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Comments (0)The sister and brother-in-law of a Chabad emissary killed in Mumbai will run the Chabad House there temporarily.
Rabbi Yakov Dovid and Sara Leiter of Safed, Israel, will serve as emissaries in Mumbai for three months, Lubavitch.com reported. Sara Leiter is Rivkah Holtzberg’s younger sister.
Rivkah Holtzberg and her husband, Rabbi Gavriel Holtzberg, were among the nearly 200 people killed in last November’s siege of the Indian city. The Holtzbergs were slain in the Chabad House with four others; their 2-year-old son, Moshe, escaped with his care giver.
It is still not known where the new Chabad House will be located, according to Rabbi Moshe Kotlarsky, vice chairman of the Lubavitch educational division.
The Leiters applied for long-term visas to live in the capital city that are being processed by India’s Ministry of External Affairs, the Indian Express reported Monday.
Bomb Attack Rocks Cairo Market
A terrorist bomb attack near a Cairo market popular with tourists killed one person and injured more than 20.
The explosion Sunday evening rocked the Khan el-Khalili market in eastern Cairo. A French tourist was killed. At least 20 people were wounded, six seriously, including French tourists, as well as visitors from Germany and Saudi Arabia, according to news reports.
One bomb was thrown from a motorcycle. A second bomb was thrown but did not detonate.
Police have arrested three suspects, according to reports which have not been confirmed by Egypt’s Interior Ministry.
No one has claimed responsibility for the attack, the first terrorist attack in Cairo since 2005, when several attacks shook the city, apparently targeting tourists.
Some terrorism experts believe the attacks may be a reaction to Israel’s Gaza offensive, according to reports.
Aboriginal Leader Acquitted of Jew Hatred
A judge in the Canadian province of Saskatchewan has acquitted a former aboriginal leader of willfully promoting hatred against Jews.
It was the second trial for David Ahenakew, who was found guilty in 2005 of promoting hatred against Jews and fined $1,000. But the conviction was overturned on appeal and a new trial was ordered.
Ahenakew, the former head of Canada’s Assembly of First Nations, was charged after a controversial speech and subsequent interview with a reporter in 2002. In the interview he called Jews a “disease ... that’s going to take over.”
He went on to say that “The Jews damn near owned all of Germany prior to the war. That’s how Hitler came in. He was going to make damn sure that the Jews didn’t take over Germany or Europe.
“That’s why he fried six million of those guys, you know. Jews would have owned the God-damned world.”
On Monday, Judge Wilfred Tucker of Saskatoon said the comments were “disgusting” but acquitted Ahenakew, saying he didn’t believe the accused intended to promote hatred.
Ahenakew, 75, testified at his second trial that he doesn’t hate Jews, but “I hate what they do to people.” He said he still believes Jews caused World War II.
Jews for Jesus Vandal Pleads Guilty
A Jewish student who vandalized a Jews for Jesus branch in Sydney pleaded guilty.
Jaron Hoffenberg, 19, a graduate of Moriah College, was required to post a one-year good behavior bond after pleading guilty to malicious damage to property for throwing a brick through the window of the missionary center in Bondi on Jan. 29, according to a report in the Australian Jewish News.
Hoffenberg, a university engineering student, also urinated on the property during the offense, which was caught on closed circuit television.
Terence Abrams, Hoffenberg’s friend, also 19, also was charged with malicious damage to property and will appear in court on March 18.
Magistrate William Brydon said in court on Feb. 20, “There’s no doubt [Hoffenberg] is remorseful and contrite for his behavior. I accept that alcohol was a part of this, but people have to be responsible for themselves.”
Hoffenberg has apologized for his behavior and paid for damage to the property.
Jews for Jesus national director Bob Mendelsohn said he accepted Hoffenberg’s apology.
“I’m not vindictive. He’s sorry. No need to keep shaming him,” Mendelsohn was reported as saying.
The Jews for Jesus branch, which opened in 2004, had been vandalized previously several times.
Canadian Union Adopts Israel Boycott Resolution
Jewish groups denounced a resolution by one of Canada’s largest unions that approved a boycott of Israeli universities.
Delegates at a Canadian Union of Public Employees conference of Ontario university locals on late Sunday adopted a resolution that would cut partnerships between universities in Ontario and universities in Israel.
The non-binding resolution is intended to protest Israel’s recent military action in Gaza. It now heads to CUPE Ontario’s annual convention in May for further debate.
According to a CUPE Ontario news release, the motion also “encourages research into military connections between Ontario and Israeli universities, and calls on Ontario universities to refuse to conduct research that benefits the Israeli military.”
The union stressed the resolution does not call for a boycott of individual Israeli academics. That is a step back from the union’s pledge last month that it would seek a ban on Israeli academics at Ontario universities if they did not explicitly condemn Israel’s actions in Gaza.
Also last month, CUPE Ontario president Sid Ryan apologized for comparing Israel’s bombings of academic institutions in Gaza to actions perpetrated by the Nazis.
B’nai Brith Canada has called the latest resolution “discriminatory and racist.”
The Canadian Jewish Congress expressed its “sadness and bitter disappointment” at the motion. CEO Bernie Farber called it “bigoted and anti-Israel. It diminishes a once proud union.”
The union represents 200,000 government and other public sector workers, including the staff at most Ontario universities. Some locals have said they would not support the resolution.