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Comments (0)Latin America’s largest television network will feature a Chanukah awareness campaign.
Brazil’s Globo TV, which has 120 million viewers daily, will air a 15-second film about the meaning of Chanukah. The film will invite viewers in Rio de Janeiro, the station’s headquarters, for the lighting of a large Chanukah menorah to be held each night from Dec. 11 to 19 at Copacabana beach.
“With a lot of joy, we’ll start to celebrate an event with great symbolism and the feeling of respect and diversity,” said Globo director Luiz Erlanger.
Several Chanukah menorahs are lit each year on the streets of Rio, but this will be the first time on live television. The program will feature children lighting Chanukah candles and the message “In Chanukah, Jews all over the world celebrate the freedom of faith, the miracle of light, peace and tolerance. Come celebrate with us. Happy Chanukah!”
For film director Sergio Horovitz, “Producing this film was our way to contribute to such an important event of the Jewish community of Rio.”
Globo TV is the fourth largest network in the world, behind the U.S. networks ABC, CBS and NBC.
Former German Envoys Urge Tough Israel Stance
Twenty-four ex-German ambassadors have urged the country’s chancellor and new foreign minister to be tougher on Israel.
In a letter to Chancellor Angela Merkel and Guido Westerwelle, the envoys also said that Hamas, which rejects Israel’s right to exist, must be included in the “political process.”
The pro-Israel German-Israel Society in response accused the ambassadors of “overlooking or outright denying facts.”
Germany is widely viewed as being Israel’s strongest supporter in Europe, but observers have long suggested that a gap is growing between popular sentiment and official policy.
Perhaps reflecting the gap, the former ambassadors said in their letter that the “unforeseen risks” to the rest of the world due to the ongoing conflict outweighed concerns—“no longer taken seriously”—that a Palestinian state would be a “threat to the existence of Israel.”
The former ambassador to Jordan, Martin Schneller, initiated the campaign.
“Israel cannot expect to secure peace while holding onto Palestinian territories,” the group said in the letter, according to the daily newspaper Suddeutschen Zeitung.
In the letter, which was shared this week with the German news media, the envoys urged pressure on both sides. None of the signing diplomats have served in Israel.
The diplomats recognized Germany’s “historical legacy” to protect Israel. They said, however, that security cannot be won “through occupation and settlement, nor by relying on military superiority,” but rather “through withdrawal from occupied areas, followed by the establishment of a Palestinian state.”
In his response issued Wednesday, Johannes Gerster, president of the German-Israeli Society, angrily reminded the ambassadors that “after Israel withdrew from Lebanon and then from Gaza, the rocket attacks on Israel increased like an avalanche. The writers of this letter omit the fact that the fundamentalists aim to destroy Israel no matter what, even after the return of occupied lands.”
Brazilian Jewish Pol to Head Popular Soccer Club
A Jewish politician became the first woman to be elected president of Brazil’s most popular soccer team.
Patricia Amorim, a Rio de Janeiro City Council member since 2000, as well as an Olympic swimmer, was chosen Monday to head the Flamengo soccer club. The team, which has some 35 million supporters, won the Brazilian league championship on Sunday.
A Jewish activist, she was among some 1,000 demonstrators protesting in Rio against Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s visit to Brazil last month. In 2008, as a council member, Amorim granted the Rio de Janeiro municipality’s highest honor, the Pedro Ernesto medal, to the Rio de Janeiro State Jewish Federation.
Amorim, a mother of four, represented Brazil at the 1988 Summer Olympics in South Korea. She also won 15 medals in her appearances at the Maccabiah Games in Israel, including two golds. She accumulated hundreds of medals and records in official championships in South America.
‘Chanukah Caravan’ Visiting Scandinavia
The “Chanukah Caravan” is visiting Scandinavia.
The “Chanukah Caravan,” a production organized by World Bnei Akiva, the Religious Affairs in the Diaspora and Hagshama departments of the World Zionist Organization, and the Jewish Agency, is operated by Israeli emissaries who not only produce the show, but also perform in original choreographed dance numbers and songs.
The caravan is visiting Jewish communities in Denmark, Sweden, Norway and Finland.
Two Bnei Akiva members from Oslo who represented Scandinavia in the Jewish Eurovision contest recorded a special Chanukah cover song in Norwegian to the popular “Friends” sitcom theme song.
“The caravan brings the Israeli spirit of Chanukah to hundreds of Jewish children and families across Scandinavia,” said Aryeh Jacobson, central emissary to Scandinavia of the Jewish Agency, World Zionist Organization and World Bnei Akiva. “Through the Israeli music and holiday stories, the community members can identify with Chanukah in a fun and meaningful way.”