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Jewish Journal

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June 27, 2012

Reform congregations in Hungary turn to court for recognition

Leave a Comment / Judaism, Mobile, News /

The European Union for Progressive Judaism and Hungary’s two Reform congregations took their case against Hungary’s new law on religion to the European Court of Human Rights in The Hague.

The two synagogues, Sim Shalom and Bet Orim, said in a statement that they had submitted an application Tuesday to the court “concerning the violation of their human rights” caused by the “Church Law.” The new law, which became effective Jan. 1, grants official recognition to three streams of Judaism in Hungary: Neolog (Hungarian Conservative), Orthodox and Status-quo (associated with Chabad-Lubavitch) congregations.

“As a consequence of the entry in force of the Act, the ‘church’ status of the Hungarian [Reform] congregations was revoked,” the statement said.

The two Reform communities contend that the new law is “illegal” and “discriminatory,” the statement said, and had already called on the Hungarian Constitutional Court to annul it.

Reform congregations in Hungary turn to court for recognition Read More »

Police question Budapest rabbi over misuse of information

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A whistle-blowing Budapest rabbi was questioned by police for what has been described as the misuse of sensitive private information stemming from a personal conflict within the Jewish community.

Rabbi Zoltan Radnoti was interrogated June 22 at a local police station, fingerprinted and photographed. The investigation stems from a case last year in which Radnoti revealed that a high-level official in the Jewish community was not Jewish according to Jewish law, as his mother was Christian.

At the time, the man, who was identified publicly as E.O., was the president of a Budapest synagogue and also a senior legal adviser to the leadership of Mazsihisz, the main Jewish umbrella organization. As a result of Radnoti’s revelations, E.O. lost his position.

O.E. subsequently complained to police that Radnoti’s revelations had prevented him from practicing his religion and that the rabbi had misused his personal data. Radnoti said that as a religious authority, he was maintaining halachah, or Jewish law.

On Tuesday, Mazsihisz and Hungary’s chief rabbi issued statements pledging to support Radnoti, saying that the case was an internal Jewish religious affair and should not be dealt with by the police or civil court.

Police question Budapest rabbi over misuse of information Read More »

Iranian VP blames ‘Zionists’ for illicilt drug trade

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An Iranian vice president blamed “Zionists” for the global drug trade and said the Talmud encourages promoting addiction in non-Jewish communities.

Mohammad Reza Rahimi, Iran’s first vice-president, made the comments Tuesday during ceremonies marking the International Day Against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking in Tehran. He said evidence of the Zionists’ direct involvement in illicit drugs is the fact that “you cannot find a single addict among the Zionists,” the semi-official Iranian FARS news service reported.

Referring to the Talmud, he said, “The book teaches them how to destroy non-Jews so as to protect an embryo in the womb of a Jewish mother.”

European diplomats were among those in attendence at the United Nations-sponsored ceremony.

Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman condemned the speech and added that “Hitler said crazy things too – and he was able to execute his plan.”

The Anti-Defamation League called on U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to immediately condemn the incendiary anti-Semitic and conspiracy-laden speech.

“To all those who thought that anti-Semitism is a thing of the past, certainly this makes it very clear that it is alive and well again,” ADL National Director Abe Foxman said in a statement. “What makes it more sinister and dangerous is the fact that it comes from a leader of a country that has vowed to destroy the Jewish state and is making efforts to obtain the means to do it.”

Iranian VP blames ‘Zionists’ for illicilt drug trade Read More »

Prosecutors drop charges in Brooklyn sex abuse case

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Prosecutors dropped all charges against a group of men who were accused of sexually abusing a young Brooklyn haredi Orthodox woman for eight years.

The Brooklyn District Attorney’s Office dropped the charges on Tuesday against four Crown Heights men accused of raping and forcing the woman to serve as a prostitute in their neighborhood since she was 13, according to reports.

A Brooklyn judge dismissed the case after questions arose about prosecutors withholding evidence that suggested the men were not guilty.

In addition, the accuser, who has a history of mental illness, apparently retracted her story in April, which caused the case to crumble.

Following the dismissal of the charges, the father of the victim released a statement criticizing the district attorney’s decision.

“Our family has the misfortune of living under the jurisdiction of the Brooklyn District Attorney, who regards the psychological confusion and fear my daughter experienced during her enslavement as proof that she sought out, enjoyed and deserved her victimization,” the father said in a statement, according to the New York television station WPIX.

Prosecutors drop charges in Brooklyn sex abuse case Read More »

Former Hamas commander convicted of 46 murders

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A former commander of Hamas’ armed wing was found guilty in the deaths of 46 people in terror attacks.

Ibrahim Hamed, a former commander of Hamas’ Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades, was convicted Wednesday in an Israeli military court on 46 counts of murder, as well as of four counts of accessory to murder and four counts of attempted murder.

Hamed was found to be the architect of several deadly attacks inside Israel, including three attacks in Jerusalem—on Zion Square in 2001, in which 10 people were killed; on Cafe Moment in 2002, in which 11 were killed; and on Cafe Hillel in 2003, in which seven were killed and 57 wounded.

Prosecutors have asked that Hamed be sentenced to 56 life sentences.

Hamed was arrested in the West Bank in 2006. His house had been demolished in 2003 and his family deported to Jordan.

Former Hamas commander convicted of 46 murders Read More »

German court ruling on circumcision riles Jewish community

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Germany’s top Jewish leader called on the federal Parliament “to ensure religious freedom” following a Cologne court ruling that said circumcising young boys on religious grounds amounts to grievous bodily harm.

Though Monday’s decision by the District Court of Cologne does not outlaw circumcision, it is still “outrageous and insensitive,” Dieter Graumann, head of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, said in a statement issued Tuesday.

Ritual circumcision by a medical doctor or a mohel with “medical competency” is “an integral part of the Jewish faith that has been practiced around the world for millennium,” he added. “This right is respected in every country of the world.”

The court ruled that the “fundamental right of the child to bodily integrity outweighed the fundamental rights of the parents.”

The decision involved the circumcision of a Muslim boy in Cologne. The parents took their 4-year-old to a hospital several days after his ritual circumcision in 2010 after they became concerned about bleeding from the incision.

According to reports, the bleeding was normal and quickly brought under control. However, local prosecutors filed suit against the doctor. A lower court ruled on behalf of religious freedom and the right of parents to decide.

On appeal, however, a higher court gave precedence to the right of the child to be protected from bodily harm and that the “fundamental right of the child to bodily integrity outweighed the fundamental rights of the parents.”

The doctor was acquitted on all charges, but the ruling suggests that those performing circumcisions in the future could be committing a criminal offense, since the court holds the right of the child sacrosanct.

Berlin attorney Nathan Gelbart worries about the notion that “the parents have to accept that only the child can decide about his religion when he grows up, and that circumcision is a pre-decision” being forced on the child.

Other courts are not restricted by the decision of the Cologne court, one of 55 district courts. The ruling could be appealed to a higher court, and is not binding unless there is a decision by the High Court of Justice or High Constitutional Court.

Meanwhile, Holm Putzke, a professor of criminal law at the University of Passau who has argued for several years for a ban on involuntary circumcision, told JTA that he hoped the ruling would spark discussion in Germany about “what should be given more weight, religious freedom or the right of children not to have their genitals mutilated.”

In late 1999, Germany’s top court ruled in favor of religious freedom, protecting the right to Islamic ritual slaughter and, by association, kosher slaughter. The ruling came after an Islamic butcher challenged a 1995 German law banning the slaughter of animals without stunning them first, which is against the laws of kosher and halal.

German court ruling on circumcision riles Jewish community Read More »

Acclaimed writer Nora Ephron dead at 71

Leave a Comment / Entertainment, Hollywood, Is Featured?, Lead Story, Mobile, News /

Writer and film director Nora Ephron, known for work on movies such as “When Harry Met Sally,” has died in New York at age 71, according to media reports Tuesday night, hours after it was first revealed that she was gravely ill and near death.

A spokeswoman for her agency, Los Angeles-based Creative Artists Agency, declined to comment on the reports. Nicholas Latimer, a spokesman at publishing company Random House, told Reuters Ephron was “gravely ill.”

He could not confirm reports that she had died, which was reported by The New York Times, The Washington Post and show business newspaper Daily Variety.

Earlier on Tuesday, New York based gossip columnist Liz Smith told entertainment industry website The Hollywood Reporter that she had spoken to Ephron’s son, Jacob Bernstein, and the family is already planning a funeral.

“I was told this morning that she was dying, but I can’t confirm it,” The Hollywood Reporter quoted Smith as saying.

ABC News posted a story on its website citing sources close to the family as telling the TV network Ephron is “gravely ill.”

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Ephron, known for screenplays “When Harry Met Sally,” “Sleepless in Seattle” and more recently, “Julie & Julia,” which she also directed, had not publicly addressed suffering from any illness in recent months.

During a long career, Ephron has written for newspapers and magazines. She published books and essays, but is perhaps best known for her work in movies.

She was nominated for three Academy Awards for writing romantic the comedies “Harry Met Sally,” “Sleepless in Seattle” and drama “Silkwood.”

Reporting By Piya Sinha-Roy; Editing by Bob Tourtellotte and Philip Barbara

Acclaimed writer Nora Ephron dead at 71 Read More »

VIDEO / Israel and the Diaspora: Two sides of the same coin?

Leave a Comment / Israel, Israel, United States, Worldwide /

Yesterday, I hosted a panel on Israel and the Diaspora at the Jewish Agency Assembly in Jerusalem. Joining me were Ed Rettig, the director of the Israel/Middle East office at the American Jewish Committee; Solly Sacks, the director-general of the World Mizrahi Movement and member of the Jewish Agency Executive; Rabbi Rick Jacobs, the new president of the Union for Reform Judaism; and Rabbi Vernon Kurtz, president of the World Organization of the Zionist arm of the Conservative Movement and member of the Jewish Agency Board of Governors.

The debate touched on a wide range of subjects, including the question of whether American Jews are really shying away from the term Zionist, the Zionism of Israeli Jews, the dominance of the Orthodox tradition at the Western Wall, and what Israeli Jews expect from their brothers and sisters in the Diaspora.

Do the two sides really understand each other? What is Zionism today? What role should the State of Israel have in Jewish religious practices? Hear what our distinguished panel has to say on these topics and more.

 

VIDEO / Israel and the Diaspora: Two sides of the same coin? Read More »

Obituaries: June 29 – July 5, 2012

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Lorraine Adler died May 15 at 88. Survived by daughter Barbara; son Rick; 1 grandchild. Mount Sinai

Evelyn Anapol died May 16 at 90. Survived by daughter Sheila; sons Greg, Michael. Sholom Chapels

Irving Bellings died May 10 at 98. Survived by daughters Janis (Jeff) Susskind, Lauren (Luca) Bellings-Giachino; son David (Lauren); 7 grandchildren. Hillside

Danielle Bercel died May 20 at 61. Survived by mother Barbara Simons; sisters Patti (Rabbi Wayne) Allen, Jan Simons. Mount Sinai

Nettie Berkson died May 8 at 96. Survived by daughter Joyce Greenberg; sons Barry (Deborah), Michael (Arline); 9 grandchildren; 10 great-grandchildren. Malinow and Silverman

Roger Yehuda Bernhoit died May 21 at 72. Survived by wife Nelly; son Sean (Sarah); 2 grandchildren; sisters Gila (Shmulik) Kotlovski, Cipa (Yehuda) Aisner. Mount Sinai

Roslyn Blechman died May 19 at 90. Survived by daughter Laurel. Sholom Chapels

Donald Bleich died May 18 at 65. Survived by brother Phil; niece Adeena; nephews Noah, Micah. Sholom Chapels

Michael Stuart Cohen died May 17 at 56. Survived by wife Cindy Lynn Tanaka-Cohen; daughters Stephanie Mieko, Marissa Sumiko; mother Mildred; father Murray; sister Paula (Lawrence Gootkin); brother Steve. Mount Sinai

Rose Dicker died May 13 at 94. Survived by daughter Elayne Horton; sons Howard (Diana), Gerald; 6 grandchildren; 9 great-grandchildren; sister Betty Brand. Mount Sinai

Morton Feder died May 19 at 81. Survived by wife Marianne; daughter Karen (Lee Scheinbaum); son Robert. Mount Sinai

Ralph L. Fishel died May 10 at 86. Survived by daughter Debra (Wayne) Garrison; sons Arthur, David (Deborah). Mount Sinai

Babette Fishman died May 16 at 87. Survived by daughter Kathy (Alexander) Zvetkoff; stepdaughter Susan (Rictor) Reynolds; 2 grandchildren. Mount Sinai

William Fox died May 12 at 91. Survived by wife Shirley; daughters Leslie, Marnie (Mike) Doody; son Richard. Hillside

Annamarie Franklin died May 12 at 66. Survived by mother Veronique Matyas; brother Eric. Hillside

Dorothy A. Freed died May 13 at 92. Survived by daughters Carol (Richard) Schiff, Jeri (Chris) Kuttig, Myrna (George) Conner; 3 grandchildren; 4 step-grandchildren; 15 great-grandchildren. Mount Sinai

Liya Goldenberg died May 9 at 85. Survived by husband David; sons Yacov (Svetlana), Michael (Rita); 3 grandchildren. Mount Sinai

Walter Grover died May 11 at 85. Survived by wife Eve; sons Ronald (Valerie), Jeffrey (Shawn); 3 grandchildren. Mount Sinai

Barbara J. Hornichter died May 20 at 68. Survived by son Andrew; daughters Melissa (Bill) Mol, Alison (Senen) Bagvio; 4 grandchildren; mother Helen Rosin; sister Carol (Jerry) Muchin; brother Charles (Karen) Rosin. Mount Sinai

Leonard Hoffman died May 11 at 83. Survived by wife Bernice; daughter Pam Wood. Sholom Chapels

Lois Haynes Hoffman died May 10 at 89. Survived by daughter Marcieann Koerper; son Michael; 5 grandchildren; 4 great-grandchildren. Hillside

Mollie B. Holstein died May 9 at 94. Survived by daughter Elaine Peterson; son Burt; 3 grandchildren; 1 great-grandchild; brother Seymour Birnbaum. Mount Sinai

Annette Devora Kahan died May 13 at 95. Survived by daughter Badonna (Ronald) Retin; son Alan (Karen); 3 grandchildren; 6 great-grandchildren; 3 step-grandchildren; 6 step-great-grandchildren; 1 step-great-great-grandchild. Mount Sinai

Irving Kerper died May 16 at 86. Survived by wife Florence; daughters Tegan Badgerow, Robin (William) Mott; son Stephen (Karen); 5 grandchildren; sister Celia Fellner. Mount Sinai

Rosalyn Elaine Levine died May 19 at 90. Survived by daughters Marci (Thomas) La Berge, Nessa (Steven Shiffrin); 2 grandchildren. Mount Sinai

Paula Mandl died May 12 at 95. Survived by daughter Linda Covette; 3 grandchildren; 3 great-grandchildren. Hillside

Marilyn Singer Matty died May 7 at 85. Survived by daughters Debbie (Bruce) Brown, Tina (Murray) Caplan Weiss, Barbara (Jon) Skarin; son Glenn (Anita); 12 grandchildren; 15 great-grandchildren; sister Rhea Pruce. Mount Sinai

Susan E. Morhar died May 12 at 68. Survived by husband Ronald; daughter Nicole Oswalt; son Adam (Suzana); 4 grandchildren; brother Bryant (Rita) Richmond. Mount Sinai

Jesse Orellana died May 8 at 16. Survived by mother Amy Masters; father Armando; sisters Ashly, Michelle; brother Daniel; grandmother Miriam Korn. Mount Sinai

Arda B. Paley died May 17 at 86. Survived by nieces Carey Hurlock, Esther (Wallace Callahan) Breck; nephew Bob Owens. Mount Sinai

Gerald Plessner died May 20 at 77. Survived by son Mitch (Gayle Shapiro); daughters Janice, Ellen Bartell; 9 grandchildren; sister Doris (Zolan) Gilgus. Mount Sinai

Julia Robinson died May 21 at 98. Survived by daughters Marcia Metzger, Harriet Bussel; 4 grandchildren. Malinow and Silverman

Dora Ruta died May 9 at 87. Survived by daughter Stella (David) Eliezrie; son Martin (Marjorie); 8 grandchildren; 16 great-grandchildren. Chevra Kadisha

William Senkfor died May 8 at 94. Survived by wife Rosalyn; sons Burton (Jo Ann), Michael; 2 grandchildren; sister Anne Narvy; brothers Maury (Mona), Leonard. Mount Sinai

Michael Craig Slater died May 19 at 57. Survived by mother Marlene Traxler; sister Denise Ctibor; father Ernest. Mount Sinai

Myra Sokol died May 9 at 71.  Survived by husband Stephen; daughters Danielle (James), Stephanie Sokol; sons Eric, Adam (Joline); 4 grandchildren. Hillside

Sara Spitzer died May 3 at 82. Survived by daughters Judy (Marvin) Wolf, Susan (Jeremy) Templer; son Les (Phyllis); 5 grandchildren; 2 great-grandchildren. Mount Sinai

Mark Victor Spiwak died May 5 at 61. Survived by sons Jonathan, Andrew; father Larry; sister Julie Diane Michelson; brother Robert Michael Symms. Mount Sinai

Nina Gould Ury died May 13 at 93. Survived by daughter Evaleene (Jeff) Kopelow; sons Matthew, Andrew La Vigne. Mount Sinai

Bruce Varon died May 16 at 55. Survived by wife Jillian; daughters Lauren, Destina; son Samuel; mother Bette; sister Michele (Janine). Mount Sinai

June T. Victor died May 20 at 83. Survived by sons Michael “Mickey” (Julianne), Barry; 4 grandchildren; 2 great-grandchildren. Mount Sinai

Ruth Weiner died May 18 at 91. Survived by daughter Judy Ihrig. Sholom Chapels

Sylvia Weiss died May 19 at 84. Survived by daughter Karyn (Todd) Eichenberger; son Stuart (Marla); 4 grandchildren. Mount Sinai

Jerry Werlin died May 10 at 85. Survived by wife Barbara; daughters Laura, Andrea. Hillside

Arthur Edwin Wright died May 21 at 83. Survived by wife Leslie; daughters Cynthia Kolson, Juliet Hawley, Leslie Ann; sons Art, Christopher; 6 grandchildren; 2 great-grandchildren. Mount Sinai

Obituaries: June 29 – July 5, 2012 Read More »