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Comments (0)A vote in Switzerland banning the construction of minarets on new mosques is drawing criticism from Jewish groups.
The national referendum Nov. 29 passed with 57.5 percent of the vote. The extreme right-wing Swiss People’s Party, the largest party in the Swiss Parliament, strongly promoted the measure.
“The referendum result amounts to an attack on the fundamental values of mutual respect,” American Jewish Committee Executive Director David Harris said Tuesday.
“While there are certainly understandable concerns in Europe over Islamist extremism, these cannot be legitimately addressed through a blanket assault on Muslim communities and their religious symbols.”
The Anti-Defamation League in a statement Tuesday urged the Swiss government to be vigilant in its commitment to ensuring freedom of religion.
“This is not the first time a Swiss popular vote has been used to promote religious intolerance,” Robert Sugarman, ADL national chair, and Abraham Foxman, its national director said in a released statement. “A century ago, a Swiss referendum banned Jewish ritual slaughter in an attempt to drive out its Jewish population.”
U.S. Sen. Benjamin Cardin, chairman of the Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe (U.S. Helsinki Commission) and his co-chairman, Rep. Alcee Hastings, expressed concern over the minaret ban.
“The Swiss vote to ban minarets is worrying for a number of reasons, including the fact the Swiss people have seen fit to limit the religious practice of one particular group,” Cardin said. “I trust the Swiss government will work swiftly to be sure the Swiss are not viewed as an intolerant people.”
“I hope the Swiss courts will overturn this referendum, and that the Swiss government will double its efforts to implement anti-discrimination laws and have an open and honest dialogue about religious and ethnic tolerance,” Hastings said.
The Swiss Federation of Jewish Communities opposed the measure.
Muslims make up about 5 percent of the Swiss population.
Australian Parliament Holds First Chanukah Party
Chanukah was celebrated at the New South Wales Parliament House for the first time since the house was established in 1856.
Attendees at Tuesday’s historic event in Sydney—initiated and hosted by the New South Wales Chabad under the auspices of the New South Wales Jewish Board of Deputies—included Premier Nathan Rees, opposition leader Barry O’Farrell and more than 70 lawmakers, a dozen ministers and shadow ministers, and over 100 Jewish community leaders and rabbis.
Chabad’s spiritual leader, Rabbi Pinchus Feldman, presented a silver menorah with the inscription acknowledging “the friendship bestowed by our elected representatives to all faiths, including the Jewish people.”
Speaker of the Legislative Assembly Richard Torbay accepted the gift.
“On behalf of the Parliament and people of New South Wales, it is a pleasure to receive this gift of the menorah, which will permanently be on display here in parliament, and which symbolizes the values and morals which our society is blessed with,” Torbay said.
Jewish Board of Deputies CEO Vic Alhadeff told JTA that “Holding a Chanukah celebration in Parliament House reflects the values of democracy and liberty which the Jewish community shares with the Parliament.”
JDC Clinic for Falash Mura Reopens
A health clinic in Ethiopia run by the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee has reopened.
The Gondar clinic, closed since May, was able to reopen Nov. 26 due to a $250,000 donation— half from the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews, the other half from an anonymous New York donor, The Jerusalem Post reported.
The clinic provides basic medical care and sometimes life-saving health services to thousands of Falash Mura waiting to immigrate to Israel. Falash Mura are Ethiopian Jews whose ancestors were forced to convert to Christianity hundreds of years ago.
The newspaper noted that the reopening of the clinic, which was encouraged by the Israeli government, came a week after Jewish Agency for Israel chairman Natan Sharansky told Jewish leaders he wanted to bring the remaining Falash Mura to Israel if their Jewish roots could be proven.