Three Ukrainian billionaires are Jews
Three of the four billionaires from Ukraine are Jewish, according to the Forbes magazine annual billionaires list. The highest ranking Jewish Ukrainian on the list, Victor Pinchuk, 48, a business tycoon and son-in-law of former Ukranian President Leonid Kuchma, slipped from 203 to 246.
Igor Kolomoysky, 47, a co-owner of the Privat business group with interests in metal and financial sectors also slipped.
Jews make up approximately one half of 1 percent of Ukraine’s population of 46 million, and some Jews and experts fear the overrepresentation of Jews among the country’s business and political elite will strengthen anti-Semitic stereotypes. — jta
Germany rules PETA ad is offensive
Germany’s highest court has ruled that a PETA ad campaign comparing animal slaughterhouses to the Holocaust is an offense against human dignity.
The 2003 campaign by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals used eight 60-square-foot panels depicting images of factory farms next to Jewish concentration camp inmates and the slogan “Holocaust on your plate.”
The Federal Constitutional Court in Karlsruhe ruled that the ad campaign was not protected under freedom of speech laws. PETA claimed its goal was to compare Nazi-run concentration camps with contemporary animal abuse. — ap
Archive of Nazi-era documents praised
Representatives of leading U.S. Jewish organizations are praising the significance of an archive of Nazi-era documents in Germany and the way it helps people trace the lives of relatives caught up in the Holocaust.
Representatives of the American Jewish Committee, the American Jewish Congress, the Anti-Defamation League, Daniel Mariaschin and B’nai B’rith International spent several days visiting the Bad Arolsen–based archive of the International Tracing Service, delving into the World War II–era histories of families, friends and acquaintances. The archive, opened in 2007, is under the administration of the International Committee of the Red Cross.
“Opening the archive to historical research is a huge step that we applaud immensely,” said Aron Hirt-Manheimer, editor of the magazine of the Union of Reform Judaism. — ap