Israel File :: Israel To Screen Arrivals For Swine Flu

JERUSALEM (JTA) -- Israel will ask tourists and returning Israelis whether they were in Mexico in the past week when they arrive at Ben Gurion Airport.

The arrivals who have been in Mexico will be examined on the spot at all points of entry into Israel, senior government officials decided Thursday during an emergency meeting called by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to discuss the possibility of a swine flu outbreak in Israel.

The officials also agreed that Israel will increase its stock of medicines for the virus, regardless of budgetary implications.

The Health Ministry on Thursday announced it would raise the pandemic alert level to 5 on a scale of 6, echoing a similar decision by the World Health Organization.

Two Israeli men have tested positive for the swine flu and four other Israelis, including a 9-year-old, were hospitalized this week with possible cases and tested negative.

Israel File :: Maccabi Tel Aviv To Play Knicks, Clippers

NEW YORK (JTA) -- Maccabi Tel Aviv will hit both U.S. coasts for exhibition games against NBA teams.

The team announced Wednesday that it will play the New York Knicks and Los Angeles Clippers in October.

Both games will benefit the Migdal Ohr organization, which provides shelter and education for thousands of abused, impoverished and orphaned children in Israel.

Maccabi returns to Madison Square Garden on Oct. 18 to meet the Knicks. In 2007, a crowd of 18,000, mostly Maccabi fans chanting the team's name, saw the Knicks defeat Maccabi, 112-85.

Two days later, the Israeli squad will play the Clippers at the Staples Center.

Tel Aviv has five victories in 18 games against NBA teams, according to the Jerusalem Post. Its 105-103 win over the Toronto Raptors in 2005 marked the first time an international team defeated an NBA squad on North American soil.

Nation File :: JTS Says $5.5 Million Budget Gap Remains

NEW YORK (JTA) -- The Jewish Theological Seminary announced that it still has a $5.5 million budget gap even after a round of cuts.

In a letter to the seminary community Monday, Chancellor Arnold Eisen detailed the cuts, describing them as "challenging and painful," and noted that more steps must be taken.

"This gap has to be closed," Eisen wrote. "The board of trustees has made it clear that we must come as close to the goal of a balanced budget as humanly possible. Our well-being as an institution depends on it."

Cuts already made include the elimination of 10 faculty positions, the suspension of some employee benefits and an unspecified reduction in salary for employees earning more than $60,000 per year.

Deep South File :: Alabama Governor Speaks at State Holocaust Commemoration

During an address at the April 21 Alabama “Days of Remembrance” observance, Governor Bob Riley recalled his visit to Dachau.

“The level of suffering had to be unimaginable… You begin to understand the evil that existed there” he said.

The Alabama Holocaust Commission organized the annual event, held in the Old House Chamber of the State Capitol Building. About 125 attended, but Riley said he wanted to see the room filled for future commemorations.

“It is important that we take this program to another level. It is important that we involve many members of our state government to ensure that the horrific acts of the Holocaust never happen again,” he said.

The commission was established by the Alabama Legislature 10 years ago, but official state commemorations date back to the early 1980s.

The commission was organized “to promote awareness of the events of the Nazi Tyranny, and to provide education, information and assistance to all Alabama citizens.”

Riley presented the annual proclamation to Henry Stern of Opelika, who represented the state’s survivors. Other survivors took part in the candle lighting memorial ceremony.

Leah Hendry, from White Plains High School in Anniston, read “In The End,” one of the winners in a statewide essay competition on the Holocaust. The competition for high school students is sponsored by Jacksonville State University.

Rev. Carl Gebhardt of First Christian Church in Florence gave the invocation and Rabbi Eliot Stevens of Montgomery’s Temple Beth Or gave the benediction.

Cantor Daniel Gale of Birmingham’s Temple Beth-El and Elisha Benjamin of Birmingham, a music major at the University of Alabama, also participated.

Agnes Tenenbaum of Mobile, a survivor of a slave labor camp, said “I am pleased that we survivors were recognized and remembered in this special program today. I have lived in many states, California, Arizona, New York and many others. Alabama has given more recognition to the Holocaust and survivors than any of the other states in which I have lived.”

Stevens said “I find it very gratifying that this community, distant from some of the major centers of Jewish life in North America, has had a number of significant Holocaust observances.”

Deep South File :: Alabama NCCJ Restructuring, Anytown on Hiatus

The National Conference for Community and Justice’s Alabama office, affected by the current economic downturn, is reorganizing and has cancelled Anytown Alabama for 2009.

In an April 15 release, the Birmingham office stated that the “current economic crisis in our community, and nationwide, has seriously impacted NCCJ’s ability to generate necessary funding to maintain its operational activities at its current level.”

The organization’s budget comes from grants, donations, individual and corporate contributions, fee-for-service and fundraising activities.

The organization was formed locally as the Alabama Region of the National Conference of Christians and Jews in 1932. The national organization changed its name in the 1990s to be more inclusive.

NCCJ works to promote understanding and respect among all groups of people through youth and adult programs. One of the most visible is Anytown, a week-long camp for high school students. Taken from a diverse range of economic, ethnic, religious and racial backgrounds, the students and staff form a safe community where learning and understanding can take place.
The Alabama camp began in 1989.

Other NCCJ programs include the Heritage Panel in high schools, and the annual Brotherhood & Sisterhood Awards Dinner.

According to the release, the reorganization “is at a critical stage as we work with individuals, other groups and businesses toward our goal. We are optimistic that the outcome will only strenghten NCCJ’s mission.”

Students who applied for this summer’s Anytown will be given preference for the 2010 camp.

Deep South File :: Segall Announces 2010 Run

On April 14, Josh Segall announced that he will run for Congress in Alabama’s third district again in 2010.

Segall mounted an impressive first-time campaign last year, raising $1 million in campaign funds. Republican incumbent Mike Rogers winning by a 54-46 margin in a district where President Barack Obama lost by a wider margin.

“It’s time for a new direction. I am a fiscal conservative who will work to create and attract 21st century jobs to east Alabama so that hardworking people can get ahead,” said Segall.

A graduate of Brown University, Segall is a fourth-generation member of the Montgomery Jewish community. He returned to the state to attend the University of Alabama School of Law. He turned his rural experience with the Mark Warner campaign in Virginia into forming Homegrown Alabama, which worked with the university to promote buying local produce. He also taught a class on agriculture development and, with fellow students, started a farmer’s market.

A main focus of his campaign was the need for infrastructure development in rural Alabama, so those areas can be reinvigorated and the state’s natural resources can be utilized to their potential.

In his candidacy announcement, Segall said Rogers “supported the Wall Street bailout, but did nothing for Main Street Alabama. He voted to send Alabama jobs overseas, when what we needed was a plan to create good jobs at home. It’s time to stand up to special interest politics and put Alabama families first once again.”

Region File :: Partership Park Planted in Rosh Ha'Ayin

Members of the Birmingham and New Orleans Jewish communities recently visited Partnership 2000 sister city Rosh Ha’Ayin to help inaugurate the Partnership 2000 Park.

Birmingham’s Jewish community has an almost 30-year connection to Rosh Ha’Ayin, and New Orleans was also paired with the town of 40,000 under Partnership 2000 by the Jewish Agency.
On March 25, New Orleans Partnership 2000 co-chair Ann Kimball planted trees in the new park while in Israel on a synagogue mission.

While 7th and 8th grade students from Birmingham’s N.E. Miles Jewish Day School were in Israel recently, they spent an afternoon planting flowers and trees in the park.

The students had previously been paired with E-Pals, fellow students from Rosh Ha’Ayin, While in Israel, the Birmingham students met their E-Pals for the first time and stayed in their homes overnight.

For both communities’ visits, plaques were unveiled in the park.

Rosh Ha’Ayin was originally a Yemenite development town of 14,000. Since the early 1990s, additional neighborhoods were built for what is now a bedroom community to Tel Aviv. The new park is between the old and new sections of the town.

The formal initiation of the park will take place during the Partnership 2000 steering committee meetings in June, involving all three communities.

Deep South File :: Blessing the Sun

A Jewish ceremony that happens once every 28 years will take place this month.

Birkat Hachamah, or Blessing of the Sun, is done according to calculations done by the ancient rabbis. The calculations showed that every 28 years — 10,227 days — the sun is in the same place in the heavens as when it was first set in motion during Creation.

It takes place 18 days after the vernal equinox. This year, that moment is on April 8, only the third time it has coincided with the day of the First Seder.

Some groups are planning ceremonies around the event. In New Orleans, Chabad will hold a program at Audubon Park at 8:30 a.m.

Beth Israel and Gates of Prayer in Metairie will assemble on the Lakefront at the foot of Canal Boulevard at 6:30 a.m. Rabbis Robert Loewy and Uri Topolosky will lead the service.

Interfaith Montgomery will hold a “Blessing of the Sun” at 7 a.m. at the Riverwalk Park band shell.

The program will involve prayers and songs celebrating creation, with a guest speaker to be announced later. Members of Interfaith Montgomery, representing many Christian denominations and the Jewish and Muslim communities, will also participate. None of the organization’s members ever recall a similar event in Montgomery.

By coincidence, the Montgomery Chorale has been working on “The Creation,” an oratorio by Josef Haydn. The Chorale will offer selections of the oratorio during the 7 a.m. event, accompanied by members of the Montgomery Symphony Orchestra.

Simple service

The blessing itself is short — “Blessed are You, Lord our G-d, King of the universe, who reenacts the works of creation.” It can be recited any time after sunrise until the first quarter of the day has ended.

The blessing may be said anywhere the sun is visible. If it is cloudy but the outline of the sun is still visible, it may be said. Otherwise it can be delayed until mid-day, but if it is still not visible at that point, the blessing is recited without mentioning G-d’s name.