Rabbi who attended Iran Shoah meet sues over kids' expulsion

Vienna, Austria - The children of an Austrian rabbi who attended an Iranian conference questioning the Holocaust have been expelled from their Jewish school, and have been told no other one in Austria will take them, their father said yesterday.

Moishe Arye Friedman said he has begun legal proceedings against the school. He said his four school-age children were told to leave Monday.

Friedman presented a letter with the school's letterhead, which stated one of the reasons for the expulsions was his outrageous behavior in attending the Holocaust conference last month.

Friedman was among Jewish participants who hugged Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who has described the Holocaust as a myth and called for Israel to be wiped off the map. Friedman is associated with, but is not a member of, Neturei Karta, a small, fiercely anti-Zionist sect that opposes the Jewish drive to establish the state of Israel, believing only the Messiah should do that.

Responding to criticism after the trip to Iran, Neturei Karta said it has never denied the Holocaust or its proportions.