• Although federal spokesmen have denied that Bernie Madoff is terminally ill, there is speculation that he has been beaten up. Nevertheless, the official word is that he suffered a broken rib, collapsed lung and facial fractures when he fell out of bed and onto his face. [via Daily News & ABC]
• Jimmy Carter, who has been an outspoken critic of Israeli's policies, has asked the American Jewish community for an "al Het." Al Het is a form of ritualized forgiveness that Jews request from God during Yom Kippur. [via Tablet]
• Pope Benedict XVI has advanced the process of Pope Pius XII potentially attaining sainthood. Pius XII is a controversial figure - he was pontiff during the Holocaust and has been accused of turning a blind eye to atrocities being committed by the Nazis. [via Haaretz]
• According to a recent poll, 90% of Israelis want to see less gender separation at the Kotel. [via JPost]
• Israeli chess champ Boris Gelfand won first place in the Chess World Cup on Monday. [via YNet]
• Apparently Israel harvested organs and skin from deceased soldiers, Israelis and Palestinians without asking permission from families in the 1990's. Israeli Ministry of Health spokeswoman, Einav Shimron-Grinboim, says the practice "ended years ago." [via CNN]

The infamous "Arbeit Macht Frei" sign stolen from Auschwitz last week has been recovered. The sign was discovered hundreds of miles north of Auschwitz. It had been cut into three pieces and hidden in a forest.

Polish police arrested five men with criminal records for the theft. They were not neo-Nazis, as some initially speculated, but interested in selling the sign to make money. They face up to 10 years in prison if convicted, though the police are still investigating how the men managed to steal the sign in the first place.

According to CNN, Avner Shalev, the chairman of Yad Vashem, Israel's Holocaust museum, said: "The theft of such a symbolic object is an attack on the memory of the Holocaust, and an escalation from those elements that would like to return us to darker days."

In many ways the sign has come to be a symbol of the atrocities committed in the concentration camps. At the Auschwitz-Birkenau camp complex alone, more than 1 million people died in gas chambers or of starvation.

Now that Hanukkah is behind us I've received a number of emails asking: how do we get all this wax off our hanukkiyahs?! It's a valid question. Who wants to store away a waxy hanukkiyah or, even worse, unveil a wax-encrusted hanukkiyah when the holiday rolls around next year?

I have always used hot water to quickly and painlessly remove wax from my hanukkiyah, though I'm sure there are other methods out there. Here is how I do it:

1. Put your hanukkiyah in a large baking dish deep enough for the hanukkiyah to be submerged in water.
2. Bring a pot of water to boil. Remove from your stove and allow the water to cool for a few minutes, until it's really hot, but not at boiling temperature.
3. Pour the water over your hanukkiyah. Let it sit for a minute. Use paper towels to wipe off the melting wax. You can use a butter knife to scrape away any stubborn pieces of wax, but cover the knife with a piece of soft cloth first to avoid scratching the hanukkiyah.

If you have a hanukkiyah that isn't washable, I've heard that sticking it in the freezer will cause any remaining wax to become brittle and easy to peel off.

Do you have another method? Please share!

• The iconic 'Arbeit Macht Frei' ('Work will set you free') sign was stolen from the Auschwitz death camp memorial. A spokesperson for the Auschwitz-Birkenau Museum called the theft "a profanation of the place where more than a million people were murdered." [via Forward]
• Germany is donating $87 million to a new endowment for Auschwitz-Birkenau to preserve barracks, gas chambers and other evidence of Nazi crimes. [via YNet]
• From lighting a public menorah each night, to synagogue Hanukkah parties, to mini Klezmer festivals, Budapest is apparently Hanukkah central this year. [via JTA]
• About's Celiac Disease Guide published a helpful article about gluten-free Hanukkah recipes.
• In case you wondered what White House Hanukkah latkes looked like at the President's party. [via Tablet]
• From "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" to "I'll Be Home For Christmas," many of the most popular Christmas songs were, in fact, written by Jews. Yes, including the iconic line "I'm dreaming of a white Christmas..."  [via NYT]
• A 13-year-old boy was buried in a special section of Madrid's Jewish cemetery because he had a Conservative conversion to Judaism. The boy died after suffering from brain cancer and was buried in a section reserved for those whose Jewishness is in question. [via Forward]
• Secular Jewish parents in Israel are being forced to send adopted children to Orthodox schools in order for the rabbinate to convert them to Judaism. [via Haaretz]
• Tarantino's Inglourious Basterds movie snagged four Golden Globe nominations.
• In a new book about Adolf Hitler author Joachim Riecker claims the Nazi leader hated Jews because he believed his mother was poisoned to death by a Jewish doctor. [via Haaretz]
• A far right-wing Jewish group is paying IDF soldiers for refusing to evacuate Jewish settlements. Two such soldiers were rewarded with 1,000 shekels per day for the 20 days they spent in military prison after disobeying orders. [via Forward]

Image via Haaretz