Thieves steal part of Dachau’s ‘Arbeit Macht Frei’ sign

From Brussels, where the Jewish sponsor is now boycotting a Jewish film festival, to in South East Asia, where there’s been no such drama (yet), it could only be your weekly round-up of world Jewish news – dated 3 November.

Belgium

A Jewish organisation has withdrawn from the Brussels Jewish Film Festival in protest at the Israeli embassy’s involvement. The Union of Progressive Jews of Belgium had been an event sponsor but pulled out, saying Israel was a ‘state of colonisation and occupation’. Other Jewish groups urged the public to attend.

South Africa

Jewish protesters have massed outside a Cape Town store after a pig’s head was placed in the shop’s kosher refrigerators last week. The country’s Jewish community is concerned that anti-Israel protests have recently turned anti-Semitic after the Congress of South African Students’ Western Cape branch.

Germany

A section of the sign above the Dachau death camp reading ‘Arbeit Macht Frei’ (or ‘Work Makes You Free’) has been stolen. The private firm providing security at the site near Munich said CCTV did not capture the theft. It comes five years after the theft of the 16-foot metal sign outside Auschwitz.

Austria

Volunteers from a grassroots initiative have tended to a neglected Jewish cemetery in Vienna on All Souls Day – a day on which many Christians tend to their relatives’ graves. Dozens took part in the annual clean up of headstones at Waehringer Cemetery, one of the city’s largest ancient Jewish burial sites.

Vietnam

A five-day film festival in Vietnam will mark 20 years of the country’s diplomatic relations with Israel. Films to ‘connect the two nations’ will be shown across Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, with assistance from the Israeli embassy. Trade between the two states has shot up over 60 percent in just over a year.

France

A French appeals court has overturned a lower tribunal’s award of damages to the anti-Semitic comedian Dieudonne M’bala M’bala. The comic sued successfully for $50,000 after the then-mayor cancelled his show due to its offensive content, but the Court of Appeals of Poitiers took a different view.