Asian Jewish paper launched

hong kong (jta) | Jewish Times Asia, the continent’s first Jewish community tabloid, was launched last month.

The 24-page April issue includes an article on the Jewish community of Taiwan, an interview with Israel’s consul general in Hong Kong and a feature on the 15th anniversary of Hong Kong’s Carmel School.

Publisher and founder Philip Jay said Jewish Times Asia will be distributed free to all Jews in the region. It will also be available to business executives and tourists at Jewish community centers and synagogues in China, India, Japan, the Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam.

cape town (jps) | The Jewish community is mourning the loss of two men who were murdered last month.

Police are tight-lipped about the case. While the motive remains unclear, the Jewish community has ruled out anti-Semitism, despite the fact that the names of the 11 suspects who have appeared in court seem to show that they are from Cape Town’s large Muslim community.

The men — Brett Goldin, 27, and Richard Bloom, 26 — were found naked April 16, their hands tied behind their backs, shot execution-style with one bullet to the back of the head.

Goldin, who attended a prestigious Jewish day school in Johannesburg, had a rising acting career in South Africa.

geneva (jta) | Anti-Semitic acts in the French-speaking part of Switzerland doubled in 2005, a new report found.

There were 75 anti-Semitic acts in 2005, compared to 34 the previous year, according to the second annual report from a Swiss watchdog organization.

The group cited several specific acts, including an arson attack on a Lugano synagogue and the burning of a Jewish-owned shop with the aid of Molotov cocktails and desecration of the grand synagogue in Geneva with pro-Nazi slogans.

london (ynetnews) | The BBC does not “consistently give a full and fair account” when it comes to covering the Middle East conflict, according to a British report published this week.

The report, ordered by the BBC to examine claims of bias, was prepared by five independent figures.

The evidence examined points to the “elusiveness of editorial planning, grip and oversight,” the report said. “In short, we found that BBC output does not consistently give a full and fair account of the conflict. In some ways the picture is incomplete and, in that sense, misleading.”

Overall, the report said, there was stronger evidence of pro-Israel bias than to pro-Palestinian bias.