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Four Kadima Members
Leave Party For Likud

The InterContinental Berlin is a popular place for bar mitzvahs.

Just opened in February is a red
brick building that was formerly the
Judische Madchenschule, the Jewish
Girls' School, but remained deserted in
recent years. A simple plaque near the
main entrance recounts the horrible
fate of the teachers and the young
women who once studied, laughed
and played here.
It now has been redeveloped by
art dealer and entrepreneur Michael
Fuchs at a cost of some $6.5 million to
be a center for art and gastronomy. On
the main floor is the Pauly-Saal, a fine
dining restaurant and bar with seating
outside in a garden area.
Down the hall, Oskar Melzer and
Paul Mogg run a lively New York-style
delicatessen that features what chef
Joey Passarella, until recently of New
York's Upper East Side, claims is the
only home-made pastrami to be found
in Berlin. On the premises, too, is the
Kosher Classroom, actually an elegant
kosher restaurant and catering ser-
vice. All the upper floors are galleries
whose space is given over to exhibi-
tions by local and international artists
and photographers.
After 60 years, live Jewish theater
returned to Berlin in 2001 with the
opening of the Bimah, Jewish Theater
Berlin under its creative director,
Israel-born Dan Lahay. Presented now
in its 250-seat theater on the smart
Friedrichstrasse are cabaret acts and
original plays, usually satire and com-
edy, mostly written by Lahay.
Another quite lively example of the
future face of today's Jewish com-
munity in Berlin is the Jewish High
School in Grosse Hamburgerstrasse.
It reopened behind the usual secu-
rity fences in 1993 as a co-ed private
school offering classes in fifth through
12th grade. Initially, it had just 27 stu-
dents. Today the school has 430 stu-
dents of whom 70 percent are Jewish.
Barbara Witting, principal of the
Jewish High School, estimates that
more than 80 percent of the school's
graduating seniors go on to university
and, additionally, others take a year
off before starting university to par-
ticipate in humanitarian programs

Chef Joey Passarella, formerly of New York

City, makes homemade pastrami in Berlin.

abroad.
To accommodate the increasing
number of Jewish tourists coming
from abroad is Milk & Honey Tours
started nine years ago by German-
born Noa Lerner. She has seen her
business expand some 20 times and
today has 20 guides in Berlin alone.
Such traditional family events
as weddings, bar mitzvahs and bat
mitzvahs are celebrated in top Berlin
hotels. The InterContinental Berlin is
particularly popular because its main
ballroom can accommodate up to
1,200 although 250 to 400 is a more
typical guest number for event parties
in the Pavilion Room. The hotel hosts
an average of two such Jewish events
a month.
Charlotte Knobloch, former head
of the Central Council of Jews in
Germany and a Holocaust survivor,
is quoted this way: "Germany is once
again a homeland for Jews. Berlin
Jewry can now regard the city in
which they [as a] Haimat, their 'home
city.'" E

JERUSALEM (JTA) — Kadima
Party head Shaul Mofaz has
declared that four party members
have seceded from the party.
Mofaz on Monday asked the
Knesset House committee to
dismiss the party members, who
reportedly have pledged their alle-
giance to the Likud Party
"Anyone who wants to join _
the corrupt, go ahead and leave;
anyone who wants to join the
draft-dodgers, go ahead and leave;
anyone who wants to take political
bribes, go ahead and leave; any-
one who wants to join forces with
Netanyahu — leave now," Mofaz
said after submitting a letter with
his request to the committee.
The four Kadima members
are Arieh Bibi, Avi Duan, Otniel
Schneller and Yulia Shamolov-
Berkovich.
The request means that the for-
mer Kadima members cannot run
for a Knesset seat with Kadima in
the next elections and will no lon-
ger receive party funding.
Several party members led by
Former Minister Tzachi Hanegbi,
dubbed the Kadima rebels, had
attempted to recruit seven Kadima
party members to leave the party,
which would have engendered an
official split, meaning that they
could take part of the funds with
them.
Meanwhile, some Kadima Party
members are working to depose
party leader Shaul Mofaz, Haaretz
reported Monday.

Accused Mass Murderer
Worked At Jewish Camp

(JTA) — James Holmes, the
alleged shooter who killed 12 in a
crowded Colorado movie theater,
reportedly worked at a summer
camp operated by Jewish Big
Brothers Big Sisters of Los Angeles.
Holmes, 24, spent a summer
working as a counselor for Camp
Max Straus in Glendale, Calif.,
the Los Angeles Times reported
Saturday. According to its website,
the camp serves underprivileged
children of all ethnic and religious
backgrounds.
He is suspected of opening fire
on the crowd July 20 at a midnight
screening in Aurora, Colo., of the
new Batman film The Dark Knight
Rises. Twelve people were killed
and 58 were injured in the shoot-
ing spree.
Holmes was arrested shortly

after the shootings. He reportedly
set off smoke bombs before firing
at the crowd.
In a statement to the LA Times,
Randy Schwab, chief executive of
Jewish Big Brothers Big Sisters
of Los Angeles and director of
Camp Max Straus, said of Holmes,
"His role was to ensure that these
children had a wonderful camp
experience by helping them learn
confidence, self-esteem and how to
work in small teams to effect posi-
tive outcomes."
In a later email, Schwab added,
"That summer provided the kids a
wonderful camp experience with-
out incident!'
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu sent a letter to
President Obama on Saturday
expressing his condolences and
those of the Israeli people to the
families of the Americans who
were murdered in the theater.
"All Israelis stand alongside the
American people in mourning over
this terrible tragedy, which claimed
the lives of so many:' Netanyahu
wrote. "We well understand the
pain and loss that you are experi-
encing!'

Pro-Israel, Anti-Jihad Ads
Permitted On NYC Buses

(JNS.org ) U.S. District Judge Paul
Engelmayer ruled July 20 that
advertisements reading "Support
Israel/Defeat Jihad" are allowed
on New York City buses, Reuters
reported.
The ads said, "In any war
between the civilized man and
the savage, support the civilized
man: thereby referring to jihad-
ists as savages. However, a 1997
Metropolitan Transit Authority
(MTA) rule banning demean-
ing language in ads constitutes a
violation of free speech because it
discriminates against advertisers
based on the content of their mes-
sage, according to Engelmayer.
"By differentiating between
which people or groups can and
cannot be demeaned on the
exterior of a city bus, MTWs no-
demeaning standard ... discrimi-
nates based on content:' the judge's
opinion said.
The American Freedom Defense
Initiative had sued the MTA
because the agency rejected its
proposed ad. Pamela Geller, the
group's executive director, said
banning a pro-Israel ad "was clear-
ly a politically correct, politically
motivated denial of free speech!'

July 26 • 2012

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