11 Arrested in Desecration of Venezuela Synagogue

11 Arrested in Desecration of Venezuela Synagogue
Seven police officers were among 11 people arrested for involvement in an attack on a Venezuelan synagogue. One of the arrested men was reported to be a guard at the synagogue.

In an attack on the Tiferet Israel Sephardic synagogue in Caracas last month, vandals threw Torah scrolls on the floor and damaged them and painted epithets, such as “death to the Jews,” on the synagogue’s walls. A roster of member families also was stolen.

The attack is seen as an outgrowth of anti-Semitic rhetoric by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez that grew increasingly strident during Israel’s military operation in Gaza. Chavez also accused his political opposition of staging the attack.

“What a coincidence, the gang leader is a metropolitan police officer who for the last four years was the personal bodyguard of the synagogue’s rabbi,” Chavez said in an interview Sunday with the Venevision TV station, Reuters reported.

Chavez broke diplomatic ties with Israel on Jan. 6, while the Gaza operation was ongoing, expelling its ambassador and staff.

The alleged vandals were arrested during weekend raids and are scheduled to be arraigned Monday.

“We thank the authorities for the quick detention of the suspects,” Elias Farache, president of Venezuela’s Jewish Association, told the Associated Press.

Obama Outlines Plans for Dealing With Iran
President Obama said he believes direct talks may bring “mutual respect and progress” with Iran.

In his first major presidential news conference, Obama outlined his plans Monday for dealing directly with the Islamic republic in a bid to have it end its suspected nuclear weapons program.

Obama said his team was “looking for openings that can be created where we can start sitting across the table face to face, diplomatic overtures that will allow us to move our policy in a new direction” in the coming months.

“It’s important that even as we engage in this direct diplomacy, we are very clear about certain deep concerns that we have as a country — that Iran understands that we find the funding of terrorist organizations unacceptable; that we’re clear about the fact that a nuclear Iran could set off a nuclear arms race in the region that would be profoundly destabilizing,” Obama said. “So there are going to be a set of objectives that we have in these conversations, but I think that there’s the possibility at least of a relationship of mutual respect and progress.”

Obama emphasized again that he would be more engaged in the region than ex-President George W. Bush.

“If you look at how we’ve approached the Middle East, my designation of George Mitchell as a special envoy to help deal with the Arab-Israeli situation, some of the interviews that I’ve given, it indicates the degree to which we want to do things differently in the region,” he said.

Iran Cancels Meeting With Rep. Berman
A senior Iranian official at the last minute canceled a meeting with the Jewish chairman of the U.S. House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee.

Rep. Howard Berman (D-Van Nuys) was to have met in December in Bahrain with Ali Larijani, speaker of the Iranian parliament and formerly the top Iranian nuclear negotiator, The Wall Street Journal reported Monday.

Larijani pulled out just before Berman was to travel, The Journal reported; it was not clear why. Berman had informed the Bush White House and the Obama transition team of his plans, the newspaper said.

Spokesmen for Berman would not comment.

Berman, like his predecessor as chairman, the late Rep. Tom Lantos (D-San Mateo), favors directly engaging Iran while maintaining its isolation until it ends its suspected nuclear weapons program.

Reform Rabbi Reportedly to Be Appointed to Faith-Based Advisory Council
A leading Reform rabbi reportedly will be named part of a new advisory council to the White House Office for Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships.

The Associated Press reported that Rabbi David Saperstein, director and counsel of the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism, would be part of the council, which will meet at least twice a year and include leaders from the religious and secular worlds who have experience in social services.

Others reportedly tapped for the council include the Rev. Joel Hunter, an evangelical Christian; Judith Vredenburgh, Big Brothers and Big Sisters of America president and CEO; and Bishop Vashti McKenzie, the first female bishop in the African Methodist Episcopal Church.

Obama is expected to announce the council and unveil the office this week and has tapped a former Senate and campaign aide, Joshua DuBois, to head it.

President George W. Bush was the first to open a White House office dedicated to funding religious groups performing social service work.

Obama said during the campaign that he wanted to keep such an office but would revamp it and elevate its prominence in policymaking. He also said that he would not allow recipients of federal funding to take religion into account when making hiring decisions.

Jewish Education Coalition to Close
The Coalition for the Advancement of Jewish Education (CAJE) will close at the end of February.

Monday’s e-mail announcement comes a month after CAJE, for 30 years the primary professional development organization for congregational and Hebrew school teachers, said it would not hold its annual conference. CAJE said in the e-mail that it could no longer survive in this economic climate.

Its annual conference on Jewish education drew approximately 1,000 educators, but in January CAJE said it would not hold this year’s event because local Jewish agencies could not afford to send teachers to participate and the organization could not drum up enough funding to pay for the conference.

In the e-mail, CAJE said it was seeking funds to pay off about $500,000 in debt incurred to hold conferences over the past several years.

“It is a major tragedy for Jewish education, and I think it will be missed,” said Jeffrey Lasday, CAJE executive director. “Now we have to look at how local and national organizations can be working closer together.

“My colleagues at other agencies say their agencies are closing down or losing staff,” he continued. “This is an opportunity to rethink how we work together to better education with national and local organizations. Now is the time to rethink the whole thing.”

Poll Finds Little Change in Views on Jews
An Anti-Defamation League study found little change in European attitudes toward Jews over the past two years.

The study, released Tuesday and based on telephone interviews with 3,500 respondents in seven European countries, found that in six of those countries anti-Semitic attitudes had changed little since a similar ADL study was conducted in 2007. In the seventh country, the United Kingdom, there was a “marked decline” in the percentage of respondents who believe that at least three of four anti-Semitic stereotypes presented are “probably true.”

The margin of error for the survey is 4 percent in each country.

In announcing the study, the ADL noted that “millions” of Europeans believe in classical anti-Semitic stereotypes, including that Jews have too much power in business and finance and talk too much about the Holocaust. It also said that nearly half of those surveyed “believe Jews are not loyal to their country,” a finding based on a question that asked if Jews are “more loyal” to Israel than to their country of residence.

“This poll confirms that anti-Semitism remains alive and well in the minds of many Europeans,” said Abraham Foxman, ADL national director. “It is distressing that there seems to be no movement away from the constancy of anti-Semitic held views, with accusations about Jews of disloyalty, control and responsibility for the death of Jesus.”

Overall, the study found that anti-Semitic feeling was most prevalent in Poland, Hungary and Spain, countries in which nearly half the respondents surveyed responded “probably true” to at least three anti-Semitic stereotypes.

France, Germany and the United Kingdom had the lowest such percentages, at 20 percent, 20 percent and 10 percent. Those countries also have the largest Jewish populations in Western Europe.

Briefs courtesy Jewish Telegraphic Agency.