France

Al Jazeera said it would not broadcast video footage shot by Mohammed Merah during his attacks on soldiers and on a Jewish school in Toulouse.

"In accordance with Al Jazeera's code of ethics, given the video does not add any information that is not already in the public domain, its news channels will not be broadcasting any of its contents," the network said Tuesday.

Al Jazeera also said it was declining all requests from other media outlets for copies of the footage.

Yet another warning for local Jewish organizations to increase their vigilance due to events overseas went out this week, as the gruesome murder of four French Jews, three of them children, sent shockwaves around the world.

The New York Police Department had a visible presence outside major institutions such as large Manhattan synagogues, prompting some other organizations to demand the same level of protection.

Four people - a teacher and three students, including a 3-year-old – reportedly were shot dead outside a Jewish school in Toulouse, France.

A man riding a motorbike reportedly opened fire outside the Ozar Hatorah School, where students were waiting to enter the building at the start of the school day. The shooter then entered the building shooting at students and teachers. He then fled on his motorbike.

Several students also were injured inside the building, according to reports. The dead adult is reported to be the rabbi of the school, according to Haaretz.

PARIS — French Prime Minister Francois Fillon advised Muslims and Jews to forego ritual slaughter practices he deems un-modern, sparking controversy.

“I think religions should think about maintaining traditions that no longer have much in common with the state of science and technology, health issues today,” Fillon said Monday on French Europe 1 radio, in reference to halal and kosher practices.

PARIS (JTA) -- Shock waves continue to ripple throughout France as Dominique Strauss-Kahn, considered the likely Socialist Party candidate to challenge President Nicolas Sarkozy in French presidential elections next year, remains in a New York City jail on charges of sexual assault.

Saturday's arrest of Strauss-Kahn significantly changes the political playing field in France, as some recent polls had showed that the 62-year-old head of the International Monetary Fund was the most popular among those considered to be possible presidential contenders.

PARIS (JTA) -- French Jewish leaders condemned the far right leader Marine Le Pen at a rally in Paris.

Monday's rally was presaged by a French-Jewish radio station's plans to interview Le Pen, the daughter of notorious French politician Jean-Marie Le Pen and president of the National Front Party, which many French Jews consider anti-Semitiic. The interview was canceled amid broad community outrage.

SAN FRANCISCO (JTA) -- For three decades now, the American Jewish Reform movement has considered as Jewish the child of a Jewish father and non-Jewish mother who is raised as a Jew.

But most Reform Jews in the rest of the world still do not accept “patrilineal descent.”

That makes the debate about “Who is a Jew” not just between the Orthodox-dominated Israeli Rabbinate and American Jewish liberal movements, but also between American Reform Judaism and most of the Diaspora.