News and Views From Europe,Rachel Rogosnitzky

French Jews Support Sarkozy In Presidential Contest

French interior minister Nicolas Sarkozy is the apparent front runner in the race for the French presidency, as well as being the first choice for many Jews. On a visit to Israel in November, French minister for Regional Development Christian Estrosi said that Sarkozy "is the natural candidate of Jewish voters."

CRIF, the representative council for Jewish institutions in France, has thrown its weight behind Sarkozy, who heads the right-wing UMP (Union for a Popular Movement) party. Sarkozy, who is of Jewish descent, has frequently reiterated his support for Israel and his struggle against anti-Semitism.

His rival, Segolene Royal, trails in opinion polls. CRIF president Roger Cukierman criticized Royal for her meeting in December with Ali Ammar, a member of Hizbullah, and for her statement that she sympathized with his views - notably his analysis of the U.S. role in the Middle East.

Ammar likened Israel's stance against Lebanon to Nazism. While Royal claimed not to have heard the "Nazism" comment, French Jewish leaders were offended that she did not condemn Ammar's remarks.

Francois Felon, Sarkozy's political adviser, meanwhile unambiguously labeled Hizbulla a "terrorist party that aims to destroy Israel."

In a meeting called by CRIF to discuss the Iranian nuclear threat, Cukierman compared the Iranian president to Hitler: "At the Shoah Memorial you can see and hear Goebbels, Ribbentrop and Hitler express the same hatred, the same fantasies, the same slanders as Ahmadinejad in Tehran.

"Ahmadinejad is the new Hitler, but there is a difference between them: Ahmadinejad is about to get the atomic bomb within eighteen months or two years."

During the two-hour meeting in Paris, representatives for the three main candidates in April's presidential election presented their views. Nicolas Sarkozy was the only candidate to mention the murder of Ilan Halimi, the French Jewish man killed by those he termed a "gang of the barbarians" in a Paris suburb last year. Concerning Iran, Sarkozy's spokesman said that "anti-Semitism is highly worrying in a country which shows so much effort to get the atomic weapon."

"France will never compromise with the security of Israel or toward anti-Semitism," he said.

Segolene Royal's campaign director also denounced Iran as "a country which is threatening Israel and challenges the international community. It's unacceptable to insult the memory of the victims and we won't accept the threat of Iran's nuclear [capability] in a region which is so unstable."

French Nazi Collaborator Dies at 96

The man who sent nearly 1,700 French Jews from the Bordeaux area, including 223 children, to their deaths in Nazi concentration camps died in the safety of his home last month. Maurice Papon, who was 96 at his death, goes down in the annals of French history as the man who despite his willing collaboration with the Nazis was awarded the Legion of Honour in 1948.

In 1983 legal proceedings were set in motion against Papon for his activities during World War II, but President Francois Mitterand, like de Gaulle before him, did everything possible to forestall retribution against Papon for his war crimes.

From 1942 to 1944, Papon was a senior official in the Gironde region around Bordeaux, a section of France administered by the Vichy regime with specific responsibility for "Jewish affairs." Of the 76,000 French Jews murdered by the Nazis, 1,690 came from the Gironde.

During his trial, Papon defended himself with the time-honored phrase that he was only obeying orders, arguing that he had no power to alter the fate of the Jews.

In 2002 Papon was released from prison on health grounds, having served a mere three years of a 10-year sentence. He remained unrepentant to the last, declaring that he had neither "regrets nor remorse for a crime I did not commit and for which I am in no way an accomplice."

Hungarian Prime Minister Slams Eastern European Nationalism

"There is something horrible happening. There have never been so many anti-Semitic remarks as now," said Hungarian Prime MinisterFerenc Gyurcsány as he criticized opposition leader Viktor Orbán for exploiting anti-Semitism in an attempt to derail the government's modernization program.

Gyurcsány referred to a leaflet given to his wife, a university lecturer, "the likes of which have not been seen for the past 50 years. It was a very clear and unambiguous anti-Semitic pamphlet. This [outrages me not only] because my wife is of Jewish descent."

Gyurcsány, who leads the Socialist party, has been attempting to persuade Hungarians of the necessity of cutting back on the welfare state, paying taxes and accepting job cuts in the public sector.

The right-wing Fidesz party has planned a huge demonstration for March 15, a national holiday. The demonstration is to be held next to the Elizabeth Bridge, where violent clashes erupted last autumn. The prime minister fears that this time right-wing opposition to reforms could more widespread.

In an interview with The Times, Gyurcsány emphasized that Eastern European countries have reached the stage where they must decide how to "link into the global economy" through "a progressive modernization policy" or relegate themselves to the isolation of radical nationalism.

Anti-Semitic Attack on Jewish Kindergarten

The Chabad Or Avner school in the Charlottenberg district of Berlin was targeted last week by vandals who defaced the building with anti-Semitic graffiti and threw a smoke bomb, which failed to ignite, into the school.

No one was in the school at the time of the attack, which was described by Eberhard Koerting, Berlin's interior minister, as "brutal" and "cowardly." He gave his assurance that everything would be done to apprehend those responsible.

Stephan Kramer, general secretary of the Central Council of Jews in Germany said, "This is the first time that a kindergarten has been attacked. They are going for the youth, the future, the weakest part."

German Chancellor Angela Merkel condemned the attack as a horrifying attempt to disrupt Jewish life in Germany.

British Library To Display Rare Jewish Texts

Beginning April 27, the British Library will be showcasing a magnificent collection of Jewish, Christian and Islamic texts in an exhibition titled "Sacred."

A unique collection of priceless Jewish texts, including Torahs and Haggadahs more than a thousand years old, are to be shown for the first time in London.

The exhibition includes a sefer Torah made of strips of sheepskin sewn together with silk thread, (rather than the customary animal sinews) used by the long defunct Chinese Jewish community of Kaifeng; a sixteenth-century Tehillim in Arabic; the Golden Haggadah from Catalonia dated around 1320; and a ketubah from Afghanistan written in 1889.

The Syriac Pentateuch written in southeastern Turkey in 463 CE and the Lisbon Hebrew Bible will also be on display. The three-volume Lisbon Bible originates from the Lisbon school of Hebrew illumination. Curator Ilana Tahan noted that "its exquisite frontispieces and finely wrought miniatures display mostly floral, animal and vegetal motifs, executed in brilliant colours and enhanced in gold leaf."

The Lisbon manuscript was copied by Solomon Ibn Alzuk for Joseph ben David Ibn Yahya. It was completed between September 1471 and August 1472.

The British Library, one of the world's most important libraries, is the national library of the United Kingdom. It moved several years ago from its original home at the British Museum to a state-of-the-art building in St. Pancras, where it offers both visiting and permanent exhibitions. No stopover in London is complete without some time in the British Library to view its phenomenal collection of Jewish and Hebrew manuscripts.

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News and Views From Europe , Rachel Rogosnitzky