nation / world
Court Allows German Church to Keep ‘Jewish Pig’ Sculpture
on Display
A one-man effort to remove a medieval anti-Jewish sculpture from public view in
Germany has failed, JTA reported.

The Federal Supreme Court in Karlsruhe announced on June 14 that the St.

Marien Church in Wittenberg didn’t have to remove the “Judensau” — Jew Sow
— sculpture from its façade, since the church administration had adequately dis-
tanced itself from the original antisemitic intention.

The Judensau is a Christian folk image dating to the Middle Ages that depicts
Jews suckling on the teats of a pig, peering into its anus or, in the case of the
Wittenberg relief, both.

Michael Duellmann, who is Jewish, is vowing to take his fight to the next level,
to Germany’s highest court of human rights. These sculptures are “much more
than merely insulting,” he said. “They are an inducement to murder.”
Duellmann, 79, had demanded that the sandstone relief be removed because it
was defamatory to himself and to Judaism overall. After losing his case in district
court and on appeal, he took it to Germany’s highest criminal and civil court two
years ago, where he lost.

DON’T JUST LIVE,
REIGN. Seriously Ill COVID Patients in Israel Jump 70% in a Week
The number of COVID patients in Israel considered seriously ill hit 140 on June
17, compared to 85 a week earlier, The Times of Israel reported.

Health experts called the situation “unstable” as the country deals with the
new variant BA.5.; those experts warned that COVID wards may need to reopen.

There were 7,313 Israelis who tested positive for the virus on June 17. The coun-
try’s death toll from COVID is 10,882.

Jewish Basketball Star Sue Bird to Retire After Season
This season will be WNBA superstar Sue Bird’s last, JTA reported.

The Jewish four-time league champion and five-time Olympic gold medalist
announced on June 16 that she would retire following the 2022 season.

“I’ve decided this will be my final year,” Bird shared on social media. “I have
loved every single minute, and still do, so gonna play my last year, just like this
little girl played her first.”
The 41-year-old point guard has won everywhere she’s played.

At the University of Connecticut, Bird won two NCAA championships. She was
the first overall pick in the 2002 WNBA draft and has played her entire career
with the Seattle Storm. In the WNBA, the 12-time All-Star is the only player in
league history to win titles in three different decades and is the all-time assists
leader. Abroad, Bird played for three different Russian teams and won five Russian
National League championships and five EuroLeague titles. She also won five
Olympic gold medals playing for the U.S.

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Israeli Academy of Sciences sues US Fundraising Arm
The Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities is suing its American fundraising
affiliate for refusing to hand over donations, JTA reported.

Two Jewish Nobel laureates, Mike Brown and Roger Kornberg, who served
on the board of the U.S. fundraising arm, the American Foundation for Basic
Research in Israel, resigned in protest, according to the lawsuit.

Lawyers for the academy, one of Israel’s most distinguished research bodies,
alleged that AFBRI, created by the academy in 1990, has refused to approve the
distribution from the $17 million in its coffers.

The academy is a collective of scientists and scholars established by Israeli law
in 1961 to encourage scholarship and maintain connections with the interna-
tional scientific community. It grants awards and fellowships, in addition to gen-
erating reports for the government assessing the state of science in Israel.

The law firm representing the academy, Nutter McClennen & Fish LLP, main-
tains that, since AFBRI was created to finance research in Israel, “any attempt to
divert AFBRI’s funds away from [the academy] is a breach of the agreements with
the donors.” JE
— Compiled by Andy Gotlieb
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