Police are requesting the public\’s help in identifying the perpetrator of synagogue vandalism. On December 5, someone spraypainted a devil on the back wall of Congregation Beth Israel in Los Angeles. The vandalism was captured on video, and police believe a citizen will be able to identify the perpetrator.
A judge declared a mistrial in the case of the gunman who shot up the offices of this city\’s Jewish federation. The King County prosecutor vowed to retry Naveed Haq, 32, who claimed he was not guilty by reason of insanity.
French Jews were relieved to learn of the arrest and conviction of Nizar Ouedrani, a man who assaulted a young Jew wearing a kippah in Paris last July, as the victim was walking toward a synagogue. The incident is one among dozens, but for the first time, Jewish leaders noted, the court opted for a severe sentence.
Community briefs.
Some French remain convinced that the barbaric torture and murder of Ilan Halimi, a 23-year-old Jew, was not an anti-Semitic hate crime.
The kidnap murder has been declared an anti-Semitic act by Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy but also a violent crime whose motive was money. Since Halimi was found abandoned in a suburban train station Feb. 13 and died on the way to the hospital, the affair has been the talk of France.
In late fall of 1999, I wrote a short story, \”Summertime,\” which I eventually included in my collection, \”Assumption and Other Stories\” (Bilingual Press, 2003). When the book reviews started coming in, most noted that particular story\’s unsettling premise.
As some 20 teens beat 18-year-old Rashid Alam with golf clubs and baseball bats in Yorba Linda on Feb. 22, they allegedly yelled \”White Power!\” The attack, which Alam\’s friends said was unprovoked, left the recent high school graduate hospitalized with a fractured jaw and broken bones in his face.
Unable to speak because his jaw is wired shut, friends and family despair that he might have suffered permanent brain damage from the 65 blows he endured.
Police call the attack a hate crime, but have said that it began as a face-off between two rival groups that had fought in the past. Others said it was fueled solely by ethnic hatred.
Ahmed Alam, publisher of the Arab World newspaper in Anaheim, said his son\’s beating underscored the vulnerability now felt by many Arab Americans.
Police have labeled as an arson-related hate crime a fire ignited early Friday at the rear door of a yet-to-open Persian synagogue in Tarzana early Friday morning is being called an arson-related hate crime.
When visiting Berlin you can\’t miss the golden dome of the New Synagogue on Oranienburger Strasse. It towers over the city skyline and stands as a reminder of the rich history of Berlin Jewry. Crowned with the Star of David, the dome also reminds us of persecution and near destruction.
Imagine the shock Temple Knesset Israel members felt when they came to Shabbat services five weeks ago and found scrawled on their wall, \”Jews die\” and a swastika. The Los Feliz congregation is largely elderly; many are Holocaust survivors.
A shock of a different sort awaited them last Saturday: scores of black and Latino teenagers and community leaders convened at the shul for a \”Day of Healing.\”
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