JEWISH NEWS FROM EUROPE BY ESTHER COHEN-HAMILTON

 

NEW JEWISH MUSEUM IN WARSAW

 

 

WARSAW- A somber Nordic architectural design in glass and limestone by two famous Finnish architects Rainer Mahlamaeki and Ilmari Lahdelma was chosen today for the construction of the new Jewish museum in Warsaw. The overall design of the museum has a deep symbolic representation of Judaic history. The  museum almost perfect rectangular building has a jagged passage running through it, symbolizing the historical Old Testament parting of the Red Sea. The Museum of the History of Polish Jews is scheduled to open its doors to the general public on 2008. The museum will retrace and illustrate the Polish Jewish life in Poland during 800 years before it was completely annihilated by Nazi Germany. It was a fierece artistic competition between the winners Mahlamaeski/ Lahdelma and Daniel Libeskind, the noted designer and architect  of the Berlin's landmark Jewish Museum, and Peter Eisenman who designed  the Berlin Holocaust memorial. The jury committee was chaired by  Bohdan Paczowski who told the World Jewish News Agency: "The designers and architects  had a very clear historical understanding and a comprehensive vision of the Jewish history and culture in Poland and surrounding areas. Participants and winners revealed genuine  sensitivity, creativity and human in their creativity..."He added: " the limestone passageway is metaphoric. It represents  for the passage of the Jewish community through history." Even, the location of the museum is symbolic. It shall  be built in a public park located in downtown Warsaw, conveniently situated next to a monument dedicated  to the victims of the 1943 Warsaw Ghetto uprising against the Nazis

Austrians agree on compensation

The Austrian government and Jewish community agreed on compensation for communal property looted or destroyed during the Nazi period. The Board of the General Reparations Fund announced Wednesday that it would pay some $22.8 million to the Israelitisch Kultusgemeinde, or IKG, the secular body representing Austrian Jewry, as soon as legal security for Austria is guaranteed against pending lawsuits. Of the 47 Austrian synagogues destroyed by the Nazis and their supporters, only two were rebuilt. The new funds will be used to cover social services, including old age homes, counseling for Holocaust survivors and debt repayment, said Hannah Lessing, general secretary of the National Fund of the Republic of Austria and the General Settlement Fund for former slave laborers, from which the payment will be made. As its part of the agreement, the IKG withdrew its 777 petitions to the fund, as well as its support for class action lawsuits pending in the United States. Still pending are some 19,500 individual petitions for funds from individuals and their heirs, Lessing told JTA.

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IRAN FOREIGN MINISTRY: "We have no intention whatsoever to attack Israel or any neighboring country...The Israelis have already acquired an atomic bomb from the United States in 1985."

IRANIAN PRESIDENT-ELECTED AHMADINEJAD IDENTIFIED BY A FORMER US HOSTAGE AS ONE OF THOSE WHO CAPTURED AND INTERROGATED HIM IN TEHRAN.

TEHRAN, Iran  - Iran officials are furious and mad at The White House's accusations and claims that Iranian  president-elect Mahmoud Ahmadinejad   took part in the  U.S. hostages , twenty six years ago.  Mahmood Ahmadinejad, who just won a landslide presidential election victory in Iran, has been  constantly accused  by the United States of taking American hostages when  Iranian students and followers of Ayatollah Al Khoumeini captured the U.S. Embassy in Tehran during President Carter's administration. Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi told the World Jewish News Agency: "The campaign is being orchestrated by the United States and Israel as part of a media trap. Asefi  warned Europe, not to be erroneously influenced by the "Zionist" campaign against Iran and its  president-elect Mahmoud Ahmadinejad." Asefi's warning came as Germany, France and Britain are leading European Union efforts to convince Tehran to permanently cease its controversial nuclear program which the United States strongly and repeatedly claims is  part of Iran's plan to develop a nuclear bomb. American claims were  constantly rejected by Iran.

The clan of Asefi told the World Jewish News Agency in Paris: "We have no intention whatsoever to attack Israel or any neighboring country as the United States falsely claim. We are not hypocrites. The hypocrites are the Israelis who have already acquired an atomic bomb from the United States in 1985. Our nuclear program is for health research and economical development." Today, in Tehran, Asefi gave a statement to  foreign correspondents which included the following: " "Europeans should show their political maturity and not intertwine their interests with those of the Americans..." He told the World Jewish News Agency: "The American charges are false and malicious. They don't deserve any answer or further explanation from Iran. They are fabricated by The White House and scenarioed by Israel." Six former American hostages who saw the picture of the Iranian president-elect and heard him  on the Iranian television confirmed that said they have recognized Ahmadinejad  as one of the  captors who held them for 444 days. One of the former American hostages said that he was  absolutely sure that this man was one of those who  interrogated him during his captivity in Tehran. World Jewish News Agency reviewed documents which  link Ahmadinejad  to the 1989 slaying of Abdul-Rahman Ghassemlou, the opposition Kurdish leader in Vienna. Close advisors to Ahmadinejad told the World Jewish News Agency that Iran will not halt its nuclear program and would restart its uranium-enrichment activities."