Jewish News

Austria’s Freedom Party leader says far-rightists are ‘the new Jews’

The leader of Austria’s far-right Freedom Party, Hans-Christian Strache, came in for sharp criticism Monday after reportedly comparing demonstrations against far-right students with the persecution of Jews.A reporter of the daily Der Standard overheard Strache at a controversial Vienna ball organized by right-wing student unions on Friday.It drew some 2,600 demonstrators, critical of the fact that the event coincided with ...

Austrian pastry maker may face charges for baking Nazi cakes

An Austrian pastry maker faces a criminal investigation for baking cakes with elaborate Nazi designs, a concentration camp survivors’ group said after pressing charges on Tuesday.The Mauthausen Committee says the bakery, located in the village of MariaEnzersdorf near Vienna, offers cakes adorned with a sugary swastika or with a baby raising its right hand in a Nazi salute, pictures in ...

Austrian Jewry Gets New Leader

With Oskar Deutsch slated to be elected president of Austria’s Jewish community on Tuesday evening, a new generation will take over the reins.Deutsch will become the first president born in the country after World War II of the roughly 8,000-member community. The departure of his predecessor, Dr. Ariel Muzicant, who was born in Haifa in 1952 and served as president ...

Austrian Jewish Leader Mends Fences with Ron Lauder

The leader of Austria’s Jewish community said on Friday he had put aside differences with World Jewish Congress head Ron Lauder over Lauder’s alleged interference in the community’s leadership election.Oskar Deutsch, the president of Austria’s official IKG Jewish organization, had last month banned Lauder from IKG property over complaints that he had offered incentives to Deutsch’s rival in an election ...

Austria Investigates Alleged Anti-Jewish Cartoon on Facebook Page of Rightist Politician

Austrian authorities are investigating a cartoon on a rightist political leader’s Facebook page that critics say smacked of anti-Semitism by showing a repulsive fat banker with a large hooked nose and what appeared to be Star of David patterns on his cufflinks, an official said Tuesday.The rightist Freedom Party has called criticism of the caricature politically motivated and said its ...

Austria donates $8M to Auschwitz fund

Austria’s parliament has authorized a donation of €6 million ($8 million) toward helping to renovate a memorial to Holocaust victims who died at Auschwitz.The death camp in Poland was the most infamous of the string of death camps set up by Germany’s Nazis. More than one million people, most of the Jews, died there, the majority in gas chambers.Many Austrians ...

Australia’s Jewish Population Rises to 100,000

Australia’s official Jewish population has risen by about 10 percent in the last five years to nearly 100,000, according to new census data.The findings of the 2011 census, released June 22 by the Australian Bureau of Statistics, showed the Jewish population to be 97,335 – about 0.5 percent of Australia’s total population of 22.5 million.Jewish demographers, however, have long believed ...

Australian Jews Being Accused of ‘Dual Loyalty’

In the wake of the publicity surrounding Prisoner X, Australian Jews are under attack by elements outside and within the Jewish community over charges of “dual loyalty.” The Australian media has been full of stories about Ben Zygier, and how he ended up dead in an Israeli prison, apparently a Mossad agent – and elements in the country are taking ...

Australian Jewish Conference Cancels Far-Left Speakers, Renewing Controversy

The Israel boycott movement reignited controversy in Australia this week after several anti-Zionist speakers were denied a platform at a major Jewish festival.Organizers of Limmud Oz, a local offshoot of the international festival of Jewish learning, canceled a panel of left-wing Jewish speakers that its website had said would appear at its two-day conference in Melbourne next weekend.The decision triggered ...

Australia Holding 2013 Elections on Yom Kippur

Australia scheduled its national elections for Yom Kippur this year, leaving the country’s population of some 110,000 Jews facing a decision of whether to vote on Election Day or to find an alternative arrangement for submitting their ballot.The September 14 date was announced Wednesday by Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard of the Labour Party.Voting is mandatory in Australia, and those ...

Australia Donates $500,000 to Auschwitz Fund

The Australian government donated $500,000 to the Auschwitz-Birkenau preservation fund.Prime Minister Julia Gillard announced the contribution on Thursday at the Jewish Holocaust Center in Melbourne.“The intention of the fund is simple — to ensure that the foundation will never want for money so that Auschwitz-Birkenau will always be conserved,” Gillard said. “We make this gift because Auschwitz is a place ...

Auschwitz or Masada: Is it time to choose again?

On a hot October day in 2010, my wife and I stood atop Masada during a tour of the Holy Land. While our guide told us that most dramatic story of the 960 Jewish Zealots, tears ran down my cheeks. We had just come from the Holocaust Memorial at Yad Vashem where we witnessed the horrific images of Jews put ...