Germany opens first Reform synagogue since WWII

The synagogue in the northern city of Hameln was built on the foundation of its predecessor, which was destroyed by the Nazis during 'Kristallnacht' in 1938

Germany opened its first new reform synagogue since the Holocaust on Sunday, marking a
major step in the revival of Reform Judaism, which traces its roots to the country. The synagogue in the northern city of Hameln was built on the foundation of its predecessor, which was destroyed by the Nazis during the "Kristallnacht" pogrom in 1938. The congregation received financial backing for the synagogue primarily from local and state government.

"It's incredible that, after the Shoah, in Germany a synagogue could be built with money that came from German political organisations," the congregation's president Rachel Dohme told Reuters.

The city's reform congregation was founded in 1997 and has some 200 members, the majority of which are from the former Soviet Union. Reform, or liberal, Judaism was pioneered in Germany by Israel Jacobson two centuries ago. It holds the equality of sexes for rights and responsibilities and allows for sermons in local languages. About 20 percent of Jews in Germany currently follow Reform Judaism, a figure Dohme said highlights a growing pluralism in the German-Jewish community in the past decade.

"People are moving away from Orthodox Judaism and looking for a modern Judaism", Dohme said. "In the next couple of decades there will be a major switch."

Germany's Jewish population has grown quickly since the collapse of the Soviet Union two decades ago brought an influx of Jews from Eastern Europe. The country's Jewish population is around 200,000 -- most of which are emigres from the former Soviet Union. There were more than a half-million Jews in Germany before Adolf Hitler took power in 1933.

Haaretz

Thanks to NewsHound for the heads-up

Strength of multiculturalism

My wife and I came to Leicester in 1966 from India, land of different faiths such as Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, Christianity, Islam, Zorasterism and Sikhism, co-existing with each other for centuries.

We started our lives in Highfields where lived too Christians, Afro-Carribeans, Muslims, Hindus, Sikhs and Bangladeshis. When we started looking for a house for ourselves across East Park Road, we were told by the white house owners that they cannot sell their house because our food smells of garlic; we have different culture and our white neighbours do not like Asians and coloured people. These sort of remarks gave us the shock of our lives.

When I used to tell them that I was a teacher in a Grammar School, they would say: "Really".

St Peter's Church Vicar, Rev Carlile, involved me in Leicester Voluntary Community Relations Council. At those times, there was no Hindu Mandir, no Gurdwara and no Mosque.

The first Islamic centre started at St Peter's Road, the first gurdwara opened at New Walk and Hindu mandir started at Weymouth Street. White population Christians started visiting these Asian religious places of worship and people like us from different faiths began to be invited by different organisations to give a talk to them about our religions, cultures, customs, traditions etc.

A new awakening about understanding each other sprang up in the city and the county.

Then came 1972. In spite of Leicester City Council's efforts to discourage the Ugandan Asians from coming to Leicester, they came in thousands and started their businesses in the Belgrave-Melton Road areas. The Gujarati community brought better understanding, multiculturalism, wealth and respect to all the Asians, the blacks and the whites and brought them nearer to each other.

Indian, Italian, Irish, Polish, Pakistani, Bangladeshi and Punjabi restaurants opened their door for the white population and they were not put off anymore from the garlic smell.

BBC Radio started Asian programme "Milan" with me which later on became 6.0 Five Show in English and is now Asian Network. People from all faiths started respecting each other's faiths and cultures. More and more gurdwaras, mandirs and mosques have come in our city. They are all co-existing next to each other along with the churches and synagogues.

People of different faiths and cultures are neighbours of each other. Our state schools are teaching all the major religions, having Christian worship and school assemblies very amicably. All the children and their parents have accepted the multi-faith teaching gladly. Hence multiculturalism is a great success in Leicester.

In 1979, my wife and myself were invited to Her Majesty's Garden Party and there we were introduced to the late Queen Mother.

Her sweet and memorable words are still ringing in my ears.

She said: "Great Britain is like a garden with beautiful flowers of different colours. For thousands of years, people of different cultures, faiths and backgrounds have been coming to this land and have contributed to the enrichment of British culture which is a mix of so many cultures. I welcome you both to this country and your contribute to the enrichment of our culture with your Asian values."

This is multiculturalism, where people do follow their own faiths and live their own lives like good neighbours. All of us also have common values, the common laws of the land, common language, common citizenship and one country and loyalty to one head of the State — Her Majesty the Queen.

We all are united against extremism, killing of innocent people in our cities.

We proved beyond any doubt on October 8, 2010 when gathering around the Clock Tower in solidarity against the EDL march and again on October 10 when the people of all faiths, colours and backgrounds showed their unity. It was the strength of multiculturalism on show.

Letter from Kartar Singh Sandhu to the Leicester Mercury

Thanks to NewsHound for the heads-up

Israel arrests neo-Nazi leader

Israeli police on Monday arrested the fugitive leader of a neo-Nazi youth group as he returned to Tel Aviv from overseas, a police spokesman said.

Erik Bonite, who has Israeli nationality but is not Jewish, was arrested as he stepped off a plane at Ben Gurion airport, spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said.

Bonite, nicknamed Ely the Nazi, fled the country in 2007. He was sentenced to seven years in prison in November 2008 after a Tel Aviv court found him guilty of commemorating Hitler's birthday - April 20 - at a ceremony where members of his group swore to defend "the white race up to the last drop of their blood".

The other seven gang members, aged 16 to 21 at the time and all from the former Soviet Union, were also sentenced to prison terms for "neo-Nazi activities" in Israel between 2005 and 2007. They were convicted of racist crimes and attacks against Asian immigrant workers, drug addicts, gays, and orthodox Jews.

Group members who called themselves Patrol 36 were also found guilty of defiling a synagogue in a Tel Aviv suburb and planning attacks on punk groups using explosives.

ABC News

Historian finds a fascist link to Broughton synagogue

A Prestwich historian has revealed that a strictly orthodox synagogue in Northumberland Street, Higher Broughton, was once the regional HQ of the British Union of Fascists.

Dr Yaakov Wise, Hon Research Fellow at the Centre for Jewish Studies at Manchester University, made the startling discovery whilst studying 1930s newspapers, Home Office Records and MI5 files for his doctorate. He claims British Union of Fascist's (BUF) founder Sir Oswald Mosley even considered moving his national headquarters from Chelsea to Northumberland Street where the Machzikei Hadas Synagogue now stands.

Dr Wise said: "It's an amazing paradox that this important Jewish institution was once a hotbed of anti-Semitic hatred."

He said Mosley attended the opening ceremony of the BUF Northern HQ in the Spring of 1934. A photo, now in archives at the Central Library, Manchester. shows Mosley with an honour guard of Blackshirts, mirroring the poses of fellow fascists Hitler and Mussolini.

According to Dr Wise, many of Mosley's followers were not ideologists but Lancashire cotton workers who, due to the Depression, had lost their jobs. Dr Wise has records from 1936-7 of Blackshirts from around the country arriving at Victoria Station and marching down Bury New Road to the Northumberland Street HQ. There was also a rally at Belle Vue in 1936. These rallies attracted protesters from the young Communists, Socialists and Jews and the ensuing skirmishes were quelled by police. This activity mirrored the better known Cable Street anti-fascist riots in the East End of London. Mosley also spoke at the Athenaeum Club in Bury, which now houses Bury Education Offices.

The organisation was made illegal in 1937 and in 1938, furniture importer and wholesaler Abraham Jacob Pfeffer bought the building in Higher Broughton. It was established as a synagogue the following year. The original 1870's merchant's villa was demolished in the 1950s and the current building dates from 1959.

Prestwich and Whitfield Guide

'Quebec's Le Pen' likely to make major election gain

A young conservative populist sometimes described as Quebec's Jean-Marie Le Pen is likely in today's election to throw a spanner into the separatist versus federalist competition that has dominated Quebec politics for decades.

Polls indicate Mario Dumont's Action démocratique du Québec (ADQ), a small fringe party for the past three elections, is about to seize the balance of power in the first minority parliament in 129 years. The ADQ has side-swiped the separatist Parti Quebecois and the ruling federalist Liberals, led by Jean Charest, by exploiting a backlash against multiculturism, especially Muslims.

Adebate has developed throughout the province about what constitutes reasonable accommodation to the cultural and social practices of expanding ethnic communities. It was fuelled when, for example, a conservative Hasidic synagogue forced a sports centre to paint the windows of its swimming pool so students would not see people in swimming costumes.

Muslim headscarves and niqabs have also become a subject of controversy, especially when an 11-year-old girl was thrown out of a football match for wearing one. Quebec's chief electoral officer has ordered that Muslim women must bare their faces if they want to vote, after an outcry over his original ruling that face coverings were acceptable.

M. Dumont, who describes himself as an autonomist wanting more power for Quebec, will probably tonight be in a position to implement many of the rightist, inward-looking policies on which he has campaigned. Both M. Charest and the Parti Quebecois leader, Andre Boisclair, seemed oblivious to the issue until polls showed M. Dumont was surging ahead.

Independent