Demjanjuk Trial Set
BERLIN — The war crimes trial of John Demjanjuk will begin Nov. 30 in Munich, the state court said. Demjanjuk, 89, is charged with being an accessory in the murder of 27,900 people in the Nazi death camp Sobibor. If convicted, he faces up to 15 years in jail. He denies the charges, saying he was a prisoner of war in a Nazi camp. In 2002, the U.S. Justice Department charged him with being a guard at Sobibor and revoked his citizenship for lying about his past to gain it. He was extradited to Germany in May. In the early 1980s, he was accused of being the guard “Ivan the Terrible” at Treblinka. He was deported to Israel in 1986 and sentenced to death in 1988. But Israel’s Supreme Court overturned his conviction, saying there was doubt about his identity.
Redgrave Backs TIFF
NEW YORK — Actress Vanessa Redgrave defended the Toronto International Film Festival’s decision to showcase films about Tel Aviv. In a letter to the New York Review of Books, written with artist Julian Schnabel and playwright Martin Sherman, she said the protest of the festival’s decision to feature Tel Aviv in its City to City program was “improperly thought out” and has “distressing implications.” Redgrave, a longtime supporter of the PLO, backed a British boycott of Israeli artists in the 1980s. The letter notes many films and plays criticizing Israel’s treatment of the Palestinians are by artists who live in Tel Aviv. She also criticized protesters’ use of the term “apartheid regime,” stating “we oppose the current Israeli government, but it is a government. Freely elected. Not a regime. Words matter. The point… is not to grandstand but to inch toward a two-state solution.”
Senior Bnei Mitzvah
CINCINNATI — Nine residents of a Cincinnati retirement home went to Israel to have their bnei mitzvah. The residents of the Cedar Village Jewish Retirement Community, along with two rabbis, 13 staff and a family member, are on a 10-day trip. The residents, whose average age is 86, were to have their bar and bat mitzvahs Oct. 15 in Jerusalem.