Jewish News Roundup - Monday, January 02, 2012

Jewish groups get most money from federal security grants

A week after a man killed a security guard at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington in 2009, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano cited the murder as proof that nonprofit institutions were at risk of attack and could be helped by federal security grants.

In an event announcing $1.7 billion in Department of Homeland Security grants, Napolitano noted that 63 percent of nonprofit grant recipients were "affiliated with Jewish organizations."

The following year, according to the Jewish Federations of North America, that number grew. In 2010, 94 percent of the department's nonprofit security funding went to Jewish groups that are, in the words of the Department of Homeland Security, "at high risk of terrorist attack." That included $222,000 for Jewish nonprofits in Missouri.

Last month, the Nonprofit Security Grant Program awarded three St. Louis Jewish organizations $195,000 in grants to guard against such an attack, according to the Missouri Department of Public Safety. They were the only nonprofits in St. Louis to receive funding from the program, which awarded more than 80 percent of its $20 million budget in 2011 to Jewish nonprofits around the country.

Government grants to nonprofits are common. But the strong religious connection in this federal grant program has stirred debate, even within Jewish organizations.

The grant program "presents serious concerns around the constitutional separation of church and state," said Karen Aroesty, regional director of the Anti-Defamation League for Missouri and Southern Illinois. Read More.

Jewish friend of late Pope John Paul II dies

Jerzy Kluger, a Polish-born Jew who was a lifetime friend and childhood playmate of the late Pope John Paul II and who lost much of his family to Nazi death camps, has died in a Rome clinic, his widow said Monday. He was 90.

Irene Kluger told The Associated Press that her husband died on Dec. 31 after suffering from Alzheimer's disease for three years and was buried Monday. The couple lived in Rome for decades, but at John Paul's urging, Kluger, a World War II veteran, occasionally returned to visit Wadowice, the southern Polish town where the two spent their boyhoods, his widow said.

Kluger, a year younger than John Paul, who died in 2005, was one of the last living childhood friends of the late pontiff. He was 5 when he met Karol Wojtyla, who would become a priest two decades later in his predominantly Catholic homeland, and eventually Krakow's cardinal, before being elected as history's only Polish-born pontiff in 1978. Read More.

MP's 'Nazi' stag party: Now restaurant boss complains to the police

The manager of the restaurant where a Tory MP and his friends held a Nazi-themed stag party has complained to French police about their behaviour.

Maud Dick – general manager of La Fondue in Val Thorens – told police that a member of the group was asked to remove a swastika armband when entering the restaurant, but put it back on towards the end of their meal.

One member of the party also raised a toast to the ‘ideology and thought-process of the Third Reich’ in the restaurant in the French Alps.

Miss Dick has written to French prosecutors saying the group  committed the offence of ‘apologising and promoting Nazi war crimes’ in her restaurant. The offence carries a prison term of six years. A French anti-racist pressure group called SOS Racisme had already made a police complaint against Aidan Burley, Tory MP for Cannock Chase, and his 12 friends. Read More.

Nazi figurines for sale on French website run by a senior police officer's wife

A website run by a senior police officer's wife has been selling figurines of top Nazis.

The site "Figurines 12 Pouces" ("12-inch figurines") withdrew its models of Adolf Hitler and Hermann Göring after an official complaint from BNCVA (Bureau national de vigilance contre l'antisémitisme), an organisation that fights anti-semitism,

On Monday morning a miniature head of Hitler's deputy, Rudolf Hess, was still for sale on the site. A figurine of senior officer Erwin Rommel was also available for €119.90 ($155).

Regional newspaper Ouest France said that the site's owner, Christine Delsirié, is married to a senior police officer in the police in the north west Brittany town of Dinéault. Read More.

"Anonymous" declares "Blitzkrieg" on neo-Nazis

“Anonymous” hackers have declared “Blitzkrieg” on neo-Nazis for the New Year, disabling a number of their websites and publishing lists of extreme-right supporters.

A “Nazi-Leaks” portal has appeared on the internet listing hundreds of names of people subscribed to various shops selling far-right clothing, as well as writers for the Junge Freiheit newspaper which carries contributions from far-right commentators.

The hackers say they have managed to close down 15 websites associated with the neo-Nazi National Democratic Party (NPD), the Frankfurter Rundschau reported on Monday. They have reportedly called their campaign "Operation Blitzkrieg". Read More.

WJC vice president meets Bahrain's king

World Jewish Congress (WJC) Vice President Rabbi Marc Schneier, also president of the Foundation for Ethnic Understanding, has been received for talks in the Gulf state of Bahrain by King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa.

Schneier, who has pioneered Muslim-Jewish dialogue and cooperation, was received Wednesday by the Bahraini monarch at his palace in Manama.

During his 45-minute audience, Rabbi Schneier warmly welcomed King Hamad’s suggestion to host a gathering of Jewish and Muslim clerics in Bahrain in 2012.

“Bahrain is a role model in the Arab world for coexistence and tolerance of different faith communities, including a small Jewish community," he said. "I am deeply honored to be the first rabbi to be hosted by the king of Bahrain at his palace, and I am excited that he and his government are fully committed to building bridges between our two communities.”

Rabbi Schneier added that Bahrain was the first of the Persian Gulf states to host an exclusive bilateral dialogue between Islamic and Jewish leaders.

“King Hamad said that there was nothing more natural than for our two communities to come together, despite our difference in opinion on certain issues. He said that as ‘cousins’, Jews and Muslims had an obligation to build bridges.” Read More.

Israel - December Spike in Terror Stats

The Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) reported that there was a significant rise in the number of terror attacks by Arabs last month. The agency counted 81 attacks in December, compared with 44 in November.

Most of the attacks – 48 in all – were fire bombings.

The Shin Bet says the largest rise in terror, geographically, was in Jerusalem and its environs: 25 attacks took place there in December, up from seven in the previous month. In Gaza, too, terror was up: 30 attacks took place, compared with seven in November. In Judea and Samaria the "terror index" was unchanged, with 26 attacks. Read More.

Israel Defends against Missiles with SMS

Israel will soon deploy a country-wide SMS messaging system that warns citizens of incoming missiles – in case they are not intercepted.

The Home Front Command conducted tests on Sunday of a text message system that will warn residents in real time, according to location, of incoming missiles and rockets.

Sunday's test was conducted in the central part of the country in four languages – Hebrew, Arabic, English and Russian.

The system was first tested during the "Turning Point 5" civil defense drill, earlier this year, when which alerts were sent to residents of a number of localities in Israel. Read More.

The tragic death of a Cuban Jew

Following the 1933 revolution in Cuba, the military government of Fulgencio Batista executed a 19-year-old man. It was the first and only time in the island’s history that a Cuban Jew had been summarily tried by a military tribunal and executed.

Although accused of terrorist activities, Jaime Greinstein’s only crime was to oppose the Batista military regime. Read The Full Story.

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