Circumcision shouldn’t get cut, study says

sydney (jta) | Circumcision has significant health benefits for both men and women, a new Australian study says.

Circumcision protects men from HIV and lowers the chance of cervical cancer in their partners, researchers at Melbourne University said.

Following a report from the Royal Australian College of Physicians, which said there was little benefit but a chance of harm in circumcision, the rate fell to 10 percent of males born in Australia.

In the United States, the American Academy of Pediatrics found the procedure’s potential health benefits are

“not significant enough” to recommend the routine circumcision of newborn babies.

Palestinian protest interrupts ceremony marking Kristallnacht

berlin (jta) | Clashes erupted at a ceremony in Vienna commemorating the 65th anniversary of Kristallnacht.

Sunday night’s clashes erupted after protesters at a commemorative event waved Palestinian flags and yelled anti-Israel slogans.

The ceremony marked the night of Nov. 9-10, 1938, when Nazi-inspired rioters set synagogues and Jewish stores ablaze in Germany and Austria, a turning point in the Nazi persecution of the Jews. The night of devastation led to the full implementation of Nazi persecution.

Einstein best German ever?

berlin (jta) | Albert Einstein is the front-runner to be voted the best German of all time.

Einstein made a list of top 10 best Germans in a national call-in contest conducted Nov. 7, and is being touted as likely to defeat former German Chancellor Konrad Adenauer and writer Johann Wolfgang von Goethe to head the top-10 list.

The scientist, who was born in Germany, emigrated from the country in 1932 as Hitler was coming to power. Businessman Oskar Schindler, who saved hundreds of Jews during the war, was 37th on the list.

Greek composer blasts Jews as ‘evil’

rome (jta) | Jews are the “root of evil,” a leading Greek composer said.

At a news conference this week

publicizing his new book, Mikis Theodorakis, who scored the music

for the film “Zorba the Greek,” also said that the Jews “are full of self-importance and evil stubbornness,” the Jerusalem Post reported in Wednesday’s online

edition.

He said Greeks are less aggressive than Jews “because we have more history.”

Israeli officials released a statement

calling on Greek cultural and political

officials to distance themselves from Theodorakis’ remarks at the press

conference.