Al Qaida member’s video notes Jewish ancestry
An American al Qaida member has released a new anti-Israel, anti-American video in which he admits to Jewish ancestry.
Adam Yahive Gadahn, also known as Azzam the American, released the video June 13. Gadahn, 31, who grew up in California and moved to Pakistan after embracing Islam in the mid-1990s, appears on the FBI’s Most Wanted list.
“Your speaker has Jews in his ancestry, the last of whom was his grandfather,” Gadahn says in the video, in which he criticizes the United States and its policies, and condemns Israel’s military incursion into Gaza.
Speaking in Arabic with English subtitles, Gadhan called his grandfather a “Zionist” and “a zealous supporter of the usurper entity, and a prominent member of a number of Zionist hate organizations.”
He said his grandfather had encouraged him to visit relatives in Israel. — jta
N.Y. investigates lavish jail bar mitzvah
New York City is investigating how a well-connected inmate was able to hold a lavish bar mitzvah in prison.
The city’s Department of Invest-igation is looking into how Tuvia Stern — who was on the lam for more than 20 years for stealing $1.7 million in a financial scam before being extradited by Brazil and landing in prison — was able to hold a catered bar mitzvah with 60 guests and a prominent Orthodox singer, the New York Post reported.
The bar mitzvah, which was held Dec. 30 in the gymnasium of the Lower Manhattan jail where Stern is being held, included several prominent rabbis, a band, china and a performance by Orthodox singer Yaakov Shwekey.
Stern, according to the Post, also held an engagement party for his daughter at the same place several months later. — jta