YINZ/YIDZ

Some unfortunate news to the moviegoing Squirrel Hill crowd: Squirrel Hill Theater, the neighborhood movie theater on Forward Avenue, will close its doors after nearly 75 years in business.

Richard Stern, the third-generation owner of the theater, announced the closing yesterday in a statement.

"It is with deep regret that I am faced with the decision to close the Squirrel Hill Theater. It is no longer an economically viable operation and we can no longer sustain the losses which we have experienced over the past two years," he said, representing the Stern Enterprises, his business which also owns several other local businesses.

For anyone who had the pleasure of simply walking down the street to the small, quaint theater, this closing represents just another unfortunate hole now in Squirrel Hill's main business district stretching from Forbes and Murray down to Forward and Murray. The theater represented a local, friendly feel, an alternative to larger corporate-owned theaters like the nearby AMC Lowes at the Waterfront.

When Mel Gibson was pulled over for drunk driving in 2006, Jews were largely up in arms. And for good reason—sure, we were upset that he'd endanger other folks on the road, but so were non-Jews alike. The contention specific to Yids were alleged statements Gibson made to the police officers taking him in; namely, that Jews "are responsible for all the wars in the world." 

Ouch, Mel. And we loved you so much in "Braveheart."

Gibson returned to the screen just two weeks ago with a new thriller called "Edge of Darkness." The flick's seen moderate success (it's made just under $40 million in three weekends), but we can't help but wonder what Gibson's controversies have done to his fan base. And further, is it worth actually boycotting the movie?

Check out this story from Tablet Magazine—it seems some Jews haven't forgotten about Mel's Jew-bashing. Like, not at all. 

http://www.tabletmag.com/arts-and-culture/25430/boycott-mel-gibson/

The following is a JTA story about the theft of the iconic Auschwitz sign that disappeared from the camp's grounds in mid-December. The notion that a huge, old, metal sign would even be the object of a theft is a bit baffling; the suspect, a British Nazi sympathizer, could've been sending any of several messages. Maybe he wanted to protest the world's memorializing of Nazi victims by stealing one of its most prominent symbols; maybe he just wanted to add to his collection of Nazi swag. Check out the story below:

(JTA) -- A wanted Swedish man has been arrested in connection with the theft of the famous Auschwitz sign.

 Anders Hogstrom was arrested Thursday in Stockholm, the BBC reported, a week after a Polish court issued a European-wide warrant for his arrest for allegedly ordering the theft of the metal sign reading "Arbeit macht frei" from the front gate of the former concentration camp, now a memorial.

Hogstrom reportedly acted as an agent for a British Nazi sympathizer who wanted the sign.

The 16-foot metal sign, which means "work makes you free," was stolen Dec. 18 and recovered across the country 72 hours later.

Experts are working to restore the sign, which had been cut into three pieces. It is not certain that the sign will be returned to its place; a copy was placed at the front gate immediately after the theft.

Some 1.1 million people, including about 1 million Jews, were murdered at Auschwitz.

...we've been hearing from you, the community of Jewish Chronicle readers. For that, we thank you—any time a newspaper gets feedback from its audience, it's able to sharpen its focus and better measure the communities temperament.

At Wednesday night's event, held at the Hillel JUC building in Oakland, the sight might not have been pretty, but it was passionate; several Palestinian-supporting protestors were let in to hear Eitam's presentation. Unfortunately for everyone in attendance, instead of holding their tongues and engaging Eitam in an intelligent discourse and thereby making their points more acutely known, the protestors favored interrupting Eitam with calls of "Murderer!" and "Racist!" 

In an interview yesterday with The Chronicle (check out next week's issue), Eitam noted that he believed such impatience and immaturity reflected the whole Palestinian conflict—his point, made in his speech and again yesterday, that the Palestinians are not yet in the mindset for peace, was illustrated in the protester's disruption. 

Though public discussion is still flaring, let us take a moment to recognize something good—our community is talking, debating procedure, politics and morality, allowing all to sharpen their personal beliefs and, as PAJC Director Deborah Fidel said, chose "morality over unity."

Let us know your thoughts on the event and Eitam right here.