Your First Read For Sep 14

Ceremony Marks one year since Peres’ death

JERUSALEM (JTA) — A state ceremony in Jerusalem marked the one-year anniversary of the death of Shimon Peres.

Peres’ family, world leaders and state and business leaders attended Thursday morning’s ceremony at Mount Herzl cemetery.

“His biggest dream – peace – my father did not get to see realized. My father knew that this dream would not bring recognition and acclaim. I ask you today to look at the future that he lays out in his autobiography. Here he explains that the battle for peace requires courage, even more so than the sacrifice of war. I ask, in the spirit of my father, that you don’t stop dreaming and daring, because it’s the best thing that could happen to our beloved country,” Peres’ son, Chemi, the chairman of the Board of the Peres Center, said during the ceremony.

Peres died at the age of 93, days after suffering a massive stroke.

Bias crime suspected in attack on Bronx attorney

New York police yesterday arrested a teen who allegedly spray-painted an anti-Semitic slur on the Bronx home of the family of an assistant state attorney general, according to the New York Post. Lewis Jared, 16, was busted on charges of criminal mischief as a hate crime for scrawling the word “Jew” on the Bronx home, a NYPD spokesman said.

The suspect was seen on surveillance video.

Technion-Cornell campus dedicated

A high-tech teaching and research center that is a collaborative effort of Cornell University and the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology was inaugurated yesterday its newly built campus on Roosevelt Island, JTA reports. More than 500 people, including political and education dignitaries from Israel and the U.S., attended the ceremony.

Former Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who conceived the $2 billion project and donated $100 million to it, said Cornell Tech would help re-establish New York as a technological center. “In many ways, this project helps bring New York City back to the future.”

Palestinians cancel vote in UN tourism organization

Palestinian representatives yesterday retracted their request for a vote on becoming a member state in the U.N. World Tourism Organization amid American and Israeli pressure, according to the Times of Israel.

The Palestinian Authority had submitted its request for membership in UNTWO in September 2016. To become a member, the Palestinians would have required a two-thirds majority vote.

Had it voted in the Palestinians, the UNTWO would have become the second UN body to grant them the same status accorded to fully recognized states.

Poll finds prevailing anti-Semitic views in England

Nearly one in three Britons holds at least one anti-Semitic attitude and more than half endorse at least one hard-line anti-Israel statement, finds a major new study published today, the Times of Israel reports.

The poll also establishes an “unambiguous” link between anti-Semitism and hostility towards Israel, suggesting that “the stronger the level of anti-Israel feeling, the more likely it is to be accompanied by anti-Semitic attitudes,” the news site reports.

The report also concludes that the proportion of what it terms “hardcore anti-Semites” in the population is small, while most Britons hold a favorable opinion of Jews and the vast majority do not harbor any anti-Semitic views.

Firebombing causes little damage at Moscow Jewish office

A firebombing Monday at the Moscow offices of the largest Jewish organization in Russia caused minimal damage and no injuries, according to JTA. Video footage from the incident at the offices of the Federation of Jewish Communities of Russia showed a person whose facial features are not clearly visible throwing the firebomb and fleeing as it bursts into flames.

Last month, firebombs were hurled at the studio of a renowned Russian-Jewish film director who is reviled by some nationalists for his controversial depiction of the love affair between Russia’s last czar and a ballerina.