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WORLD NEWS
6-12 Shevat, 5772 Jan. 30-Feb. 5, 2012 -- THE JEWISH OBSERVER, LOS ANGELES -- 457th Web Ed.
WORLD NEWS
ISRAEL AND INDIA CELEBRATE 20 YEARS OF DIPLOMATIC RELATIONS
Today, Israel and India share an intimately close and special relationship encompassing virtually every field of human endeavor. From trade to education, from agriculture to science and technology, from energy and water to homeland security - Israel and India today work together in a vast variety of fields, some of which are no less than existential to them both.
At the core of these multifaceted relations lie the values, the interests and the challenges that Israel and India share. Both countries are open and free democracies that embrace modernity and progress whilst preserving their ancient heritage and history. Both countries strive to achieve stability, human development and economic growth for the well-being of all their citizens. Both countries also face a large number of threats and difficulties ranging from the scourge of terrorism to water and energy scarcity. It is these commonalities that make the connection and collaboration between Israel and India so natural and fertile.
The remarkable development of bilateral trade in the past 20 years is an unequivocal example of the vector of Indo-Israel ties. In 1992, the annual trade between Israel and India stood at a mere $180 million. By 2011, the annual civilian trade between the two countries, diversified and well balanced, had expanded almost thirty fold to surpass $5 billion. Both countries have expressed their intention to finalize a Free Trade Agreement by the end of this year, a development which is expected to further invigorate and diversify bilateral trade.
One of the key pillars of the relationship is the cooperation in the field of agriculture. Food security is more than ever a critical concern for both countries. In cooperation projects across India, Israeli technology and knowhow is being demonstrated and shared with Indian farmers, and joint Indian and Israeli agricultural R&D is conducted on the ground. The recently finalized three-year action plan sets the path for the establishment of 27 projects across 7 States in India in various fields. This cooperation will no doubt benefit the Indian farmer and consumer and is already playing a significant role in India’s efforts to ensure food security to all its citizens.
Both Israel and India have excelled in the research and development of science and technology. At present, new platforms are being created for both government and private sectors to jointly enhance scientific innovation in crucial fields such as clean-tech and life sciences.
Unfortunately, Israel and India both suffer from the scourge of terrorism. Both societies have shown remarkable resilience and determination to ensure that life and freedom will prevail. The horrendous attacks in Mumbai in November 2008, in which Indians and Israelis alike were targeted, only strengthened the bond between the two nations and the understanding that only through concerted efforts, can terrorism be defeated.
Last month, the Minister of External Affairs of India, Mr. SM Krishna, conducted a historical visit to Israel and met with the Israeli leadership in Jerusalem. During the visit, President Shimon Peres referred to India as "the greatest democracy on earth." Prime Minister Netanyahu said that "India and Israel are two ancient peoples seizing the future." Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman appreciated India's approval of the opening of an Israeli Consulate General in Bangalore, a preeminent hub of high tech in India. This will be Israel's third mission in India after New Delhi and Mumbai.
The 20th anniversary of relations between Israel and India will be marked throughout the year, in Israel and in India, with an elaborate array of cultural events. We stay committed to building upon the remarkable achievements of the last two decades, to further develop this promising relationship in the decades to come, for the benefit of both nations. --IMFA
NORWAY APOLOGIZES FOR DEPORTING JEWS DURING HOLOCAUST
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"Norwegians carried out the arrests, Norwegians drove the trucks and it happened in Norway," Jens Stoltenberg said in a speech. It is believed to be the first time a Norwegian leader has been so explicit about collusion under Nazi occupation. More than a third of Norway's 2,100 Jews were deported to death camps. Others fled to neighboring Sweden, which remained neutral during World War II.
Norway acknowledged its role in the Holocaust in 1998 and paid some $60m to Norwegian Jews and Jewish organizations in compensation for property seized. However, the payout fell short of a full apology.
'Time to acknowledge'
Mr Stoltenberg delivered his speech at the dock in the capital Oslo where 532 Jews boarded the cargo ship Donau on 26 November 1942, bound for Nazi camps.
"Today I feel it is fitting for me to express our deepest apologies that this could happen on Norwegian soil," he said in the speech, translated into English on the prime minister's website.
"It is time for us to acknowledge that Norwegian policemen, civil servants and other Norwegians took part in the arrest and deportation of Jews."
He added that he was sorry to see that the "ideas that led to the Holocaust [were] still very much alive today".
"All over the world we see that individuals and groups are spreading intolerance and fear," he said. Paul Levine, a history professor at Uppsala University in Sweden, likened Norway's role during the war to that of the Vichy regime in Nazi-occupied France.
"They implemented their own anti-Jewish laws, used their own manpower, confiscated property and discriminated against Jews before the Germans had demanded it," he told Reuters news agency. "Norway didn't have to do what it did."
The Holocaust, during which some six million Jews were murdered, is commemorated on the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz by Soviet troops. In other news related to Holocaust Remembrance Day:
* Austria's Green Party leader, Eva Glavischnig, suggested attendees at a Vienna ball on Friday evening which traditionally attracts the far right would be "dancing on the graves of Auschwitz"
* A public TV channel in Turkey began broadcasting the epic 1985 documentary Shoah - the first mainly Muslim state ever to do so - in what its director Claude Lanzmann, 87, called a "historic event"
* Auschwitz survivor Kazimierz Smolen, 91, who went on to become director of the memorial at the site, died in the neighbouring Polish town of Oswiecim
* German parliamentary Norbert Lammert told a memorial ceremony in Berlin that he was concerned about lack of awareness of the Nazi genocide among young people
* Flowers were laid at the Sachsenhausen Nazi death camp site in Oranienburg, Germany, where some 10,000 Soviet prisoners-of-war were shot by the Nazis. --BBCi
AMEINU CONDEMNS VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN IN BEIT SHEMESH
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"This latest incident is part of a disturbing trend where extremists, acting in the name of Judaism, but who, in reality, represent a twisted perversion of religion, have used violence or the threat of violence to enforce their morals on the larger community," said Ameinu President Kenneth Bob. "This criminal behavior is a danger to Israeli society as a whole and must be dealt with immediately. This self-appointed 'modesty police' is un-Jewish in the extreme." he added.
Over the past several months, certain elements within Israel's ultra-Orthodox community have attempted to impose their will on Israel's majority through intimidation, verbal and now physical assaults against women in particular. "The time for action is now," Bob continued, "condemnations without concrete steps to prevent further incidents is not enough. Religious and communal leaders in Israel and abroad have a moral obligation to speak out and speak loudly to let this small group of zealots know that their behavior cannot and will not be tolerated any longer," he concluded.
Ameinu, the leading progressive Zionist membership organization in the United Staes,is dedicated to promoting a negotiated peace between Israel, the Palestinians and the Arab states, and to social and economic justice for all in Israel and America. Ameinu reinforces Jewish continuity through support for Habonim Dror, the Labor Zionist youth movement, and management of the Kibbutz Program Center which sends 100's of young adults on unique Israel experiential journeys every year. --BBCi
ANTI-SEMITISM STILL HAUNTS GERMANY
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Here, they live in the land that produced the Holocaust, and a rigorous academic study indicates that one in five Germans has at least a "latent" antipathy towards Jews. Separately, a British publisher planned to put extracts from Hitler's manifesto on news stands and only held back as a court in Bavaria got involved.
You would expect loud and righteous outrage - but you would be wrong. Certainly, some groups have voiced anger but they have often been outside Germany. In the country itself there is a more measured tone. Behind the headlines there are nuances and complexities. It should be said that Germany has a growing Jewish population, arguably the fastest growing Jewish population in Europe.
Many of the immigrants are from Russia but many are from Israel - people who have come to live in the land of their fathers, people who have come to live in the land that expelled their fathers to their deaths.
These people know the history - how could they not? - but they also live lives and make livings. As Rafael Seligmann told the BBC: "It's important to have a positive identity - not just to say 'my uncle was murdered'."
He has just published a new Jewish newspaper in Berlin, Jewish Voice from Germany.
"People feel it's not enough to have a 'Holocaust identity'. We are trying to show that the Jewish identity is broader," said Mr Seligmann. "It's about culture and history and politics."
'Hopeful future'
So what did he make of the research indicating that 20% of Germans harbour some anti-Semitism?
"That indicates that 80% don't," he said. "You have to be positive".
Mr Seligmann's view is that the past, of course, was terrible and should be remembered and learnt from, but that the present and future remained hopeful.
Nor have Jewish groups in Germany been utterly damning of the proposed publication of extracts from Mein Kampf -- suspicious, certainly, but not always outraged.
The head of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, Dieter Graumann, said: "Of course, it would be better if it were not published. But if it has to be published, it must be accompanied by historians' commentary."
In the end, the publishers pulled back because a court in Bavaria is yet to make a full decision. Publishing Mein Kampf is not illegal, but the government of Bavaria owns the copyright and it had indicated its opposition. And those uneasy about publication seem to recognise that the British publisher did not have an anti-Semitic agenda - he said the extracts would reveal the "poor-quality and confused work of a totally twisted mind".
Attitudes to Jews in Germany obviously have a big importance, but those who study racism put them into a wider context. There is enmity -- and a lack of enmity -- towards many groups. Last year the University of Bielefeld published the results of a survey across Europe which looked at attitudes not just towards Jews but Muslims and other victims of what it called "group-focused enmity".
It concluded: "Group-focused enmity is widespread in Europe. It is weakest in the Netherlands and strongest in Poland and Hungary."
On anti-Semitism, the researchers said it was strongest in Poland and Hungary. "In Portugal, followed closely by Germany, anti-Semitism is significantly more prominent than in the other western European countries.
"In Italy and France anti-Semitic attitudes as a whole are less widespread than the European average, while the extent of anti-Semitism is least in Great Britain and the Netherlands."
Economic tensions
Putting it bluntly, there is widespread - but not majority - feeling against immigrants and Muslims across Europe, with only minor differences between countries. Anti-Semitism, however, rises broadly from west to east in Europe, with the exception of Portugal where it is relatively high. And prejudice seems to be getting worse. Sociologist Wilhelm Heitmeyer of the University of Bielefeld blames harder economic times.
For the last 10 years, he has researched attitudes and published results annually in a book entitled German Conditions. The method is to put a series of statements to 2,000 people: "To preserve law and order, we have to crack down on outsiders and troublemakers"; "I sometimes feel like a stranger in my own country, because of the many Muslims in Germany"; "Many Jews are trying to use Germany's Nazi past to secure benefits today and make the Germans pay for it."
He concludes in the latest one that xenophobia is on the rise "especially after the [economic] crisis that began in 2008".
He says, too, that it is not just antagonism towards foreigners - or those perceived to be foreigners. There is also what he calls "group-specific misanthropy", which may be antagonism towards Jews or Muslims or any other ethnic group but also towards, say, the long-term unemployed.
This "group-specific misanthropy" has not risen against homosexuals and women in Germany but has against the long-term unemployed as well as against ethnic minorities.
As times get harder, it seems, Germans look for others to be angry at. In this, they are no doubt not alone. But there is one way in which German attitudes are very different from those in some other countries.
In immigrant countries like Britain and the United States the definition of national identity is not as tied up with ethnicity. In an island nation, with more than 1,000 years of immigration, identifying who exactly descends from whom is much harder.
Until recently the definition of German citizenship was tied to the "blood line" - you were a German if your parents were German.
The law was only changed when the presence of large numbers of people of Turkish origin and German birth made that untenable - for how many generations could people live in a country without being granted citizenship because their parents were not citizens? But a racial awareness does seem to remain among many ordinary Germans.
Author Thilo Sarrazin published a best-selling book called Deutschland Schafft Sich Ab (Germany Abolishes Itself). He talked of a "Jewish gene", though associating it with success. It is a way of seeing the world which would seem odd in many other countries. --BBCi
RUSSIA ROW OVER NAZI MASSACRE SITE IN ROSTOV-ON-DON
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In August 1942 Nazi German troops murdered at least 27,000 people at Zmiyevskaya Balka, regarded as the worst Holocaust atrocity in Russia. More than half the victims were Jews, the Russian Jewish Congress (RJC) says. A new plaque does not mention Jews, but "peaceful citizens of Rostov-on-Don and Soviet prisoners-of-war".
The RJC, a secular foundation representing Russian Jews, says it will take legal action over the unauthorised decision to replace the former plaque, which spoke of "more than 27,000 Jews" murdered by the Nazis. That plaque had been put up in 2004.
According to the Yad Vashem Holocaust Centre in Israel, 15,000-16,000 Jews were murdered by the Nazis in Rostov-on-Don from August 1942 to February 1943. In the Soviet Union memorials commemorating victims of Nazi massacres spoke of "Soviet citizens" rather than "Jews".
Violation Admitted
The former plaque mentioning Jews has now been put in the Zmiyevskaya Balka memorial hall, Rostov's Deputy Culture Minister Valery Gelas told Moscow Echo radio. He admitted that the rules for historical memorials had been broken, but said the new plaque would remain and "we've done all we can".
He said the wording was in line with historical research and data presented to the Rostov cultural authorities. RJC president Yuri Kanner said the site was "Russia's Babi Yar" - a reference to the notorious Nazi mass shootings of Jews near Kiev during World War II. He said it was important to specify exactly who was shot at Zmiyevskaya Balka, pointing out that in law the Nazi slaughter of Jews "is considered a separate crime, with separate prosecutions".
"There could have been refugees from Poland, not necessarily Soviet citizens, it's not a question of citizens," he told Moscow Echo. He said he did not believe the plaque decision was a case of anti-Semitism, rather that it was a local official's "attempt to do something to please somebody". A Communist MP on the Russian parliament (Duma) committee for nationalities, Tamara Pletneva, said it was time to "forget our bitterness and live in peace".
"The memorial should commemorate all the war victims... the Soviet Union saved Jews, Russians saved Jews... so why single out Jews? We shouldn't single out any ethnic group." --BBCi
B'NAI BRITH CANADA DELEGATION MEETS WITH CARDINAL-ELECT COLLINS
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“We were pleased to be able to bring congratulations from the Canadian Jewish community to the Cardinal-Elect and to lay the groundwork for future consultations on the key issues that affect all religious communities in this country," CEO of B'nai Brith Canada Dr. Frank Dimant said. "We expressed our concern about the plight of Christians around the world who face persecution, and our hope for religious tolerance for all people of faith."
The delegation presented a gift to Cardinal-elect Collins of a lithograph of Jews praying at their holiest site, the Western Wall, with the inscription “Pray for the Peace of Jerusalem”.
The delegation, led by Dr. Frank Dimant, CEO of B’nai Brith Canada (BBC), consisted of: Rabbi Daniel Korobkin, Senior Rabbi at the Beth Avraham Yoseph of Toronto Congregation; Rabbi John Moskovitz, Senior Rabbi at Holy Blossom; Dr. Aubrey Zidenberg, Senior Vice President, BBC; Ruth Klein, National Director of Advocacy, BBC; Paul Cooper, National Chair, Public Affairs, BBC; and Michael Mostyn, National Chair, Government Relations. BBC.
(L-R): Father Damian MacPherson (Director for Ecumenical and Interfaith Affairs, Archdiocese of Toronto), Paul Cooper, Dr. Aubrey Zidenberg, Rabbi Daniel Korobkin, Rabbi John Moskovitz, Archbishop Thomas Collins, Dr. Frank Dimant, Ruth Klein, Michael Mostyn.
STEEP RISE IN ISRAELI BUDGETS FOR CONTACTS WITH DIASPORA JEWS
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Is Israel cut off from the rest of the Jewish people? -– That's not what the budget figures show. Over the past three years the budget for relations with the Diaspora has grown by over 50 million NIS and the 2011 budget was 384 million NIS. The major investment is by the prime minister's office: 230 million NIS and this is expected to increase in the coming years. This was revealed recently at a meeting of the Immigration, Absorption and Diaspora Affairs Committee of the Knesset.
MK Dr. Einat Wilf (Atzmaut), chair of the Subcommittee on Israel Diaspora Relations, noted that she welcomes the government's allocation of resources to strengthen the relationship between Israel and world Jewry. "This is an important message regarding the responsibility of a strong and wealthy State of Israel to the future of the entire Jewish people, including those who do not live in Israel. Our Committee will continue to watch over this commitment and will push to strengthen and expand it. In particular, the Government should invest in an incubator for innovative projects to strengthen Jewish identity and ties with Israel among Diaspora Jews."
Dr. Dov Maimon of the Jewish People Policy Institute noted that today the link between world Jewry and the Israel is less clear, and that we must therefore invest great efforts in reinforcing ties with Israel, in disseminating Jewish culture, strengthening Jewish education in the Diaspora, international aid projects, and more. He said that although Israel government may invest only 20% of the budget of a project, the actual return to the national economy may be 400%. Israel government provides 21% of the budget of Israel experience projects for young Diaspora Jews (188 million NIS in 2011 for the Masa and Taglit program), while the actual return on these projects for the Israeli economy is 389%. So for each shekel invested by the state, it receives a return of 4 NIS.
Josh Schwartz, of the Jewish Agency for Israel, added that "The current [Israel] government has very serious intentions, is very committed to the relationship with world Jewry, and keeps increasing the budgets, mainly for the Taglit-Birthright program. There is still much to be done, and we are in close contact with the government Secretary and the Prime Minister and hope to expand the programs and the budget even further."
Hagai Elitzur of the Ministry of Public Diplomacy and Diaspora Affairs reported on the many programs for Jewish education and relations with Israel in which his Ministry invests, such as programs for teenagers and students, Jewish cultural events around the world, and also leadership development programs including joint initiatives with other organizations.
WORLD NEWS
RUSSIAN JEWISH LINEAGE OFFICE OPENS
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A ceremony was held on last week to affix the Mezuzah and to celebrate the opening of the new Office for Clarification of Jewish Status will take place in the Jewish Community Institutions building. The Office will operate under the auspices of the Rabbinical Court and the local Jewish community and with the support of the Harry A. Tribogoff Foundation and Toronto Friendship—the Friedberg Foundation. Ceremony was attended by Chief Rabbi in Moscow rabbi Goldschmidt and his Bureau chief Yaakov shumiatsky, Israel's ambassador to Russia Ms. Dorit golender Together with members of the diplomatic staff at the embassy, Yuri Kanner RJC President and alik nadan Director, JDC Representative Office in Moscow and Central Russia.
Following the decision to open the Office, an agreement of cooperation was recently signed between the Moscow Rabbinical Court under the leadership of Rabbi Goldschmit and the “Shorashim” (Roots) Project, which works extensively in the field of clarifying Jewish status among immigrants living in Israel. After a significant increase in the number of people applying to clarify their Jewish roots, cooperation between “Shorashim” and the Office in Moscow will enable the expansion of the activities connected with clarification of Jewish status and family roots, and will facilitate the provision of responses regarding complex issues of clarification of Jewish status, and even offer assistance in urgent cases of former Russian citizens submitted from Israel and the Diaspora.
Shorashim Project: In the “Shorashim” Project the objective they set for themselves was to provide professional and responsible assistance, together with a friendly and respectful attitude towards each and every applicant. The Shorashim staff members meet members of the family from different generations, speak to them in their own language, collect essential data, and compile the file as required for presentation to the Rabbinical Court. When necessary, they instruct the applicants how to complete the missing details and even assist in acquiring additional information from overseas, meet with distant relatives, prevented from appearing before the Court, and piece together partial data and so on. The “Shorashim” Project is supported by Jewish Foundations overseas: the Harry A. Tribogoff Foundation and Toronto Friendship—the Friedberg Foundation.
Rabbi Goldschmidt: The world today is global. We get inquiries from Jews in Israel, the US, and Europe that have left the former Soviet Union years ago and today have to give proof of their Judaism. We believe that the office we are opening today is the solution to this globalization. The "Shorashim" office has been active for many years in Israel and today we opened a special office that will enable us to work in joint effort with the "Shorashim" office in Israel and the Chief Rabbinate of Israel.
The Israel ambassador Ms. Dorit Holander: I give my blessing to the new center that will be working in joint efforts with the "Shorashim" office in Israel. I am glad to be here today , as the consulate is looking to be more accessible to the community , we will do all that we can to assist the important mission of proving jewish lineage.
Director General of the Harry A. Tribogoff Foundation, Shalom Norman: The opening of the Moscow Office is an additional strategic step of unprecedented importance in the wide range of activities being carried out in connection with clarifying the Jewish Lineage and status of the immigrants from the former Soviet Union. We invest considerable efforts in working towards ensuring an accepted definition by all fragments of the Jewish status for Jews in Israel and in Jewish communities in the Diaspora, establishing a joint Jewish “table” at which both Ultra-Orthodox and Secular Jews can dine together.
ADL SAYS 'COMMUNITY BREATHES EASIER' AFTER
POLICE DETAIN SUSPECT IN NEW JERSEY SYNAGOGUE
ARSONS
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"Our community breathes easier now that law enforcement has identified and arrested this individual who allegedly was deeply infected with anti-Semitism and who apparently acted on his beliefs," said Etzion Neuer, ADL's Acting New Jersey Regional Director. "We are gratified and relieved at the arrest in these horrific attacks against Jewish houses of worship."
According to prosecutors, Anthony M. Graziano, 20, of Lodi, New Jersey, is being charged with nine counts of attempted murder, one count of aggravated arson and one count of hate intimidation in connection with the January 11 firebombing of Congregation Beth El in Rutherford. He will also be charged with one count of aggravated arson and one count of hate intimidation in the January 3 firebombing of Congregation K'Hal Adath Jeshurun in Paramus.
"We are gratified and relieved at the arrest of Anthony Graziano in these bias crimes," Mr. Neuer said. "It is disturbing that an alleged hatemonger like Graziano was living in our midst. His arrest sends a clear message that violent criminal actions targeting the safety of any group of individuals will not be tolerated in our community."
"We salute the diligence of Bergen County Prosecutor John Molinelli and his office, which spearheaded a dedicated task force that devoted much time and effort leading to the arrest," said Lawrence Cooper, ADL New Jersey Regional Board Chair. "The relief that many of us feel should not be taken as an excuse to lessen any Jewish communal security awareness prompted by the incidents. Jewish institutions should use this as an opportunity to develop long-term sustainable security policies and procedures."
The League commended the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the local, county and state law enforcement agencies who worked together on a task force in this investigation. Two previous incidents of anti-Semitic graffiti against synagogues in Hackensack and Maywood remain unsolved at this time. --ADL
HOLOCAUST MEMORIAL DAY: 'KINDERTRANSPORT SAVED MY LIFE'
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Sanctioned by the British Government, it rescued about 10,000 Jewish children from central Europe during the months leading up to the outbreak of war.
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Vic Oliver was welcomed on to the first ever Desert Island Discs program as a "comedian, lightning club manipulator, violinist and comedy trick cyclist", according to the surviving scripts. That is quite an introduction. Recorded in the BBC's bomb-damaged Maida Vale studio on 27 January 1942, the first ever Desert Island Discs aired on the Forces Programme at 20:00 two days later.
Oliver was a radio comedian, an Austro-American variety star and music hall bill-topper. He was a brilliant musician who, while playing his instrument deliberately badly for laughs, led the way for comics Les Dawson and Victor Borge. But behind the veneer of show business and celebrity, his life story is as compelling as it is colorful. Born Victor Oliver von Samek in Vienna, Austria in 1898, Oliver's fame peaked during World War II. His hit BBC radio series Hi Gang! was so successful that it had film and theatre spin-offs.
"These programs used to get bigger audiences than EastEnders does now so it's hard to get your head around how much they've been forgotten," says Dr Sian Nicholas, of the Centre for Media History at Aberystwyth University. Oliver's original plan was to train as a doctor in Vienna but that was interrupted by World War I. It was rumored that he had fought alongside Adolf Hitler, though Oliver chose never to address the subject.
Once the war was over, he concentrated on music and studied piano, violin and conducting at the Vienna Conservatoire before becoming assistant conductor at the Graz Opera House.
After emigrating to the US, he played piano in restaurants, bars and silent cinemas. The leap into comedy came when announcing a charity collection during the interval at a theatre where he was performing. His English was still poor and he ended with the words: "I shall now come down and go through you all."
La ughter and large donations followed and a comedy star was inadvertently born. A little while later, Oliver met a British stage dancer. Her name was Sarah Churchill and she had a very famous father.
The romance grew quickly and their love life was played out in the papers as any major star's would be today. Oliver had become a big star in the US, both on radio and on the stage. He began to be offered work in Britain, traveling to star in Charles B Cochran's 1936 revue Follow the Sun.
And despite protestations to the contrary - Oliver told a newspaper in September 1936 that he was not the marrying kind - he had made plans for Sarah, 16 years his junior, to be his wife. This news did not go down well with the Churchills.
"The first time I saw my mother cry, I was absolutely overwhelmed," Sir Winston's youngest daughter Lady Soames told the Daily Telegraph in 2002.
"I was 13 and she broke down in floods of tears because Sarah had run off to America to marry Vic Oliver. I realized then how much Sarah had hurt them."
In letters released after Sir Winston's death, he referred to Oliver as "common as dirt", among other unflattering things.
Despite the Churchill family's initial objections, the couple married in New York on Christmas Eve 1936.
"It would be such an unsuitable marriage," says Nicholas. "For Churchill, he was a nobody, an immigrant nobody, a Jewish nobody, an entertainer. The fact that he's made a lot of money from it didn't really matter. I'm not surprised that, in private, Churchill wasn't impressed at all." But it is believed that Churchill warmed to his son-in-law over time and, according to biographer Paul Addison, was distressed when it became apparent the couple would divorce. The marriage was a difficult one and, in 1941, the couple effectively separated. Oliver filed for divorce in March 1945.
During the war, Oliver became a big star in the UK. It was in 1940, alongside film star couple Bebe Daniels and Ben Lyon, that Oliver got his British break.
Daniels and Lyon had moved to London in 1935, working during the war by entertaining troops and factory workers - a task for which Daniels was later awarded the Medal of Freedom by US President Harry Truman. From the idea of amusing people and keeping their spirits up during wartime, the idea for a radio show grew - Hi Gang!
"That program really put me on the map because, when everyone else was going to the country and sheltering, we were there every Sunday regardless of the Blitz," Oliver said in his only surviving interview, recorded in the 1960s.
"We were there broadcasting to the people and spreading humor and good entertainment among them. The people have never forgotten it, that's when I took out British citizenship. "
The program turned into a stroke of Allied propaganda genius. Hitler began his targeted bombing of London only months after it began. While Nazi leaflets told of the flattening of London, Hi Gang! and its American stars remained in the capital and broadcast each Sunday for all 52 weeks of the year.
Oliver now had a prominence which, with his Jewish heritage, ensured his appearance in the Nazis' "black book". This list detailed those who were to be immediately rounded up in the event of a successful invasion of Britain. Other names on the list included Noel Coward, Virginia Woolf and Paul Robeson.
"At the very least, they would have been arrested and interrogated," says Gary Sheffield, professor of war studies at the University of Birmingham. "Very possibly for many of them, it could have been far worse."
Oliver remarried in 1946 and continued to play in both big venues and appear on radio, even up to 1962 when he appeared in sitcom Discord in Three Flats. He died in Johannesburg on 15 August 1964. From humble beginnings as a trainee doctor and then a theatre pianist, he had become one of radio's most recognizable voices in an era when variety stars were household names. --BBCi
JEWISH LEADERS REAFFIRM EFFORTS TO
SECURE CLEMENCY FOR POLLARD
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“We returned with a renewed commitment to work for Mr. Pollard’s release from incarceration in accordance with long-standing Conference policy. We see this as a serious humanitarian issue as well as a legal matter. He has served 27 years, seven of them in solitary confinement,” Stone said.
Pollard has expressed remorse, which he persuasively reiterated in our two-hour discussion. He suffers from multiple serious medical challenges, which we believe add urgency to the timeliness of his release, Stone said.
Stone and the many outstanding American leaders who have publicly called for Pollard’s release, including a number of key officials who were involved in his case, such as Lawrence J. Korb, former U.S. assistant secretary of defense.
“Mr. Pollard was not charged with harming America and has repeatedly expressed remorse for his actions. Furthermore, the average sentence for his offense is two to four years … Justice would best be served by commuting Pollard’s sentence to the time he has already spent in prison,” Korb said in a statement.
Other public figures who have issued statements on Pollard’s behalf include former CIA Director R. James Woolsey, former US Secretary of State Henry A. Kissinger and former US Secretary of State George P. Schultz, former US Attorney General Michael B. Mukasey, Senator Alan K. Simpson, co-chair of the President’s Economic Commission, and former White House Counsel Bernard W. Nussbaum .
“While we have written to the President and his predecessors, had meetings with them and other administration officials, including most recently Vice President Biden, and we have spoken out on Mr. Pollard’s behalf continuously, seeing him in person and dialoguing with him added significantly to our conviction that his sentence should be quickly commuted. Mr. Pollard made clear that he does not seek a pardon, recognizing that he committed a crime, but seeks a commutation of his sentence. Mr. Pollard wants only to be able to build a family and to be a contributing citizen. He has said repeatedly and convincingly that he will not engage in political activity. We believe it is overdue that he be allowed to join his wife, who was present at our visit, so that they can live out their lives together. We once again call on the Conference’s member organizations, religious leaders and individuals as well as all concerned people to work to secure his release,” Stone said.
Cont'd from Home Page Sanctioned by the British Government, it rescued about 10,000 Jewish children from central Europe during the months leading up to the outbreak of war.
Mrs Davies, who was taken in by foster parents in Swansea, said she was in no doubt it had saved her life. She was born Kerri Ellen Wertheim, the eldest child, in Hof, near Kassel, in 1929.
"It was a little village in Germany where everybody knew everybody else," she said. "I lived in a big house with my parents and brothers and sisters. My grandfather was the local Jewish butcher.
"It was quiet and peaceful until 1933 when everything changed when Hitler came to power.
"We were ostracized in a big way. Children who were once friends turned their back on us, spat at us or threw stones at us. Then they took away our home."
Mrs Davies recalls one incident when she was eight years old when she and her younger brother were beaten with truncheons by members of the Hitler Youth when they tried to go shopping for food. In 1939, at the age of 10, she was placed on a train as part of the kindertransport program. It was the idea of leaders of the Jewish community in Britain, and saw Jewish children in Nazi-occupied Europe brought to the UK.
"All I remember is being hugged and kissed and my father put me on the train and locked the door," said Mrs Davies. "I did not want to go. I was forced to go.
"I'm 83 now and I still have sight of my mother and father getting smaller and smaller in the distance. That's with me every minute of every day."
She traveled by train and boat and ended up in Londo
"We had big labels on us with names and numbers - my name was called and this giant of a man took my hand and we walked out to the station and we caught another train to Swansea," said Mrs Davies. "My foster parents were 70 and 50 and what I discovered later was they wanted someone to look after them in their old age. "My foster father was the nicest sweetest man but my foster mother had never had anything to do with children - did not really like them or know how to treat them."
She said her first years in Wales were hard as she could not speak English, missed her family and did not mix with other children. "What you have to realise is my foster parents were old, so they did not mix with the sort of age group I would have had as parents, so I did not mix with younger children. I had nobody to bond with.
"I went to Terrace Road School - quite a tough school in Swansea - without a word of English. "They did not know about concentration camps - they did not believe me."
When she was 15 her foster father died and she took over the running of his haberdashery business. In later years she discovered what became of the rest of her natural family. After a period in a concentration camp her father escaped Germany and after a spell in the Pioneer Core emigrated to Australia. But her mother and siblings were not so fortunate and died en route to a concentration camp in 1941 at Bikerniek Forest near Riga in Latvia.
"As my mother and the children came off the cattle trucks the men who took them tried to separate my mother from the children," she said. "My 12-year-old brother stood in front of them and said 'if we are going to die we die together' and they were shot there and then. "My brother was 12, the youngest was two."
Closed doors
For more than 30 years Mrs Davies, who lives at Southgate on Gower, has lectured about the Holocaust and visited schools to tell pupils of her story. She has also written a book. Her experience forms part of an exhibition currently running at Swansea Civic Centre about Jewish refugees who came to south Wales between 1933 and 1945.
"This history is the most important thing in the world," she added. "If you don't learn anything from the past you make the same mistakes in the future."
As well as focusing on prominent refugees such as artists like Heinz Koppel and Josef Herman, the exhibition tells the story of the Kindertransport program.
"Kindertransport was one of Great Britain's kindest and most wonderful things," added Mrs Davies. "America closed its doors because it had a quota, Canada would not open its doors, South American took in families - Great Britain - a small county - took in 10,000 children. "I have wonderful children and grandchildren, so have been very fortunate," she said. --BBCi
THE CASTAWAY WHO ANNOYED CHURCHILL"It was a little village in Germany where everybody knew everybody else," she said. "I lived in a big house with my parents and brothers and sisters. My grandfather was the local Jewish butcher.
"It was quiet and peaceful until 1933 when everything changed when Hitler came to power.
"We were ostracized in a big way. Children who were once friends turned their back on us, spat at us or threw stones at us. Then they took away our home."
Mrs Davies recalls one incident when she was eight years old when she and her younger brother were beaten with truncheons by members of the Hitler Youth when they tried to go shopping for food. In 1939, at the age of 10, she was placed on a train as part of the kindertransport program. It was the idea of leaders of the Jewish community in Britain, and saw Jewish children in Nazi-occupied Europe brought to the UK.
"All I remember is being hugged and kissed and my father put me on the train and locked the door," said Mrs Davies. "I did not want to go. I was forced to go.
"I'm 83 now and I still have sight of my mother and father getting smaller and smaller in the distance. That's with me every minute of every day."
She traveled by train and boat and ended up in Londo
"We had big labels on us with names and numbers - my name was called and this giant of a man took my hand and we walked out to the station and we caught another train to Swansea," said Mrs Davies. "My foster parents were 70 and 50 and what I discovered later was they wanted someone to look after them in their old age. "My foster father was the nicest sweetest man but my foster mother had never had anything to do with children - did not really like them or know how to treat them."
She said her first years in Wales were hard as she could not speak English, missed her family and did not mix with other children. "What you have to realise is my foster parents were old, so they did not mix with the sort of age group I would have had as parents, so I did not mix with younger children. I had nobody to bond with.
"I went to Terrace Road School - quite a tough school in Swansea - without a word of English. "They did not know about concentration camps - they did not believe me."
When she was 15 her foster father died and she took over the running of his haberdashery business. In later years she discovered what became of the rest of her natural family. After a period in a concentration camp her father escaped Germany and after a spell in the Pioneer Core emigrated to Australia. But her mother and siblings were not so fortunate and died en route to a concentration camp in 1941 at Bikerniek Forest near Riga in Latvia.
"As my mother and the children came off the cattle trucks the men who took them tried to separate my mother from the children," she said. "My 12-year-old brother stood in front of them and said 'if we are going to die we die together' and they were shot there and then. "My brother was 12, the youngest was two."
Closed doors
For more than 30 years Mrs Davies, who lives at Southgate on Gower, has lectured about the Holocaust and visited schools to tell pupils of her story. She has also written a book. Her experience forms part of an exhibition currently running at Swansea Civic Centre about Jewish refugees who came to south Wales between 1933 and 1945.
"This history is the most important thing in the world," she added. "If you don't learn anything from the past you make the same mistakes in the future."
As well as focusing on prominent refugees such as artists like Heinz Koppel and Josef Herman, the exhibition tells the story of the Kindertransport program.
"Kindertransport was one of Great Britain's kindest and most wonderful things," added Mrs Davies. "America closed its doors because it had a quota, Canada would not open its doors, South American took in families - Great Britain - a small county - took in 10,000 children. "I have wonderful children and grandchildren, so have been very fortunate," she said. --BBCi
Cont'd from Home Page
Vic Oliver was welcomed on to the first ever Desert Island Discs program as a "comedian, lightning club manipulator, violinist and comedy trick cyclist", according to the surviving scripts. That is quite an introduction. Recorded in the BBC's bomb-damaged Maida Vale studio on 27 January 1942, the first ever Desert Island Discs aired on the Forces Programme at 20:00 two days later.
Oliver was a radio comedian, an Austro-American variety star and music hall bill-topper. He was a brilliant musician who, while playing his instrument deliberately badly for laughs, led the way for comics Les Dawson and Victor Borge. But behind the veneer of show business and celebrity, his life story is as compelling as it is colorful. Born Victor Oliver von Samek in Vienna, Austria in 1898, Oliver's fame peaked during World War II. His hit BBC radio series Hi Gang! was so successful that it had film and theatre spin-offs.
"These programs used to get bigger audiences than EastEnders does now so it's hard to get your head around how much they've been forgotten," says Dr Sian Nicholas, of the Centre for Media History at Aberystwyth University. Oliver's original plan was to train as a doctor in Vienna but that was interrupted by World War I. It was rumored that he had fought alongside Adolf Hitler, though Oliver chose never to address the subject.
Once the war was over, he concentrated on music and studied piano, violin and conducting at the Vienna Conservatoire before becoming assistant conductor at the Graz Opera House.
After emigrating to the US, he played piano in restaurants, bars and silent cinemas. The leap into comedy came when announcing a charity collection during the interval at a theatre where he was performing. His English was still poor and he ended with the words: "I shall now come down and go through you all."
La ughter and large donations followed and a comedy star was inadvertently born. A little while later, Oliver met a British stage dancer. Her name was Sarah Churchill and she had a very famous father.
The romance grew quickly and their love life was played out in the papers as any major star's would be today. Oliver had become a big star in the US, both on radio and on the stage. He began to be offered work in Britain, traveling to star in Charles B Cochran's 1936 revue Follow the Sun.
And despite protestations to the contrary - Oliver told a newspaper in September 1936 that he was not the marrying kind - he had made plans for Sarah, 16 years his junior, to be his wife. This news did not go down well with the Churchills.
"The first time I saw my mother cry, I was absolutely overwhelmed," Sir Winston's youngest daughter Lady Soames told the Daily Telegraph in 2002.
"I was 13 and she broke down in floods of tears because Sarah had run off to America to marry Vic Oliver. I realized then how much Sarah had hurt them."
In letters released after Sir Winston's death, he referred to Oliver as "common as dirt", among other unflattering things.
Despite the Churchill family's initial objections, the couple married in New York on Christmas Eve 1936.
"It would be such an unsuitable marriage," says Nicholas. "For Churchill, he was a nobody, an immigrant nobody, a Jewish nobody, an entertainer. The fact that he's made a lot of money from it didn't really matter. I'm not surprised that, in private, Churchill wasn't impressed at all." But it is believed that Churchill warmed to his son-in-law over time and, according to biographer Paul Addison, was distressed when it became apparent the couple would divorce. The marriage was a difficult one and, in 1941, the couple effectively separated. Oliver filed for divorce in March 1945.
During the war, Oliver became a big star in the UK. It was in 1940, alongside film star couple Bebe Daniels and Ben Lyon, that Oliver got his British break.
Daniels and Lyon had moved to London in 1935, working during the war by entertaining troops and factory workers - a task for which Daniels was later awarded the Medal of Freedom by US President Harry Truman. From the idea of amusing people and keeping their spirits up during wartime, the idea for a radio show grew - Hi Gang!
"That program really put me on the map because, when everyone else was going to the country and sheltering, we were there every Sunday regardless of the Blitz," Oliver said in his only surviving interview, recorded in the 1960s.
"We were there broadcasting to the people and spreading humor and good entertainment among them. The people have never forgotten it, that's when I took out British citizenship. "
The program turned into a stroke of Allied propaganda genius. Hitler began his targeted bombing of London only months after it began. While Nazi leaflets told of the flattening of London, Hi Gang! and its American stars remained in the capital and broadcast each Sunday for all 52 weeks of the year.
Oliver now had a prominence which, with his Jewish heritage, ensured his appearance in the Nazis' "black book". This list detailed those who were to be immediately rounded up in the event of a successful invasion of Britain. Other names on the list included Noel Coward, Virginia Woolf and Paul Robeson.
"At the very least, they would have been arrested and interrogated," says Gary Sheffield, professor of war studies at the University of Birmingham. "Very possibly for many of them, it could have been far worse."
Oliver remarried in 1946 and continued to play in both big venues and appear on radio, even up to 1962 when he appeared in sitcom Discord in Three Flats. He died in Johannesburg on 15 August 1964. From humble beginnings as a trainee doctor and then a theatre pianist, he had become one of radio's most recognizable voices in an era when variety stars were household names. --BBCi
JEWISH LEADERS REAFFIRM EFFORTS TO
SECURE CLEMENCY FOR POLLARD
Cont'd from Home Page
“We returned with a renewed commitment to work for Mr. Pollard’s release from incarceration in accordance with long-standing Conference policy. We see this as a serious humanitarian issue as well as a legal matter. He has served 27 years, seven of them in solitary confinement,” Stone said.
Pollard has expressed remorse, which he persuasively reiterated in our two-hour discussion. He suffers from multiple serious medical challenges, which we believe add urgency to the timeliness of his release, Stone said.
Stone and the many outstanding American leaders who have publicly called for Pollard’s release, including a number of key officials who were involved in his case, such as Lawrence J. Korb, former U.S. assistant secretary of defense.
“Mr. Pollard was not charged with harming America and has repeatedly expressed remorse for his actions. Furthermore, the average sentence for his offense is two to four years … Justice would best be served by commuting Pollard’s sentence to the time he has already spent in prison,” Korb said in a statement.
Other public figures who have issued statements on Pollard’s behalf include former CIA Director R. James Woolsey, former US Secretary of State Henry A. Kissinger and former US Secretary of State George P. Schultz, former US Attorney General Michael B. Mukasey, Senator Alan K. Simpson, co-chair of the President’s Economic Commission, and former White House Counsel Bernard W. Nussbaum .
“While we have written to the President and his predecessors, had meetings with them and other administration officials, including most recently Vice President Biden, and we have spoken out on Mr. Pollard’s behalf continuously, seeing him in person and dialoguing with him added significantly to our conviction that his sentence should be quickly commuted. Mr. Pollard made clear that he does not seek a pardon, recognizing that he committed a crime, but seeks a commutation of his sentence. Mr. Pollard wants only to be able to build a family and to be a contributing citizen. He has said repeatedly and convincingly that he will not engage in political activity. We believe it is overdue that he be allowed to join his wife, who was present at our visit, so that they can live out their lives together. We once again call on the Conference’s member organizations, religious leaders and individuals as well as all concerned people to work to secure his release,” Stone said.