Jewish News Roundup - Thursday, December 29, 2011

On eve of 2012, Israel’s population surpasses 7.8m.

On the eve of 2012, Israel’s population has reached 7,836,000, according to figures released Thursday by the Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS), ahead of the start of the secular New Year on Sunday.

In terms of ethnic divisions, Israel’s Jews now count for some 5,901,000 or 75.3 percent of the population, down from 5,802,000 or 75.4% last year; Arabs citizens make up a further 1,610,000 million or 20.5%, up from 20.4% or 1,573,000 in 2011. The remaining 320,000 people or 4.2% of the population is not registered as either Jewish or Arab according to the Interior Ministry’s Population and Immigration Authority. ReadMOre.

40,000 Visitors to Western Wall during Hanukkah

About 40,000 people visited the Western Wall of the Temple in Jerusalem's Old City during the just-concluded Hanukkah holiday, according to the Western Wall Heritage Fund, which called the figure a marked increase over last year, adding that there was a rise in visits to the Western Wall Tunnels and the Chain of the Generations Center. Read More.

Dreidel-spinners go for Guinness gold

Most Athletes train for years in hopes of accomplishing a feat worthy of the Guinness Book of World Records.

The 900 teenagers poised to gain the title for most dreidels spinning at once in a single place had about 20 minutes of warm-up time before trying for the record book yesterday in a ballroom at the Philadelphia Marriott Downtown.

The four-sided spinning top is part of the tradition of the Jewish holiday of Hanukkah, and there are different ways to approach the art of dreidel-spinning.

The teens, and about 100 others, attempted to break the previous record - 541 dreidels, set in 2005 by Temple Emanuel, in Cherry Hill - as part of the 61st annual convention of United Synagogue Youth of the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism. The five-day conference, which ends today, includes workshops and service projects.

Since the record was set, other groups have tried to beat it. In 2007, members of the University of Maryland Hillel said that they'd set the record at 603. Last year, a group from New York's Yeshiva University claimed to have had 618 tops spinning at once. None was certified by Guinness. Read More.

Jewish organization raises alarm about the level of intermarriage among European students

The European Centre for Jewish Students (ECJS) has raised alarm about the results of a new inquiry showing a rise of 17 % of the rate of intermarriage among European students.

The annual research has been conducted among a representative sample of Jewish communities and student organizations in Europe ahead of “Shabbat Like a Jew”, an event which will gather several hundreds of students from across Europe in Athens, Greece, during the next weekend.

“The results of the 2011 study among students is really frightening,” said Zeevi Ives, Director of ECJS.

Tomer Orni, CEO of EJU, an organization which promotes Jewish life in Europe: “Raising assimilation rates is indeed a troubling phenomenon. There is still much more to be done. The good news is that there are more engagement opportunities now for Jewish students across Europe who wish to get involved...”

However, although the level of intermarriage is still much too high in our view, we see a change for the better because the rise this year is lower when compared to recent years,” he added. Read More.

Cuban Jewish leaders celebrate Hanukkah with jailed American Alan Gross

An American government contractor jailed in Cuba is in good spirits and fine health, but anxious to get home to his family and disappointed he was not included in a massive prisoner amnesty announced by President Raul Castro last week, a Jewish leader who saw him said Wednesday.

Adela Dworin said that she and another Jewish leader spent nearly two hours Monday with Alan Gross at the military hospital where he is being held. They celebrated the Jewish holiday of Hanukkah by lighting candles, eating potato pancakes and passing around chocolate coins.

“His health is very good,” Dworin told The Associated Press. “He has gained some weight. He’s not fat, but he’s not so thin anymore.”

Gross reportedly had lost 100 pounds (45 kilos) since he was arrested in December 2009. Read More.

Serbian Jewish community protests cemetery vandalism

The Federation of Jewish Communities of Serbia has protested the “catastrophic” conditions of the historic Jewish cemetery in the city of Nis and urged authorities to act against vandalism there.

Long abandoned and partially built over and destroyed, the cemetery, which dates back to the 17th century and is listed as a national cultural monument, was cleaned up in 2004.

In a statement issued Wednesday, however, the federation said that on a recent inspection visitors again found “destroyed and broken monuments, scattered bones, human waste and garbage.” Read More.

Lithuanian newspaper prints anti-Semitic front page

The Simon Wiesenthal Center expressed “disgust and outrage” over the front-page of a Lithuanian tabloid newspaper that it termed a “blatantly anti-Semitic attack on the Lithuanian Jewish community.”

The front page of the Dec. 21 edition of the Lithuanian tabloid “Vakaro Zionios” bore a large picture of the Vilnius Chabad Rabbi, Sholom-Ber Krinsky, in his Chasidic garb and gesturing with a finger. Above the photo ran a huge headline reading "Zydai" (the Jews) and, in much smaller print “see no need to pay their Social Security taxes.”

The caption and an article on inside pages singled out the Chabad school as one of several offenders. The article also listed the "top ten" offenders delinquent in their payments, and no Jewish organization figured in the list. Read More.

Israel denies immigrant status to Jew suffering from psychiatric problems

A Jewish man, who arrived in Israel in 2009 to join his mother and brother who were already living here, has been denied immigrant status, apparently because of his psychiatric history. The Interior Ministry's Population and Immigration Administration has rejected the application of the man, although it did not provide any formal explanation for the decision, which is now being challenged in the High Court of Justice.

The man, who suffers from psychiatric problems, applied for immigrant status and citizenship under the Law of Return which, subject to narrow exceptions, allows any Jew as well as members of the extended family of Jews to acquire Israeli citizenship and immigrate to the country. His application was rejected despite a psychiatric opinion that he did not pose a danger to those around him and that he was capable of working and would not pose a burden on society. Read More.

Kadafi's daughter reportedly eyeing asylum in Israel

Is Aisha Kadafi, daughter of the slain Libyan ruler Moammar Kadafi, considering seeking asylum in Israel? Unlikely as it seems, this may be the case.

The Israeli news website Walla, quoted a report published in Intelligence Online that said Aisha indicated to confidants from Europe that only in Israel would she feel safe and that she hoped to be allowed to live there. In August, she fled Libya for Algeria with her mother, two of her brothers and several other family members. Recently she expressed concern that her Algerian hosts may not be able to resist pressure from Libya's new government to extradite her to stand trial along with her brother, Saif al-Islam.

Aisha Kadafi's friends reportedly discouraged her from making an official request for asylum in Israel, which would probably balk at harboring the daughter of a slain Arab dictator.

But she might actually qualify for the automatic right to immigrate to the Jewish state. Rumors have persisted among Libyan Jews in Israel for years that Kadafi himself is Jewish. Read More.

Nazis' granddaughter meets survivors

A young German woman whose grandparents were Nazis is embracing Holocaust survivors in Israel.

Katherine Hauser, 25, is a photography student living near Frankfurt. During a recent visit to Israel, she decided to take photos of Holocaust survivors and present them to her grandparents, who were members of Hitler-Jugend – the Nazi youth movement.

She also plans to present the photos in an exhibition and share the survivors' stories. Read More.

Giant Menorah Destroyed On Long Island; Cops Asking For Public’s Help In Investigation

The hunt is on for the vandals who destroyed a menorah on Long Island. Police are now investigating what could be a possible hate crime.

Burton Radish said he couldn’t believe what he found on his front lawn on Tuesday morning.

“There I saw it on the curb, smashed to smithereens,” Radish told CBS 2’s Cat Andersen.

Radish was referring to what was left of a menorah that stood approximately 5 feet tall and 5 feet wide.

“I said ‘my God, who would do this?’ What kind of person would walk up on my lawn, pick the thing up, disconnect the cord, take it out to the curb and smash it down? Why? What would be behind it?” Radish said.

It’s a stinging pain he’s feeling.

“It had a lot of meaning. It was a gift for my wife who just passed away,” Radish said.

The menorah was built with solid materials — PVC pipe put together with glue, cement and screws. Whoever destroyed it had to have use a lot of force. Read More.

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