South Carolina\’s superintendent of education has recommended cutting Holocaust education funding to help make up a significant budget deficit. The $31,000 to the South Carolina Council on the Holocaust for Holocaust education programming is part of $71 million in cuts proposed by Superintendent Mick Zais.
The head of the Jewish Voice for Peace in the Los Angeles area was threatened for her involvement in the organization. Estee Chandler, the organization\’s Los Angeles chapter leader, said she found a poster on her front porch last week reading “WANTED for treason and incitement against Jews.” The poster featured her picture and gave information including her workplace, personal information, and the names of her nieces and nephews.
Rep. Gabrielle Giffords spoke for the first time since she was shot. C.J. Karamargin, a spokesman for Giffords (D-Ariz.), told CNN on Wednesday that she had asked for toast.
Jewish Democrats continued their pre-eminence on the powerful U.S. House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee. Democrats have had to roll back their representation on key committees after losing the House in last November\’s elections, but Foreign Affairs remains a redoubt for Jewish members, according to the membership lists released Wednesday.
Directors of Jewish museums and educational institutes in Europe have written an open letter condemning the destruction of a 16-year-old exhibit at the Jewish Museum of Vienna. The exhibit, based on holograms, was removed recently to make way for a new exhibit due to open next summer. According to the museum\’s website, efforts to preserve the exhibit proved technically impossible.
Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour, a likely candidate for the Republican presidential nomination, during a speech in Israel called Iran the biggest threat to world stability. \”We must recognize and focus on Iran as the crucial strategic issue in the region,\” Barbour said Wednesday at the prestigious Herzliya Conference, an annual policy and strategic gathering.
A handwriting expert witness failed to confirm whether a signature on a Nazi death camp ID card was that of John Demjanjuk. In testimony at one of the last sensational war crimes trials in Germany, handwriting expert Beate Wuellbeck last week told the Munich state court that not enough letters were clear on the Sobibor identification card and thus she could not verify the authenticity of the signature.
The New York Times apologized for allowing a writer who has attended pro-Palestinian rallies to co-author a story claiming that Jewish criticism of Israel has grown in the San Francisco region. The Feb. 3 article, headlined \”A Jewish Group Makes Waves, Locally and Abroad,\” covered tensions among Jews in the area. It focused particularly on Jewish Voice for Peace, which is noncommittal on whether Israel should become a binational state.
Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick will lead a state trade delegation to Israel. Patrick, a Democrat, will tour Britain and Israel from March 7 to 17, his office said Tuesday, according to the Boston Globe.
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