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Auschwitz Sign Recovered
Warsaw/JTA
The "Arbeit Macht Frei" sign stolen from
the memorial at the Auschwitz death camp was recovered.
The metal sign from the front gate of the concentration
camp, which means "work makes you free was recovered
early Monday morning, about 72 hours after it was stolen,
according to reports.
The 16-foor-long sign, which was forged by prisoners at
the camp, was found across the country in northern Poland
and was cut into three pieces, according to reports. Five
men, aged 20 to 39, were arrested in the theft. The men are
not thought to be neo-Nazis, Krakow Police Chief Andrzej
Rokita told reporters during a news conference Monday.
Police and anonymous donors had offered a reward of
nearly $40,000 for information leading to the sign's return.
The theft occurred one day after Germany announced
that it would contribute $87 million to the new Auschwitz-
Birkenau Foundation, which earlier this year launched a
campaign to raise $172 million to preserve the remains of
the death camp as a memorial and museum.

—

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10 December 24 2009

Jesus-Era Home Found
Nazareth/JTA
A home from
the time of Jesus was discovered
in Nazareth. The Israel Antiquities
Authority announced Monday that the
remains of the home dating to the Early
Roman period were uncovered recently
during an archaeological excavation
near the Church of the Annunciation.
The church is built on the site where
Christians believe the angel Gabriel told
Mary that she would give birth to Jesus.
"The discovery is of the utmost
importance since it reveals for the very
first time a house from the Jewish vil-
lage of Nazareth and thereby sheds
light on the way of life at the time of
Jesus:' said Yardenna Alexandre, exca-
vation director on behalf of the Israel
Antiquities Authority.
Alexandre said the building is small
and modest, and most likely typical
of the dwellings in Nazareth from that
period.
"From the few written sources that
there are, we know that in the first
century CE Nazareth was a small
Jewish village, located inside a valley:'
Alexandre said. "Until now, a number
of tombs from the time of Jesus were
found in Nazareth. However, no settle-
ment remains have been discovered
that are attributed to this period:'
The excavation was under-
taken before the construction of
the International Marian Center of
Nazareth by the Association Mary of
Nazareth, next to the Church of the
Annunciation.
The association intends to conserve
and display the remains of the newly
discovered house inside the building
planned for the center.

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The historic sign was recovered - in pieces.

There are about 450 buildings and remains of buildings
at the site, including the ruins of gas chambers, as well as
80,000 pairs of shoes of victims and 3,800 suitcases, accord-
ing to a report by the German broadcaster Deutsche Welle.
Some 1.1 million people, including about 1 million Jews,
were murdered at Auschwitz.

Carter Asks
Forgiveness
Washington/JTA —
Jimmy Carter asked
the Jewish community
for forgiveness for any
stigma he may have
caused Israel.
President
In a letter released
Carter
exclusively to JTA, the
former U.S. president sent a seasonal
message wishing for peace between
Israel and its neighbors, and concluded:
"We must recognize Israel's achieve-
ments under difficult circumstances,
even as we strive in a positive way to help
Israel continue to improve its relations
with its Arab populations, but we must
not permit criticisms for improvement to
stigmatize Israel. As I would have noted
at Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, but
which is appropriate at any time of the
year, I offer an Al Het for any words or
deeds of mine that may have done so."
Al Het refers to the Yom Kippur prayer
asking God's forgiveness for sins com-
mitted against Him. In modern Hebrew,
it refers to any plea for forgiveness.
Carter has angered some U.S. Jews
in recent years with writings and state-
ments that place the burden of peace-
making on Israel, that have likened
Israel's settlement policies to apartheid
and that have blamed the pro-Israel
lobby for inhibiting an evenhanded U.S.
foreign policy.
Abraham Foxman, the Anti-
Defamation League's national director,
welcomed the statement, calling it the
"beginning of reconciliation."
"We welcome any statement from a
significant individual such as a former
president who asks for Al Het," Foxman

said. "To what extent it is an epiphany,
time will tell. There certainly is hurt
which needs to be repaired."

Vandalized Mosque Visited
Jerusalem/JTA An Israeli chief rabbi
visited the West Bank village where a
mosque was vandalized.
Rabbi Yona Metzger visited the village
of Yasuf on Dec. 14 under the protec-
tion of the Israel Defense Forces and
Palestinian police. Palestinian protesters
hit Metzger, the chief Ashkenazi rabbi,
with rocks as he left the village.
"I came here to expression my revul-
sion at this wretched act of burning a
place holy to the Muslim people Metzger
said, Ha'aretz reported. "This is how
the Holocaust began, the tragedy of the
Jewish people of Europe."
Vandals assumed to be extremist
settlers raided a mosque in the village
of Yasuf before dawn Dec. 11, burning
furniture, prayer rugs and holy texts and
defacing the mosque's walls, according to
reports. One graffiti message read: "Price
tag — greetings from Effi." Effi is a
Hebrew name and "price tag" refers to the
strategy extremist settlers have adopted
to exact a price in attacks on Palestinians
in retribution for settlement freezes.
Metzger's visit came a day after a del-
egation of rabbis and Israelis from the
West Bank tried to enter the village to
help refurbish the mosque and to deliver
copies of the Koran to replace the Muslim
holy books burned in the attack. The
group from Gush Etzion, which is south
of Jerusalem, was detained at a check-
point, where they met with village elders,
according to reports.
Also Dec. 14, village residents threw
rocks at Israeli army patrols.

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