David to protest Germany’s new smoking ban has the country’s Jewish leaders fuming.
A company based in northwest Germany sold T-shirts featuring the word “smoker” in a yellow star.
Using the symbol is “brainless, brazen and tasteless,” Dieter Graumann, vice president of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, told the DPA press agency.
The Web site selling the shirt was promptly shut down. — jta
Publisher issues more screeds
A Russian jailed for publishing an anti-Semitic newspaper is continuing his hate speech from behind bars.
Igor Kolodezenko was transferred to another prison because of his “active political agitation among the prisoners,” according to a recent report by the Russian Jewish Web site Jewish.ru.
Kolodezenko was jailed for violating Russia’s hate speech laws after repeatedly publishing calls to murder Jews in his newspaper. After several slaps on the wrist and suspended sentences, Kolodezenko was sentenced to nearly three years by a local Novosibirsk court last June. — jta
Holocaust denier’s lawyer gets prison
A former lawyer for a well-known Holocaust denier was convicted of incitement in Germany this week for denying the genocide herself and sentenced to 3 1/2 years in prison.
Sylvia Stolz, who represented Holocaust denier Ernst Zundel at his trial, also was banned from practicing law for five years.
During Zundel’s trial, Stolz repeatedly disputed the Nazis’ mass murder of Jews, called for hatred of the Jewish population and ended a legal document with the words “Heil Hitler.” — ap
Peres receives Argentine honor
Shimon Peres was named Jewish Personality of 2007 by an Argentine newspaper.
The Israeli president received a majority of the votes in a poll by the Web site of the Argentina-based Jewish community newspaper Iton Gadol.
More than 1,200 voters from Latin America, Israel and the United States chose from a list generated by readers of the Spanish-language newspaper.
Other names on the list included Gilad Shalit, the Israeli soldier abducted by Hamas in 2006; Luis Grynwald, chairman of the Argentine Israelite Mutual Association; and Alberto Nisman, the prosecutor investigating the 1994 AMIA bombing. — jta
Australia shops carry Nazi goods
Nazi memorabilia was discovered at stores in Australia as white supremacists reportedly planned a rally later this month.
The sale of Nazi propaganda is not illegal in Australia.
The white supremacists, saying they planned to hijack Australia Day on Jan. 26, may hold a rally that day in Hyde Park. They have encouraged their supporters to make posters claiming “Hitler is coming to Sydney.” — jta
CopyrightJ, the Jewish news weekly of Northern California