WJC News Update – Former Israeli PM Olmert given six-year jail term for graft

News updates from the World Jewish Congress website – 13 May 2014

 

Former Israeli PM Olmert given six-year jail term for graft

A Tel Aviv court on Tuesday sentenced former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert to six years in prison for bribery and handed him a fine of US$ 290,000.

Leaders say Olmert sentence a ‘sad day’ for Israel – Times of Israel

13 May 2014 President Shimon Peres, who is in Norway for a state visit, said it was a “sad day” for him personally, though he had no personal involvement in the ex-premier’s trial. READ MORE »

Amos Oz attacks extremist Jewish settlers as ‘Hebrew neo-Nazis’ – Jewish Chronicle

13 May 2014 One of Israel’s most famous novelists hit out at radical Jewish settlers, labelling them “Hebrew neo-Nazis”. READ MORE »

Anne Frank poster defaced in Dutch town – JTA

13 May 2014 A poster for a theater play on the life of Anne Frank was defaced with anti-Semitic symbols, prompting calls for a parliamentary inquiry.  READ MORE »

European candidates see opportunity on extreme edge – New York Times

13 May 2014 Adam B. Bartos, a Czech who is running for the European Parliament, is invoking an anti-Semitic appeal in his campaign. READ MORE »

French Jewish leader: ‘It’s not so pleasant living there as Jews’ – JTA

13 May 2014 France’s Jewish community — Europe’s largest — faces three threats, according to Roger Cukierman, president of the CRIF umbrella group of French Jewish organizations and a vice president of the World Jewish Congress.  READ MORE »

Donald Sterling rambles about blacks, Jews, Magic Johnson and Jewish free loan societies – JTA

13 May 2014 Donald Sterling showed that he is the same person in public and in private. The world got to know this crazy old billionaire with offensive views via leaked audio of him ranting about black people. The same crazy old billionaire with offensive views showed up to rant about black people in his interview with CNN’s Anderson Cooper. READ MORE »

Author of invented Holocaust memoir ordered to return $22.5 million – National Public Radio

13 May 2014 Misha Defonseca, the author of a fabricated Holocaust memoir that describes her hunt for her missing parents, her adoption by wolves, and her killing of a Nazi soldier, has to repay $22.5 million to her publisher. READ MORE »

SS St Louis: The ship of Jewish refugees nobody wanted – BBC News

13 May 2014 On 13 May 1939, more than 900 Jews fled Germany aboard a luxury cruise liner, the SS St Louis. They hoped to reach Cuba and then travel to the US – but were turned away in Havana and forced to return to Europe, where more than 250 were killed by the Nazis.  READ MORE »