Briefs: Hate at Emory, pageant winners to Israel

A Jewish fraternity house at Emory University in Atlanta was targeted with anti-Semitic graffiti on the day after Yom Kippur, as swastikas were found spray-painted on Alpha Epsilon Pi’s walls Sunday morning.

“On behalf of our community, I denounce this abhorrent act,” in a statement.

“It is an offense against a Jewish fraternity and the Jewish members of our community, and it is a repugnant, flagrant emblem of anti-Semitism. It is also an offense against the entire university,” said the university’s president, Jim Wagner.

Pageant winners praise Israel

A delegation of 11 American beauty pageant winners took a five-day trip to Israel last week.

“If Israel had a ‘cover’ title based on what the media portrays, it would be ‘danger,’ ‘warfare,’ ‘disagreement,’ ‘pain,’ ‘death,’ ‘conflict’… and yet after just the first day I realized that this couldn’t be any further from the truth,” said Alicia Monique Blanco, Miss Arizona USA 2009.

The trip was organized by The Face of Israel organization, which offers tours for influential global figures.

Israel tackles hitchhiking

In the aftermath of the abduction and murder of three Jewish teens while they were hitchhiking in Gush Etzion in June, the Israeli Education Ministry is working to prevent students at the 22 religious schools in Judea and Samaria from taking rides with strangers.

One of the projects is organized student transportation, for which the ministry allocated about $2.7 million at the beginning of this school year.

“This is a very important initiative that inspires feelings of security in the students and staff,” said Rabbi David Rabinowitz of the Makor Chaim yeshiva in Kfar Etzion.

Benny Fisher, the ministry’s director of rural education, said, “The schools are responsible for signing the students up for transportation and for ensuring that every student has the transportation solution that they need.”

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