Jewish News

German Jews, Muslims Outraged Over Circumcision Ruling

Jewish and Muslim leaders in Germany were united on Wednesday in their condemnation of a German court’s decision to, in effect, outlaw the circumcision of boys.The British Guardian reported that representatives of the two religious communities called the ruling insensitive and discriminatory, saying it was an attack on centuries of religious tradition.On Tuesday, a court in Cologne ruled that non-medical circumcision, practiced ...

German Jews Agree with Travel Ban on Author Grass

Leading German Jewish intellectuals expressed support on Tuesday for Interior Minister Eli Yishai’s decision to ban Günter Grass from visiting Israel because of the writer’s anti-Semitic poem.The Munich-based Jewish historian Michael Wolffsohn told the daily Tagesspiegel that the ban was “absolutely legitimate.” Wolffsohn, a contemporary history professor at the Bundeswehr University in Munich and Israeli native, said it is important ...

German Jewish leader welcomes Hitler exhibition in Berlin

A German Jewish leader has welcomed a new exhibition in Berlin that explores the personality cult surrounding Adolf Hitler that helped the Nazis win and hold power. Stephan Kramer of the Central Council of Jews says it is a good exhibition and a serious approach to the theme.The exhibition will open to the public on October 15 and run till ...

German Jewish leader calls boycotts anti-semitic

Dieter Graumann, the new head of Germany’s Central Council of Jews, on Tuesday issued a blistering attack on German peace activists who are promoting a boycott of Israeli fruit and cosmetic products.“To me, the calls for a boycott – as I have said before in the matter in North Rhine- Westphalia – naturally are anti-Semitic in character,” Graumann told The ...

German Jewish College Shuns Skullcaps After Attack on Rabbi

A Jewish seminary has advised its students not to wear skullcaps in public after Rabbi Daniel Alter, 53, was attacked in front of his young daughter after collecting her from a piano lesson on Tuesday.A group of four young men hit him in the face repeatedly, shouted religious insults and threatened to kill his daughter. The rabbi needed hospital treatment ...

German Green Candidate Quits Over Criticisms of Jews, Muslims

Germany’s Green Party said Monday that a candidate who had described Jews and Muslims as “arseholes” because they practice male circumcision was withdrawing from a state poll.Ulf Dunkel had come under fire from the national Jewish spokesman over two anti-circumcision poems he published.One termed those who circumcise their sons “arseholes” and “blind fanatics.” The other included the line: “Sharpen the ...

German Court Denies Request to Extradite Demjanjuk

A court has denied Spain’s request to extradite John Demjanjuk to stand trial in Madrid on war crimes charges, questioning the evidence presented in the indictment against the former Ohio autoworker and Spain’s jurisdiction, a spokeswoman said Thursday.Demjanjuk was convicted in Germany May 12 of 28,060 counts of accessory to murder after a Munich court found he served as a ...

German Clothing Store Changes Name after Anti-Nazi Protests

A clothing company popular among neo-Nazis has provoked protests in Germany by calling one of its shops “Brevik”, similar to the name of Norwegian mass murderer and anti-immigration militant Anders Behring Breivik.Mediatex apologized on Wednesday for causing offense, saying the shop was named after a Norwegian town and had nothing to do with Breivik who has admitted responsibility for a ...

Georgia claims it has world’s oldest person

Authorities in the former Soviet republic of Georgia claim a woman from a remote mountain village turned 130 on Thursday, making her the oldest person on Earth. Antisa Khvichava from western Georgia was born on July 8, 1880, said Georgiy Meurnishvili, spokesman for the civil registry at the Justice Ministry.Read More: @ news.yahoo.comReaders found more information by searching for:oldest person with ...

George Bush to Mark Zuckerberg: you know what it’s like to be a president

What does Mark Zuckerberg, the creator and president of Facebook, have in common with that other president, George Bush? Quite a lot, apparently.At least, Bush seems to thinks so. He spent an hour in discussion with Zuckerberg in a Facebook interview streamed live from Palo Alto on Monday night, comparing his time in the White House with Zuckerberg’s leadership of ...

‘Gentile sperm leads to barbaric offspring’

Rabbi Dov Lior, a senior authority on Jewish law in the Religious Zionism movement, asserted recently that a Jewish woman should never get pregnant using sperm donated by a non-Jewish man – even if it is the last option available.According to Lior, a baby born through such an insemination will have the “negative genetic traits that characterize non-Jews.” Instead, he ...

Gender segregation on rise in Israel

Posters depicting women have become rare in the streets of Israel’s capital. In some areas women have been shunted onto separate sidewalks, and buses and health clinics have been gender-segregated. The military has considered reassigning some female combat soldiers because religious men don’t want to serve with them.This is the new reality in parts of 21st-century Israel, where ultra-Orthodox rabbis ...