Friday 9 January 2015

Gunmen Take Six Hostages at Paris Kosher Market

FSWC Reports:

From ynetnews.com with Agencies:

The French Interior Ministry denied media reports that two people were killed when two gunmen took hostages Friday in a kosher supermarket in eastern Paris. In a precautionary move, police ordered all shops closed in famed Jewish neighborhood in central Paris far from attacks.

Reuters reported that the gunman took six hostages, mostly women and children and that police confimed one person was seriously wounded. AFP reported that the suspect was identified as Amedy Coulibaly, a 32-year-old man, and that police were also searching for Hayat Boumeddiene, a 26-year-old woman. According to French newspaper Le Monde, the two were former partners.

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Website Called "AverageMohamed" Counters Terror Message With Cartoon Videos

FSWC Reports:

From the Associated Press via ynetnews.com:

In the war for young people's hearts and minds, Mohamed Ahmed hopes to use cartoons to dissuade a generation raised on "The Simpsons" and "South Park" from taking up arms for the Islamic State group and other extremist causes. 

Ahmed, a convenience store manager from Minneapolis, has launched AverageMohamed.com, a website offering homemade videos aimed at countering the messages and images terrorists use to lure disaffected youths. 

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Thursday 8 January 2015

Polish and German Scholars to Symbolically Denounce Nazi Stripping of Titles

FSWC Reports:

From the Associated Press via ynetnews.com:

In a symbolic gesture, Polish and German scholars will condemn the Nazi-era decision by Germany's former Breslau University to strip some 260 mostly Jewish academics of their doctors' titles, a spokesman said Thursday.

Jacek Przygodzki, the spokesman for the southwest Wroclaw University, told The Associated Press that the January 22 ceremony being held with the German University of Cologne aims to condemn political meddling into academic life. The two universities will declare Breslau University's decision "non-existent," he said. 

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Tuesday 6 January 2015

Swastika Found on Synagogue Wall in Caracas, Venezuela

FSWC Reports:

From ynetnews.com:

Anti-Semitic graffiti was found on a wall of the AIV del Este Sephardic synagogue in Caracas, Venezuela last week, the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) says. 

The graffiti, which was allegedly spray painted shortly before daily morning prayer services on December 30, included a swastika and the number six million with question marks.

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Monday 5 January 2015

Israeli in Berlin Attacked by Men Singing Antisemitic Songs

FSWC Reports:

From the Associated Press and ynetnews.com:

Berlin police said Monday they are investigating an attack on an Israeli citizen who was beaten by a group of young men after he asked them to stop singing anti-Semitic songs on the subway in the German capital on New Year's Eve.

Police spokesman Martin Dahms said that police have not yet been able to identify the attackers, but are evaluating video footage of the incident. 

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Sunday 4 January 2015

1.5 Million People Visited Auschwitz Memorial in 2014

FSWC Reports:

From the Associated Press and Reuters via ynetnews.com:

Officials say a record number of more than 1.5 million people from around the world visited the grounds of the former Nazi German death camp of Auschwitz-Birkenau in 2014.

The Auschwitz museum said Sunday on its website most visitors came from within Poland, with large numbers of tourists also coming from Britain, the US, Italy and Germany. The website didn't say what the previous record was. 

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Belgian Jews Live in Fear of Growing Antisemitism

FSWC Reports:

From ynetnews.com:

"We have to put our jacket outside of the classroom, and often I would find in my pocket pictures of Hitler or Mussolini or Jews dying," says Jeremie de Bock, a Jewish student in Brussels, when asked to describe the current atmosphere in the European Union's capital, more than 70 years after the Holocaust. 

"Just for fun, they would put the gas of their lighter in my nose to make my shut up or to make me react or to have a fight, or tell me I should shut up in the class because there are gas lines," he recounts. "All of that was always done in front of teachers that didn't really care." 

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Friday 2 January 2015

Chairman of English Soccer Club Banned for Race Remarks

FSWC Reports:

From AFP via ynetnews.com:

Wigan Athletic chairman Dave Whelan has been banned from all football-related activity for six weeks over comments he made about Jewish and Chinese people, the Football Association announced on Wednesday.  

Whelan, 78, accepted an aggravated misconduct charge and was also fined £50,000 ($77,800), warned about his future conduct and ordered to undertake an education course. He has seven days in which to decide whether to lodge an appeal.

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Nazi Diary Reveals Brutal Tactics Used Against Lodz Jews

FSWC Reports:

From ynetnews.com:

Seventy years after the liquidation of the Lodz ghetto during World War II, a diary containing meticulous documentation of day-to-day life within its walls, as depicted by Nazi officers, was recently uncovered, it was reported Thursday. 

Using laundered language, the Germans describe their treatment of the local Jews, including how they punished them over thoughts of escape, and their use of brutal methods to extract information from the "smart alecks" among them. 

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