2 ex-Nazi guards indicted for WWII Stutthof camp deaths

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Men in theirs 90s deny knowledge of deaths taking place in camp in Polish city where some 65,000 people perished by gassing, starvation, malnutrition and other cruel methods. 2 ex-Nazi guards indicted for WWII Stutthof camp deaths : http://ift.tt/2zGAo50

Holocaust survior and prolific writer dies age 94

US Supreme Court Justice to be awarded Genesis Prize

A prominent Jewish organization on Wednesday awarded US Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg its first lifetime achievement award.

 

The Genesis Prize Foundation noted Ginsburg's "groundbreaking legal work in the field of civil liberties and women's rights" in its announcement.

Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is to be awarded the Genesis Prize in 2018 (Photo: AFP)

The foundation sponsors the annual Genesis Prize, an award informally known as the Jewish Nobel. It said the five winners of the Genesis Prize—former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, actor Michael Douglas, violinist Itzhak Perlman, sculptor Anish Kapoor and this year's recipient, actress Natalie Portman—had selected Ginsburg. "We honor Justice Ginsburg as an outstanding daughter of the Jewish people who made an enduring contribution to human civilization, who is an example of talent and achievement and who is committed to bettering the world," the five said in a joint statement. "She is a source of inspiration not just for Jews but for people of all faiths and ethnicities around the world."

Ginsburg, 84, has served on the Supreme Court since 1993. She is just the second female justice and often cites her Jewish heritage as a source for her love of learning and sensitivity to the plight of oppressed minorities.

Previous winners Michael Douglas (L) and Michael Bloomberg selected Bader Ginsburg to receive the lifetime achievement award (Photo: Genesis Prize Foundation)

Former Supreme Court Chief Justice Aharon Barak is scheduled to present the award to Ginsburg at a ceremony in Tel Aviv in July 2018. The Genesis Prize was inaugurated in 2014 and is run in a partnership between the Israeli Prime Minister's Office, the private Genesis Prize Foundation and the chairman's office of the Jewish Agency, a nonprofit group with close ties to the Israeli government. It is funded by a $100 million endowment established by the foundation.

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Protestors in 60,000-person Polish rally call to 'remove Jews from power'

Tens of thousands of nationalists marched in a demonstration organized by far-right groups in Warsaw Saturday, as white supremacist Poles celebrating Independence Day chanted xenophobic slogans.

The far-right march was one of many events marking Poland’s rebirth as a nation in 1918 after being wiped off the map for 123 years. Earlier in the day, President Andrzej Duda presided over state ceremonies also attended by European Union president Donald Tusk, a former Polish prime minister.

But the march has become the largest Independence Day event in recent years, overshadowing official state observances and other patriotic events. Some participants expressed sympathy for xenophobic or white supremacist ideas, with one banner reading, “White Europe of brotherly nations.”

(Photo: EPA)

Participants marched under the slogan “We Want God,” words from an old Polish religious song that US President Donald Trump quoted during a visit to Warsaw earlier this year. Speakers spoke of standing against liberals and defending Christian values.”

Many carried the national white-and-red flag as others set off flares and firecrackers, filling the air with red smoke. Some also carried banners depicting a falanga, a far-right symbol dating to the 1930s.

Police estimated that 60,000 people took part. Many were young men, some with their faces covered or with beer bottles in hand, but families and older Poles also participated.

The march has become one of the largest such demonstration in Europe, and on Saturday it drew far-right leaders from elsewhere in Europe, including Tommy Robinson from Britain and Roberto Fiore from Italy.

(Photo: Reuters)

  

State broadcaster TVP, which reflects the conservative government’s line, called it a “great march of patriots,” and in its broadcasts described the event as one that drew mostly regular Poles expressing their love of Poland, not extremists; though one participant in the far-right march interviewd by the channel said he was taking part “to remove Jewry from power.”

The Wall Street Journal reported that some of the protesters chanted "pure white Europe—no Jews, no Muslims" and "purify Poland." 

“It was a beautiful sight,” Interior Minister Mariusz Blaszczak said. “We are proud that so many Poles have decided to take part in a celebration connected to the Independence Day holiday.”

Far-right march on Poland's Independence Day (Photo: AP)

A smaller counter-protest by an anti-fascist movement also took place, drawing about 2,000 participants. Organizers kept the two groups apart to prevent violence. However, there was one incident in which the nationalists pushed and kicked several women who chanted anti-fascism slogans and had a banner saying “Stop Fascism.” Independence Day marks Poland regaining its sovereignty at the end of World War I after being partitioned and ruled since the late 18th century by Russia, Prussia and the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Duda oversaw ceremonies at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, walking past a military guard before the raising of the flags and cannon salutes. After delivering a speech he took part in a wreath-laying ceremony, kneeling and crossing himself at the monument to all unknown soldiers killed fighting for the country.

  

(Photo: EPA)

Tusk, who attended at Duda’s invitation, also paid his respects at the monument.

Ruling party leader Jaroslaw Kaczynski noted that Poland has not always been fully independent since 1918, a reference to Germany’s occupation during World War II and the decades spent under Moscow’s direction during the Cold War. Still, he said: “The Polish state was internationally recognized the whole time and that is a great achievement.”

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Prince Charles letter urges US to confront the 'Jewish lobby'

Prince Charles has come under attack following revelations that he penned a letter advocating for the US administration to “take on the Jewish lobby” and attributing unrest in the Middle East to “the influx of foreign Jews,” according to reports first published in The Mail on Sunday.

In the letter written to a close friend, Laurens van der Post in 1986, the prince highlights the exodus of European Jewry over the course of the 20th century as a phenomenon that "helped to cause the great problems."

Prince Charles (Photo: MCT)

The missive was written following the conclusion of an official visit by the prince and his late wife Princess Diana to Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and Qatar. Sharing with van der Post that he had “learned a lot about the Middle East Arab outlook” during his travels, and delighting in trying “to read a bit of the Koran,” the prince adds “I now begin to understand better their (Arabs’) point of view about Israel. Never realised they see it as a US colony. “I now appreciate that Arabs and Jews were all a Semitic people originally and it is the influx of foreign, European Jews (especially from Poland, they say) which has helped to cause great problems,” the prince wrote at age 38. He then goes on to suggest that the Jewish influx is the cause of terrorism, which can only be stopped when it comes to an end. “I know there are so many complex issues, but how can there ever be an end to terrorism unless the causes are eliminated?” he asks. “Surely some US president has to have the courage to stand up and take on the Jewish lobby in US? I must be naive, I suppose!” The terms “Jewish lobby” is often considered to be inherently anti-Semitic due to the negative connotations it carries with roots in traditional forms of Jew-hatred, depicting an avaricious conspiracy influencing world powers and pulling the strings of international politics. While Prince Charles has never publicly espoused anti-Semitic views, his views on Israel have been called into question. According to a diplomatic source quoted in the Mail Online, at the time of writing the letter “the Prince had in American terms and international terms, fairly dodgy views on Israel. He thinks American policy in the Middle East is complete madness.” By contrast, the Mail Online article details Prince Charles’s warm relations with the Arab world and general propensity among members of the Royal Family to avoid irritating Arab countries by being seen in any way to cosy up to Israel.

Prince Charles during his visit to Bahrain (Photo: AP)

Suspicions of the Royal Family’s adversity to Israel is further underpinned by the fact that not a single member has ever paid an official visit to the 69-year-old country. This year, the prince was scheduled to break the pattern by visiting Israel to mark 100 years since the Balfour Declaration, committing the UK to the establishment of Jewish home in Palestine. Following intervention from the Foreign Office however, citing negative implications vis-a-vis UK-Arab relations, the trip was scribbled off the prince’s itinerary.

 

After the letter surfaced, a Clarence House (the royal residence in London) spokesperson attempted to distance the prince from the views expressed in the letter.

They were “not The Prince’s own views”, but instead reflected the opinions of those he met on his trip.

“The letter clearly states that these were not The Prince’s own views about Arab-Israeli issues but represented the opinions of some of those he met during his visit which he was keen to interrogate,” the statement said.

“He was sharing the arguments in private correspondence with a long standing friend in an attempt to improve his understanding of what he has always recognised is a deeply complex issue to which he was coming early on in his own analysis in 1986.

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Satmar Hasidic group founds new NY town

The residents of Monroe, New York decided Kiryas Joel, the village within Monroe comprising the seat of the ultra-Orthodox Satmar Hasidic group, will break off and become a town unto its own called Palm Tree, effectively creating the United States' first Haredi town.

 

The village was originally named after the Hasidic group's first Grand Rebbe Joel Teitelbaum, and the town will also commemorate the late leader, this time using his last name of Teitelbaum, which is German for "date palm tree."

A Satmar follower votes on creating the new town

 

The anti-Zionist Satmar group's founding rabbi founded his followers' first habitat some 45 years ago, after their original Brooklyn domicile proved insufficient, but also due to fears of external influencing swaying the closed-off Haredi community.

Monroe residents celebrate the results

Now the township will be breaking off on its own, with 84 percent of Monroe's residents supporting the split in a referendum held this past Tuesday in the city. As part of the new town's creation, thousands of miles will be appended to Palm Tree's municipal territory, to be taken from existing nearby neighborhoods.

The Satmar Grand Rebbe writing New York's governor to officially petition him to create the new town

Palm Tree's newfound independence will come with a price tag: the Haredi community will have to operate all attendant municipal services on its own, including garbage collection, policing, fire fighting and rescue services.

The Satmar group will also have to begin issuing building permits, oversee sanitation services, collect municipal taxes, income taxes and sales taxes and operate welfare services.

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Indonesian museum removes Nazi-themed exhibit after outrage

An Indonesian museum that allowed visitors to take selfies with a life-size wax sculpture of Hitler against a backdrop of Auschwitz concentration camp has removed the exhibit following international outrage, the manager said Saturday.

 

De ARCA Statue Art Museum in the Javanese city of Jogjakarta drew swift condemnation from rights groups after details of the controversial display were published in foreign media. The exhibit features a sure-footed Hitler standing in front of a huge photo of the gates of Auschwitz—the largest Nazi concentration camp where more than 1.1 million people were killed.

Visitor taking a selfie with the sculpture of Hitler (Photo: AFP)

The museum’s operations manager, Jamie Misbah, said the wax sculpture had been removed after the building was alerted to criticism from prominent Jewish human rights organization the Simon Wiesenthal Center. “We don’t want to attract outrage,” Misbah told AFP. “Our purpose to display the Hitler figure in the museum is to educate.” The Hitler sculpture is one of about 80 figures, including world leaders and celebrities, at the wax and visual effects centre. The Nazi-themed exhibit was a popular attraction for visitors to take selfies, and photos circulating on social media show customers—including children—posing with Hitler and in some cases using the Nazi salute.

(Photo: AP)

Misbah said he thought it was “normal’ for visitors to take photos in front of displays, but said the museum respected the exhibit had upset people from around the world. Historians have blamed poor schooling for the lack of awareness and sensitivity about the Holocaust in Indonesia, which is home to the world’s biggest Muslim population and a small number of Jews. In January, a controversial Nazi-themed cafe in the western Javanese city of Bandung closed. The venue, which featured swastika-bearing walls and photos of Hitler, sparked global uproar when reports about the unusual venue surfaced several years ago.

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