Antwerp Rabbi Stabbed in Throat while Walking to Synagogue

By: Tzvi Ben-Gedalyahu

Now will there be advice that Jews should not anger anti-Semites and not walk to synagogue?

One way to escape anti-Semitism in Europe: Orthodox family packs up in Antwerp on their way to moving to Israel.Photo Credit: Johanna Geron/FLASH90

An armed man in Antwerp stabbed a local rabbi in his throat and seriously wounded him while he and a companion were walking to synagogue Saturday morning.

The rabbi reportedly is no in a life-threatening condition.

The attacker fled after stabbing the 31-year-old rabbi and police are searching for him. The man walking with the rabbi was not harmed.

Anti-Semitism has become routine throughout Europe, especially since Hamas launched a missile war on Israel this past summer, angering Muslims after Israel decided to hit back instead of behaving like insecure Jews in a ghetto.

“There were Jews in Holland before and after the Holocaust, but what is happening today reminds many of them of the situation before World War II. I am very careful not to make such comparisons, but on the other hand, I am against turning a blind eye,” the Chief Rabbi of Netherlands, Rabbi Binyamin Jacobs, told the Yediot Acharonot newspaper on Friday, before the stabbing of the rabbi.

He added, ”Anti-Semitic incidents occur on a daily basis.”

Observant Jews also have been advised not to wear a kippa in the streets of Europe so they won’t be targets for anti-Semites.

Will the same sages now suggest that Jew should stop walking to synagogue?

About the Author: Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu is a graduate in journalism and economics from The George Washington University. He has worked as a cub reporter in rural Virginia and as senior copy editor for major Canadian metropolitan dailies. Tzvi wrote for Arutz Sheva for several years before joining the Jewish Press.

Poll reveals anti-Semitism in Poland, renews debate over hate-speech laws

By Don Snyder

Polish officials hope the Museum of the History of Polish Jews can be a force for educating a new generation on the importance of tolerance and the contribution of Poland’s Jewish population.

More than half of Polish youth visit anti-Semitic websites that glorify Hitler and the Nazi era, according to a new poll that has renewed debate about laws governing hate speech and stoked the concerns of Poland’s dwindling Jewish population.

The data, gathered by the Warsaw University Center for Research on Prejudice, was presented to the Polish parliament on Nov. 5. Some participants in the poll embraced such blatantly anti-Semitic statements as “Jews must realize that they themselves made the Poles hate them because of their treason and crimes.”

Twenty-one percent of the youth polled and 19 percent of adults said such hate speech should not be banned, while 14 percent of all those polled said racist language was common in Poland.

The Center’s director Michal Bilewicz, a co-author of the report and assistant professor at Warsaw University, said there were 653 respondents to the poll aged 16 to 18 as well as 1,007 adults.

“What is most important for me is that so many young people accept hate speech,” Bilewicz told FoxNews.com in a telephone interview. “In fact, more than adults. And the young are the future of Poland.”

“I am dismissing this study because it is overemphasizing the danger from crackpots.”

– Sigmund Rolat, Holocaust survivor

Other experts on racism in Poland concur with Bilewicz’s findings.

“Contrary to what might be expected, it is the young who often display anti-democratic and xenophobic attitudes on a mass scale today,” said Rafal Pankowsi, professor of political science at Collegium Civitas, a private college in Warsaw.

But Sigmund Rolat, 85, a Holocaust survivor and major benefactor of Warsaw’s newly-opened Museum of the History of Polish Jews, said Jews are safer and more accepted in Poland than in Western Europe. He said the study gave too much emphasis to a minority of bigots.

“I am dismissing this study because it is overemphasizing the danger from crackpots,” Rolat said.

According to Bilewicz, the failure of Polish courts to enforce laws banning expressions of hate compounds the problem.

“Judges must maintain the fine balance between protecting free speech and banning rhetoric designed to incite hate,” he said.

The poll reinforces the findings of recent studies that show an anti-Semitic tilt among Polish youth. Forty-four percent of Warsaw high school students don’t want a Jewish neighbor, according to a poll of 1,250 students that was released in April of this year, also conducted by the Center for Research on Prejudice.

Piotr Kadicik, president of the Union of Jewish Communities in Poland, found the poll results troubling. The Jewish Telegraph Agency reports him as saying that the prevalence of anti-Semitic attitudes is particularly surprising as there are hardly any Jews in Poland.

Read more Poll reveals anti-Semitism…

Premier Australii do Putina: Musi pan opuścić Ukrainę

TVN24

Władimir Putin (fot. WOJCIECH GRZEDZINSKI / Newspix.pl)

Choć wcześniej agencja ITAR-TASS i Reuters informowały, że Władimir Putin opuści szczyt G20 wcześniej, niż planował, teraz rzecznik Kremla stwierdza, że to “całkowite głupstwo”. Zaznaczył, że rozmówcy Putina podnoszą temat Ukrainy ale – jak się wyraził – “jest to zwykła rutynowa sytuacja”. Na początku szczytu, w czasie powitań, premier Kanady miał “nieprzyjemnie” zwrócić się do Putina, co wywołało pogłoski, że opuści on Brisbane.

Według pierwotnych doniesień Reutersa, Putin miał zrezygnować z udziału w popołudniowej sesji roboczej szczytu, jednak nie pojawi się na miejscu, ale i odbędzie trzy robocze spotkania jutro.

O jednej, nieprzyjemnej sytuacji dotyczącej premiera Kanady, Stephena Harpera i Władimira Putina, pisał Reuters. Miał on powiedzieć, witając się z prezydentem Rosji: – A więc zdaje się, że teraz uścisnę panu dłoń, ale mam też tylko jedno do przekazania: musi pan opuścić Ukrainę.

Informację o tym zdarzeniu przekazał Reuterowi rzecznik kanadyjskiego rządu, Jason MacDonald, w e-mailu do dziennikarzy. Według MacDonalda, którego komentarz referuje agencja, “odpowiedź Putina miała nie być miła”, ale – nie przytoczono jej.

Z kolei rzecznik Kremla Dmitrij Pieskow przekazał agencji Interfax, iż Putin miał stwierdzić: – Niestety, to niemożliwe do wykonania, ponieważ rosyjskich żołnierzy tam nie ma” – powiedział agencji Interfax Dmitrij Pieskow.

W wypowiedzi dla innej rosyjskiej agencji – TASS, Pieskow zaprzeczył następnie, by miało dojść do wcześniejszego wyjazdu Putina. – To całkowita bzdura. Rozmówcy stale podnoszą ten temat – oświadczył rzecznik, dodając: – To zwykła rutynowa sytuacja.

Jeszcze w piątek, gdy Putin wylądował w Brisbane, na płycie lotniska czekał na niego jedynie wiceminister obrony i rosyjski ambasador w Canberze. W sobotę natomiast David Cameron w wywiadzie dla BBC i Angela Merkel ustami swego rzecznika poinformowali, że Rosję czekają kolejne sankcje, jeżeli ta nie wycofa swoich wojsk z Ukrainy.

– Jeżeli Rosja będzie nadal destabilizować sytuację na Ukrainie, a my znowu zobaczymy rosyjskie oddziały na terytorium Ukrainy, to należy się spodziewać zupełnie odmiennych relacji między Wielką Brytanią i Europą a Rosją, a co za tym idzie kolejnych sankcji – powiedział szef brytyjskiego rządu.