JC news

'Nazi' stag Tory 'disrespectful' during Holocaust survivor talk

Jennifer Lipman — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 15:22:50 +0000

Aidan Burley, who was sacked from his junior government role last year after attending a Nazi-themed stag party, has become embroiled in a row over his "conduct" while listening to a Holocaust survivor.

Mr Burley, the MP for Cannock Chase, was part of a two day private visit to Auschwitz and other sites in Krakow with Dr James Smith, founder of the Beth Shalom Holocaust Centre in Nottinghamshire.

An onlooker has accused Mr Burley of "texting and dozing" during the concentration camp survivor's talk.

Matthew Perkins, a student on a history trip that Mr Burley joined for the talk, said: "He was in the speech with us and he was blatantly disrespectful throughout

The allegation, first made on Twitter, was then raised in a commons Business Questions session by Ian Austin, Labour MP for Dudley, who said it was time "the government sorted this whole affair out by publishing the outcome of the inquiry and organising a debate on the investigation."

But according to a friend in the Conservative Party, Mr Burley "did not doze off once" but behaved "completely respectfully and found the visit moving".

The friend admitted that Mr Burley may have "briefly answered an urgent message from London". He said it was not surprising that Mr Burley had left his phone on "because you never know what you might have respond to."

The friend also claimed that other participants were "aggressive" toward Mr Burley during the trip. "When they arrived at Auschwitz there was an English group there and one person realised who Mr Burley was. They behaved quite aggressively before the lecture. The impression was that they were looking for trouble."

He said it was sad that people were "trying to make political capital out of what was a very solemn and moving two days for Aidan."

Sir George Young said it Mr Burley's actions were not a matter for the government to look into but should be handled by the Conservative party.

Mr Austin, whose adoptive father escaped to Britain from Czechoslovakia on the eve of the Holocaust, said: "The students have suggested that he did not take the lecture as seriously as he should have."

The 32 year old, who was elected at the last general election, was filmed at an event in the ski resort of Val Thorens where one guest donned an SS uniform and others allegedly toasted the Third Reich and chanted the names of senior Nazis.

The Prime Minister sacked him as Parliamentary Private Secretary to Transport Secretary Justine Greening and asked for a fuller investigation of the matter.

French police have opened an enquiry into the event, on the grounds that it is a criminal offence in France to wear or exhibit Nazi uniforms and insignia.

Mr Burley has not yet responded to a request to comment.

Dr Smith said that Mr Burley's actions were being blown out proportion and called for "perspective".

"I was sitting next to him and though I was concentrating on the survivor's talk, not Aidan, if he were asleep as has been said, I am sure I would have noticed," he said.

He emphasised that the trip was paid for by Mr Burley and was not intended as "a media gimmick, but rather it was to be a meaningful learning experience".

"This was not an isolated trip. Aidan planned to visit The Holocaust Centre to meet with survivors and observe educational programmes about the Holocaust," he added.

"I don't minimize the stag night whatsoever and take the Holocaust extremely seriously."

Court blocks cross-border Holocuast lawsuits

Toby Axelrod — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 12:40:07 +0000

A ruling last week by the International Court of Justice in The Hague that victims of the Nazis will not have the right to sue Germany in foreign courts has dashed hopes for speedier justice for Holocaust survivors.

The judgment overturned a 2004 decision by the Italian Supreme Court, which ruled that Germany should pay reparations to an Italian former slave labourer, Luigi Ferrini.

The Hague ruling preserves the legal status quo, allowing nationals to sue their governments but not other states, except in an international tribunal.

But the decision does mean states can continue to drag their feet over reparations for war crimes, said Christoph Heubner, executive vice president of the Berlin-based International Auschwitz Committee.

Mr Heubner said: "For the states and their interests it is a good decision, but it is bad for the people and human rights. If it takes future victims as long to get compensation as it did for those who were in German concentration camps, it is not a just system."

He added that Germany has taken too long to process reparations claims because the threat of individual lawsuits has been absent.

The decision has no effect on international reparations agreements and does not stop survivors from pursuing justice in an international court. Germany signed a treaty with Italy in 1961, setting aside 40 million deutschmarks for reparations to individuals.

But would justice move more swiftly if one removed sovereign immunity and allowed individuals to sue foreign states?

"I think a total disorder would follow," said Jose Brunner, a specialist on Second World War compensation at Tel Aviv University. There is already a problem with states claiming "criminal jurisdiction over persons whose alleged crimes were committed outside their boundaries. The sensible thing is to improve and expand possibilities for individuals to sue in international courts and tribunals."

Terror 'not depressing' for Israelis

Nathan Jeffay — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 12:40:06 +0000

It may be intended as psychological warfare, but terrorism does not demoralise Israelis, researchers have found.

People were no less satisfied with life when terror attacks were at a high during the Second Intifada than when they reduced, according to academics who have written a report on the subject.

"The happiness of people is simply less impacted by low-intensity terrorism than people think," said Hebrew University economist Asaf Zussman, one of the authors.

Dr Zussman and his colleagues computed data from Israel's Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS). They found that in 2002, the most violent year of the Second Intifada, 82.9 per cent of people questioned said they were satisfied with their lives. In 2003, when the country was far calmer, 81.7 per cent of people were satisfied, and the next year which was calmer still, the figure was 82.4 per cent.

They worked from data that the CBS compiled all year round, which allowed them to identify when people's sense of satisfaction was taking a dip, and their conclusion was surprising - the dips tended to be when the weather was bad, not when terrorism was high.

The only impact that terrorism did have on people's sense of satisfaction was when there was a terrorist attack in their city - but the effect was small and passed quickly.

Dr Zussman believes this indicates that many Israelis feel disconnected from citizens in other cities.

He thinks that the overall results suggest that Israelis are confident that their country has a strategy to defeat terrorism. "People say there are terrorists but the government knows how to deal with them so we shouldn't get too worried," he commented.

Hungary rounds on far right

Orlando Radice — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 12:40:06 +0000

The Hungarian government and the country's Jewish community have condemned the shocking statements made by a Jobbik representative in an interview with JC last week.

MP Marton Gyongyosi, the ultra-nationalist party's foreign affairs spokesman, refused to acknowledge the official figures for the number of Jews murdered in the Hungarian Holocaust, saying: "It has become a fantastic business to jiggle around with the numbers."

He also claimed that Jews were colonising the country and said it was therefore "a natural reaction for people to feel that Jews are not welcome here".

Mr Gyongyosi said that Israel operated a "Nazi system" and appeared to support Iran in its oft-stated aim to destroy Israel.

The Hungarian Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Tuesday: "We strongly condemn the position of Jobbik on the Holocaust, on the internal political situation in Israel and on the political relations of the Middle East."

In a further development, Hungarian Socialist Party leader Attila Mesterhazy said on Monday that the government and the Speaker of Parliament should investigate Mr Gyongyosi over a possible breach in the law. Denying the Holocaust is illegal in Hungary.

Another opposition party, the Christian Democrats, also dissociated itself from the comments made by Mr Gyongyosi.

The Unified Hungarian Jewish Congregation said on Wednesday it was investigating the possibility of taking legal action against Mr Gyongyosi.

The head of the congregation, Rabbi Shlomo Koves, said: "Our congregation felt that the comments made by Mr Gyongyosi were unacceptable. In a modern society we expect our representatives to encourage a bit more tolerance instead of promoting hate."

It has been argued that the nationalist policies of the current government, such as a recent move to offer dual citizenship to Hungarians living beyond the country's borders, create a fertile terrain for parties such as Jobbik. Zoltan Balog, Hungary's Minister of State for Social Inclusion, denied the claim: "Jobbik are my enemy. It is not in our interest to support their way of thinking - their message is only negative, at times like this we need positive messages."

World Forum for Jewry, but to do what?

Heather Jacobsohn — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 12:40:06 +0000

When Alexander Levin, Ukrainian businessman and President of the Kiev Jewish community, announced the creation of the World Forum of Russian Jewry at the UN last month, nobody - including himself - appeared to know exactly what it was for.

In a vague statement, Mr Levin said: "Our goal is to bring together Russian-speaking Jews from around the world in order to save ourselves and other people from the next catastrophe and genocide, to preserve world peace and protect the state of Israel."

Igor Branovan, a World Forum board member and president of its US branch, was able to be more specific last week. He said the body would seek to provide Jewish education for Russian-speaking Jews, who "through not having very deep Jewish roots by virtue of growing up in the Soviet Union, have a much higher risk of disintegrating" into their larger societies. "Our primary goal," he said, "is to maintain the Russian Jews within the Jewish communities".

Mr Branovan denied that the new forum was an oligarch's vanity project: "I understand the natural skepticism, that's very appropriate, we will just have to prove ourselves with our actions."

'Indiana Jones' rabbi admits to $400k fraud

Nathalie Rothschild — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 12:40:05 +0000

A charity founder who claimed he travelled the world as a "Jewish Indiana Jones" to rescue Torahs admitted to fraud in a Manhattan court last week.

Rabbi Menachem Youlus, 50, co-founded the Save a Torah charity in 2004 with the aim of retrieving and restoring holy scrolls that had survived the Holocaust or had been forcibly taken from Jewish communities. The charity promised to place these Torahs in active Jewish communities.

Youlus has admitted to lying about daring trips to locations across Europe and Israel, including the Auschwitz and Bergen-Belsen concentration camps. During his plea, he admitted to fabricating elaborate and detailed accounts of Torah rescue-missions and retracted claims of having personally used a metal detector to unearth a metal box with Torah scrolls in Auschwitz.

A buyer paid around $32,000 for the "Auschwitz" Torah and donated it to a prominent Manhattan synagogue which staged a large ceremony on its reception.

Youlus, who owns a Jewish Bookstore in Wheaton, Maryland, is accused of pocketing nearly a third of the $1.2 million raised by his charity, spending some of it on private school tuition for his children and on personal expenses.

At a 2004 Torah dedication, Youlus wrote: "I guess you could call me the Jewish Indiana Jones", prosecutors claimed - a reference to the adventure hero played by Harrison Ford in films such as Raiders of the Lost Ark. In fact, authorities said Youlus rarely travelled abroad between 2004 and 2010.

Youlus faces up to five years in prison. His lawyer, Benjamin Brafman, said he would seek leniency, describing Youlus as "a good man with the best of intentions who ultimately strayed into fraudulent conduct that he now accepts full responsibility for".

A statement on the Save a Torah website says it is currently "evaluating how best to continue our mission".

BBC defends rap song censorship

Marcus Dysch — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 12:40:03 +0000

The BBC Trust has defended the censoring of a rap song which contained the words "Free Palestine".

The Trust's ruling - which was made on the basis of upholding impartiality - prompted pro-Palestinian activists to claim that the Corporation had an "institutionalised bias against the Palestinians".

When rapper Mic Righteous performed on a BBC Radio 1Xtra show, he sang: "I still have the same beliefs/I can scream Free Palestine/Die for my pride/Still pray for peace."

But when the track was broadcast in December 2010, BBC staff covered the word "Palestine" with the sound of breaking glass - often used to silence foul or abusive language.

The corporation originally said its production team had edited the song to "move away from any potential claim of not maintaining due impartiality".

Last week, the BBC Trust said it was satisfied that the BBC's decision to reject a dozen complaints from pro-Palestinian campaigners had been correct.

But the Trust admitted the handling of the issue had been "over-cautious" and that the corporation was now "looking to learn from the way the matter had been handled". It is likely the song will be played in full in future, with "contextualisation".

Mic Righteous, 21, raps about the "geopolitical consequences of US foreign policy". His parents fled Iran for Kent in the 1970s. His brother is former world boxing champion, Takaloo.

The Palestine Solidarity Campaign's Amena Saleem said: "Putting aside the BBC's ignorance of international law, which states unambiguously that Palestine is under occupation, we have argued that this decision clearly shows the BBC's bias against Palestine.

"It's a great shame that, in the year of the Arab Spring when the BBC was covering the struggle of millions of people for freedom, it remained wedded to its institutionalised bias against the Palestinians and refused to even recognise the fact of their occupation."

Last May, MPs, academics, lawyers and artists - including Alexei Sayle, Miriam Margoyles, Benjamin Zephaniah, Ken Loach, Ilan Pappé and Jeremy Corbyn - wrote to the Guardian to condemn the BBC's reaction.

Calls for Sir Victor to be made as Blank as Fred

Jennifer Lipman — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 12:40:03 +0000

Campaigners have called for former Lloyds chairman Sir Victor Blank to be treated in the same way as Fred Goodwin and be stripped of his knighthood.

Sir Victor was knighted in 1999 "for services to the financial industry" before he joined Lloyds, but critics argue that his role in its disastrous takeover of HBOS four years ago means he should have the honour annulled. The bank required a £21 billion state rescue package during his tenure as chairman.

The Lloyds Action Now Association has written to the head of the Civil Service demanding that the forfeiture committee review the case.

The decision to revoke Mr Goodwin's title has been criticised as a political stunt, with warnings over its consequences for the business sector. But, according to the Daily Telegraph, removal of the honours given to Sir Victor and others has the backing of some Tory MPs.

Soon after he resigned from Lloyds, Sir Victor, a former chair of Trinity Mirror news group, was made unpaid adviser on overseas investment to the then Labour government.

Sir Victor, who did not respond to requests for comment, is chairman of the UJS Hillel board and is a long-standing member of the Jewish Leadership Council.

Coming out - the coming-out videos

Jessica Elgot — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 12:40:02 +0000

Gay and lesbian Jewish activists are stepping up their campaign to have Keshet UK, the Jewish lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender forum, advise Jewish schools on teaching about homosexuality, after the controversy over a reference to Jewish gay cure group JONAH in a JFS lesson on the topic.

This week, Channel 4 presenter and ex-JFS pupil, Benjamin Cohen, released a video, promoted by the broadcaster, in which he describes his experience of coming out as gay when he was a teenager. Keshet UK has also released other videos under the umbrella of the "It Gets Better" campaign, which features people, including many celebrities, describing their experiences of coming out and urging depressed teenagers to seek help. Keshet is also preparing education packs to be delivered directly to Jewish schools next week.

In the video, Mr Cohen, founder of gay news website Pink News, said he had come out at 15, and wondered if his feelings were a "test from God."

His father, Richard, a United Synagogue-appointed governor of JFS, has become "a vocal advocate for LGBT rights in his professional and communal life." Other ex-JFS pupils have also made "It Gets Better" videos, including Dalia Fleming and Benjamin Kaye, founder of Gay Jews in London.

US and Israel look for UK donations

Simon Rocker — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 12:40:02 +0000

The head of the controversial Israel lobby group J Street will attempt to raise funds for the organisation during a visit to London later this month, the JC has learned.

Jeremy Ben-Ami, its founding president, who will be speaking about his new book at Jewish Book Week, will also hold a number of meetings to enlist support for a fighting fund for candidates in the American elections this year.

But a senior representative of the organisation stressed that he would be canvassing only American expats in Britain, and the campaign would not clash with the work of the new British Israel advocacy group Yachad.

Steven Krubiner, its chief of staff, said; "We are not bringing J Street to the UK."

Only American citizens could contribute to campaign funds for an American election, he explained. "That's something a British group could not do." He added that J Street had a "great relationship" with Yachad, "which we see as a similar type of organisation which is really taking off in the UK. We're trying to help each other grow."

Hannah Weisfeld, director of Yachad, pointed out that her organisation was sponsoring Mr Ben-Ami's Book Week appearance. "We look forward to ongoing cooperation with J Street, and welcoming Jeremy to the UK," she said.

But there was less of a welcome from Zionist Federation chairman Harvey Rose. While saying it was "not for us to comment on how J Street wish to raise funds for the US presidential elections from American ex-pats", he added: "We have always viewed J Street, who claim to be pro-Israel, with considerable caution and scepticism."

Meanwhile, it emerged this week that another international organisation has made fundraising visits to the UK.

Netaly Ophir-Flint, vice-president of the Reut Institute, the Tel Aviv-based think-tank which last year published an influential report on the delegitimisation of Israel, confirmed that it has looked for financial support from British Jewry over the past couple of years.

"We have identified Jewish communities where we think we can bring value on a number of different levels and London is one of them," she said.

But she declined to reveal the size of donations from the UK.

After eight years, stalker's victim is awarded £3,500 compensation

Marcus Dysch — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 12:40:02 +0000

The victim of a serial stalker has been awarded compensation after a High Court judge ruled that the Crown Prosecution Service had failed to protect her.

Claire Waxman will receive £3,500 in damages after the CPS dropped a charge against Elliot Fogel, who has been repeatedly jailed for harassing her and her family.

The ruling followed 37-year-old Fogel's unsuccessful attempt to launch a civil case against Ms Waxman last year, in which he claimed she had conducted a "hate campaign" against him.

Fogel, a former freelance television producer, has stalked Ms Waxman since 2003 and a lifetime restraining order has been imposed on him.

After launching his civil action, Fogel was subsequently charged with breaching the order because he gathered information about Ms Waxman to build his case. But the CPS later dropped the charge because it said his human rights would be breached if he were denied the opportunity to take civil action.

At a hearing last November, Ms Waxman's lawyers told the High Court that the failure to prosecute Fogel had presented him and other stalkers with a precedent to use civil proceedings to harass their victims.

Lord Justice Moore-Bick's reserved judgment was published last week. He said the effect of Fogel's actions was "rather less severe" than in other stalking cases, but that the length of his campaign should be taken into consideration.

Awarding her compensation, he concluded: "Ms Waxman has the right to live her life free of the persistent nuisance and annoyance caused by the activities of Mr Fogel. In my view she was a vulnerable person, whose psychological integrity the state had an obligation to protect from further action on his part.

"In the light of the history of the matter and the serious effects of Mr Fogel's behaviour towards Ms Waxman, the state owed her a duty to take proper measures to protect her and was in breach of its duty in failing to pursue the prosecution."

Fogel was jailed last month for two years for a separate breach of the lifetime restraining order.

Who's who in the $90b mega-merger

Simon Round — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 12:40:02 +0000

This week mining company Xstrata and commodity traders Glencore announced what has been described as a mega-merger, worth in the region of $90 billion.

The two companies may have a new relationship but the respective bosses go back a long way.

Mick Davis, the chief executive of Xstrata and his counterpart, Ivan Glasenberg, both South African Jews, originally met at the University of Witwatersrand, when they were much younger and several billion pounds poorer.

It was a relationship that endured over the years. It is thought that Mr Glasenberg recommended Mr Davis for his role as chief executive of Xstrata (Glencore held 34 per cent of Xstrata shares) and that the two met for a quiet dinner in London last December to cement their relationship into a business marriage.

British Jews are more familiar with Mr Davis as a communal leader than as a corporate giant.

"Mick the Miner" as he is known at work, is also chairman of UJIA and of the executive of the Jewish Leadership Council. He was a stalwart defender of Israel during the controversial Operation Cast Lead in Gaza three years ago but also provoked criticism by accusing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of "lacking the courage to take the steps" to advance the peace process. He also urged diaspora Jews to voice constructive criticism of Israeli leaders.

Mr Glasenberg's profile was much lower until Glencore was listed on the London and Hong Kong stock markets in 2011, netting him an estimated $10 billion.

He, like, Mr Davis has links with Israel. Mr Glasenberg was an accomplished race walker in his youth, but could not compete internationally due to the ban on apartheid-era South Africa. Mr Glasenberg attempted to take on Israeli nationality in order to qualify for the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics, but left his registration too late. He joined Glencore the same year and worked his way up the corporate ladder, becoming chief executive in 2002. In the newly-merged company Mr Davis will be chief executive and Mr Glasenberg deputy chief executive.

School apologises for 'terror charity' visit

Marcus Dysch — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 12:40:02 +0000

Anti-extremism experts from the Department of Education have contacted a school due to host an event organised by a charity linked to Hamas.

Human Appeal International will hold a women-only social evening at Parrs Wood High School, a specialist technology college in Didsbury, south Manchester, on February 18.

HAI claims to work with the victims of "poverty, social injustice and natural disasters" in 27 countries, including the Palestinian territories, Afghanistan and Iraq.

But it is also on the US State Department's list of charities linked to terrorism.

In 2003, the FBI said HAI had a "close relationship" with Hamas. Two years later, it was named by Israeli authorities as one of a number of organisations that had diverted donations to fund terror and support the families of suicide bombers.

HAI hosted a "Day for Gaza" fundraising event at Parrs Wood, close to its UK office in nearby Fallowfield, in 2009.

A DoE spokesman said the preventing extremism unit had been in touch with the school to discuss concerns that had been raised about next week's event.

Headmaster Andrew Shakos and chair of governors Suzannah Reeves met pro-Israel activists and members of the Jewish community, led by Manchester Rep Council president Lucille Cohen and Zionist Central Council of Greater Manchester president, David Berkley QC, last Thursday.

The JC understands that the school admitted it should not have agreed to rent the room to HAI and was considering cancelling the event.

The Jewish delegation told Mr Shakos it hoped the event would not go ahead, but is understood to have resisted pushing for a cancellation because it feared a backlash against the Jewish community.

JC columnist Geoffrey Alderman highlighted the HAI event last week and criticised Mr Shakos's "poor judgment and leadership".

But Mr Berkley in turn criticised Professor Alderman, claiming he had "rushed to judgment and unfairly condemned the school and its head-teacher".

Mr Berkley said complaints to the school "went far beyond what was sensible or indeed warranted" and encouraged local activists to "refrain from engaging in further criticism of the school and its management" to allow his delegation to "achieve a satisfactory resolution".

Last month, the school was criticised for publishing a "simple guide to Palestine and Israel" in its newsletter. Written by a pupil, it followed a largely Palestinian narrative, highlighted only Palestinian deaths in the conflict and repeatedly painted Israel as the aggressor.

The school received a number of complaints. In response, Mr Shakos wrote that it was a "mistake to allow such an over-simplification of a complex issue to be addressed by one of our junior contributors - and we certainly apologise for any upset caused by its publication".

Shakespeare 'hid his Jewish roots' - or he would have been Bard

Jennifer Lipman — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 12:40:01 +0000

What's in a name? William Shapiro might be able to tell you – but you probably know him better as Shakespeare.

According to a new book by French academic Ghislain Muller, Shakespeare's grandfather was a Jewish immigrant from Bohemia. He claims Richard Shapiro settled in England sometime after 1515, but hid his religion, assuming the name Shakespeare. Jews were banned from England during the Tudor era and were only re-admitted under Cromwell, 40 years after Shakespeare's death. "If Shakespeare, or his father or grandfather had acknowledged they were Jewish, they would have been dispossessed of all of their lands, houses and goods and probably deported," said Mr Muller.

Richard's son, John, married Mary Arden, a Christian, but Mr Muller believes Shakespeare's art was influenced by his hidden heritage.

"Most of the ideas transmitted in Shakespeare's plays are directly linked to Jewish moral standards," he said. "The ideas were coming from his father."

Mr Muller's interest in Shakespeare's Jewish roots emerged following a staging of The Merchant of Venice, the only play to feature an overtly Jewish main character. He began to wonder how the play "could be interpreted in such opposite directions… displaying a Jewish Shylock as humane in the text, and as inhumane on stage?

"I came to the conclusion that there was some kind of mystery with Shakespeare, and I started to study his work."

He said that the portrayal of the moneylender Shylock – which many maintain was antisemitic – should be viewed in the context of Shakespeare's secret identity. "He could not risk being unmasked. Had he depicted a good and sympathetic Jew, he would have run the risk of this."

Mr Muller said allusions to Jewish culture could be found in many plays, including one about kashrut in King Lear: "What dost thou know me for? ... an eater of broken meats."

Laura marks her Board card for May polls

Simon Rocker — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 12:40:01 +0000

Laura Marks, head of a commission to encourage more women to lead the Jewish community, will stand for election as vice-president of the Board of Deputies in May.

But controversy was brewing this week over a rule change proposed by a rival candidate, which would effectively scupper her bid.

Ms Marks, founder of Mitzvah Day and head of the commission on women set up by the Jewish Leadership Council, was elected as a deputy for the Movement for Reform Judaism only last month.

But Jerry Lewis, one of the board's three vice-presidents, who is likely to seek re-election for a further three years, is trying to win support for an amendment which would prevent deputies standing for senior office unless they had served a minimum of two years on the Board.

Mr Lewis insisted that his move was "nothing to do with [Laura Marks's] campaign", but with a different proposal to give under-35 observers at the Board the vote.

So far there is no challenger to president Vivian Wineman, who can serve another three years.

Senior vice-president Jonathan Arkush and treasurer Laurence Brass, both seeking a return to office, are widely expected to run for the presidency in 2015.

May's elections are thus set to focus on the vice-presidency, with the third vice-president Paul Edlin stepping down after a maximum consecutive six years.

Ms Marks explained that since the commission was trying to encourage women to "step up to leadership, I can't tell people what they ought to be doing if I am not prepared to do it."

Likely to join her at the hustings is the vice-chairman of the Board's international division, Alex Brummer.

City Editor of the Daily Mail and a JC columnist, he believed his international experience and high-level contacts would be an asset for the Board.

But he had "one reservation" in view of the Board's campaign to encourage more young and women deputies. "I wouldn't want to stand if it meant we were not going to get broader diversity," he said.

Former vice-president Flo Kaufmann, rumoured to be considering a comeback, said: "A number of people have asked me to stand but I have no plans to at the moment."

Danny Stone, an under-35s deputy who had also been thought to be considering a pitch for the vice-presidency, has ruled himself out for family reasons.

Missionary runs Holocaust Memorial Day events

Jessica Elgot — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 12:40:01 +0000

A "messianic Jewish" leader, actively seeking to convert Jews to Christianity, hosted a Yorkshire town's Holocaust Memorial Day activities last week, a move condemned as a "perversion" by anti-missionary activist Rabbi Shmuel Arkush.

Selby-based Adrian Glasspole, founder of the UK branch of Chosen People Ministries, who said he was halachically Jewish, described himself as "responsible" for the Jewish communities across the north and Scotland.

Birmingham-based Rabbi Arkush, founder of anti-missionary group Operation Judaism, said: "These are Christian missionaries masquerading as Jews. Even though Mr Glasspole might wear a tallit and be interested in Zionism, he is a Christian. They are chameleons, employed by the church to ensnare Jews. And they are backed by a great deal of funding."

Describing his tactics for converting Jews, Mr Glasspole said: "I try to make friends. When I am friendly with a person I can talk about stuff that matters. Jews for Jesus stand on street corners with leaflets. I think it's a waste of paper. I do get sworn at on occasion, I understand that, though."

No 'cure'- you can't 'pray away the gay'

Jessica Elgot — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 12:40:01 +0000

A Jewish newspaper columnist has robustly defended a controversial piece that she wrote suggesting that homosexuality could be cured.

Doreen Wachmann, who writes for the Jewish Telegraph in Manchester, said last week that she was daring to "put my head above the parapet and write about the forbidden topic" and expressed her "reservations over the contemporary Orthodoxy which dictates that homosexuality is a desirable lifestyle."

She praised the work of "Manchester psycho-sexual pioneer Dr Raymond Goodman" who had Jewish patients and would "help them heal their homosexual tendencies if that is their choice."

Mrs Wachmann, who has written for the paper for around 20 years, said she did not believe gay cures would necessarily work: "I am sure they don't, just as all cures do not work and just as most medication and medical procedures have potentially damaging side-effects. But patients are still encouraged to try them. And why should people be discouraged from even suggesting that road, without being publicly pilloried?"

This week, Mrs Wachmann said she was "aware that the subject of homosexuals and Judaism is very emotive."

She added: "My article was balanced, not taking sides on the issue of whether or not Jewish homosexuals can or should be 'cured', but merely airing the subject for legitimate public debate in the Jewish community.

"The response I received bore out the concluding lines of my article: 'Why should people be discouraged from even suggesting that road without being pilloried?' Which is exactly what has happened to me this week. All I am seeking is free and open public debate on the issue."

But Sarah McCulloch, from the Manchester branch of lesbian and gay Jewish forum Keshet, said: "Growing up gay in a non-accepting frum background produces an internal conflict in so many Jews, and it is obvious from the significantly higher suicide rate among LGBT Jews, compared to heterosexual Jews, that one cannot simply 'pray away the gay'.

"In fact, our lives are made harder by the ignorant statements of people who share Doreen Wachmann's views that we can be 'cured'.

Gay rights are not about "flaunting" our sexuality, it is being able to go to shul with your partner, just like everyone else." Leeds-born Keshet member Natalie Grazin added: "There is nothing heroic in "standing up" for an ineffective and dangerous non-treatment. Mrs Wachmann should find a more deserving cause to champion.

"Most sadly, she has brought the Jewish community into enormous disrepute through this article."

Rabbi Mark Solomon, of Manchester Liberal Jewish Community, said the article displayed "a shocking ignorance and malevolence towards gay Jews."

See Judaism: page 27

Ask why people are antisemitic, says leading Catholic writer

Jennifer Lipman — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 12:40:00 +0000

Piers Paul Read, the writer of a new book about the 1894 Dreyfus Affair, was criticised this week after saying that the French soldier's treatment could be linked to Jews being a "very powerful influence in finance, in business", and that Jews should ask why people were antisemitic.

English literature Professor Jacqueline Rose, author of Proust among the Nations: From Dreyfus to the Middle East, said she was left "uncomfortable" after Catholic writer Read, whose latest book is The Dreyfus Affair, veered into an "antisemitic ways of talking".

The pair were discussing the case on BBC Radio 4's Front Row, when Mr Read said that Dreyfus was "picked on" because he was "a difficult character" and "wasn't the kind of person anyone would want on the General Staff".

He said: "They didn't pick on Dreyfus because he was a Jew, but the fact that he was a Jew made it much easier to believe that he was guilty."

He added: "It's so easy just to use the term antisemitism as a general catch-all phrase."

But an astonished Prof Rose noted that, as the case unfolded, Dreyfus's Jewishness "became absolutely central", with people shouting "Death to the Jews" outside the courtroom. "The level of antisemitism unleashed by this affair was absolutely monstrous," she said.

She added that she "wasn't quite sure why [Mr Read] went to such lengths to insist that it was not an anti- Jewish plot". Mr Read denied that his argument amounted to a justification, commenting: "If I was Jewish I would want to know why people were antisemitic."

Alfred Dreyfus's life imprisonment on Devil's Island after a vast cover-up by the French establishment, prompted Emile Zola's famous J'accuse letter and is widely considered one of the worst examples of antisemitism in European history.

UK will seek out Auschwitz ﬁles

Martin Bright — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 12:40:00 +0000

The Ministry of Defence has agreed to release all files relating to the father of Israeli President Shimon Peres, Yitzhak Persky, who was held captive as a British prisoner of war at Auschwitz.

Officials and archivists are now on the search for details of Mr Persky's time at Camp E715, situated next to the Buna-Monowitz camp, which provided slave labour to the IG Farben chemical factory. Last month the JC launched a campaign to release the Auschwitz PoW files after discovering Mr Persky was an inmate. Shadow Defence Secretary, Jim Murphy, Labour Friends of Israel and the Holocaust Educational Trust have all backed the campaign.

Defence Minister Andrew Robathan has replied to a letter from Harlow MP Robert Halfon, requesting the release of the files, saying that the MoD would do everything in its power to identify them.

Mr Persky, a Polish Jew who settled in British Mandate Palestine, joined the Royal Engineers at the outbreak of the war. He was captured in Greece and spent most of the war in PoW camps.

Mr Halfon said: "I welcome the fact that the government is looking at this. It is a real opportunity to pay tribute to the many British soldiers at E715 who bore witness to the Holocaust, and risked their own lives to help people escape".

So far researchers have failed to find the records, but it is thought Mr Persky may have adopted the name of a dead comrade to avoid identification as a Jew. The new information will help clarify the relationship between Mr Persky and the legendary head of the E715 camp, Sergeant-Major Charles Coward, the first British soldier to be honoured at Yad Vashem for helping Jewish prisoners escape from Auschwitz.

Shimon Peres's biographer, Michael Bar-Zohar, is convinced that Mr Persky was closely involved in the Coward plans. "He helped Coward to save Jewish Auschwitz inmates, and many of them survived and came to Israel," he said. "He hosted Coward in Israel when he came for a visit, and that's how Shimon and his brother Gigi learned quite a few things about their father's past."

Protests force end to Nazi surgical tools sale

Jessica Elgot — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 12:40:00 +0000

"Ghoulish" surgical tools belonging to a Nazi war criminal have been withdrawn from auction in Cornwall this weekend, after a furious series of protests to the auctioneers.

The hacksaw and scalpels, engraved with the name Anton Burger - SS commandant of the Theresienstadt ghetto - are set in a velvet-lined wooden box. Valued at around £2,000, they were due to be auctioned by James F Kendling and Partners in Bude, Cornwall.

A Kendlings employee said the auctioneers had had a number of distressed and "venomous" phonecalls objecting to the sale, and had called the police about threats that had been made.

Kendlings said the anonymous vendor's family were Jewish and included Holocaust survivors.

Ben Barkow of the Wiener Library said: "They are ghoulish, awful things. Theresienstadt was a ghetto, not a concentration camp, and there were no medical experiments there.

"There is no contribution here to the world of Holocaust education. They have nothing to tell us. No museum would be interested in them. I wouldn't have them in the house. But people want to make money out of it."

Clearer guidelines on campus hatred

Jennifer Lipman — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 12:40:00 +0000

The government has been urged to create a "designated contact point" for universities to work with when extremist external speakers are invited to speak on campus.

The call for clearer government guidance about challenging hate speech on campus came from the Commons Home Affairs Select Committee, which carried out a nine-month review of the Prevent strategy.

The report found that the internet was a "fertile breeding ground for terrorism" and influential in most cases of violent radicalisation, now representing more of a threat than universities, mosques or prisons.

But while the committee reported its view "that violent radicalisation is declining within the Muslim community", and questioned the extent of the "direct link" between university education and terrorist activity, it did conclude that "universities may have been complacent" and that "extremists on campus are [not] always subject to equal and robust challenge".

The committee, chaired by Keith Vaz, recommended that "a designated contact point with relevant expertise within government is provided to student unions and university administrators to assist them in making difficult decisions about speakers on campus".

The suggestion was embraced by the Union of Jewish Students, which this week successfully appealed to LSE to cancel an invitation to an extremist speaker for an Islamic Society event.

Haitham Al Haddad, who is alleged to have described Jews as "the enemies of God, and the descendants of apes and pigs", was due at LSE on Tuesday.

Dan Sheldon, UJS campaigns director, said the recommendation was "only one aspect of a complex issue".

"It is time for government, universities and others to stop passing the buck and work together to tackle hate speech on our campuses," he said.

Other organisations warned that the conclusions about the role of the internet should not mean a less vigilant approach to university activity.

"The important thing is not to ignore one aspect at the expense of the other", said the Community Security Trust, members of which gave evidence to the inquiry.

Ghaffar Hussein, head of outreach for the counter-extremism Quilliam Foundation, added: "Extremists are still targeting university students and using online resources and social media to popularise their narratives."

The report also warned that the current anti-extremism strategy "only pays lip service to the threat from extreme far-right terrorism" and called for this not to be neglected.

Strictly Soulmates: The BBC's kosher dating show

Marcus Dysch — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 12:40:00 +0000

It was once taboo to admit in public you're struggling to find a date.

But that didn't stop three Jewish twentysomethings taking the dramatic step of looking for love in full view of millions of TV viewers.

Jason Goldstein, Richard Ludwig and Natalie Samuel agreed to take part in a BBC documentary exploring the difficulties faced by singles looking for love within their own religion.

The trio will appear in Strictly Soulmates on BBC Three next Thursday. Previous episodes have followed Evangelical Christians, Muslims and Hindus.

The Jewish episode's central theme is how to find a partner with a similar level of religious belief.

Viewers will see the participants attend a Jewish speed-dating event, trawl JDate and discuss relationships over Friday night dinner with their parents and grandparents.

Other young Jewish professionals talk about their experiences and Rabbi Shmuel Lew of Chabad provides an explanation of the Torah's view of intermarriage.

Mr Goldstein, from Gants Hill, Essex, said: "I wanted to give my views on why I want to marry someone Jewish. Coming from Essex it's hard to meet someone Jewish but I don't believe people should marry out. They should do whatever it takes to find someone from within the community."

The cameras travelled to California with the 24-year-old to see whether he could find a date among fellow Camp America leaders.

He said: "All I wanted to do was be positive and give the right impression of the community. The filming was hard work - but it was a great experience."

Glasgow-born Ms Samuel, 22, was filmed working for the Union of Jewish Students, talking to colleagues about relationships and taking part in a speed-dating event. She was even filmed going on a date.

She said the documentary was an opportunity to highlight what she believes is a taboo subject in the Jewish community.

She said: "Our community has an attitude to dating where no one wants to be open about it. People told me that going on the show was a bad idea and that it would be embarrassing.

"But there's nothing wrong with going on a bad date or liking someone and them not liking you back.

"I wanted to give people an accurate portrayal of what the Jewish community is like. I wanted to dispel some of the myths about Jews."

Accountant Mr Ludwig appeared in the ITV game show Take Me Out last year. In Strictly Soulmates cameras follow him preparing for his first ever Jewish blind date.

He says: "I have pulled good-looking girls before, but Jewish girls intimidate me. I'm a bit of a klutz; some people find it endearing, others just think I'm a muppet."

Mr Ludwig, originally from Manchester, later struggles with the possibility of entering a relationship with a non-Jewish woman and his fears over how his parents might react.

Rabbi Harvey Belovski of Golders Green Synagogue offers the trio vital tips, including warning them to avoid eating spaghetti on dates.

And Yonni Usiskin, the Jewish producer of the documentary, also introduced Ms Samuel to an Orthodox matchmaker,in an attempt to find her a partner.

Is the peace process over with handshake between Fatah and Hamas?

Thu, 09 Feb 2012 12:39:59 +0000

The agreement between Fatah and Hamas for a Palestinian unity government, to be headed by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, almost certainly signals the end of the short-lived attempt to re-launch Israeli-Palestinian peace talks.

On Monday Mr Abbas and the head of Hamas' political bureau, Khaled Mashal, signed an agreement for Mr Abbas to head a new unity government to be formed before the as-yet unscheduled Palestinian elections.

The government, to be comprised mainly of "technocrats", is tasked with preparing the elections for a new Palestinian parliament and president.

One of the main sticking points had been the identity of the Palestinian prime minister, with Hamas vetoing Mr Abbas' insistence that the current PM, Salam Fayyad, retain his post. It is unclear if Mr Fayyad will play any role in the new administration, but Mr Abbas is thought to want him to be a deputy prime minister, with responsibility for running the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank.

Current Hamas prime minister in Gaza, Ismail Haniyeh, may also be appointed as a deputy PM with similar responsibilities in the Gaza Strip.

Mr Abbas announced after the signing that the PA would release Hamas prisoners.

The two men will meet again later this month in Cairo to discuss further integration in the Palestinian national movement.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu responded angrily, saying that "Hamas is a terror organisation that aspires to destroy Israel and is supported by Iran. The Palestinian Authority has to choose between a treaty with Hamas and peace with Israel. Hamas and peace don't go together."

Despite this, neither Mr Netanyahu nor any other Israeli official is currently prepared to announce the end of the peace process so as not to take the international blame.

Most of the attention of the Israeli leadership is focused on developments in Syria and the possibility of an attack on Iran in the next few months, so it seems as if the Palestinian issue will be consigned for the near future to the back-burner. Israeli diplomats do not expect any major international pressure to deliver new concessions while the situation in the region is so volatile and the US is an election year.

A new date has yet to be set for the continuation of the recent meetings under Jordanian auspices.

The US State Department said that the Fatah-Hamas agreement was an "internal Palestinian affair". The agreement is not yet a done deal, as Hamas leaders in Gaza view it as capitulation to Fatah and are opposed to the attempts by Mr Mashal to pursue a more diplomatic course for the organization, at the expense of "the armed struggle".

Peres calls for peace as Iran steps up rhetoric

Jennifer Lipman — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 12:15:49 +0000

Shimon Peres has called for Iran and Israel not to live as enemies even as a website linked to Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's regime called for "the final annihilation of Israel".

The Israeli president and Nobel laureate, at a speech marking the creation of the Knesset 63 years ago, said that the two countries "were not born enemies".

"There is no need to live as enemies," said Mr Peres. "Do not allow the flags of hostility to cast a dark shadow over your historic heritage."

Addressing the Iranian people, he added: "Your people are a sensitive people that aspire for friendship and peace, and not for conflicts and wars."

But his comments came as a document by one of Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei's strategists was published on the Alef website.

The article called for Iran to attack Israel by 2014 and also described the Jewish state as "a cancerous tumour for the Middle East".

Limmud conference planned for Beijing Jewish community

Wed, 08 Feb 2012 12:32:53 +0000

Limmud is set to land in the Chinese capital this year - and an organiser claims it could turn out to be a historic moment for Jewish life in the country.

The festival of arts and discussion is due to take place in Beijing in December, with a small-scale "taster" event timetabled for June 3.

Organiser Simon Caplan, a senior programme officer at the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (JDC), said: "I first came to Beijing over a year ago and saw several Jewish populations that I felt were under-served.

"The Limmud formula is important and it will hit a chord here, being diverse, positive and sophisticated. This could be a tipping point in Jewish life here."

Credited with founding the first one-day Limmud at Carmel College in the UK 30 years ago, Mr Caplan wants to bring a sense of connectedness to Asian Jewish communities, and believes mainland China should be the focus.

US national Jonathan Dworkin, another organiser, has been living in Beijing for six years. A resident of Beijing's Moishe House and active member of Kehillat, the local liberal Jewish community, Mr Dworkin attended the main UK Limmud event in December. He said: "My experience at Limmud in the UK was outstanding and I'd definitely love to go back. It was like nothing I had ever experienced before."

So why Beijing? "We've reached a critical mass of Jews who are interested in getting involved with Jewish events and building a sense of community," he said.

The kosher population of Beijing - and China - is booming. The country's economic transformation and receptiveness to foreign workers has sparked an influx of Westerners, many of whom are Jewish.

The discussions tabled for the Beijing Limmud include China-Israel relations, keeping kosher in a country where pork is everywhere and Chinese stereotypes of Jews.

'Price tag' attack on interfaith Jerusalem school

Jennifer Lipman — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 10:41:03 +0000

Extremist Jewish vandals are believed to be behind an attack on a mixed Jewish and Arab school in Jerusalem.

Police found Hebrew graffiti calling for "Death to Arabs" on the wall of the "Hand in Hand" school. At the same time, vandals targeted a Greek Orthodox monastery in Jerusalem.

Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said they were investigating both cases as "price tag" attacks by extremists.

The attacks were condemned by the Abraham Fund Initiatives, an organisation that develops coexistence projects in Jerusalem.

"This is an attack on a place that represents the wish of Arabs and Jews to build together a better future for their children," a spokesman said.

Woman's memoir lifts lid on New York Chasidic life

Jennifer Lipman — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 10:35:43 +0000

A woman who has renounced her Chasidic background is set to send shockwaves around New York's strictly Orthodox community after writing a tell-all memoir about her upbringing.

Deborah Feldman turned her back on life in Brooklyn's Satmar community two years ago, after being pushed into an arranged marriage at 17 years old and becoming a mother at the age of 20.

The 25-year-old's autobiography, "Unorthodox: The Scandalous Rejection of my Hasidic Roots" is heavily critical of her community. In it, she relates how she spent just half an hour with her future husband before they were married.

Ms Feldman's book explains that she was almost totally unaware of the facts of life as a teenager and that she rebelled by hiding secular books by Jane Austen and Louisa May Alcott under her bed.

Most troublingly, she recounts being sexually assaulted by a cousin when she was 12 and of being forced to keep quiet about it.

She escaped her old life after signing up to college classes and moving in with a friend and is now bringing up her son as a single parent. Her old community has disowned her and she claims she has been sent hate-mail.

"It wasn't an easy decision for me," she told the New York Post. But she said she couldn't live her old life simply to avoid causing her family pain. "Now, I am a pariah," she said.

Ms Feldman said she believed the Satmar community was no different to Muslim extremists. "How is this any better? This is just another example of extreme fundamentalism."

Madonna to launch world tour in Israel

Jennifer Lipman — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 16:12:58 +0000

The Queen of pop is to launch her world tour in Tel Aviv.

Madonna, whose devotion to Kabbalah (Jewish mysticism) is well known, will perform in Israel on April 29. It will be her first global tour in three years.

She has played in the country twice before, including to a crowd of 50,000 people in Hayarkon Park in September 2009.

She has also visited Israel on several occasions and adopted the Hebrew name "Esther" as part of her study of Kabbalah.

During her concert three years ago, she told fans: "I truly believe that Israel is the energy centre of the world."

The concert is scheduled to take place two days after Shavuot, raising the question of whether the singer will choose to spend the festival in Israel.

After Israel, the next stop on the tour is Abu Dhabi.

Super Bowl bet winner giving money to charity

Jennifer Lipman — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 15:18:33 +0000

An Orthodox Jewish sports fan who won $50,000 on a bet before the Super Bowl has announced that he will donate the money to charity.

New Yorker Jona Rechnitz is a lifelong fan of the Giants, and decided to place a $1,000 bet on his team before the biggest match in the American football calendar.

With odds of 50 to one, he was astounded when the team scored the first points with a move called a "safety" – as his bet said they would.

Mr Rechnitz, who was at Las Vegas' MGM Grand Hotel when he made the bet, told TMZ that he placed just one bet a year.

The Yeshiva University graduate has asked the star player of the losing New England Patriots, Tom Brady, to choose a charity for some of the money to go to.

But he will hold on to some of his winnings in the hope that Mr Brady will accept his invitation to go out for a kosher dinner.

He said that giving the money away "was a nice way to make a kiddush Hashem".

LSE cancels extremist speaker event

Jennifer Lipman — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 10:10:28 +0000

An extremist speaker will no longer address students at the London School of Economics after complaints from Jewish students.

Haitham Al Haddad, who is alleged to have described Jews as "the enemies of God, and the descendants of apes and pigs" and stated that it is necessary to hate Jews and Christians, was due to speak at the university this evening.

The event had been organised by the LSE Islamic Society.

Members of the LSE JSoc and the Union of Jewish Students prevailed on the union to prevent Al Haddad from appearing, following an LSE Students' Union vote last month on strengthening its challenges to antisemitism.

Jay Stoll, LSE JSoc president, praised the union for deciding to stop the event and taking "a strong stance against antisemitism and all forms of discrimination". But he added: "There's something deeply flawed in the LSE's procedures on speaker events when someone like Al Haddad is approved without due consideration."

Dan Sheldon, UJS campaigns director, said that while he was committed to safeguarding freedom of speech on campous, it should not come at the expense of student welfare. "We should have no truck with those who seek to spread hate on our campuses," he said.

The event was arranged just weeks after a Jewish LSE student was left with a broken nose after he confronted fellow students playing a Nazi card game on an Athletics Union ski trip.

Obama orders sanctions on Iran

Jennifer Lipman — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 16:57:23 +0000

President Barack Obama is ordering a new wave of sanctions on Iran.

The US president announced the executive order this afternoon instating additional sanctions on Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's government and on Iran's Central Bank, because of the "deceptive practices" of it and other Iranian banks.

The sanctions mean a freeze on all Iranian government assets that come under the control of the US.

Announcing the decision in a letter to congress, he said Iran posed a "continuing and unacceptable risk" to the international financial system.

"I have determined that additional sanctions are warranted, particularly in light of [Iranian banks' efforts] to conceal transactions of sanctioned parties, the deficiencies in Iran's anti-money laundering regime and the weaknesses in its implementation," he added.

Speaking on the weekend, President Obama expressed confidence that the US and Israel would find a diplomatic solution to ameliorate the Iranian nuclear threat.

"We are going to make sure we work in lock step and work to resolve this, hopefully diplomatically," he said.

Call for Sir Victor Blank to get Fred Goodwin treatment

Jennifer Lipman — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 14:44:54 +0000

Campaigners have called for former Lloyds chairman Sir Victor Blank to be treated in the same way as Fred Goodwin and be stripped of his knighthood.

Sir Victor was knighted in 1999 "for services to the financial industry" before he joined Lloyds, but critics argue his role in its disastrous takeover of HBOS four years ago means he should have the honour annulled. The bank required a £21 billion state rescue package during his tenure as chairman.

The Lloyds Action Now Association, which acts on behalf of Lloyds' investors, has written to the head of the Civil Service demanding that the forfeiture committee review the case.

Jillian Timmis, who founded the association, said it seemed right "that others who have been honoured for services to the finance industry should be similarly censored".

The decision to revoke Mr Goodwin's title has been criticised as a political stunt, with warnings over its consequences for the business sector.

But according to the Daily Telegraph, removing the honours given to Sir Victor and others has the backing of some Conservative MPs. One MP compared the former Lloyds executives to "the guys on the last helicopter out of Saigon, while we were taking it up the chuff from Ho Chi Minh".

The FSA is currently working on a report looking into the disintegration of HBOS-Lloyds.

Soon after he resigned from Lloyds, Sir Victor, a former chair of Trinity Mirror newsgroup, was appointed as an unpaid adviser on overseas investment to the then Labour government.

Sir Victor is involved in several arms of the Jewish community, serving as the chairman of the UJS Hillel board and as a member of the Jewish Leadership Council.

Zionist Federation keeps Rabbi Rich as patron

Simon Rocker — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 14:28:53 +0000

The Zionist Federation has rejected a move to oust Rabbi Danny Rich, the chief executive of Liberal Judaism, as one of its patrons.

ZF joint vice-chairman Jonathan Hoffman tabled the resolution to remove him at a meeting of a national council last week.

Although Mr Hoffman declined to comment, it is understood that he complained about Rabbi Rich's recent participation in a church event with Peter Kosminsky, the director of The Promise, Channel 4's contentious drama on the birth of Israel, and anti-Zionist Deborah Fink.

He also took issue with Rabbi Rich's view that advocates of a one-state solution to the Israel-Palestinian conflict are not by definition antisemitic.

Harvey Rose, ZF chairman, commented: "At a private meeting of our board last Thursday a proposal was made to remove Rabbi Rich as a patron of the ZF. This was rejected."

But he added that the patrons of the ZF, including Rabbi Rich, would be asked to reaffirm their allegiance to the Jerusalem Programme – the World Zionist Organisation's manifesto.

The Jerusalem Programme refers to the "centrality of Israel" to the Jewish people and to strengthening Israel as "a Jewish, Zionist and democratic state".

Rabbi Rich, who is on a trip to Israel this week, said: "Jonathan Hoffman's petty campaign against me does neither him nor the Zionist Federation any credit. Perhaps now that his views have been comprehensively rejected by his ZF executive colleagues, he will find a more constructive cause for his undoubted energy.

"He is in danger of being out of touch with those of us who consider ourselves real friends of Israel, who advocate for Israel in places where others fear to tread."

Charlie Gluckman, who represents the Progressive movement, Pro- Zion, at the ZF, said: "Rabbi Rich is an ardent Zionist who has represented the UK at the World Zionist Congress and is supportive of Israel and Zionism.

"He has attended events where there are people who are considered anti-Israel or anti-Zionist. The fact he wants to go and speak is a positive thing for the Anglo-Jewish community because he represents Zionism in a constructive manner."

MPs urge action on online radicalisation

Jennifer Lipman — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 11:57:32 +0000

A parliamentary committee has warned that the internet is a "fertile breeding ground for terrorism", posing more danger than extremism on campus.

MPs have found that online activity is influential in almost all instances of violent radicalisation, yet it is not sufficiently monitored for counter-terrorism purposes.

The nine-month investigation by the Commons Home Affairs Select Committee concluded that the web was "now one of the few unregulated spaces where radicalisation is able to take place", representing a greater risk than prisons, universities or places of worship.

"There is seldom concrete evidence to confirm that [universities or prisons] are where they were radicalised", the report said.

One member of the committee, Cardiff MP Alun Michael, said that during the investigation "one Muslim said to me that 'you should worry more about Sheikh Google than about what's happening at the mosques'.

"That fits with the evidence that we saw that the mosques, by and large, are not the places of radicalisation and nor are universities."

The report called for internet service providers to be more vigilant in monitoring online activity.

Although the report acknowledged that face-to-face interaction with radicals was a "significant factor" in radicalisation, the authors said that a code of practice for removing such incendiary material from websites should be developed.

Mr Michael also cautioned that the threat of far-right extremism should not be overlooked.

Keith Vaz, committee chairman, highlighted the conviction of four men who plotted attacks on two rabbis and the London Stock Exchange. He said this reminded people that "we cannot let our vigilance slip".

Mr Vaz added: "More resources need to be directed to these threats and to preventing radicalisation through the internet and in private spaces. These are the fertile breeding grounds for terrorism."

He also called for the government's Prevent strategy to counter extremism to be renamed "Engage" to encourage a positive approach.

A spokesman for the Home Office described the report as interesting and said the findings would be considered.

"We are working closely with the police and internet service providers to take internet hate off the web," they said.

But civil liberties campaigners from the group Big Brother Watch warned that "this kind of censorship not only makes the internet less secure for law-abiding people, but drives underground the real threats and makes it harder to protect the public".

Jewish Book Week...for the deaf

Jessica Elgot — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 17:44:14 +0000

Jewish Book Week is to make four of its events accessible to deaf audience members.

Those deaf or hard-of-hearing will be able to use live speech-to-text translation, transcribed by a reporter using a special phonetic keyboard, using technology from charity Stagetext.

The method could be rolled out across other Jewish educational and cultural events, and has been used for a lecture recently at the Jewish Community Centre.

The talks, which take place at Kings Place near Kings Cross, will include a debate with novelist Linda Grant and historian Simon Schama, chaired by Newsnight’s Emily Maitlis, called “60 Years On”, looking back on the changes since Jewish Book Week began.

Others include “Tales of Mediterranean Coexistence” with historians of the region Professor David Abulafia and Dr Philip Mansel, an exploration of Charles Dicken’s Fagin in Oliver Twist, and a debate on “Religion and Science” with the Chief Rabbi Lord Sacks and mathematician Marcus du Sautoy.

Tickets are being held back for those hard of hearing until February 7.

Nazi defender pulls out of SOAS lecture

Jessica Elgot — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 15:31:05 +0000

A controversial lawyer who made his name defending Nazis, Holocaust deniers and Palestinian terrorists, has pulled out of a talk at SOAS tomorrow.

Anti-fascist campaigners, SOAS professor Colin Shindler and MPs including Denis MacShane, Lee Scott and Mike Freer expressed outrage when it was announced that French barrister Jacques Vergès, known as the Devil's Advocate, would speak at the London university. Mr Vergès has developed bronchitis and will now not travel to London.

The defence by Mr Vergès, 86, of Lyon Gestapo head Klaus Barbie and pro-Palestinian terrorist Carlos the Jackal was financed by Francois Genoud, a Swiss Nazi who was the executor of Joseph Goebbels's will.

The Union of Jewish Students and SOAS JSoc had been planning to place protest banners and memorial candles outside the lecture theatre before Shabbat.

Anti-fascist magazine Searchlight had called on the Home Secretary to ban Mr Verges from the country. Editor Gerry Gable said he believed the "drop-out" was a victory. "We are proud to share in this victory with all those who rallied to the call to stop him."

A SOAS spokeswoman said: "Jacques Vergès, one of the key speakers at tomorrow night’s event has developed bronchitis and been advised by his doctor not to travel to London. As a result, he has had to withdraw from the 'International Justice' event tomorrow"

His replacement at the panel discussion will be criminal law specialist Steven Kay QC who has participanted in cases concerning Slobodan Milosevic, Guantanamo Bay and the Beslan school hostage crisis. He will speak alongside international lawyer Martti Koskenniemi.

In Morocco, Islamist and Jew have embraced

Andrew Rosemarine — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 15:13:06 +0000

Serge Berdugo, the ebullient Secretary-General of Moroccan Jewry, is upbeat as the first-ever Islamist-headed government takes office in Morocco. A former minister of tourism - a crucial sector of the economy here - and a lawyer, he well understands all that is at stake.

"We have to adjust to the new constitutional and political realities," he tells me.

He has good reason to be optimistic. When, on election results day, Abdelilah Benkirane, the bearded and usually tie-less head of the winning Islamic Party of Justice and Development (PJD) and Mr Berdugo caught sight of each other, they embraced one another before the cameras.

They were both seeking to demonstrate that Islamists and Jews can get on well together, and that the West has nothing to fear from this Islamist prime minister, as he became shortly afterwards.

Indeed, the new constitution recognises the "Hebrew" contribution to Moroccan identity, and the PJD did not seek to veto it. Muslims are taking an interest in Judaism and Hebrew, and even helping Jews maintain their cultural heritage. "The [PJD] prime minister says he sees Jews as full citizens of the state," Mr Berdugo told me after the formation of the government. "We are confident for the future."

Has Morocco become fully Islamist? No. Less than a quarter of those old enough to register to vote, actually voted; of those who did vote, only 27 per cent voted for PJD; many of them were really voting for change.

Having not been in power previously, the PJD is untainted by complaints of corruption and bad governance, which damaged the image of the old governmental parties. Mr Benkirane pledged to combat these practices, as well as poverty and unemployment.

The popular and West-friendly King, Mohammed VI, remains all-powerful, and ensures a strong element of experience, and continuity in Foreign Policy, even though the new foreign minister is also a PJD man.

Martine Abergel, a Casablancan headmistress, comments: "The new premier is full of good resolutions and the people trust him. But it will take time and much money to implement reforms."

Fogel killer 'blessed' on television

Anshel Pfeffer — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 13:23:40 +0000

The Palestinian Authority's TV channel broadcast greetings to the convicted murderers of the Fogel family last week.

During a programme in which Palestinian prisoners are sent messages by their relatives, the mother of Hakim Awad, one of the two men who brutally killed Ehud and Ruth Fogel and their three young children in Itamar last March, "blessed" her "dear son" who "carried out the operation in Itamar and was sentenced to five life sentences".

Awad's aunt also appeared, calling her nephew, "the hero, the legend", and the programme's host conveyed his greetings to the two murderers.

The Awad family of Awarta near Nablus are veteran members of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) and, following their messages, dedicated a song "to the sound of the bullets of Ahmad Sa'adat and Hakim Awad".

Sa'adat is the PFLP leader, currently serving a 30-year sentence for planning the assassination of Tourism Minister Rehavam Zeevi in 2001.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called upon Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to condemn the broadcast.

German fund pulls NGO cash

Toby Axelrod — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 13:23:40 +0000

A German organisation which compensates survivors of Nazi labour camps has withdrawn funding for a Israeli NGO for its support of the Palestinian right of return.

The foundation - the Memory, Responsibility and Future Fund (EVZ) - said it would no longer support the educational work of Zochrot, a Tel-Aviv based NGO that also promotes the interpretation of the establishment of Israel as a "Naqba", or "disaster".

Gunter Saathoff, a director of EVZ, told Ha'aretz that they could not fund groups with a political agenda.

The decision, which followed pressure from pro-Israel watchdog NGO Monitor, was reportedly effective at the end of 2011.

Eitan Bronstein, public outreach director for Zochrot, said that they had a two-year contract with EVZ for 20,000 euros per year, for 2011 and 2012. He noted: "All Zochrot positions and activities were clear to EVZ since the beginning of our partnership."

Gerald Steinberg, president of NGO Monitor, called the decision a "victory in the battle to hold funders accountable for their support of NGOs involved in the demonisation" of Israel.

Saudi Prince won't give my daughter back

Jennifer Lipman — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 13:23:39 +0000

A French Jewish woman won a court victory this week after a judge granted her custody of her daughter, whom she claims has been held captive by the girl's Saudi royal father.

But Candice Cohen-Ahnine, 34, is unable to celebrate because Prince Sattam al-Saoud refused to comply with the ruling, which also demands monthly child support of £8,300.

Aya, ten, remains in a Riyadh palace, where Ms Cohen-Ahnine says she has been kept for three and a half years, and brought up as a devout Muslim.

The child was born in 2001, four years after the couple met in a London club.

Ms Cohen-Ahnine, who has written a book about the fight for her daughter, has recalled that she was showered with expensive gifts and taken on luxury holidays by the "tall, dark stranger".

The relationship continued, with the prince regularly visiting Paris. But when their daughter was five, she said she was told by the prince that he was expected to marry a cousin and that she could be his "second wife".

She declined but says she continued to involve him in Aya's life, bringing the girl to the palace in 2008. However after being given only minimal access to Aya during the stay and prevented from leaving herself, she says was forced to flee the country and has not seen her daughter since.

According to Ms Cohen-Ahnine, the prince produced a document claiming that she had rejected Islam to convert to Judaism - something that could mean a death sentence in Saudi Arabia.

Ms Cohen-Ahnine has spent the past few years urging the French authorities, including the foreign ministry and President Nicolas Sarkozy, to help her.

The prince has vowed to ignore the court's decision, reportedly telling Nouvel Observateur that he would "hide in the mountains" like Osama bin Laden rather than accept it.

"My child's life is here," he was quoted as saying. "Let me remind you that my daughter is a descendant of the Saudi royal family." He also told the Telegraph that Ms Cohen-Ahnine's story was false. He now faces an international arrest warrant for ignoring the verdict.

Hamas hunts for new base in Middle East

Anshel Pfeffer — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 13:23:39 +0000

Hamas is searching for a new political base following its departure from Damascus. Turkey and Jordan have both denied reports that they may host the Palestinian movement.

On Sunday, the head of Hamas's political bureau, Khaled Mashal, made his first official visit to Jordan since the kingdom closed down the movement's offices in 1999. King Abdullah and Mr Mashal held talks on re-establishing ties in the wake of the changes in the Arab world, although senior Jordanian officials made it clear that the kingdom will not allow Hamas to set up its "politburo" in Amman.

Hamas's headquarters were closed down in Damascus following the increased level of bloodshed between Syrian security forces and protesters, and Jordan is eager to be seen engaging with Hamas in the hope that will help quell the unrest in the country.

Last weekend Turkey was reported to have offered $300 million in aid to Hamas. Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Bulent Arinc denied these reports saying that while his country regards Hamas leaders as "significant figures" in the region, basing the movement in Turkey would be "out of the question."

Austrian politician accused of 'trivialising' Holocaust

Toby Axelrod — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 13:23:39 +0000

Austria's Jewish community is demanding that a far-right Austrian politician be prosecuted for allegedly trivialising the Holocaust.

According to the Austrian daily Standard, Heinz-Christian Strache, leader of the country's Freedom Party, claimed at a fancy-dress ball, where guests included neo-Nazis, that "we are the new Jews".

Mr Strache, who was referring to violent demonstrations against the event, allegedly also compared the situation to the 1938 Kristallnacht pogrom.

In reaction to the statements, the Austrian President Heinz Fischer said he was withdrawing a prestigious state award due to be made to Mr Strache. Foreign Minister Michael Spindelegger told reporters that he was "profoundly disgusted" by Mr Strache's words.

The Freedom Party leader made the comments at the annual Vienna Korporationsring Ball, an event notorious for attracting members of the European extreme right.

The ball was held on January 27, Holocaust Remembrance Day, at Vienna's Hofburg Palace, the official residence of the Austrian president.

The Freedom Party leader later denied the reports, writing on his Facebook profile that his words had been deliberately manipulated and taken out of context.

Raimund Fastenbauer, general secretary of Austria's Jewish community, told the online daily DiePresse that Mr Strache's alleged remarks were forbidden by Austria's Verbotsgesetz, a post-war law that bans denial and trivialisation of Nazi crimes. According to DiePresse, the Jewish community has demanded that Mr Strache give up his immunity as a member of Parliament so that he may be tried.

The leader of France's far-right Front National, Marine Le Pen, has come in for criticism at home for attending the ball. According to RFI French radio, Ms Le Pen was invited by Mr Strache.

No date for new Israeli-Palestinian talks

Thu, 02 Feb 2012 13:23:38 +0000

A month after Israel and the Palestinian Authority resumed direct negotiations, they already seem to have reached an impasse.

The talks, that took place in a series of five meetings under Jordanian auspices in Amman with the participation of representatives of the Quartet, (the US, Russia, the EU and the UN), have foundered over the Palestinian demand for a more detailed proposal from Israel on the future borders of a Palestinian state.

In the final meeting, last Wednesday, Prime Minister Netanyahu's representative, Yitzhak Molcho, presented a summary of Israel's position that included the principles of security arrangements and territorial exchanges that would allow most Israelis living across the Green Line to remain in their homes.

No new date has been set for further talks. UN Secretary General, Ban ki-Moon, who is visiting this Israel this week, urged the two sides to return immediately to negotiations.

The Israeli Embassy refused a request for comment.

Jewish business ethics charity closes

Marcus Dysch — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 13:23:38 +0000

The Jewish Association for Business Ethics (Jabe) has closed due to a lack of funding. It is thought four people, including executive director Lorraine Spector, lost their jobs.

The organisation was formed in 1991 and relied entirely on private funding. It encouraged integrity in professional conduct and taught Jewish ethical approaches to business.

More than 300 people attended Jabe's 20th anniversary dinner last November. But it raised only £90,000 towards the annual £330,000 operating costs.

Jabe chairman Alan Tapnack, former executive director of Investec Bank, and fellow trustees, had been covering the funding shortfall for a number of years. He said: "I put in a fortune myself but I couldn't carry on doing it. I was using up my own pension.

"Everybody loves Jabe and thinks it's valuable, but no one wants to pay for it. "

In 2006, Chief Rabbi Lord Sacks, Jabe president, vetoed the participation of non-Orthodox rabbis in the charity, prompting the resignations of leading trustees and donors, including Lord Kalms; former Leo Baeck College chairman, Gerald Rothman; and Jabe's former chairman, billionaire Stephen Rubin.

JFS head won't meet school's gay ex-pupils

Jessica Elgot — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 13:23:38 +0000

The head-teacher of JFS has refused to meet gay and lesbian former pupils to discuss the methods of teaching of homosexuality at the school - but has promised to "review" the school's approach.

Former JFS pupils, including co-convener of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender forum Keshet UK, Dave Shaw, had asked to meet head Jonathan Miller to discuss the reference to "gay cure" organisation JONAH in a Jewish studies lesson last month, and future approaches to the topic.

Mr Shaw said the group was "disappointed" that the head had refused to meet LGBT alumni. He gave no reason for turning them down.

In a letter to the school, former students said: "We think it would be beneficial to talk about the options available for students who identify as LGBT or are struggling with same-sex attractions whilst concurrently retaining their Jewish identities."

Mr Shaw said: "We firmly believe that, as a state-funded school, JFS, like all Jewish schools, must be able to demonstrate that it meets its statutory obligation to be proactive in preventing bullying on the basis of sexuality and create an environment where all students feel included."

He said Keshet UK was preparing material to submit to JFS's internal review of its teaching of the subject and would be delivering teacher packs to JFS for LGBT History month.

Responding, Mr Miller said that there were "doubtless students who, unfortunately, have unhappy memories of their time at JFS for a variety of different reasons. For some adolescents, grappling with their sexuality is challenging in any environment."

He confirmed the review of JFS's "approach to the topic of homosexuality in the light of recent events."

Lithuania attacked over Holocaust retort

Thu, 02 Feb 2012 13:23:38 +0000

The Lithuanian government has met intense opposition after its Foreign Minister criticised eight of his country's parliamentarians for signing a declaration which rejects the "Double Genocide" theory - that Jews were as culpable for atrocities during the Second World War as the Nazis.

On January 20, the 70th anniversary of the Wannsee Conference that codified the "Final Solution", 70 European parliamentarians from 19 EU states signed the Seventy Years Declaration, which explicitly rejects attempts to "obfuscate" the Holocaust.

Lithuania's Foreign Minister, a member of the right-wing nationalist government, called the eight Lithuanians who signed the document "pathetic". He went on to say that "Hitler's moustache was shorter", implying that there was no other difference between the two dictators.

This week, British MP Denis MacShane sent letters of support to the eight parliamentarians.

He says in the letter: "I know it must be lonely to take a stand on such a controversial subject but wanted to write to you to say you are not alone and every decent British and European citizen stands with you."

And Dr Shimon Alperovich, the 83-year-old head of the Jewish Community of Lithuania said at a Holocaust Remembrance Day event last week: "Even today there are people who adhere to the Double Genocide theory, that Jews murdered Lithuanians, and so Lithuanians therefore murdered Jews. An absurdity. One should not even have to enter into discussion with such people."

The Seventy Years Declaration rejects the "Double Genocide" theory inherent in the 2008 Prague Declaration championed by East European nationalists. It also attacks the policy in a number of East European states of using state resources to honour Hitler's local collaborators and, in some cases, actual Holocaust murderers, for being "anti-Soviet" heroes.

The declaration also rejects the Prague Declaration demand to have European textbooks rewritten to treat Nazi and Soviet crimes "the same way". It also praises the "nobility of Jewish partisans who survived ghettos or camps and went on to fight the Nazis and their allies".

Anti-gay rabbi reinstated

Thu, 02 Feb 2012 13:23:38 +0000

Amsterdam's Orthodox Ashkenazi community has reinstated its Chief Rabbi, Aryeh Ralbag, who was suspended two weeks ago for signing an online declaration calling on homosexuals to try to overcome their inclinations.

The community's action against the New York-based rabbi, who travels to the Netherlands several times a year, had prompted a torrent of protests from across the Orthodox rabbinic world.

On Monday the strictly Orthodox Agudath Israel of America wrote to the community to say that it was "troubling" to suspend a rabbi for "expressing his religious conviction".

The Conference of European Rabbis welcomed Rabbi Ralbag's reinstatement on Wednesday as "a wise step in the interests of the Amsterdam community". A CER spokesman said: "We believe the summary suspension of Rabbi Ralbag for stating his halachic viewpoint was premature and misguided and we are very pleased that the community has decided now to work through these issues in a positive and consultative manner."

Stalker back in jail after breaking lifetime order

Marcus Dysch — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 13:23:37 +0000

A serial stalker is behind bars again after breaching his lifetime restraining order to approach his victim.

Elliot Fogel, 37, was jailed for two years for continuing his campaign against Claire Waxman. The pair first met at college, 21 years ago.

The former freelance Sky Sports News producer breached the order in February last year when he was seen driving close to Ms Waxman's business in north west London.

Fogel was previously jailed for four months in 2010 for an earlier breach.

Fogel began stalking Ms Waxman in 2003. He visited her workplace, stored tens of thousands of web searches about her, posed as a prospective parent at her daughter's nursery school, and paid for searches to be carried out on her, her husband and her father.

He would also call her office telephone during the night to listen to her voice on the answering machine.

At Inner London Crown Court last Friday, Judge Ian Darling told Fogel that his campaign had "ruined" Ms Waxman's life and said that, in "mentally terrorising her," Fogel had calculatingly affected her children, family and friends.

The judge rejected a plea to send Fogel to the country's first "stalking clinic" to receive treatment.

Fogel told the JC last year that he was "full of remorse" for his actions, which he said had been "interpreted in such a negative way. I am just sick of the whole thing and wish this continued animosity could come to an end."

At one time, both families attended Mill Hill Synagogue. It is understood its minister, Rabbi Yitzchak Schochet, had attempted to help and had been asked by police to act as an intermediary.

Belsen liberator statue attacked in Scarborough

Simon Rocker — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 13:23:37 +0000

Scarborough police are pursuing the possibility of a racial motive behind the vandalism on the eve of Holocaust Memorial Day of a statue of a British soldier who helped to liberate Belsen.

Yellow paint was splashed over the sculpture, known as Freddie Gilroy and the Belsen Stragglers, last Thurday night. "We are exploring all possibilities as to who is responsible and have not ruled out any antisemitic motive behind the incident," said a police spokesman.

Residents are so outraged at the attack that they have offered a £2,000 reward for information to help catch the culprits.

Karen Pollock, the chief executive of the Holocaust Educational Trust, said: "To deface a statue dedicated to British troops who liberated Bergen-Belsen would be an appalling act any time, an insult to both the victims of the Holocaust and the veterans who witnessed scenes of profound horror.

"For such an act of vandalism to take place on the eve of Holocaust Memorial Day is absolutely despicable."

The sculpture was loaned to the town last autumn by its creator Ray Lonsdale, but proved so popular that local pensioner Maureen Robinson paid £50,000 in order to keep it there.

Freddie Gilroy, a miner from County Durham who died in 2008, was among the British troops who entered Belsen in 1945.

One of his duties was to guard the camp physician Fritz Klein, who described Jews as "the gangrenous appendix of mankind. That's why I cut them out". He was hanged later that year.

Israeli universities 'cheaper' for British students

Jessica Elgot — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 13:23:37 +0000

Students should consider swapping baked beans in Birmingham for beach life in Tel Aviv – because undergraduate degrees at the city's university are cheaper than the UK, claims Tel Aviv University.

Jewish school-leavers, hit by the £9,000 tuition fees next year at most of the top-tier British universities, could pay around £2,000 less if they choose to study in Israel.

Tel Aviv will launch two programmes in English for undergraduates in September 2012, a three-year humanities BA costing £7,011 and a four-year electrical and electronics engineering BSc, costing £7,968.

"It's something we've only just begun promoting," said Cara Case, executive director of TAU Trust UK. "We had such high interest at the London Israel Expo - so many people were enquiring about whether their son or daughter could do a full degree with us."

Tel Aviv University is 166th in the world rankings, which makes it between 10 and 20 places below popular UK universities like Nottingham, Leeds, Birmingham and Warwick, and higher than Liverpool and Cardiff. Ms Case said: "It is tough to get in; you can't just pay and get a place. We expect high academic standards."

Other courses in Israel are also competitively priced. At IDC Herzliya, students can study business administration, government, communications or psychology in English for £6,668 a year. At Bar-Ilan, a BA in social sciences, taught in English, costs £4,784 a year. At the prestigious Technion Institute of Technology in Haifa, students can do a BSc in civil engineering in English for £10,205 a year – which includes campus accommodation.

But students beginning this September at UK universities will not have to pay fees upfront, and will receive a student loan – to which British students in Israel are not entitled.

Despite last summer's protests about the cost of living in Israel, student accommodation in Tel Aviv is cheaper than many British universities, with dorm accommodation costing £2,800 a year. At Nottingham, one of the most popular universities for Jewish students, a self-catering shared flat is £4,191 a year.

A spokesman for TAU estimated books, food and travel in Israel would cost around the same as in the UK - £2,850 a year. The maximum student maintenance loans in the UK for students away from home at a non-London university are around £5,500 a year.

Abrams and Morris to spearhead culture

Thu, 02 Feb 2012 13:23:37 +0000

Former journalist Hester Abrams has been appointed director of Jewish Book Week to succeed Geraldine D'Amico, who will retire as director after this year's festival next month.

Ms Abrams was a journalist at Reuters, latterly editor of its global customer magazine. Most recently she has been TV researcher on the BBC2 drama The Hour.

Jewish Book Week, run by Ms D'Amico since 2005, has grown into one of Britain's most prestigious international literature festivals. This year, in which JBW moves to a new location in London's King's Place, next to the Guardian building, marks its 60th anniversary.

Ms D'Amico said she felt she had taken the festival as far as she could. The JBW co-chairs, Gail Sandler and Lucy Silver, said: "We are very sorry to say goodbye to Geraldine D'Amico whose contribution to JBW has been quite remarkable. The festival now holds an incomparable position in the Jewish arts calendar and a significant profile in London's cultural scene."

Meanwhile, the former chief executive of Jewish Women's Aid and the Soho Theatre Company, Abigail Morris, has been appointed the new chief executive of the Jewish Museum.

Ms Morris, who was also chief executive of Jewish thinktank ResponseAbility, takes up her new appointment in March. She said: "I plan to pack the museum with dynamic events and exhibitions that will attract visitors morning, noon and night."

Israeli theatre company expects Globe Shakespeare disruption

Marcus Dysch — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 13:23:36 +0000

A senior Habimah Theatre producer has admitted that actors expect anti-Israel activists will succeed in disrupting their performance at a major international festival at Shakespeare's Globe Theatre in May.

Israel's leading theatre company will perform The Merchant Of Venice in Hebrew as part of a six-week event at the Globe to coincide with the Cultural Olympiad.

The executive, who does not want to be identified, said the Israelis feared their performance being halted. She said: "I've been worried for a long time because of what happened with the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra at the Royal Albert Hall. It will be a great shame if they protest, but I am sure it will not be peaceful.

"The Globe is aware of the threat and we hope they will do everything possible. They have to think really hard about how to prevent the protesters getting in. It's a real challenge.

"It is very difficult; there is no way to stop them. The boycotters could flood the crowd with activists. But do they think stopping us will bring peace quicker?"

The producer said Habimah had been devising ways to work around any disruption, and might even have a "surprise" for potential protesters. She added: "We are very much against all boycotts. Our artists often do things for the Palestinians and privately they go to demonstrations [to lend support]."

A Globe spokeswoman said "all sensible precautions" would be taken but would not disclose how it planned to stop demonstrators.

The theatre has already rejected opposition to its invitation to Habimah. Boycott From Within, formed by Israelis who back the boycott movement, wrote to Globe directors last month, highlighting performances by Habimah in the West Bank settlements of Ariel and Kiryat Arba.

BFW complained: "By inviting Habimah to perform in London, you are siding with its administrators in the debate on settlement performances, and you are taking a step against the conscientious Israeli actors and playwrights who have refused to perform in the settlements." But the Globe hit back, publishing an open letter stating that festival directors had "deliberated long and hard" before deciding that "active exclusion was a profoundly problematic stance to take".

The Globe concluded: "Habimah is the most well-known and respected Hebrew-language theatre company in the world, and are a natural choice to any programmer wishing to host a dramatic production in Hebrew.

"They are committed, publicly, to providing an ongoing arena for sensible dialogue between Jews and Arabs, Israelis and Palestinians. "

The Globe, which said it had reached the right decision about Habimah, added that the Ramallah-based Ashtar Theatre would be performing an Arabic version of Shakespeare's Richard II at the festival.

Tay-Sachs plea for clinical research

Jennifer Lipman — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 13:23:36 +0000

The Jewish community is being urged to support fundraising for a clinical trial next year aimed at preventing the onset of the fatal Tay-Sachs disease.

Daniel Lewi, whose two-year-old daughter was diagnosed with Tay-Sachs last year, has launched a foundation to raise £3 million for the vital research.

Tay-Sachs is a progressive neurological genetic disorder caused by a defective gene, the symptoms of which tend to appear when the child is a few months old. It is estimated that about one in 20 Ashkenazi Jews are Tay-Sachs carriers, 10 times higher than in the general population.

Cambridge University's Professor Timothy Cox, an expert on the condition, hopes to start the trial in 2013. If his work is successful, it could produce the first method of treating those at risk before it is too late.

Jewish Care runs screenings, and there are now only one or two cases discovered per year in Britain. But for those that do suffer from it, Tay-Sachs is devastating. Average life expectancy stands at three to five years, yet because it is caused by a recessive gene, it can be hidden in family histories for generations.

Rates of intermarriage also mean that many do not know that they could be carriers. Mr Lewi, whose mother is not Jewish, is one example. His Portuguese wife - brought up Catholic -– is also unaware of any Jewish ancestors.

The couple, from Lewisham in south-east London, had no idea what Tay-Sachs was when their daughter Amelie suddenly stopped crawling and walking. She was diagnosed last March at 15 months old.

"It's extremely rare," said Mr Lewi. "The Jewish community tends to get tested but if you are not brought up with knowledge of this, then you are not going to be. Many members of my father's family died in the camps, so even if these things were known about, they have been lost."

Mr and Mrs Lewi have started the Cure and Action for Tay-Sachs Foundation (CATS) to fundraise for Professor Cox's work. Mr Lewi hopes to raise awareness and has implored the Jewish community to help CATS.

Katrina Sarig, director of the charity, Jewish Genetic Disorders UK, expressed hope that Professor Cox's research would gain funding. She said it was vital to highlight that, "regardless of the partner you choose or your affiliation or involvement, if you are of Ashkenazi origin you still carry this heightened risk".

Guardian attack on CST prompts anger

Marcus Dysch — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 13:23:35 +0000

The Guardian has apologised after it implicated the Community Security Trust in a story attacking Education Secretary Michael Gove.

The newspaper ran a piece criticising Mr Gove's role in awarding government funding to the charity while he also sat on CST's advisory board. It quoted campaigner Professor David Miller, of Spinwatch, claiming Mr Gove should have stepped down from the grant process to avoid a conflict of interest.

The Education Secretary announced in December 2010 that the government would provide £2 million to fund security measures at Jewish schools.

Mr Gove has been on CST's advisory board for four years, but has never attended a meeting or offered any formal advice to the charity.

No one from the Guardian spoke to CST before the story was published online last Friday - Holocaust Memorial Day -and in the paper the next day.

A source close to Mr Gove said: "It is unbelievable to attack any politician for funding the protection of Jewish children. It is even more extraordinary, and frankly offensive, to do it on Holocaust Memorial Day." John Mann MP, chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group against Antisemitism, wrote to the Guardian on Wednesday attacking its "ill-conceived" report.

Mr Mann wrote: "The proposal that the state should fund the security costs of state schools was one of the 35 recommendations of the All-Party Parliamentary Inquiry into Antisemitism and was being enacted by Ed Balls when the election was called. It is appropriate and unsurprising that Michael Gove determined to meet the request."

The JC understands the Guardian had been preparing to publish its attack on Mr Gove for two weeks. A number of similar stories have already appeared in the paper this year.

A CST spokesman said the charity was "astonished that the Guardian has chosen to mark Holocaust Memorial Day by attacking the funding provided by the government to pay for security guarding at Jewish state schools. This funding is provided to protect Jewish schools against terrorism. This is a real threat.

"If the Guardian had contacted CST before running the story, we could have explained all this to them."

A Guardian spokeswoman denied the story was misleading, and said the CST had not been made aware of the story because it did not allege the CST "had done anything improper… We regret the timing of the piece's publication, which was entirely inadvertent… and regret any offence caused." The Guardian considered the issue of antisemitic attacks on schools to be "an important story and we will certainly cover it in future". The paper later amended its story to clarify that the CST does not retain any of the grant money.

Professor Miller's NeoCon Europe website has previously been forced to remove work by a writer who expressed antisemitic views.

Tower Hamlets Respect chair guilty of assault at Tesco demo

Marcus Dysch — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 13:23:35 +0000

A veteran anti-Israel campaigner has been convicted of slapping a Jewish man during a boycott protest at a supermarket.

Carole Swords, chair of Tower Hamlets Respect Party, attacked Harvey Garfield as he attempted to defend Israeli goods from potential vandalism.

Swords has previously written on Facebook that Zionists are "cockroaches" who "hide in the dark and try to create havoc where they lay their eggs". She wrote that the "slimy, vile, hard skin bugs need to be stomped out".

Swords, 59, of Bow, east London, entered a Tesco store in Covent Garden on August 13 last year after attending an anti-Israel demonstration outside the nearby Ahava cosmetics store.

At City of London Magistrates Court last Thursday, Swords denied assaulting Mr Garfield, claiming he had harassed and attacked her.

But magistrates viewed CCTV footage of the incident and agreed with the prosecution that Swords had used "threatening and abusive words or behaviour to cause harassment".

The court heard how she swore at Mr Garfield before turning and landing the blow, knocking his spectacles to the floor.

Giving evidence, Mr Garfield said he had been volunteering at the store once a fortnight to advise staff about the anti-Israel protests. He provided early warnings of "more extreme demonstrations" which could cause disturbance and vandalism.

He explained how he was attacked. "She walked past me and down the aisle. I turned to follow her at a distance… She stopped and said to me 'don't you f***ing follow me'. I turned my head to reply, but she struck me in the face.

"It happened in a fraction of a second. The next thing I knew I was bending down to pick up my glasses. Her words were quite forceful, I was taken aback. It was absolutely not an accident. I was surprised more than anything. I had never been struck before in that way."

Defending, James Mehigan repeatedly accused Mr Garfield of being a "vigilante". He alleged that Mr Garfield had called Swords a "Nazi" and "terrorist" in an effort to provoke her.

Mr Garfield responded: "That's absolutely not true. I did not take the law into my own hands."

Swords spoke of her part-Jewish upbringing and said she had been involved in anti-Israel activity for 20 years since visiting Bethlehem and Jerusalem and "realising things weren't quite right".

After magistrates were shown a copy of the "boycott Israeli goods" leaflets Swords had distributed, she told them: "Why would I destroy Israeli goods? I eat Israeli goods."

She claimed she had not read the pro-boycott material before distributing it and accused Mr Garfield of spitting at her and grabbing her arm while "sweating like a rabid dog".

Swords was found guilty on one charge of a public order offence and given a conditional discharge. She must pay court costs of £250.

Following the trial Mr Garfield, 59, said: "In a sense I felt I was being put on trial, but I knew I was telling the truth."

Baby-faced Abbas and Netanyahu 'could make peace'

Jennifer Lipman — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 13:23:34 +0000

It may just be that the key to Middle East peace is the "aawww" element.

Researchers at Hebrew University in Jerusalem have discovered that baby-faced Palestinian negotiators - those with proportionally larger eyes and thick, pudgy lips - are perceived as being kinder, warmer, more honest and more trustworthy, and so are likely to have more success convincing Israelis of their positions.

In contrast, those who look older are more likely to face tantrums when they work with the opposition.

Dr Ifat Maoz, who led the "Face of the Enemy" study, gave 80 Israelis fictional newspaper articles about the peace process, featuring the face of an unidentified Palestinian leader.

She came up with the project after learning of research into the powerful effect of facial features on people's trust in their own representatives.

According to Dr Maoz, past studies have found that people make judgments about their levels of trust, "after as little as 100 milliseconds' exposure to a novel face.

"I was interested to see how this applied to politicians from the enemy side, in a protracted violent conflict such as the Israeli-Palestinian one," she explained.

Her team edited pictures to make the face appear more, or less, mature, respectively shrinking or widening lips and eyes by 15 per cent.

Overwhelmingly, the panel judged "the baby-faced politician" as more trustworthy than his older self and gave more support to his peace proposal.

"Attitudes towards the opponent in conflict and towards peace were significantly shifted by subtle alterations that people were not even aware of," said Dr Maoz, whose study was the first of its type. She has been researching, for 20 years, the role of psychological factors on forging a peace deal.

She acknowledged that "in actual negotiations, other factors are at play" and that finding a path to peace required more than the election of a youthful-looking leader. "But we do seem to have quite strong theories about relationships between certain facial features and certain qualities, and these lay theories affect our impressions of others and behaviour towards them," she said.

Dr Maoz said that the next step would be to survey Palestinians in the same way, to determine whether a baby-faced Bibi would have any effect.

Israeli medics save the sight of a thousand

Nathan Jeffay — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 13:23:34 +0000

Almost 1,000 people in poor countries have received a special gift from Israel over the last six months: their sight.

An Israeli non-profit called Eye From Zion has dispatched doctors to Nepal, Myanmar, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Cambodia, the Maldives and Ethiopia, where they have performed sight-restoring procedures and started to train local medical professionals to do so themselves.

The four-year-old organisation has never performed operations at such a rate: on average it takes it double the amount of time - a whole year - to notch up 1,000 operations. The increased efficiency is in part due to its new innovation: a mobile operating "room" that surrounds the patient's head, creating a clean environment large enough to enable doctors to treat the eyes.

Eye From Zion sets up mobile clinics in towns and outlying villages and performs cataract, oculoplastics and other sight-restoring treatments. Its founder Nati Marcus views the work as part of the Jewish tradition of making the world a better place. "We see ourselves as the goodwill ambassadors of Israel and the Jewish people," he said.

Eye From Zion's doctors are leaders of their field in Israel. One is Shmuel Levartovsky, head of the ophthalmology department at Ashkelon's Barzilai Hospital, who just returned from Myanmar. "You have to use far more clinical judgement in the less than perfect conditions, but we manage to keep up very high standards," he said.

One of the things that helps the doctors is the fact that donations from Magen David Adom, the Israeli government and elsewhere mean that equipment is normally in good supply - and delivered before they arrive by diplomatic post.

Tributes to Holocaust survivor who kept on giving

Jennifer Lipman — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 13:23:34 +0000

Tributes poured in this week for Holocaust survivor Roman Halter, who died on Monday, aged 85.

Mr Halter, who moved to Britain after the war and worked as an architect and artist, lost all his family in the Holocaust. He was best known for his stained glass window work, examples of which exist in synagogues and churches around Britain.

Born in Chodecz in Poland, he was sent to the Lodz ghetto, where he worked in a metal factory as a young teenager.

The only surviving member of his family by 1942, he was transported to Auschwitz, and later to the Stutthof concentration camp and to Dresden as a slave labourer. In the mid 1990s Roman Halter became a leader of the successful campaign to get compensation for former slave labourers.

After the war he discovered he was one of just four survivors from his hometown, which had once had a Jewish community of some 800.

Roman Halter, whose paintings are displayed in the Imperial War Museum, is survived by his wife Susie, their three children, Aloma, Ardyn and Aviva, and his grandchildren.

Karen Pollock, chief executive of the Holocaust Educational Trust, paid tribute to Mr Halter. "He was a man who survived unimaginable experiences and who will be remembered by all of us at HET for his great intellect, talent, dignity and above all, his warmth," she said.

"He will be hugely missed."

MP pushing for release of Auschwitz ﬁles

Martin Bright — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 13:23:34 +0000

The Ministry of Defence and the National Archives were under increasing pressure this week to release papers relating to Yitzhak Persky, the father of Israeli president Shimon Peres, who was held in a prisoner of war camp for British soldiers at Auschwitz.

Robert Halfon, the Conservative MP for Harlow, has written to Defence Secretary Philip Hammond asking for his help in releasing Mr Persky's service record.

The young Polish Zionist from British mandate Palestine joined the Royal Engineers as a sapper on the outbreak of war but was captured in Greece, where he possibly took on the identity of a fallen comrade from New Zealand. He spent the rest of the war in various PoW camps across Nazi occupied Europe.

The Israeli president has previously spoken publicly about his father being held in Lamsdorf, a massive facility in Silesia of which the Auschwitz camp was a satellite. His autobiography states that his father was held near Auschwitz.

Any new documents about Mr Persky are likely to shed light on the story of his close friend Sergeant-Major Charles Coward, who was honoured as a righteous gentile for the help he gave to Jews held in Auschwitz.

The Peres family remained in touch with Mr Coward after the war and helped him find work via Chaim Morrison, deputy chair of the predecessor organisation to the United Jewish Israel Appeal.

German documents held by the Wiener Library show that as of December 1943, the camp at Teschen, which had taken over from Lamsdorf, held 10,537 British prisoners, of whom more than 772 were identified as Jewish.

The files also contain a complaint to the Swiss legation in Germany about the cold-blooded shooting of two British Jewish PoWs called Krauze and Eizenberg.

Researchers at Yad Vashem and the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum have agreed to help the JC in its hunt for further details on the British prisoners of war in Auschwitz.

The Ministry of Defence and the National Archives have yet to issue a statement about the whereabouts of any unopened files.

Hungary's far-right: Jews not welcome here

Orlando Radice — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 13:23:33 +0000

The foreign affairs spokesman of Jobbik, the ultra-nationalist party poised to play a leading role in Hungarian politics, has openly questioned the Holocaust and claimed that Jews are colonising the country.

In a shocking interview with the JC, Marton Gyongyosi also said that Israel's treatment of the Palestinians amounted to a "Nazi system".

Based on this assessment, he questioned whether Jews "have the right to talk about what happened during the Second World War".

Terrifyingly for Hungary's 150,000-strong Jewish community, Jobbik, which currently holds 47 parliamentary seats, is set to capitalise on the country's current economic and political woes. Hungary is facing economic meltdown, with unemployment at 10.6 per cent and an IMF bailout increasingly likely.

A senior civil servant in the Hungarian Foreign Ministry warned about the party, also notorious for its homophobia and anti-gypsy stance: "We are very, very worried. The prime minister could easily fail in the coming months, taking the ruling party down with him, and Jobbik is well-placed to become the largest party in Parliament in an election."

In 2007, Jobbik's president, Gabor Vona, founded the Magyar Garda, a now-banned civil defence force which uses the same insignia as the Arrow Cross, the Hungarian fascist movement that helped the Nazis murder many of the country's Jews.

Far from seeking to whitewash his party's reputation ahead of a possible role in government, Mr Gyongyosi, a fluent English speaker, questioned whether 400,000 Jews really were killed or deported from Hungary during the Second World War. "It has become a fantastic business to jiggle around with the numbers," he said.

Despite Hungary's economic problems, Jobbik is against foreign investment and sees Israeli business as a threatening force inside the country.

Referring to a speech made by Shimon Peres in 2007 in which the Israeli President celebrated the success of Israeli businessmen around the world, including Hungary, Mr Gyongyosi said: "Jews are looking to build outside of Israel. There is a kind of expansionism in their behaviour. If Peres is supporting colonisation, it is a natural reaction for people to feel that Jews are not welcome here."

In a court case filed last year in Chicago, a group of Holocaust survivors and descendants of victims are suing the Hungarian state railway company for its role in transporting Jews to Auschwitz. The subject provoked fury in Mr Gyongyosi, who said: "This money-searching is playing with fire in Hungary."

When it was suggested that Hungary should face up to and apologise for its role in the Holocaust, Mr Gyongyosi said: "Me, should I say sorry for this when 70 years later, I am still reminded on the hour, every hour about it? Let's get over it, for Christ's sake. I find this question outrageous."

Meanwhile, Jobbik is actively developing a relationship with Iran. In January last year, Mr Vona took the Iranian ambassador to the Hungarian town of Tiszavasvari, which Mr Vona called "the capital of our movement". And in October, Jobbik hosted a large Iranian delegation to Hungary, at which Mr Vona declared: "For Iran, Hungary is the gate to the West."

Mr Gyongyosi appeared to support Iran in its oft-stated aim to wipe Israel off the map. He said: "I always support the position of a threatened country.

"Iran is in the centre of a Middle East axis that Israel and the US want to subjugate and keep under their control. Iran is an extremely peaceful country and never started a war, unlike Israel which has declared wars on anything and everybody around it."

Israel, says Mr Gyongyosi, was founded by "terrorists" and today runs a "Nazi system, based on racial hatred. Look at Lieberman, he's no different to Goebbels. He is a pure Nazi." And Israel's policies in the West Bank and Gaza, which, according to Mr Gyongyosi, amount to shooting women and children and building an "apartheid wall", mean that "the Jews don't have the right to talk about what happened in the Second World War."

Zoltan Balog, Hungary's Minister of State for Social Inclusion, said: "Jobbik play a dangerous game. They are making use of old paranoia at a time of economic crisis."