World Roundup: Scapegoat Jews and gay pride crashers

 From anti-Israel protesters crashing a gay pride parade to hundreds of Torah scrolls uncovered in Russia, its our patented weekly roundup, dated 24/02/2014. [divider]

Country: Australia

A former security guard convicted of sexually abusing boys at a Jewish school in Melbourne has appealed. David Cyprys, 45, was given eight years for assaulting nine boys in the 1980s and 1990s, one of whom he raped five times. Victim Manny Waks said: ‘It shows his lack of remorse.’

Country: New Zealand

Anti-Israel activists have gate-crashed a gay pride parade in New Zealand, protesting ‘Israeli apartheid’ and accusing the Jewish state of ‘pink-washing’ human rights. A spokeswoman for the Israeli embassy said: ‘We are the only country in the Middle East where gay people are accepted.’

Country: Japan

Jewish groups have expressed ‘shock and concern’ after 265 copies of Anne Frank’s ‘Diary of a Young Girl’ were vandalised in public libraries across Tokyo. Japan is also the only East Asian country with statues and a museum in her memory, and the book has been exceptionally popular there.

Country: United States

A Jewish literary expert who has been critical of Israel was forced to withdraw from a speaking engagement at the Jewish Museum in New   York after pressure from local pro-Israel activists. Judith Butler, a professor at Columbia and Berkeley Universities, was due to talk about Franz Kafka.

Country: Venezuela

The American Jewish Committee (AJC) has complained to the Organization of American States that the Venezuelan government continues to ‘scapegoat Jews’. AJC director Dina Siegel Vann was speaking after protests between the police and opposition supporters in the capital.

Country: Russia

A Hungarian rabbi last week uncovered 103 Torah scrolls in Nizhny Novgorod, 400 km east of Moscow. They were stolen from Hungarian Jews during World War Two and stashed in a Russian library. Slomo Koves has said he now wants to return them to the Jewish community.