SA JEWISH REPORT STAFF

Anxiety as swastikas found in children’s playground

LONDON – Police have increased patrols in Stamford Hill after posters bearing swastikas were found in a children’s playground for a fourth day in a row.

The Metropolitan Police said it was “aware of the religiously aggravated material that has been appearing” and that “patrols have been increased and we are doing all we can to investigate this”.

Shomrim, the Jewish neighbourhood watch, first alerted police to posters when they were discovered in the playground on Monday. They have appeared every day since then.

Shulem Stern from Stamford Hill Shomrim said: “There’s a sense of anxiety and fear among local parents. The playground is next to a Jewish Care home where many elderly Jewish residents live, some of them Holocaust survivors.

“It’s a mindless act, I hope the ones responsible are caught and brought to justice.”

Board of Deputies Vice-President Marie van der Zyl said: “The daubing of Nazi symbols in a place where Jewish children study and play is an act of racism intended to spread fear and alarm.”

Stamford Hill, in north-east London, is home to Europe’s largest strictly Orthodox community. – Jewish Chronicle, London

Atlantic Jewish Council director retires after 23 years

HALIFAX, Nova Scotia – The pictures and plaques in the Atlantic Jewish Council offices reflect 23 years of service by its retiring executive director Jon Goldberg.

Halifax-born and raised, Goldberg, 70, will end his term after the biennial AJC convention in November. Toronto-native Naomi Rosenfeld, who attended Camp Kadimah in Nova Scotia and served as Hillel director for Atlantic Canada, will take over the position.

Goldberg is proud of his 23 years at the AJC helm.

“With the support of dedicated lay leaders, we have promoted… an Atlantic Jewish community to the national Jewish organisations,” he said. “There’s been a voice for Atlantic Canada at the highest levels of Canadian Jewry.”

He listed major accomplishments of his tenure including the strong Yom Hashoah and Holocaust Education Week programmes.

Newcomers from Israel have increased the local population by 20 per cent.

A Jewish film festival is now in its third year in Halifax.

Goldberg was instrumental in starting the Atlantic Jewish Foundation with over $1 million to provide education and camp scholarships and assist with projects. He built lasting bonds between Israel and Atlantic Canada.

Kathy Zilbert, a past president of AJC, has worked with Goldberg for 20 years.

“Jon is often thought of as a gruff guy who speaks his mind, but I’ve seen his heart and soft side… Little Israeli children in our Coast to Coast partnership region in the Upper Galilee refer to ‘Big Jon’ as their friend, and rush to see him year after year.- Canadian Jewish News

Israel gold and silver at Rhythmic Gymnastics Championships

HOLON – Israel’s rhythmic gymnastics national team is targeting Olympic glory in Rio after making history last Sunday, winning gold and silver medals at the European Championships in Holon. 

After taking a bronze medal in the all-around final on the opening day of the event last week Friday, the team of Yuval Filo, Alona Koshevatskiy, Ekaterina Levina, Karina Lykhvar and Ida Mayrin won its first-ever gold medal at the European Championships after registering a score of 18,316 in the clubs and hoops final.

Spain finished in second place while Bulgaria took the bronze, with favourite Russia only coming in eighth.

The gold medal performance in the clubs and hoops came shortly after Israel claimed a silver in the ribbons final with a score of 18.400.

Belarus finished ahead of Israel with a score of 18,516, with Spain coming in third.

Israel also won three medals at the European Games in Baku, Azerbaijan last summer, taking silvers in the all-around final and in the clubs and hoops, while clinching a bronze in the ribbons.

The Israel roster was rebuilt at the start of 2014 with the goal of reaching the Olympics for a third straight time in Rio 2016. The previous national teams advanced to the final at Beijing 2008 and London 2012 and the current squad is expected to do the same in Rio and perhaps even challenge for a medal.

Olympic medals are only awarded in the all-around event. – Jerusalem Post

Holocaust survivor doesn’t let age prevent her from spreading message

PHILADELPHIA – Well into her 90s, Holocaust survivor Dr Lena Allen-Shore has an energy that belies her age – and she always remains on point with a message as timely now as ever.

“I will never forget. The Holocaust is in me whatever I do,” she said, pounding a table for effect. “The Holocaust cannot be forgotten. The Jews had been killed before, but never like this.

“I believe that G-d is in me, not because I’m special. I am nobody, but I feel different when I feel G-d.”

Allen-Shore may not believe she’s special, but she’s led an extraordinary life and touched a multitude of people since her 1944 liberation – and more than 35 years after moving to the Philadelphia area.

How many people can claim a nearly 20-year friendship with Pope John Paul II? How about one with famed theologian, philosopher and physician Albert Schweitzer?

How many people write more than a dozen books, compose 100 songs and countless poems and write a cantata that was performed in Poland to commemorate Auschwitz’s liberation?

And how many people at her age can continue to perform those songs, as her still-nimble fingers dance along the piano keys?

How many people obtain a PhD in philosophy, serve as an adjunct professor at Gratz College and establish a centre in her apartment building just off City Avenue that instructs more than 6 000 teachers about art, philosophy and history? -Jewish Exponent

Trump says US needs more racial profiling – like Israel does

LOS ANGELES – Republican presidential frontrunner Donald Trump said last Sunday the United States should consider more racial profiling in law enforcement, after urging harsher policies following last week’s mass shooting in Orlando.

“I think profiling is something that we’re going to have to start thinking about as a country,” Trump said when asked on CBS whether he supported more profiling of Muslims in America.

“You look at Israel and you look at others, and they do it and they do it successfully. And you know, I hate the concept of profiling, but we have to start using common sense,” he added.

Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee for president, has drawn criticism from many in his party for his comments on American Muslims after the Orlando attack, in which a US born Muslim man killed 49 people at a gay nightclub.

Trump also reiterated his support for more scrutiny of mosques, saying that could resemble a controversial New York City surveillance programme that has been shut down.

“If you go to France right now, they’re doing it in France. In fact, in some instances they’re closing down mosques.”

Police in France closed some mosques shortly after gunmen aligned with Islamic State militants killed 130 people in Paris in a series of attacks on November 13 last year.

The Orlando gunman, Omar Mateen, expressed support for Islamic State, but officials believe he was “self-radicalised”.

Trump has drawn criticism from many in his Republican Party for calling for a temporary ban on Muslims entering the United States. He also has called for a suspension of immigration from countries with “a proven history of terrorism”. – Forward, New York

GreenGreens candidate ‘hurts, insults’ community

MELBOURNE – A Jewish Greens candidate, Stephanie Hodgins-May, last week withdrew from a debate arranged by the Australian Jewish News and Zionism Victoria because she was unwilling to participate with a Zionist body as a co-host. Jewish Greens supporters said they were disgusted, dismayed, and disappointed that the Melbourne Ports candidate withdrew from a debate with her Labour and Liberal counterparts, Michael Danby and Owen Guest.

Having claimed she only learnt of Zionism Victoria’s involvement a few days earlier, she told the AJN that she wasn’t comfortable participating in a forum “co-hosted by an organisation that isn’t an independent newspaper” and that she doesn’t believe it is “appropriate and right to speak at an event co-organised by a politically active organisation”.

However, she had actually been informed of Zionism Victoria’s involvement eight days earlier in e-mails from AJN national editor Zeddy Lawrence.

When confronted with the fact that her Greens colleague, Melbourne MP Adam Bandt, would be speaking at the politically active, pro-BDS Australia Palestine Advocacy Network (APAN) last Monday, she then told The AJN she had pulled out because of Zionism Victoria’s “strong political views, including in relation to the United Nations.

“As someone who worked at the UN and holds their work in high regard, I have chosen not to participate in the now co-hosted forum.”

In a further twist, it has emerged that Hodgins-May has agreed to speak at a Q&A run by the Australasian Union of Jewish Students (AUJS), even though it is an organisation which is not only Zionist and politically active, but also an affiliate of Zionism Victoria. – Australian Jewish News