Bagels, donuts, oysters and the Baby Moses

By Donald H. Harrison

EL CAJON, California — As I paused in front of an exhibit case at the Heritage of the Americas Museum on the campus of Cuyamaca College in the Rancho San Diego area, I couldn’t help but think of the late publisher of the California Jewish Heritage newspapers Herb Brin.

Inside the exhibit case was a round stone, with a hole in it, labeled as a Chumash donut stone

I remembered the delight that Brin, poet and publisher, took in learning that the Native Americans who lived in the San Fernando Valley and north from neighboring Ventura County were named the Chumash Indians.  True, they pronounced their name “Chew-mash,” but in Herb’s fertile imagination the name was pronounced “Hoo-mash.”   With that Hebrew pronunciation, “Chumash” means the five books of the Torah, with their chapters typically divided into the parashot of the week.

Brin was so excited by the similarity in names that at the Native-American-oriented Chumash Interpretive Center in Thousand Oaks, he once persuaded all or most of the local rabbis to pose together by the Chumash sign.

However, Brin, the social justice champion, did not simply superimpose Jewish culture upon the culture of Native Americans.  When Russell Means, an Ogala Sioux, campaigned for American Indians rights with demonstrations and occupations of various American landmarks including Alcatraz, the Mayflower replica, and Mount Rushmore, Brin was among those who sympathized editorially with the Native American movement.

The Inter Tribal Council of California subsequently honored Brin with a ceremony in the Los Angeles parking lot of the Heritage offices, presenting him three painted branches in a triangle with an animal skin stretched among them.  At that ceremony, the 6’1 Brin was given the name “Chief Tall Bear” and his wife, Minna, was named Flying Dove.

Standing in front of the exhibit case at the museum, I just knew what Brin’s reaction would have been to the Chumash donut.   “Donut, hell!  That’s a bagel—a Chumash bagel stone!”

The museum was a stop on a walking tour that Dan Schaffer and I took of Cuyamaca College, which can be reached by people living closer to the coast by taking State Highway 94 to its end and continuing on the surface street (it changes names from Campo Road to Jamacha Road) until the traffic signal at Cuyamaca College Drive West. Turn left onto the campus and the museum very quickly is reached on the right side of the road.

Besides by the Chumash bagel—er, donut—I was fascinated by a display of  a set of illustrations by  R. Padre Johnson, depicting the many racial and facial types of our human family.  One large sized illustration depicted the entire earth (as seen from space) surrounded by people in various types of costume.   Smaller illustrations broke the Earth down by geographic regions, including “the Arab World and Israel.”  The Israeli Jew in the image looked like someone I knew.

After being guided around the museum by director Kathleen Oatsvall, Dan and I walked to the nearby  Water Conservation Garden in which techniques for using less water for gardens and lawns in urban settings are demonstrated in pleasant surroundings.  When I saw some plastic piping for drip irrigation, I remembered that it was an Israeli, Simcha Blass, who perfected the technique of drip irrigation and created Netafim, a worldwide company that specializes in low-use water solutions.

Since then Israeli companies have pioneered numerous innovations in agricultural technology.  I couldn’t help but think that the water conservation garden would be a good place for Israel to show the many ways its companies have helped the world preserve its precious resources.

On Dan and I walked across a campus road to a large nursery where students learn to become horticulturalists, gardeners, landscapers, flower growers.  While examining a display of various plant specimens, my eye was immediately drawn to a plant with swword-like green leaves surrounding similar leaves that were purple in color.

The name was “Moses in a Cradle,”  known to scientists as  Tradescantia spathacea, a perennial plant that, according to a label on the pot, will grow to 2 feet in height and 1 foot wide in sun or shade.  It produces white flowers when it blooms.

I walked around the back of the Moses, and to my surprise there was a Walmart tag attached to the pot, which described the plant not as “Moses in the Cradle” but rather as an “Oyster Plant,” with the scientific name Rhoeo spathacea.

Well, now, which is it?  I wondered.  Was the plant named for our great teacher, chosen by God to lead our people out of Egypt?  Or was it named for a sea critter that Moses learned  is traif, not kosher, definitely not something to eat.

I could see the analogy between a baby in a cradle and a pearl in an oyster shell.  But, really now, the idea of a plant being named simultaneously after the great Moses and a non-kosher animal—well, I needed to know which it really was.

Suzi Agosta, lead grower in the ornamental horticulture department of the student-run nursery, told me that the plant definitely was a  Moses in the Cradle.  “We know that because our bible is the Sunset Western Garden Book and in addition to that we use a lot of resources on line,” she said.

If one looks on line, one can find that both Rhoeo spathacea and Tradescantia spathacea are referred to as “Moses in the Cradle.”

“Common names are not good to use,” said Agosta, who also is a teaching assistant for  Cuyamaca College’s trees and shrub course. “Common names can be applied to any number of plants and most plants have several common names.”

Although Rhoeo and Tradascentia are similar enough spathaceas to be called “Moses in the Cradle” in the common vernacular, only one of them—the one in front of us—could be identified as Tradescantia sparthacea.

So next time you call a nursery, instead of saying, “Give me a Moses in a Cradle,” you might want to be more specific.  “Do you have any Tradescantia sparthacea, please?”

Dan and I had walked only a tiny segment of the sprawling Cuyamaca College.  But after our exposure to  Chumash donuts, water conservation techniques, and learning the analogy between the Baby Moses and an oyster, we already felt greatly enriched by our latest college experience!

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Harrison, whose slogan is “There’s a Jewish story everywhere,” is editor of San Diego Jewish World

Bonnie and Clyde: Lovers until the end

Stark Sands and Laura Osnes as Bonnie and Clyde
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By Carol Davis

LA JOLLA, California —We can deny it all we want but most of us are intrigued with the glamour and glitz that goes along with most Hollywood types. In some cases it doesn’t even have to belong to Hollywood at all. I love reading about legendary figures; what they do, how they did it, how they arrived at becoming so big and how the press and public treat and/or react toward them. (Oy, poor Tiger)

There is something both mysterious and romantic about the idea of saying, “to hell with convention, I’m going to do it my way” (Frank did) because that’s usually the case when someone we read about seems larger than life.

Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow were two such characters, and I use the word characters not in a demeaning sort of way, but to illustrate that they were truly characters of their own making; their very own creations who lived up to and in some ways beyond their own expectations for whatever that’s worth.

Many who saw the 1967 movie version of their escapades will remember the beautiful Faye Dunaway as the sculptured and lean Bonnie Parker and the handsome, virile and sinewy Warren Beatty on the run, bathtub lovers whose claim to fame followed them wherever they went, whatever they did even in the afterlife.

So it goes with the new Ivan Menchell (book), Frank Wildhorn (music) and Don Black (lyrics) depression era musical drama Bonnie and Clyde now in a world premiere at The La Jolla Playhouse through Dec. 20^th. What you might ask, do Bonnie and Clyde and musical theatre have to do with each other? Before I saw the show someone asked me, “Who wants to see a shoot em up musical about two pesky, self-absorbed outlaws who randomly killed innocent bystanders or anyone else who got in their way”?  Based on the opening night’s audience response, a lot, I guess!

The three creators Menchell, Wildhorn and Black come to the table with serious credits to their names. Menchell worked on the book to the musicals The Prince and the Pauper, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and now Bonnie and Clyde. He also wrote the bittersweet 1990 comedy The Cemetery Club about three Jewish widows whose husbands died and the widows are now in different stages of healing. They meet once a month at the cemetery, where the three deceased spouses lay buried, to pay their respects. It later became a movie starring Ellen Burstyn and Olympia Dukakis. Wildhorn’s Scarlet Pimpernel and Jekyll & Hyde with Black’s Sunset Boulevard complete the troika.

If anyone had any doubts that the story of the star crossed lovers, Bonnie and Clyde would be different or had somehow changed from the two outlaws that they eventually became or that the ending might be more glamorous because it is a musical, doubt no longer. Menchell relied on several sources to write the book for the show; Go Down Together: The True Untold Story of Bonnie and Clyde by Jeff Guinn, Bonnie and Clyde The Lives Behind the Legend by Paul Schneider and ‘from first hand accounts taken from the book Ambushed by Ted Hinton’.

While some practice at changing history, these collaborators, according to interviews with the creators about the making of the show, were more interested in focusing on the “tragic love triangle between Bonnie, Clyde and Ted Hinton (the Dallas County, Texas Deputy Sheriff who was the youngest of the posse that ambushed the couple and killed them outside Louisiana in 1934. He tried to court her with the approval of her mother before she met up with Clyde) and how Bonnie and Clyde were and what it must have been like for the parents to have children like this?”

To sum it up Menchell added… “We want all of it-the tragic love story, the passion, the commitment to family, everything that endears us to them-and yet still keep them homicidal”. Tongue in cheek or not, I think we got it all under the fine direction and musical staging of Jeff Calhoun and his talented pool of actors and technical staff.

It’s almost hard to believe that the couple was barely out of their teens when they met, robbed more than a dozen banks, killed 13 innocent people and were gunned down by a volley of bullets in their car and all before they were out of their twenties. What a waste of human life! Funny thing is (and the musical capsules this) they both came from decent hard working families.

Ironically, Clyde’s brother Buck (Claybourne Elder) was also drawn into the mix while his zealously religious wife Blanche (Melissa van der Schyff You’re Not Going Back to Jail) tried to keep him on the straight and narrow but he couldn’t resist the money and the excitement. On the other hand Bonnie’s devoted, both religiously and maternally, mother Emma (Beautifully and poignantly portrayed by Mare Winningham) tried to reason with and counsel her daughter to no avail as well.

The story plays out against the depression era backdrop on Tobin Ost’s multi level set of sliding bleached plank boards that frame the backdrop (used successfully for Aaron Rhyne’s projections of the real life characters which brought the story back to reality) of the different locations giving the impression and the look of a drought-ridden locale. Ost also designed the 30’s looking costumes; Bonnie’s being the most eye catching while the others are depression- era perfect.

For a new musical, Wildhorn’s score is catching, with a combination of blues, gospel, folk and ballads that reveal the moods, times and characters it depicts. The tone of The Long Arm of the Law sung by the Sheriff (Wayne Duvall) in Act I and then at the end of Act I in a reprieve are powerful reminders of who the two are and that they will get their comeuppance.

Compared to Emma’s lament, The Devil sung with passion and grief for her daughter to You Love Who You Love, (Bonnie and Blanche) You’re Going Back to Jail, (Blanche and Salon women) The World Will Remember Me (Clyde and Bonnie) and finally Dyin’ Ain’t So Bad (Bonnie and Clyde) the music’s trajectory with its differing styles moves the story but never really reveals any more about the players, their motives or drives than what we hear in their conversations or see in their actions. Some of the reprieves could be eliminated to shorten the length without taking anything away from the overall production.

Clyde was a conceited self professed bad boy who never looked back on what he did or thought, “Other people got dreams, I got plans”. For him there was no option; no plan ‘B’. And in a brief exchange when Bonnie commends his shooting skills she says, “You’re good”. “I’m not good, I’m the best” he retorts.

His biggest complaint was that Bonnie never put his name first in her poems about them. She hoped to get them published some day. (You’ve read the story of Jessie James of how he lived and how they died. If you’re still in need of something to read, here’s the story of Bonnie and Clyde… Some day they’ll go down together they’ll bury then side-by-side. To few it will be grief, to the law a relief, but it’s death for Bonnie and Clyde. The Trails End by Bonnie Parker). And they were.

Stark Sands has the perfect look and mannerism as the self-confident and arrogant bad boy, Clyde Barrow who entices Bonnie to travel with him convincing her that they would be good together. He’s also in fine voice especially since this is his first musical. He shows no remorse for anything he has done, he’s that vain. Stark is convincing in his mannerisms and ways and a perfect match with Laura Osnes’ Bonnie.

Laura Osnes is a beautiful, bored and captivating Bonnie Parker whose need to escape from the humdrum world of her mother, working as a waitress in the depressed and repressive Texas and tired of her would-be suitor is a recurring theme. Between her lust for adventure and a willingness to follow Clyde into any situation and his need to be recognized at any cost, the formula for disaster is set.

Calhoun’s eye for the perfect cast is evident in the fact that there isn’t a weak link anywhere. Wayne Duvall is excellent as the out to get the pair at any cost Sheriff. Mike Sears (fresh from Man From Nebraska recently seen at the Cygnet Theatre) shows another side in multiple roles.  Chris Peluso’s Ted is strong and well meaning as well as the strong arm of the law and Michael Lanning stirred the audience with his (God’s Arms Are Always Open) number as the preacher.

Music supervisor John McDaniel who is in charge of orchestrations, incidental music and vocal arrangements conducted his six-piece band flawlessly. Michael Gilliam and Brian Ronan are right on with the mood lighting and sound design.

The trio of creators makes a perfect case for the two young lovers to wreak havoc on those around them while still having some sympathy for those left to fend off the residual effects of their actions. Mare Winningham whose role of Emma, Bonnie’s mother, has been expanded from the movie version is very much a part of the backdrop as is Clyde’s brother Buck whose loyalties lay on the side of Clyde rather than the pleas of his wife and his mother.

Menchell’s book is captivating and enticing and the two lovers create a convincing and tragic love story. Black’s lyrics are both fun and pointed and get the message across but its Wildhorn whose musical variety and mix of different genres that are the most impressive.

Like it or not is what it is and if we don’t learn from our past it will bite us in the end. Walking to my car, I heard someone actually humming a tune from the show. That’s always a good sign. Enjoy! Hats off to the La Jolla Playhouse.

Bonnie and Clyde will continue through Dec. 20^th in the Mandell Weiss Theatre.

See you at the theatre and Happy Chanukah!

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Davis, a San Diego based theatre reviewer, may be contacted at davisc@sandiegojewishworld.com

Freud’s views on Judaism focus of AJE lecture Dec. 16

CORONADO, California (Press Release)–The Agency for Jewish Education continues its Coronado lecture series this month with Eliza Slavet, Ph.D. of UCSD. Slavet’s lecture will take place in the Winn Room of the Coronado Library (640 Orange Avenue, Coronado) on Dec. 16 at 10:30 am. Her lecture is titled, “Freud and the Jewish Question.”

What makes a person Jewish? Why do some people feel that have physically inherited the memories of their ancestors? Is there any way to think about race without reducing it to racism or to physical differences? These questions are at the heart of Eliza Slavet’s new book, Racial Fever: Freud and the Jewish Question (Fordham U Press, Sept 2009) .

In his final book, Moses and Monotheism, Freud hinted at the complexities of Jewishness and insisted that Moses was really an Egyptian. Slavet moves far beyond debates about how Freud felt about Judaism; instead, she explores what he wrote about

Jewishness: what it is, how it is transmitted, and how it has survived. Freud’s theory of Jewishness emerges as the culmination of his work on transference, telepathy and inter-generational transmission, and on the relationships between memory and its rivals: history, heredity and fantasy.

Writing on the eve of the Holocaust, Freud proposed that Jewishness is constituted by the inheritance of ancestral memories; thus, regardless of any attempts to repress, suppress, or repudiate Jewishness, Jews will remain Jewish and Judaism will survive.

Future lectures will feature brilliant professors speaking on their own areas of research. In January Professor Steven Cassedy, UCSD will discuss “A Bintel Brief: Abe Cahan as the Lower East Side’s Ann Landers.” Other speakers include professors Chanan Naveh, Risa Levitt Kohn and Ghada Osman.

The Mandelbaum Family Lecture Series is a program of the Agency for Jewish Education and is free and open to the public.

For more information on this or future talks in the series, contact the Agency for Jewish Education, (858) 268-9200 ext.102 or www.ajesd.org.

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Preceding provided by the Agency for Jewish Education

We can’t change who we are, just control it better

By Rabbi Leonard Rosenthal

SAN DIEGO — Judaism believes in teshuva, the human capacity for change. We are not the same human beings we were yesterday and tomorrow we will be different still. Judaism believes that human beings can grow and progress, and that today’s sinner may become tomorrow’s saint.

Yet is absolute change ever possible? Can one ever erase the past? Even in tomorrow’s saint isn’t there a remnant of the sinner past?

During the High Holy Days I spoke about Pastor Henry Covington, one of the two main characters of Mitch Albom’s new book, “Have a Little Faith.” Henry Covington was a criminal in his youth and early adulthood. After a near brush with death at the hands of drug dealers from whom he stole, he turned his life around and now devotes himself to serving the poor, hungry, and homeless in Detroit.

Although Henry had become a new man, deep inside of him some of the “old” Henry remained. He could not escape his past. It always haunted him. His present good deeds did not erase his former sins. Although he had changed, his old inner core remained the same. The difference was that he had learned to control his yetzer hara (evil inclination) instead of allowing it to control him. He knows that he is facing a life long battle.

In Parashat Vayishlach Jacob wrestles with a Divine Being. At dawn the Being demands that Jacob release him. Jacob will do so only in exchange for a blessing: “Your name shall no longer be Jacob, but Israel, for you have striven with beings divine and human, and have prevailed.” (Gen. 32:29) The change from “Jacob” to “Israel” symbolizes Jacob’s coming of age, giving up his youthful life of deception and trickery, and becoming morally fit to be leader of the Jewish people.

The commentator known as Degel Machane Efraim wrote that the Talmud (Masechet Berachot) observes that when the Divine Being changed Jacob’s name to Israel, he did not erase the name Jacob but only added to it. In fact, when we speak of the patriarch today we usually refer to him as Jacob and not Israel! When the divine being called him “Israel” he did not take the name Jacob away but only made it subordinate to the new one.

In other words, when Jacob became Israel, his old personality was not erased but was rather modified by his new one. “Israel” still had the potential to be the tricky scoundrel “Jacob,” but he had learned to keep his negative impulses at bay. Israel learned how to channel Jacob’s  talents and skills into positive instead of negative endeavors. Israel became a new man, but the old one still lay underneath.

Judaism believes firmly in change, but change does not mean erasure of the past. Change means growth. Growth is a process in which something new develops from what comes before. A beautiful flower does not suddenly appear out of thin air, but evolves from a simple seed planted in the ground, provided, of course, that it receives the proper nourishment and environment it needs to thrive.

So will the human beings we become tomorrow evolve from whom we were yesterday and who we are today, provided, of course, that we receive the proper religious, moral, and spiritual nourishment and environment we need to thrive.

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Rabbi Rosenthal is spiritual leader of Tifereth Israel Synagogue in San Diego

State Department posts $5 million reward each for Pan Am 73 terrorists

The following is the text of a joint Rewards for Justice – Federal Bureau of Investigation statement on a reward offer for information about the hijackers of Pan Am Flight 73:

WASHINGTON, D.C. (Press Release)–The U.S. Department of State has authorized a reward of up to $5 million each for information leading to the arrest and/or conviction of Wadoud Muhammad Hafiz al-Turki, Jamal Saeed Abdul Rahim, Muhammad Abdullah Khalil Hussain ar-Rahayyal, and Muhammad Ahmed al-Munawar — all believed to have been members of the Abu Nidal terrorist organization.

These four suspects have been charged in the District of Columbia for their role in the September 5, 1986 hijacking of Pan American World Airways Flight 73 during a stop in Karachi, Pakistan. The attack resulted in the murder of at least 20 passengers and crew, including two Americans, the attempted murder of 379 passengers and crew, and the wounding of more than 100 individuals on board.

Pakistani authorities arrested four suspects at the scene and later captured a fifth suspect who helped plan the attack. All five, including the four individuals subject to this reward offer, were tried, convicted and sentenced to prison in Pakistan.

In September 2001, one of the five convicted terrorists was released by Pakistani authorities. This individual was later apprehended by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, prosecuted and convicted in U.S. federal court on criminal charges, and is now serving a 160-year sentence in a maximum-security prison.

In January 2008, the four hijackers subject to this reward offer were reportedly released from Pakistani custody. Their current whereabouts are unknown.

Wadoud Muhammad Hafiz al-Turki was born on June 21, 1955, in Iraq. He stands approximately 5 feet, 10 inches tall and has black hair and dark eyes. He is known to have used the following aliases: Wadoud Muhammad Fahd al-Turk, Sliman Ali Ahmad El-Turki, Salman Ali El-Turki, Bou Baker Muhammad, Sulaiman Alturki, and Sulaiman Turki.

Jamal Saeed Abdul Rahim is believed to have been born on September 5, 1965, in Lebanon. He is approximately 5 feet, 9 inches tall and has brown hair and dark eyes. He also is known by the aliases Ali Al Jassem Fahd, Fahd Ali al-Jassem, Jamal Saeed Abdulrahim, Fahad Ali Al Jasseen, Ismael, and Fahad

Muhammad Abdullah Khalil Hussain ar-Rahayyal was born on November 27, 1965, in Lebanon. He is approximately 5 feet, 9 inches tall, and has black hair and dark eyes. He has a scar under his left eye and a scar on his right cheek. He has used the following aliases: Abdullah Khalil Muhammad, Abdullah Muhammad Khalil, Khalil Antwan Kiwan, Khalil Alid, Antawan Kaiwan Khalil, Khalil and Walid.

Muhammad Ahmed al-Munawar was born on May 21, 1965, in Kuwait. He stands approximately 5 feet, 9 inches tall, has black hair, dark eyes, and a scar on his left thumb. He has used various aliases, including Abdarahman Al Rashid Mansour, Mansoor al-Rashid, Mansour Abdul Rahman Rashed, Ashraf Naeem, Mansour, Zubair, and Shamed Khalil Zubair.
Information about Wadoud Muhammad Hafiz al-Turki, Jamal Saeed Abdul Rahim, Muhammad Abdullah Khalil Hussain ar-Rahayyal, and Muhammad Ahmed al-Munawar is located on the Rewards for Justice website: (www.rewardsforjustice.net). The FBI also has placed these suspects on its Most Wanted Terrorists website: (www.fbi.gov/wanted/terrorists/fugitives.htm).

We encourage anyone with information on the location of Wadoud Muhammad Hafiz al-Turki, Jamal Saeed Abdul Rahim, Muhammad Abdullah Khalil Hussain ar-Rahayyal, and Muhammad Ahmed al-Munawar to contact the nearest U.S. embassy or consulate, any U.S. military commander, or the Rewards for Justice office via the website (www.rewardsforjustice.net), e-mail (RFJ@state.gov) or mail (Rewards for Justice, Washington, DC 20520-0303, USA).

All information will be kept strictly confidential.

Since its inception in 1984, the Rewards for Justice Program has paid more than $80 million to more than 50 persons who provided credible information that has resulted in the capture, prosecution, or death of terrorists or prevented acts of international terrorism.

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Preceding provided by U.S. State Department

Napolitano: U.S. and Israel are partners in fight against terrorism

NEW YORK (Press Release)—Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano delivered remarks last night at the America-Israel Friendship League’s “Partners for Democracy Award Dinner” in New York City underscoring the Department’s strong partnerships with Israel and firm commitment to countering terrorism and violent extremism both abroad and within the United States.

In her remarks, Secretary Napolitano discussed the threat posed by home-based terrorism—often in the form of American citizens radicalized abroad or who become adherents to violent, extremist ideologies—as well as global extremism to the security of the American people.

“Home-based terrorism is here. And like violent extremism abroad, it is now part of the threat picture that we must confront,” said Secretary Napolitano.

She detailed the unprecedented coordination that is now taking place between DHS and its federal, state, local and tribal law enforcement partners to combat these threats through information-sharing programs, fusion centers and the Joint Terrorism Task Forces.

Secretary Napolitano also highlighted the Department’s ongoing efforts to engage religious, ethnic and cultural groups across the country in an open and constructive dialogue about the importance of protecting civil rights and civil liberties and the role of communities and individuals in identifying suspicious situations—reiterating the shared responsibility of all Americans to report suspicious activities to law enforcement and take basic steps to prepare for emergencies.

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Preceding provided by Department of Homeland Security

Sanctions deadline for Iran: End of 2009

WASHINGTON, D.C. (WJC)–The White House has said that Iran had to give up its nuclear ambitions in the next month or face new sanctions. “Time is running out,” Spokesman Robert Gibbs said at a news conference. “That deadline is the end of the year.” The Iranian regime maintains it is enriching uranium to generate electricity, but has resisted a deal with Western countries that would send its low-enriched uranium abroad for processing into nuclear fuel.

Gibbs said it was “pretty clear” that the Iranians were backing out of their original agreement to that arrangement, which was brokered by the International Atomic Energy Agency, in October. Last week, Iran vowed to construct ten new uranium enrichment plants, after the IAEA’s Board of Governors had condemned it for secretly building a second one.

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Preceding provided by World Jewish Congress

New EU law may shield Boere from war crimes trial

AACHEN, Germany(WJC)–Defense attorneys in the Nazi war crimes trial against Heinrich Boere, 88, in Germany have filed a motion to dismiss the case against him arguing the European Union’s Lisbon Treaty invalidated the case against him. Attorney Gordon Christiansen said treaty, which came into force on 1 December, meant nobody could be prosecuted a second time in a different EU country for the same crime.

Boere, a Dutch-born German national, was tried in absentia in the Netherlands in the late 1940s, but never served his life jail term because Germany does not extradite its own citizens. He has admitted in news interviews that he assassinated three people in 1944 as a member of an SS hit squad during Germany’s occupation of the Netherlands from 1940 to 1945.

The court in the western German city of Aachen halted the trial to consider the objection. The case is one of two big war-crimes trials currently on-going in Germany, the other being that of Ivan Demjanjuk, 89, in Munich.

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Preceding provided by World Jewish Congress

President Obama again delays recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital

WASHINGTON, D.C. (WJC)—US President Barack Obama has again delayed moving the US Embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. On Thursday he notified Secretary of State Hillary Clinton of his decision, following a similar one in June.

A law passed by Congress in 1995 recognizes Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and orders that the US Embassy be relocated there. However, the law also permits the president to delay the move for six-month periods, based on national security grounds. Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush invoked the clause during their administrations.

“Jerusalem should be recognized as the capital of the State of Israel and the United States Embassy in Israel should be established in Jerusalem no later than 31 May 1999,” the 1995 Jerusalem Embassy Act states. In a 2007 resolution, the House of Representatives reiterated its commitment to the provisions of the Jerusalem Embassy Act of 1995 and called “upon the President and all United States officials to abide by its provisions.”

However, US president have voiced the belief that Congressional resolutions attempting to legislate foreign policy infringe upon the Executive’s authority and responsibility to carry out sound and effective US foreign relations.

The majority of UN member states and most international organizations do not accept Jerusalem as Israel’s capital. Embassies are generally located in Tel Aviv, but many countries have consulates in Jerusalem. By contrast, the ‘Basic Law: Jerusalem, Capital of Israel’ passed by the Knesset in 1980 establishes that “Jerusalem complete and united is the capital of Israel.”

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Preceding provided by World Jewish Congress

World Jewish Congress criticizes Lithuanian official’s revisionist view of the Holocaust

VILNIUS (WJC)–Lithuanian Justice Minister Remigijus Šimašius  has said his country should answer questions regarding its behavior during World War II with its head held high. Writing in his internet blog, Šimašius dismissed accusations that Lithuania had been an anti-Semitic country and collaborated with the Nazis.

“First of all, the fact that many Jews were killed in Lithuania does not in itself mean that Lithuanians were Jew killers. Quite on the contrary: Lithuania was a place where Jews were safe and lived in peace. Until the Nazis came. Had Lithuanians been anti-Semitic, Lithuania would not have become a haven for the Jews, and Vilnius would not have been known as ‘Jerusalem of the North’,” the justice minister argued.

According to Šimašius, Jews were neither persecuted not oppressed in Lithuania, “contrary to the United States, which at first did not want to take in Jews fleeing Hitler’s Germany, and to the Soviet Union, which would return fleeing Jews to the Nazis, or even Britain, which had its share of pseudo-archaic nonsense.

“Throwing accusations of anti-Semitism, or collaboration, at Lithuania is insulting to the memory of the hundreds of Lithuanians, who were helping Jews. How can anyone accuse Lithuania of collaborating with the Nazis, if this collaboration simply never took place in any official or formal ways.”

World Jewish Congress President Ronald S. Lauder called the Lithuanian official’s statements “disingenuous”  and a distortion of the historical facts. Lauder declared: “Such rewriting of history is totally misleading and unacceptable. Instead of recognizing that many ethnic Lithuanians actively collaborated with the Nazi occupiers to round up Jewish citizens Minister Šimašius chooses to placate the revisionists in his country. It beggars belief that someone should today still argue that anti-Semitism played no role in the extermination of  Lithuanian Jewry when the collaboration of so many Lithuanians with the Nazi occupiers is well-documented.

More than 90 percent of Lithuania’s pre-war Jewish population of 220,000 was annihilated during World War II. A total of 6 million Jews perished during the Holocaust. In 1995, Lithuania’s President (Algirdas) Brazauskas apologized in a speech the Israeli Knesset to the Jewish people on behalf of the Lithuanian nation for those Lithuanians who had taken part in the Nazi persecution and killing of Jews during World War II.

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Preceding provided by World Jewish Congress