Jewish Life Digital Edition February 2013 | Page 9

JEWIS
JEWISH POPULATION UP IN NEW YORK REGION
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According to a Jewish demographic study released last month, Borough Park, Brooklyn,
with its prevalence of Orthodox synagogues and kosher restaurants, is the most Jewish
area in the New York City region, with 78% of its households identifying themselves as
being Jewish. The areas of Great Neck, Long Island, with its thriving enclave of Persian
Jews, and then the Five Towns, also on Long Island, follow close behind, with a higher
percentage of Jews identifying as modern Orthodox than anywhere else in the region. The
Jewish population in the New York area has grown by 9% over the last decade, reversing a
long established trend of decline, the study found. However, the growth did not affect all
Jewish neighbourhoods equally. Two-thirds of the rise was driven by two Orthodox Jewish
neighbourhoods in Brooklyn with high birth rates – Williamsburg and Borough Park.
However, some of the city’s more affluent areas, like Brownstone Brooklyn and the Upper
East Side, saw declines in their Jewish population.

GOOGLE PLAY GIVES USERS
‘INSPIRING’ HITLER APPS
According to a recent article in the Jerusalem Post, Google
Play, the app store for Android products, has made several
applications available to users wishing to “enjoy the
inspiration” of Adolf Hitler. Google Play Store stated that
in the first 30 days of the app becoming available, there
were 50 000 downloads of
the app. The app contains
numerous Hitler quotes,
including a ‘Quote of the Day’
feature. Other popular Hitler
apps available on Google
Play Store include “Adolf Hitler Thoughts”, which states
in its description that “the wonderful leader has given a
lot of quotes that could motivate people to conquer the
world”. The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) blog last week
responded to Google Play›s Arabic-Language app, “Hitler’s
Sayings”, slamming the “vile messages” it displays. The
“Hitler›s Sayings” app lets users read and share what it calls
Hitler›s “beautiful sayings that we could benefit from in
our lives”. The app, according to the ADL blog, offers users
quotes such as, “Jews are like the mosquitoes that suck our
blood”, and “I could have killed all the Jews in the world, but
I spared some of them so you know why I killed the rest”.

The youngest Jew to be saved by Oskar
Schindler has died recently, at the age
of 83. It is 70 years since Leon Leyson
Leon
Leyson

was saved by the German businessman.
In that time, he immigrated to America,

served in the US army and then took up a career in teaching. Leyson
was married for 46 years and is survived by six grandchildren. Born
in Poland, he was 10 when the Nazis occupied the country and his
family was sent to the Krakow ghetto. He was known to Schindler as
“Little Leyson”, and was given work in his factory. He was so small
that he had to stand on a box to do his work. He was only 13 when
he was rescued, with both his parents and two surviving siblings,
by the Allies. Leyson, who had been diagnosed with lymphoma
four years earlier, rarely spoke about his early life until after Steven
Spielberg’s Schindler’s List was released in 1993. Speaking a few
years later, he said he had not wanted to give his children “a legacy
of fear” by dwelling on his past. Although he rarely talked about his
early life, he told the Los Angeles Times that watching Schindler’s List
was “like having an out-of-body experience… little kids who were
… trying to get away from the Sondercommando – that was me.”

INTERNATIONAL CONCERN OVER SYRIAN URANIUM STOCKPILE
US and Middle Eastern officials have expressed grave concern that a stockpile of un-enriched uranium in Syria, enough to make five
nuclear bombs, could fall into the hands of Iran. The 50 metric tons of un-enriched uranium are believed to be left over from the Syrian
nuclear programme, according to the Financial Times. A nearly completed nuclear reactor, located at Al-Kibar, in eastern Syria, reportedly
was destroyed by Israeli jets in September 2007. However, it is feared there are 50 metric tons of un-enriched uranium, intended for the
reactor, still being stored somewhere in the country. Several nuclear officials from the US and Middle Eastern countries fear that Iran,
which retains close ties to Syria, and which needs uranium for its nuclear programme, might be trying to get hold of the uranium for its
own nuclear programme. JL

JEWISH LIFE

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