Tuesday 31 December 2013

"Top 10" Antisemites of 2013 List Released

FSWC Reports:

From ynetnews.com:

The leaders of Iran and Turkey and musician Roger Waters top the 2013 "anti-Semitic and anti-Israel slurs" list released Monday by the Simon Wiesenthal Center (SWC), a Jewish human rights organization dedicated to fighting anti-Semitism and Holocaust denial. 

The first place was given to Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. According to SWC, even as the world’s top diplomats celebrated the Iranian nuclear deal, few leaders condemned Khamenei for his "unabated public slurs and genocidal threats against the Jewish state."

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Group Representing European Jews Calls on English and European Soccer Federations to Step Up Efforts to Fight Racism and Antisemitism

FSWC Reports:

From the Associated Press via ynetnews.com:

European Jewish Congress President Moshe Kantor is asking football authorities to strengthen their fight against racism and anti-Semitism in the wake of Nicolas Anelka's controversial goal celebration in a Premier League match.

In a letter sent both to the English Football Association chairman Greg Dyke and UEFA president Michel Platini, Kantor wrote that his organization often receives reports of "attacks on Jews, whether verbal or physical, which also include acts of anti-Semitism at matches involving English and European football clubs."

 
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Monday 30 December 2013

French Soccer Player Accused of Making Antisemitic Salute

FSWC Reports:

From News Agencies via ynetnews.com:

French footballer Nicolas Anelka triggered controversy Saturday when he made a post-goal gesture many interpret to be a modified "Nazi-style" salute.

After scoring the first of his two goals in a 3-3 draw at West Ham on Saturday, Anelka appeared to perform a salute used by French comedian Dieudonne M'bala M'bala that Jewish groups in France have linked to anti-Semitic incidents in the country. The comic has been fined seven times for defamation, insult and provocation to hate, and for racial discrimination.

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France Considers Banning Antisemitic Comedian

FSWC Reports:

From Reuters:

France is considering banning performances by a black comedian whose shows have repeatedly insulted the memory of Holocaust victims and could threaten public order, Interior Minister Manuel Valls said on Friday.

He said his ministry is studying legal ways to ban shows by Dieudonne M'bala M'bala, a comedian repeatedly fined for hate speech who ran in the 2009 European Parliament elections at the head of an "Anti-Zionist List" including far-right activists.

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Auschwitz Barracks Returned to Poland

FSWC Reports:

From the Associated Press via ynetnews.com:

Half of a historic Auschwitz-Birkenau barracks that was on loan to the US has been returned to Poland after two decades and long negotiations, officials said Sunday. 

The Nazi barracks was one of the main items at the US Holocaust Museum in Washington, which wanted the lease extended. But Poland asked for it back after adopting new regulations in 2003 that limit the loan of all historical and art works to a maximum of five years. That led to years of negotiations between the museums and US and Polish governments that ended in October, when the Holocaust Museum agreed to return its portion of the barracks.

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Art Historian Finds Nazi-Looted Art in German Parliament

FSWC Reports:

From Reuters:

An art historian has found two art works stolen by the Nazis inside Germany's parliament, a newspaper reported on Monday, in a new embarrassment for authorities after a huge stash of looted art came to light last month.

The Bundestag, in a statement issued after the report in Bild newspaper, said an art historian was reviewing two "suspicious cases", but a spokesman would not confirm the find.
 
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Friday 27 December 2013

Members of Jewish Group Accused of Attacking Suspected Antisemites

FSWC Reports:

From ynetnews.com:

Did the Jewish Defense League (LDJ – Ligue de Défense Juive) in France initiate attacks on French civilians suspected of anti-Semitism? Police in the city of Lyon believe it did and arrested six Jewish members of the local office on Tuesday on suspicion of carrying out two attacks against anti-Semitic activists. 

According to news agency reports, the first assault took place on December 21 in Lyon. The next day, last Sunday, another attack was carried out in Villeurbanne. Police suspect that the local "league" – a right-wing Jewish organization affiliated with the late Rabbi Meir Kahane – is behind these acts, and that the gang tracked down its victims on social networks. 

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Members of Europe's Roma Community Travel to Israel to Learn About Holocaust and How to Raise Awareness of Their Own Genocide

FSWC Reports:

From ynetnews.com:

Yad Vashem is used to seeing emotional visits. But the group that arrived at the International School of Holocaust Studies from Slovakia appeared to be particularly moved. It may have to do with the fellowship of victims, the shared fate of two people singled out by the Nazis for annihilation that are now cooperating in an effort to commemorate the past and educate people about it.

This was the first time that nearly all delegation members, 18 of 20, all teachers, were gypsies from the Roma community. 

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Wednesday 25 December 2013

Works by Jews from Former Soviet Union Commemorating the Holocaust to be Displayed in Jerusalem

FSWC Reports:

From ynetnews.com:

A moving first-of-its-kind exhibition showcasing the works of Jewish artists from the former Soviet Union, memorializing the Holocaust, will be on display and open to the public free of charge in Jerusalem for one month beginning with its opening on Sunday, December 29.

The idea for the exhibit was born during the Limmud FSU Jerusalem festival, which took place last month with the support of the Israel-based Hashava Company and the Menachem Begin Heritage Center, which is hosting the exhibition. 

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Israeli Couple Privately Document 350 Synagogues Used in Pre-Holocaust Europe

FSWC Reports:

From ynetnews.com:

Rivka and Ben-Zion Dorfman, both more than 90 years old, dedicated 70 weeks of their life to photograph and document more than 350 synagogues in Europe that were deserted after the Holocaust.

The couple handed their life's work over to the Yad Vashem Archives, where staff will continue tracing the lost communities through the ruined synagogues. 
 
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Sunday 22 December 2013

Edgar Bronfman Remembered for Advancing the Rights of Jews Around the World

FSWC Reports:

From the Associated Press via ynetnews.com:

Edgar M. Bronfman Sr., the billionaire businessman and longtime president of the World Jewish Congress, which lobbied the Soviets to allow Jews to emigrate and helped spearhead the search for hidden Nazi loot, died Saturday. He was 84.

The Canadian-born Bronfman died at his New York home surrounded by family, according to the family charity he led, The Samuel Bronfman Foundation.
 
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Holocaust Deniers Promote Weakening of Australia's Anti-Racism Laws

FSWC Reports:

From ynetnews.com:

Australia's largest Holocaust denial group expressed support in Tony Abbott's initative to reduce and weaken the laws defining hate crimes, according to a Saturday report in the Australian daily the Sydney Morning Herald.

The report claimed that the Adelaide Institute, founded by Gerald Fredrick Töben – who served two jail sentences for Holocaust denial and anti-Semitism – announced that section C18 of the Racial Discrimination Act and other anti-racism laws have prevented "legitimate" historical discussions.
 
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Cooking Skills Saved Holocaust Survivor's Life

FSWC Reports:

From ynetnews.com:

The Auschwitz death camp: Chaya Hollander is sent to work in the kitchen and cook for Nazi officers. They taste her food, enjoy it and ask for more. That's what saved her life. Now, several years after her death, the booklet containing the recipes which helped her survive the Holocaust has been found.

Hollander, who was born in Hungary, loved spending hours watching her mother cook in the kitchen. No one knew at the time that that is what will later save her life. 

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Friday 20 December 2013

Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra Revokes Honours Given to Prominent Nazis

FSWC Reports:

From Reuters:

The famed Vienna Philharmonic orchestra has revoked awards it made during Hitler's rule to six leading Nazis, as it quietly responds to criticism of the way it has dealt with its past.

The symbolic move, decided in October but not publicly announced, follows the Philharmonic's publication earlier this year of details of its conduct during the Nazi era, which it revealed for the first time.
 
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Thursday 19 December 2013

"Voices of Vigil" Exibition Organized to Remember Efforts to Save Jews Trapped Behind the Iron Curtain

FSWC Reports:

From jn1.tv via ynetnews.com:

It’s a calm winter day outside of what used to be the embassy of the Soviet Union in Washington. But during the 1970s and 1980s, every single day saw a vigil as American activists protested the treatment of Jews trapped behind the Iron Curtain.

Every day for over 20 years, between 12:30 and 12:45 pm, protestors staged some form of demonstration, from dancing "Hava Nagila" to reading Hebrew prayers.
 
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Wednesday 18 December 2013

Long-Lost Diary Used as Evidence in Nuremberg Trials Given to U.S. Holocaust Museum

FSWC Reports:

From Reuters:

The long-lost diary kept by a top aide to Adolf Hitler as he oversaw the genocide against Jews and others during World War Two, a key piece of evidence during the Nuremberg trials, was handed over on Tuesday to the U.S. Holocaust Museum.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents found and seized Alfred Rosenberg's 400-page diary in Wilmington, Delaware this year, ending a nearly 70-year hunt for the diary which disappeared after the Nuremberg trials in 1946.
 
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Germany Refuses to Return Art to Jewish Heirs

FSWC Reports:

From the Associated Press via ynetnews.com:

The German government has refused a request to hand back two paintings once owned by a Jewish businessman persecuted by the Nazis.

Germany's Finance Ministry said it would not return the 18th-century paintings by Bernardo Bellotto to the heirs of Max Emden because he had already fled to Switzerland when he sold them.  

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Sunday 15 December 2013

Three Men Arrested in Britain for Posting Antisemitic Comments on Twitter Following Premier League Soccer Match

FSWC Reports:

From Reuters:

Three men have been arrested for posting anti-Semitic comments on Twitter following Tottenham Hotspur's Premier League match against West Ham United in October, police said on Friday.

Two men, aged 22 and 24, were arrested on Thursday in London and in Wiltshire, while a 48-year-old man was arrested at his home in Canning Town in London last week on suspicion of inciting racial hatred.

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Neo-Nazis Attack Anti-Nazi Demonstration in Sweden

FSWC Reports:

From the Associated Press via ynetnews.com:

Swedish police detained 28 people Sunday after a group of neo-Nazis attacked an anti-Nazism demonstration in a Stockholm suburb by hurling bottles, torches and firecrackers.

Police spokesman Sven-Erik Olsson says two people were hospitalized and a policeman was injured in the back after being hit by a heavy object.   

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Friday 13 December 2013

U.S. Vice President Says Obama Administration Committed to Helping Holocaust Survivors

FSWC Reports:

From the Associated Press via ynetnews.com:

The Obama administration is working to help Holocaust survivors in the United States, many of them living in poverty, by coordinating assistance, working with aid groups and using diplomatic means to help recover property confiscated during the Nazi era. 

Vice President Joe Biden announced the effort this week in a speech to the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee. The administration says 100,000 Holocaust survivors are in the United States, and 25% live below the poverty level.

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Romanian TV Airs Antisemitic Christmas Song

FSWC Reports:

From ynetnews.com and the Associated Press:

A Christmas carol has been aired by Romanian state TV, celebrating the Holocaust and condoning the burning of Jews.

The US Embassy in Romania sharply criticized the country's state television network for broadcasting the anti-Semitic Christmas carol.
 
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Thursday 12 December 2013

German State Nixes Reprint of Hitler's "Mein Kampf"

FSWC Reports:

From Reuters:

The German state of Bavaria announced on Wednesday it had scrapped plans to publish a new academic reprint of Adolf Hitler's "Mein Kampf" with critical commentary when its legal power to ban the book expires in 2015.

The southern German state owns the copyright and has banned any republication. But the copyright expires at the end of 2015, 70 years after the author's death. Bavaria had been planning to then publish a new edition with critical commentary from the Munich-based Institute for Contemporary History (IfZ).
 
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U.S. Court Revives Jewish Family's Attempt to Regain Ownership of Masterpiece Painting Stolen by Nazis

FSWC Reports:

From the Associated Press via ynetnews.com:

A federal appeals court on Monday resurrected a Jewish family's long legal battle to regain ownership of a $20 million masterpiece painting seized in Nazi Germany during World War II.

In doing so, the 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals also reinstated a California law allowing lawsuits over art ownership disputes dating back as far as 100 years. The decision reversed a lower court ruling that invalidated the law saying it infringed on the US government's exclusive authority over foreign affairs.
 
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New Nazi Salute Spreads in Europe

FSWC Reports:

From ynetnews.com:

The right hand and its fingers are stretched downwards along the body, while the left hand performs a "salute" movement on the opposite arm. Sound like an aerobic exercise for beginners? According to anti-Semitism researchers, it is actually a clear anti-Semitic symbol, a modern Nazi salute, spreading among Jew haters across Europe. 

In recent months, the researchers warn, anti-Semites have been taking advantage of the lack of public awareness of the new "salute" and taking pictures of themselves performing the salute in particularly symbolic and sensitive places around the world like the Treblinka extermination camp, the Western Wall plaza and next to IDF soldiers, as well as alongside Jews who are unaware of the "trick." They then post the photos on the Internet. 

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Wednesday 11 December 2013

Greek Prime Minister Given Award for Fighting Fascism

FSWC Reports:

From the Associated Press via ynetnews.com:

A European Jewish group has presented Greek Prime Minister Antonis Samaras with an award following the arrest of leading members of the far-right Golden Dawn party, praising his "courageous leadership."

The Brussels-based European Jewish Congress held its annual executive meeting in Athens on Monday and presented Samaras the award.
 
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Monday 9 December 2013

2 Turkish Citizens Arrested at Auschwitz for Allegedly Making Nazi Salute

FSWC Reports:

From ynetnews.com:

Two tourists from Turkey were arrested by guards at the Auschwitz death camp museum for allegedly making a Nazi salute, news agency JTA reported Monday.

A man and a woman, tourists, both 22, took pictures of each other in front of the gate to the former Nazi death camp under one of the most recognizable signs of the Holocaust, “Arbeit macht frei,” or work will free you, raising their right hands as if performing the Nazi salute. 

 
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Sunday 8 December 2013

Berlin Zoo Seeks Out Former Jewish Shareholders Forced Out by Nazis

FSWC Reports:

From AFP via ynetnews.com:

More than 70 years after the Berlin Zoo forced Jewish shareholders out of its ranks, the institution is trying to come clean about its own dark chapter during the Nazi era.

A Berlin historian is combing through thousands of names to identify members made to sell their shares back to the zoo at a loss under the Third Reich, and has begun tracking down their descendants ahead of publishing her findings.
 
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Thursday 5 December 2013

Holocaust Survivors Saved in "Kindertransport" Escape Tell Their Stories

FSWC Reports:

From the Associated Press via ynetnews.com:

The operation was called Kindertransport – Children's Transport – and it was a passage from hell to freedom.

Kristallnacht had just rocked Nazi Germany. The pogroms killed dozens of Jews, burned hundreds of synagogues and imprisoned tens of thousands in concentration camps. Many historians see them as the start of Hitler's Final Solution.
 
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Wednesday 4 December 2013

After 70 Years, American Holocaust Survivor Reunites with Polish Man Who Saved Him

FSWC Reports:

From AFP via ynetnews.com:

A Jewish boy who hid from the Nazis in a hayloft was recently reunited after 70 years with the son of a couple who risked everything to save him.

Beaming American Holocaust survivor Leon Gersten, 79, embraced and clasped the hand of a visibly moved Czeslaw Polziec, 81, whose Polish parents saved five Jews during World War II.

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Germany Launches Investigation Into Hundreds of Unsolved Murders in Which Neo-Nazis May Have Been Involved

FSWC Reports:

From the Associated Press via ynetnews.com:

Hundreds of unsolved killings and attempted killings in Germany over the past two decades may have been committed by far-right extremists, officials said Wednesday. 
 
The stark admission comes two years after a series of murders German police had linked to immigrant criminal groups. Now, it turns out, that the killings may have been the work of a secretive neo-Nazi group.

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Tuesday 3 December 2013

Controversy Continues Over Singer's Use of Star of David

FSWC Reports:

From the Associated Press via ynetnews.com:

Now that his three-year world tour for "The Wall" has finally come to an end, Roger Waters wants to set the record straight over criticism he's received from Jewish groups regarding his use of the Star of David symbol in the show and his support for a cultural boycott of Israel.

The 70-year old Pink Floyd co-founder says his intention was never to offend the Jewish people. "I worry about it every day. It's a huge concern to me that I would be considered to be a bully," Waters says.
 
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Stone Throwers in Jerusalem Motivated by "Jew-Hatred"

FSWC Reports:

From ynetnews.com:

It was cleared for publication on Tuesday that five teens were arrested in connection to a stone hurling incident in which a 2-year-old girl was injured. Four of the suspects said they have committed the crime because of "Jew-hatred."

The suspects, all residents of the east Jerusalem village of Sur Baher, aged 14 to 17, admitted responsiblity for the incident. 

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