OWN CORRESPONDENT
The shul security guard was held at gunpoint at about 03:00, and tied up by intruders, who then broke into the office and took laptops and petty cash. They did not enter the shul, and no one was hurt in the incident.
The break in was confirmed by the shul’s rabbi, Dovid Hazdan.
“CSO [the Community Security Organisation] is investigating how this happened,” said Jevon Greenblatt, the head of the CSO in Gauteng. “At no stage were lives of community members at risk. Usually these criminals target institutions when they are empty.”
This is not the first time a place of worship has been targeted by thieves in South Africa. Congregants at two churches in the Western Cape were robbed at gunpoint in November last year. A church in Durban was robbed in December 2015.
(JTA) Trolls torpedo Adidas promotion
Anti-Semitic trolls forced Adidas to scrap a social-media promotion for a new jersey made for the London soccer team, Arsenal.
The sportswear company allowed fans to put their Twitter handles on the back of a virtual jersey, and tweet an image of it. Some used it to put handle names such as “@GasAllJewss” into the tool. Hashtags such as “#InnocentHitler” also were tweeted on some of the virtual jerseys.
Adidas UK took down the tweets, and eventually the entire promotion on Tuesday.
“As part of our partnership launch with Arsenal, we have been made aware of the abuse of a Twitter personalisation mechanic created to allow excited fans to get their name on the back of the new jersey,” an Adidas spokesman told the Guardian. “Due to a small minority creating offensive versions of this, we have immediately turned off the functionality, and the Twitter team will be investigating.”
Arsenal is one of London’s most popular teams. Its fans were the subject of anti-Semitic abuse during a game against Spanish squad Valencia on Holocaust Remembrance Day in May.
(JTA) Jews ‘own worst enemies’
Academy Award winner Richard Dreyfuss says he is more concerned about “Jews not behaving like Jews” than he is about the global rise in anti-Semitism.
Dreyfuss told the Hollywood Reporter ahead of the release of his new movie, Astronaut, that Jews “sound very much like our own worst enemies in trying to protect Zionism, and protect our own reputation. We really do need to explore what it means to be Jewish.”
Dreyfuss appeared to criticise Israel’s treatment of the Palestinians, saying that “most Jews are willing to celebrate their own history of being oppressed, and then they’ll get up and oppress other people. I don’t want Jews to do that.”
The actor says he is not what he calls a “temple Jew”, but is “very proud of being Jewish, and very proud of being a cultural Jew”.
(JTA) Holocaust survivors get more aid
The spouse of a Holocaust survivor will continue to receive a monthly pension for nine months after the survivor’s death under a new deal with the German government announced on Monday.
The agreements negotiated by the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany also provide for a $50 million (R705 million) increase in funding for social-welfare services for survivors, bringing the total for 2020 funded by Germany to more than $587 million (R8.2 billion). Also, monthly pensions will increase by 46% from now until January 1 to about $650 (R9 179) a month.
For the first time, righteous gentiles – non-Jews recognised by Yad Vashem for saving Jews during the Holocaust – will receive a monthly pension from the German government.
(JTA) Kloss dishes the Josh on Judaism
Supermodel Karlie Kloss said she did not take her conversion to Judaism lightly, and she had come out of the experience a stronger person.
“Changing part of who you are for someone else can be seen as weak,” she told British Vogue. “But, if you’ve been through what I’ve experienced, it requires you to be anything but weak. It requires you to be stronger, self-loving, and resilient. I really didn’t take this lightly.”
Kloss, 26, the host of Project Runway, married Josh Kushner, 34, the founder and managing partner of the investment firm Thrive Capital, and the brother of White House senior adviser Jared Kushner, in October in a Jewish ceremony in upstate New York with fewer than 80 guests.
The couple dated for seven years before marrying.
