ANT KATZ

Quickies for the record

JTA – “Let My People Live!”

PRAGUE – A panel discussion Monday in the Czech capital to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz death camp by Russian troops was aptly named “Let My People Live!” after the recent attacks on Jews in Europe – a subject which dominated the debates.

Jewish News – Gay Holocaust victims should be remembered

LONDON – UK deputy PM Nick Clegg backs a call for gay victims of the Holocaust to be remembered on a national memorial. He told PinkNews he felt Holocaust memorials should include non-Jewish victims, which included up to 15,000 homosexuals forced to wear a “pink triangle” in concentration camps.

News24 – Jewish radio gets slap on the wrist for hate speech

JOHANNESBURG – The Broadcasting Complaints Commission of SA (BCCSA) has denied two claims and reprimanded Chai FM for a third – for broadcasting content that amounted to hate speech and propaganda.

Canadian Jewish News – Nisman’s death not suicide: Kirchner

BUENOS AIRES – Argentine President Cristina Kirchner now says that the death of special prosecutor Alberto Nisman was not a suicide, reversing an earlier statement by her government. In an open letter published on her Facebook page and blog, Kirchner wrote that Nisman’s death was an “operation against the government”.

UKJN – New Greek leader criticised for anti-Semitism

ATHENS – The Greek nationalist leader who joined the country’s new coalition government was last month criticised for peddling anti-Semitic lies about Jews not paying taxes. In a much-criticised December interview Panos Kammenos said Jews, Muslims and Buddhists were “not taxed” in the austerity-hit Mediterranean country, whereas the Greek Orthodox Church was. The Board of Jewish Communities in Greece called for him to apologise for what it said was a “seriously anti-Semitic act”.

Arutz Sheva – UK Muslim gang went ‘Jew-Bashing’ 

NEWCASTLE – Four plead guilty to vicious attack in northern England to “protest about the Palestinians”; attacker gloated he was “going Jew bashing”. Members of a Muslim gang who carried out a terrifying anti-Semitic attack last year, have pleaded guilty to racially aggravated common assault. Newcastle Crown Court heard how the four had travelled to the town of Gateshead on the night of July 18 with the specific intent of attacking a member of the local Jewish community there.

Cleveland News – Spielberg warns of growing anti-Semitism

KRAKOW, Poland – Film director Steven Spielberg says Jews are again facing the “perennial demons of intolerance” from anti-Semites who want to strip them of their identity. Spielberg spoke to a group of Holocaust survivors on Monday, a day before commemorations at Auschwitz that mark the 70th anniversary of the death camp’s liberation. Earlier in the day some of the survivors prayed for their murdered loved ones amid the barracks and barbed wire of the camp, with one survivor crying out in a pained voice: “I don’t want to come here anymore.”