German university students denounce BDS movement
Students at Leipzig University this month passed a resolution condemning the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement against Israel as anti-Semitic.
The groundbreaking student council resolution, first reported in the Jerusalem Post, was a response to efforts by University of London anthropology professor Lori Allen, an anti-Israel activist, to foment support for BDS during a visit to Leipzig University in June.
The student council condemned such “anti-Semitic boycott campaigns” and said it would stand up “against the execution, participation in, and promotion of such campaigns and events at the University of Leipzig.” This includes a rejection of BDS-related “events, exhibitions, demonstrations, etc.” The resolution also called the BDS campaign “an existential threat to the Jews.” — jta
New paper shows wife of Goebbels had Jewish father
The wife of Nazi propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels had a Jewish father, according to a new document discovered in the Berlin archives.
The document was published in the German newspaper Bild, the London-based Jewish Chronicle reported last week.
It shows that the father of Magda Goebbels was a Jewish businessman named Richard Friedlander, who married Magda’s mother, Auguste Behrend, when Magda was about 7 years old. Friedlander had an affair with Behrend in 1901 before she married German engineer Oskar Ritshel, who had been blamed for impregnating Behrend before their wedding.
Friedlander’s residency card, the document found in the archives, states that Magda is his biological daughter.
Friedlander died in the Buchenwald concentration camp in 1939; his daughter did not attempt to help him.
The Goebbels were portrayed by the Nazis as the ideal Aryan family. Joseph and Magda Goebbels and their six children committed suicide on April 30, 1945, a day after Adolf Hitler took his life. — jta
Jewish Hungarian leader, in protest, returns state award
The president of Hungary’s main Jewish umbrella organization, Mazsihisz, has returned a high state award he received in 2011 to protest the same award being presented last week to a nationalist journalist described as racist and anti-Semitic.
In a Facebook post, Andras Heisler, who is also a vice president of the World Jewish Congress, said he was returning the Knight’s Cross following presentation of the honor to the right-wing journalist and columnist Zsolt Bayer.
Heisler described Bayer as a man “who is a racist, who is an anti-Semite, who is polluting Hungary with his destructive sentiments and his burning hatred of the Roma, who is vigilantly protecting the traditions of the Hungarian extremist right, keeping alive feelings of fear and hatred.”
In his statement, also posted on the Mazsihisz website, Heisler said he had received his Knight’s Cross in recognition of his years of civic work “in the interests of the Jewish community.”
“I was proud of this award and thought that it would serve to strengthen the moral values that spring from a diverse range of people, people of different faiths, people who support different political sides,” Heisler wrote. “This represented to me the value of diversity, and valuing each other’s views represents the future of Hungary.” Presenting the Knights Cross to Bayer contradicted these values, he wrote. — jta
Jews of Macedonia partner with JDC to aid flood victims
Members of the tiny Jewish community of Macedonia and the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee distributed hundreds of aid packages to victims of deadly floods that forced thousands from their homes in the Balkan nation.
The JDC, along with the Jewish Community of the Republic of Macedonia and the Holocaust Fund of the Jews from Macedonia, created and distributed 1,000 hygiene relief kits throughout the hardest-hit areas, the JDC said in a statement.
Macedonia has a Jewish population of about 250, according to JDC and the European Jewish Congress, from more than 10,000 before the Holocaust.
The packages, will help address personal and household hygiene needs, a critical component in flood recovery zones.
Torrential rain and floods in the Macedonian capital have left at least 17 people dead and 60 others hospitalized.
“Our response puts into action the Jewish teaching that every individual life has value and it is our duty to offer care and relief in in times of disaster, no matter a person’s background or faith,” Alan Gill, CEO of the JDC, said in a statement.
The kits distributed included medical soap, disinfection solutions and cleaning supplies to sanitize homes filled with flood debris. They reached approximately 5,000 people. — jta