Grenade explodes at Jewish centre in Venezuela

A grenade was thrown at a Jewish community centre in Venezuela's capital on Thursday, stoking fears of anti-Semitism less than a month after a synagogue was ransacked. http://tinyurl.com/bcjb85

Royal seal impressions from the First Temple period discovered south of Jerusalem

Archaeologists have discovered many royal seal impressions that date to the reign of Hezekiah, King of Judah (end of the eighth century BCE) at an excavation in southern Jerusalem. Four “LMLK” type impressions were discovered on handles of large jars that were used to store wine and oil in royal administrative centers. These were found together with the seal impressions of two high ranking officials named Ahimelekh ben Amadyahu and Yehokhil ben Shahar, who served in the kingdom’s government. The Yehokhil seal was stamped on one of the LMLK impressions before the jar was fired in a kiln and this is a very rare instance in which two such impressions appear together on a single handle.

Another Hebrew inscription, 600 years later than the seal impressions of the Kingdom of Judah, was discovered on a fragment of a jar neck that dates to the Hasmonean period. An alphabetic sequence was engraved with a thin iron stylus below the vessel’s rim in Hebrew script that is characteristic of the beginning of the Hasmonean period (end of the second century BCE).

The pottery vessels that were recovered from the ruins of the building indicate it first dates to the end of the Iron Age (the First Temple period) in the eighth century BCE. Following its destruction, along with Jerusalem and all of Judah during the Babylonian conquest, Jews reoccupied it in the Hasmonean period (second century BCE) and it existed for another two hundred years until the destruction of the Second Temple. During the Byzantine period the place was reinhabited as part of the extensive rural settlement of monasteries and farmsteads in the region between Jerusalem and Bethlehem. (source: Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs) Also see this article from Haaretz.  http://tinyurl.com/cnr63l and http://tinyurl.com/b8vu84

Anti-Semitism: Jews Under Attack

Abraham H. Foxman, National Director, Anti-Defamation League delivered a speech entitled Anti-Semitism: Jews Under Attack. To quote Foxman "In all my years at the Anti-Defamation League -- monitoring exposing and combating anti-Semitism -- I have never been so worried about the safety and well-being of Diaspora Jewry as I am today." Read the speech here. http://tinyurl.com/bfpqdq The ADL is also making available Global Anti-Semitism: Selected Incidents Around the World in 2009. http://tinyurl.com/d5gxrn.

The Coordination Forum for Countering Antisemitism also monitors antisemitic activities throughout the world. It coordinates the struggle against this phenomenon with various government bodies and Jewish organizations around the world. It's report on Anti-Semitism in the wake of Operation Cast Lead can be read at www.antisemitism.org.il/eng.

Our own blog entry with links to articles reporting on attacks against Jews and synagogues around the world is available here.