News Brief

Nazi Kin March With Holocaust Survivors In Poland

08/21/2012 | JMNS

A group of grandchildren of Nazis, along with Holocaust survivors and their descendants, were taking part in a march across Poland with former Nazi death camps along their route this week, AFP reported.

The march was organized by the Protestant TOS Church in Tuebingen, Germany, after many in the church began looking into their family history and discovered Nazi family connections.

Israeli Chief Rabbi Visits Berlin On Circumcision Issue

08/21/2012 | JTA

Israel’s chief Ashkenazi rabbi said in Berlin that medical training for mohels, or ritual circumcisers, could resolve concerns in Germany regarding circumcision of male children.

In meetings Tuesday with government officials and Berlin’s Jewish community, Rabbi Yonah Metzger noted that mohels could be trained and certified by German doctors. But he emphasized that the Chief Rabbinate in Israel has to make final decision on whether a mohel is up to par.

U.S. Seizes Money Linked To Hezbollah

08/21/2012 | JMNS

U.S. authorities have seized $150 million from a New York account of the Lebanon’s Banque Libano Francaise SAL (BLF), which authorities say is connected with a larger scheme to launder hundreds of millions of dollars through U.S. banks for the Lebanese terrorist group Hezbollah, the Wall Street Journal reported.

Boys Allegedly Sexually Abused At N.Y. Jewish Summer Camp

08/14/2012 | JTA

New York State Police are investigating allegations of sexual abuse by a truck driver making a delivery to a Jewish camp, The New York Post reported.

Surveillance video captured footage of a kosher-food truck driver entering bunks for seventh-and eighth-grade boys at Camp Shalva near South Fallsburg, N.Y., early on Aug. 8, according to the newspaper. The suspect is accused of molesting several of the campers.

Israeli Pediatric Group Calls For End To Circumcision-Related Rite

08/14/2012 | JTA

The Israel Ambulatory Pediatric Association is calling for an end to a controversial circumcision-related rite that is also under fire in New York.

Direct oral-genital suction, known as metzitzah b’peh, should not be performed during Jewish ritual circumcision, the IAPA said. The association is calling on Israel’s Health Ministry to require maternity wards and clinics to advise parents against metzitzah b’peh, Israeli media reported.

Report: Egypt’s Morsi ‘Studying’ Amending Camp David Accords

08/14/2012 | JTA

Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi is considering amending the Camp David Accords to give Egypt full control over the Sinai, his legal adviser told a national newspaper.

Mohamed Gadallah told the Egyptian Al-Masry Al-Youm that Morsi is “studying” whether to amend the basis for the peace treaty signed between Israel and Egypt in 1979.