For 48th District Judge...

Diane D'Agostini

Strength on the Bench

Anti-Semitic Acts
Pepper World...

attempted acts that are racist in character or anti-Semitic."
France, with more than 600,000 Jews, and Britain, with
300,000, have the largest Jewish communities in Europe
outside the former Soviet Union.

Clashes Elsewhere

RUTH E. GRUBER

Jewish Telegraphic Agency

Rome

r

earing that the crisis in the Middle East could
spill over into a wave of terrorism, Jewish corn-
munities and police across Europe are on their
highest state of alert in a decade.
Already, scores of anti-Semitic incidents ranging from
graffiti to street demonstrations to the firebombing of syna-
gogues and Jewish businesses have been reported.
Jewish communities have heightened their own security
while governments and police have increased protection at
Jewish institutions and other potential targets.
In the most recent incident, an Orthodox Jew is in seri-
ous but stable condition after being stabbed aboard a
London bus Monday in an incident that the police are
treating as racially motivated. A 27-year-old man "of
Mediterranean appearance" is in custody, police said.
In the days between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, at
least 50 incidents, ranging from vandalism to anti-Semitic
graffiti, were reported at British synagogues. Militant Muslim
demonstrators in London, Manchester and Birmingham
burned Israeli flags, chanted slogans and distributed leaflets
urging supporters to "kill Jews all over the world."
Nearly 100 anti-Semitic incidents were reported in
France, including the fire-bombing of a Paris synagogue
and a Jewish shop in Toulon on Sunday night, and similar
attacks on several other synagogues and Jewish institutions
including at least one school.
French President Jacques Chirac called the attacks "intol-
erable" and "unacceptable," and Justice Minister Lionel
Jospin said police should crack down on "all acts and all

And Worry Cities
Across Continent

Syracuse/JTA
olice investigating isolated acts of anti-Jewish
violence and arson across the country are urging
the public not to jump to any conclusions, but
local Jewish communities suspect the incidents
are linked to-the violence in the Middle East.
In one of the latest attacks, a fire seriously damaged
Temple Beth El in Syracuse last Friday, Oct. 13. More than
60 federal agents are looking into the incident, which
investigators have labeled an arson.
Meanwhile, in Chicago, police are investigating three
separate attacks that took place in the largely Jewish neigh-
borhood of West Rogers Park on the night of Oct. 12.
Earlier incidents were reported at synagogues in
Harrisburg, Pa., New York and Toronto, among others.
In Syracuse, the main office of the temple was gutted
and the second floor was heavily damaged.
Rabbi Irvin Beigel of Temple Beth El and law enforce-
ment officials urged the community not to jump to any

1p

In Germany just before Yom Kippur, a crowd of about 100
Palestinian and Lebanese demonstrators tried to storm the
Old Synagogue in the city of Essen. The synagogue is a
Jewish museum and Holocaust memorial center and is not
used for worship.
Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer condemned the attack
and said German authorities would not permit Jewish insti-
tutions in Germany to be targets.
Clashes have been reported in Rome between young
Jewish militants and right-wing extremists demonstrating in
favor of Palestinians.
Italian Jewish leaders blasted what they said was one-
sided media coverage that cast blame for the crisis on Israel
and inflamed anti-Semitic feelings.
In other incidents around the world:
• Australian police are investigating two incidents in
Sydney and Canberra, where gasoline bombs were thrown
at Jewish targets during Sukkot. Also in Sydney, some
2,000 demonstrators marched on the U.S. Consulate,
where they burned Israeli and American flags and set fire to
posters of Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak.
• Local Jewish leaders criticized South Africa's ruling
party, the African National Congress, for organizing a
Palestinian solidarity rally in Cape Town.
• Argentine officials strengthened the police presence near
Jewish and Arab institutions in response to the conflict in
the Middle East. Security was also beefed up at the U.S.
Embassy and at border crossings.

❑

— JTA correspondents Richard Allen Greene
in London, Jeremy Jones in Sydney, Suzanne Belling
in Johannesburg and Nicholas Penchaszadeh
in Buenos Aires contributed to this report.

conclusions on why the fire was set. The heavy law
enforcement response, however, testified to concerns that it
was a hate crime and police patrols were ordered for all
area synagogues.
In the first of the Chicago incidents, police say a man
was walking home from synagogue when a white van
pulled up and the van's occupants asked him, "Hey, are
you a Jew?" When the man, clad in an Orthodox-style hat
and beard, failed to answer, one of the attackers fired at
him with marbles from a slingshot, missing him.
In the next attack, a Jewish man was walking home
when he saw a van stopped in the street with the engine
running. Somebody aimed a slingshot at him before speed-
ing away.
Police said no one was injured in either attack.
Chicago police spokesman Patrick Camden said two 17-
year-olds and a 14-year-old — all of whom identified
themselves as Palestinians — are in custody and could be
charged with committing a hate crime and aggravated
assault.
A few minutes after the two attacks, police said, a rabbi
in his car was pulling away from the curb when someone
in a dark sport-utility vehicle pulled up and fired four to
five shots, shattering the car's front and rear windows, but
missing the rabbi. He was not injured.

❑

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Paid for by Citizens for Diane D'Agostini, P.O. Box 281,
Bloomfield Hills, Ml 48303-0281 • (248) 788-5704

10/20
2000

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