VATICAN TO SKIP HOLOCAUST CEREMONY

Vatican to skip Yad Vashem ceremony (JPost)
The Vatican ambassador to the Holy Land said Thursday that he would not attend the annual Holocaust Remembrance Day state ceremony at Yad Vashem because of a caption at the Holocaust Museum that referred to Pope Pius XII's controversial role during World War Two.

"I will attend any ceremony on the victims of WWII, but I do not feel at ease at Yad Vashem when the Pope is presented in this way," Monsignor Antonio Franco said in a telephone interview with The Jerusalem Post. He added that if nothing were done to change the caption he would "not feel comfortable" attending the ceremony.

The Vatican ambassador called his unprecedented decision not to attend the Sunday evening official state ceremony at Yad Vashem a "personal" one, and said that it had been made after museum officials failed to respond to a request last year to change the caption.

The caption, which first appeared when the new Holocaust Museum was inaugurated at Yad Vashem in 2005, states that the Pope's reaction to the murder of the Jews during the Holocaust was controversial.

In a statement, Yad Vashem voiced "shock and disappointment" that the Vatican's delegate to Israel chose not to respect the memory of the Holocaust by refusing to participate in the official ceremony in which the state of Israel and the Jewish people commemorate the victims, saying that the move contradicted the current pope's statement during his visit to Yad Vashem about the importance of remembering the Holocaust and its victims. "It is inconceivable to use diplomatic pressures on an issue of historical research," the statement read. ....

The role of the Holocaust-era Pope has long been controversial.

"In 1933, when he was Secretary of the Vatican State, he was active in obtaining a Concordat with the German regime to preserve the Church's rights in Germany, even if this meant recognizing the Nazi racist regime," the controversial caption reads.

"When he was elected Pope in 1939, he shelved a letter against racism and anti-Semitism that his predecessor had prepared. Even when reports about the murder of Jews reached the Vatican, the Pope did not protest either verbally or in writing. In December 1942, he abstained from signing the Allied declaration condemning the extermination of the Jews. When Jews were deported from Rome to Auschwitz, the Pope did not intervene.

"The Pope maintained his neutral position throughout the war, with the exception of appeals to the rulers of Hungary and Slovakia towards its end. His silence and the absence of guidelines obliged Churchmen throughout Europe to decide on their own how to react."

UPDATED: LEO DICAPRIO VISITS YAD VASHEM WITH ISRAELI GIRLFRIEND

DiCaprio, Rafaeli tour Yad Vashem (YNet)
Hollywood superstar Leonardo DiCaprio and his Israeli girlfriend model Bar Rafaeli toured Monday evening the Yad Vashem Museum for the commemoration of the Holocaust, which opened after hours for their visit. DiCaprio apparently showed great interest in the tour and was moved by the experience, asking numerous questions and pausing repeatedly at various displays. The couple was expected to tour Jerusalem immediately following. DiCaprio and Rafaeli landed at Ben Gurion Airport on Sunday and headed straight to the Rafaeli family home in Hod Hasharon.

UPDATE: Israel Police arrest bodyguards of star Leonardo DiCaprio (Haaretz)
Israel Police arrested on Monday two members of actor Leonardo DiCaprio's security team after they clashed with photographers during a visit to Jerusalem by the star and his Israeli girlfriend Bar Refaeli. Israel Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said DiCaprio and supermodel Refaeli were taking a private tour of the Western Wall tunnels, next to the Western Wall which is Judaism's holiest site, in the Old City of Jerusalem.

Rosenfeld said the photographers waited outside the tunnels for the couple to emerge. "Two of his [DiCaprio's] security guards were arrested by police after being involved in a fight that broke out," Rosenfeld said. "They are being questioned." Covering their faces after the tour, DiCaprio and Refaeli were whisked away in a waiting white van.

YAD VASHEM NAMES FIRST ARAB RIGHTEOUS GENTILE

Holocaust Honor for Arab Who Saved Jews from Nazis - David Sharrock (Times-UK)
Tunisian Khaled Abdelwahhab, an Arab who saved the lives of two dozen Jews during the Holocaust, is poised to become the first Arab to be celebrated as a Righteous Gentile by Yad Vashem, Israel's Holocaust remembrance authority.

A survivor told American Jewish researcher Robert Satloff, executive director of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, that Abdelwahhab had rescued 23 Jews, including her family, as they sheltered in an olive oil factory for the remaining six months of the German occupation after being thrown out of their homes by German soldiers.

More than 1.5 million Jews lived in northern Africa during the Second World War and were subject to persecution by the Nazis and their allies there.

Iraq Learns from Yad Vashem - Smadar Perry (Ynet News)
Members of an Iraqi organization planning to perpetuate the memory of thousands of Saddam Hussein's victims secretly visited the Holocaust Museum in Washington and the Yad Vashem Museum in Jerusalem last year, Yediot Ahronot reported Tuesday. The head of the Iraqi memorial team is Harvard lecturer Dr. Kenan Makiya.

HOW SAD THAT THEY FELT THEIR VISITS HAD TO BE A SECRET.