World News in Brief

JTA

The audit showed 2 041 anti-Semitic incidents recorded last year in Canada – 16.5% more than the 1 752 incidents in 2017.

“This represents the third straight record-breaking year for anti-Semitism in Canada, reflecting a ‘new normal’ regarding the landscape of anti-Semitism here,” said Ran Ukashi, the director of B’nai Brith Canada’s League for Human Rights.

Eighty percent of the incidents took the form of “harassment”, and 80% came from online platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube.

US measles outbreak tops 700

The measles outbreak in the United States, especially prevalent among haredi orthodox Jews, has topped 700 cases – the most in one year since the Center for Disease Control (CDC) declared the disease eliminated in the US in 2000.

The record outbreak of 704 cases reported last week by the CDC includes 400 cases in New York and its suburbs.

The CDC pinned the resurgence on the unvaccinated, and those who brought back measles from other countries.

Prominent rabbis in New York have called on their followers to vaccinate their children.

French philosopher afraid to appear in public

Alain Finkielkraut, a Jewish philosopher and one of France’s foremost thinkers, said far-left protests against him meant he could no longer show his face on the street.

Finkielkraut made the remark in response to recent protests against him at the Sciences Po university in Paris, where he spoke at a symposium on Europe’s future.

The demonstrators wrote, “We cannot accept Finkielkraut’s ‘modern Europe’ and his islamophobic, racist, sexist and homophobic rhetoric.” Commenting on the protesters, Finkielkraut said, “You are the fascists. You are the 1930s. You are the anti-Semites.”

Israel issues Sri Lanka warning

Israel recently issued a travel warning of a “high and concrete (terror) threat” in Sri Lanka.

The warning was issued by the Israel National Security Council’s Counter-Terrorism Bureau on Thursday, four days after a terror attack at eight churches and hotels in three cities in Sri Lanka that killed at least 359 people and injured hundreds. It called on Israelis already in Sri Lanka to leave as soon as possible, and for those planning trips to cancel or delay those plans.

Buenos Aires honours Olympic swimmer

Argentinean Olympic swimmer Damian Blaum, who started his career at a Jewish sports club in Buenos Aires, was honoured by the Buenos Aires City Parliament as an “outstanding sports personality” in recognition of his career.

The Jewish athlete in February 2018 set a new record for swimming from Uruguay to Argentina, crossing the Rio de la Plata river in 9 hours, 6 minutes, a distance of about 26 miles (41.8km).