LOS ANGELES (JTA) – A campaign to decorate a Jewish US soldier from the Korean War is about to bear fruit. President George W. Bush will confer the Medal of Honour, America’s highest award for bravery in combat, on Tibor Rubin at a White House ceremony Sept. 23. Rubin, 75, a Hungarian-born Holocaust survivor, single-handedly defended a hill for 24 hours against waves of North Korean soldiers to secure a retreat route for his company. Rubin is believed to be the first Jewish veteran of the Korean War to receive the Medal of Honour, following intensive efforts over 25 years by his former comrades, veteran organizations and US congressional representatives. Rubin, who lives in California, also will be honoured at a Pentagon ceremony.
NEW YORK (JTA) – A US judge reinstated a plea deal in the case of a Jewish radical accused of bomb plots against Muslim targets. Last week’s decision means prosecutors cannot pursue additional charges against Earl Krugel, a member of the Jewish defence League arrested in 2001 in California for plotting to bomb a mosque and the offices of a Lebanese-American congressman. Krugel’s accomplice, Irv Rubin, killed himself in jail in 2002.
SYDNEY, Australia (JTA) – The Simon Wiesenthal Center called on Australian and Hungarian authorities to investigate the World War II activities of an Australian citizen. Hungarian-born Lajos Polgar, 89, has admitted to Australian media that he was a high-ranking official in the fascist Hungarian Arrow Cross Party, which was responsible for the persecution and murder of thousands of Hungarian Jews. The party deported more than 80,000 Jews to Nazi camps in 1944. In an interview at his Melbourne home with ABC-TV news, Polgar denied being a Nazi. He said, “There were two Nazis... Germans and Jews. I did nothing wrong.” Polgar told The Australian newspaper, “After the war all the leaders were hanged, but there was not one among them who was guilty. Everybody was in the hands of the Jews. They just hanged them,” he said, calling the party members “completely innocent people.” Polgar arrived in Australia in 1949 under the name of Lajos Kardos, a name he is believed to have assumed in 1944 to conceal his true identity as authorities started to bring Arrow Cross members to justice.
NEW YORK (JTA) – New research shows that four Jewish baseball players once were in the lineup at the same time. Harry Feldman, Harry Danning, Sid Gordon and Morrie Arnovich all played for the New York Giants in the first game of a double-header on Sept, 21, 1941, a day before Rosh Hashanah. Research into the event came after three Jewish players recently played in the same game for the Boston Red Sox.
WASHINGTON (JTA) – A follower of an antisemitic Christian philosophy was sentenced to life in prison for a series of bombings in the southeastern United States. Eric Rudolph, who admitted to bombing the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta and several other sites, was sentenced Aug. 22 for the attacks, which killed two people and injured hundreds. He was a follower of Christian Identity and spent four months in 1984 at a camp for followers in Missouri. He told relatives that he hated Jews, complaining of their presence on television, and espoused Holocaust-denial rhetoric in high school. Roberts attacked several women’s clinics, including one that performed abortions, and a gay nightclub.
BERLIN (JTA) – Pope Benedict XVI visited Aug. 19 a German synagogue that was rebuilt after being destroyed by Nazis and warned of the dangers of antisemitism. The pontiff became the second pope to visit a synagogue and said more remains to be done to fight antisemitism. “Today, sadly, we are witnessing the rise of new signs of antisemitism and various forms of a general hostility toward foreigners,” he said. Benedict, who is German, also said he would continue Pope John Paul II’s efforts to improve Catholic-Jewish relations.
WASHINGTON (JTA) – The Conservative movement deemed Judge John Roberts “qualified to serve” on the US Supreme Court. The United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism sent a letter Aug. 22 to Sen. Arlen Specter, chair of the US Senate’s Judiciary Committee, concluding that the movement considers Roberts qualified to be a Supreme Court justice. The movement said Roberts is well educated, avoids an ideologically defined approach to judicial interpretation and has a “balanced respect for foundational documents, reasonable interpretation and societal realities.” Confirmation hearings for Roberts begin next month. Mark Waldman, the movement’s director of public policy, said the statement was not an endorsement of Roberts or a critique of how he would vote on specific issues. “We looked at the type of judge and the qualities we would expect in a judge,” Waldman said. “We did not want to get into any of the debates as to whether he should be confirmed.”
NEW YORK (JTA) – A Jewish cemetery in Florida was vandalized. Approximately 35 burial sites were damaged over the weekend in Pensacola, causing an estimated $30,000 in damages, said members of the Temple Beth-el Congregation, which manages the cemetery. Police are investigating the incident.
NEW YORK (JTA) – A candidate running to head a multibillion-dollar monorail project in Seattle is taking heat for comments about Jews. Cindi Laws, who is running for re-election as head of the Seattle Monorail Project, said Aug. 9 that her opponent Beth Goldberg – who opposes the monorail – would enjoy an edge because the city’s Jewish community is largely against the transportation project and therefore would be likely to support Goldberg, media reports said. Speaking to members of the King County Labour Council in an effort to garner the body’s support, Laws said that three-quarters of the cash raised in a monorail recall campaign last year came from Jews – and that a Jewish candidate would be able to get hold of that money more easily than she would, according to a member of the council. The council voted to oppose Laws’ re-election.
NEW YORK (JTA) – Jewish groups protested United Nations financing for a propaganda poster used at a Palestinian Authority rally. A tag line on a poster at last week’s rally in the Gaza Strip that read, ‘Gaza today, West Bank and Jerusalem tomorrow,’ said the sign was paid for by the UN Development Program. The United Nations “has no business paying the costs of this propaganda, especially when it is aimed at a member state of the United Nations,” the American Jewish Congress said in a statement. Other Jewish groups protested as well. A UN official said the aid is not intended for political uses and that the incident is being investigated.
NEW YORK (JTA) – An Israeli official urged the United Nations to declare an international Holocaust Memorial Day. More than 30 European countries support the plan, which would come after the international body held a special session earlier this year to mark the 60th anniversary of the Holocaust, the Jerusalem Post reported. The United Nations is expected to vote on the proposal during its General Assembly, which begins next month.
LONDON (JTA) – Jewish leaders criticized the UK’s main Muslim umbrella group for claiming a pro-Israel lobby had influenced BBC filmmakers. In an open letter sent to BBC’s director general, Mark Thompson, the Muslim Council of Britain said the makers of a documentary about the organization were swayed by “highly placed supporters of Israel in the media.” The hour-long film about the council, which aired Aug. 21, explored whether the body could control extremism among the UK’s 1.5 million Muslims. The council’s letter read, “The BBC should not allow itself to be used by the highly placed supporters of Israel in the British media to make political capital out of the July 7 atrocities in London.” Said a spokesman for the Board of Deputies, a representative body of UK Jewry: “The baseless suggestion that any minority community has sought to exploit the bombings for political gain is deeply hurtful not only to that community, but to the victims of 7/7 and their families. It is disappointing” that the Muslim Council “would try to demonize a fellow minority community in this way,” the board spokesman said. A BBC spokesman also rejected the council’s accusations.
JERUSALEM (JTA) – Prime Minister Ariel Sharon plans to address the United Nations after Israel completes the Gaza Strip withdrawal. Aides to Sharon said Aug. 21 that if the pullout from the remaining settlements goes smoothly, he will attend the World Summit at the United Nations in mid-September and is expected to address the General Assembly. The aides declined comment on the content of the speech, but political sources said it would reiterate Israel’s stance that while the Gaza pullout had contributed to advancing the US-led ‘road map’ for peace, further progress would depend on the Palestinian Authority cracking down on terrorist groups as required.
NEW YORK (JTA) – The commission for Holocaust insurance claims announced it would be distributing $16 million to Holocaust victims and their heirs. The International Commission on Holocaust Era Insurance Claims said Aug. 19 it was offering $5.5 million for life insurance policies held with companies that have been liquidated since World War II, and $10.5 million for claims containing anecdotal information about policies. “While no amount of compensation in any form can make up for what Holocaust victims suffered, these payments are an important step in addressing one particular aspect of the many wrongs of that time,” said ICHEIC’s chairman, Lawrence Eagleburger. The awards are being offered from ICHEIC’s humanitarian funds.
BUENOS AIRES (JTA) – Skinheads verbally abused a Jewish boy in Buenos Aires. The 15-year-old boy, who is the son of a rabbi and was wearing a kippa, was bombarded with antisemitic slurs Aug. 17 after he left the subway station in the Belgrano neighbourhood. The assailants, three 16- and 17-year-old males, followed the Jewish boy – whose name is being withheld – until he ducked into a local shop where he was aided by a policeman. The skinheads were arrested and now face charges of violating Argentina’s anti-discrimination laws. Earlier in the week, skinheads attacked a non-Jewish boy in the same neighbourhood, seriously injuring him. Noting several other attacks by skinheads elsewhere in the region, Claudio Epleman, assistant director of the Latin American Jewish Congress, demanded that governments condemn the attacks. We are “so concerned that intolerance is moving to physical violence and being claimed by antisemitic groups,” he said. “We exhort the national government authorities and the civil society to immediately condemn and react against these groups disposed to kill for hate.”
MOSCOW (JTA) – A Holocaust memorial in Belarus was desecrated last week. The memorial Yama, or The Pit, erected in 1946 in memory of the Jewish inmates of the Minsk Ghetto during World War II, was covered last week with wreath fragments and human waste. Jewish leaders in Belarus requested that the authorities find the perpetrators and bring them to justice. A Washington-based group also called on Belarusian authorities to bring the culprits to justice. NCSJ: Advocates on Behalf of Jews in Russia, Ukraine, the Baltic States & Eurasia said in a statement: “This is not the first time this memorial has been vandalized. It is yet another example of the unchecked antisemitism that is being ignored in Belarus.”
WASHINGTON (JTA) – President George W. Bush named Joel Geiderman as the vice chair of the US Holocaust Memorial Council. Geiderman, co-chair of the department of emergency medicine at Los Angeles’ Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, previously served on the council, which oversees the US Holocaust Memorial Museum. Bush also appointed Michael Morris of Georgia and Jay Stein of Florida to the council on Aug. 18.
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