Cemetery Vandalized
BERLIN — Vandals attacked Europe’s largest Jewish cemetery twice last week, Berlin police said. Some 20 gravestones and 10 stones from a nearby wall were found overturned April 30 in Berlin’s Weissensee Cemetery in what police called a politically motivated crime. Graves in another section of the cemetery were found ravaged the previous day. The graveyard in the former East Berlin was dedicated in 1880 and is still in use. A national historical monument, the 115,000-grave site has been subject to vandalism in recent years.
Student Charged
GRAND FORKS, N.D. — A student was charged in an incident that helped drive a Jewish freshman from his dorm. Spencer Garness, who allegedly wrote “Scott is a Jew” in a residence elevator at the University of North Dakota, was charged April 29 with disorderly conduct, which could lead to 30 days in jail and a $1,000 fine. Freshman Scott Lebovitz said it was one of a series of anti-Semitic acts that led him to leave his dorm this month. Students had taunted him for months, and in February, a swastika was found on a wall by his room.
‘Al Nakba’ Recalled
NEW YORK — Arab student groups at Columbia University last week marked the 60th anniversary of Israel’s founding, which Arabs call “the catastrophe.” Events included hanging 2,000 posters, each marked with the name of a destroyed Palestinian village, and a faculty discussion with anthropology professor Nadia Abu El-Haj and Prof. Joseph Massad, whom Jewish students have accused of harassment.
Rabbis Urge Boycott
NEW YORK — Leading Jewish rabbis and lay leaders are urging Jewish tourists not to attend the Beijing Olympics. More than 175 people, including the heads of Reform and Conservative Judaism, signed the April 30 appeal. It was initiated by two New York Orthodox rabbis, Haskell Lookstein and Irving Greenberg, after they learned China set up a kosher kitchen for Jewish tourists. “We are deeply troubled by China’s support for the genocidal government of Sudan, its mistreatment of the people of Tibet, its denial of basic rights to its own citizens, and its provision of missiles to Iran and Syria, and friendship for Hamas,” the statement said.
Hillary Irks Iran
NEW YORK — Iran lodged a complaint at the United Nations over Democratic presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton’s threat to destroy Iran if it attacked Israel with nuclear weapons. Iran’s deputy ambassador to the UN blasted Clinton in a letter to Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, saying she made a “provocative, unwarranted and irresponsible statement.”
Yad Vashem Photo Archive Goes Online
JERUSALEM — Marking Holocaust Martyrs’ and Heroes’ Remembrance Day on May 1, Yad Vashem last week uploaded its photo archives to www.yadvashem.org.
Some 130,000 images were uploaded from the collection, the largest of its kind in the world. They include photos from ghettos and deportations, as well as images of slave labour, the camps, liberation and more. Many are being made public for the first time.
Users can search the database by topic, name or location. Photos are linked to information on their content, and when users click on an image, a map opens that shows the location of places cited in the photo’s caption. Other links enable expanded searches.
“We are hoping that it will increase public awareness of the archives’ tremendous importance, and encourage people who have similar photographs and documents to confer them to Yad Vashem for safekeeping,” said Avner Shalev, chairman of Yad Vashem.