News in Brief

BERLIN (JTA) -- John Demjanjuk must be put on trial "as quickly as possible," said a German Jewish leader.

Demjanjuk, 89, arrived Tuesday in Germany to stand trial for war crimes committed during World War II.

His trial is likely to be one of the last such cases stemming from the Nazi era.

Charlotte Knobloch, president of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, said that the courts were now in a "race against time."

"All possible legal measures must be taken to bring [him] to court as quickly as possible," she said in a statement from her Munich office.

Police in Munich confirmed Tuesday that Demjanjuk, deported from the United States Monday night on a medically equipped charter flight, arrived in the city at 9:20 a.m.

Demjanjuk, a retired auto worker, was removed from his suburban Cleveland home on Monday by ambulance and taken to the airport, accompanied by a doctor and nurse.

In March, Munich prosecutors issued an arrest warrant for Demjanjuk, accusing him of serving as a guard at the Sobibor extermination camp in Poland in 1943 and being involved in the murder of at least 29,000 Jews.

Demjanjuk, who contests the charges, has lived since 1952 in suburban Cleveland.

His later years have been spent fighting accusations of involvement in wartime crimes against humanity.

Anti-Gay Church Turns on Jews

WASHINGTON (JTA) -- After years of focusing on gays and lesbians with its protests, the Westboro Baptist Church has a new target: the Jewish community.

The Topeka, Kan.-based church, which features the slogan "God Hates Fags," protested at three Jewish sites here last week.

The protests are part of a series of upcoming rallies that will bring members of the church to Jewish community institutions in Omaha, St. Louis, South Florida and Providence in the next few weeks, according to the church's Web site and fliers the group is distributing that list scheduled protests and proclaim "Jews Killed the Lord Jesus."

Led by Pastor Fred Phelps, the 71-member church, according to Anti-Defamation League research, first gained notoriety about a decade ago when it began picketing the funerals of gays or those they thought were gay -- including Matthew Shepard, who was the victim of an anti-gay attack.

In recent years, church members have frequently protested outside the funerals of soldiers killed in Iraq and Afghanistan, or at other events that are likely to bring news coverage and, in turn, publicity to the church.

One such event was the funeral of three young girls killed in a traffic accident.

While picketing outside the Washington office of the Anti-Defamation League last Friday, Phelps' daughter Margie said that the group is now focusing on the Jewish community because church members have been "testifying" to gentiles for 19 years that "America is doomed" and they haven't gotten the message.

"Now it's too late," she said. "We're done with them."

Margie Phelps added that "one of the loudest voices" in favor of homosexuality and abortion is "the Jews, especially the rabbis."

"They claim to be God's chosen people," she said. "Do you think that God is going to wink at that forever?"

Depeche Mode Performs in Israel

JERUSALEM (JTA) -- The British pop band Depeche Mode opened its world tour in Israel nearly three years after canceling a concert there due to the Second Lebanon War.

Some 50,000 concert-goers saw the band, which was at its most popular in the 1980s, during its sold-out performance at the Ramat Gan Stadium on Sunday night.

Among the songs performed was the once oft-played "Personal Jesus."

Meanwhile, Madonna announced that she will visit Israel in October as part of her Sticky and Sweet Tour.

It is speculated that she will remain in Israel over Yom Kippur.

Austrian Hotel Refuses Jews

ROME (JTA) -- An Austrian hotel reportedly refused to accept a Jewish family as guests.

According to the daily Tiroler Tageszeitung, the owner of the Haus Sonnenhof apartment hotel in the village of Serfaus in the Austrian Tyrol told a Viennese Jewish family that it did not take Jewish guests, citing "bad experiences" in the past.

Local officials branded the refusal as "unacceptable."

The incident shocked the local tourist industry and made headlines around the world.