Today's Update features two stories. One reflects the culture of hate prevalent in the Arab world. The other, which highlights N.E. Miles Jewish Day School students participating in a peace project, reflects a vastly different culture -- the pursuit of tolerance, mutual understanding and reconciliation.

The latter story also reflects the culture that prevails at The Birmingham Jewish Federation. We work against hatred, whether it be toward Jews or anyone else, and do all we can to promote the values and aspirations that bring people together. Thanks to those who support our BJF Annual Campaign, we're able to do it everyday in so many ways -- and the pursuit of peace, mutual respect and ways to make life better for all people remain among our central goals.

The following is from the website of the Anti-Defamation League. ADL monitors and combats anti-Semitism and is one of the 32 agencies and programs funded by The Birmingham Jewish Federation Annual Campaign.

The Palestinian effort to seek full membership in the United Nations was big news in the Arab media -- and the focus of a number of editorial cartoons in Muslim and Arab newspapers across the Middle East.

Many of those caricatures, which focused on the declared intention of the United States to veto the membership bid should it come to a vote in the Security Council, were rife with vicious anti-Semitic caricatures and stereotypes, according to the Anti-Defamation League, which has released a compilation of selected cartoons on this theme appearing in recent weeks in mainstream daily newspapers across the Middle East.

The images illustrate how the Arab media continues to promote anti-Semitic imagery and conspiracy theories about Jewish and Israeli "control" of international forums and the U.S. government, depicting President Barack Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu with grotesque imagery and anti-Jewish themes.

"Anti-Semitism is once again the leitmotif for cartoon commentary in Muslim and Arab newspapers since the Palestinians took their statehood bid to the United Nations," said Abraham H. Foxman, ADL National Director.

"The visual depiction of stereotypical hook-nosed or black-hatted images of Jews plotting to control the United States government and the world. This theme is lifted right out of the (notoriously anti-Semitic) Protocols of the Elders of Zion," Foxman explained. "Arab newspaper cartoonists have been engaging in this type of anti-Semitic incitement for decades, and yet it is especially troubling in the current context. It is the very antithesis of encouraging peacemaking."

In the run-up to the Palestinian statehood bid, editorial cartoons on the subject appeared in newspapers in Jordan, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt, Syria, Jordan, the Palestinian territories and elsewhere in the region. Many called up traditional anti-Semitic stereotypes.

The cartoon depicted here, which appeared Sept. 30 in the Qatari daily newspaper Al-Watan, typifies these anti-Semitic sentiments: A caricature of a bearded Orthodox Jew with a hooked nose and black hat is shown in the driver's seat of an automobile, his hand resting on a stick-shift representing President Barack Obama's head, and the steering wheel in the shape of the U.N. symbol.

Pinwheels for Peace, an international art and literacy project, helps inspire schoolchildren through the concept of peace. Last year, this project set more than 3.5 million pinwheels spinning in over 3,500 locations, including places in the United States, Europe, Asia, Australia, Canada, the Middle East, Africa and South America.

Recently, the N.E. Miles Jewish Day School participated in a project with Pinwheels for Peace by "planting" more than 400 pinwheels with messages of peace.

Students, faculty, parents and friends united to create the pinwheels -- expressing their thoughts and feelings about war and peace, tolerance, and living in harmony with others through words and pictures on the pinwheels. The students planted them in front of the school as a public statement and art exhibit, celebrating World Peace Day and bringing a message of hope for a future of shalom (peace).

The N.E. Miles Jewish Day School is one of 32 agencies supported by dollars raised by The Birmingham Jewish Federation Annual Campaign. For information on the Day School contact Robin Berger at the school at (205) 879-1068.

Above photo is of NEMJDS students and their pinwheels.

A story in Friday's Update said The Birmingham Jewish Federation was closed Friday for Yom Kippur. This was a mistake due to an editing error. The BJF was not closed. Yom Kippur did not begin until Friday at sunset.