German Jewish family 'destroyed' after daughter raped, murdered

The 1,000-strong Jewish community of Mainz in Germany has expressed shock over the rape and murder of a 14-year-old Jewish girl by a suspected Iraqi asylum seeker, which has left her family "destroyed." Susanna Feldman was found dead on Wednesday in a wooded area near train tracks in Wiesbaden on the opposite bank of the Rhine, near a refugee center where the suspected attacker lived, according to police. An autopsy showed she had been the victim of a sexual and violent attack. “Our community is in shock. We are trying to help the girl’s family,” said Mainz’s community Rabbi Aharon Ran Vernikovsky in an interview with Ynet.

Susanna Feldman

While Feldman was Jewish, police said there was no evidence her religion was a factor in the crime, and the Central Council of Jews in Germany cautioned against attributing any anti-Semitic motive to her attacker. Police said the Iraqi suspect, whom they identified as Ali Bashar, appears to have left abruptly with his family last week, flying to Erbil, Iraq via Istanbul using fake names. He was a suspect in a string of previous offenses in the area, including a robbery at knifepoint. A Turkish man who wasn't previously known to police was also arrested in the latest high-profile case involving migrants. Feldman went out with her friends two week ago in Wiesbaden 17 kilometers from Mainz, which is located near Frankfurt, and was not seen since. According to initial police assessments, she was sexually assaulted and then choked to death by Bashar, who is believed to have been in a relationship with Feldman. “Susanna was a member of the community,” said Rabbi Vernikovsky. “Her father is not Jewish. He left the family at some stage and now her mother lives with a partner who is also not Jewish. I have come to comfort the family and I have found that it is destroyed. The mother is in complete shock. “The religious community here is a minority. Generally Jews in the city lead quiet lives. There are immigrants in the city as there are in all other cities in Germany, and there were never any problems with them. Susanna had no Jewish appearance,” he noted

Ali Bashar

Officials involved in the ongoing investigation say that the teenager text her mother shortly before she was reported as missing, telling her that she was alright and that she should not come looking for her. The girl was last seen alive at the refugee center, broadcaster ARD reported. ARD said Bashar was known to police because he had become violent with officials over his asylum status, and had previously been suspected in the rape of an 11-year-old girl at the refugee home, although an investigation was inconclusive. The Central Council of Jews in Germany said: "Many of the details of the case are still unclear. We expect a rapid and comprehensive investigation from the prosecutorial authorities, and hard consequences for the perpetrator or perpetrators."

The Council has warned in recent months about an increase in anti-Semitic incidents, and the German government has created a new post to fight anti-Semitism.

Some German Jews have expressed concern about a perceived rise in anti-Jewish prejudice with the influx of mainly Muslim migrants, although German police blame most anti-Semitic incidents on followers of the German far-right.

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Dallas-area church targets 'dangerous isms,' such as Judaism

A Dallas-area church recently distributed flyers advertising a series of weekly seminars it plans to host condemning "dangerous isms" like Judaism, Islamism and liberalism.

Greenville Avenue Church of Christ in Richardson says in the flyers that the Wednesday seminars, being held through August, will "provide a proper response for the Christian."

Pulpit minister Shelton Gibbs III told The Dallas Morning News that while the wording used in advertising could have been better, other faiths run counter to God's order to follow Jesus Christ.

Church says will be more careful of phrasing when promoting future events (Photo: Visual/Photos)

The flyers prompted a social media backlash but Gibbs said the predominantly African-American church doesn't mean to condemn others.

"We're not here to criticize or be antagonistic toward people and to beat them down," he told the newspaper. "There's no threat. The people in the community should not feel a threat."

Atheism, alcoholism and "emotionalism" are some of the other seminar topics. Gibbs said topics such as racism or sexism won't be discussed because "there are only so many Wednesdays in a summer."

The church will be more careful of phrasing when promoting future events, he said.

"We're living in an age where every word means something, and you have to be very careful about the words that you use," Gibbs said. "And I think going forward, I'm sure we'll be able to phrase it where people are drawn in, and not that we have somehow marginalized them and caused them to fear."

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UN releases first education guide on fighting anti-Semitism

The United Nations has released its first ever guidelines on fighting anti-Semitism in education.

UNESCO, the UN's cultural body, launched the publication on Monday in Paris in collaboration with the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, the OSCE.

The guide, aimed to be used by young people, the teaching world, as well as political leaders, was presented by Audrey Azoulay, UNESCO's first Jewish director general.

Audrey Azoulay, UNESCO's first Jewish director general (Photo: Reuters)

Azoulay said that the need for an educational guide has become imperative in today's schools, universities, and other educational institutions.

"Many Jewish communities across the world are facing increasing threats. (Jews) have become targets for terror attacks in Paris, Brussels, and Copenhagen," she elaborated.

"Fear of anti-Semitism, harassment, and even physical assault has grown particularly near Jewish culture centers, religious sites including synagogue, museums, and schools," Azoulay lamented.

"This is a warning call for those who survived the Holocaust. Europe's Jewish communities sense a renewed danger of anti-Semitic attacks," UNESCO's first Jewish director general warned.

"Anti-Semitism is neither the problems of the Jewish communities, nor it requires the communities to deal with it. Anti-Semitism exists in religions and diverse political groups ranging across the entire political spectrum. It is a symptom of a wider social or political problem that indicates tendencies of (social) regression which dangerously harms the social fabric," she added.

UNESCO's director general also underlined that anti-Semitism is usually accompanied by additional displays of hatred, which are based on differences between the sexes as well as on fear of homosexuality.

UNESCO (Photo: AP)

Azoulay added that training educators who are capable of dealing with live discriminative phenomena in educational institutes with the help of the practical guidelines presented in the guide, is the way to fight it online as well.

UNESCO said the guide provides tools to strengthen the resilience of young people to anti-Semitic ideas and violent extremism, such as how to respond to anti-Semitic acts and words in school settings.

It also familiarizes educators with anti-Semitic stereotypes and conspiracy theories as well as developing media skills to help students resist manipulation.

The guide's focuses on three main issues—the connection between anti-Semitism and other human rights matters, encouragement of critical thinking as a means to deal with anti-Semitic contents, and the connection of anti-Semitism and other discriminative groups on the backdrop of religion, ethnic origin, sex and sexual tendency.

In the chapter of "Fighting anti-Semitism through education—guidelines for policy makers," applicable specific instructions of how to battle anti-Semitism as part of human rights promotion are presented as well as ways to protect the young generations from being influenced by anti-Semitic ideas.

Diaspora Jews exposed to anti-Semitism (Photo: EPA)

Personnel from the Anne Frank House in Amsterdam and the Simon Wiesenthal Center in the United States were among those who advised the UN on writing the guide.

The guide is about 100 pages long and is displayed on the UN's website.

Israel had declared its desire to withdraw from UNESCO in 2017 claiming the organization is biased against it following the controversial statements about the Western Wall and the Cave of the Patriarchs issued by UNESCO.

The US was the first to announce it is leaving UNESCO in the wake of the ongoing discrimination against Israel.

UNESCO's initiative to release an education guide meant to fight anti-Semitism seems as an attempt to turn over a new leaf on its relationship with Israel.

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Danes seek to limit male circumcision to those 18 and over

A Danish group says petition seeking to set a minimum age of 18 for non-medical male circumcision in the country has gathered the required 50,000 signatures to send the proposal to Parliament for debate later this year.

Lena Nyhus of the group Intact Denmark told The Associated Press on Saturday that her children’s welfare organization believes “we need to respect a person’s right to decide for themselves” on a possible circumcision when they become an adult.

Circumcision ceremony. 'We need to respect a person’s right to decide for themselves' (Photo: Shutterstock)

The ritual of removing an infant boy’s foreskin is common among Jews and Muslims for religious reasons.

The American Academy of Pediatrics says the health benefits of male circumcision outweigh the risks but not by enough to recommend universal male circumcision. The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says doctors should educate infant boys’ parents about the health benefits of circumcision, which it says reduces the transmission of sexually transmitted diseases, including HIV.

A recent poll commissioned by Danish TV2 broadcaster found that 83 percent of respondents supported such an age limit on circumcising boys.

However, the proposal is unlikely to pass since none of Denmark’s main political parties support it.

Earlier this year, Icelandic lawmakers initially backed a plan to ban circumcisions for minors and to give those who performed the procedure possible jail sentences. But after an outpouring of criticism, including from European Jewish leaders, the proposal was dropped.

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Anti-Semitic caricature removed from Belgian textbook

Two months after Ynet first made public a Belgian textbook contained a caricature that could be construed as anti-Semitic, the country's Education Ministry announced Thursday that the upcoming edition of the book will be published without the offensive drawing. A letter forwarded by Belgian Education Minister Hilde Crevits Thursday to attorney Yifa Segal, director of the International Legal Forum—who first exposed the story—notified the lawyer that after a probe and a talk with the book's publisher, the caricature will be removed starting with the book's next edition.

The anti-Semitic caricature will be removed starting with the textbook's next edition

The minister added that, "One of the education system's goals is to bring up the younger generation to become respectable, informed citizens" and that the Flemish government only set a bar on academic achievement, leaving selection of appropriate books to each school.

The matter initially came to light in late March, when the International Legal Forum NGO was informed by parents from Bruges of a geography textbook intended for 15 year olds and approved by the country's education system. The chapter in which the caricature appeared dealt with purported inequality in water distribution between Israelis and Palestinians residing in the West Bank. The caricature showed an overweight Jew with traditional Jewish payos (or sidelocks) asleep in a bathtub filled with water, contrasted with an old Palestinian woman with an empty water bucket. The cartoon—which may have come from the international human rights group itself—carried a caption that read, "Amnesty International: Israel is denying Palestinians access to adequate water … While settlers enjoy lush lawns and swimming pools!"

Attorney Yifa Segal succeeded in having the caricature removed

Attorney Segal, who is deeply involved in the international struggle against the worldwide Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement, was astounded by a copy of the textbook she obtained and consequently sent a scathing letter to the Belgian education minister demanding the anti-Semitic caricature be removed summarily. With her struggle succeeding, Segal welcomed the education minister's decision. "The publication of the anti-Semitic caricature was undoubtedly appalling and regrettable," she added. "We welcome the minister's understanding of the gravity of the matter and her action to expunge it." "Hateful, inciting or anti-Semitic materials are against the law of the European Union, and we cannot but hope that such serious incidents will not recur, and will continue to combat them if they do," she vowed.

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Jewish group questions sainthood for WWII-era cardinal

A leading Jewish organization has criticized the Vatican's decision to move World War II-era Cardinal August Hlond along the path to possible sainthood, saying the Polish primate was "extremely" hostile to Jews and failed to condemn a 1946 pogrom.

 

In a letter to top Vatican officials released Wednesday, the American Jewish Committee said it was "profoundly" concerned that Pope Francis approved a decree recognizing Hlond's "heroic virtues," the first main step in the sainthood process.

AJC's director of interreligious affairs, Rabbi David Rosen, cited a 1936 pastoral letter Hlond wrote in which he urged Poles to stay away from the "harmful moral influence of Jews" and to boycott Jewish media.

Pope Francis' decree that Hlond lived a life of heroic virtue came after investigators compiled a full study of his life, writings and works to determine their theological soundness (Photo: Reuters)

"It is a fact that the Jews are fighting against the Catholic Church, persisting in free thinking, and are the vanguard of godlessness, Bolshevism and subversion," Hlond wrote in the letter, which frequently has been cited as evidence of the Catholic Church's institutional anti-Semitism prior to the modernizing reforms of the Second Vatican Council in the 1960s.

Hlond, who was highest ranking church official in Poland during 1926-48, remains highly respected in the overwhelmingly Catholic country for having kept the faith strong and protected the church's independence during the German Nazi occupation and the first years of post-war communism.

His initiatives safeguarded Poland's Church from the kind of persecution and subjugation that took place in nearby nations.

While living in exile during World War II, Hlond used his influence and personal contacts to speak to the world about Poland's plight under Nazi occupation. When the Germans arrested him, he refused an offer to form a collaborative government.

His devotion to Catholic faith laid the foundations for the emergence of such key figures in Poland's church as Cardinal Stefan Wyszynski and Cardinal Karol Wojtyla, who became Pope John Paul II, now a saint.

Francis' decree that Hlond lived a life of heroic virtue came after investigators compiled a full study of his life, writings and works to determine their theological soundness. The Vatican must still confirm a miracle attributed to his intercession for him to be beatified, and a second one for him to be made a saint.

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New book alleges Anne Frank betrayed to Nazi by Jewish collaborator

Anne Frank and her family were captured by Nazis after being betrayed by a Jewish woman, alleged a new book attempting to uncover the mystery of the Frank family being found in a secret annex of an Amsterdam building in 1944. The Guardian newspaper reported Friday that according to the book—titled "The Backyard of the Secret Annex"—Dutch-Jewish collaborator Ans van Dijk reported their hiding place. Van Dijk was executed after the second World War for her collusion with the Nazis, after confessing to giving up 145 Jews, including her own brother and his family.

A new book alleges Anne Frank and her family were given up to the Nazis by a Jewish collaborator (Photo: AFP)

While it had been claimed she was also guilty of turning over the Frank family, the Anne Frank House museum in Amsterdam and its research center failed to reach any conclusion on the matter, despite studies and a police investigation into her actions.

In his new book, however, author Gerard Kremer, 70, claimed he has solved the mystery. Kremer's father was a member of the anti-Nazi Dutch underground, and was an acquaintance of van Dijk in Amsterdam. The author's father, who died in 1978, was said to have been a caretaker in an office building in the Dutch capital, two floors of which were taken over by the German authorities and the Dutch Nazi organization—the NSB—during the Nazi occupation of The Netherlands. Kremer's father recounted van Dijk's arrest by the Nazi intelligence service on the first day of Easter in 1943. After her arrest, she made frequent visits to the building, in costume, and used telephones in the appropriated offices. The book further showed that Kremer overheard talk in the Nazi offices in early August 1944 regarding the region where Frank and her family were hiding, and that van Dijk took part in those conversations.

Dutch-Jewish collaborator Ans van Dijk was later executed for treason

Anne and her family members were arrested August 4, while van Dijk left Amsterdam for The Hague. A spokeswoman for Anne Frank House told The Guardian that the museum contacted the book's author, but he could provide no evidence proving van Dijk's culpability. "We consider Gerard Kremer's book as a tribute to his parents," she said, "based on what he remembers and has heard. In 2016, the Anne Frank House carried out research into the arrest of the Frank family and the other four people in hiding in the secret annex." "Ans van Dijk," she continued, "was included as a potential traitor in this study. We have not been able to find evidence for this theory, nor for other betrayal theories." After the war and van Dijk's move to The Hague, she was arrested at a friend's house on June 20, 1945. She was later charged with 23 counts of reason and brought before a special tribunal in Amsterdam, where she confessed to all counts and was sentenced to death.

A spokeswoman for Anne Frank House said van Dijk had been included in a list of potential traitors, but that no conclusive evidence was found to show she was to blame (Photo: Massimo Catarinella, from Wikipedia)

Her subsequent attempts to appeal the verdict and receive a royal pardon, with the claim she was merely acting out of self preservation, failed and she was executed by firing squad in January, 1948. The night before her execution she was baptized and joined the Roman Catholic Church. Simone van Hoof, a spokesman for Lantaarn, the book's publisher, said, "We can't claim that this is 100 percent the answer but we really do think it is a part of the puzzle that may be able to complete the story."

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