An anti-Semitic sketch in the Netherlands spoofed Netta Barzilai’s winning Eurovision song. The Netherlands Israeli ambassador filed a letter of protest today, which accused the show of encouraging anti-Semitic cliches about Jews and money. Some of the spoofed lyrics included, “If your party’s crashed, make sure you cash on embassies.”
Paraguay opened its new embassy in Jerusalem yesterday, a week after the United States moved theirs. Paraguay originally had an embassy in Jerusalem but closed it in 2012 when Israel stopped its diplomatic mission in Asuncion, the Paraguay capital. The new embassy is in southern Jerusalem’s Malha neighbourhood, near the Guatemalan Embassy that opened on May 16.
A commemorative plaque for Anne Frank was stolen from a sapling in Waalwijk, southern Holland. When the chestnut tree outside of the Amsterdam building Anne Frank hid in during the Second World War collapsed in 2010, cuttings were planted across the world. This sapling was one of the planted cuttings. Unidentified individuals broke the sapling twice in addition to stealing the plaque.
The new actor playing Han Solo in Solo: A Star Wars Story is a Jewish boy named Alden Ehrenreich. Fourteen years ago, Ehrenreich made a film for his friend’s bat mitzvah. Steven Spielberg happened to be at the bat mitzvah, saw potential in Ehrenreich, and invited him to his Dreamworks studio.
McGill University’s response to allegations of anti-Semitism was criticized by students, faculty, and staff. The vote against a pro-Israel leader at the October general assembly of the Students’ Society of McGill University (SSMU) was made public on May 16. Confidence in the university’s leadership was shaken by this incident, according to the final report of the Principal’s Task Force on Respect and Inclusion in Campus Life.
