A hijack, a church and a ban for Civilisation
TWA denies that stewardess gave ‘Jewish names’ to hijackers
Intense anger was aroused in Israel and elsewhere this week by a report that Miss Uli Derickson, the Germanborn purser of the TWA aircraft hijacked by Lebanese Shi’ite extremists, had, at the request of the hijackers, provided them with a list of Jewish-sounding names of passengers after studying their passports. Six or seven “Jewish** passengers were removed by the hijackers from the plane, when it landed in Beirut. (It was later revealed that Miss Derickson had hidden the passports of Jewish passengers, and a film was made about her heroism)
Eban ‘bad for health’ of boys
Boys at the Hasmonean High School in London have been advised not to watch Abba Eban’s Channel Four series, Heritage: Civilisation and the Jews, because it might endanger their spiritual health. The series offers views opposed to Orthodox Judaism, teachers told pupils. And the headmaster, Rabbi M. Roberg, has written to parents to warn them of the religious risks. The series did not present the Torah as divinely given on Sinai, Rabbi Roberg wrote, but as a compilation of over 2,000 years. He appealed to parents to beware of the “negative influences” of the programmes which could be profound on “impressionable youngsters.”
Bogus church closed down
Mgr Steelier, the Bishop of Innsbruck, has ordered the indefinite closure of the Pilgrims’ Church on a hill called the “Judenstein” or “Jew Stone”) The site is dedicated to a bogus martyr called Anderl of Rinn, a boy allegedly sacrificed on the spot by Jewish traders, who had earlier purchased him from his parents. There is not a shred of evidence that the boy even existed. Jewish circles had been demanding the closure of the church for a long time, and even the Roman Catholic Church had condemned the martyrdom myth as antisemitic.” When local parishioners, incited by neo-Nazis, staged an illegal procession there without a priest last week, the bishop decided to close the church altogether.