Jewish & World News

Police are investigating after a Long Island high school was defaced with swastikas at least three times since April. Authorities say the first swastika found at Kings Park High School April 17 was drawn in pencil. The second, found May 24, was scrawled in marker and the third, discovered June 4, had been etched into a metal covering for an access panel, officials said.

State police are asking the public for help after anti-Semitic messages were found all over a playground in Kiryas Joel. Police say messages of hate were found scrawled all over benches, signs and slides at the playground yesterday.

A Bible with an inscription from Albert Einstein has sold for $68,500 at an auction in New York City. The Bible was part of a fine books and manuscripts auction at Bonhams on Tuesday. The German-born physicist and his wife signed it in 1932 and gifted it to an American friend named Harriett Hamilton.

A Belgian court convicted a man who intentionally drove his car into a group of Jews of intimidation but cleared him of attempted murder. According to the Belga news agency, the court on Friday sentenced the 42-year-old man from Beveren to 12 months in jail and a $780 fine for driving his car while under the influence of alcohol into a group of Jews in Antwerp during the Passover holiday last year. On April 12 2012, the man drove his car onto the sidewalk and into a group of five young Orthodox Jews, who jumped out of the way before he could hit them. The man, who was not named in the Belga report and in other Belgian media, was charged with attempted murder but the judge determined he only wanted to “intimidate” the group. Just before the incident, he made an obscene gesture at an Orthodox Jew he passed by on the street and cursed a number of other Jews, Belga reported. The man’s lawyer said in court that he had “a serious drinking problem.” JTA

The immigration overhaul passed in the U.S Senate includes provisions that protect a visa program used by Jewish summer camps and that makes permanent a law that facilitates immigration for victims of religious persecution. Jewish groups bring in summer camp counselors, shlichim — Israeli emissaries — and other workers through the J-1 visa program.

Semen Domnister, the former Claims Conference employee who was charged with leading a $57 million fraud scheme at the Holocaust restitution organization, was found guilty. Domnitser and two others, Oksana Romalis and Luba Kramrish, were found guilty on all counts Wednesday by a U.S. District Court jury in Manhattan. Their trial lasted four weeks.

Congregation members in Rhinebeck along with elected officials gathered for laying of the cornerstone for Northern Dutchess County’s first Synagogue and Jewish Center. The Center will include a synagogue, a multipurpose room, a Hebrew school, facilities for Shabbat dinners, and the Jewish experience for children.

The head of Hungary’s Raoul Wallenberg Association said he was beaten at a soccer match in Budapest. Ferenc Orosz told the Hungarian news agency MTI during a conference Monday on hate speech that “first he was verbally assaulted and then his nose was broken after a match at Budapest’s Puskas Stadium which he attended with his family” the previous day.

Tens of thousands of people are waiting to leave Meron after celebrating the holiday of Lag Ba’Omer at the tomb of Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai. Many are growing anxious as they remain stranded for hours in the heat, with an inadequate supply of drinks. Due to traffic congestion buses are unable to make their way in and out of the parking lots near the holy site at an adequate rate.

Tens of thousands of Hasidic Jews filled the Village of Kiryas Joel late Saturday night to celebrate the holiday of Lag Baomer. The event, marked with a large bonfire, song and dance, is believed to be the largest such celebration of the holiday in the United States.

Anti-Semitic incidents in Canada rose last year by nearly four percent, an annual review shows.    B'nai Brith Canada's yearly audit, released this week, shows anti-Semitic acts in the country increased from 1,297 incidents in 2011, to 1,345 cases in 2012 -- a 3.7 percent jump.

Tunisian police have upped security on the island of Djerba ahead of the anticipated arrival of hundreds of Jewish pilgrims to the El Ghriba synagogue. The pilgrims are expected to arrive on the island of Djerba on April 25, according to the Italian news agency ANSAmed. The news site Tunivisions reported security will be much tighter than in previous years.

Over 1,000 police officers will be deployed in advance of the mass pilgrimage of some 250,000 worshippers to Meron, site of the tomb of Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai on Sunday, Lag BaOmer. The police will operate an information hotline starting Friday, 1700-5000-679. Only vehicles of Meron residents are allowed in starting Thursday morning. All other transportation  will be  accommodated in nearby parking areas, with regular free shuttle  service on Lag BaOmer. Arutz Sheva

Unlike their American counterparts, kashrus agencies in Europe have not been faced with a significant misuse of their kosher symbols. In the US, there are as many as 500 incidents a year, some of them innocent, others not. Last week, it was revealed that a vegetarian food company owned by Heather Mills has been using the Manchester Beth Din kosher hechsher without consent on its pork-style sausage rolls.

Amsterdam council has vowed to probe revelations that it forced Jews returning from World War II concentration camps to pay rent arrears, even if their homes had been destroyed or occupied by Nazis. The scandal, involving an unknown number of Jews and non-Jews living in city-owned properties, was uncovered by a young art history student in Amsterdam's archives.

The man who confessed to killing 6-year-old Etan Patz 34 years ago has asked a judge to drop the murder case against him. An attorney for Pedro Hernandez filed the request Wednesday. Attorney Harvey Fishbein said the confession was false and there is not enough evidence to support it. Pedro Hernandez pleaded not guilty in December to the murder charge in the death of Etan, who disappeared on his way to a school bus stop on May 25, 1979.

The head of the security network for U.S. Jewish organizations said the community is "standing vigilant" following bombings at the Boston Marathon. Two people were killed and more than 100 injured in two blasts at the marathon on Monday, according to reports. 

A French Jewish group that sued Twitter for hosting anti-Semitic content lodged a fresh complaint against the social networking service. The latest complaint by the Union of Jewish Students of France, or UEJF, was filed on April 12 with the Paris Public Prosecutor’s office against Twitter CEO Dick Costolo. UEJF and another group, J’ACCUSE, said in the complaint that Costolo was “responsible for racial defamation and publicly inciting to discrimination, hate or violence toward Jews.”

Prosecutors in Bialystok declined to open an investigation into Jewish ritual slaughter in the northeastern town of Tykocin. Prosecutors acknowledged that it did not violate Polish law. The prosecutor began investigating the March 12 shechitah, or kosher slaughter, of a cow in the northeastern town of Tykocin after hearing about it from a county veterinarian in Bialystok.

Turkish police said Thursday that they had found evidence of a plot linked to Al Qaeda to bomb the United States Embassy in Ankara, a synagogue in Istanbul and other targets, from a raid on two houses in February, according to news reports. The reports said the police had seized nearly 50 pounds of plastic explosives with detonation systems attached, as well as six laptop computers and other evidence. Twelve people were detained during the operation — two Chechens, two Azeris and eight Turks.