Printer Friendly

Email to A Friend

Friday June 6, 2008

Shorts: World

Union considers academic boycott

A British union has renewed its call for an academic boycott of Israel.

The University and College Union, which represents more than 120,000 academics and lecturers in England, voted by a majority show of hands at its annual meeting last week to “consider the moral and political implications of education links with Israeli institutions.”

The motion cited the closure of the Gaza Strip, the killing of Palestinian civilians and the continued existence of settlements as the reasons for the boycott.

British and world Jewish organizations, as well as international scholars, roundly criticized the UCU last year for passing a similar motion. Three years ago the two unions that merged to become the UCU passed a similar motion but withdrew it after international condemnation.

The UCU says it is waiting for legal advice on the issue before deciding to implement a boycott. The union’s constitution prohibits discrimination based on gender, religion or nationality. — jta

Woman becomes first Jewish Arab diplomat

Bahrain’s king has appointed a Jewish woman as an envoy to the United States, the first Jew in the Arab world to become an ambassador.

King Hamad bin Isa al Khalifa named lawmaker Houda Nonoo as an ambassador last week.

Bahrain — a pro-Western island nation with Sunni rulers and a Shiite majority — is a close U.S. ally and hosts the U.S. Navy’s 5th Fleet. It has about 50 Jewish citizens among a population of about half a million. — ap

Berliners dispute wax Hitler model

Political and popular sentiment about an Adolf Hitler model at the unopened Madame Tussauds wax museum in Berlin appears to be divided.

The museum is due to open in July in the Unter den Linden, the historic center of the city, steps away from Berlin’s Holocaust memorial.

Politicians and historians are arguing that the figure should be melted down.

But an unscientific, interactive survey in the Berlin Tagesspiegel daily newspaper showed that 57 percent of about 1,400 readers agree that “Hitler is an historical figure, thus belongs in the show,” while 43 percent said “Hitler should stay where he belongs — in history books.” — jta

Actress promotes Rwandan village

Actress Natalie Portman will promote a youth village in Rwanda financed by American Jewish donors.

The youth village, built by the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, will house 500 children whose parents were killed during the 1994 genocide.

Ethiopian immigrants to Israel will staff the program.

Portman is filming a public service announcement about the youth village that is scheduled to be aired on “The Oprah Winfrey Show.” — jta

UJC stops funding to Falash Mura

Top United Jewish Communities officials have confirmed that the organization has stopped funding aid programs for Falash Mura in Ethiopia.

Over the past three years, UJC funds have provided food, nutrition programs and medical relief to the Gondar region for Ethiopians waiting for permission from Israel to immigrate. The funds were part of the UJC’s Operation Promise campaign.

UJC officials said they were following the lead of the Israeli government in halting the funding. Israel has said it will stop allowing Falash Mura, descendants of Ethiopian Jews who converted to Christianity to avoid persecution, to immigrate beginning this month. — jta

German group awards Nazi doctor

Former Nazi doctor Hans-Joachim Sewering, 92, was one of four doctors to receive the Professional Association of German Internists’ highest annual award for contributions toward the “independence of the medical profession,” Der Spiegel magazine reported.

The award was presented earlier this year.

Stephan Kramer, the general secretary of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, called the decision a “scandal.” He said Sewering’s past was well known and had led the doctor to decline the presidency of the World Medical Association in 1993 after the World Jewish Congress threatened to boycott the association. — jta

Did you find this article interesting? Subscribe to our FREE newsletter and you'll be notified each week when "J." goes online. We'll tell you about the most important stories of the week and give you a link to each one.

This page contains a BETA version of Amazon contextual links. They are marked by the dashed underline.  Your purchases support our site. At times they point to items which are not related to the actual link. Please alert us by email if you discover objectionable links.