Abraham Cooper

The acclaimed but controversial New York rap group Public Enemy is again drawing accusations of anti-Semitism with its new single, "Welcome to the Terrordome." The song, released this week by Def Jam Records under a distribution agreement with Columbia Records, addresses the controversy that swirled around alleged anti-Jewish statements made in interviews last spring by the group's "minister of information" Professor Griff (real name: Richard Griffin).

When writer-director Henry Bean left the Sundance Film Festival in January, he floated out of Utah on a cloud of expectation. His film, "The Believer," a controversial but powerful examination of a young Jewish neo-Nazi agitator-based on a true story-had won the Grand Jury Prize, and companies such as Paramount Classics, Miramax and USA Films swirled around, apparently poised to purchase it for distribution.

When writer-director Henry Bean left the Sundance Film Festival in January, he floated out of Utah on a cloud of expectation. His film, "The Believer," a controversial but powerful examination of a young Jewish neo-Nazi agitator-based on a true story-had won the Grand Jury Prize, and companies such as Paramount Classics, Miramax and USA Films swirled around, apparently poised to purchase it for distribution.

The acclaimed but controversial New York rap group Public Enemy is again drawing accusations of anti-Semitism with its new single, "Welcome to the Terrordome." The song, released this week by Def Jam Records under a distribution agreement with Columbia Records, addresses the controversy that swirled around alleged anti-Jewish statements made in interviews last spring by the group's "minister of information" Professor Griff (real name: Richard Griffin).

The vague profile of Larry Gene Ashbrook, who authorities say killed seven churchgoers, wounded seven more, then killed himself, developed more dimensions Friday, even as this city fought for perspective on the havoc Ashbrook wrought. The man most people first learned of after his Wednesday rampage at Wedgwood Baptist Church called and wrote to newspapers, feared imagined persecutors--and may have mingled with Texas hate groups, people who had met him said.

The Simon Wiesenthal Center, as part of its ongoing research, is attempting to identify individuals who may have been helped in pre-World-War-II Austria by Dr. Muriel Gardiner, an American citizen who was studying medicine in Vienna in the 1930s and was involved with the anti-Fascist underground. She used the code name of Mary and offered her apartment as a safe house for individuals opposed to the Nazis. Anyone with information is asked to please contact Rabbi Abraham Cooper, Associate Dean, Simon Wiesenthal Center, 9760 W. Pico Blvd.

Jewish leaders condemned resolutions passed by the United Church of Christ that called for Israel to dismantle its security fences around Palestinian territories and for companies to use "economic leverage" to promote peace in the Middle East. The measures, passed by the church's rule-making body at its annual meeting in Atlanta, seek to hold Israel to a different moral standard, Rabbi Abraham Cooper said.

The author of a best-selling comic book series intended to teach children about other countries said he would change a chapter on Jews that has been called anti-Semitic and similar to Nazi propaganda. Lee Won-bok maintained, however, that his depiction of Jewish control of American media and politics was based on fact and "commonly believed." Images from the book "echo classic Nazi canards," Rabbi Abraham Cooper of the Los Angeles-based Simon Wiesenthal Center said this month.

KCOP-TV Channel 13's coverage of the Los Angeles Marathon on Sunday (8 a.m. to 1 p.m.) will include tributes to fire fighters and police officers for their efforts on behalf of county and city residents during recent natural disasters. The salute, dubbed "Here for the Long Run," also will single out for recognition Caltrans workers, the Rev. Cecil Murray, Rabbis Marvin Hier and Abraham Cooper, and teacher Alberto Valdivia.

It is unfortunate that those at the Simon Wiesenthal Center, with its Museum of Tolerance, are not so tolerant when it comes to Muslim football team names (Dec. 12). Rabbi Abraham Cooper wants people to think that the teams are honoring terrorists by using names such as Intifada. They are not. They are just young Americans who like to play football. Their choices of team names were merely in support of legitimate struggle, not terrorism. The Simon Wiesenthal Center should stop trying to take advantage of these innocent young Americans to further its own political agenda.

The Simon Wiesenthal Center, as part of its ongoing research, is attempting to identify individuals who either worked with or were saved through the efforts of William Perl. Dr. (Willie) Perl was one of the chief organizers of the illegal rescue ship operation "Die Aktion" that began in Vienna and eventually spread throughout Europe between 1937 and 1944. From Vienna, Prague, Bratislava, Bucharest, Budapest, Danzig, Berlin, Warsaw and other European cities, escaping Jews traveled on trains and riverboats to several ports on the Danube River where they transferred to ocean-going steamers that eventually broke the British blockade of Palestine.