dsjv :: Deep South Jewish Voice

Announcing Southern Jewish Life

2009-08-10T20:32:00.003-05:00

In the next week, readers in the Deep South will find something new in their mailboxes -- Southern Jewish Life, a monthly glossy magazine that will replace Deep South Jewish Voice.

This new publication will feature and emphasize Southern Jewish communities, personalities, issues, culture and uniqueness.

As before, it will be sent to the Jewish communities of Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi and northwest Florida. Of course, subscribers from outside the main coverage area are welcome.

In the next week or so, a new website will also be launched to complement the magazine.

Deep South File :: Ramah Darom Commended for Swine Flu Response

2009-06-18T17:35:00.001-05:00

Ramah Darom, the Conservative movement's summer camp in north Georgia, is being commended for how it has handled a flu outbreak over the last week.

About 60 campers and staffers have come down with flu symptoms. Three samples selected and tested by the Georgia Public Health Lab returned positive for H1N1 influenza, commonly known as the Swine Flu.

According to an update from the camp, the H1N1 flu virus has been very similar to seasonal flu with mild to moderate symptoms and most infected persons have been recovering within 48 hours.

David Westfall, District Health Director of District 2 of Georgia, said: “I have been very impressed with the preparedness of Ramah Darom and the professionalism with which they have handled this outbreak. They are to be commended for their actions."

About half of the affected campers and staff are being treated in the infirmary. The other half are "no longer symptomatic" but the flu protocol is that they have to be separated from the rest of the camp for seven days. The affected campers are participating in "a full, daily program of typical camp activities" in a separate area of the camp.

One camper was briefly hospitalized and subsequently discharged.

Parents of all campers admitted to the infirmary with flu symptoms are notified immediately.

Ramah Darom CEO Fred Levick said, “The safety and health of our community is our top priority. We’re working closely with health authorities to monitor and care for those children and staff with symptoms and protect our general community, following all measures to limit the spread of the virus. We are fortunate that we have a facility that allows us to appropriately care for affected individuals, and safely and comfortably separate them to minimize the spread of illness.

“We were aware of this possibility, and it does not change anything concerning our care for the children, our protocols, the severity of the illness, or the separation period of seven days, which was instated at the immediate recognition of flu-like symptoms and remains appropriate for this flu strain. We have treated anyone presenting with symptoms as if they have tested positive for seasonal, Type A Influenza, and cared for them in a separate environment. This is the same course of treatment and management for H1N1. Our staff is well trained and specifically discussed health procedures even before our campers arrived, especially with so much attention focused on this flu strain over the past few months,” Levick said.

The camp has a state-of-the-art, fully equipped and supplied infirmary onsite, with a residential medical staff including at least two physicians and three nurses at all times. Additional medical support has been brought in to assist.

Ramah Darom has received guidelines from the CDC and is closely following national Ramah protocols in managing the situation and administering Tamiflu when appropriate within those guidelines. The camp medical team continues to collaborate with local hospitals and health care providers, District 2 Public Health, and the Georgia Division of Public Health, as well as experts across the country.

“We are always prepared for these types of situations, so we were able to react quickly following protocols we established months ago to insure camper safety. We are in ongoing, collaborative communication with our local hospital and health department, as well as state representatives. We are incredibly grateful for their support and expert guidance they are providing us. We are fortunate that our facilities allow us to safely treat and separate affected campers, while still engaging 400 campers and 200 staff members in our typical, daily camp activities,” Levick said.

In a letter to parents and other Ramah Darom families yesterday, Camp Director Geoffrey Menkowitz said "there are no changes to announce for second session campers. We expect to be able to fully operate a safe and healthy camp and provide an outstanding summer experience."

Ramah Darom has about 700 campers and staff.

Deep South File :: New Orleans Featured at Orthodox Fair

2009-05-28T15:39:00.000-05:00

New Orleans will be one of the communities featured in the Orthodox Union’s upcoming “Emerging Communities: Job and Home Relocation Fair,” to be held June 14 in New York.

The Fair comes on the heels of last year’s successful “Emerging Communities Fair,” in which residents from the New York metropolitan area were encouraged to consider relocating. More than 800 people attended to contemplate a move, with the biggest selling point being the more affordable cost of living an Orthodox Jewish lifestyle in the highlighted communities.

Responding to the vastly changed economic conditions since April 2008 when the first Fair was held, this year’s version will highlight opportunities to find gainful employment as well as affordable housing for those making the move.

New Orleans was selected to join the Fair because of its presence of Jewish life and resources, such as synagogues, learning opportunities, kosher establishments and other mainstays of a close-knit and warm Jewish community; relatively low cost of living; charm; and multiple employment opportunities.

Rabbi Uri Topolosky, of OU member synagogue Congregation Beth Israel, declared, “We applaud the Orthodox Union for recognizing the value of smaller communities and how they uniquely contribute to the overall fabric of Jewish life in America. Our community in New Orleans, for example, boasts a rich history of Jewish immigrant life and a proud, ongoing story of Jewish philanthropic activity related to the city’s cultural and economic development. New Orleans has also been a celebrated hub for travelers, both personal and professional, and our Jewish community continues to serve a vital role in enhancing and enabling their stay.

“Congregation Beth Israel is honored to participate once again in this year’s fair for emerging communities as a means of sharing the strength of our Jewish community with young families looking to be a part of an affordable community where they can make a difference, and also to share with others the inspiring story of our revitalizing in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. In particular, our synagogue has rebounded from total devastation, re-energized our community, attracted new faces, and is about to break ground on a new building.”

He added that New Orleans has a kosher deli and an upscale Moroccan restaurant, a kosher market, a mikvah, JCC, Day School, and an eruv (boundary). New Orleans’ renowned Cafe Du Monde is also now certified kosher.

Beth Israel launched the “Minyan Project” — a commitment to relocate 10 young families to the community by offering financial incentives, job assistance, and Southern hospitality.

Topolosky said “This past year, two new families moved here to join this exciting community — perhaps the only place in the country where you can help shape the redevelopment of an entire city, redefine the image of a whole Jewish community, and even help rebuild a synagogue community and its spiritual home. This is a community where you can make a difference.”

At the fair, Topolosky will also present the OU with a gift in thanks for the help the organization provided New Orleans with in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. At its Annual Dinner in April 2008, the OU presented Rabbi Topolosky with a check for $235,000 toward Beth Israel’s building campaign. Afterwards, Rabbi Topolosky declared, “The check received at the dinner was truly a major boon for us in our efforts to build a new home for our congregation.”

Other communities at the fair include Houston, Atlanta and Memphis.

The big difference from last year is the emphasis on jobs, in addition to the lower cost of living. Communities are not expected to guarantee jobs, but have communal representatives to help job seekers find positions.

Deep South File :: National Reform leaders to speak in New Orleans

2009-05-27T22:17:00.000-05:00

New Orleans will welcome two major events with Union of Reform Judaism leadership this month.

On June 12, the URJ will hold its board meeting in New Orleans, and that night URJ President Rabbi Eric Yoffie will speak at the community’s joint summer Shabbat service. The program during the 6:15 p.m. service will be a panel on “How We Did It: Managing as Congregations Through Difficult and Trying Times.”

Immediately after Hurricane Katrina, the Reform movement established a Save Our Synagogues fund that kept the local Reform congregations open during the recovery.

From June 25 to 28, the Men of Reform Judaism will hold its 42nd biennial convention in New Orleans. This is the second time the organization has met in New Orleans in a show of post-hurricane support.

Rabbi David Saperstein, director of the Religious Action Center, will be the keynote speaker. The convention includes hands-on Katrina relief projects with the Kingsley House.

On June 26, John Shalett of New Orleans will be installed as the North American president of Men of Reform Judaism. He will become the third member of Temple Sinai to hold that position, following Roger Jacobs and Irving Shnaider. Temple Sinai Rabbi Edward Cohn and Gates of Prayer Rabbi Robert Loewy will officiate at the installation.

The June 26 service will be at 7:15 p.m.

A Louisiana State University graduate, Shalett has spent his entire career as a social worker while serving in various administrative, executive and teaching positions. While living in Southern California he served as President of Temple Beth Israel, Pomona, Calif., and as a board member of the Eastern Region of the Jewish Federation of Los Angeles. He and his wife, EllenRae, were honored by their congregation by being bestowed the Crown of the Good Name Award in 1991. Upon leaving California, the Temple Beth Israel Board of Trustees bestowed honorary life membership to John and EllenRae.

After returning to New Orleans in 1990, he served as President of the Gates of Prayer Brotherhood and also as a board member of Jewish Family Service of New Orleans. He was first elected to the board of the then National Federation of Temple Brotherhoods in 1997.

In addition to the MRJ position, he will also serve as President of the Jewish Chautauqua Society. He serves on the Union for Reform Judaism’s Department of Jewish Family Concerns Executive Committee and will join the Board of the Union for Reform Judaism in June 2009.

Deep South File :: Rosh Ha'ayin-Birmingham Partnership Gains International Recognition

2009-05-26T19:18:00.000-05:00

The partnership between Birmingham and Rosh Ha’ayin will be recognized this summer by Sister Cities International at its annual convention in Belfast, Northern Ireland.

Birmingham and Rosh Ha’ayin became official sister cities in 2005, though the Birmingham Jewish community has a relationship with Rosh Ha’ayin going back to 1981.

Rosh Ha’ayin is also paired with the New Orleans Jewish community through Partnership 2000 of the Jewish Agency, and many programs involve all three communities.

The award will be for innovation in youth and education programming for American cities with populations between 100,000 and 500,000.

Programs between Rosh Ha’ayin and Birmingham the past few years include an “E-Pals” program, which connects students in the Birmingham city and Hoover school systems via email with peers in Rosh Ha’ayin, and an educators’ exchange, through which Birmingham area teachers visited Rosh Ha’ayin and then hosted teachers from Rosh Ha’ayin at their schools.

In 2008, the Meitav Vocal Ensemble from Rosh Ha’ayin performed throughout Birmingham and New Orleans. In Birmingham, there were joint concerts with the University of Alabama at Birmingham Gospel Choir and the Huffman High School choir.

Another 2008 project was involving Rosh Ha’ayin in Birmingham’s “Read It Forward” program. The Jefferson County Library Cooperative sought to have as many local citizens as possible read “To Kill A Mockingbird.” Residents of Rosh Ha’ayin read Hebrew translations, furnished by the Birmingham Jewish Foundation, and held programs about the book.

Another project has been E-Pals, connecting students in Birmingham city and Hoover school systems via email with peers in Rosh Ha’ayin, and an educators’ exchange, through which Birmingham area teachers visited Rosh Ha’ayin and then hosted teachers from Rosh Ha’ayin at their schools.

Additional programming took place last year as the Birmingham International Center honored Israel and Jordan.

“We are so proud of this international honor,” said Joyce Spielberger, assistant executive director of the Birmingham Jewish Federation, who is the Federation’s staff coordinator for the partnership. “I think it says a lot about our Jewish community, our broader community and the people of Rosh Ha’ayin.

“Many people have played a role in the development of this partnership,” Joyce added. “This award is indicative of the great work and outreach done by volunteers from both the Jewish community and broader Birmingham community.”

The Birmingham Sister City Commission, which oversees Birmingham’s 11 Sister City partnerships, is dedicated to global cooperation, cultural understanding and economic development between the people of Birmingham and cities around the world. The Federation’s Rosh Ha’ayin committee works closely with the Sister City Commission to advance the Birmingham-Rosh Ha’ayin partnership.

Birmingham’s relationship with Rosh Ha’Ayin began when Birmingham’s Max and Tillie Kimerling provided the funding to build a community center in Rosh Ha’ayin, at the time a development town of 14,000, mainly Yemenite Jews who fled their villages after Israel was established.

The Birmingham Jewish community’s official ties to Rosh Ha’Ayin began in 1981 with Project Renewal, with the pairing coming from the existing relationship with the Kimerling family.

Deep South File :: HUC to Honor Tulane President

2009-05-25T14:59:00.000-05:00

Dr. Scott Cowen, president of Tulane University, will be presented with the Doctor of Humane Letters, honoris causa, at the graduation ceremonies for Hebrew Union College in Cincinnati on June 7.

Cowen will deliver the graduation address to the Class of 2009, at the Isaac M. Wise Temple.
Rabbi David Ellenson, president of the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, will make the presentation. Ellenson said Cowen “is an eloquent spokesman who has provided dynamic leadership to numerous corporations, civic and national counsels, and boards; he is a prolific author who represents the epitome of the academic ideal; and, with vision and energy, Dr. Cowen rescued Tulane University from the onslaught of Hurricane Katrina.”

Cowen is Tulane University’s 14th president. He also holds joint appointments as the Seymour S. Goodman Memorial Professor of Business in Tulane’s A.B. Freeman School of Business and Professor of Economics in the School of Liberal Arts.

Cowen came to Tulane in 1998 from Case Western Reserve University where he was a member of the faculty for 23 years. He is the author of four books and over 100 academic and professional articles, essays, and reviews, and is the recipient of several national awards and honors.

In August 2005, Hurricane Katrina flooded half of Tulane’s Uptown campus and all of its downtown Health Sciences Center, and dispersed its faculty and staff around the country for an entire semester. Under Cowen’s leadership the campus was repaired and 87 percent of its students returned for classes in January 2006.

On Dec. 8, 2005 the Board of Tulane approved Cowen’s Renewal Plan, a sweeping effort that strengthens and focuses the university’s academic mission while strategically addressing its current and future operations in the post-Katrina era. In response to Katrina, New Orleans Mayor C. Ray Nagin appointed Cowen to the city’s Bring New Orleans Back Commission and charged him with leading a committee to reform and rebuild the city’s failing public school system.

Having rescued his campus from disaster, Cowen visits Cincinnati at a time when there is a cloud over HUC’s future. The board of governors of HUC-JIR will meet next month to discuss various ways of dealing with the school’s financial problems, including whether to keep open just one of its three campuses in Los Angeles, New York and Cincinnati. Other alternatives include merging some academic programs while keeping more than one campus open.

In a letter to members of the college community, Ellenson said HUC faced a deficit this year of $3 million and was “in the most challenging financial position it has faced in its history — even more so than during the Depression,” because of declines in its endowment and in dues paid by Reform congregations across the country, among other funding problems.

(From staff and JTA reports)

Deep South File :: Gulf Coast Beth Israel Dedication Set

2009-05-19T14:59:00.000-05:00

The April 19 board meeting for Beth Israel along the Mississippi Gulf Coast was anything but routine.

Over three and one-half years since Hurricane Katrina slammed ashore, rendering the Beth Israel building in Biloxi unusable, the congregation met in its own building for the first time.
Also, a dedication weekend for the building on Three Rivers Road in Gulfport has been set for Shavuot at the end of May.

Before the April 19 meeting, congregants took part in a mezuzah hanging in the building. Rabbi Ira Flax officiated as mezuzahs donated by the Goldin family were placed on the front and back doors, and a third mezuzah — salvaged from the previous building — was placed at the entrance to what will be the library.

The Shavuot evening service of May 28, commemorating the time when the Jewish people received the Torah, will be a Torah processional into the new building. A light nosh will be served, and the evening will conclude with an ice cream social.

On May 29 at 7:30 p.m., children of the congregation will participate in the Shabbat service. Shabbat morning services will be on May 30 at 10 a.m. with a luncheon following.
On May 31, there will be a congregational meeting and elections at 2 p.m., followed by a barbecue and open house at 3 p.m.

Since the hurricane, Beth Israel has been housed at Beauvoir United Methodist Church in Biloxi.
In June, the congregation is hosting a benefit, the Mississippi Gulf Coast International Food and Wine Tasting at the Hard Rock Casino and Hotel in Biloxi.

A dinner and dance will also be held in the fall to celebrate the new building.

Deep South File :: Southern Miss Student Named Auschwitz Jewish Center Fellow

2009-05-12T14:56:00.000-05:00

University of Southern Mississippi history graduate student Meghan Waldow of Floral Park, N.Y., has been named a fellow of the Auschwitz Jewish Center, founded by Elie Wiesel.

The fellowship will give Waldow the opportunity to study in Poland to explore the country’s rich Jewish heritage and learn about pre-war Jewish life, life under Nazi occupation and Jewish life during Communism.

“I am very excited and humbled by the opportunity such a fellowship provides,” said Waldow, who leaves for Poland June 24.

The Auschwitz Jewish Center Fellows program is open to students who have recently received their undergraduate degrees and those enrolled in a graduate program. The competition for this fellowship was intense, with only six applicants nationwide awarded a fellowship.

After a brief orientation in New York City, the Fellows travel in Poland for three weeks, during which time they will visit Krakow, Warsaw, Oswiecim (Auschwitz) and Lodz. The Fellows also will be taken on a study trip throughout southeast Poland (formerly known as Galicia).

Dr. Michael Neiberg, director of graduate studies for the Southern Miss Department of History and co-director of the Center for the Study of War and Society, hopes Waldow’s award will encourage other students to pursue fellowship opportunities.

“The award is recognition of the wide variety of topics and intellectual interests that students can pursue through our Center for the Study of War and Society,” he said. “Our students can compete nationally and have many doors open for them through fellowships like this one.”

Waldow, who received her undergraduate degree in history with a minor in psychology from Seton Hall University, is working on a master of arts in history with an emphasis in European war and society.

She chose to continue her studies at Southern Miss for several reasons. “I came here because of the reputation of the War and Society program and the close proximity to the museums in New Orleans. Everyone has been very welcoming. My professors actually care about my success, I’m not just a number,” Waldow said.

In turn, Waldow’s professors are also proud of her accomplishments within the program. “She worked very hard to make herself competitive for this opportunity, and we know she will benefit tremendously from it,” Neiberg said. “Meghan’s success is well-deserved, and we all look forward to seeing the results of her research.”

The goal of the Auschwitz Jewish Center’s fellowship program is that “upon returning home, Fellows incorporate the lessons they have learned into their intellectual, personal and professional lives in a significant way.”

Israel File :: Israel To Screen Arrivals For Swine Flu

2009-04-30T20:24:00.001-05:00

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

2009-04-30T20:23:00.001-05:00

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

2009-04-28T20:22:00.001-05:00

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

2009-04-23T15:01:00.000-05:00

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

2009-04-18T14:58:00.001-05:00

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

2009-04-16T14:55:00.000-05:00

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

2009-04-14T09:26:00.000-05:00

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

2009-04-01T16:31:00.000-05:00

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.

Deep South File :: Ala. Governor Scheduled to Speak at Holocaust Commemoration

2009-03-31T10:23:00.000-05:00

Alabama Governor Bob Riley is scheduled to speak at the official Alabama State Days of Remembrance, coordinated by the Alabama Holocaust Commission.

The ceremony begins at the Old House Chamber in Montgomery on April 21 at 10:30 a.m.
A luncheon will be served in “The Tunnel” at 11:30 a.m., followed by a recognition by the Alabama Legislature at 12:45 p.m.

The Alabama Holocaust Commission was established in 1999, but official state commemorations have been held annually since the early 1980s.

The Auburn University at Montgomery annual Holocaust education program will be April 6 from 9:30 a.m. to noon in the physical education complex’s gym.

Birmingham’s commemoration will be April 19 at 1:30 p.m. at the Birmingham Museum of Art.
There will be a screening of “The Counterfeiters,” which won an Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film at the 80th Academy Awards in 2008.

The program is sponsored by Temple Beth-El Sisterhood, and co-sponsored by the Birmingham Jewish Federation and Birmingham Holocaust Education Committee.

Following the movie, Jewish community volunteer leader Steven Brickman will offer insights and lead a discussion. This program is free and open to the public.

The remembrance program will include a candle-lighting ceremony involving Holocaust survivors and Second Generation members to honor the memory of those who perished in the Holocaust.

The annual Holocaust commemoration sponsored by the Jewish Federation of Huntsville and North Alabama will be April 23 at the Education and Training Auditorium of the Space and The program will feature Max Steinmetz, a survivor of the Nazi concentration camps. He will speak about his personal experiences.

This year the Federation will be honoring Huntsville City Schools as the Seventh Candle Award recipient for promoting racial and interfaith understanding through their implementation of the course “Holocaust through Literature. Sandra Shipman will accept the award on behalf of Huntsville City Schools.

The Federation will also recognize winners of the JFHNA-sponsored Holocaust Studies Student Essay Contest and the five teachers who have been selected to receive JFHNA scholarships to attend the 2009 Belfer Conference at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington. Mary Hudson, the JFHNA Education Chair, a former Belfer scholarship recipient, will introduce the five scholarship winners.

On display at the event will be an artwork by John Hubbard, which commemorates the 96 members of the Reichstag who voted against Germany’s abrogating civil rights in 1933. The new law allowed enemies of the Nazi regime to be arrested without cause. The 96 who voted against the law were killed.

Deep South File :: Using comedy to build bridges

2009-03-30T14:26:00.000-05:00

Temple Emanu-El, Canterbury United Methodist Church and the Birmingham Islamic Society are co-hosting a comedy night designed to bridge gaps, increase understanding, and foster better relations among the three faiths.

On April 19, comedians Rabbi Bob Alper, Azhar Usman and Nazareth Rizkallah will bring a different kind of religious interchange to Canterbury Methodist — “Building Bridges in Birmingham… With Laughter.”

Alper has appeared at synagogues throughout the South over the years. Originally a congregational rabbi, he dabbled in comedy before pursuing it full-time. A Steve Martin lookalike, he calls himself “the world’s only practicing clergyman doing stand-up comedy — intentionally.”

Alper originally did an act with Ahmed Ahmed, calling themselves Comedy’s Odd Couple, at the suggestion of a publicist. At first, Alper wasn’t sure about traveling with Ahmed — not because he was Muslim, but because of professional difficulties when comedians tour together. He saw a tape of Ahmed, then decided to give it a try.

Their first appearances were in 2002, mostly in synagogues. Ahmed would begin by introducing himself, then adding, “and I can’t fly anywhere.”

After Ahmed had to devote more time to his film career — including a role in “Don’t Mess With the Zohan,” Alper found Usman, a lawyer who toured with an “Allah Made Me Funny” theme. Usman is a native of Illinois.

Recently, they brought Rizkallah aboard.

Rizkallah, which he says is pronounced “Smith,” is an evangelical Christian who grew up in Ohio after living in Gaza and Kuwait. Born in Nazareth, he is regarded as “only Middle Eastern Christian comedian in the United States.”

Their interfaith shows are often done on campuses, with co-sponsorship of Hillel and Muslim Student Associations.

While they often take questions at the end of their performances, they shy away from politics, because they are there to make people laugh and to have a better appreciation of other groups.

Emanu-El Rabbi Jonathan Miller said “we extend our thanks to the Odess Family Lecture Fund and the Rabbi Milton Grafman Endowment Fund for making this event happen.”

The program will begin at 6 p.m. at Canterbury Methodist. A reception with the comedians will follow the program in Canterbury Hall.

The event is open but seating is limited. Tickets are $10 for adults, $5 for students. Any proceeds, in excess of expenses, will go to Greater Birmingham Ministries.

For tickets and additional information, contact Ashley Neal, Canterbury United Methodist Church, (205) 871-4695; Dina Glass, Temple Emanu-El, (205) 933-8037 ex. 244; or Saadia Malik, Birmingham Islamic Society, (205) 879-4247.

A nursery will be provided for preschool children, though reservations are required. Contact Amanda Fuller at (205) 874-1546 by April 16.

Deep South File :: Close Call in Haifa for Area Residents

2009-03-27T13:28:00.000-05:00

From staff and JTA reports

An unsuccessful terror attack at the Lev Hamifratz mall in Haifa on March 21 reverberated in the Deep South as two families in Birmingham’s Jewish community had a close call.

Talor Bearman and Kayla Perlstein, both from Birmingham, were in the mall that evening seeing a movie with Harrison Bailey, an Israel Defense Forces soldier from Mississippi.

Bearman is currently serving in the IDF, while Perlstein, a sophomore at the University of Alabama, was visiting family in Israel during Spring Break.

According to an email sent by Perlstein to the Birmingham Jewish Federation, the three went to the mall for dinner and a movie on her last night in Israel. “All of a sudden the movie stopped and some men came in and started speaking in Hebrew.”

Bailey told them that the men were talking about a bomb threat and they had to leave the mall immediately. Outside, he asked an officer what was happening, and was told to get “the hell out of there.”

Perlstein recalled, “When we got outside, we saw that all of the roads were blocked off for miles. People were not allowed to go to their cars and there was only one way out.”

An explosives-laden car was discovered in the parking lot of the shopping center after one of the bombs partially exploded. Police immediately evacuated the mall and police sappers deactivated the remaining unexploded bombs, which could have caused severe damage and many deaths, according to reports.

The mall and surrounding area reopened the next day. A train station is located at the mall, which is adjacent to Haifa’s central bus station.

Police believe Palestinian terrorists were behind the attack, according to reports. The white Subaru car was registered to a woman from eastern Jerusalem, though police believe it was stolen.

An Israeli-Arab group calling itself Galilee Freedom Fighters claimed responsibility for the attempted attack, according to the daily Ha’aretz. The group is apparently unknown to Israeli security forces.

“As far as Israel is concerned, this was a terrorist attack in every sense,” Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said at the beginning of the weekly Cabinet meeting on March 22. “The State of Israel views this terror attack seriously.

“We mustn’t kid ourselves. The attempted terror attacks in the State of Israel continued and continue, originating among other places in the West Bank, where Hamas seeks to establish its infrastructure and status. It seeks to do so by continuing on the road of terror and causing heavy damage to Israel’s citizens.”

Perlstein said “As scared as I was, I still felt some sort of security being in the company of two soldiers. All in all, I would still go back to Israel.”

Deep South File :: New Orleans Students to Learn Israel Advocacy

2009-03-25T16:31:00.000-05:00

With anti-Israel groups increasingly active on college campuses, the Anti-Defamation League in New Orleans is hosting an interactive program for students and parents, to prepare them for campus challenges.

“Israel on Campus: What Do We Know and Expect” will feature Kenneth Stein, the William Schatten Professor of Contemporary Middle Eastern History, Political Science and Israeli Studies at Emory University.

Stein lectures widely and writes about the Middle East. Since coming to Emory in 1977, he founded and developed the International Studies Center, was the first director of the Carter Center (1983-1986), and in 1998 established the Institute for the Study of Modern Israel.
The program is open to high school sophomores through seniors, their parents and current college students.

A light dinner will follow the workshop, which begins at 3 p.m. on April 5.

The program is being co-sponsored by the Center for Israel Education, Atlanta, all local congregations, the Chabad Student Center, Hillel, Jewish Community Center and the Jewish Federation of Greater New Orleans.

Deep South File :: ADL to premiere Leo Frank film

2009-03-17T15:33:00.000-05:00

The Anti-Defamation League announced that it will host the world premiere screening of “The People v. Leo Frank,” a television documentary shedding important new light on the trial and subsequent lynching of Jewish Atlanta businessman Leo Frank.

The screening will be held on April 30 at the Cobb Energy Performing Arts Centre, located just two miles from the site in Marietta where Frank was hanged after being abducted from a prison cell in Milledgeville, Ga.

“The world premiere of this compelling film will present an important opportunity for the people of metro Atlanta to reflect on the bigotry that haunts our past, but more important, to celebrate how far we’ve come in building a community that rejects bigotry and hatred,” said Liz Price, ADL Southeast Regional Board Chair.

Chairs for the ADL event are former Georgia governor Roy Barnes, Cobb County Chairman Sam Olens, the first Jewish chairman of Cobb County, and Emory University Associate Professor of Law Julie Seaman, a board member of the Georgia Innocence Project.

The Leo Frank case is widely regarded as one of the most infamous episodes in American judicial history. Frank, the manager of a downtown Atlanta pencil factory, was accused of murdering Mary Phagan, a 13-year-old employee of the factory. Sensational coverage by daily newspapers whipped the emotions of Atlanta citizens into a frenzy about the murder, and Tom Brown, a Georgia political leader and magazine editor, stirred powerful anti-Semitic feelings with his lurid articles attacking Frank.

The Frank case catapulted the Anti-Defamation League into prominence as one of the nation’s leading civil rights organizations. Because Leo Frank was the lone white victim in a sea of African Americans who were lynched in the South, it is appropriate that the ADL mission is “To stop the defamation of the Jewish people… and to secure justice and fair treatment for all.”

Ironically, the Frank case also sparked a rebirth of the Ku Klux Klan.

The evening will include a salute to the teachers and students from some of the 150 metro Atlanta schools that participate in ADL’s acclaimed No Place for Hate anti-bullying initiative.

The event will also pay tribute to the federal, state and local law enforcement officers who work with ADL every day.

“The People v. Leo Frank,” written, produced and directed by award-winning filmmaker Ben Loeterman, will be shown on PBS stations across the country in the fall. Loeterman is one of public television’s most prolific producers of historical and public affairs documentaries, and has produced numerous films for such prestigious PBS programs as American Experience and Frontline.

Loeterman and the film’s stars, Will Janowitz of “The Sopranos” and Seth Gilliam of “The Wire,” and many of the Atlanta actors and production team that worked on the film will attend the premiere.

Tickets for the premiere are available on the ADL online ticketing site, at www.ald.org/leofrank or by calling the ADL office at (404) 262-3470.

Deep South File :: Two Area Academics Among Israel Boycott Supporters

2009-03-13T14:37:00.000-05:00

Two area professors are among those joining an international — albeit mostly unsuccessful — call for an academic and cultural boycott of Israel.

In late January, the U.S. Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel responded to the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel, citing “Israel’s indiscriminate assault on the Gaza Strip and its educational institutions.”

Georgette Ioup, professor emeritus in the Department of English at the University of New Orleans, and Scott Sorrell, mathematics instructor at the University of Louisiana — Lafayette are among about 250 academic signatories to the call as of press time.

There were no signatories from Alabama, Mississippi or the Florida panhandle.

The call urges institutions to refrain from “any form of academic and cultural cooperation, collaboration or joint projects with Israeli institutions that do not vocally oppose Israeli state policies against Palestine,” requests “a comprehensive boycott of Israeli institutions at the national and international levels,” promotes divestment from Israel and support for Palestinian “academic and cultural institutions directly without requiring them to partner with Israeli counterparts as an explicit or implicit condition for such support.”

The boycott would continue until Israel ends “its occupation and colonization of all Arab lands” and dismantles the security fence, recognizes full equality for “Arab-Palestinian citizens of Israel” and allows the “rights of Palestinian refugees to return to their homes and properties.”

While condemning the recent Israeli operations in Gaza as “probable war crime” there is no mention or call for an end to any Palestinian action against Israel.

Sorrell stated he supports the boycott because “quite simply Israel does not obey international law, U.N. resolutions, Geneva Conventions and until it respects the will of the world and the rule of law it should be sanctioned.”

He stated that for every Israeli killed in the recent Gaza operations, “Israel killed 100 Palestinians.”

Ioup had not responded to requests for comment by press time.

Last month, the Canadian Union of Public Employees conference of Ontario university locals adopted a resolution that would cut partnerships between universities in Ontario and universities in Israel. It now heads to CUPE Ontario’s annual convention in May for further debate.

Also last month, CUPE Ontario president Sid Ryan apologized for comparing Israel’s bombings of academic institutions in Gaza to actions perpetrated by the Nazis.

Deep South File :: Tuscaloosa Congregation Breaks Ground

2009-03-09T13:34:00.000-05:00

On Feb. 24, members of Tuscaloosa’s Temple Emanu-El were joined by University of Alabama officials for the groundbreaking of the congregation’s new building.

The groundbreaking was the next step in a process that is bringing Emanu-El to campus, to be situated next door to a new Hillel building.

University President Robert Witt, who has made increasing Jewish enrollment at Alabama a priority, said “The presence of this Temple will allow us to be able to say to parents that not only will their students receive an education, but they will be able to remain grounded in their faith, culture and tradition.”

The new site is located between Paul Bryant Drive and University Boulevard, at what is referred to as the “God Quad,” where several religious organizations are housed.

The synagogue will be roughly 6500 square feet, with a sanctuary, library, two classrooms and office space. There will be 12 Eastern cedars planted outside, representing the 12 tribes of Israel.
Emanu-El co-presidents Joel and Toby Whitman said “The partnership of Temple Emanu-El, Hillel, and the University has contributed to the ability to service, counsel, and provide a broader dimension of activity for our students and congregational community.”

Rabbi Steven Jacobs, who is the Chair of Judaic Studies at Alabama and serves the congregation part-time, said the new building “will also enable us to do even more outreach than we have been able to accomplish,” and he envisions inviting clergy and congregants of other faiths for fellowship and study, as well as establishing a stronger relationship with Hillel.

Foundation work will be underway this month, as the congregation continues toward its $500,000 goal.

For Emanu-El, the move is a return downtown. The congregation moved to Skyland Boulevard in 1971. That facility was sold in 2007 to the Tuscaloosa Regional Center of the Alabama Institute for the Deaf and Blind.

The Hillel House was located on the corner of Wallace Wade Avenue and Eighth Street, directly across from Bryant-Denny Stadium.

Deep South File :: Hitler's Enthusiastic Palestinian Partner

2009-03-05T09:35:00.000-06:00

If one looks throughout the Middle East, radical anti-West forces are using the philosophies and tactics of one man — a man who befriended Adolf Hitler during World War II and was actively working on a plan to replicate the Holocaust in the Middle East.

John Rothmann, co-author of “Icon of Evil: Hitler’s Mufti and the Rise of Radical Islam,” said it is important to know the history of Haj Amin al-Husseini, because so many problems of the Middle East stem from his leadership of the Palestinians, and there is no chance for peace until the Muslim world recognizes and eradicates his influence.

Rothmann said al-Husseini is the man “who created the three no’s — no peace, no recognition, no negotiation” with a Jewish state. That was formally adopted by the Arab world after Israel’s 1967 victory in the Six Day War, when Israel assumed its military victory would lead to negotiations and peace.

The book came about from a visit to Yad Vashem, Israel’s Holocaust center, in 1968. There, Rothmann and co-author David Dalin saw a photo of Hitler with a man they did not know anything about. It was al-Husseini, who in 1921 had been appointed by Britain to head the Arabs in Palestine, in the hopes that his appointment would appease hard-liners there. Instead, it gave legitimacy to al-Husseini and his radical views.

Rothmann and Dalin researched al-Husseini for almost 40 years, documenting his ties with the Nazi regime and his influence in the Muslim world today.

Rothmann noted that after his appointment, al-Husseini launched a campaign of assassinations against any Arab who was amenable to negotiations with the British or the Jews, including members of his own family. This set the precedent for using assassination as a political tool.

In 1941 he was welcomed in Berlin, where Hitler realized the adage, “the enemy of my enemy is my friend,” and both regarded Britain and the Jews as their enemies.

The mufti visited Auschwitz and urged the workers to kill Jews more quickly and efficiently. He also tried to work out an agreement where Germany would sweep through northern Africa, remove the British from Palestine, install him as ruler of the area and set up concentration camps for the extermination of the Jewish population there.

Rothmann said the fourth chapter in the book has been particularly controversial — based on the Mufti’s writings, he writes the presumed history of the Middle East after a Nazi victory.

It isn’t far-fetched. The Mufti oversaw the establishment of Bosnian Muslim divisions that were responsible for killing 90 percent of Bosnian Jews.

In a 1944 radio broadcast from Berlin, al-Husseini even let it slip that 5 million Jews had already been exterminated.

While many wanted to bring al-Husseini to trial at Nuremberg, the British and French feared indicting the popular leader would inflame the Muslim world, so they gave him yet another pass. And the United States reluctantly agreed.

The mufti was the first to issue fatwas — religious edicts — against the British, the United States and the Jews. To underscore al-Husseini’s influence even today, the Muslim terrorists in Mumbai earlier this year looked for three groups — British, Americans and Jews.

The edicts married political power with religion, which “is what we face in Iran.” One can come to agreement in a political dispute, but “once you put religion and politics together you haven’t got a chance.”

If one reads the charters of Hamas, Hezbollah, Islamic Jihad and the Muslim Brotherhood, Rothmann said, it all comes from the writings of al-Husseini.

He stepped down from his leadership of the Palestinians after the Six Day War only when a suitable successor was found — his nephew, Yasser Arafat.

Lest one think the authors are painting with a broad brush, “We were very careful to identify radical Islam as the danger,” he said. “Islam is a great world religion.”

He hopes the Muslim world will read the book and understand its implications. “We can point out the problem. The only way the problem of radical Islam will be solved is by the Muslims themselves” saying they have had enough.

It isn’t completely far-fetched, Rothmann insists. After all, Germans had to own up to their past after World War II and “accept what was done.”

The history of al-Husseini stands in stark contrast to those who insist the entire problem in the Middle East is Israel’s occupation of the West Bank and Gaza. Instead, the animosity predates the establishment of Israel by decades.

Land for peace will not work, Rothmann said. Neither will an overwhelming military victory. “No matter what Israel does, it will not satisfy the Arab/Muslim world until Israel ceases to exist” — or the moderates seize control of the Muslim world.

He acknowledges that many will refuse to accept this, in the fear that by recognizing the truth, peace will be further away. He believes that acknowledgement of this history instead could hasten peace.

Rothmann serves on the faculty of the Fromm Institute at the University of San Francisco. He is an author, teacher, archivist, political consultant, and talk show host on the ABC-affiliated KGO 810-AM Newstalk Radio in San Francisco. He has lectured on American politics and the presidency and the Middle East throughout the United States, Canada, and Israel.

Deep South File :: Interfath Alliance Head to Speak at Jackson's Beth Israel

2009-02-26T18:05:00.001-06:00

Rev. C. Welton Gaddy, president of The Interfaith Alliance, will be the guest speaker at Jackson’s Beth Israel Congregation at Shabbat services on March 6 at 6:15 p.m.

Gaddy is the Pastor for Preaching and Worship at Northminster (Baptist) Church in Monroe, La. He hosts “State of Belief,” a weekly radio show by The Interfaith Alliance that is carried on AirAmerica. State of Belief is based on the proposition that religion has a positive and healing role to play in the life of the nation.

Gaddy is one of 20 international religious leaders on the Council of 100 Leaders, a group created by the World Economic Forum to improve dialogue and understanding between the Western and Islamic worlds.

In addition to being the author of over 20 books, Welton provides regular commentary to the national media on issues relating to religion and politics.

Founded in 1994, The Interfaith Alliance has grown into a national grassroots organization of over 150,000 individuals of faith and goodwill drawn from more than 75 different religious traditions or beliefs with a cyber-network of 10,000 activists and 75 local activist groups.
Dedicated to promoting mutual respect, cooperation and civility, TIA strives to promote religion as a positive and healing force in the life of the nation.

While ministering to churches with a message of inclusion, Welton emerged as a leader among progressive and moderate Baptists. Among his many leadership roles, he is the immediate past President of the Alliance of Baptists and is a 20-year member of the Commission of Christian Ethics of the Baptist World Alliance. His past leadership roles include serving as a member of the General Council of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, President of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, and Chair of the Pastoral Leadership Commission of the Baptist World Alliance.

Prior to the fundamentalist takeover of the Southern Baptist Convention, Welton served in many leadership roles in the SBC including membership on the convention’s Executive Committee from 1980 to 1984.

Deep South File :: JCRC Announces Black Belt Trip Details

2009-02-25T15:02:00.000-06:00

The Birmingham Jewish Community Relations Committee has confirmed additional details of its March 29 “Alabama Possible: A Journey to the Black Belt.”

The day trip, organized in cooperation with the Alabama Poverty Project and You Belong In Birmingham, will be a day devoted to going into the heart of the Black Belt to learn, discuss, and witness firsthand the plight of those who live in abject poverty in Alabama. It is part of the JCRC’s focus this year on poverty.

The JCRC was one of five nationally to receive a micro-grant from the Jewish Council for Public Affairs to offer this unique program. In addition, the Frank and Fred Friedman Family Foundation Fund of the Birmingham Jewish Foundation will also help underwrite the cost of this program.

Participants will board a chartered bus from the Levite Jewish Community Center at 10:30 am with the first stop being Marion, in Perry County, one of America’s poorest counties. In Marion, the group will be guided by a member of the tourist board, lunch with community members and learn about the Civil Rights Movement from a panel of historians from Judson College, foot soldiers from the Movement and board members of Sowing the Seeds of Hope, a partnership between the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship and the people of Perry County.

From Marion the group will travel to Camden, home of the Black Belt Treasures Shop and the famous quilters of Gee’s Bend. The group will be guests at a special opening of the Treasures Shop, a non-profit organization developed to promote the arts of the Black Belt, and stimulate the economy of the region. There, they will talk with local artists and learn more about the history and crafts of the region.

The bus ride itself will include films on the history of Marion during the Movement and a documentary on the Gee’s Bend quilters. Josh Segall will serve as the moderator on the bus, generating ideas and facilitating discussion.

The BJF is currently accepting reservations for this unique experience. Space is limited and priority will be given to young adults currently involved in You Belong in Birmingham.

For more information and to reserve a spot contact Caren Seligman at carens@bjf.org or Joyce Spielberger at joyces@bjf.org.

Deep South File :: Aronov Builders Do "Extreme Makeover"

2009-02-22T18:03:00.000-06:00

Alabama viewers of “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition” on ABC will see a familiar name in an upcoming episode.

Aronov Homes announced on Feb. 2 that it was joining the Emmy award-winning show in building a home for a local family over the course of one week.

Jake Aronov, chairman and CEO of Aronov Realty Management, said the company was “honored to have been chosen” and urged the greater Montgomery community to assist “our talented team of professionals” in the project.

The show’s premise is that the home is guaranteed to be completely rebuilt in one week, and all labor and materials must be donated. Five families were nominated as “Heroes at Home.”

Aronov Homes was chosen as the builder in large part because of their more than 50 year tradition of service to the community.

Through the Aronov Homes and Today in Alabama Builds a Home initiative with WSFA-TV, the company donated over $130,000 in net profits from the sale of two homes to benefit local charities in 2004 and 2005.

“Aronov Homes’ passion for their community was clear,” said Conrad Ricketts, executive producer of “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition.”

“We are looking for ‘Heroes in the Community,” and both the family that will be chosen and Aronov Homes are wonderful representations of our theme this season.”

On Feb. 16, the family in question was surprised when Ty Pennington and company arrived to begin the construction process.

The Jordan family was hit with the devastating loss of a daughter in 1995 to domestic violence, and then a son eight years later to a drunk driver. Monica and Brady Jordan responded not with bitterness or self-pity but with dedicated passionate service to their community. They’re now raising their three grandchildren: grandson Miles (15), granddaughter Shan (14) and grandson Keiunta (11).

The Jordans are strong advocates of Mothers Against Drunk Driving and open their home to more than 100 youngsters each week who need a safe place to hang out. Monica began working for the State of Alabama’s Crime Victims Commission and later became a prominent speaker for M.A.D.D. by holding meetings in their home.

Daughter Brittany, a senior at the University of Alabama, aspires to be a pediatrician and volunteers at a rape crisis center. Brady, a printer, and his wife also make sure their home is a welcoming and safe haven where kids in the neighborhood drop by to eat, sleep, socialize and be mentored under their roof.

In doing this, their house has gone without repair in years. Their bathroom leaks into their kitchen and some of their siding has blown off. Thousands of meals have been cooked in a kitchen that is falling apart, with no overhead light, rotting counters and a stove that barely works.

The Jordan’s dream of having a safe home but cannot bear the thought of turning away teenagers or having to stop volunteering for M.A.D.D. to save enough money for repairs.

The “Move That Bus” reveal day was scheduled for Feb. 23. The home is located at 5336 Ira Lane.

As of press time, the episode’s air date had not been announced.

Nation File :: Union For Reform Judaism Planning Changes To Cut Budget

2009-02-13T15:16:00.000-06:00

By Jacob Berkman

NEW YORK (JTA) -- The congregational umbrella for the Reform movement is planning layoffs and organizational changes to reduce its budget by about 20 percent.

Faced with reduced income due to synagogues being unable to pay their dues, the Union for Reform Judaism is in the process of reducing its budget from $25 million in 2008-09 to $20 million in 2009-10, according to a spokeswoman for the organization, Emily Grotta.

The URJ, which serves more than 900 Reform congregations throughout North America, already has saved $1 million through a hiring freeze in September and 13 layoffs in January, Grotta said. The organization also has made smaller cuts, from reducing its travel budget to asking board members to pay for their own lunches at board meetings.

The Reform union adopts its budget in June, as its fiscal year runs from July 1 to June 30, but it has called an emergency board meeting for March to adopt a new structure supported by a reduced budget.

The budget cuts became necessary as congregations have had difficulty paying their dues, which comprise the lion’s share of the URJ budget.

The URJ had expected to collect $35.9 million from its member congregations this fiscal year, with about half the money going to the Reform movement’s seminary, the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion. But the URJ is already $2.7 million behind on its collections, and based on surveys it has taken expects to drop back further as the year progresses and synagogues suffer through the recession.

Such grim forecasts explain the decision to enact $5 million in cuts, including a reduction in URJ's allocation to the seminary, Grotta said.

“Congregations and synagogues are not immune to what is going on,” Grotta said, adding that during tough economic times demands for services from synagogues actually increase, even as congregations take in less money in their own dues because their members are hurting financially. “Congregations are asking for relief, no question.”

Compounding URJ's economic problems is the drop in the value of its endowment. The organization usually uses 4 percent of its endowment to covering operating costs, but will only draw 2 percent this year because the fund has been hit hard by the falling stock market.

The URJ has been discussing for months how it could streamline and change its product to better serve its congregations. Many of the cuts and changes it will make in coming months already had been considered, but the economy pushed up the timetable drastically.

“We are now in the process of taking a hard look at our whole structure," Grotta said. "This is something we were already doing for the last decade. We have been studying how we serve our congregations and their members. The economy fell apart and now we have to accelerate the process.”

Nation File :: Conservative Rabbis Mull Call For Chief Rabbinate’s Dissolution

2009-02-12T15:15:00.000-06:00

By Ben Harris

NEW YORK (JTA) -- The Conservative rabbinical association is considering a call for the dissolution of Israel's Chief Rabbinate.

The Rabbinical Assembly is expected to take up the measure Thursday, one of more than a dozen under consideration at the group's annual convention currently under way in Jerualem.

According to a draft of the resolution under discussion, the R.A. says the Chief Rabbinate has had an "unfortunate impact on Israeli society," which often associates it with "corruption, favoritism and cronyism."

The resolution also says the rabbinate "misrepresents the nature of Judaism to the world at large" and calls on the state to disband it.

Liberal American rabbis have had a number of squabbles over the years with Israeli religious authorities, who wield state power through their control of several hot-button issues, including marriage and conversion. The rabbinate, which is made up largely of fervently Orthodox rabbis, has even run afoul of liberal Orthodox rabbis in the United States, who accuse it of taking unnecessarily strict and authoritarian religious positions.

While some have responded to the problem by calling for an American-style separation of religion and state, the draft resolution endorses "state-supported religion in Israel" but calls for a more equitable distribution of resources to the various Jewish streams.

Nation File :: CAJE To Shut Down

2009-02-10T15:13:00.000-06:00

By Jacob Berkman

NEW YORK (JTA) -- The Coalition for the Advancement of Jewish Education will close at the end of February.

Monday's e-mail announcement comes a month after CAJE, for 30 years the primary professional development organization for congregational and Hebrew school teachers, said it would not hold its annual conference.

CAJE said in the e-mail that it could no longer survive in this economic climate.

Its annual conference on Jewish education drew some 1,000 educators, but in January CAJE said it would not hold this year’s event because local Jewish agencies could not afford to send teachers to participate and the organization could not drum up enough funding to pay for the conference.

In the e-mail, CAJE said it was seeking funds to pay off some $500,000 in debt incurred to hold conferences over the past several years.

“It is a major tragedy for Jewish education, and I think it will be missed,” CAJE executive director Jeffrey Lasday told JTA.

"Now we have to look at how local and national organizations can be working closer together. My colleagues at other agencies say their agencies are closing down or losing staff. This is an opportunity to rethink how we work together to better education with national and local organizations," he said. "Now is the time to rethink the whole thing.”

Deep South File :: Duvdevani comes home to talk about home

2009-02-08T17:58:00.000-06:00

When Israel, tired of an endless barrage of Hamas missiles fired into Israel from the Gaza Strip, decided to take military action, the Birmingham Jewish Federation knew of an expert they could turn to for explaining the situation.

Margaret Kartus Duvdevani, who grew up in Birmingham but has lived for the last 30 years at Moshav Talmei Yosef, three miles from Gaza, was brought in for over two weeks of meetings with elected officials, civic groups, churches and reporters.

“Literally on a moment’s notice, she was here,” said Federation Executive Director Richard Friedman.

At the Levite Jewish Community Center’s annual meeting, she said ‘I’m always willing to talk, the problem is finding people to listen.”

She returned to Israel on Jan. 30.

During her visit, she met with Reps. Spencer Bachus and Artur Davis, giving them perspective on what it is like to live within range of the Hamas missiles.

For the last eight years, she said, it has been a life of “interruption, anxiety and stress.”

In June, Egypt negotiated a cease-fire between Hamas and Israel, aware that Israel might have to take action if the missiles continued unabated.

For a while life became easier, but as the six-month cease fire drew to an end, the missile count went up to 80 to 120 per day.

It was a requirement to stay home unless absolutely necessary, and to be within 15 seconds of a safe room or bomb shelter. “We really spent most of the day in front of the television,” she said.
Because her home was built before codes required a safe room, the safest room was one with fewest windows, furthest from Gaza. For those in the area living in motor homes, concrete sewer pipes were distributed. Duvdevani noted that most deaths from the missiles come from shrapnel, not from impact.

A beeper system was distributed. After a Hamas missile is launched, it is detected and tracked, with the beepers in affected areas going off before the missile arrives.

Duvdevani noted that studies showed a tornado-siren type of alert raises stress, so the alarm is a female voice saying the Hebrew words for “code red.”

When an alert is received, she said, you take cover and wait for the boom, and hope it is faint from distance. Once, a missile landed 200 meters from her home.

While Israel made extensive arrangements to protect its citizens, the Palestinians did not, which is why the civilian casualty count in Gaza was relatively high. “Of all the money they got from Iran, for all the military stuff they buy, they couldn’t afford to protect their civilians,” she marveled.

School was out on the moshav because of the constant missile alerts. Female soldiers were dispatched to help occupy the children, and there were also Days of Relaxation, when the children of the area were brought further north, away from the target area, for activities. These excursions are supported by American Federations.

Duvdevani said studies showed one day away per week “was enough to reduce stress and anxiety for children.”

On Dec. 27, she was sitting at the moshav and heard Israeli jets overhead. At first, she thought they were training as usual, but then remembered it was Shabbat — training does not take place then.

Five minutes later she heard the booms. The Gaza operation had begun.

She said Israel is trying to create a deterrent for Hamas, that they should think twice about the cost of launching missiles into Israel.

After living with the situation for eight years, Duvdevani said, the operation was “just… and long overdue.”

But until and unless Hamas is replaced in the Gaza Strip with more pragmatic Palestinian leadership, “I don’t know what will happen.”

Louisiana File :: New Orleans to Host Maccabi ArtsFest

2009-02-04T18:00:00.000-06:00

Three years after the aftermath from Hurricane Katrina forced the New Orleans Jewish community to cancel its turn at hosting the Maccabi Games, the Maccabi ArtsFest will come to the city.

The Maccabi Games is an annual athletic competition for Jewish teens, coordinated by the Jewish Community Centers Association. In 2006, the JCCA added the ArtsFest as a component to attract teens who have artistic interests.

JCC Maccabi ArtsFest is designed to inspire Jewish teens through a dynamic combination of workshop, performance, exhibition, recognition of excellence, community service, social activities, and fun. Teens develop their individuality through the medium of artistic expression while strengthening their bonds to their Jewish heritage, community and Israel.

There are two host sites for ArtsFest. In addition to New Orleans, the Merage Jewish Community Center of Orange County in Irvine, Calif., will hold ArtsFest.

The New Orleans festival will be Aug. 2 to 7.

Brook Bissinger said the event will attract about 170 teens from across the country, as well as well-known Jewish artists from around the world to serve as artists in residence for the week.
An early list of artists in residence includes Lee Zurik, broadcast journalism; Geoffrey Cantor, acting and improv; Carolyn Dorfman, dance; Lloyd Wolf, digital photography; Mattan Klein, Jazz ensemble; Naomi Ackerman, musical theater; and Beth Schafer, vocal music.

Joshua Nelson, pioneer of “Jewish Gospel” music, who performed in New Orleans earlier this year, will be artist-in-residence for rock music.

Culinary Arts and Visual Art artists will be named later.

Teens traveling from JCC sister cities in Israel or other delegations may arrive before Shabbat. Host families greet teens when they arrive, and the teens have a chance to meet with their artists-in-residence prior to the opening event.

The teens spend the majority of each day in master classes, preparing for the closing event. In the evening, teens relax at a host family night, enjoy social events, and look forward to special activities. They spend most of Thursday preparing exhibits and performances for the gala finale.

Each artist-in-residence establishes requirements for participation, which range from a strong interest in a particular art specialty to proven ability through the submission of audio/and or video tapes.

Local JCCs across the country organize delegations that travel to the ArtsFest. Bissinger said any teen from the region who is interested but either does not have a JCC nearby or whose JCC is not sending a delegation should contact the New Orleans JCC.

Teen recruitment will take place through March.

Teen participants should be entering grades 8 to 12, registered with a local JCC delegation, and conform to the JCCA definition of being Jewish — namely, one of the participant’s parents is Jewish and the participant is being raised as a Jew or is a Jew by choice and is being raised Jewish. In the spirit of ArtsFest, if the parent or teen does not believe they are Jewish on a year-round basis, then the teen should not participate.

For information on upcoming meetings for potential teen artists, contact Jessica Klein at the New Orleans JCC, jessicak@nojcc.org, or (504) 887-5158.

Volunteer opportunities

Bissinger said there will be a need for hundreds of volunteers to ensure that the week runs smoothly.

A major component will be host families, housing visiting teens for the week. Host families drop off and pick up their guests in the morning and evening, and provide a few meals.
Transportation during program days is coordinated by the New Orleans JCC.

Host families will share in the Thursday night talent showcase.

For information on becoming a host family, email HostArtsFest@nojcc.org.

Other volunteer opportunities include committees for hospitality and food, the teen advisory board, arrivals and departures, opening event, evening activities, the VIP reception and the Day of Caring and Sharing.

To volunteer, email VolunteerArtsFest@nojcc.org.

Deep South File :: Birmingham native living near Gaza to address situation

2009-01-10T22:55:00.001-06:00

Margaret Kartus Duvdevani, a Birmingham native who lives in Israel near the Gaza Strip, will be in Birmingham for a series of events over the next two weeks.

She will give her perspective on the current Israeli actions in Gaza, as well as the background of how it has been living within firing range of missiles from Gaza over the last several years.

Duvdevani lives in Moshav Talmei Yosef, which grows flowers for export, and has been there for 30 years. The moshav is three miles from Gaza, which means the community lives under the constant threat of random Hamas missiles.

School is not in session and most on the moshav do not work because of the constant threat. Duvdevani reported, “We venture out only when necessary, for food, to the doctor, or out of the area to a safer part of the country for a few days of relaxation away from the stresses of the moment.”

When a missile is launched, “We are warned of an imminent strike by a siren as well as a beeper that everyone has in their homes that beeps like crazy and sends us running to the "safest" room in the house. We have exactly 15 seconds to take cover, where we anxiously await the big boom.”

She will speak on Jan. 13 at a joint meeting of the Birmingham Jewish Federation board and the Birmingham Jewish Community Relations Committee. The 5:30 p.m. event will be at the Bais Ariel Chabad Center and is open to the community.

On Jan. 15 at 6 p.m. she will speak at the annual Birmingham Lion of Judah program, at the Pine Tree Country Club. Lion of Judah is the group for women who contribute at least $5000 annually to the Federation’s annual campaign. Originally, Israeli Consul General Reda Mansour, who serves the Southeastern United States from the Atlanta Consulate, was to speak, but the situation requires him to stay in Atlanta.

On Jan. 16, Duvdevani will speak at the 5:45 p.m. Shabbat service at Temple Emanu-El, where she grew up.

She is also scheduled to speak at the Levite Jewish Community Center’s annual meeting, Jan. 18 at 6 p.m.

Deep South File :: Area Palestinians, peace activists rally against Israel

2009-01-10T20:19:00.000-06:00

Kirk Epstein holds his pro-Israel posters at today's rally

For Kirk Epstein, it was often a struggle to get his message across.

Epstein was the lone counter-protester at a pro-Palestinian rally held at Birmingham’s Linn Park today, organized by the Birmingham Islamic Society and area peace activists. Epstein rotated three signs denouncing Hamas’ use of human shields, and missile attacks into Israeli villages.

Some attending the rally often attempted to surround him with their Palestinian flags and posters. At one point, a woman in the crowd of about 250 shouted “murderer” at him.

The rally was part of three days of activities by local Muslims, starting with an event at the Hoover Crescent Islamic Center on Jan. 8. In addition to the Islamic Society, the events were sponsored by the Birmingham Peace Project, National Lawyers Guild and Christian Peacemaker Teams.

About 200 members of the organizations were at what had been billed as a press conference.

Abdullah Kendrick and Sammy Kanpher showed a Powerpoint presentation giving some historical background from the Palestinian perspective, and showed numerous slides of children’s bodies in Gaza. There were also slides that purported to show Israeli soldiers pointing guns at children, and the speakers accused Israel of using Palestinians as human shields.

A large number of signs at the rally and at the press conference criticized Israel for allegedly trying to fight against children.

U.S. aid to Israel was also criticized. Kanpher said “we talk about our bad economy, homeless people… and we are sponsoring that killing.”

Tunnels under the border between Gaza and Egypt, which Israel is destroying because they are used for weapons smuggling, were characterized as being for bringing in food.

Likewise, the missiles sent by Hamas into southern Israel were minimized as little more than fancy July 4th fireworks, and were a response to Israel’s “blockade” of the strip.

David Gespass, representing the National Lawyers Guild, read a statement condemning “the illegal and inhumane killing of the Palestinian People living in the Gaza strip by the Israeli forces.”

The statement characterizes Israel as causing a “humanitarian catastrophe” and urges “our government to reevaluate its unconditional support for Israel and make it clear to the Israeli leadership that nothing can excuse nor justify targeting innocent civilians, charities, hospitals, pharmacies, mosques and universities, causing maximum casualties.”

In the seven paragraphs, there was one mention of the rocket attacks against Israel. “Of course our organizations do not condone the killing of any innocent people including Israeli civilians hit by Hamas Rocket attacks.”

There were many children at the rally, echoing a main theme of the protest

On Jan. 9, the Islamic Academy of Alabama held a silent demonstration.

The Birmingham Jewish Federation issued a statement supporting the groups’ right of free speech, but “What is perplexing and frustrating, however, is that we never hear from groups such as the Birmingham Peace Project when Hamas fires rockets into Israel, killing Israeli civilians with no provocation, or when suicide bombers blow up Israeli civilians in malls and restaurants.

“While the innocent casualties in Gaza are tragic, it's important to remember who is to blame. For eight years, Hamas has fired deadly rockets to kill civilians in southern Israel. Finally, after asking Hamas to stop and providing warnings, Israel has responded to protect its citizens. Isn't this exactly what we would want and expect our own country to do under similar circumstances?”

The statement also reminds that Israel left Gaza three years ago, making talk about “occupation” moot, and that the rocket attacks against Israel increased after the withdrawal.

Nation File :: Anti-Semitic Responses to Gaza Operation

2009-01-04T08:57:00.002-06:00

LOS ANGELES (JTA) -- Police in California are investigating as hate crimes the posting of anti-Israel and pro-Hamas placards at two synagogues.

Three letter-sized, hand-written signs were discovered Tuesday at Beth Jacob, an Orthodox congregation in Irvine, Calif. One poster proclaimed, "Gaza-- The New Shoah" and a second read, "Hamas Recognizes Israeli Genocide."

Similar posters were found on the same day at the nearby Reform Congregation Shir Ha-Ma'alot.

Kevin O'Grady, Orange County regional director for the Anti-Defamation League, condemned the "targeting of temples to express anger toward Israeli action in Gaza."

Knoxville incidents

(DSJV) -- In Knoxville, Tenn., both local synagogues were vandalized during the past week.

According to the Knoxville News-Sentinel, four of six stained glass windows were broken by thrown rocks at Temple Beth El, and rocks were also thrown at Heska Amuna Synagogue but did little more than chip the windows. While timing is not known, speculation is that it happened on Thursday night.

None of the other dozen religious institutions in the immediate vicinity was vandalized.

The Secure Communities Network, which monitors threats to local Jewish communities nationally, also reported an unconfirmed vandalism of a billboard promoting a well-known Jewish-owned business in Knoxville.

This is reportedly the first such incident against Knoxville's Jewish institutions in at least 50 years.

National File :: Madoff Scandal Rocks Jewish Philanthropy

2008-12-18T13:48:00.000-06:00

By Jacob Berkman

NEW YORK (JTA) -- The securities fraud of Bernard Madoff has rocked the Jewish nonprofit world -- and the worst may be yet to come.

Madoff, the founder of Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC, was arrested Dec. 11 after admitting to his board that a hedge fund he ran was essentially a $50 billion Ponzi scheme.

At least two foundations have been forced to close because they had invested their funds with Madoff.

The Robert I. Lappin Foundation in Salem, Mass., announced Dec. 12 that it would shut down after losing $8 million -- all of its money. And the Chais Family Foundation, which gives out some $12.5 million each year to Jewish causes in Israel, the former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, announced its closing Dec. 14.

At least one nonprofit is calling out for help in the wake of Madoff’s collapse. The Gift of Life Foundation, a Jewish bone marrow registry that relied heavily on Madoff as a benefactor, announced on its Web site Sunday that it would immediately need to raise $1.8 million to make up for recent losses.

Sources close to Yeshiva University, where Madoff served as treasurer of the board of trustees and board chairman of the university's Sy Syms School of Business until he resigned last week, said the school has lost at least $100 million. Y.U. officials declined to offer any specifics.

Just as the reverberations of the subprime mortgage collapse are still seen as contributing to the nation's wider economic meltdown, philanthropic insiders say the fallout from Madoff's scheme could be even greater. The insiders note that Madoff and others heavily invested in his fraudulent fund were major supporters of a plethora of nonprofit organizations, served on their boards or advised those organizations on how to invest their money -- in some cases placing large sums of the groups' capital in Madoff’s hands.

Reflecting this sense that the full extent of the damage is still unclear, the executive vice president and CEO of the UJA-Federation of New York said that even though its endowments were not exposed, the organization still could be hurt if donors lost money in the scheme.

“We do not yet know the full extent of the losses that supporters of UJA-Federation and other Jewish institutions have had,” John Ruskay said. “But we have already heard that many major institutions had substantial funds invested, as did foundations. Already in the context of a very challenging economic environment this will present another significant difficulty. We don’t know yet the extent of the wreckage.”

Reports are trickling out in the national media about prominent businessmen from across the country who lost money in Madoff's scheme.

New York Mets owner Fred Wilpon, GMAC Financial Services chairman J. Ezra Merkin and former Philadelphia Eagles owner Norman Braman all were reported to have taken significant hits due to their dealings with Madoff, who reportedly would not accept any investment in his fund below $10 million.

Reports have surfaced also that media magnate Mortimer Zuckerman was significantly hurt by investing with Madoff.

In Los Angeles, the Jewish Community Foundation’s $238 million Common Investment Pool lost $18 million it had invested with Madoff, according to a letter sent out by the foundation.

Among other Jewish institutions and foundations believed to be hit by the Madoff scandal: the American Jewish Congress, the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, Steven Spielberg’s Wunderkinder Foundation, Elie Wiesel’s Foundation for Humanity and Carl Shapiro’s charitable foundation.

But Merkin, who last week told investors in his hedge fund, Ascot Partners, that all of their money had been defrauded by Madoff, is of particular interest to the Jewish community. He has philanthropic ties to a number of Jewish organizations and institutions, serving as a volunteer investment adviser for many of them, including Yeshiva University. Among other causes with which he is said to be connected are the SAR Academy, a Jewish day school in the Bronx, as well as State of Israel Bonds, The Jewish Campus Life Fund, Elaine Kaufman Cultural Center, the Ramaz School, Congregation Kehilath Jeshurun and the Fifth Avenue Synagogue.

Sources say that several of these entities had money in Ascot, which they now stand to lose because of Merkin's decision to invest so heavily in Madoff's fund. According to Orthodox communal insiders, Ramaz and SAR lost millions between them.

A woman who answered the phone Sunday at one of Merkin's listed numbers suggested that he could be reached in the office Monday.

An official at one major Jewish foundation told JTA that it had been advised to invest with Madoff, but decided against it after concluding that his return-on-investment forecasts seemed too good to be true.

Certainly the extent of the damage to the philanthropic world could become clearer as details emerge in coming days and weeks of just who was invested with Madoff.

With each day since news of the fraud broke, new organizations and funders have emerged as victims: Yad Sarah in Israel, the Maimonides School in Boston, the Charles I. and Mary Kaplan Foundation in Rockville, Md., and the Julian J. Levitt Foundation are among those to announce losses.

One philanthropic official said there is a lesson to be learned here for the philanthropy world, where Jewish businessmen and philanthropists directed their own private funds and the funds of institutions that they help oversee toward Madoff.

“What really emerges out of this,” said Jeffrey Solomon, the president of the Andrea and Charles Bronfman Philanthropies, is that "people sometimes forget to conduct the due diligence when dealing with others with social prominence -- and especially in the hedge-fund area where people think you have to be really smart to be in hedge funds. In many ways for all investments something like this is tragic, but for nonprofits where boards have the fiduciary responsibility of acting with great prudence, it is even more tragic.”

According to a fund-raiser who has been scouring recent 990 tax filings to see how this might affect his nonprofit, several other major philanthropists have put money in Madoff's hands: As of the end of 2007, Sandy Gottesman had $20 million of his foundation's $144 million invested with Madoff and Robert Beren had two foundations with more than that in endowments invested with Ascot. U.S. Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.) says his foundation has about $15 million invested with Madoff.

Yeshiva University issued a statement via e-mail to JTA on Sunday.

“We are shocked at this revelation,” the university said. “Bernard Madoff has tendered his resignation from all positions affiliated with the university and involvement with the university. Our lawyers and accountants are investigating all aspects of his relationship to Yeshiva University. We reserve our comments until we complete our investigation.”

Deep South Foundations Safe

Unlike many of their counterparts, the Jewish Foundations in Birmingham and New Orleans are not taking a hit from the Madoff meltdown.

Sandy Levy, executive director of the Jewish Endowment Foundation of Louisiana, said “we are in the clear.”

In its daily email on Dec. 17, the Birmingham Jewish Federation stated that neither it nor the Birmingham Jewish Foundation had any investments with Madoff’s firm.

It was also pointed out that United Jewish Communities also did not have any investments with Madoff.

Deep South File :: Cafe du Monde Beignets Now Kosher

2008-12-17T17:22:00.001-06:00

Just in time for Chanukah, a signature taste of New Orleans is now kosher.

Following a year-long effort by a determined rabbi, Café du Monde has been certified as officially kosher by the Louisiana Kashrut Committee. Beignets made in all six establishments throughout the city and the make-it-at-home boxed mix that is sold in stores nationwide are being made in accordance with the laws of Kashrut.

For over 140 years, Café du Monde, one of New Orleans’ oldest and most famous landmarks, has been known the world over for its light, airy and delicious powdered sugar-coated beignets.

“It must have been a funny sight for the owner to watch me savor a delicious beignet for the first time. But how often can one truly appreciate a unique food? It’s been a long time since I’ve had such intense kavannah (spiritual intention) while making a blessing over a snack!” said Rabbi Uri Topolosky, the driving force behind the koshering effort and the relatively new head rabbi of Beth Israel, the city’s only modern Orthodox synagogue.

Topolosky approached Café du Monde soon after he and his family moved to New Orleans in July 2007. Not one to shy away from new challenges, Topolosky came to New Orleans from Riverdale, N.Y., where he served as associate rabbi at the Hebrew Institute of Riverdale, to lead the rebuilding of Beth Israel. The shul was decimated by Hurricane Katrina after it took on 10 feet of water and lost its sacred collection of seven Torahs and thousands of prayer and scholarly books.

The inspiration for Topolosky’s culinary pursuit was a passing request from a friend, who, upon learning that the rabbi accepted the job, jokingly urged Topolosky, “If you do only one thing for New Orleans’ Jewish community, make beignets kosher!”

So in the past year, in addition to his regular duties building and sustaining a congregation and getting settled into a new city, Topolosky added regular calls to Café du Monde to plead his case. He also suggested that visitors stop in or call to inquire if the café was officially kosher supervised.

Coincidentally, this wasn’t the first time Burt Benrud, Jr., a vice president of H N Fernandez, Inc., which owns Café du Monde, got such calls. “Every December, like clockwork, we would get calls asking about the kosher status of our beignets,” said Benrud.

It wasn’t until two years ago, when Benrud happened to see a news story that reported on the traditional fried foods of Chanukah, that the light bulb went off: Jews were calling to see if they could make Café du Monde’s beignets a unique part of their traditional celebration.

The following year, when his neighbor —who also is a member of the Jewish community — asked him to meet with Topolosky, Benrud agreed to learn what was involved in getting a hecksher — certification of kashrut. “I give Rabbi Uri a lot of credit for reaching out and making the effort to do something for the community. It’s great that we can now say with certainty that our beignets are for everyone.”

Topolosky estimates that a relatively small percentage of the 7,000-member Jewish community in New Orleans keeps strictly kosher, but he points out that many Orthodox Jews and their families have been coming to New Orleans, whether to volunteer with the rebuilding, visit family and friends or to take in the historically beautiful city.

“Café du Monde is a classic New Orleans institution and I thought it would be symbolic for the rebuilding of the Jewish community to have its ties further strengthened with a kosher offering that is so closely associated with the city,” said Topolosky. “A kosher Café Du Monde is yet another example of how our Jewish community is thriving again. For our kosherly-conscious visitors, I believe we’ve added another stop on their tour of our great city.”

During Chanukah, it is traditional to eat foods fried in oil, including jelly doughnuts and latkes, and this year in New Orleans… beignets!

Deep South File :: Xavier to host national Black-Catholic-Jewish conference

2008-12-16T14:56:00.000-06:00

On the eve of Martin Luther King Jr. Day and the inauguration of the first African-American president in U.S. history, a national conference on Black-Catholic-Jewish relations will be held at Xavier University in New Orleans.

“Americans at the Pulpit in the Public Square: A conversation on race, religion and rhetoric in a diverse America” will be held Jan. 17 to 19, sponsored by the The American Jewish Committee and The New York Archdiocese’s Office of the Black Ministry.

The conference aims to educate and train participants enabling them to be change agents. There will be two key questions considered — the different perspectives of the distinct faith and ethnic communities involved, and how they can work together to move forward.

The conference will consist of lectures interspersed with hands-on workshops and trainings. It will also give participants the opportunity to interact with each other meaningfully, breaking unspoken divides and strengthening not only their knowledge of each other, but the practice of being and working together.

The American Jewish Committee, established in 1906 by a small group of American Jews deeply concerned about pogroms aimed at Russian Jews, determined that the best way to protect Jewish populations in danger would be to work towards a world in which all peoples were accorded respect and dignity.

Established in 1976, the Office of Black Ministry was created to address some of the unique spiritual, cultural and social needs of African American, African, and Caribbean American Catholics, as well as the larger Black Community.

Xavier University of Louisiana is the only historically black, Catholic university in the country. Xavier was founded by a white women from Philadelphia (St. Katharine Drexel), to provide higher education for young Blacks; today it welcomes all people and serves a “community” that is broader than Black and Catholic. Since Hurricane Katrina, Xavier has been the site of the coming together of AJC and OBM in a unique and meaningful collaboration.

Among the other co-sponsors are AVODAH: The Jewish Service Corps, the Jewish Federation of Greater New Orleans, the Jewish Council for Public Affairs and Jewish Funds for Justice.
The conference begins on Jan. 17 with registration at the Hampton Inn Downtown French Quarter. After an opening prayer at 7 p.m. there will be a screening of “Axe in the Attic,” followed by a discussion, “Confronting New Orleans’ Challenges: A Microcosm for the Country,” with the film’s co-producer and co-director, Lucia Small.

Events will shift to Xavier on Jan. 18, with a morning panel on “Martin Luther King, Jr. and his Legacy: Race Relations Then and Now,” featuring Professor Cheryl Greenberg, Paul E. Raether Distinguished Professor of History, Trinity College; and Andre Williams, City Council member, Miami, Fla.

At 11:15 a.m., there will be “Everything you always wanted to know but were afraid to ask! Q&A on the Christian and Jewish Faiths” with Dr. Sister Jamie Phelps, Director of the Institute for Black Catholic Studies, Xavier University; and Rabbi James Rudin, Senior Interreligious advisor, American Jewish Committee.

An open Catholic Mass will be followed by a screening of “Sisters of Selma: Bearing Witness for Change.”

In the afternoon, there will be “The Role of Faith and How We Relate to One Another,” a discussion featuring Professor Laurence Thomas, Syracuse University Philosophy Department.
Dr. Jamie Phelps and Beth Israel Rabbi Uri Topolosky will lead breakout sessions featuring text study focused on the Jewish and Christian teachings on social justice and community building.

Late afternoon workshops and discussions include “Bridging the Divides — New Networks, New Directions in New Orleans” and “Building Ethnic and Religious Group Trust: Models You Can Use.”

The Xavier Jazz Band will entertain during the evening program.

On Jan. 19, there will be a Martin Luther King, Jr. Commemorative Program featuring Fr. Freddy Washington and Temple Sinai Rabbi Edward Cohn.

The commemoration will be followed by a service learning project in the area, after which the conference will conclude.

To learn more about the conference, or to participate, visit http://nolaconference.blogspot.com or contact Neil Schneider at the Federation, (504) 780-5610 or neil@jewishnola.com.

Deep South File :: Jacobs Camp Announces 40th Anniversary Events

2008-12-15T10:34:00.000-06:00

The Henry S. Jacobs Camp announced that a major part of the camp’s 40th anniversary celebration next summer will be a concert by Dan Nichols and E18hteen, featuring favorite camp songs from across the years.

The concert will be on Aug. 8 in conjunction with the 40th Anniversary Reunion, and during the first-ever Alumni Family Camp. Nichols will also be the songleader for the family camp.

Nichols is one of the most popular and influential Jewish musicians in North America, performing over 200 concerts a year. His music has become an import part of the Reform movement, with synagogue and clergy alike incorporating it into their curriculum and services.
His last two albums have garnered critical acclaim and a legion of growing fans. Songs like “L’takein (The Na Na Song),” “B’tzelem Elohim,” “Kehilah Kedosha,” and “My Heart is in the East” are some of the most poplar songs in Reform Judaism today.

All Jacobs alumni and their families are invited to take part in the festivities.

The Alumni Family Camp is an opportunity for out-of-region alumni and their children to join with their local counterparts to experience the camp. Alumni who move out of the region often wonder if their children would fit in at the camp; this is a way to have them experience the camp.

Children will get a full camp experience, complete with counselors, camp activities, evening programs and a Shabbat experience. Their parents will also get to take part in all that Jacobs has to offer, while reliving fond camp memories, and experiencing how Jacobs continues to affect lives.

Children will spend the week in the camp’s newly-remodeled air conditioned cabins and have song sessions, two camp-style evening programs, kids-only sports, arts and crafts, tower/ropes course time, canteen, a campfire and more.

There will also be family “open waters” time for swimming in the pool, as well as swimming, blobbing and boating in the newly-rejuvenated Lake Gary.

Adults will stay in the newly-remodeled air-conditioned adult housing. There will be an adults-only area for relaxing and hanging out with friends, and adult-level activities similar to the children’s activities.

The family camp will be from Aug. 5 to 9, and space is limited.

On Aug. 8, the camp will open at 9 a.m. for the alumni reunion. Guests will register and have the option for breakfast.

At 10:15 a.m., Shabbat services will take place at the Museum of the Southern Jewish Experience, followed by the highly-anticipated All-Camp Photo.

There will be a cookout in the breezeway, followed by Open Camp and a few scheduled activities.

At 5:15 p.m., the camp’s famous fried chicken will be served, followed by the Dan Nichols and E18hteen concert. Havdalah will end the day.

The cost per person is still to be determined; all event proceeds will go to the “Friends of Jacobs Camp” Fund, which supports camp scholarships, facility improvements, and more.
Applications and further information will be made available on the camp’s website, http://jacobs.urjcamps.org.

The camp has also launched an alumni on-line forum, accessible through the camp website.
In conjunction with the camp’s “Trees to Plant” 40th Anniversary Capital Campaign, an Alumni Plaza is being created as a gathering place for the camp community. Donors who contribute at least $1,000 over the next three years can dedicate a personalized brick in the project. The plaza is scheduled to be ready for the August reunion.

The campaign has a goal of $4 million to strengthen the camp programs and endowment.
The Henry S. Jacobs Camp is the Reform Movement’s summer camp serving the Deep South: Alabama, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Western Tennessee and the Florida Panhandle. The camp opened in 1970.

Deep South File :: Hadassah Cancels New Orleans Convention

2008-12-10T16:20:00.000-06:00

When Hadassah, the women’s Zionist organization of America, announced that its 2009 annual convention would be held in New Orleans, it was seen as a boost for a city trying to rebuild its tourism and convention business, and for a Jewish community trying to replenish its numbers and tell the story of its post-Katrina revival.

Now, the event — which draws around 2000 delegates — is being dramatically scaled back, and at press time it was uncertain whether there would be any national Hadassah activities in New Orleans in July. The convention had been scheduled for July 12 to 15.

On Dec. 5, region and Big Chapter presidents held a conference call with Nancy Falchuk, Hadassah national president, to discuss an Executive Committee decision to cut domestic spending by millions of dollars.

In an email circulated to the region by Southern Region President Edria Ragosin, it was stated that instead of the usual four-day event, there would likely be a meeting of the national board and a one-day business meeting for representatives of chapters across the country.

Plans would not be finalized until mid-December as to what sort of meetings would be held, or if they would be held in New Orleans.

Roselle Ungar, a national Hadassah Executive Board member from New Orleans, said “convention as we know it has been cancelled” in a move toward fiscal responsibility.
“Needless to say, we are all very disappointed, and Hadassah is disappointed,” she said.

She noted that if the full national board meets in New Orleans, the board has 250 members and typically meets three times a year.

She also said it is still important to have a business meeting for delegates to weigh in on issues.
Emotionally, she said, canceling convention “is hard, but fiscally it is the right thing to do.”

If there is a business meeting in New Orleans, Ragosin wrote, “We do expect every chapter to be represented,” and that the host region would still do “all we can to boost that spirit and infuse the atmosphere with our positive, friendly style.”

World File :: Chabad Rabbi, Wife Killed In Mumbai Attacks

2008-11-28T13:20:00.001-06:00

Rabbi Gavriel Holtzberg and his wife, Rivka, the Chabad emissaries in Mumbai, were killed in the terrorist attacks that began Nov. 26, 2008 in India. (Chabad.org)

(JTA) – A Chabad rabbi and his wife were among the dead after Indian forces retook a Jewish center in Mumbai, India from terrorist gunmen.

The deaths of Rabbi Gavriel Holtzberg and his wife, Rivka, the Chabad emissaries in Mumbai, were confirmed Friday by the director of American Friends of Lubavitch, Rabbi Levi Shemtov. Three other Israelis in the building were also killed; their names were not released.

Conflicting reports following the takeover of Mumbai's Chabad-Lubavitch house in the terrorist attacks in India, which left more than 140 dead, prompted confusion and anxiety surrounding the fate of the house's occupants, including the Holtzbergs.

Four Israelis were among those freed from the Trident-Oberoi luxury hotel along with other hostages late Friday morning, according to the Israeli Foreign Ministry.

Gunmen armed with automatic rifles and grenades struck 10 separate locations in Mumbai on Wednesday night in coordinated attacks at sites frequented by Westerners, including hotels, restaurants and a railway station. Witnesses said the gunmen -- who killed more than 140 people, set buildings ablaze and took hostages -- targeted Americans, Britons and Jews. Mumbai's Chabad house was among the targets.

On Thursday afternoon, Indian commandos surrounded the Nariman House, where Chabad is located, with plans to storm in and release the hostages. There reportedly were four terrorists holed up inside with six hostages. Indian special forces reportedly killed one terrorist in the building.

Earlier Thursday, the hostage takers released the Holtzberg's 2-year-old son and the building's cook, who said that the couple was alive but unconscious.

The terrorists also took hostages at the Taj Mahal Palace and Trident-Oberoi luxury hotels. The identity of the attackers is not known. A little-known organization calling itself the Deccan Mujahideen has claimed responsibility.

One terrorist inside the Chabad house called an Indian TV channel Thursday afternoon and offered to enter into talks with the government to release the hostages, Reuters reported.

The Chabad house is located at 5 Hormusji Street in Mumbai. India is a popular destination for young Israeli backpackers, who often make the trip after their army service. The Holtzbergs moved to Mumbai from Brooklyn, New York in 2003 to do Jewish outreach work in India.

One Indian TV channel said five or six Israelis were also among the 100 to 200 hostages being held at the Oberoi hotel, Ynet reported. Some 10 to 15 Israelis are said to be held hostage in sites throughout the city, the Israeli Foreign Ministry told Ynet.

Concern about the fate of the Chabad rabbi and his wife mounted throughout the day, with the Brooklyn-based organization issuing calls for prayer to Jews the world over. The National Council of Young Israel also sent out an alert asking Jews to pray for the rabbi and his wife.

"One friend of Gavriel Holtzberg reported receiving an e-mail from the Mumbai rabbi at 11:30 p.m. local time," Chabad.org reported. "The Israeli Consulate was in touch with Holtzberg, but the line was cut in middle of the conversation. No further contact has since been established."

On Thursday morning, according to the Jerusalem Post, the Chabad rabbi's toddler son was rushed from the house in the arms of one of the Jewish center's employees, Sandra Samuel.

"I took the child, I just grabbed the baby and ran out," said Samuel, 44, who was identified as a cook.

World File :: Rabbi, Wife Among Hostages In Mumbai

2008-11-27T15:38:00.002-06:00

JERUSALEM (JTA) – A Jewish family being held hostage in the Mumbai, India, Chabad house may be dead, senior Israeli officials are saying.

Rabbi Gavriel and Rivka Holtzberg, and possibly six others, have been held since Wednesday night amid multiple, coordinated terrorist attacks that have killed at least 100.

On Thursday afternoon, Indian commandos surrounded the Nariman House, where Chabad is located, with plans to storm in and release the hostages, according to reports. There are reportedly four terrorists holed up inside with up to six hostages. Indian special forces killed one terrorist in the building.

Earlier Thursday, the hostage takers released the Holzberg's two-year-old son and the building's cook, who said that the couple was unconscious, Ynet reported.

The terrorists were apparently aiming at tourists in the country's financial center when the attacks began Wednesday night. They attacked using automatic rifles and grenades in areas frequented by Westerners including hotels, restaurants and the railway station. Some 300 people were injured in the attacks.

The Israel consul in Mumbai on Thursday morning told Israel Radio they were working to locate approximately 25 Israelis known to be in the area who have not contacted their families at home.

The terrorists have been holding hostages in the Taj Mahal and Trident-Oberoi luxury hotels, and reportedly looked for guests holding British and American passports.

The identity of the attackers is not known. A little-known organization calling itself the Deccan Mujahideen has claimed responsibility.

One terrorist inside the Chabad house called an Indian television channel Thursday afternoon and offered to enter into talks with the government to release the hostages, Reuters reported.

The Chabad house is located at 5 Hormusji Street in Mumbai. India is a popular destination for young Israeli backpackers, who often make the trip after their army service.

One Indian television channel said 5 or 6 Israelis were also among the 100 to 200 hostages being held at the Oberoi hotel, Ynet reported. Some 10 to 15 Israelis are said to be held hostage in sites throughout the city, the Foreign Ministry told Ynet.

"One friend of Gavriel Holtzberg reported receiving an e-mail from the Mumbai rabbi at 11:30 p.m. local time," Chabad.org reported. "The Israeli Consulate was in touch with Holtzberg, but the line was cut in middle of the conversation. No further contact has since been established."

On Thursday morning, according to the Jerusalem Post, the Chabad rabbi's toddler son was rushed from the house in the arms of one of the Jewish center's employees, Sandra Samuel.

"I took the child, I just grabbed the baby and ran out," said Samuel, 44, who was identified as a cook.

She said that the rabbi, his wife and two other unidentified guests were alive but unconscious, the Jerusalem Post reported.

Nation File :: O.U. Confab Spotlighting Jerusalem

2008-11-27T15:38:00.001-06:00

November 26, 2008
By Ron Kampeas

WASHINGTON (JTA) -- A call on Barack Obama to move the United State embassy to Jerusalem will be a centerpiece of the Orthodox Union's biennial convention.

The umbrella group for North American Orthodox congregations held its last two biennial conventions in Jerusalem, but had planned to hold this year's event in New York. Plans were changed to again go to Jerusalem "as a show of support for Israel at its 60th anniversary and as a reflection of the Orthodox Union's concern that Jerusalem will be divided in peace negotiations with the Palestinians," a statement said.

On Thursday, participants will meet at a West Jerusalem site held by the United States should it ever decide to move its embassy from Tel Aviv and view an enlarged version of a petition signed by O.U. congregations calling on Israel "to oppose and reject any proposal or plan to relinquish any part of Yerushalayim to any foreign authority."

Speakers will include Stephen Savitsky, the O.U. president. An O.U. release emphasized that the event and the call are "non-confrontational."

"The OU hopes to return to this site for the opening of the Embassy, perhaps together with President Obama, during his first term in office," the release stated.

Israel File :: Mazuz to Olmert - Indictment Likely

2008-11-26T15:39:00.000-06:00

November 26, 2008
By Marcy Oster

JERUSALEM (JTA) -- Israel's attorney general said he is considering charges against Ehud Olmert for allegedly using public funds to finance family vacations.

Attorney General Menachem Mazuz on Wednesday informed the Israeli prime minister's lawyer that he is mulling several counts in what is becoming known as the Rishon Tours double-billing scandal.

Olmert is under investigation in six unrelated cases, including the Talansky Affair, in which he is alleged to have received illegal contributions from American businessman Morris Talansky over the course of 15 years. The flurry of investigations led Olmert to tender his resignation, which will become effective after new national elections in February.

Under the alleged double-billing scheme, on 12 separate occasions, more than one public body was asked to finance the same flight for Olmert's working trips abroad when he was mayor of Jerusalem and later as a government minister. The extra money was put into an account at the tours office and then used to pay for family members when they booked personal vacations.

Olmert can request a hearing with the attorney general on the matter before Mazuz makes a final decision.

Olmert's former bureau chief Shula Zaken also was informed that she faces indictment in the double-billing case.

Feature :: Study Shows Attending Services Cuts Women's Death Risk

2008-11-25T15:41:00.000-06:00

November 25, 2008
By Marcy Oster

JERUSALEM (JTA) -- Regular attendance at religious services reduces the risk of death for women by 20 percent, according to a new study.

The study by researchers at Yeshiva University and its Albert Einstein College of Medicine was published Nov. 17 in the Psychology and Health journal.

The researchers evaluated the religious practices of 92,395 women aged 50 to 79 participating in the Women's Health Initiative, a national, long-term study aimed at addressing women’s health issues and funded by the National Institutes of Health.

Those who said they attended religious services at least once a week showed a 20 percent mortality risk reduction compared with those not attending services at all. The study did not attempt to measure spirituality; its authors stress that it examined self-reported measures of religiosity.

The study adjusted for the women's participation in organizations and group activities that promote a strong social life and enjoyable routines, behaviors known to lead to overall wellness.

“Interestingly, the protection against mortality provided by religion cannot be entirely explained by expected factors that include enhanced social support of friends or family, lifestyle choices and reduced smoking and alcohol consumption,” said Dr. Eliezer Schnall, the lead author of the study. “There is something here that we don’t quite understand. It is always possible that some unknown or unmeasured factors confounded these results.”

Nation File :: Brzezinski, Scowcroft To Obama: Peace First

2008-11-21T15:36:00.000-06:00

November 21, 2008
By Ron Kampeas

WASHINGTON (JTA) - Two former national security advisers close to Barack Obama advised the president-elect to outline the contours of a Palestinian-Israeli settlement as soon as possible.

"We believe that the Arab-Israeli peace process is one issue that requires priority attention," Zbigniew Brzezinski and Brent Scowcroft wrote in the Washington Post opinion page on Friday. "The major elements of an agreement are well known. A key element in any new initiative would be for the U.S. president to declare publicly what, in the view of this country, the basic parameters of a fair and enduring peace ought to be. These should contain four principal elements: 1967 borders, with minor, reciprocal and agreed-upon modifications; compensation in lieu of the right of return for Palestinian refugees; Jerusalem as real home to two capitals; and a nonmilitarized Palestinian state."

Multiple reports in recent days have revealed that Scowcroft, the national security adviser to President Ford and the first President Bush, has advised Obama since before his run for the presidency.

Obama staffers have denied that Brzezinski, President Carter’s national security adviser, was a campaign adviser; however, they acknowledge that Obama solicited Brzezinski’s endorsement, and Brzezinski acted as a surrogate for Obama on a campaign call with Democrats Abroad.

The Washington Post piece, entitled "Middle East priorities for Jan. 21," says that "not everyone in the Middle East views the Palestinian issue as the greatest regional challenge, but the deep sense of injustice it stimulates is genuine and pervasive." Achieving a deal would "change the region’s psychological climate, putting Iran back on the defensive and putting a stop to its swagger."

It recommends the appointment of a Middle East peace envoy, cautioning however that such an appointment must follow, not precede, Obama’s outline for peace.

In order to assuage Israeli concerns about the Palestinian capability to contain terrorism, the writers counsel the creation of an international peacekeeping force which would also train Palestinian Authority police.

Both men are staunch "realists" who opposed the Iraq war, casting their beliefs against those of neoconservatives.

Brzezinski is perceived by some in the pro-Israel community as hostile to the close U.S.-Israel alliance, and he has joined others in decrying what he deems the excessive influence of the pro-Israel lobby.

During the campaign, staffers insisted that the candidate was closer to the views of his adviser Dennis Ross, the Clinton era negotiator who counseled dealing with Iran before getting deeply involved in the Israeli-Palestinian negotiations, which he suggested were premature.

Nation File :: Jewish Films To Go Online

2008-10-29T15:33:00.000-05:00

(JTA, October 29, 2008) The San Francisco Jewish Film Festival is launching a project to put hundreds of Jewish movies online.

In addition to films, the festival’s Web site, http://www.sfjff.org, will offer other streaming media, educational materials, social networking resources and a forum for new Jewish stories and films created specifically for emerging media platforms.

The first $200,000 in funding for the project, called the New Media Initiative, will come from Steven Spielberg’s Righteous Persons Foundation and the New York-based Charles H. Revson Foundation. The Spielberg foundation pledged $100,000 and Revson provided a matching grant.

The initial phase will launch in June in advance of the 29th annual San Francisco Jewish Film Festival. Starting with some 1,200 titles from its 28-year history, the festival will provide online clips from hundreds of rare and independent Jewish-themed films and offer a select number of titles for full viewing.

“We’re extremely excited to bring what SFJFF has always been recognized for in our theaters – excellence in filmmaking, engaged and diverse audiences, rich educational content, and bridge-building through film – to the boundless channels of online media,” festival executive director Peter Stein said. “We’re thrilled to have the support of such forward-looking philanthropic foundations as we start our work.”

The festival will partner with Reframe, a project of the Tribeca Film Institute, to begin showcasing its offerings.

Israel File :: Anger Greets Olmert's Concessions On Jerusalem, Syria, West Bank

2008-10-06T16:46:00.001-05:00

Brain Hendler
In a recent interview, outgoing Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said Israel should trade the Golan Heights, seen above, for peace with Syria.

By Leslie Susser

JERUSALEM (JTA) -- A Rosh Hashanah-eve interview in which outgoing Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said Israel should give up the Golan Heights for peace with Syria and nearly all of the West Bank for peace with the Palestinians has sparked a political storm in Israel.

Prime minister-designate Tzipi Livni, who is set to succeed Olmert as soon as she forms a coalition government, quickly distanced herself from most of Olmert’s key pronouncements, which included an assertion that it would be megalomaniacal for Israel to attack Iran unilaterally.

Politicians on the right lambasted Olmert for his dovish message, and left-wingers slammed him for not going public with his vision before he was a lame duck.

Some Israeli analysts saw evidence in Olmert's transformation from one-time super-hawk to unmitigated dove of a final collapse of the ideology of Greater Israel, which advocates holding on to as much conquered territory as possible.

Olmert, who is stepping down amid a corruption investigation, in the interview published last week by the Israeli daily Yediot Achronot made the following points:

* It is presumptuous to think Israel can stop Iran's nuclear drive when powers such as the United States, Russia, China, Britain and Germany seem unable to do so.

* Israel has a very short window of time in which it can take "historic steps" in its relations with the Palestinians and the Syrians.

* For peace with the Palestinians, Israel will have to withdraw from most of the West Bank, including eastern Jerusalem, and grant compensation on a one-to-one basis for whatever land it keeps. "Without this, there won't be peace," he insisted.

* For peace with Syria, Israel will have to return the Golan Heights.

* Israel is very close to agreement both with the Palestinians and Syria, and if Olmert had stayed on he would have had a good chance of closing the deals.

* The main security problem Israel faces today is missiles, and having the border a few hundred yards one way or the other won't make any difference.

* Years of conservative thinking by the Israeli establishment have undermined peace prospects.

"When I listen to you, I know why we didn't make peace with the Palestinians and the Syrians for 40 years and why we won't make peace with them for another 40 years," he recalled saying at a recent forum with the country's top policymakers.

If the interview was meant to constitute Olmert's political legacy, his presumptive successor was quick to reject it.

Livni, the foreign minister, said Olmert was wrong to go public with Israel’s final negotiating positions while she is in the midst of intensive negotiations with the Palestinians.

"We agreed negotiations should take place in the negotiating room, not on the pages of a newspaper," she said at a Foreign Ministry conference in Jerusalem after Rosh Hashanah.

Olmert also was roundly criticized on the right for saying too much and on the left for doing too little.

Yuval Steinitz of the Likud Party took issue with Olmert’s contention that in an age of missiles, Israel could afford to give up hundreds of yards on its borders.

"Ignoring the difference between rockets fired from long distances and an enemy perched on hills above Jerusalem shows just how little he understands basic security issues," Steinitz said.

Yossi Beilin of the Meretz Party castigated Olmert for "revealing his true position on the national interest only when he has nothing to lose."

Those sentiments were echoed overseas, where Olmert's conciliatory positions were welcomed but with wonderment at why he hadn’t said as much earlier.

An editorial in The New York Times summed up the sentiment in an editorial Saturday titled "Mr. Olmert's Belated Truths."

"It is tragic that he did not do more to act on those beliefs when he had real power," the editorial said.

Olmert is the fourth Israeli prime minister to start his political life as a hawk in the vein of the Likud or its predecessor, Herut, and then to surprise observers later with the extent of his willingness to make far-reaching concessions.

Herut founder Menachem Begin returned the Sinai to Egypt; Benjamin Netanyahu withdrew Israeli forces from Hebron, concluded the Wye River agreement with the Palestinians and negotiated with Syria over withdrawing from the Golan; and Ariel Sharon pulled back unilaterally from the Gaza Strip.

Olmert, it seems, has now set the stage for an Israeli withdrawal from the West Bank and the Golan Heights.

Olmert confidants argue that the frank expression of his views has positive elements for future peacemaking and diplomacy. They say it has created a strong incentive for the various Arab parties to negotiate peace and shown the international community how far Israel would be willing to go -- a possible public relations advantage if peace efforts fail.

Moreover, they say, Olmert has put peacemaking and its time constraints squarely on the public agenda.

Critics, however, reject these claims. They point out that Olmert's stated readiness for full withdrawal on all fronts encourages Arab parties to cling to maximalist positions, not compromise. It also puts the next Israeli prime minister on the spot: If peace moves break down, they say, the next prime minister will be blamed for not going as far as Olmert would have.

Livni bristled at the implication that peace would be achievable under Olmert if he could have stayed on, and if she failed to achieve peace during her tenure as prime minister, she would be to blame.

Most importantly, Livni, Olmert’s likely successor, also came out against the substance of Olmert’s key positions.

In a meeting Sunday in Jerusalem with French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner, Livni said she opposed the framework of Olmert's offer to the Palestinians. She said she was against making far-reaching proposals for a quick fix and that negotiations should be allowed all the time they needed to ripen into a well-constructed and lasting deal.

Livni was critical as well of Olmert's position on Iran. In the Yediot interview, Olmert dismissed as “megalomania” the notion that Israel would or should unilaterally attack Iran. Olmert said the international community, not just Israel, should take the steps necessary to arrest Iran’s suspected nuclear weapons program.

Livni said Olmert’s remarks sent the wrong message to Tehran and that Israel should be sending the message to the Iranians that all options are on the table.

Despite her sharp criticism, Foreign Ministry officials said Livni does not think Olmert’s comments will have a serious impact on the peace process.

"Olmert is not relevant anymore," a senior ministry official told JTA. "What he says doesn't matter."

National File :: Palin Vows To Make Peace Process A Priority

2008-10-06T15:49:00.000-05:00

By Ron Kampeas

Israeli-Palestinian peace talks would be a priority of a McCain administration, Sarah Palin said.

"A two-state solution is the solution," Alaska Gov. Palin, the Republican vice-presidential nominee, said in Thursday night's debate with the Democratic vice-presidential nominee, Sen. Joe Biden (D-Del.). "And Secretary Rice, having recently met with leaders on one side or the other there also, still in these waning days of the Bush administration, trying to forge that peace. And that needs to be done, and that will be top-of-an-agenda item also under a McCain-Palin administration."

Palin was referring to recent shuttle diplomacy by Condoleezza Rice, the U.S. Secretary of State, aimed at securing an Israeli-Palestinian agreement before President Bush leaves office in January.

In an interview with The Atlantic's Jeffrey Goldberg published in May, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) pledged to play a "hands-on" role in Israeli-Palestinian talks and said he would serve as "chief negotiator." In recent weeks, however, some of his advisers have criticized the Bush administration's current peace push and played down expectations of McCain's involvement in forging a deal, saying there were several other more pressing foreign policy issues.

A spokesman for the campaign said Palin's statements were not inconsistent with McCain's policies.

A two-state solution will be a “top agenda item,” Michael Goldfarb said “obviously there are obstacles to getting there. There's only so much the U.S. Government can do.”

Jeff Ballabon, a Republican activist who has opposed Rice's recent emphasis on Israeli concessions, said the McCain campaign's overal tenor was one of deference to Israel on issues critical to its national security.

"When it comes to discussions and negotiations on the peace process, a McCain administration is much more likely to take its cues from the Israeli leadership," he said. "An Obama-Biden administration is much more likely to give cues and create pressure."

During the debate, Palin and Biden sparred at length over who would better protect Israel's interests.

Palin targeted a commitment last year by Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.), the Democratic presidential candidate, to meet with leaders of rogue states within his first year of office without preconditions.

"A statement that he made like that is downright dangerous because leaders like" Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, "who would seek to acquire nuclear weapons and wipe off the face of the Earth an ally like we have in Israel, should not be met with without preconditions and diplomatic efforts being undertaken first," Palin said.

Obama has since retreated somewhat from that position -- originally stated in an answer to a debate question -- saying he meant he would not rule out such a meeting and would prepare for it extensively. He and his surrogates also have suggested that in the case of Iran, such a meeting would involve the courty's religious leadership rather than Ahmadinejad.

Palin also suggested she opposed Iran's achieving nuclear energy capacity, not just nuclear weapons. That would be a shift from Bush administration policies, which have been to offer Iran nuclear energy independence as an incentive to ending its nuclear weapons program.

"A leader like Ahmadinejad, who is not sane or stable when he says things like that, is not one whom we can allow to acquire nuclear energy, nuclear weapons," Palin said.

In the debate, Palin also repeated a pledge to move the U.S. Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. Obama's campaign will not make such a pledge, hewing to policies embraced by presidents for decades that such a move would prejudice the outcome of final-status talks. As soon as he assumed office in 2001, Bush reversed his own campaign pledge to move the embassy.

Biden said Republican policies had endangered Israel, targeting Bush's encouragement of elections in the region and the administration's reluctance to engage with Iran until late in Bush's term.

"Speaking of freedom being on the march, the only thing on the march is Iran," Biden said. "It's closer to a bomb. Its proxies now have a major stake in Lebanon, as well as in the Gaza Strip with Hamas. We will change this policy with thoughtful, real, live diplomacy that understand that you must back Israel in letting them negotiate, support their negotiation and stand with them, not insist on policies like this administration has."

Biden chided the Bush administration for discouraging Israel from engaging in peace talks and diplomacy with its adversaries.

"You must back Israel in letting them negotiate, support their negotiation and stand with them, not insist on policies like this administration has," he said.

Deep South File :: L'Shana Tovah, Ray Benson

2008-09-29T16:52:00.002-05:00

Ruth Ellen Gruber
Ray Benson, left, and Asleep at the Wheel perform at the Country Rendez-vous festival in Craponne sur Arzon, France, in July 2008.

By Ruth Ellen Gruber

CRAPONNE SUR ARZON, France (JTA) -- Think Jews and country music and you'll probably come up with Kinky Friedman, the cigar-chomping frontman of the iconoclastic Texas Jewboys, who is also a humorist, mystery novelist and failed but flamboyant candidate for Texas governor.

The real Jewish king of country music, however, is Ray Benson, the nine-time Grammy-winning leader of the country swing band Asleep at the Wheel.

At 6-foot-7, Ray Benson has been described as a "Jewish giant" and "the biggest Jew in country."

He literally and figuratively towers over the stage in a Stetson and fancy tooled boots, with a grizzled beard and long, thinning hair pulled back in a pony tail.

"I saw miles and miles of Texas, all the stars up in the sky," he sings in his deep, mellow baritone. "I saw miles and miles of Texas, gonna live here 'til I die."

Now 57, Benson was born in Philadelphia but has lived in Austin for 35 years. He talks with a twang, plays golf with Willie Nelson, has recorded more than 30 albums and was named Texas Musician of the Year in 2004.

By his own estimate, he is the only Jewish singing star in the country music scene.

"Kinky's not a country western singer -- he's Kinky!" Benson laughed during a conversation with JTA this summer at the annual Country Rendez-vous festival in south-central France, where Asleep at the Wheel wound up a five-nation European tour.

Unlike Friedman, however, who makes playing with stereotypes part of his in-your-face persona, Benson has -- until now -- kept his religious identity out of the limelight.

"I didn't want to be known as a Jewish country western singer; I wanted to be known as a country western singer who happens to be Jewish," he said.

"You don't usually tell your religion or politics on stage," he added. "For years, because I'm 6'7" and people don't think Jews are tall, and because I guess I don't look like the stereotype Jew, most people don't known I'm Jewish."

Benson got his musical start as a child in suburban Philadelphia, where he grew up in a Reform Jewish home. He and his sister put together a folk group, and he was only 11 when he played his first professional gig.

"In those days, if you're a Jewish kid, you go to school, you go to college or you enter your parents' business," Benson said. "So, I obviously chose a different path."

Benson founded Asleep at the Wheel in 1970 along with several friends, including his former Philadelphia schoolmate Lucky Oceans, a pedal steel guitar player born Ruben Gosfield, who now lives in Australia.

The band based itself in West Virginia and California before moving to Austin in 1973. Over the decades, Benson has remained the anchor of the group, while some 90 musicians have moved in and out of its line-up.

On the road much of the year, the band has criss-crossed the nation, playing everywhere from down-home dance halls to the White House -- they were, in fact, scheduled to perform there on Sept. 11, 2001.

Asleep at the Wheel has played at inauguration parties for Presidents Bush and Clinton and expect to play for whomever is elected in November. Earlier this year, they played at an Austin fund-raiser for Barack Obama where the Democratic presidential nominee joined them onstage for a chorus.

In the 1970s, when the band first started touring, Benson recalled, country music was a "southern, conservative, Christian, white domain -- period," and he repeatedly came up against offhand prejudice and ignorance about Jews and Judaism.

He cites as an example a member of Tammy Wynette's entourage, who blamed "the Jews in New York" for failing to promote her career, and had a hard time believing Benson when he told him he was Jewish. Then there's the wife of a musician who had never heard of Judaism as a religion.

"I asked her what she thought a Jew was, and she said, 'Someone who's cheap,' " Benson recalled.

"So the stereotypes are there, and they're still there," he said.

"I always felt myself to be an ambassador," he added. "I'm not a great practicing Jew on a daily basis, but I'm Jewish. And so I try to bring to them that we're just people."

Recently, for the first time, Benson started doing this publicly, making explicit reference to his Jewish identity on stage.

The revelation comes as part of "A Ride With Bob," a musical that Benson co-wrote, based on the life of Benson's musical hero, the Western Swing pioneer Bob Wills, who died in 1975.

Benson stars in the play, along with members of Asleep at the Wheel. Since its premiere in 2005, it has played to audiences all over Texas and elsewhere, including a sell-out performance at the Kennedy Center in Washington.

The premise is an imagined conversation between Benson and Wills. In it, Wills asks Benson how "a Jewish boy from Philadelphia" can play western swing music. Benson responds: "The same way that a white, hayseed hillbilly from the West Texas panhandle" can play, as Wills did, blues and jazz.

"Basically in this play I confront the issue, and I let the cat out of the bag -- hey, I'm Jewish and happen to be the leader of the 'modern kings of western swing,'" Benson said.

"In the context of the play I was able to reveal this and also give it context," he added.

The point he wanted to make, he said, is that it doesn't matter where you come from or what your religion or background is in terms of music, art or other creative endeavors. What's important, he said, "is what's in your heart or what's in your mind or what's in your talent."

Nation File :: Jewish Groups Warned About Audit If Palin Were To Speak At Event

2008-09-29T16:47:00.001-05:00

Tom LeGro, NewsHour
The furor over Jewish groups disinviting Sarah Palin, shown at the 2008 Republican National Convention, to an anti-Iran rally has continued a week after the event.

By Ben Harris

NEW YORK (JTA) -- A former top IRS official warned Jewish groups that they would likely face a financial penalty and expensive audit process if they went through with plans to have the Republican vice-presidential candidate speak at an anti-Iran rally.

The warning came from Marcus Owens, a 25-year veteran of the Internal Revenue Service and the former director of its tax-exempt unit. According to the general counsel of the UJA-Federation of New York, it echoed the advice of several other lawyers.

“For this to be legal, an invitation would have had to be issued to both vice-presidential candidates at the same time so they would have an equal opportunity to speak at the rally,” Ellen Zimmerman told JTA.

Zimmerman said she consulted with at least five lawyers specializing in this field, including Owens, who said Palin’s appearance would be problematic.

Zimmerman’s version of events, confirmed by Owens, would appear to poke a major hole in the claim by right-wing critics that organizers of the rally were motivated primarily by partisan politics in deciding to disinvite Palin and other American elected officials.

Jewish groups triggered an uproar, first by inviting Palin to and then disinviting her from the Sept. 22 rally to protest Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s appearance at the United Nations General Assembly.

The Palin invitation prompted U.S. Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) to renege on an earlier commitment to appear and led to accusations that organizers -- in particular the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations -- had blundered, allowing election year politicking to overshadow a bipartisan display of opposition to Iran's nuclear program.

In response, the Presidents Conference issued an invitation to the Democratic running mate, Sen. Joe Biden (D-Del.); but he had a prior engagement, so the Obama campaign agreed to send U.S. Rep. Robert Wexler (D-Fla.), one of its most active Jewish surrogates.

In the end, Jewish groups decided to rescind all the invitations to American politicians. But instead of quelling the controversy, the move triggered a slew of right-wing claims that Jewish liberals inside and outside the Presidents Conference were more interested in sabotaging Palin than confronting Iran.

“It was Democratic partisans that made this political,” said Morton Klein, the president of the Zionist Organization of America. “The real issue was giving visibility to Sarah Palin. Liberal Democratic interests trumped concern about Iran.”

The McCain campaign trumpeted the same line, lamenting that Palin was barred under pressure from “Democratic partisans.”

The International Fellowship of Christians and Jews accused “organizers” of politicizing the event and invited Palin to address its upcoming banquet. And columnist Caroline Glick, writing in the Jerusalem Post, took aim at two organizational leaders involved in the rally planning -- Rabbi Steve Gutow of the Jewish Council for Public Affairs and John Ruskay of UJA-Federation of New York -- suggesting that associations with left-wing groups earlier in their careers is evidence of their partisan machinations.

Both Gutow and Ruskay adamantly deny the charges. The issue, insiders say, was concern that hosting Palin without a comparable representative from the Obama campaign constituted a violation of the laws governing tax-exempt organizations.

“IRS rules are quite clear,” said Zimmerman, the New York federation’s lawyer. “Given what was potentially a threat to UJA-Federation and the other tax-exempt organizations’ exempt status, that was just too much of a risk to take.”

Owens, the former IRS unit director, told JTA that agency rules require that the terms and conditions need to be the same for political invitations by nonprofits. That would include giving both sides equal amounts of time to respond, he said.

Had the rally gone forward with Palin's appearance as planned, Owens said it was likely the IRS would have pursued action against the organizers, though he doubted their exempt status would be revoked. Instead, the agency likely would have levied an excise tax and begun an audit, a costly endeavor that sometimes leads to further tax problems.

“You're playing with fire at that point,” Owens said.

Several member organizations of the Presidents Conference have expressed upset either over the initial invitation to invite Palin or the subsequent decision to disinvite her and the other elected officials. They claim that the umbrella organization’s executive vice chairman, Malcolm Hoenlein, did not sufficiently consult with them, and are now calling for steps to be taken to prevent what they see as a debacle from recurring.

“I do think that I and others will be asking for clarification of the process to try to inhibit it from happening again,” Rabbi Jerome Epstein, the executive vice president of the United Synagogue for Conservative Judaism, told JTA. “People can make mistakes. And I think this was a bad judgment more than a deliberate attempt on the part of somebody or some people to create a stir here.”

Sources familiar with the situation insist that Hoenlein was left in an impossible situation after other organizers said they would be forced to pull out if Palin remained on the roster.

Hoenlein noted that the decision was not made by the Presidents Conference alone but as part of a coalition of organizers. Nothing like this has happened with any of the rallies the conference has organized in the past, he added, though an account of what transpired would be prepared and passed along to conference members.

“Everyone will have a picture of what happened,” Hoenlein said. “That I think they are absolutely entitled to.”

Nation File :: Demand For Cantors Declining, Conservatives Try To Adjust

2008-09-23T17:04:00.000-05:00

Debra I. Danner
Reform cantors Amy Daniels, Regina Lambert-Hayut and Tracey Scher perform at Kehillat Mevasseret Zion near Jerusalem in July 2006.

By Sue Fishkoff

KERHONKSEN, N.Y. (JTA) -- Two years ago, Temple Isaiah in Palm Springs, Calif., replaced its full-time cantor with a part-timer.

Then the part-timer left, and the Conservative synagogue replaced him with a lay soloist who was a member of the congregation.

“Our budget has shrunk, our membership has shrunk and the nature of the cantorate has changed,” said Lenny Pepper, the executive director of the synagogue, where membership has fallen by half in the past 10 years, to 330 members.

Short on cash, and with worshipers happier to sing along with a guitar-playing lay leader than listen to traditional nusach, or cantorial chanting, Temple Isaiah decided to do without a professional.

The congregation is saving money and getting the kind of prayer service members prefer.

“Temples all over the country are facing the same problem,” Pepper said. “In these tough times, everybody’s trying to figure out how we’re going to survive.”

In today’s economy, cantors are finding it more difficult than usual to find work. That’s especially true in the hard-hit Conservative movement, where membership is dwindling and synagogues across the United States are downsizing. Cash-strapped congregations forced to choose almost always hire a rabbi over a cantor.

Conservative synagogues in Harrisburg, Pa.; Portland, Maine; Randolph, Mass.; and Chattanooga, Tenn., all recently let their full-time cantors go.

Others, like Temple Beth Sholom in Smithtown, N.Y., Temple Ner Tamid in Peabody, Mass., and Beth Sholom in San Francisco downgraded full-time cantor jobs to part-time, usually lay, positions.

The Reform movement hasn't experienced the same job crunch as the Conservatives.

Barbara Ostfeld, the director of placement for the American Conference of Cantors, said 44 Reform congregations were looking for cantors in the past year -- a number that has held steady for six or seven years. Most offer full-time positions.

In the Orthodox movement, the use of cantors long has been in decline. Full-time cantorial positions are rare, as most congregations have a surfeit of laymen to lead services.

The job crisis in the Conservative movement was a major topic of discussion at the national convention of the movement’s Cantors Assembly this summer in upstate New York.

“There are more cantors looking than congregations hiring,” said Robert Scherr, the placement director for the Cantors Assembly, who places about 20 cantors per year among the movement’s 760 affiliated synagogues.

In June, eight students graduated from the Jewish Theological Seminary’s H.L. Miller Cantorial School. For the first time, two have not found jobs, noted the school’s dean, Henry Rosenblum.

Scherr cites many reasons for the change. Among them are cantors with full-time jobs are retiring later and large congregations that are shrinking cannot afford to replace departing cantors.

Another reason, he says: Some congregations in a financial position to hire a second clergy member choose an assistant rabbi over a cantor because, well, anyone can sing.

With supply outpacing demand, congregations are picky.

“Everybody wants someone 30 years old with 20 years’ experience,” Scherr said.

The Cantors Assembly is fighting the trend. Recently it began reaching out to Conservative congregations looking to hire a second rabbi and asking them to consider a cantor instead.

The sell is to have cantors do more than sing. The assembly argues that cantors can lead a congregation’s religious school instead of an assistant rabbi, and usually are paid less.

“We are proposing to congregations that they think more broadly,” Scherr said.

The Rabbinical Assembly, the professional association of Conservative rabbis, is giving the move a diplomatic nod.

“I don’t have a problem with it," said Rabbi Elliot Schoenberg, who heads the RA’s placement division. "The Cantors Assembly should advocate for their people. I think synagogues should have cantors. A rabbi and a cantor is a good thing.”

The key is for cantors to expand their marketability by increasing their job skills.

Cantors in all the liberal movements are expected to do more than lead services and train bar/bat mitzvah students. More often they must teach adult education classes, train conversion candidates, perform pastoral duties, run summer camps and work in administration.

“The cantor-slash has become the reality, whether it’s the cantor/music director, the cantor/religious school director -- whatever,” Rosenblum said. “It’s the hybrid, the cantor who is strong in synagogue skills, who can read Torah and teach others to read Torah, that will make the best contributor.”

Cantorial students are aware of these changes, and many welcome them.

“I have enough tools in my skill set,” said Ellen Arad, a fourth-year student at the Miller school who considers herself primarily a teacher. “Part of re-envisioning the cantorate means there are other things you can do besides pulpit work.”

To meet these new needs, the Miller school is overhauling its curriculum for the first time in 50 years. The changes are still being considered, but certainly will include greater emphasis on a wider range of professional skills.

Some cantorial schools already have made the shift.

At the transdenominational Hebrew College in Boston, cantorial students also are trained as Jewish educators, said Scott Sokol, the director of the college’s cantor-educator program.

“Most cantors are Jewish educators anyway, but they play the role more from instinct than by training,” he said.

The Reform movement, too, faces increased congregational expectations.

The School of Sacred Music at the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion has beefed up its professional development courses to include training in pastoral counseling and adult education. And because Reform congregations often expect their cantors to organize and lead bands, this fall the school will offer an elective in music arranging and orchestration.

Even more than Conservative congregations, Reform synagogues want their cantors to sing tunes they, too, can belt out.

Of the 50 reports Ostfeld received this summer from search committees at Reform congregations, 85 percent said encouraging congregants to participate was “very important” in their decision to hire a particular cantor. The only factor listed as more important was “warmth and approachability.”

Conservative and Reform cantorial school administrators say the popularity of sing-along prayer services does not mean their schools will teach less nusach, only that they are expanding their curricula to include a wider range of styles.

Last year HUC hired popular singer-songwriter Debbie Friedman to teach on its cantorial faculty -- a move widely interpreted as the stamp of professional approval for Friedman’s style of sing-along worship. Friedman’s first year “worked out beautifully,” said Cantor Bruce Ruben, the director of the cantorial school.

Yet, Ruben insisted, the traditional approach is still important.

“The style today emphasizes intimacy, personal involvement, ‘my’ experience in the prayer service,” Ruben said. “There’s a whole other element in worship -- the awe, the sense of mystery -- that is completely missing. Clapping along isn’t all that Jewish music is about.”

Even in a tight job market, the best cantors continue to get jobs, movement leaders say.

Asa Fradkin, who graduated from the Miller school in 2007 and was hired as the cantor at Temple Sholom in Greenwich, Conn., said all the well-qualified candidates in the class ahead of him found jobs.

There's “still room in the synagogues for highly trained, professional cantors,” he said.

Rosenblum says a professional brings something beyond just knowing how to sing.

“When a layperson leads the service, they’re thinking: ‘What are the tunes to sing here?’ The davening falls by the wayside," he said. "The professional takes both into consideration.”

Congregation Sha’ar Zahav, a Reform synagogue in San Francisco, hired its first full-time cantor last October.

The decision was not arrived at lightly, said Alex Ingersoll, a co-chair of the search committee. Some people wanted an assistant rabbi, as the congregation had a key group of community leaders with musical training who were adept at leading services.

“There was some resistance,” Ingersoll acknowledged. “People asked, ‘Does this mean we won’t be on the bimah? Is this a statement that we are not good enough?’ ”

The cantor eventually began teaching cantorial music to the community leaders and introducing them to her repertoire of Sephardic melodies.

“She brings an extraordinary ruach [spirit] and joy to the service that is rubbing off on other service leaders,” Ingersoll said. “There’s a lot more attention to the prayers. It’s not just, ‘Now we turn to page this or that.’ ”

That’s what the right cantor can bring to a congregation, Rosenblum says.

“We are not just musical adornment,” he said. “We are the vehicle that can help people access the spiritual in their lives.”

Nation File :: Rabbis Launch Pro-Obama Group

2008-09-18T16:55:00.000-05:00

Steve Bob
Rabbi Steve Bob co-founded Rabbis for Obama in a bid to counter false rumors spread about the Democratic presidential candidate.

By Eric Fingerhut

WASHINGTON (JTA) -- Saying it is their duty to “fight for the truth and against Lashon Hara,” more than 400 rabbis have joined to back Barack Obama's presidential bid in what is believed to be a first-of-its-kind effort.

Rabbis for Obama, officially unveiled last week, is a grass-roots organization formed when two Chicago-area rabbis came to the Democratic candidate’s campaign wanting to help counter the many false rumors that have been spread about him.

“What makes this unique is the lies and smears" were "targeted to the Jewish community,” said Rabbi Sam Gordon of Congregation Sukkat Shalom of Wilmette, Ill., citing the e-mails that falsely claimed Obama was a secret Muslim and educated at a madrassa. “Those of us who knew him felt we had to respond.”

“These attacks that he's not supportive of Israel are just not true,” said Rabbi Steve Bob of Congregation Etz Chaim in Lombard, Ill.

Jonathan Sarna, the Joseph H. & Belle R. Braun Professor of American Jewish History at Brandeis University, said he believes Rabbis for Obama is a first in the Jewish community.

“I certainly can remember many newspaper ads that rabbis would sign" backing a candidate, Sarna said, but “I can't remember another organization with this kind of title.”

Given the increased mix of religion and politics that the United States has seen in the past 20 to 30 years, he added, it is much more likely for such a group to spring up now than it would have been early in the 20th century.

Bob said that he and other members of the organization are interested in publicly speaking -- under the Rabbis for Obama banner -- on behalf of the Democratic candidate across the country and are currently discussing how to become more involved in key swing states.

The letter the rabbis signed, available on the Web site www.rabbisforobama.com, states that the group backs Obama because “he will best support the issues important to us in the Jewish community.”

In addition to writing that the Democrat is “inspired by Jewish values such as Tikkun Olam and the pursuit of justice,” it states that Obama's “longstanding, stalwart support for Israel is a testament to his own principles” and that “attempts by some to use Israel as a wedge issue against him -- unjustifiably -- is dangerous in that it politicizes the pro-Israel position” and has “completely distorted Senator Obama's record.”

“We are fully aware that a smear campaign against Senator Obama has been waged in the Jewish community, and we feel it is our duty as Jewish leaders to fight for the truth and against Lashon Hara,” reads the missive, using the Hebrew term for evil gossip.

“Senator Obama has been viciously attacked using innuendoes, rumors, and guilt by association, and we urge our fellow American Jews to judge Senator Obama based on his own record and the clear statements he has made about his personal beliefs and principles.”

A Republican Jewish leader found that passage of the letter particularly objectionable.

“It's irresponsible and unprofessional as rabbis to give a hechsher in accusing us of Lashon Hara,” said Matt Brooks, the executive director of the Republican Jewish Coalition.

Brooks said the reference to “guilt by association” seemed to be referring to the RJC's criticism of Obama's links to his longtime pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, and some who have been listed as the Democrat's foreign policy advisers -- two topics that Brooks believes are fair game in the debate over Obama's record.

Rabbis are listed by their hometowns rather than their synagogue affiliation because, Bob said, the signatories wanted to make it clear they were speaking for themselves and not their institutions. He said none of the rabbis had any intention of discussing their endorsement from the pulpit or writing about it in their synagogue bulletins.

“We're not doing this as rabbis of synagogues,” he said. “We're doing this as private citizens" who are rabbis.

“I would never presume to tell congregants how to vote,” Gordon said, adding that he simply wants everyone to make their decisions “based on fact, not on lies.”

Membership includes rabbis from every denomination, although one independent observer said he noticed only a couple of Orthodox rabbis on the list.

Bob and Gordon happen to be old friends from the Reform movement's rabbinical school, but had approached the campaign independently with their idea and were matched up. While the campaign did provide advice and pass along the names of interested rabbis, the rabbis said they did virtually all of the work on their own.

More than 300 rabbis were part of the group initially, and Bob said another 125 signed on since it became public last week -- including Michelle Obama's rabbi cousin, Capers Funnye.

The Democratic Party and the Obama campaign have made a special effort during the campaign to reach out to faith groups, but Jewish Democratic operative Matt Dorf said the organization and its missive is better seen as part of another strategy.

The Democratic goal is to reach persuadable Jewish voters through the testimony of people in “positions of influence” in the Jewish community -- rabbis, Jewish members of Congress and other well-known Jewish figures such as former New York Mayor Ed Koch.

Dan Shapiro, the Jewish outreach director for the Obama campaign, said his team is "delighted to have leaders with credibility" in the Jewish community come forward to “make a difference.”

One rabbi familiar with politics welcomed the rabbinical group.

“I endorse Rabbis for Obama and I endorse Rabbis for McCain,” said Rabbi Steve Gutow, the executive director of the Jewish Council for Public Affairs. “I believe religious people ought to be engaged in the public world.”

Anti-Defamation League national director Abraham Foxman, who has been critical of mixing religion and politics, said he was OK with the group. Rabbis don't have to give up their rights, he said.

As long as they're not endorsing candidates from the pulpit, Foxman said, “I don't have a problem with it.”

Not all rabbis feel comfortable with publicly endorsing a candidate.

“I feel my personal political views are personal,” said Rabbi Steve Wernick of Adath Israel in Merion Station, Pa., a suburb of Philadelphia.

Wernick said he is happy to discuss his views with congregants privately because he already has a relationship with them, but he doesn't feel it necessary to broadcast his views to those who don't know him. He stressed, though, that he has no problem with colleagues who signed the letter.

“It's the way our system is supposed to work,” he said.

One Republican was critical of the rabbis for what he believed was a blurring of the church-state barrier.

“By linking their rabbinical position to a political campaign, they risk the charge of politicizing their positions and erasing the boundaries between church and state, which they typically seek to defend,” said Noam Neusner, a communications consultant who served as liaison to the Jewish community during part of the Bush administration.

Neusner said the Bush campaign did not encourage such a letter or organization of rabbis “because of the sensitivity of the church-state issue.”

Rabbis for Obama may be the first but not the last rabbinical effort backing a presidential candidate this election cycle.

Fred Zeidman, co-chair of the Republican Victory Jewish Coalition, said he spoke to some rabbis earlier this month -- and a few days before the unveiling of Rabbis for Obama -- who were interested in putting together a similar effort backing GOP candidate Sen. John McCain.

Deep South File :: Wide Range of Selichot Activities Planned

2008-09-14T16:11:00.002-05:00

On Sept. 20, congregations throughout the region will usher in the High Holy Days with Selichot evening services, and in some cases, special programs in conjunction with the services.

Birmingham's Temple Emanu-El will host a Selichot program that comes back home. Filmmaker Judith Schaefer will be on hand for a screening of her documentary, ‘So Long Are You Young,” about former Emanu-El lay rabbi Samuel Ullman.

“So Long Are You Young: Samuel Ullman’s Poem and Passion,” the diligently researched documentary by Judith Schaefer, reaches back into the mists of history to introduce us to a pillar of two Jewish communities in the South in the decades following the Civil War.

Ullman’s influence transcended both his lifetime and his region. Incongruously, a poem he wrote in his late 70s, in 1917, became a beacon of inspiration 30 years later in postwar Japan. That ode, “Youth,” is still so widely revered that Japanese tourists make pilgrimages to Birmingham to visit the museum where its author’s contributions are commemorated.

“So Long” marks the directorial debut of Schaefer, a longtime San Francisco Jewish Film Festival board member.

In the course of the one-hour film, numerous Japanese — including the legendary industrialist Kounosuke Matsushita, founder of Panasonic Electronics — recite lines from the poem they committed to memory as children.

“Nobody grows old by merely living a number of years,” one passage goes. “People grow old only by deserting their ideals.”

More of a meditation or inspirational reading, strictly speaking, than a poem, “Youth” resonated with a nation shocked and depressed by its devastating defeat. Gen. Douglas MacArthur, the respected provisional commander in postwar Japan, kept a framed copy displayed in his office, and it spread from there.

The phenomenon of a German Jew in the American South speaking so directly to Japanese children two generations later is as unexpected in its own way as Bronx Jewish schoolteacher Abel Meeropol’s ability to capture the horror of lynching in his lyrics to “Strange Fruit,” the song that Billie Holiday immortalized.

While the bond the Japanese feel toward Ullman is amazing, “So Long Are You Young” really finds its groove in its recounting of the merchant’s life.

Ullman was born in Germany in 1840, and was 10 when his family immigrated to the United States. They settled near an uncle in Mississippi, and when the Civil War erupted Ullman fought for the Confederacy.

Afterward, he married, opened a dry-goods store in Natchez, and raised six children. While no great success as a businessman, he was a respected conciliator who co-founded a Reform synagogue and served as alderman.

In 1884, Ullman moved the family to Birmingham, where he spent 16 years as a member and eventual head of the school board. He was instrumental in pushing through the first all-black public high school in the city in 1900.

He also served as lay rabbi at Emanu-El in the mid-1890s before the congregation hired Rabbi Morris Newfield, who later became Ullman’s son-in-law.

The film was released in 2006. The evening at Emanu-El will begin at 7 p.m. with a reception,
followed by the program and Selichot at 7:30 p.m.

(Michael Fox of j. the Jewish news weekly contributed to this report).

Birmingham’s Temple Beth-El will feature “With all Your Soul: The Story of Roi Klein.” Major Roi Klein was killed in the battle at Bint Jbeil in the Second Lebanon War. He died sacrificing himself to save his soldiers, as he leapt onto a hand grenade and cried out “Shma Yisrael.”

The film follows his sister, Yifat, as she traces his life and final days.

The program will conclude with a discussion and casual Selichot service followed by the sounding of the Shofar.

The program will begin at 7:30 p.m.

At Pensacola’s Temple Beth El, there will be a performance of music from the High Holy Days. The concert will be presented by Leonid Yanovskiy, Victoria Ademenko and Susie Griffith.

Yanovskiy is concertmaster of the Pensacola Symphony and is married to Ademenko, who is the congregation’s Shabbat pianist. She will play the organ at the Selichot event.
Griffith is Beth El’s High Holy Days choir director.

The evening will begin at 8 p.m. A dessert reception will follow the performance, which in turn will be followed by the Selichot service at 10:30 p.m.

In Montgomery, Temple Beth Or will join with Agudath Israel-Etz Ahayem at Agudath Israel for a 7:30 p.m. community play, led by Roy Goldfinger. There will be a discussion following the play, and then a brief Selichot service. Institute of Southern Jewish Life Fellow Amanda Rainey will be visiting during the weekend.

In Baton Rouge, B’nai Israel will have a viewing of “Snow in August” at 8 p.m., followed by a discussion of High Holy Day themes in the movie. The 2001 film is set in 1947 in New York, where a young Irish boy is paralyzed with fear after witnessing the savage beating of a Jewish shopkeeper. He turns to a rabbi who helps him to release the spirit of Golem, a legendary monster, which helps him to confront his tormentors and restore law and order.

Temple Sinai in New Orleans will have a program with Steve Brand, producer, writer and editor of “Praying With My Legs,” a film about Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel. The quote used as the title came from Heschel’s description of marching with Dr. Martin Luther King in Alabama in 1965.

Brand is an Emmy Award-winning film and television producer, having produced newsmagazine segments and long-form work for the three major television networks, as well as for PBS and cable outlets. His independent work has been shown theatrically throughout the United States and abroad, as well as on home video.

While working for 20/20, he did an Emmy-winning segment on Viola Liuzzo, who was killed after participating in the 1965 Selma to Montgomery civil rights march.

Heschel is regarded as one of the great Jewish thinkers of the 20th century. One of his major works was “God In Search of Man.” He was also known for his activism on behalf of civil rights.
The program will begin at 7 p.m., followed by a reception and Selichot at 9 p.m.

At Metairie's Shir Chadash, there will be a Selichot service and program at 8 p.m. The weekend will be the first visit for Andy Shugerman, a rabbinic Fellow from the Jewish Theological Seminary. Shugerman and Steven Rein will be serving the congregation this year as it searches for a full-time rabbi.

Touro Synagogue will have Selichot Under the Stars in New Orleans. At 8 p.m., there will be a Moonpies and Stardust dessert reception in the courtyard, followed by a candlelight Selichot at 8:30 p.m. The program is for adults and post-Bar/Bat Mitzvah teens. Pillows, blankets and lawn chairs are welcome.

Congregation Beth Israel and Congregation Gates of Prayer will have a “Selichot Havdallah Concert” at 8 p.m. at Gates of Prayer in Metairie. Rabbi Uri Topolosky and Rabbi Robert Loewy will lead the evening musically, with assistance from Dahlia Topolosky and Tory May. Everyone is invited to join the evening with their own instruments. Separate Selichot services will follow at 10 p.m.

Deep South File :: Dothan Intiative Draws National Attention

2008-09-12T13:09:00.000-05:00

An initiative to bring Jews to Dothan became a media sensation in early September.

In June, Blumberg Family Jewish Community Services of Dothan started advertising in a handful of Jewish newspapers across the country, touting an incentive package of up to $50,000 for up to 20 Jewish families willing to become part of the Dothan Jewish community for at least five years.

The first wave of publicity garnered 20 inquiries, but as of yet, no moving trucks have arrived.

Then the Associated Press ran a story on Sept. 8, and all of a sudden, Dothan is on the Jewish map.

Hundreds of newspapers have run the story, and in the first few days, the organization’s website has logged 150,000 hits and there have been about 500 inquiries from across the country. Over 100 have filled out a form on the website, seeking more information.

Larry Blumberg, who started the initiative, said he wants to see more young people for the community’s religious school, and newcomers to “help in the way of trying to create more of a family-type atmosphere in our temple.”

Temple Emanu-El has lost about half of its families in the last four decades, a trend that is common in small Jewish communities throughout the South.

Stuart Rockoff, historian at the Goldring/Woldenberg Institute of Southern Jewish Life in Jackson, said the Jewish population of the South is increasing, to just under 400,000, but primarily in larger communities.

Smaller communities have shrunk as children moved to larger communities after college, not returning to their hometowns.

In places like Clarksdale, Miss., Demopolis and Jasper, Ala., congregations have closed in the last couple of decades.

Blumberg does not want to see that happen in Dothan.

The initiative touts Dothan’s quality of life, from its reasonable cost of living to its proximity to Florida’s beaches.

The lack of traffic is also seen as a drawing card, as is the location of a Troy University campus and nearby Fort Rucker.

Rabbi Lynne Goldsmith, who moved to Dothan last year to become Emanu-El’s rabbi, said people in the Northeast have a “really warped perception” of the South. Even she did not know what to expect when she moved there.

The perception is wrong, she said. “The South is a wonderful place to be. The people are warm and friendly. There’s very little traffic. And best of all, there’s no snow.”

The Jewish community’s size has been a source of contention before. About seven years ago, then-Emanu-El Rabbi Larry Mahrer vigorously protested the city’s first-time exclusion from the American Jewish Yearbook, which lists all Jewish communities of more than 100.

Promotions to attract Jewish residents are not unusual, but the scope of Dothan’s incentives is larger than most.

New Orleans is offering a package of incentives to Jewish newcomers in an attempt to reach pre-Katrina numbers. Birmingham has launched a “You Belong in Birmingham” initiative, and Savannah is also advertising for newcomers.

In the early 1990s, members of Ohel Jacob, the now-defunct Orthodox congregation in Meridian, advertised nationally seeking to boost numbers to at least a minyan.

The Dothan incentives include grants for resettlement of up to $7500, $7500 for housing, $1000 for Emanu-El membership, $15,000 for repaying outstanding educational loans, $15,000 for small business seed money, $7500 for childrens’ private education, and $7500 for other financial obligations.

Applicants have to pass background and credit checks, submit written personal and rabbinic references, host an in-home visit where they live now, and travel to Dothan to meet the community.

There is no automatic entitlement to the incentives, they will be evaluated on a case by case basis.

Jewish Community Services was formed last year as an independent organization under the auspices of Temple Emanu-El. Robert Goldsmith, husband of Rabbi Goldsmith, is the executive director.

Families that stay in Dothan for five years after moving through the initiative and become active in Emanu-El do not have to repay the grant.

The Dothan Jewish community is part of the Jewish Federation of Central Alabama, based in Montgomery, and has close interfaith ties with local churches.

Nation File :: O.U. May Revoke Kosher Stamp For Agri As Criminal Charges Filed

2008-09-10T16:55:00.000-05:00

Ben Harris
The Agriprocessors kosher meat plant in Postville, Iowa.

By Ben Harris

NEW YORK (JTA) -- The filing of criminal charges against the owners of Agriprocessors has prompted the Orthodox Union, one of the meat company’s kosher certifiers, to promise it will suspend its kosher supervision unless new management is hired.

The O.U.’s announcement came Tuesday just hours after Iowa’s attorney general filed criminal charges against Agriprocessors and its principal owner, Aaron Rubashkin, on more than 9,000 counts of child labor violations related to operations at its plant in Postville.

“Within the coming days -- or, let’s say, a week or two -- we will suspend our supervision unless there's new management in place,” Rabbi Menachem Genack, the O.U.'s head of kosher supervision, told JTA. “I hope they're smart enough to recognize that new management is absolutely required.”

Agriprocessors’ products also are certified as kosher under the label of Rabbi M.M. Weissmandl. Asked if he would follow the O.U.’s lead in suspending supervision, Weissmandl demurred.

“My business is kashrut,” he told JTA. “As long as the high kosher standards are in place, I'm not removing any hechsher. My business is to make sure that the place is 100 percent kosher.”

The attorney general's complaint represents the first criminal charges to be brought against the company's owners since a May 12 immigration raid resulted in the arrest of nearly 400 illegal immigrant workers in Postville. Each day an underage employee reported for work qualifies as a criminal charge -- hence the 9,000 counts -- and each is punishable by up to 30 days in jail and a fine.

Genack emphasized that the O.U. would suspend its supervision on the basis of the charges alone and not on a conviction. He also said the Rubashkins could continue to be involved in ownership and operation of the plant and retain O.U. certification as long as an independent CEO is named.

The criminal complaint and affidavit filed Tuesday in Allamakee County District Court named as defendants Rubashkin, his son Sholom, who managed the Postville plant until late May, and three human resources employees.

The affidavit alleges that the five hired underage workers, retained them as employees and/or concealed their presence during inspections -- or assisted in doing those things.

“All of the named individual defendants possessed shared knowledge that Agriprocessors employed undocumented aliens,” the affidavit alleges. “It was likewise shared knowledge among the defendants that many of those workers were minors. The company’s hiring practices encouraged job applicants to submit identification documents which were forgeries, and known to contain false information as to resident alien status, age and identity.”

Agriprocessors issued a statement Tuesday denying the allegations. The company said that underage workers had lied about their age and that their employment was terminated if they were discovered.

“In order to convict, the state is going to have to prove that the defendants willfully violated the child labor laws,” the company said. “That means that the state, as to every one of the alleged violations, is going to have to prove that each defendant knew that the employee was underage on the day in question, and knew that it was against the law for the person to be employed in the manner alleged. The state will not be able to carry this burden of proof.”

The O.U. had said it would suspend its supervision if criminal charges were brought against the owners of Agriprocessors.

On Tuesday, Genack said he was not withdrawing supervision immediately because he wanted to act “responsibly, not precipitously,” and with sensitivity toward the company, its employees and kosher consumers.

“We want to be responsible in terms of our obligations, in terms of supply and communal needs, and in terms of the workers there,” Genack told JTA.

The O.U.'s threat further jeopardizes the ability of Agriprocessors, which controls a sizable portion of the country's kosher meat and poultry market, to meet the rising demand that typically accompanies the High Holidays.

Agriprocessors has struggled to restore its production capacity since the May 12 raid, when nearly half its workforce was taken into federal custody.

Its competitors already have moved to fill the void. On Monday, a kosher industry publication reported that Empire Kosher, a poultry producer, is entering the kosher meat market.

Genack said the O.U. has been pushing for reforms at Agriprocessors since the May raid, including replacing Sholom Rubashkin as CEO and hiring a compliance officer.

On May 23, the company announced that Sholom Rubashkin would be stepping down from his post, but he remains a presence at the plant and no replacement has been named. Two weeks later the company hired Jim Martin, a former U.S. Attorney, as compliance officer.

Genack also said he was reaching out to various players in a bid to “stabilize” the situation in Postville. He mentioned the United Food and Commercial Workers Union, which he said could be helpful if it unionized the Postville plant’s workers.

The UFCW long has waged a battle to organize Agriprocessors’ employees, but so far without success.

Nation File :: Conservatives' Kosher Initiative Launches High Holidays Drive

2008-09-08T16:51:00.000-05:00

Harry Baumert/Des Moines Register
Students from the Yeshiva of Northeast Iowa in Postville gather across the street from Agriprocessors Inc. to ask questions of U.S. Immigration and Customs officials regarding the raid on May 12, 2008.

By Sue Fishkoff

SAN FRANCISCO (JTA) -- Leaders of the Conservative movement’s ethical kashrut certification program are taking their campaign to the next level.

They are inviting Conservative rabbis to sign onto the Hekhsher Tzedek initiative, meeting with at least one Orthodox kosher certification agency and making initial overtures to selected kosher food producers that might seek the new certification.

“We are moving this forward in the American Jewish community in a very powerful yet sensitive fashion,” said Rabbi Morris Allen of Beth Jacob Congregation in Mendota Heights, Minn., Hekhsher Tzedek’s project director.

"Doors have opened,” he said, since the Hekhsher Tzedek guidelines were released July 31, outlining five areas of ethical and environmental standards against which kosher food producers are to be measured. “People want to talk to us more.”

E-mails were sent the week of Aug. 25 to the 1,600 members of the Rabbinical Assembly, the professional association of Conservative rabbis, inviting them to partner with Hekhsher Tzedek in a High Holidays drive.

The e-mail asked rabbis to address Hekhsher Tzedek in their High Holidays sermons, and includes a model sermon and teaching materials. It also commits those who sign on to buy products carrying the Hekhsher Tzedek seal once it is applied, a process that could begin as early as January, according to project co-chair Rabbi Michael Siegel of Anshe Emet Synagogue in Chicago.

“There’s been a very positive response,” Siegel said. “Rabbis have been looking for a way to get more involved.”

Last month, the Reform rabbinical association, the Central Conference of American Rabbis, endorsed Hekhsher Tzedek, calling on Reform Jews to "conider" the initative's guidelines when making dietary choices.

The materials are being made available to rabbis from other denominations, although the e-mail was sent only to Conservative rabbis.

Rabbi Barry Starr of Temple Israel in Sharon, Mass., received the appeal Aug. 29. Noting that he has already done “a lot of outreach” about Hekhsher Tzedek within his congregation, Starr said he would “mention” it during the holidays, but it “will not be the sole theme of my sermon.”

“Many of my people are already not buying products from Agriprocessors,” he said, referring to the kosher meat company whose plant in Postville, Iowa, was the target of a massive immigration raid in May.

Rabbi David Glickman of Congregation Shearith Israel in Dallas told JTA that while he supports Hekhsher Tzedek’s focus on the ethical dimensions of kosher food production, he does not know what his 1,200-member congregation will decide to do about the partnership invitation.

“We’ve come out publicly in support of the concept and for the need for ethical treatment of workers in factories,” he said. But, he added, “It’s important not to rush to judgment when accusing any particular company.”

The Hekhsher Tzedek guidelines are the result of two years of work by a Conservative-sponsored commission that came together after a 2006 investigation of workers’ complaints at Agriprocessors.

Since the guidelines were made public, Allen said project leaders and colleagues from Jewish Community Action, a social justice group based in St. Paul, Minn., have been talking to “people inside the kosher industry,” including rabbis from Orthodox certification agencies and kosher food companies that might be the first candidates for the Hekhsher Tzedek seal. The seal’s design will be released soon, he said.

The commission is testing the metrics developed by KLD Research and Analytics, Inc., an independent investment research firm, to measure how companies behave in five categories: wages and benefits, employee health and safety, product development and animal welfare, corporate transparency and environmental impact. They are test-marketing the standards with one kosher food producer.

An unintended result of the Agriprocessors raid, Allen said, was that it opened a national dialogue about what kosher means, and brought the politics and ethics of Jewish dietary laws to the front pages of secular newspapers across the country.

“People are really talking about Judaism and dietary habits and the importance of finding kosher food they’re comfortable buying,” he said. “It’s a very powerful thing that is happening.”

Rabbi Menachem Creditor of Congregation Netivot Shalom in Berkeley, Calif., was pleased to receive last week’s e-mail.

“I was relieved to see that the talk has translated into action,” he said.

Saying he is “curious” to see how Conservative rabbis will respond, Creditor wonders what the movement-wide effect will be if large numbers of synagogues refuse to join the effort.

“This," he said, "may be a mirror moment for the Conservative movement."

Deep South File :: Jewish New Orleans Undergoing Dramatic Transformation

2008-09-04T16:41:00.000-05:00

Gail Naron Chalew
Interfaith partners from the Isaiah Funds project stand in front of a New Orleans home renovated with money from the fund.

By Gail Naron Chalew

NEW ORLEANS (JTA) -- Three years since Hurricane Katrina devastated the Gulf Coast, the face of Jewish New Orleans is undergoing a dramatic transformation.

The traditional Southern community that was nearly destroyed by the hurricane on Aug. 29, 2005 has been energized by an influx of young newcomers and has a new pioneering spirit, community leaders say.

"We are moving from a community in recovery to a community of transformation,” said Michael Weil, the executive director of the Jewish Federation of Greater New Orleans. "Our agencies and synagogues are now mostly back on track.”

Weil says, however, that the community isn’t merely interested in returning to where it was before the storm.

“Katrina has given us the opportunity to reinvent an entire American Jewish community," he said.

While the first two anniversaries of the hurricane were marked by exhaustion, reconstruction and the consuming effort of getting lives back to normal, this year’s Katrina anniversary is being met with cautious optimism.

Jewish community leaders say the recovery effort has turned a corner and they are looking forward to a richer and more vibrant community.

Newcomers, estimated at 10 percent of the Jewish population here, already are having a significant impact on the community. In one example, enrollment at the federation-sponsored community day school, which fell by nearly 75 percent after Katrina, has nearly doubled from last year.

Some 600 Jewish newcomers have moved to New Orleans since Katrina, some no doubt drawn by the federation's Newcomer Incentives Program. The program offers eligible newcomers up to $5,500 for moving and rental housing expenses, interest-free loans of up to $30,000 for housing and business start-ups, half-price tuition at the community Jewish day school and a year's free membership at a synagogue of their choice, the JCC, local Jewish organizations and even JDate.

An extension of the Newcomer Program called JGRAD launched this month with the aim of keeping Jewish graduates of Tulane and other local universities in New Orleans. The program matches them with a job counselor and provides rental grants, help in repaying student loans and a signing bonus of $500 when they land their first job.

Until recently, most of the newcomers have been single and married young professionals without children. But now families with young children are coming, too, says the newcomer program’s director, Jennifer Samuels.

“This is a really strong vote of confidence in the future of New Orleans and the vitality of our Jewish community,” Samuels said.

One family -- Mardi Steinitz, Patrick O'Connor and their son, Rowan -- moved here from Philadelphia when Rowan was 3 months old. Patrick works as a producer for a local television news show; Mardi is a stay-at-home mom.

"Before we moved here, all I knew about New Orleans was the negative things I had heard on TV," Mardi told JTA. "But I have fallen in love with it, much more than any other place I have lived before. This is really like a small town where everyone is so friendly and warm. It is so easy to make new friends, and I can walk everywhere."

Rabbi Uri Topolosky, whose flooded synagogue, Beth Israel, became famous three years ago when photos of its Torahs being rescued in chest-deep water circulated worldwide, said New Orleans’ Modern Orthodox community is growing, too.

"New Orleans is probably the fastest growing Modern Orthodox community in the country today, percentage-wise, with the four new families that have moved here recently,” he said. “In a small Jewish community like New Orleans, every new observant family really makes a significant impact. Because kosher food and day school are priorities for these families, they help strengthen the institutions that the entire Jewish community can benefit from.”

Beth Israel has launched an effort called The Minyan Project to attract 10 new Orthodox families to the community. In return for generous financial assistance, the families will commit to providing community service, from maintaining the eruv enclosure that’s due to be completed within the month to assisting in kosher supervision at a local supermarket.

Three years after Katrina, the flow of Jewish volunteers to New Orleans from synagogues, Hillel campus centers and schools across the country has not decreased, either.

Some of the estimated 10,000 Jewish volunteers who have come to New Orleans since the hurricane to rebuild flooded homes and beautify damaged neighborhoods have moved to the city, and others have returned multiple times.

Nine young Jewish volunteers will arrive this fall for a year of community service under the auspices of Avodah: The Jewish Service Corps, which is opening its fourth site in the nation in New Orleans.

Starting in September, the volunteers will join staff at nonprofits that provide legal services, health care, and social and educational services to Louisianans in need.

The volunteers’ communal home will serve as a hub of Jewish programs for Jewish young adults in the area.

One of the volunteers, Eliza Baron of Millburn, N.J., came here in December 2005 to help gut homes damaged by the storm.

"I was struck not only by the obvious devastation, but also by the love, loyalty and pride for New Orleans that was emanating from nearly every New Orleanian I met,” she said. “I found the sentiment to be contagious and have jumped at nearly every opportunity I could to volunteer in a variety of ways since.”

Under Avodah, she will be working as a client welfare specialist at the public defender’s office.

In another long-term commitment to the recovery of New Orleans, Jewish Funds for Justice is playing a leading role in an interfaith partnership, the Isaiah Funds, which provides $4.5 million in loans and grants to the Gulf Coast.

On Friday, Jewish Funds for Justice will launch the first person-to-person microloan program in the country, called 8th Degree. It will partner with contributors nationwide to provide loans to small business owners on the Gulf Coast.

"Though much of the Gulf Coast has regained the appearance of normalcy, low- and moderate-income communities are still very much in need of patient, low-cost capital to rebuild their neighborhoods and businesses,” said Jeffrey Dekro, the executive director of Jewish Funds for Justice. "The Isaiah Funds represent the highest degree of tzedakah."

Despite all the energy, continuing to develop the Jewish community will require significant funding, including from sources outside the community. This month the federation is launching a $30 million fund-raising campaign called the Fund for the Future.

"With disaster comes opportunity, and this funding will enable us to take advantage of this historic opportunity now to transform an historic American Jewish community," Weil said.

(JTA Staff contributed to this report.)

Deep South File :: Getting back to normal in New Orleans

2008-09-03T16:21:00.003-05:00

After the menace of Hurricane Gustav, residents are making their way back to the New Orleans area, and Jewish institutions are planning to reopen this weekend.

Michael Weil, executive director of the Jewish Federation of Greater New Orleans, returned yesterday after riding out the storm in Memphis. He reported that aside from half a tree sitting on the pool house at the Goldring/Woldenberg Jewish Community Campus in Metairie, Jewish institutions and agencies "are intact." Much of the city is without power, and the sewers are not yet functioning normally in parts of the city.

Both JCC locations are scheduled to reopen this Sunday, and the New Orleans Jewish Day School will begin classes on Monday.

A major event in the community, the installation of Rabbi Alexis Berk at Touro Synagogue, has been postponed from this coming Friday night. A new date will be announced soon. The congregation, which reports a power outage but no serious damage, is also postponing the first day of Sunday School to Sept. 14.

As reported earlier, Beth Israel will hold an unveiling on Sept. 21 for a cemetery marker where the congregation's Katrina Torahs were buried. The ceremony had been scheduled for Aug. 31.

The Federation's annual meeting, scheduled for Sept. 10 at the Metairie campus, will go on as scheduled.

Ned Goldberg, director of Jewish Children's Regional Service, said Mitzvah Day at the campus will proceed on Sept. 14.

About 150 members of the New Orleans Jewish community took refuge at the Henry S. Jacobs Camp in Utica, Miss., during the storm.

Weil noted that New Orleans Jewish Family Service is available for returnees who need assistance, and can be reached at (504) 831-8475, or emailing jfs (at) jfsneworleans.org.

Biloxi breather

For the Jewish community of Biloxi/Gulfport, Gustav was little more than a nuisance. Beth Israel congregation, which lost its building in Hurricane Katrina, is still on schedule to hold a groundbreaking ceremony on Oct. 26 in Gulfport.

There was no damage at Beauvoir United Methodist Church, which has hosted Beth Israel since the storm. The congregation will hold High Holy Day services at Keesler Air Force Base once again, for what they hope will be the last time.

It is estimated that the new building will take 10 months to complete.

Deep South File :: Bracing for Gustav

2008-08-31T21:45:00.003-05:00

For the New Orleans Jewish community, this weekend was supposed to be much different.

Today, Beth Israel Congregation was to unveil a headstone where they buried the congregation's seven Torahs that were destroyed in Hurricane Katrina three years ago. Photos of the scrolls' evacuation through waist-deep water in the congregation's sanctuary were published worldwide after Katrina.

The ceremony was to cap a weekend that was to mark the progress New Orleans has made in the three years since being devastated after the levees failed during what is known locally simply as "the storm."

In addition to reopening all of the city's Jewish institutions despite a drop in Jewish residents from 9,500 pre-Katrina to about 7,000 afterward, incentive programs that are part of "reinventing" the community have attracted about 600 Jewish newcomers.

Instead of marking such progress, the Jewish community joined the rest of the city in leaving town in advance of Hurricane Gustav, which as of now is a Category 3 storm -- the same strength as Katrina was when it made landfall.

Gustav is expected to make landfall tomorrow night.

"These are difficult and strange times for us all," said Michael Weil, executive director of the Jewish Federation of Greater New Orleans, in an email to community members today. Weil, who was hired as executive director two years ago to guide the community's recovery, is riding out the storm in Memphis.

The Union of Reform Judaism's Henry S. Jacobs Camp in Utica, Miss., is reliving its Katrina role as a haven for displaced New Orleanians.

Other community members have fanned out across the region, staying with friends or relatives in places like Birmingham, Atlanta and throughout Texas.

In advance of the storm, the city's two Jewish Community Centers closed on Friday and announced plans to reopen on Wednesday.

The Federation's emergency plan is in place, with regular updates at its website, www.jewishnola.com, and through a phone message at (800) 510-8133.

Community members can relate their whereabouts to the Federation by emailing emergency (at) jewishnola.com, or jfgno1 (at) gmail.com.

"This is the time to gather strength, reflect, say a few words of prayer and hope for the best," Weil said.

On Thursday, Levees.org held a premiere of "The Katrina Myth: The Truth about a Thoroughly Unnatural Disaster" at Touro Synagogue. The film warns that what happened to the levees around New Orleans can also happen in many other parts of the country where there are projects also done by the Army Corps of Engineers.

Levees.org was founded after Hurricane Katrina at a kitchen table by Sandy Rosenthal, 51 and her son Stanford, then 15, while living in Lafayette, Louisiana after evacuating from New Orleans. The group now has chapters in Florida and California and numbers nearly 21,000 members.

On Friday, the anniversary of Katrina, Temple Sinai held an interfaith commemoration with representatives from the Christian and Muslim communities.

Also on Friday, Beth Israel began its commemoration weekend with Friday mincha outside its flooded-out building in the Lakeview district.

Since the storm, the Orthodox Beth Israel has met at Gates of Prayer, a Reform congregation in Metairie.

Myron Goldberg, center, president of Congregation Beth Israel, conducts a memorial Mincha service Friday, Aug. 29, to commemorate the third anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, at the old Beth Israel synagogue on Canal Blvd in New Orleans. Photo by Alexander Barkoff.

H. J. Bosworth, Dee Boling and Sandy Rosenthal, three leaders of Levees.org, at the Thursday premiere. Photo by Alan Smason.

Update :: Rabbi Flax to speak Tuesday night

2008-08-29T07:41:00.002-05:00

According to a schedule released by the Republican National Convention 2008, Rabbi Ira Flax of Birmingham will lead the delegates in prayer on Tuesday, not Wednesday as originally reported. The retired Air Force chaplain, a Conservative rabbi, will speak on the day the convention's theme is "Reform."

As of this morning, there are reports that the McCain campaign is considering delaying the convention if Hurricane Gustav makes a direct hit on New Orleans early next week.

Deep South File :: Alabama Rabbi Asked to Give Republican Convention Invocation

2008-08-18T11:13:00.002-05:00

Rabbi Ira Flax, a retired military chaplain now living in Birmingham, has been asked to give the invocation during the Wednesday session of the Republican National Convention.

The convention will be Sept. 1 to 4 in Minneapolis-St. Paul. Flax said he was asked to deliver an invocation on Sept. 3, likely at the evening session.

Flax said he was contacted by convention organizers on Aug. 14, and "I was very excited... it's an honor just to be asked."

Yohana de la Torre, deputy press secretary for the convention, would not confirm the schedule, saying it is has not been finalized or released.

When it comes to the convention schedule, Flax cautioned "Everything is subject to change."

Flax began his Air Force career in Biloxi, Miss., in 1988, and has served in Germany, Turkey and Nebraska, and the Air Force Academy in Colorado. He smuggled his tallit and tefillin into Saudi Arabia, a country that can and will confiscate non-Muslim religious objects, even from military members. He also was the only chaplain on duty at the base in Germany the night 57 wounded Rangers were brought in from Somalia in the "Black Hawk Down" incident.

When he was stationed at Maxwell Air Force Base in Montgomery starting in 2003, he moved his family to Birmingham and chose to retire there after a final posting in Texas. He retired as a Lieutenant Colonel on June 1.

This month, Flax will also begin serving as a visiting rabbi for Beth Israel in Biloxi. The congregation lost its building in Hurricane Katrina and has been meeting at a church for almost three years. Groundbreaking on a new building in nearby Gulfport is anticipated in the next couple of months.

Flax will visit Biloxi monthly to lead services. "It's kind of a nice homecoming," he said, since that is where he first started.

Nation File :: Camps' Color Wars Turn Green As Campers Seek More Aid

2008-08-15T15:50:00.000-05:00

Foundation for Jewish Camp
Camper at a Jewish camp tries his hand at archery.

By Jacob Berkman

NEW YORK (JTA) -- As social service agencies and charities brace for the fallout from the country's economic downturn, Jewish overnight camps already have felt the crunch: They are reporting a dramatic increase in requests for financial aid this summer.

More than 70,000 Jewish children attend some 150 nonprofit Jewish overnight camps. That number reflects an increase in recent years as the Foundation for Jewish Camp, working with other local agencies and private foundations, has engaged in a multimillion-dollar program to provide incentives to first-time campers.

The focus on camping comes as recent studies have shown that Jewish summer camps are the most effective form of informal Jewish education and identity building.

But many American Jews who once could afford camps, which can cost upwards of $7,000 for a season, are finding themselves priced out because of the squeeze on family budgets due to the economic downturn. This year they increasingly asked for help, according to camping officials.

“The pressure on the scholarship line to support families has been at the highest point that they have seen in many, many years,” said the executive director of the Foundation for Jewish Camp, Jerry Silverman. “In my time I haven’t seen this type of situation from a sense of pressure on the percentage of dollars they are being asked to use to support their campers.”

Silverman said the increased request has been heard across the country. To make up for the scholarship crunch, he said, many camps have been forced to cut other budget items, such as off-campus trips, food and maintenance staff, busing and capital improvements.

Camp directors and agencies that provide financial aid for camps almost uniformly confirmed Silverman's observation.

Camp Ramah New England had to increase its budget line for financial aid from $180,000 last year to more than $200,000 this summer, according to its executive director, Rabbi Ed Gelb.

The Combined Jewish Philanthropies in Boston tripled the number of scholarships it doled out for camp this year, according to its director of informal education, Ed Pletman.

In New York, the UJA-Federation of New York increased its budget for scholarships for overnight camps from $400,000 to $550,000 to help ease the situation, Louise Greilsheimer, the federation’s senior vice president for agency and external affairs, told JTA.

In Philadelphia, the Jewish Federation of Greater Philadelphia saw a 15 percent increase in requests for financial aid, according to its manager of allocations, Brian Mono.

And on the West Coast, the country's largest financial aid program for Jewish residential camps, which is run out of the Bureau of Jewish Education of San Francisco, the Peninsula, Marin and Sonoma, received 180 more applications this year than it did last year, according to its financial aid director, Janet Rothman.

"On average, a three-week camping experience in California is about $3,200, and if there are multiple siblings, for some people there is just no way you can afford that," Rothman said. "Absolutely the economic downturn is driving people to us."

Many of the new requests are coming from higher-income applicants.

The federation in Philadelphia, for instance, received 81 applications from families with net household incomes above $100,000, according to Mono. Twenty of them received aid, primarily because they also were paying for day school tuition.

The Foundation for Jewish Camp is trying to double the number of Jewish children enrolled in Jewish overnight camps and has been working with private foundations to give out non-need-based incentives of up to several thousand dollars to first-time campers through its Campership program.

Camping officials said it isn't clear now if the scholarships helped ease some of the financial pain or if the influx of campers has also brought an influx of campers with financial needs. But it is clear that in some parts of the country, the program itself has been crimped by the economy.

The New York federation, for instance, saw a slowdown in the growth of its incentive program as fewer parents than expected applied for the scholarships, said Greilsheimer. Despite the discount from the scholarships, parents simply could not afford to pay the rest of the price of tuition, she said.

The situation stands to get worse, according to Miriam Chilton, the director of business operations for camping and Israel programs for the Union for Reform Judaism.

The URJ operates 12 overnight camps for some 9,000 campers and allocates about $1 million annually for three financial aid programs, Chilton said. But for next year, the URJ already is looking at increasing the financial aid number to $1.5 million.

Camp officials told JTA they already are starting to raise more money for next year.

The Foundation for Jewish Camp has never been in the business of giving need-based scholarships. But for the first time, Silverman said, the foundation is considering rolling out a financial aid component.

In New York, it is running a pilot program with two camps to help the neediest attend camp, as well as to help them with supplementary money to pay for clothes and other camp expenses.

Increasing dollars will be a daunting task, Chilton said, given that fund raising becomes even more difficult in a tightened economy. She said she already has seen "donors who are taking much, much longer to commit."

"It's a catch-22 situation because often times when need is greatest, funding is the lowest, and that is goign to be the conundrum going forward," Chilton said.

And, she added, "The question is how long can we sustain this. If it is one season, we will be OK. But the question is will it be multiple years."

World File :: For Kampala's Needy Orphans, Israel Provides A Shining Light

2008-08-14T15:47:00.001-05:00

Jonathan Pulik
Qasasa Ayeha, the head teacher at the Little Light Children’s Centre in Kampala, builds a sand castle with preschoolers on an outing to the Entebbe Botanical Garden.

By Jonathan Pulik

KAMPALA, Uganda (JTA) -- Bleak and dusty, the Namuwongo slum stretches along the main rail line that runs through this capital city.

Shantytown dwellers who use the tracks as a pedestrian thoroughfare are killed or maimed regularly by passing trains.

Yards away, among the wooden shacks, stand the bamboo walls of a kindergarten for some of the slum's neediest children.

Started last year by an oncologiy intern from Tel Aviv who was volunteering in Uganda with the Israel-based humanitarian aid organization Brit Olam, the Little Light Children's Centre is filled with AIDS orphans, children who are disabled and disfigured, and regular kids from the slums.

''We decided to invest in young children with no place to go, nourish them and prepare them for school,'' says the physician, Shiri Tenenboim, who has since returned to Israel. She helps manage the school's administration and fund-raising efforts from Tel Aviv.

Children come to Little Light from as far away as neighboring Congo, where a savage war turned them and their families into refugees. One girl's face is scarred permanently by burns from a falling candle that set her bed alight as she slept. Fewer than 10 percent of Ugandans have electricity at home.

Five days a week, about 60 children aged 3 to 7 eat a nutritious breakfast and learn from teachers who are trained with funds raised in Israel. The money comes from donations made by Israeli companies and funds raised by the sale in Israel of bead necklaces made in Uganda.

Along with a steady stream of Israeli volunteers, the kindergarten is run by Qasasa Ayeha, a resident of the slum, a devout Muslim and a diehard fan of Israel's Maccabi Haifa soccer club.

Not yet a formally qualified teacher, Qasasa is in the midst of two years of training -- paid for with Israeli donations. She says the experience has changed her view of Israelis.

''I had never met Israelis before,'' she says. ''I knew them as inflexible and sophisticated weapons makers. After seeing the film about the storming of Entebbe, I thought they had supernatural powers!''

For their part, the Israeli volunteers say that what impresses them about Qasasa is her ''innate wisdom'' and versatility. Qasasa even improvised a religion-neutral grace before meals that works for both the kindergarten's Christian and Muslim children. In Uganda, prayer is a fixture in most schools and in the workplace.

On a weekend outing to the Entebbe botanical garden some 20 miles from Kampala, Qasasa stands at the ready with her first-aid kit, nursing scrapes and mosquito bites almost before they happen. For some of the children, it is their first ride in a car. One toddler becomes motion sick, vomiting on her Sunday best.

Later, playing soccer with the children, Qasasa's flowing black abaya doesn't stop her from diving to the ground to make a save.

''The kids really change when they come to the school,'' she says. ''Some used to buy alcohol. Now it's sweets. I give them basic knowledge, and they take it higher.''

Until Little Light was established, many of the children who attend the kindergarten spent their days picking through the mountains of trash that litter the slum. Searching for scrap metal, bottles and other valuables, they'd sell their findings for a few cents to feed themselves and their families.

''They had nails like talons to scavenge,'' Qasasa says.

In the school's early days, heavy rains would turn its dirt floor into a muddy quagmire. Then an Israeli construction firm in Kampala poured a concrete floor here free of charge.

Mercy Annet, whose 3-year-old son Kinene Ramson attends the preschool, says the school has helped make Kinene healthy and strong.

''They care so much for the kids,'' Annet says. ''They give him milk, which we can't afford.''

Tenenboim says eventually the school will be part of a comprehensive, community-run center that will also host older children and evening parenting classes. It just may take a little time.

"It’s the difficult things that we do quickly; the impossible takes a little longer,'' she says, quoting the late Israeli Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion.

''Israel is now a flourishing country, an example to struggling ones like Uganda. I see international aid as the new Zionism,'' Tenenboim says. ''We did it ourselves with the help of the international community. Now it's time to give back.''

World File :: Relief Groups Assist Refugees Caught In Caucasus Conflict

2008-08-13T15:44:00.000-05:00

American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee
Victims of the Georgia-Russia conflict adjust to their new surroundings in a Russian refugee camp in Alagir, on the border of South Ossetia.

By Grant Slater

MOSCOW (JTA) – Vissarion Manasherov left his city as the bombs were falling.

One day later, on Monday, with bombs still falling, he returned to Gori, a city at the edge of war, to convince the few Jewish families still in the area to leave. The Russians were at their doorstep, he told them.

Manasherov, the community's leader and a local emissary for the Jewish Agency for Israel, said he fled to the Georgian capital of Tbilisi with a wave of 200 Jews, leaving fewer than a dozen compatriots behind.

"I was the last to leave," he said. "But I went back. And we'll go back."

As the conflict between Georgia and Russia moved toward an uneasy stalemate Tuesday, the migration of refugees away from the devastated capital of the breakaway republic of South Ossetia spread further and more Jews emerged from the fog of war.

Ossetians and Georgians fled north to Russia through a mountain tunnel or south to Tbilisi, while others boarded planes to Israel.

The evacuation effort has been a lightning, joint project of international Jewish organizations working in close conjunction with the Israeli government. The Israeli Embassy has become a hub of activity where leaders and refugees have shuttled to and from since the conflict began.

The American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, one of the agencies working on the ground, estimates that more than 700 Jews have been displaced in recent days.

Jews caught on both sides of the conflict looked back at the damage with starkly different political viewpoints.

"Who's at fault? Who bombed whom? Who fired the first shot?" Manasherov said by telephone from the Israeli Embassy in Tbilisi. "War is war. It's hard to say who is right and who is at fault."

Russia has taken a hard line against Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili, branding his initial incursion into South Ossetia as genocide and strongly defending its campaign into undisputed Georgian territory.

Following days of fighting, which left an estimated 2000 dead and scores more wounded, leaders from Georgia and Russia took tentative steps toward ending the latest conflagration in the war-weary Caucasus region -- Russia's largest use of force outside its borders since 1989.

On Tuesday, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev announced an end to attacks beyond Georgia's border with South Ossetia while Saakashvili pressed a cease-fire agreement. Saakashvili also announced to thousands in Tbilisi that Georgia would leave the Commonwealth of Independent States, an umbrella organization largely controlled by Russia.

The conflagration began Aug. 8 when Russian tanks and soldiers poured into South Ossetia, which fought a war for independence from Georgia in the early 1990s. Russia said it was protecting its citizens and peacekeepers from a Georgian attempt to secure the capital, Tskhinvali.

Amid the uncertainty, Jewish rescue and relief agencies worked throughout the fighting and planned to continue their work to assist refugees in need.

The Jewish Agency helped evacuate 31 Georgians to Israel aboard special flights Tuesday. The agency said others have applied to make aliyah and their paperwork is being expedited.

Alex Katz, the Jewish Agency's emissary to the former Soviet Union, accompanied Gori's community leader Manasherov to the city on Monday and saw columns of Georgian troops leaving the city.

The JDC, meanwhile, has eight representatives in the region helping to locate and rescue local Jews, as well as provide food and medical relief in both Georgia and Russia.

The head regional representative said the JDC had helped evacuate a Jewish family from a bombed-out building in Gori on Monday.

Most of the more than 200 Georgian Jewish refugees who have made their way to Tbilisi are staying with relatives and friends there. Between 10,000 to 12,000 Jews live in Georgia, mostly in the capital.

The local Chabad community, headed by Rabbi Avraham Michaelashvili, organized a three-day blood drive for victims, and Chabad rabbis have worked to ensure safe passage for a group of 50 Israeli tourists vacationing on the Black Sea, according to reports from the Chabad Web site.

In the South Ossetian city of Tskhinvali, the JDC listed the number of Jews at 19, as of one month ago. Before wave after wave of ethnic conflict shook the foundations of Tskhinvali starting in 1992, there was a growing Jewish community of more than 2,000 people in the city of 30,000.

Nothing was heard for days from these refugees.

But the JDC representative in Vladikavkaz, the Russian regional capital closest to the conflict, said they had located five of the Tskhinvali Jews, including girls aged 6 and 16. The girls had made their way to the Russian city with the younger girl's grandmother after spending several days huddled in a basement without food or water.

The representative, who spoke on condition of anonymity owing to safety concerns, said the experience of hiding from the shelling in the Ossetian capital had badly shaken the teenager.

On the Russian border, the representative said the Russian government was refusing help from international aid organizations and the JDC was the only nongovernmental organization operating in Vladikavkaz.

In the United States, the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, alongside a group that advocates for Jews in the former Soviet Union, NCSJ, released a statement rebuking Russia for its forays into Georgian territory and calling for an end to the hostilities.

"We urge that the cease-fire be implemented fully and immediately, and that the status quo be re-established," the statement said.

Local Jewish groups were more reluctant to take sides.

World File :: Maccabiah Bridge Collapse Survivor Beats The Odds To Reach Beijing

2008-08-12T15:40:00.000-05:00

Peter Haskin/Australian Jewish News
David Zalcberg in action at the Maccabi Pan Am Games in Buenos Aires, Argentina, in December 2007.

By Dan Goldberg

SYDNEY, Australia (JTA) -- David Zalcberg has cheated death and defied his doctors to compete in Beijing.

Zalcberg was 16, a rising Australian table tennis star, when he survived what he called the "horrendous experience" of the 1997 Maccabiah Games disaster.

A footbridge collapsed, plunging him and the rest of the Australian team into the polluted waters of the Yarkon River.

Four Australians died and scores were injured, including one of Zalcberg's table tennis teammates, who broke both of his legs.

Zalcberg would face more challenges.

In 2006, during the Commonwealth Games in Melbourne, the left-hander suffered a prolapsed disc, sending him to the sidelines for eight months. In January 2007, during his first training session, he crashed his bicycle and broke his arm in two places.

“The doctors said I would never play again,” he told JTA on the eve of his departure for China.

It wasn’t until mid-2007 that he began the long road to recovery. Last month he won the doubles championship at the Australian Open, with partner William Henzel, for the third time.

Zalcberg, 27, says qualifying for Beijing was a bigger deal than competing at the Athens Olympics in 2004.

“I feel very, very lucky," he says. "The highlight of my career, for sure, would have to be qualifying for these Olympics.”

Zalcberg is one of six table tennis players – three men and three women – from the Oceania region to reach Beijing. The top 64 players in the world qualify for the Olympics and compete in singles and a Davis Cup-style team event, which begins Wednesday.

He was the lone Australian Jewish athlete to make it to Beijing. Four qualified for Athens.

Zalcberg, who grew up playing at Maccabi and has competed at the North American and Pan-American Maccabi Games, recognizes the irony of playing table tennis in China -- the overwhelming favorite to take the gold medal.

“It’s ridiculous,” he said. “To the Chinese it’s the premier event; they are so good. They have 20 million players and we have 20 million people in the whole of Australia!”

A graduate of Mount Scopus College, one of the largest Jewish schools in the country, Zalcberg just completed his medical degree and will begin working as a trainee doctor when he returns from China.

Regardless of his medal chances, Zalcberg is grateful to be donning a green-and-gold jersey for his country.

“I feel very lucky just to be able to get here,” he said. “This one’s pretty special.”

Israel File :: Israeli Swimmer's Olympic Dreams Marred By Father's Tragic Death

2008-08-11T00:27:00.000-05:00

By Roy Eitan

JERUSALEM (JTA) -- Israeli swimmer Alon Mandel realized his father's dream when he qualified for the Olympic team.

Sadly, his father won't be there to see his son compete, after an accident at the family's Netanya home claimed Costa Mandel's life.

In a tragic irony, Alon, 20, was in Beijing preparing to vie for a medal when he learned that his father suffered fatal head injuries after falling off a ladder outside the family home Wednesday night while trying to hang up a banner honoring his son's Olympic bid. Costa was also Alon's longtime coach.

"How do you say 'semifinals' in Chinese?" read the hand-painted banner, a testament to Costa's optimism about the prospects of Alon, who joined the Israeli delegation after another swimmer was disqualified.

For the Mandel family, the loss was made more acute by the dilemma of whether to recall Alon from the Games. He is scheduled to compete Monday in the 200-meter butterfly race.

Alon's mother, Rina, decided that the best way to honor Costa's memory would be for her son to compete. His sister Maya joined him in Beijing, while another sister remained in Netanya to help arrange the funeral.

"You have to stay there and be strong," Rina told Alon by phone Thursday in a conversation recorded by Israel's Channel 10 television.

"You know your father waited for this moment. Your parents waited for this. We will be among 42 sets of parents watching," she said, in reference to the size of Israel's biggest-ever Olympic delegation.

Judaism places great importance on honoring the dead by attending the burial and, in the case of next of kin, giving up all activities to sit for the seven-day shiva.

Not everyone agreed with the Mendels' thinking. Reams of comments on Web sites disapproved of Alon's staying in Beijing.

Channel 10 quoted Alon as saying that when he swims Monday, he will imagine his father sitting in the audience, cheering him on along with the rest of his family and the State of Israel.

"I intend to muster all my strength and compete," he said.

According to Ha'aretz, Alon will fly back to Israel after competing to take part in what remains of the shiva week.

World File :: Israel Brings Its Largest Contingent, Great Expectations To Beijing

2008-08-08T16:26:00.001-05:00

Alison Klayman
Beijing welcomes Israel to the Olympic Games

By Alison Klayman

BEIJING (JTA) -- The largest contingent in Israeli Olympic history is eyeing its biggest medal haul as the 2008 Games get under way here.

Two of the five medal winners in the country's Olympic history are among the 43 athletes -- nearly half females -- competing in China. Plus there are hopes for several others.

Michael Kolganov, who won a bronze medal in kayaking at the 2000 Games in Sydney, was designated the flag-bearer for the opening ceremony Friday evening.

Israeli President Shimon Peres, who composed a poem about the Olympics, joined Kolganov and others from the Israeli delegation at the ceremony.

Arik Ze’evi is back after taking the bronze in judo at the 2004 Games in Athens. With third-place finishes in the 2007 and 2008 European Championships, expectations for him are high.

Gil Fridman, who won the gold in men’s windsurfing in Athens, is not on this year's squad.

But the 470 men’s sailing duo of Udi Gal and Gidi Kliger is coming off three straight bronze medals in the World Championships and a bronze in the European Championship.

Israel, which has never won more than two medals in an Olympics, is also looking for hardware from its men's doubles tennis team of Andy Ram and Yoni Erlich. Ranked No. 5 in the world, Ram and Erlich captured their first Grand Slam title at the Australia Open in January, and reached the quarterfinals last month at Wimbledon.

While the expectations are high, most of the athletes are making their Olympic debuts and are relatively young.

"Many will continue on to the next Games,” predicted Ephraim Zinger, the Israel Olympic Committee secretary-general and mission chief.

Zinger told JTA that Kolganov was chosen as the flag bearer for his "personality." A native of the former Soviet Union, Kolganov made aliyah as a teenager, eventually moving from Haifa to a Jordan Valley kibbutz. He fulfilled his military obligation by serving in the army's program for sporting excellence.

"He is a kind of role model, as someone who made aliyah when he was young and became a successful part of Israeli society,” Zinger told JTA.

Kolganov won the bronze in the K1 500 meters in Sydney and finished fourth in the 1000-meter race, falling just short of becoming the only Israeli to earn two medals in a single Olympics.

Not all the Israeli athletes were on hand for the opening ceremony. The Israel Olympic Committee is flying in the competitors according to the date of their events and a formula for calculating the amount of time needed to acclimate to a new time zone.

Zinger says the Israelis do not have any extra security accommodations in China. Eleven Israelis were murdered by Palestinian terrorists at the 1972 Games in Munich.

“We live in the Olympic Village like all the other athletes, and we rely on the experience and expertise of the local authorities to do their best so we can compete peacefully and go back safely,” said Zinger, who noted that the Israel Olympic Committee has invested some $20 million over the past four years in preparation for the Beijing Olympics.

“The Olympic Security Department made an assessment and drew up a list of countries with the most sensitive security issues, and I can tell you we aren’t the only ones, and we aren’t at the top of the list either,” Zinger said.

Israel File :: Red Sea - Dead Sea Canal Idea Stirs Controversy

2008-08-08T09:22:00.000-05:00

Uriel Heilman
One of the ideas for saving the Dead Sea, whose rapid retreat is visible in this bird's-eye view, is constructing a channel to bring sea water from the Red Sea.

By Dina Kraft

HERZLIYA, Israel (JTA) – On aerial photographs, the shrinking Dead Sea juts into the surrounding desert landscape like a blue index finger.

As part of the effort to prevent this finger from becoming a mere smudge on the map by 2050, the World Bank is conducting a $14 million study into the practicalities of building a channel to bring water from the Red Sea to the Dead Sea, which is shrinking rapidly due to evaporation and upstream water diversion.

Proponents say the plan could rescue the Dead Sea while supplying desalinated water and hydroelectric power to the region.

"We will have to balance the technological, environmental and economic issues at the heart of this complex study," Peter Darley, the team leader of the feasibility part of the World Bank study, said at a public hearing last week in Herzliya.

Similar public hearings were held earlier in the week in Amman, Jordan, and the West Bank city of Ramallah.

The governments of Israel, Jordan and the Palestinian Authority, all of which stand to benefit from such a project, had asked the World Bank to fund and oversee the study on the implications of building a 112-mile long conveyance system -- either a canal or pipeline -- to bring the water to the Dead Sea.

The idea has come under intense fire from Israeli environmentalists and water experts, who argue that more time than the year currently allotted needs to be devoted to studying the possible scientific consequences of the project.

They cite the potential environmental damages the project could cause, whether it be to the fragile coral reefs of the Red Sea or the unique Dead Sea ecosystem. They say alternatives must be studied in tandem by independent-minded international consultants -- not representatives of the three governments involved, as is currently proposed.

"It's like asking a cat to guard a bowl of milk," said Gidon Bromberg, the Israel director of Friends of the Earth Middle East.

Bromberg and other critics of the canal plan charge that the Israeli, Jordanian and P.A. governments are interested in the canal solution because the international community might foot the bill for it as a massive desalinization or peace project.

Alex McPhail, the program manager at the World Bank who is overseeing the overall study of the project, says the bank is being methodical and scientific in its approach. He noted that the World Bank’s approach consists of three parts: a feasibility study, an environmental impact study and a report on alternative solutions.

"It's an environmental question mark and that's why we are doing these studies,” McPhail said. “It's very important that we examine and understand all the potential environmental implications.”

Proponents of the canal project argue that the project could be a one-stop solution for replenishing the waters of the Dead Sea, generating energy, and providing drinking and agricultural water for Jordan, Israel and the Palestinians.

The project also is being touted as a rare symbol of regional cooperation.

"There is an interest internationally in saving the Dead Sea and this could also help bring water to the region that badly needs it," said Uri Schor, a spokesman for the Israeli Water Authority.

Addressing environmentalists’ concerns, he added, "That is why everything is being checked out first.”

“We need to check all the options. If the project is deemed unsuitable, then we won't do it. But if there are no problems found, then why shouldn't we pursue it?"

Some developers see the project dubbed the Red-Dead Canal as a potential boon.

Isaac Tshuva, the Israeli real estate magnate, has answered President Shimon Peres' vision for a so-called Peace Valley to be built along the canal -- a corridor of shimmering skyscrapers, casinos, man-made lakes and 200,000 hotel rooms. That’s more hotels rooms than currently exist in all of Israel. The vision is for a new tourist and industrial mecca that planners hope would draw as many as 3 million Israelis to live in the region.

The project, whose scale would be unprecedented in Israel, has been described as Las Vegas meets Dubai in the Arava Desert.

Its detractors roundly condemn it as an environmental nightmare.

In 2007, when Peres was Israel’s minister in charge of Negev and Galilee development, a government decision declared the Peace Valley project and the canal as national projects.

At the time, some environmentalists warned that political and business interests were being mixed too closely at the potential expense of the environment.

Baruch Spiegel, Peres' adviser for regional affairs, rejects any such notions.

The government made its decision to prioritize the project because of Israel’s water crisis and the shrinking of the Dead Sea, he told JTA. The Dead Sea’s water levels are dropping by about 3.2 to 3.5 feet per year.

"This is a major vision of the president of Israel -- to use water and energy as a catalyst for peace and stability," Spiegel said, emphasizing that environmental concerns will come first and any development that follows will have to adhere to strict guidelines.

"All options are being examined very carefully," he said. "But without a project, things will get worse."

Some Israeli and Arab environmentalists say the Jordan River, historically the main source for the Dead Sea's water, should be rehabilitated rather than undertaking such a complex and expensive project as the canal. They also suggest reforms in the chemical industries on both sides of the sea, which are blamed for contributing to the Dead Sea's dwindling water levels.

Among the environmentalists’ main concerns is that mixing Dead Sea and Red Sea water could damage the Dead Sea's unique ecosystem, leading to growth of algae that could change the color and buoyancy of the water. That would also damage the tourism industry that has sprung up around the Dead Sea in both Israel and Jordan.

Others note that if the salty marine water from a canal or pipeline were to leak, it could seep into the ground water and contaminate local aquifers. There are also concerns that the coral reefs of the Red Sea could be harmed by the pumping out of so much of its water.

"I'm worried," Yehoshua Shkedi, chief scientist of Israel's Nature and Parks Authority said at last week’s hearing in Herzliya. "I have a feeling not enough money or time is being given to research to answer major questions. Good studies have to be done.”

For Gundi Shahal, a member of Kibbutz Ein Gedi, which sits near the banks of the Dead Sea, the questions about the canal plan are not just academic.

"Who will take responsibility for the impact on our lives, livelihoods and what we call home?" she asked at last week’s hearing.

Israel File :: Dead Sea's Shrinking Prompts Concern

2008-08-07T09:17:00.000-05:00

Uriel Heilman
The Dead Sea's rapid retreat has made a mockery of signs warning of the dangers of deep water and left beaches like this one high and dry.

By Uriel Heilman

EIN GEDI, Israel (JTA) -- The beach at the Ein Gedi Spa at the Dead Sea would seem like an ideal place for a little R&R amid the frenzy of modern Israel. Set in the quiet of the desert, it has stunning views of Jordan’s mountains and its therapeutic waters reputedly do wonders for the complexion.

There’s only one problem at this beach: The sea is gone.

In its place are empty lifeguard towers and abandoned beach umbrellas lodged in the parched earth that make a mockery of the Dead Sea’s quiet retreat.

The sea actually still exists, but it’s smaller, shallower and much more distant than it once was -- some 160 feet from the original beach built at Ein Gedi. The Dead Sea is shrinking because nearly every source of water that feeds into this iconic tourist destination has been cut off, diverted or polluted over the last half century.

This is a completely man-made disaster,” says Gidon Bromberg, the Israel director of Friends of the Earth Middle East, an international environmental group. “There is nothing natural about this.”

A tram now shuttles visitors from the abandoned beach at Ein Gedi to the new beach, which sits at more than 1,300 feet below sea level. Thirty years ago this beach was submerged under water. In 10 years it likely will be dry, too, and the visitors’ ramp again will have to be extended to reach the sea.

By 2025, the sea is expected to be at 1,440 feet below sea level.

The shrinking of the Dead Sea has become an issue of grave concern for environmentalists, industries that produce Dead Sea-related products and Israel’s tourism sector, which worries that the visitors who come here from all over the world will disappear along with the sea.

To environmentalists, the shrinking of the sea is an environmental disaster that left unchecked could devastate the region in the coming decades.

The sea’s retreat already has spawned thousands of dangerous sinkholes. Created by retreating groundwater washing away salt deposits that had supported a surface layer of sand, the sinkholes have decimated beaches, nature reserves and agricultural fields in the area.

Future development along the northern rim of the sea has been suspended indefinitely, and the sinkholes have taken a toll on the area’s roads. Route 90, the Israeli highway that runs north-south along the Dead Sea’s western shore, has had to be rebuilt several times because of sinkholes opening up in its path.

In the meantime, the shifting groundwater has wreaked havoc with the natural oases and springs near the sea. Some natural habitats have been destroyed, and with them the feeding grounds of indigenous wildlife. Ornithologists say the annual migration of birds to this area -- the third-largest migration in the world -- has begun to taper off.

Perhaps most significantly for the people who live in the region, the economic consequences of the sea’s retreat have been staggering for agriculture and tourism.

“This has cost us more than $25 million since 1995, when the sinkholes started opening up,” Merav Ayalon, a spokeswoman for Kibbutz Ein Gedi, the largest Israeli town at the Dead Sea, said.

The kibbutz has had to close its resort village -- though it still operates guest houses -- abandon its groves of date palms and forego any expansion plans because it is virtually locked in now by mountains or unsafe, shifting ground.

Farther south, at the cluster of hotels on the Israeli side of the sea, hotels built decades ago along the Dead Sea’s shores have preserved their beaches only thanks to an artificial pool of sea water. The pool, which is connected to the Dead Sea, is maintained by Dead Sea Works, the massive mineral extraction plant whose operations have accelerated the sea’s disappearance through wholesale evaporation of water.

If not for the artificial pool, the hotels would be in the desert, since the southern portion of the Dead Sea no longer exists. Though visitors cannot tell that the hotels' beaches are artificially maintained, hoteliers say they fear potential tourists are deterred from coming to the region because they think the sea's retreat has left the hotels high and dry.

“Tourists from abroad don’t know exactly where the sea is located and where the sinkholes are, so they don’t come as much anymore,” said Avi Levy, who used to be the general manager of the Crowne Plaza Dead Sea but now works at the franchise’s hotel in Tel Aviv. “Also, I think, there is antagonism that we are allowing such a valuable site as the Dead Sea to be destroyed.”

Agricultural industries in Israel, Jordan and Syria siphon water from the rivers that used to feed into the Dead Sea, diverting the water flow for agricultural use. This, along with the dumping of sewage by these countries and the Palestinian Authority, has turned the Jordan River, the sea’s main tributary, from the voluminous flow described in the Bible to a muddy, polluted dribble that doesn’t even reach the Dead Sea anymore during the summer months.

In addition, companies like Dead Sea Works are removing water from the sea at a rate of about 150 million cubic meters per year to get at the lucrative minerals beneath the water. The minerals are used to produce chemical products for export such as potash and magnesium chloride.

Potash can be used to make glass, soap and fertilizer, and magnesium chloride can be used in the manufacture of foodstuffs and roadway deicing products.

The work of these companies has turned what once was the southern portion of the sea into a massive industrial site.

At the time of Israel’s founding in 1948, about 1.4 billion cubic meters of water per year flowed into the Dead Sea. That total has shrunk to 100 million cubic meters, much of it polluted. Today the only fresh water the sea gets is from underground springs and rainwater. With inadequate fresh water, the sea has become more salty and oleaginous.

Scientists estimate that the Dead Sea needs at least 650 million cubic meters of water per year in order to stabilize over the next two decades.

Short of a major change in water-use policy, which environmentalists say is imperative, the Dead Sea will continue to shrink at its current rate of 3.2 to 3.5 feet per year until it reaches an equilibrium in 100 to 200 years at some 1,800 feet below sea level, experts say.

There are two main ideas for stabilizing the Dead Sea.

Environmentalists want to restore flow to the sea from the Jordan River. But that would require a sharp reduction in the use of Jordan River water for agricultural and domestic consumption, as well as cooperation between the Israelis, Palestinians, Syrians and Jordanians. At this point, neither seems likely.

The other idea is to construct a canal to bring salt water to the Dead Sea from the Red Sea, some 125 miles to the south. Championed by Israeli President Shimon Peres and Israeli real estate magnate Isaac Tshuva, among others, this plan envisions the construction of up to 200,000 new hotel rooms and the transformation of the desert along the channel’s route into an Israeli-Jordanian “peace valley.”

Notwithstanding the enormous financial costs of such an enterprise -- $3 billion to $5 billion -- scientists say bringing salt water to a sea that heretofore has been fed only by fresh water has unknown risks.

“A decision like this cannot be made without checking the ecological impact on the environment,” said Noam Goldstein, project manager at Dead Sea Works, which has made a fortune extracting minerals like potash, table salt and bromide from the Dead Sea. “It’s possible that with a canal the sea will turn brown or red. It’s possible it will stink because of the introduction of new chemical and biological substances into the water.”

The World Bank is conducting a $14 million study into the practicalities of the channel, dubbed the Red-to-Dead Canal.

For the time being, no solution to the problem of the Dead Sea has moved beyond the review stage. Meanwhile, with the Holy Land facing its worst drought in 80 years, the sea continues to disappear.

Nation File :: Rabbis Give OK, Child Labor Allegations Proceed

2008-08-06T21:15:00.001-05:00

Aaron Troodler
Rabbi Pesach Lerner, center, the executive vice president of the National Council of Young Israel, speaks with a worker at the Agriprocessors plant in Postville, Iowa, on July 31, 2008.

By Ben Harris

NEW YORK (JTA) -- In what could result in the first charges to be brought against upper management at Agriprocessors, the Iowa Labor Commissioner's Office has sent dozens of alleged child labor violations to the state’s attorney general for prosecution.

Completing a months-long investigation of the Postville-based company, which is the country's largest kosher meat producer, the labor commissioner found 57 cases of alleged child labor violations, Iowa Workforce Development announced Tuesday.

Dave Neil, the labor commissioner, told JTA he had never seen anything like it in 30 years working on labor issues in Iowa. In a statement, he described the allegations as “egregious” and recommended the attorney general prosecute the company “to the fullest extent of the law.”

Agriprocessors responded with a statement saying it was "at a loss to understand" the labor commissioner's referral, noting that the company had cooperated with the investigation. The company also claims the government denied requests to identify underage workers so they could be terminated. It asked the public to keep an open mind before making any judgments.

Several documents provided by Agriprocessors to JTA show the company responded to requests for information from Iowa officials conducting their investigation; the first request was made in January. The documents include a request that the labor commissioner reconsider its decision not to disclose the names of suspected underage workers employed at Agriprocessors.

The company also provided copies of termination documents for three employees who were fired after they were found to be underage. A fourth employee was fired for insubordination after she was asked to produce a birth certificate and became belligerent.

Neil told JTA that in April, when Agriprocessors made the request for the names, his office only had general reports of child labor violations without specific names.

“If we had solid names and evidence at that time we would certainly have done that,” Neil said. “We had reports at that time. We put them on notice to that effect. And then we started our investigation.”

The labor commissioner's referral comes as Agriprocessors continues to try to restore its production capacity and revive its public image in the aftermath of a May 12 immigration raid, which the government says was the largest of its kind in U.S. history.

It also comes just days after a group of 25 Orthodox rabbis visiting Postville on a trip paid for by Agriprocessors issued the company a clean bill of health.

The immigration raid led to the arrest of 389 illegal workers, a number of them underage. In the raid's aftermath, employees unleashed a flood of allegations against their former employer, charging that they were subjected to harsh working conditions and sexual abuse, among other complaints. The company has denied the charges.

The Orthodox delegation reported this week that the Postville plant bears no resemblance to its image as a place where safety lapses are routine and workers allegedly are abused and underpaid.

In the course of their one-day visit, coordinated through the National Council of Young Israel, an Orthodox synagogue association, the rabbis toured the plant and met with its recently hired compliance officer, the mayor of Postville and a Presbyterian minister.

Some of the rabbis also met with representatives of St. Bridget's Catholic Church, which has taken the lead in ministering to families affected by the raid.

“At this point I don't see any reason why someone should not buy things from Agriprocessors,” Rabbi Daniel Moscowitz, the regional director of Chabad of Illinois and the president of the Chicago Rabbinical Council, told JTA. “They run a very impressive operation. They're very dedicated to making sure that everything is being done in the most appropriate way possible."

To date, no senior managers have been charged with a crime, though a grand jury investigation is ongoing. Two supervisors have pleaded guilty to assisting illegal immigrants in the procurement of false employment documents and a warrant is outstanding for a third.

While the visiting rabbis were careful to point out that they have no personal knowledge of what transpired before their arrival, they expressed confidence that current conditions at the plant contrast with its checkered reputation.

Participants told JTA there were no restrictions placed on where they could go in the plant and with whom they could speak. Several conducted their own interviews with employees, who reported that they were treated well and were provided with ample safety training.

"I was shocked when I walked into that plant because I was expecting a lot worse," Rabbi Pesach Lerner, the executive vice president of National Council, told JTA. In a statement, Lerner referred to the plant as a “Cadillac.”

In the eyes of the company's critics, and even some Orthodox rabbis, the fact that Agriprocessors paid for the trip rendered the rabbis’ conclusions suspect. Neither of the national council's two news releases regarding the trip disclosed that Agriprocessors had footed the bill for the rabbis.

“If they're going and being paid by Rubashkin, then that should be forthrightly disclosed,” said Maury Kelman, a lawyer and Orthodox rabbi who has led congregations in Israel and New York.

Kelman said Jewish law, or halachah, insists that rabbis involved in such matters do everything to avoid even the perception that their judgment could be compromised.

“It's very important if rabbis are going that things look totally above board, and that it’s 100 percent clear that the desire is to do the right thing and not just the expedient thing,” he said. “If somebody's being paid, you're beholden to them. Halachah is very clear about this.”

Lerner rejected the suggestion that the rabbis' impartiality might be compromised.

"Give me a break," Lerner said. "To impugn the integrity of 25 people is out of line."

The rabbis also were criticized for not meeting directly with former workers, who have lodged the harshest complaints against the company. They did, however, meet with one of their advocates, Paul Rael, the director of Hispanic Ministries at St. Bridget's.

Lerner said his group was expecting to speak with the workers and was surprised to see that none were present for the meeting.

The rabbinic delegation, which dwindled to four for the late-afternoon meeting with Rael, sought to establish itself as a conduit between the church and Agriprocessors to discuss outstanding problems.

Rael told JTA he was “absolutely” ready to open a dialogue with the company. Chaim Abrahams, an Agriprocessors representative, said the company was “considering” the suggestion “in a positive light.”

Regarding past allegations, Lerner said he had asked that a file of worker complaints be prepared and that he would take up the issue with Agriprocessors. But Lerner stressed that the main issue now should be how to move forward.

Rael said he won't be ready for that until various problems, like employee back pay, are worked out.

“The minute that I got through giving my little dialogue, they said, 'That's the past,'” Rael recalled. “I said, 'Yeah, but the past is what created the problem.' If their intent is to move forward, I can't move forward until this issue is totally, totally done."

Nation File :: Swimmers Lead U.S. Contingent Of Jewish Athletes In Beijing

2008-08-05T15:17:00.000-05:00

A. Dawson/flickr
Garrett Weber-Gale, who won the 100-meter freestyle at the U.S. Olympic trials, is one of four Jewish swimmers on the American squad going to Beijing.

By Marc Brodsky

NEW YORK (JTA) -- For Jason Lezak, Ben Wildman-Tobriner and Garrett Weber-Gale, the marketing possibilities are endless -- perhaps “The Three Chaverim” or “Jews in the Pool.”

All three Jewish sprinters are hoping to make a splash as part of the U.S. men’s swimming team heading to Beijing for the 2008 Summer Olympics.

Not only will they be competing as individuals, but they are expected to make up three-fourths of the 4x100-meter freestyle relay team.

“We joke about going to the Maccabiah Games and setting a world record,” Lezak tells JTA, referring to what is known as “the Jewish Olympics.”

Toss in 41-year-old Dara Torres, another Jewish swimmer and sprinter who will be competing in her fifth Games, and the possibilities rise even higher.

The swimmers are among the seven Jewish athletes believed to comprise the American Jewish contingent headed to China. They are a mix of veterans and newcomers, all with a realistic chance of acquiring medals at the Games, which begin with the opening ceremony Aug. 8.

Already, Wildman-Tobriner and Weber-Gale have their nickname: the “hyphenated Jew crew.” That makes for some good-natured fun around the pool, Wildman-Tobriner says, adding that he is proud to represent his heritage -- along with the United States -- in China.

Another Jewish athlete eyeing water-related success for the Americans is kayaker Rami Zur, who is in his second Olympics for the United States after representing Israel in the 2000 Games.

Some Jewish land lubbers also will wear the red, white and blue in Beijing: fencer Sara Jacobson and marathoner Deena Kastor. Both won bronze medals in ’04 in Athens.

Lezak is competing in his third Olympics and has garnered four medals on relay teams, including a gold in the 4x100 medley in ’04. At 32, he is the oldest male to qualify for an Olympic swim team.

“That’s an accomplishment in itself,” says Lezak, of Irvine, Calif.

At the recent U.S. Olympic trials in Omaha, Neb., the 6-foot-4, 215-pounder broke the American record in the 100-meter freestyle with a semifinal time of 47.58, setting himself up as the probable anchor on that relay team.

“Winning medals in the relays is such an amazing feeling, being a part of a team,” Lezak says, speaking to JTA by telephone.

In part, it was his disappointment as an individual competitor in Athens that spurred Lezak to keep his Olympic dreams. He failed to qualify for the finals in the 100-meter freestyle, though Lezak says he had a “great opportunity” to win an individual medal.

“I took the preliminaries too lightly,” he admits. “I was thinking about how many races I had to swim and I saved too much energy.

“I learned a horrible lesson, but it kind of got me going another four years. I kind of felt like I had unfinished business.”

Now Lezak, who will be competing in relays and in the 100-meter race, wants to mount the podium by himself.

“I’m a team-type player,” he says, “but to do something on your own feels pretty good. I have a lot to prove to myself. I know I’m capable, I just haven’t done it yet.”

He’ll have plenty of competition from Weber-Gale, of Milwaukee, and Wildman-Tobriner, a fellow Californian. Weber-Gale, 22, edged Lezak in the 100-meter finals in the trials.

Weber-Gale, who won the World Championships in 2005 and 2007, will be making his Olympics debut after narrowly missing a spot four years ago. He expects to compete in the 50- and 100-meter freestyle and on the 4x100 freestyle and medley teams.

The University of Texas All-American predicts an outstanding Olympics for the U.S. squad.

“I think this is the best Olympic swim team ever assembled,” Weber-Gale told the Wisconsin Jewish Chronicle. “There are several events where we could get multiple medals, and we could win all three relays."

Wildman-Tobriner, 23, also is making his Olympic debut. The Stanford University All-American will compete in the 50-meter freestyle and the relay.

“To finally be able to participate is going to be really exciting,” he told the j. the Jewish news weekly of Northern California. “It still hasn’t really sunk in yet.”

Lezak, who has been coaching himself the last two years, says he met his younger Jewish colleagues at the ’05 World Championships.

“They were in a different stage of their lives,” he says. “They were in college, and the international scene was more important to me.”

Lezak says they mostly talk to each other about their common Jewish identity.

“You don’t see that too often,” he says of three Jewish Olympians in the same events. “They’re both nice guys and we all get along.”

The younger duo hasn’t yet picked the brain of their more seasoned colleague, Lezak says.

“Once you start getting to the Games, to the Olympic village, people are more curious of the type of things to expect, more questions come up,” he says.

They can all learn from Torres, a member of the Jewish International Sports Hall of Fame.

Despite having a 2-year-old daughter, the Los Angeles native who now works out in southern Florida qualified in the 50- and 100-meter freestyle, though she will compete in only the former in Beijing.

Torres, who graces the cover of Time Magazine’s Olympics preview, which touts “Dana Torres & 99 More Athletes To Watch,” is a nine-time Olympic medalist, including four golds. She established an American record at the trials finals in the 50-meter freestyle with a time of 24.25; Torres broke her own mark set in the semis.

“That she’s doing her best times is phenomenal,” Lezak says. “She’s pretty inspiring to all the athletes out there.”

Her success at an advanced age for athletes has brought suspicions of doping, but Torres has passed every drug test.

“I’ve gone beyond the call of duty to prove I’m clean, but you are guilty until proven innocent in this day and age, so what else can I do?” she told Time. “It’s a real bummer.”

Zur, the kayaker, is seeking his first medal in his third Olympics. He has failed to reach the finals as an individual in the 500-meter event or in the two-man 500- and 1,000-meter events.

The 5-foot-9, 160-pounder is considered a contender as he vies solo in the 500, despite a severe spinal injury that jeopardized his career.

“I want to go there and come back with some hardware,” Zur, 31, told the j.

The native of Berkeley, Calif., was adopted as an infant by a kibbutz couple near the Sea of Galilee. His proximity to the sea helped develop his love of water sports.

“Kayaking was the first sport where I could go wherever I wanted to,” he says.

The Israeli Olympic Committee cut back on funding for his training following the Sydney Games and he left the Jewish state for the Olympic Training Center in Chula Vista, Calif., where he lived for free.
Zur says the Israelis were understanding of his choice to wear U.S. colors.

Kastor, 35, is another Jewish Californian bound for Beijing. A two-time Olympian, she holds the American records in the marathon and half-marathon. In April, Kastor won the U.S. Olympic trials in Boston with a time of 2:29:35.

Her bronze in Athens was the first medal for an American marathoner in two decades.

Jacobson, 25, of Dunwoody, Ga., brings a No. 1 world ranking in sabre to China. Her sister Emily was on the ’04 Olympics fencing team; her father, David, was a member of the ’74 national squad.

Jacobson, who attends Yale University, is a two-time winner of the U.S. women’s sabre championship.

World File :: Jews In China Roll Out Red Carpet For Tourists, Athletes

2008-08-04T15:12:00.000-05:00

Alison Klayman
Dini's kosher restaurant in Beijing plans to be open 24 hours a day, seven days a week during the 2008 Olympic Games.

By Alison Klayman

BEIJING (JTA) -- Gold medalists won't be the only ones climbing podiums in Beijing once the 2008 Olympic Games are under way. Isaac Shapiro will be stepping up to celebrate his bar mitzvah.

Isaac, of Highland Park, Ill., will be called to the Torah at the Chabad House in Beijing on Aug. 16.

Isaac and his family are among the hundreds of Jewish tourists, athletes, dignitaries and media expected to converge on the Chinese capital for the 2008 Olympic Games, which begin Aug. 8.

While most visitors probably don't even realize there is a local Jewish community in Beijing, the resident Jews of China's capital are getting ready to welcome anyone who seeks them out.

The Shapiro family was already planning a trip to Shanghai and then to the Olympics, motivated by Isaac's love of sports and his older sister Chloe's previous career as a competitive gymnast.

When Isaac's bar mitzvah tutor in Chicago, a photographer for the Games, suggested he have his bar mitzvah in Beijing, it all clicked.

Isaac's father, Sam, said the family didn't feel the need for a "big American bar mitzvah."

Sam Shapiro offered many reasons for the off-beat choice of his son's bar mitzvah location. "It will give Isaac a wonderful sense for the Jewish Diaspora," he told JTA. "We also wanted to give our kids a better understanding of China since it is rapidly becoming one of the most important countries in the world."

While the bar mitzvah will make the second Shabbat during the Olympics an especially lively affair (in Chinese, they would say "renao") at the Chabad House, the local rabbi expects a big crowd the prior Shabbat as well.

Rabbi Shimon Freundlich of Chabad Beijing said he expects a packed house in the already squeezed villa living room of the main Chabad House, which is converted into a shul with mechitzah separating men and women every week.

He said he has been contacted by tourists from all over the world, including Australia, Israel, the United States and Europe, and even by some athletes directly. Without naming names, Freundlich did divulge that "there will be athletes at services."

"It will be packed wall to wall, no question," he said, noting they couldn't find a larger hall because everything else was booked.

Chabad will offer services three times a day every day during the Games, Freundlich said, at both the main Chabad house and the Central Business District location.

The main Chabad house will also display a special Sino-Judaic exhibit of artifacts belonging to Jews around China in the last 200 years, including books, photographs and religious items like a Hannukiah from Shanghai.

While the Chabad community will be bustling, all signs indicate that the egalitarian, lay-led Kehillat Beijing minyan will have its share of visitors. Almost one-fifth of the total 18,000 hits on the Kehillat Web site (www.sinogogue.org) came during the month of July alone.

Kehillat will only meet on the Friday nights of Aug. 15 and 22. The minyan decided to cancel its Shabbat services the night of the opening ceremony, figuring that Olympic guests might plan to attend the show-stopping event. Even Kehillat regulars might find it hard to travel that night or simply might opt to watch the event on television.

Kehillat Beijing does not have regular Saturday morning services.

Athletes and tourists alike will be taken care of when it comes to kosher food, thanks to months of preparation leading up to the Beijing Summer Games.

There will be a place inside the Olympic Village for those seeking kosher food and prayer services. There are five places in the Village that will host religious activities, for Hinduism, Buddhism, Islam, Christianity and Judaism.

In the city itself, Dini's Restaurant, mainland China's only kosher eatery that is not part of a Chabad House, will be open to customers 24 hours a day, seven days a week. On Shabbat, meals are served after services.

Over a period of several months, Dini's was visited by South African shochet Rabbi Chaim Klein, who in total prepared over seven and a half tons of beef and nine tons of chicken.

"Everything is slaughtered and in the freezer," Freundlich, the Chabad rabbi, told JTA.

Five rabbinical students from Australia, South Africa and the United States will come to Beijing for the Games to help at the restaurant, as well as perform tasks like delivering food or greeting people at the airport.

As a special Olympics precaution, the restaurant has hired a 24/7 security guard. In addition, Dini's will make deliveries to hotels all around the city.

Available for sale at both Dini's and Chabad locations will be a 65-page English-Chinese travel booklet made by Chabad, with helpful tips especially for Jewish tourists.

The Israeli Embassy in Beijing is preparing an informational letter of its own for Israeli tourists, with a guide to the city and useful embassy information, according to the embassy's press officer, Guy Kivetz.

The embassy will provide support not only for Israeli tourists but also for the more than 20 expected journalists from Israel. Israel is bringing its largest delegation ever to the Olympics, with 42 athletes.

Of course, security is always a concern.

"To host an Olympics is not easy security-wise," Kivetz said, "but we are confident in the measures that China is taking, and Beijing compared to other places is considered to be safe."

The Israeli Embassy will also host an event Aug 18 with the dual purpose of commemorating the 11 athletes killed at the 1972 Munich Games and welcoming the Israeli Olympic delegation.

Nation :: Conservatives Issue Guidelines For Ethical Kosher Certification

2008-08-03T14:54:00.001-05:00

By Ben Harris

NEW YORK (JTA) -- The Conservative movement released a policy statement and guidelines for its much-anticipated ethical kashrut certification, outlining the social justice standards companies are expected to meet if their foodstuffs are to qualify for the designation.

According to the document released Thursday, products will be evaluated in five main areas -- employees' wages and benefits, employee health and safety, product development, corporate transparency and environmental impact -- and assessed in part on the basis of information from third-party sources.

Essential to acquiring the Hekhsher Tzedek certification is a company's willingness to engage with the movement's leadership. Hekhsher Tzedek is a joint initiative of the United Synagogue for Conservative Judaism and the Rabbinical Assembly.

“Transparency and a willingness to enter into dialogue with the United Synagogue for Conservative Judaism, the Rabbinical Assembly and their partners will therefore be essential for a company's products to qualify for the Hekhsher Tzedek,” the statement says.

The new guidelines are seen as an important step forward for the initiative, which represents the first effort to brand items as kosher on the basis of ethical criteria separate from the ritual aspects of food production.

It also marks the most significant attempt by Conservative rabbis to influence the national kosher food market, an area traditionally dominated by the Orthodox.

“We believe that we have now demonstrated that it is indeed possible to have verifiable standards in these areas that will allow us to demonstrate that as an enhancement to ritual certification of kosher food, you can ensure that kosher observance is mindful and sensitive to God's creation,” said Rabbi Morris Allen, the founder and director of Hekhsher Tzedek.

Rabbi Michael Siegel, who co-chairs the nine-member commission overseeing the project, told JTA he expects to see the Hekhsher Tzedek label on food products by Jan. 1, 2009.

Though he wouldn't name names, Siegel said the commission already is in talks with several companies who have been receptive to the idea, including a bakery, a ready-made salad producer and a kosher meat purveyor, all of whom would be required to pay a fee for the certification. Two of the companies are nationally known, Siegel said.

In the coming weeks, Heksher Tzedek plans to release a marketing plan and a rabbinic paper on ethical concerns within kashrut by Rabbi Avram Reisner, a commission member.

Some in the kosher world have met the initiative with skepticism, even hostility. These skeptics question what they see as the expansion of the concept of kosher, which traditionally has focused more narrowly on ritual and dietary concerns.

Rabbi Avrom Pollak, the president of Star-K, a kosher certifier that works with more than 1,500 manufacturers, told JTA he is all in favor of treating workers ethically, but expressed doubt that companies would find it in their financial interest to pay for Hekhsher Tzedek.

“What does somehow trouble me a little is the fact that they are devoting all their efforts to kosher food companies,” Pollak said. “I think it should be a much broader effort. All the services that we use and buy should also be subject to the same scrutiny.”

Allen conceived of the idea of Hekhsher Tzedek in 2006, the same year that an expose in the Forward detailed allegations of worker mistreatment at Agriprocessors, which runs the nation's largest kosher meat plant in Postville, Iowa.

The initiative received a boost in May when federal agents raided the Postville plant, arresting nearly 400 illegal workers and prompting another round of allegations against the company. Agriprocessors has denied any wrongdoing.

The Postville raid thrust issues of worker treatment in the production of kosher food to the forefront of a national debate over the parameters of kosher certification. Allen said he envisions a day when consumers will look at the Hekhsher Tzedek label before purchasing food the same way some now look for a kosher label.

“I see the kinds of responses that we're getting now from people across the country, letters that come in, e-mails that come in,” Allen said.

“I do believe that people are eager because I think that we have always believed that in the observance of kashrut, our actions are such that is at the core an act of sanctification. And we want to make sure as Jews that act of sanctification is not just a ritual act.”

Nation File :: How Would New Israeli PM Affect Key Issues With U.S.?

2008-08-01T15:03:00.001-05:00

GPO / BPH Images
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, left, shown meeting with President Bush at the White House on Nov. 26, 2007, forged a friendship with the U.S. leader.

By Ron Kampeas

WASHINGTON (JTA) -- When Ehud Olmert announced this week he was quitting, three of the four people likeliest to succeed him already were auditioning for two of the job's toughest constituencies: the U.S. government and American Jewry.

Whether intentional or not, Olmert's timing was notable: Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni and Transportation Minister Shaul Mofaz -- both Kadima candidates -- and Ehud Barak, the defense minister and leader of the Labor Party, all were in Washington this week.

They, along with Likud Party leader Benjamin Netanyahu, are vying to succeed Olmert, who is quitting under a cloud of multiple police investigations into allegations of corruption.

In Washington, the question of who would succeed Olmert provoked uncertainty about the future of the signature issues of the U.S.-Israel partnership: U.S.-sponsored peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians, re-launched last year at Annapolis, Md., and isolating Iran until it ends its suspected nuclear weapons program.

Livni was quick to offer assurances that though Israel’s leader is changing, its priorities are not.

"The fact that there are internal changes does not change the fact that a threat exists," Livni said of Iran after meeting with U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in New York. "It doesn't change the interests of Israel that we are obligated to represent."

Jewish leaders in the United States publicly expressed confidence that the U.S.-Israel relationship was strong enough to weather the crisis, but privately many wondered whether any of Olmert’s likely successors could match his warm ties both with U.S. Jews and the White House.

Of Israel’s four main contenders, only Livni and Mofaz can run in the Kadima primaries in September to succeed Olmert. But Israel could see new general elections in early 2009 if the winner of Kadima’s primary is unable to assemble a coalition government. In that case, Netanyahu, Barak and others could compete, and Olmert would remain caretaker prime minister into next year, beyond the tenure of the Bush administration.

New polls taken in Israel on Thursday cast Livni as the front-runner. As Israel’s lead negotiator with the Palestinians, Livni is an enthusiastic proponent of Israeli-Palestinian talks and already has pledged to do her best to close a deal before President Bush leaves office.

She is well-liked among American Jews, in part for her articulate English skills and because she represents a successful woman politician. She is also close with U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, with whom she met this week in Washington.

Barak, too, spent time with Rice this week. He was invited to her home for dinner Tuesday evening, the day before Olmert’s announcement, after spending a day in talks with his U.S. counterpart, Defense Secretary Robert Gates. Rice and Barak are both accomplished pianists, and that was to have been a component of the evening's entertainment.

In their daytime meeting, however, Rice was all business, extracting a pledge from Barak to do more to facilitate freedom of movement for Palestinians in the West Bank and to cooperate with Gen. James Jones, the U.S. envoy assigned the task of nurturing the Palestinian security force to maturity.

In his meeting with Gates, Barak said that when it comes to threatening the possibility of military action should sanctions fail to cow Iran, "We should mean it when we say it."

That imperious tone did little to endear Barak to the Clinton administration during his own stint as prime minister, from 1999 to 2001, although President Clinton did defer to the Israeli leader in the 2000 talks with the Palestinians at Camp David.

This week, Barak told Israeli reporters he missed those days when Israel and the United States tacitly agreed on "contours" before launching peace talks.

It's not clear a Barak premiership would enjoy the same collaborative relationship with a President Barack Obama or a President John McCain. Both U.S. candidates have suggested they're likelier to lead than to follow when it comes to Middle East peacemaking.

Mofaz is well liked by the Bush administration for deferring to its preferences, particularly on Iran, and might be seen as a better alternative than Barak.

In Washington this week, in his capacity as the chief Israeli negotiator in the U.S.-Israel strategic dialogue, Mofaz and his U.S. counterparts released a joint statement Thursday after their meeting: "The United States and Israel share deep concern about Iran’s nuclear program, and the two delegations discussed steps to strengthen diplomatic efforts and financial measures to prevent Iran from developing a nuclear weapons capability.”

If there's a concern about Mofaz, it's his halting English, a deficit that could also hinder his relationship with U.S. Jews.

Seymour Reich, president of the Israeli Policy Forum and a former chairman of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, recalled the difficulties posed by Amir Peretz, Barak's predecessor as defense minister, whose English was also poor.

"He had difficulty in articulating his concepts ands thoughts to our community. He never overcame that, although he did try hard," Reich said. "Hopefully, any successor will be fluent in English and, more importantly, in the idioms and the nuances."

That has never been a problem for Netanyahu, who was raised in the United States. However, foreign policy officials and Jewish community leaders have mixed feelings about his record when he was prime minister, from 1996 to 1999.

Netanyahu was a tough advocate for Israel, but he angered some U.S. Jews when he courted Republicans and evangelical Christians to press Clinton to abandon some of the precepts of the Oslo process. Netanyahu was also responsible for the sole episode when Israel, rather than the Palestinians, was widely perceived in the United States as reneging on a deal -- when he failed to withdraw Israeli forces from Palestinian areas after the Wye River agreement in 1998.

This week, some hawkish Jewish groups already were seizing on the prospect of a change in Israel’s leadership as a hopeful sign that peace deals they see as too concessionary will be scuttled.

Morton Klein, president of the Zionist Organization of America, said Olmert’s closeness to Bush was more of a danger than a salve.

"Under the circumstances of a concessionary government like Olmert's, a good relationship with Bush -- I don’t think was a great benefit right now," Klein said. However, Klein credited Olmert with having a sensitive understanding of the Diaspora's relationship to Israel.

Freezing peace talks now would send the wrong message, Americans for Peace Now warned.

"Israel is engaging on both of these tracks because it is in Israel’s vital interests to do so," Americans for Peace Now said in an analysis, referring to Israel’s peace talks with the Palestinians and with Syria. "Abandoning these efforts during this transition would be a major, and unnecessary, setback."

Nation File :: Jewish Activists Rally In Postville To Back Agriprocessors Workers

2008-07-31T15:08:00.000-05:00

Denny Eilers
Demonstrators at a rally in Postville, Iowa, on July 27, 2008 show their support for undocumented Agriprocessors workers arrested in a May raid on the kosher meat plant.

By Sue Fishkoff

POSTVILLE, Iowa (JTA) -- When busloads of Jews from Minnesota, Illinois and Wisconsin started pulling up outside St. Bridget’s Catholic Church Sunday morning, and more than 350 people, some sporting yarmulkes, poured out to take part in a big immigration rally planned for the afternoon, localsnoticed.

“We weren’t expecting so many Jews to show up,” said Alicia Lopez.

A Mexican native and former employee of Agriprocessors, the nation’s largest kosher meat plant, Lopez was one of nearly 400 undocumented workers arrested in a May 12 immigration raid at the factory.

Like four dozen other women released to take care of dependent children, her right ankle is encased in a heavy tracking device that keeps her under virtual house arrest as she awaits trial and, likely, eventual deportation.

Lopeznever met a Jewish person in Mexico, and the impressions she developed during her seven years here were not flattering. They were her bosses, the guys who didn’t give her raises, the guys she blames for not warning her and the other workers that La Migra -- the immigration police -- was on its way.

“I thought badly of them,” she said bluntly, speaking through a Spanish interpreter.

But after marching with Jews on Sunday afternoon, praying with them in her church and hearing their shouts of solidarity with her plight, Lopez changed her mind.

“I could see and feel they were different,” she said. “I really appreciated them. It was like an injection of adrenaline.”

That’s why 22-year-old Tamar Pentelnick came on one of the buses from Minneapolis.

“As Jews, hearing that other Jews treat people like this, I wanted to show that not all Jews are like this, that we care about others and human rights are important to us,” she said.

The interfaith service, march and rally represented the largest and most public demonstration of Jewish support for those affected by the massive raid two months ago by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, an agency of the Department of Homeland Security. Police estimated the crowd at more than 900.

Agriprocessors first gained national attention in 2000 with the publication of the book "Postville," which described the tensions between the the local community and the company, owned by Lubavitcher Chasidim from Brooklyn.

Since then, Agriprocessors has come under fire over its slaughter methods and labor practices, as well as health and safety violations. The May 12 raid added new layers to the controversy, with federal authorities coming under criticism, the plant's former workers facing economic problems and the company scrambling to keep up production.

Through it all, the company has denied any wrongdoing and vehemently rejects the claim that it does not look out for its workers.

Sunday's events -- spearheaded by the Minnesota-based Jewish Community Action and the Chicago-based Jewish Council on Urban Affairs, and supported by a number of other groups including the Jewish Labor Committee and the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society -- focused on the affected workers and their families as a way of generating support for the larger goal of comprehensive, national immigration reform.

“The Agriprocessors raid is the legacy of a failed immigration system,” said Gideon Aronoff, the president and CEO of the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society.

Aronoff told the crowd that immigration reform is something “that matters” to the Jewish community.

“Instead of a national solution to a national problem, we have a mishmash of local responses, a border fence that doesn’t work and millions of dollars spent chasing down immigrant workers,” he said.

Athough virtually all the workers arrested in the Postville raid were from Mexico and Guatemala, the Jews who participated in the rally say this is a very Jewish issue. Text study and discussions of immigration policy were held on the buses coming in from Minneapolis and Chicago, emphasizing the Jewish values and teachings that informed the rally’s organization.

“We’re here because we care,” said Rabbi Harold Kravitz of Adath Jeshurun Congregation in Minneapolis.

Working conditions are no better in many other industrial plants, he noted, but the fact that Agriprocessors is Jewish owned and produces kosher meat gives the case particular urgency to some Jewish activists.

“We’re here as Jews because we believe kosher means we must answer to a higher authority,” Kravitz said.

“We think a Jewish voice is critical,” added Vic Rosenthal, the executive director of Jewish Community Action. “Who else should be speaking up for workers' rights, especially when it involves kosher food?”

Jonathan Ribnick, 15, was on one of two busloads of teens from Camp Ramah in Wisconsin.

On one hand, Ribnick was upset that the allegations of worker mistreatment by Agriprocessors and its Jewish owners are giving Jews a bad name, fanning the flames of anti-Semitism and “messing it up for the rest of us,” as he put it.

“But we’re not here because we want kosher meat,” he said. “We’re here for the people. We care how people are being treated.”

Abby Seeskin, 20, a student at Macalester College in St. Paul, had been to a few rallies for immigrant rights, but this was the first time she went as part of a Jewish group.

“It’s important not just because it’s a kosher plant but because although I’m not particularly religious, the Jewish values I grew up with influence my outlook in life and have informed my interest in immigration issues,” she explained. “The idea of tikkun olam" -- reparing the world -- "is very important to me, probably more than any other Jewish value.”

The issue of caring came up repeatedly throughout the day.

Agriprocessor owners take issue with the claims that they, by contrast, don’t care.

Aaron Rubashkin, who founded the company two decades ago, in a prepared statement said he and his family were immigrants themselves, escaping first Soviet and then Polish communism to find “freedom and opportunity” in America.

The company has helped workers hurt by the raid, said spokesman Chaim Abrahams, providing food and subsidizing rent by allowing them to stay in Rubashkin-owned properties even when they are not up to date on payments.

No workers interviewed were aware of rent subsidies, although some said that company trucks handed out boxes of meat, chicken and sausages in their neighborhoods last week.

Earlier Sunday, Abrahams met with leaders of the Catholic and Jewish activist groups to address their major concerns, including help for the affected workers and back pay for those arrested. Talks should continue next week, participants reported.

For more than an hour, the blocks-long march snaked its way through town, past the front gates of Agriprocessors and a playground eerily empty of children. In some classrooms, locals report, more than half the students disappeared overnight.

Young Jewish activists used megaphones to lead the crowd in Spanish-language chants: “Nosotros todos immigrantes” -- “We are all immigrants.” They were answered by Guatemalans wearing traditional woven shirts and young mothers with electronic ankle bracelets wheeling babies in strollers, American flags flying from the handles.

Longtime Postville resident Norma Schlee watched it all from her front lawn. “I think it’s magnificent that they were able to come from all over,” she said.

And as for the Jews coming in from out of state to show their support for this tiny Iowa town ripped apart by the raid and its aftermath, Schlee nodded her head in approval, saying, “I think that’s very important.”

Deep South File :: Memorial Service for Elboim Planned

2008-07-29T06:55:00.004-05:00

Updated :: There will be one community memorial service, at Temple Beth El on Wednesday at 7 p.m.

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A memorial service for Michal Elboim, the Shlicha who was killed near Pensacola on Sunday, will be held at Pensacola's Temple Beth El on Wednesday at 7 p.m. Another memorial is being planned at B'nai Israel Congregation, but details have not been announced.

Elboim's body was flown to New York yesterday, accompanied by her boyfriend. Her sister was to join them in New York for the flight to Israel. Her parents had been on the way to an Alaskan cruise, then a visit to the Rockies.

As is traditional, members of the Pensacola Jewish community took turns sitting with her body until the flight to New York.

Elboim was planning to visit Honduras after leaving Pensacola on Aug. 5, then she was to return to Israel.

Itai Rosenfeld, the Shaliach in Mobile, said he remembers her as being passionate about education, which is why she chose to join the program that sends Israeli young adults to American communities for one or two years. He remembers her telling him "this may sound big, but I want to be the Minister of Education in Israel."

Deep South File :: Shlicha to Pensacola killed in boating accident

2008-07-28T08:14:00.001-05:00

Michal Elboim, with Rabbi Brian Glusman of Birmingham's Temple Beth-El and Montgomery Shaliach Shimon Smith, at the University of Alabama at Birmingham's International Fair in January 2008.

Pensacola’s Jewish community was stunned last night by the news that its Israeli Shlicha for the past year, Michal Elboim, was killed in an afternoon boating accident.

According to authorities, Elboim was sitting on the bow of a 24-foot pontoon boat in Perdido Bay, near the Alabama-Florida border, when she fell and was struck by the boat’s propeller. There were 10 aboard, including four personnel from nearby Naval Air stations.

Efforts to resuscitate her on a nearby dock were unsuccessful and she died at the scene. A helicopter had been called in but was not needed. Alcohol is not believed to have been a factor, and an investigation is underway.

According to reports, the driver was teaching another passenger how to operate the boat, and Elboim fell overboard when the boat jerked suddenly.

Elboim, 24, was born in Hod Hasharon and had been in Pensacola for the last year, teaching Jews and non-Jews about Israel.

She also traveled the region with Shlichim from Montgomery, Mobile and New Orleans for a series of “Fab Four” panels, discussing growing up in Israel. She also staffed the “biggest and best” Israel booth at the University of Alabama at Birmingham’s International Fair.

Shimon Smith, the Montgomery Shaliach, said Elboim “was an adventurer and an amazing person. I will miss her very much.”

Einav Avidan, Shlicha for New Orleans, said “it's a terrible tragedy and a loss. We all loved Michal and we will miss her terribly.”

Ariella Feldman, program director of camping and Young Shlichim for the Jewish Agency for Israel, said the program would collect condolences and stories about Elboim for a book that will be presented to her family.

The Pensacola Jewish Federation had been planning a farewell event for Elboim and to welcome her successor on Aug. 2. She had planned to return to Israel on Aug. 5.

Israel File :: Foreign Investors Look For Green In Israeli Clean-Tech Ventures

2008-07-22T17:08:00.000-05:00

Brian Hendler
A worker stands between solar energy collectors at the Solel Solar Thermal Energy Plant in Beit Shemesh on May 20, 2008.

By Dina Kraft

TEL AVIV (JTA) -- From cutting-edge geothermal power deep underground to wind turbines and solar panels capturing energy from the sky above, foreign investors are pouring money into Israel's growing clean tech sector.

And it's not just Jews.

"Every day I get calls from people asking for opportunities to invest in clean technologies in Israel," said Michael Granoff, president of the New York-based Maniv Energy Capital and an investor in Project Better Place, the company working to make Israel a testing ground for an electric car.

“That to me is extremely encouraging," he said. "I believe nothing will determine Israel's prosperity more than the degree to which it is a leader in innovation around sustainability.”

Clean tech, a catch-all term for emerging technologies focused on renewable and more efficient energy consumption, is soaring in Israel. A wave of new start-ups, academic research projects and new venture capital funds are focusing on the industry, and multinational corporations such as the Coca-Cola Co. and General Electric are scouting out new technologies here.

Fueling the interest in environmentally friendly clean-tech solutions are skyrocketing oil prices, growing concerns about global warming and a push for sustainable solutions to the world’s energy problems.

Investing in Israel's expertise may not only make good business sense but benefit the worldwide quest for cleaner, greener energy alternatives.

It also may constitute an opportunity to bolster Israel’s international reputation by linking the Jewish state with green innovation.

Jonathan Shapira, a recent American law school graduate who writes a blog on clean-tech investment in Israel, says Diaspora Jews can play an essential role by becoming either consumers of or investors in Israeli technologies.

"Every Jewish family and institution should consider installing solar panels, rooftop wind turbines or energy efficient lighting developed in Israel,” he said. “This will lower their electricity bill, protect the environment, benefit the Israeli economy and help position Israel as a world leader in clean technology.”

The imperative for developing alternative energy sources is particularly acute for Israel because its enemies’ strength derives in large part from the world’s dependence on their oil resources.

"It really makes sense for reasons of economics, but there is also the issue that so much is at stake here,” said David Rosenblatt, the vice chairman of the board of a new solar power company near Eilat, Arava Power, which is headed by Yosef Abramowitz. “This is doing something for Israel's national security, protecting its energy independence through green power.”

Rosenblatt, who also runs an investment fund in New York, where he lives, said his investment in Arava Power is a Jewish venture as well.

"This is about clean energy, but it's also about Jewish roots and what I can do to express it and where I personally have value to add,” he told JTA.

In Herzliya, three American immigrants in their 30s have created the first venture capital firm to target the Israeli clean-tech market, Israel Cleantech Ventures. They recently raised $75 million for their debut fund, exceeding the $60 million they originally set out to raise.

Glen Schwaber, one of the firm's partners, said enthusiasm among investors for Israeli clean tech reflects Israel’s growing reputation as a potential incubator for new technologies that is buoyed by the country's high-tech success stories.

"Israel has a reputation for innovation and technology, and a mature venture capital environment along with a successful history in entrepreneurship,” Schwaber said. “The next logical place for the clean-tech investor after Silicon Valley and the Boston area is Israel.”

The Jewish state is beginning to capitalize on its experience in such fields as solar thermal technology, wastewater recycling and desalination. Until recently, Israel had the world’s only large-scale desalination plant, off the coast of Ashkelon. Now countries such as China are building them.

"Israel is a great country to beta test some of these new technologies because it is a microcosm of the world's needs: shortages of water, a large transportation fleet on per-capita basis, and an abundance of solar energy potential," said Schwaber, 38, who made aliyah from Boston.

Among Cleantech Ventures' investors are some big names in Jewish philanthropy, including the families of Edgar Bronfman and Stacy Schusterman.

Schusterman, CEO of the Samson Investment Co., a private oil and gas company based in Tulsa, Okla., said she sees her investments in Israeli clean-tech ventures, including Israel's electric car enterprise, as business, not philanthropy.

"This is a business venture," she told JTA in a phone interview from Tulsa. "We saw this as an opportunity to leverage Israel's deep intellectual capital in an area we see as a burgeoning worldwide industry, and by investing it we would have the opportunity to create a hedge against our base business."

She added, “This is an area where Israel should excel, so as a Jew I have every reason to help make that happen.”

Last month, the city of Los Angeles signed an agreement with Kinrot Incubator, a company located on the shores of the Sea of Galilee that helps entrepreneurs and researchers with water-based technological innovations.

The deal will enable Israeli start-up companies to use water and power facilities in Los Angeles for pilot projects and to conduct joint research with the University of California, Los Angeles on water projects.

Los Angeles is interested in using the Kinrot model to establish its own incubator for water-related technologies.

Assaf Barnea, Kinrot's CEO, said that although the water market is not new, the hype over going green has given it a new shine in the eye of investors.

"They have now heard about it and want to be players," he said. "There is huge hype but it's not just hype. This is a market that is here to stay.”

Nation File :: US Jews Mourn Soldiers, Pledge To Fight For Shalit's Return

2008-07-17T23:04:00.000-05:00

Brian Hendler/JTA
Karnit Goldwasser and the Goldwasser family follow Ehud Goldwasser's coffin at the beginning of his funeral procession in Nahariya on July 17, 2008.

By Ben Harris

NEW YORK (JTA) -- At the Yeshivat Chovevei Torah Rabbinical School here, Rabbi Dov Linzer decided Wednesday that it would be inappropriate to start the day like any other given the news that the two Israeli soldiers abducted by Hezbollah in July 2006 were returned to Israel deceased.

Instead,Linzer passed around several media reports about the return of Israeli reservists Eldad Regev and Ehud Goldwasser, effected in exchange for five Lebanese and the remains of some 200 Arab fighters.

The morning’s discussion eventually turned to the ethics of the exchange -- a debate that has raged in Israel in recent weeks as the country has wrestled with the appropriateness of trading live terrorists for dead Israelis.

“Everybody really was struggling with it,” Linzer told JTA. “It wasn't a black-and-white issue, even if people came out on one side or the other.”

The plight of Israel's captive soldiers has galvanized the American Jewish community in ways that few Israel-related issues have in recent years. While the merits of the exchange were debated passionately at Chovevei and elsewhere Wednesday, Jewish groups that had worked for the soldiers’ release made no mention of the controversy surrounding their return.

Instead they expressed sympathy for the pain of the families, recognition of Israel's difficult moral choices and a commitment to work toward the release of Gilad Shalit, the Israeli soldier captured by Hamas in the summer of 2006 just a few days before Hezbollah’s attack.

“As we mourn Ehud and Eldad, let us redouble our efforts to seek the safe return of Gilad Shalit to his family,” Rabbi Steve Gutow, the executive director of the Jewish Council for Public Affairs, wrote in an e-mail message. “The blue bracelet with the names of all three soldiers will stay on my wrist until that blessed day comes. And let us keep all the other captive soldiers -- Guy Hever, Zachary Baumel, Tzvi Feldman, Yehuda Katz, Ron Arad, Majdy Halabi -- in our thoughts and prayers.”

Since their capture in cross-border raids two years ago, Shalit, Goldwasser and Regev have inspired broad action by American Jews. More than a dozen groups dedicated to securing their release were created on the popular social networking Web site Facebook, a rally for their release was held at the United Nations and a petition sent to the U.N. secretary-general garnered 150,000 signatures.

Concern for the three MIAs reached the highest echelons of the U.S. Congress, where House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) emerged as arguably the most vocal Washington lawmaker on the issue.

In early 2007, Goldwasser's wife, Karnit, presented Pelosi with copies of the soldiers' dog tags, and the speaker has taken them around the world, showing the dog tags to heads of state as she lobbied for the soldiers’ release.

In a statement Wednesday, Pelosi joined the chorus of sympathizers expressing condolences to the families and pledging to keep working for Shalit's release.

"Today our hope has been replaced by grief,” Pelosi said. “As we mourn, I will hold on to these dog tags as a symbol of the sacrifices made -- sacrifices far too great -- for peace and security for the State of Israel.”

Like most Jewish groups, her office declined to comment on the swap deal itself.

Linzer, who encouraged his students to express their opinions on the swap, acknowledged that care should be taken on such matters.

“In general,” he said, “while we should feel invested, we should also be careful, as people who are not living in Israel, about the way in which we judge those who are.”

The news of the return of the soldiers’ bodies prompted mixed feelings for Gabrielle Flaum, the New Jersey teenager who founded a youth advocacy group for the MIAs called SOS: Save Our Soldiers.

“I keep trying to tell myself that no matter what, this is what we wanted,” Flaum said Wednesday. “Even if they're not alive, we want their bodies. We want their families to be able to move on. We want them to have closure.”

Last year, Flaum came up with the idea of placing three empty chairs in synagogues on the High Holidays, a practice that was widely adopted around the country.

Now SOS is planning an online memorial for the soldiers while directing its efforts toward the release of Shalit, who unlike Regev and Goldwasser, has sent several messages to his family after his abduction and is thought to be alive.

“We're not going to stop,” Flaum said. “I feel that he's alive and I want to see him returned.”

Nation File :: Agriprocessors' PR Firm Accused Of Impersonating Rabbi

2008-07-11T16:58:00.000-05:00

JTA Staff
The publicity firm 5WPR is under the microscope after someone associated with the company impersonated a rabbi.

By Ben Harris

NEW YORK (JTA) -- The public relations firm trying to restore the image of the embattled kosher meat producer Agriprocessors is wrestling with a controversy of its own after being accused of impersonating online a leading critic of the company.

The New York-based agency, 5WPR, is accused of making a fraudulent posting to several Web sites in the name of Morris Allen, a Conservative rabbi who also heads the movement's ethical kashrut initiative.

Two of the postings appeared at FailedMessiah.com, a blog that is highly critical of Agriprocessors, the largest kosher meat producer in the United States.

The blog, operated by Shmarya Rosenberg, reported Wednesday that the two comments in Allen's name came from Web, or Internet Protocol, addresses registered to 5WPR. Later in the day the blog quoted the 5WPR executive handling the Agriprocessors account, Juda Engelmayer, as saying he had been unaware of the fraudulent postings.

Engelmayer blamed the postings on an intern, whom Engelmayer said was subsequently fired.

A separate fraudulent comment was posted to the JTA Web site from what appears to be Engelmayer's home. The comment, by someone purporting to be Allen, was posted Tuesday at 9:51 p.m. to a JTA article about Agriprocessors.

It came from the same IP address as an e-mail that Engelmayer sent 10 minutes earlier to two JTA employees. That IP address, which is different from the one that FailedMessiah’s Rosenberg tied to 5WPR’s offices, is a residential consumer Internet connection on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, where Engelmayer lives.

A person identifying himself as the intern in question but refusing to provide his full name called JTA on Thursday to say he posted the fraudulent comment to the JTA site using a computer at Engelmayer’s apartment during a get-together there Tuesday night, but without Engelmayer’s knowledge.

Engelmayer declined to comment.

A fraudulent comment posted to the JTA Web site, above, and an e-mail from an executive at 5WPR had the same origin I.P. address.

Ronn Torossian, 5WPR's founder and president, issued a statement to JTA on Friday, saying that his firm's "IT department investigated accusations which we have now learned to be true."

"A senior staff member failed to be transparent in dealing with client matters. He has taken full responsibility," Torossian said. He added: "We have instituted internal measures to ensure this cannot happen again. We continue to strive for the highest ethical standards."

The incident is shining a spotlight on one of the fastest growing publicity firms in New York. It also could hamper efforts by Agriprocessors to bolster its image.

Since its founding in 2003, 5WPR has landed several major Jewish and Israeli clients. According to the firm’s Web site, in addition to representing several high-profile celebrities, it has worked for a number of Jewish organizations, including the American Jewish Congress, American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, American Friends of Magen David Adom, Shaare Zedek Medical Center and the Zionist Organization of America.

The firm has also represented the government of Israel and several Israeli political figures, as well as Pastor John Hagee, a San Antonio-based mega-church leader and leading Christian conservative supporter of Israel.

Agriprocessors turned to 5WPR after federal authorities conducted a massive immigration raid May 12 at its packing plant in Postville, Iowa. Nearly 400 undocumented workers were arrested.

Last week, two plant supervisors were arrested on charges that they helped employees use fraudulent documents to acquire jobs.

The raid has unleashed a flood of negative publicity, including allegations that the company hired underage workers, tolerated an atmosphere rife with sexual harassment and underpaid employees. Agriprocessors has denied any knowledge of wrongdoing and suggested that it is the victim of selective prosecution by the federal government.

In response to the growing controversy, Agriprocessors hired a former federal prosecutor, Jim Martin, as its compliance officer. In an e-mail to JTA, Martin said the meatpacking company neither approved nor authorized 5WPR's tactics.

Since hiring 5WPR, Agriprocessors has held a conference call for community leaders responding to the allegations and taken out an advertisement in major Jewish newspapers headlined "The Agriprocessors Our Customers Know and Love!"

Allen, a longtime critic of Agriprocessors, dismissed the public relations offensive. Hekhsher Tzedek, the ethical kashrut initiative he heads, was launched largely in response to allegations of worker mistreatment at the meatpacking firm that first emerged in 2006.

Allen's purported comments were made in response to a blog item announcing that an Orthodox social justice group was calling off a boycott of the company. The group, Uri L'tzedek, said it was encouraged by "early signs of reform" instituted by the new compliance officer.

"We're going to pursue this relentlessly, tirelessly," read a comment on the site attributed to a misspelled version of Allen’s name. "They can hire ten more compliance individuals, more PR firms and lawyers, but we know what we have to do. Hekhsher Tzedek is not in this for the short haul -- we have a goal, and that is to make sure that Tzedek is on kosher foods all over the country. This doesn't rile us. This is a cause. Agriprocessors is the drive for us."

An identical comment was posted to the Web site Vos Iz Neias, which reports news about the fervently Orthodox, or haredi, community, setting off a string of invective from the site's largely Orthodox readership. Vos Iz Neias confirmed to JTA that the addresses from which both comments emerged is associated with 5WPR.

The comment on the JTA site attributed to Allen called the controversy "a war" between Orthodox and Conservative standards of kashrut.

"If an owner has a housekeeper or nanny, he or she better be legal," the post continued. "Then again, if these illegals are paid well and treated well, maybe it won't matter that they are illegal. This hasn't been worked out yet."

Allen told JTA that he did not leave any of the comments and may pursue legal action against the firm.

Michael Siegel, a Chicago rabbi and the national co-chair of Hekhsher Tzedek, said he has sought legal advice.

"We are going to pursue all avenues," Siegel told JTA. "This is just a terrible statement on so many levels that we've come to something like this in the Jewish community. I don't know how much lower we can go in this whole thing."

In his statement, Torossian cast his firm as playing a role in a religious struggle.

"This battle is not about blogging, it is however about protecting the highest levels of Kashrut in the Jewish community. We as a firm feel personally and professionally passionate about these, and related issues," he said. "Critics of traditional Judaism have chosen to smear the largest provider of the highest level kashrut meat in the world. We stand with protecting kashrut."

World File :: US Philanthropist Brings Chutzpah In His Bid To Help Cambodians

2008-07-09T16:53:00.000-05:00

Photo: Tibor Krausz
Bernie Krisher takes a hands-on approach to philanthropy with a Cambodian child outside the Intercontinental Hotel in Phnom Penh.

By Tibor Krausz

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia (JTA) -- Headquartered in an upper-floor lounge of the Intercontinental Hotel here, which he has turned into his command center, Bernie Krisher irons out the details of his latest charity projects for this nation’s poorest children.

Things, however,aren’t proceeding smoothly. An assistant tells him of foot dragging by intractable local bureaucrats over building permits for a new school.

Krisher will have none of it.

“I’m not going through this nonsense of red tape,” snaps “Bernie the Pusher,” as the Tokyo-based Brooklynite has been nicknamed for his can-do, never-say-die chutzpah. “I’m gonna break the law [and build anyway] because there’s a higher law -- helping people. I’ll call [King] Sihanouk and [Prime Minister] Hun Sen if I must.”

Krisher doesn’t have to call. He is called and invited to the palace.

There Krisher is the guest of honor at a luncheon by King-Father Norodom Sihanouk, an old friend. Before massed ranks of court photographers and camera crews for Cambodian television, the diminutive elderly monarch thanks Krisher for his "precious friendship with Cambodia" and his myriad altruistic projects for the land's neediest.

Sihanouk then decorates the American Jew with Cambodia's highest honor -- the medal of Grand Officier de l’Ordre royal du Cambodge.

The new school is built on schedule.

A half-hour drive from Phnom Penh, the Bright Future Kids' home boasts airy classrooms and a dormitory. It sits next door to another project initiated by Krisher: an orphanage for youngsters whose parents have died in the country’s raging HIV/AIDS epidemic.

The Bright Future Kids program includes gifted but underprivileged secondary students from the remote provinces. In addition to their studies in Cambodia’s national curriculum, the two dozen participants also learn English and computer skills.

“The single most important thing for Cambodians in overcoming poverty and the trauma of genocide is education,” says Krisher, 76, a native of Germany who says he came to identify with long-suffering Cambodians through his own experience as a refugee from the Holocaust. “Most problems are fueled or exacerbated by hopelessness and ignorance.”

During the Khmer Rouge's reign of terror between 1975 and 1979, as many as two million people died on Cambodia’s “killing fields.” Intellectuals, including teachers and doctors, were systematically eliminated, blighting the country's prospects for generations to come.

Three decades later, Cambodia remains one of Asia’s poorest lands, where most citizens survive by subsistence farming, grueling manual labor or employment in sweatshops.

But Nhou Chorm wants to be “a teacher or a doctor.”

The 16-year-old at Krisher’s Bright Future Kids home comes from the Rattanakiri province in the mountainous hill-tribe region of the remote northeast, near the Laotian border. The literacy rate there is only about 25 percent.

Her parents scrape the hard earth for a living; Nhou is the only one of their six children to attend school.

Nhou began her studies at one of several schools built locally by Krisher in his “Put a Roof Over Their Head” initiative. He conceived the project nearly a decade ago during a visit to the provinces, where he saw children learning in groups. The older children taught the younger ones in the open under the shelter of banyan trees.

Krisher, a former Southeast Asia correspondent for Newsweek who publishes The Cambodia Daily -- he's a trailblazer in the country for freedom of the press -- has since helped build some 400 schools across the land.

The schools cost $25,000 each to build and are underwritten by individual donors from Japan to the United States. Many even have Internet connection thanks to the “Motoman” system that links villages through a network of satellites and mobile units transported on motorcycles.

Helped by a program with the Harvard Medical School, sick villagers living in far-flung communities with no access to health care can also benefit from modern diagnostic techniques and consultation with expert health professionals via satellite.

In bamboo and thatch hamlets without running water or electricity, more and more of Krisher's proteges can join the global village with donated computers powered by solar panels.

Enthused by her opportunity to study, Nhou explains in her halting, newly learned English that she read late into the night after long days working in the fields with her family by the light of homemade resin candles.

“Even the poorest kids in the boondocks of New York or Tel Aviv have far better opportunities than the smartest kids in rural Cambodia,” Krisher says. “Many Cambodian kids are showing great promise, but their poverty prevents them from living up to their potential. All we need do is tap that potential and some may become a future prime minister, a Bill Gates or even another Einstein.”

Though suffering from a heart condition, Krisher says he won’t be slowing down.

“My head is bubbling with ideas,” he says.

One is to enlist Israeli agronomists to help teach poor Cambodian farmers modern farming and water management techniques.

And there are plenty more schools yet to build.

Israel File :: Ad Campaign For Conservative Jewish Weddings Strikes Chord In Israel

2008-07-07T10:39:00.001-05:00

Courtesy Masorti Movement
"Play the Wedding Game" portal is part of Masorti movement's new advertising campaign that shows Israelis alternative ways to marry within the Jewish tradition.

By Dina Kraft

TEL AVIV (JTA) -- In an online game, prospective Israeli brides and bridegrooms construct their dream wedding -- everything from venue to guest list to food.

Finally the punch line arrives: What kind of ceremony would they choose?

For most Israelis, there is little choice.

In a country without civil marriage, an Orthodox ceremony performed by the Chief Rabbinate is the only legally recognized union for Jews.

A growing number of Israeli Jews, however, are bypassing the Rabbinate and marrying abroad. Some do so because they are not considered Jewish according to halachah, or Jewish law. Others are turned off by the Rabbinate's reputation for sluggish bureaucracy and pedantic questioning of petitioners’ Jewish identity.

The Conservative movement in Israel, called Masorti, is tapping into this discontent.

Its new advertising blitz is spreading the message that other ways are available to marry within the fold of Jewish tradition in the Jewish state. Launched June 15, the campaign includes radio spots, newspaper and online ads, and the online "Play the Wedding Game" portal.

The campaign has been a surprise hit for the movement, generating 35,000 hits on its Web site in just a few weeks, as well as a huge spike in phone calls and e-mail inquiries to its Jerusalem office.

It also has angered Shas, an Orthodox political party.

Yaakov Margi, the party's Knesset chairman, asked the Israel Broadcasting Authority to pull the Masorti radio ads from the airwaves. In a letter to the authority, Margi wrote that the Masorti movement "knowingly misleads and perpetrates a campaign of fraud" because it misrepresents its wedding ceremony as traditionally Jewish.

The Rabbinate also is taking issue with the campaign, asking the government to shut it down, according to Avi Blumenthal, a spokesman for the Rabbinate.

Couples who consider the Masorti movement and marry under Conservative auspices still will not have their marriages recognized in Israel. They will need to marry abroad to gain legal recognition in the Jewish state.

The Masorti movement remains unrepentant, saying it hopes the campaign will convince more Israelis to marry in Jewish ceremonies rather than in civil ceremonies overseas. The movement estimates that some 20 percent of Israeli marriages take place abroad, many in nearby Cyprus.

"Young couples are giving up totally on having a Jewish chupah, and we as a movement think that's very problematic," said Rabbi Tamar Elad-Appelbaum, the director of the Masorti movement's wedding initiative. "Because of their reluctance to go to the Rabbinate, which they hear is a difficult process, they give up on their heritage."

The idea of the ad campaign, she said, is to show Israelis there’s an alternative.

“We want them to see there is another way to marry, and that's the Jewish way, under a chuppah, as has been done from generation to generation,” she said. “We need to make sure our young people do not lose touch with their traditions.

“And at the same time,” she added, “we want them to see they can still remain true to themselves at this important moment.”

While most Israelis are not religiously observant, Reform and Conservative Judaism have found little traction in Israel. Orthodoxy dominates religious life, with membership in non-Orthodox religious movements negligible by comparison.

Andy Sacks, the head of the Masorti movement's rabbinical assembly, attributes the success of the movement’s wedding ad campaign to popular alienation from the Rabbinate, which he says is out of touch with the Israeli public.

"I think this sort of stemmed from a confluence of events -- shmitta and people talking about the Rabbinate not meeting their needs, and then that conversions started being canceled,” he said, citing two recent controversies surrounding the Rabbinate.

In the shmitta controversy, the fervently Orthodox wing of the Rabbinate tried to impose extra strict regulations concerning observance this year of the shmitta sabbatical, during which Israel relies on Jewish legal loopholes to circumvent the biblical injunction to let the land of Israel lie fallow every seven years.

The other controversy concerned a threat in Israel to revoke the conversions of those who do not lead religiously observant lifestyles.

"With all this going on, we realized there was a niche for people who have respect for tradition but a bad taste in their mouth from the religious establishment," Sacks said.

Blumenthal, the Rabbinate spokesman, rejects the criticism. He insists the Rabbinate is not out of touch with the public's needs and has been doing its best to streamline the marriage process.

"We need to do what we do to assure we are following Jewish law; there is no unnecessary bureaucracy," he said. "And we are working to improve our services all the time."

Israel File :: Returned Artworks Staying In Jerusalem

2008-07-03T10:36:00.000-05:00

Courtesy Commission for Looted Art in Europe
Jewish motifs decorate the gold-painted glass medallions that were stolen by Nazis and restituted to the owners' heirs.

By Toby Axelrod

Berlin (JTA) -- Israel has restituted three ancient "medallions" stolen by the Nazis in Poland in 1941.

The heirs and an anonymous patron, however, are keeping two of the fourth century artworks at the Israel Museum in Jerusalem, where they have resided since their purchase from looters in 1965.

Jewish motifs, including menorahs and lions of Judah, decorate the gold-painted glass medallions, actually the bases of glass bowls.

The medallions are among the oldest known depictions of Jewish symbols ever found in the Mediterranean Diaspora, according to Anne Webber, a co-chair of the London-based Commission for Looted Art in Europe.

The nonprofit commission, which assists heirs in locating stolen objects and helps museums determine the provenance of their collections, announced Tuesday that the museum had restituted these three medallions to the heirs of their original owners.

Webber told JTA in a telephone interview that the Israel Museum also acknowledged the items had been purchased from looters. She said the family wanted the items to remain in Israel because of their historical significance.

In a statement, Count Adam Zamoyski, speaking for the heirs in London, said they were "very happy with the outcome."

"We fully recognize the importance of the two glasses to the Jewish people and respect the wishes of the Israel Museum to keep them in Jerusalem," he said.

Originally found in catacombs in Rome, the medallions belonged to a collection assembled by Countess Isabella Dzialynska (nee Czartoryska) at the Hotel Lambert, her family home in Paris. She later moved the collection to the family castle at Goluchow, and then to Warsaw for safekeeping before the outbreak of World War II.

But the Nazis found and confiscated the collection, which Hitler moved to Castle Fischhorn in Zell am See in Austria in 1944. After the war, the collection was looted again, mostly by collectors from Austria.

Two decades later, Teddy Kollek, the then-mayor of Jerusalem and founder of the Israel Museum, purchased two of the medallions from a collector in Vienna together with Israeli art dealer Joseph Steiglitz. Kollek bought the third one for himself and donated it to the museum in 1970.

With help from the commission, the collection slowly is being reunited with its heirs. Earlier this year, a 13th century Limoges enamel cross was located in a collection in Zell am See and returned to the family.

The family has known for four years that the medallions were in the Israel Museum.

The two items bearing images of the Holy Ark, the lions of Judah and the Temple menorah will remain in the museum's permanent collection, the commission said. One was repurchased by the museum; the second was purchased by a museum patron for long-term loan.

The eight-member commission of historians and attorneys has helped reunite some 3,000 stolen artworks and objects with their heirs over the past nine years, Webber said.

"It is a drop in the ocean of stolen art," she added.

Zamoyski says the family hopes to one day re-create the Dzialynska Collection in Poland.

Nation File :: Jewish Food Pantries Feel Squeeze

2008-07-01T10:32:00.000-05:00

Courtesy Metropolitan Council on Jewish Poverty
Budget cuts have forced the New York Metropolitan Council on Jewish Poverty to trim its food pantry budget and lay off staff.

By Jacob Berkman

NEW YORK (JTA) – In her 15 years at the Yad Ezra kosher food bank in Berkley, Mich., Leah Luger has never seen a situation quite as bad.

Michigan has the highest unemployment rate of any state in the nation at 7.4 percent, and Yad Ezra has seen a 30 percent increase in demand over the past two years. With food costs soaring, Michigan’s only kosher food bank is struggling to keep up.

Luger, the organization's director of development and co-executive director, says there is "more need, more desperation" than she's ever seen.

Yad Ezra, which was started 18 years ago to help feed an influx of poor elderly Jewish immigrants from the former Soviet Union, now has a different clientele. Many are younger, working-age Jews who have lost their jobs or been blindsided by economic hardship.

Two years ago, Yad Ezra served 1,000 families per month. Now it serves 1,400.

Rising food costs -- 10 percent in the last few months alone, Luger says -- are compounding the challenge. A box of groceries that cost $36.50 in January now runs $39.

"We are really struggling here," Luger told JTA.

Luger is not alone. Emergency food providers everywhere are struggling, including Jewish agencies.

Organizational officials describe the situation as a perfect storm: Food prices have increased by 10 to 20 percent, gas prices have soared to more than $4 per gallon, unemployment is rising, growing numbers of Americans are losing their homes to foreclosure, and state and local governments are slashing funding for social services.

The crunch is coming from both sides of the socioeconomic spectrum of poor, they say. Food stamps, which help the poorest of the poor, simply do not stretch as far as they did a year ago. At the same time, a growing number of working poor and lower-middle-class Americans are being forced to turn to food banks for help for the first time.

"In general, the entire country's food bank system is facing a crisis, and it is directly affecting all of the emergency food providers throughout the country," Heather Wolfson, a spokeswoman for Mazon: A Jewish Response to Hunger, told JTA.

Mazon gives as much as $4 million per year in grants to some 300 organizations that either provide food or work in food advocacy. This year, for the first time, Mazon sent out a special mid-year appeal to its donors asking for more money, Wolfson said.

"There has always been a need, but there is even more now with the economy the way it is,” she said. “The unfortunate thing is that we don't see an end to this very soon.”

The New York Metropolitan Council on Jewish Poverty, which provides 13,000 families with non-perishable food through its food bank and food vouchers to another 2,000 families to buy perishable goods, has seen a steady increase in middle-class clients in the past three or four months, according to Executive Director William Rapfogel.

Some middle-class New Yorkers hit hard by layoffs as well as the rising costs of rent, food and fuel show up at the Met Council's warehouse in the Canarsie section of Brooklyn. The warehouse is not a distribution center, but about a dozen people a day come anyway because they are embarrassed to seek help closer to home.

Rapfogel says his budget has been slashed by more than $2.5 million this year by state and city budget cuts. Those cuts have forced the Met Council to trim its food pantry budget and will force the agency to lay off 34 staff members, he said.

For those who receive food stamps, higher food costs mean they can’t afford as much food.

"For a household of four that would have been getting the max allotment, by January they were already finding that they were falling $30 short per month," said Ellen Vollinger, the legal director for Food Research and Action Center, a national food advocacy group. "The new numbers we think will be more acute."

Some 28 million Americans receive food stamps, which Vollinger estimates is only two-thirds of the number that actually qualify for the program.

Hopefully the crisis will persuade government officials that they must help more, says William Daroff, the director of the Washington office of the United Jewish Communities federation umbrella group and its vice president for public policy.

Daroff estimates that the federation system expends approximately $240 million annually on food and nutrition services, including food pantries, synagogue meal programs for seniors, Meals on Wheels, and an emergency food and shelter program. Approximately $60 million of the budget comes from government sources, he said.

In May, Congress voted to override President Bush's veto of the Farm, Nutrition, and Bioenergy Act of 2007, which mandates an additional $10.3 billion in aid to federal nutrition programs. The UJC pushed hard for the measure, which will raise the minimum benefit for food stamps for the first time in 30 years starting in October.

Jewish federations support about 100 food banks through the national system of Jewish Family Service organizations, according to the president and CEO of the Association of Jewish Family and Children's Agencies, Bert Goldberg.

In Jacksonville, Fla., Jewish Family and Community Services partners with the Winn-Dixie supermarket chain to give away some 6,000 packages of supplementary food per year.

The group has seen a 10 to 15 percent increase in demand, according to its executive director, Robin Peters. Meanwhile, rising food costs have forced Peters to begin to substitute lower-quality food in her packages. She used to give away cans of beef stew for protein; now it's beef ravioli.

Local Jewish Family Services directors have been holding intense discussions about how to deal with rising costs and rising needs. While there is no national emergency campaign, Goldberg says most have started their own emergency campaigns to raise funds locally.

Can they raise enough to keep up?

"I hear frequently from execs that this is an issue that they don't know how to deal with," Goldberg said.

Nation File :: Agriprocessors Hires Homeless From Texas To Fill Openings Since Fed Immigration Raid

2008-06-23T09:47:00.001-05:00

John Gaps III/Des Moines Register
After federal officials arrested nearly half its work force in a raid last month, Agriprocessors has scrambled to fill positions at its Postville plant.

By Ben Harris

NEW YORK (JTA) -- In an effort to restore lagging production at its Iowa plant, the country's largest kosher meat producer has been hiring workers from homeless shelters in Texas to replace employees detained in a massive federal immigration raid last month.

According to a spokesman for the meat producer Agriprocessors, workers are recruited by a firm in Amarillo, Texas, and sent to Postville. In Iowa, they are processed by Jacobson Staffing, a Des Moines-based company that screens them for drugs and alcohol, and ensures they are legally permitted to work in the United States.

Several Postville officials say the new arrivals have created problems for the town.

Police Chief Michael Halse told JTA that his officers had arrested four plant workers for disorderly conduct last week.

The Rev. Paul Ouderkirk, the leader of the local Catholic church, which has played a key role in helping former workers and their families after last month's raid, said a mentally challenged woman from Texas had come to his church seeking help with prescription medications.

Diana Morris, in an interview Friday with Postville's local radio station, said she spent three days on a bus from Amarillo only to discover that she was expected to live with 10 men in a four-bedroom house that had no electricity or hot water.

"Amarillo's homeless problem has become Postville's homeless problem," Jeff Abbas, who runs the KPVL radio station, told JTA.

In a statement Friday to JTA, the newly hired compliance officer for Agriprocessors said any allegations that contractors had misled new recruits would be investigated.

"We would note that we do not believe that homeless people should be prohibited from applying for employment from Agriprocessors," Jim Martin said. "In fact, for the appropriate individuals, we welcome the opportunity to offer them the chance to better their lives."

Agriprocessors has been struggling to restore production since authorities conducted the largest immigration raid in U.S. history May 12 at the Postville plant. Nearly half the work force was rounded up.

Some 300 workers are now facing deportation, having pleaded guilty to various forms of identity theft and fraud.

The company's difficulty in restoring its normal production levels has sparked concerns of a kosher meat shortage around the country.

Within weeks of the raid, a Waterloo staffing company withdrew an estimated 150 replacement workers from the plant, citing safety concerns. A group of Native Americans brought in from a smaller Agriprocessors plant in Gordon, Neb., left within days, saying working conditions were worse than expected and the company hadn't made good on its promises.

Those reports have helped prompt several Jewish organizations to call for a boycott of the company.

But Rabbi Seth Mandel, the rabbinic coordinator for the Orthodox Union, one of two agencies certifying the plant as kosher, says Agriprocessors merely is responding to the dictates of the market.

"Most consumers will not pay a premium for free-range, natural or organic beef, no matter how much lip service they pay to the idea," Mandel wrote in an e-mail obtained by JTA. "The same thing holds true regarding employees and their working conditions. Meat packers would [have] no problem with paying higher wages and make working conditions better -- IF the consumers would pay the premium price thereby entailed."

In her interview with the radio station's Abbas, Morris described how she was recruited from Amarillo with about 15 others and given a Greyhound bus ticket and $15 to pay for food during the 1,000-mile journey. She said she was promised 30 days of free housing as well as a $100 bonus upon arrival.

What made the offer so attractive, Morris said, was the $10 per hour that Agriprocessors is now offering.

"Everything down there is about $6 an hour being paid, and that's the minimum wage," she said of Texas.

Juda Engelmayer, an Agriprocessors spokesman, said that Jacobson determined who was fit to work in the plant and that resources were provided to transport workers back to their homes if they weren't offered jobs.

"They are given the opportunity and the means to go back where they came from," Engelmayer said. "I don't know if everyone takes it. Free citizens are free to move around as they wish."

Israel File :: Federation Aid Fills Sderot Void

2008-06-17T09:53:00.000-05:00

United Jewish Communities
Geut Argon, above, was wounded when a Kassam rocket hit her Sderot home earlier this year, causing about $30,000 in damages.

By Jacob Berkman

SDEROT, Israel (JTA) -- For the past several years, Geut Argon has spent little time on the second floor of her home here in southern Israel.

With Palestinian militants in the nearby Gaza Strip regularly aiming Kassam rockets at random targets in this poor, working-class town, it just seemed too dangerous,she says in a recent interview at the Sderot Community Center.

But one afternoon about eight months ago, her son Nir, 4, and his 5-year-old friend Lior begged her to let them go upstairs to see something on the family’s computer. She relented.

Before Argon dropped off Nir and Lior at the computer, Nir headed toward the bathroom. A rocket came crashing through the roof.

“There was just one big boom and then I don’t remember,” she said.

Argon, 35, was knocked unconscious temporarily. She still recalls the horror of the moments after she came to, frantically scrambling through the rubble to find the two children. It wasn’t until she located them, relatively unscathed, that it became clear she was the one who had been wounded.

"Mommy, Mommy. Blood!" Nir screamed.

The gash in Argon's head would require several surgeries to remove shrapnel embedded in her brain.

Argon is one of the thousands of residents in Sderot and the surrounding towns on the Gaza-Israel border who has received some form of relief from the network of North American Jewish federations and the United Jewish Communities over the past year and a half.

The UJC has doled out some $26 million to its overseas partners, the Jewish Agency for Israel and the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, for programs in Sderot. And though it has received some resistance from local federations of late, the UJC hopes to give slightly more than $10 million in additional aid in the coming months.

Argon has received psychological counseling though UJC-funded programming. The Jewish Agency has provided approximately $1,300 through its SOS Fund for short-term relief, but she is waiting to receive money from the Israeli government to fix her house. The Jewish Agency later gave her about $8,000 from its Victims of Terror Fund.

Since April 2001, Palestinian militants have fired an estimated 4,000 rockets and mortar shells at Sderot and the areas near the Gaza border.

The situation has worsened in the past two years, according to Israeli military officials. Nearly 2,900 attacks have come since Israel withdrew from Gaza in August 2005. Some 1,400 have come since Hamas took political control of Gaza in June 2007.

Sixteen Israelis have been killed in the Sderot region since the attacks began.

The Palestinians have increased their firepower, largely with the help of Iran, military specialists say. They have improved the range of their Kassam missiles, started to use 122 mm mortar shells and begun to employ Grad missiles that can reach Ashkelon and perhaps beyond.

As the attacks have increased, the population of Sderot -- mostly new immigrants from the former Soviet Union and Arab lands -- has dwindled. Although there is no definitive figure on the number of residents that have departed, estimates range from 25 percent to nearly 50 percent in a region that once had a population of 24,000.

Most of those who had the financial means have left, according to municipal officials, social service workers and residents. The majority of those who remain are either idealists or could not afford to leave.

Elsewhere in the world, Israeli and American Jewish philanthropy has focused on removing Jews from endangered areas. But for Israel, the flight from Sderot is troubling -- both militarily, as the country's border could essentially be pushed back, and for national morale, as Israelis see themselves fleeing.

Most of the UJC allocations to the Sderot region have gone to helping the residents endure, giving them respite and offering incentives to others to move to the embattled area. The federation system has allocated some $2.9 million in scholarships for Sapir College in Sderot and more then $5 million to take children in Sderot and Ashkelon out of harm's way for summer camp.

In sharp contrast to the UJC's funding strategy up north, where it has directed about $35 million to economic development, less than $1 million of the funds from the federation system has been spent that way in the Sderot area. Lodge said that's because most of the economic development funding up north was in the form of loan guarantees issued after the conflict with Hezbollah. Such measures, he added, are seen by the UJC as a poor investment during a time of active conflict like the one plaguing Sderot.

The UJC has spent more than $2 million on programs to treat trauma and stress among Sderot residents, as well to promote “resiliency" in coping with the constant threat of rockets. The rate of post-traumatic stress disorder is high among the residents.

The JDC has helped seven of Sderot’s eight elementary schools build “havens of calm,” fortified rooms where students come for alternative therapy sessions in managing their stress. Yoga and pet therapy are among the approaches incorporated into the sessions.

Until recently, aid coming into the region has been slow, especially from the government. Much of the assistance in Sderot from the UJC's partners thus far has come from the $360 million raised by the North American federations to rebuild Israel's north in the aftermath of the 2006 war with Hezbollah.

Other than the One Family Fund, which has been helping the people of Sderot since 2004 -- it has given more than $1 million in the past year alone -- the situation garnered little attention from Israeli society and nonprofits, according to Pini Rabinovich, the coordinator for the organization's activities in the Jerusalem area and southern Israel.

Sderot's plight also has been largely ignored by the Israeli public, and the town's story has been misplayed -- and in some cases flat-out missed -- by the Israeli media, according to Tal Samuel-Azran, a media specialist at Ben Gurion University.

It's a turn of events that has frustrated Sderot residents like Argon. Much of the frustration is with the Israeli government, which has provided tax cuts to the region's residents but has left a void that private organizations such as the UJC have increasingly had to fill.

Argon estimates that the Kassam that hit her house caused $30,000 in damages. The UJC and Jewish Agency assistance was needed because “the government doesn’t want to pay for it."

“The government? They keep forgetting them, otherwise why do you need so many organizations?” Rabinovich asked at the Sderot center, where the organization’s founder, Mark Belzberg, was distributing books and toys to area children.

When asked about such complaints, the Israeli Consulate in New York noted that the Israeli government has spent about $172 million since 2003 in civilian assistance to residents of Sderot and the western Negev.

“These figures include direct assistance by means of 50% reductions in property tax, 25% reductions of income tax, the highest subsidies for daycare centers, and scholarships for students, among others,” the consulate said in a statement. “The unemployment rate in Sderot is one of the lowest in the country due to government incentives given to investors and entrepreneurs. These figures also includes aid on a regional level by means of upgrading industrial areas; preference for defense ministry contracts; funding communities' security expenses; aid for agriculture, new immigrants, and large families; investments in neighborhood refurbishment, infrastructure, sewage, roads, and water systems; funding cultural events, increasing school hours, new ambulances, treating psychological trauma, creating new employment opportunities, and many other projects.”

At the same time that residents bemoan what they see as their government's failures, those on the ground see a new momentum in Sderot-related philanthropy.

“Now it is very popular, it is in,” Rabinovich told JTA.

Argon, for instance, receives aid from four organizations: the UJC, the Jewish Agency, the One Family Fund and another called Chibbuk.

Nachman Shai, the senior vice president of the UJC and director general of UJC Israel, says the Jewish community is starting to recognize the problem in the Sderot region.

At the same time, the UJC has had issues of late raising money for the cause.

The organization largely has been rebuffed in its efforts to raise another $13.6 million from local Jewish federations in North America for helping Sderot, Ashkelon and the surrounding cities, said a UJC official.

The UJC approved an allocation for that amount in March to cover additional Sderot programming, then sent a letter from its leadership to the federations making a soft pitch for money. But the federations have been slow to react, according to Jim Lodge, the UJC’s vice president for Israel and overseas issues.

So far, the federations have given roughly $2.25 million, which the UJC has allocated to five projects. Further projects are on hold until the federations come through with more aid.

“I hope they will respond,” Shai told JTA.

Argon, though, sees hope that the Jewish world is starting to pay attention.

"People know more now I think," she said. "I don’t think they really knew what was going on until now."

World File :: Falash Mura Aliyah To End In July

2008-06-13T15:27:00.001-05:00

Ron Csillag
Ethiopian Falash Mura gather at the synagogue of a Jewish aid compound in Gondar, Ethiopia.

By Uriel Heilman

NEW YORK (JTA) -- With the final planeload of Ethiopian immigrants scheduled to land in Israel early next month, advocates of Falash Mura aliyah are hoping a last-ditch intervention by Israel’s prime minister will extend immigration rights to thousands more.

Former Israeli Supreme Court Justice Meir Shamgar held a closed-door meeting with Ehud Olmert in late May in a bid to convince the prime minister to order the immediate screening of an additional 8,500 to 8,700 Ethiopians for immigration eligibility.

Also, a coalition of advocates is petitioning Israeli Knesset members, rallying American Jews and filing lawsuits to force Israel to take in thousands more Ethiopian immigrants.

“Experience teaches us that when the Israeli government says no, when we, the members of the community, do not give up, we prevail,” said Avraham Neguise, an Ethiopian aliyah advocate and director of South Wing to Zion, an Ethiopian-Israeli group. “There are 8,700 Jews left behind. I hope that the prime minister will check this situation and make the right decisions, and not make another mistake.”

The campaign, launched several months ago, has taken on renewed urgency following several court rulings rejecting the advocates’ petitions, the termination of United Jewish Communities funding of aid activities in Ethiopia and the imminence of the planned end of mass Ethiopian aliyah.

With more than 17,000 Ethiopian immigrants having come to Israel since Ariel Sharon’s government decided to expand mass aliyah from the country in 2003, the aliyah appears finally to be at its end.

Israel’s Interior Ministry, which was responsible for verifying who was eligible for immigration, several months ago finished going through a list of potential Ethiopian immigrants dating back to 1999. That list is now closed, according to ministry spokeswoman Sabine Hadad.

The UJC announced recently it had exhausted the $71 million it had raised and was ceasing its funding in Ethiopia. The national arm of the North American network of local Jewish federations had pledged $100 million to Ethiopian immigration and absorption as part of Operation Promise.

The Jewish Agency for Israel, which coordinates the Ethiopians’ immigration and absorption in Israel, anticipates the final flight of Ethiopian immigrants will arrive in Israel in early July.

“The Jewish Agency is winding down its activity based on the decision of the government to cease the current immigration of the Falash Mura at the end of June,” agency spokesman Michael Jankelowitz told JTA.

But the coalition of activists pressing for additional Falash Mura aliyah says there actually are another 8,500 or so Ethiopians that the government should screen for eligibility. The activists say these were people on the 1999 list but remained in their rural villages rather than migrating to the Ethiopian cities of Gondar and Addis Ababa, where most petitioners congregated while Israel reviewed their cases and where they received Jewish aid.

Israeli courts have rejected this argument, ruling that the government fulfilled its commitments dating back to the 2003 government decision and that the 8,500 Ethiopians represent a new group.

Nevertheless, the coalition of activists is pressing on with its campaign, which began last December.

“I know people have concerns that there’s no end to this, that this is an indefinite extension, that they’re not really Jews,” said Irwin Cotler, a former Canadian justice minister and longtime advocate for Ethiopian aliyah. “Our entire position rests on two points: One, that there’s a finite, definite group of 8,500. Two, we’re not saying the 8,500 should be brought. We’re saying the 8,500 have a right to have their eligibility determined according to law.”

At the heart of the controversy over Ethiopian immigration is the fear that mass Ethiopian aliyah will continue without end. Ethiopian aliyah was declared over by Israeli officials on several previous occasions, only to begin anew following public campaigns for its extension.

In 2003, the government decided to verify the eligibility of an additional group of Ethiopians, subsequently capping the number. The decision reflected a desire both to bring Ethiopians with Jewish roots to the Jewish homeland and to limit the number of potential immigrants to those with legitimate Jewish links.

Unlike the Ethiopian immigrants who came to Israel in Operations Moses and Solomon in 1984 and 1991, respectively, the Falash Mura were not practicing Jews until very recently. That has made it difficult to ascertain their claims of links -- either by heritage or marriage -- to Ethiopians of Jewish ancestry whose progenitors converted to Christianity more than a century ago to escape economic and social discrimination.

In order to be eligible for immigration, the Ethiopians must demonstrate both that they have close kin in Israel as well as a maternal connection to a Jewish line -- or are married to someone who has. The Falash Mura must also agree to embrace Judaism as a condition of their aliyah.

Rather than immigrating under the Law of Return, the Ethiopians qualify under a family-reunification statute, the Law of Entry.

Some observers, including veteran Ethiopian immigrants, have warned that Ethiopians with dubious claims to Jewish ancestry are exploiting the system to escape Africa’s desperate poverty for a better life in Israel. But advocates of the Falash Mura say that except for a few isolated cases, those coming to Israel have legitimate Jewish links.

In their current campaign, activists have developed a four-pronged approach focusing on Israel’s three branches of government and the fourth estate. Advocates are filing additional lawsuits and appeals, lobbying Knesset members for legislation expanding Ethiopian aliyah, urging the prime minister to issue a new order on Ethiopian aliyah and campaigning for public support.

An Olmert spokeswoman, Gali Cohen, told JTA that the prime minister is interested in settling additional immigrants in Israel, including Ethiopians, but at this point there is no plan of action to extend Falash Mura immigration.

Cohen said Shamgar’s meeting with Olmert was no more than a briefing.

“Shamgar asked to meet with the prime minister to explain the situation. It was a very general meeting; it did not lead anywhere,” she said. “It has not progressed on any government front.”

Meanwhile, Jewish aid funding to Ethiopia is drying up. The North American Conference on Ethiopian Jewry, which funds Jewish aid and education in Ethiopia, says it will stay the course, but its sponsors are pulling out.

“The truth is, we just don’t have the money,” said Jim Lodge, the vice president of the Israel and Overseas division at UJC, one of NACOEJ’s main sponsors. “It’s not out of any kind of policy decision or initiative on our own, but simply out of budget considerations.”

UJA-Federation of New York says it will continue to fund NACOEJ and its operations in Ethiopia, “pending a final decision by the government of Israel on who is eligible to make aliyah,” said David Mallach, the managing director of UJA-Federation’s Commission on the Jewish People.

“If the decision of the Israeli government is final and Israel phases down the program, we’ll not continue funding programs for people who are not going to be making aliyah,” he said.

NACOEJ's director of operations, Orlee Guttman, said the group will rely on grass-roots support if necessary.

As for the uncertain future, the Ethiopian director of the aid compounds in Gondar, Getu Zemene, shrugs.

"We will continue what we are doing," he told JTA.

(JTA correspondent Ron Csillag contributed to this report from Gondar.)

Nation File :: Burial Society Convention Brings Up Questions, Need For Younger Volunteers

2008-06-12T13:29:00.000-05:00

Sue Fishkoff
Members of the Winnipeg Jewish burial society use a live body to demonstrate ritual cleansing at the North American Chevra Kadisha Conference in Edison, N.J., on June 1, 2008

By Sue Fishkoff

EDISON, N.J. (JTA) -- Rochelle Lichtman carefully lifts the head of the woman lying prone on a table in front of the room, while Karen Richter places a fresh piece of white cotton over her face.

Lichtman then eases a white bonnet over the woman’s head, tucking in the edges of the face covering. She winds the bonnet’s strings under the chin and back up to the top of the head, where she ties the ends to form the Hebrew letter “shin,” representing one of the names of God.

Lichtman and Richter volunteer for a chevra kadisha, or burial society, in Winnipeg, Canada. They are part of a four-woman team that has come to this week’s North American Chevra Kadisha Conference to demonstrate the taharah ritual -- washing a newly deceased body according to Jewish tradition before it is dressed in a white shroud and buried in a plain wooden box.

Their model for the purification rite is very much alive -- her face covering is moved at one point to ease her breathing. But the care and respect the team demonstrates during its two-hour session is as real as if the members are working on one who has passed away.

“I wasn’t sure I could do it,” says another member of the team, Evita Smordin, talking about the first time she was asked to take part in a taharah. “Now I feel it’s a real honor. It’s the only thing you do for a person that they can’t pay you back for.”

Taharah and other Jewish burial customs fell out of favor in liberal Jewish circles during the 20th century, as increasing numbers of Jews adopted American fashions of embalming or even cremation, which goes against Jewish law.

Now as more liberal Jews are re-examining such rituals as keeping kosher and Shabbat, the chevra kadisha is also making a comeback. And a new institute set to open in the fall of 2009 will offer what organizers say is the country’s only certified program in Jewish end-of-life practices.

While it is one thing to rhapsodize about the beauty of caring for the deceased, it is quite another to find volunteers who literally must touch death. That's typically left to hospitals and mortuaries.

The work of the chevra kadisha is shrouded in mystery. Traditionally, even the names of those who perform the work are kept secret to preserve the dignity of the departed.

And there are few hard-and-fast rules. Beyond certain basics, the actual steps of cleaning and dressing vary from community to community. Thus if no “elders” are available to teach a new generation, volunteers must use books and common sense.

When the small Jewish community of Fort Collins, Colo., organized its burial society, members consulted many instruction manuals in developing their own ground rules.

Given the difficulties, it may seem surprising that burial societies are starting up at more and more synagogues and in Jewish communities across North America.

Several dozen were represented at the sixth annual conference Sunday to Tuesday. It was co-sponsored by the National Association of Jewish Chaplains and Kavod v’Nichum, a group that provides training and resources for the burial societies and bereavement committees.

David Zinner, the executive director of Kavod v’Nichum, cannot quantify the growth of burial societies, but says he sees more conference participants each year and is receiving more inquiries on setting up the societies.

As part of its efforts to increase awareness of and expertise in traditional Jewish burial and bereavement, Kavod v’Nichum is launching the Gamliel Institute, a center for the study, training and advocacy of Jewish end-of-life practices.

The institute will offer a three-year certification program aimed at chevra kadisha volunteers, rabbis, chaplains, funeral directors and other Jewish communal professionals.

Organizers say the goal is to produce a cadre of trained advocates who will encourage Jewish communities to integrate death and mourning into the Jewish life cycle instead of marginalizing and neglecting them.

“This will take what we’ve been doing for the last six years at these conferences and turn it into an in-depth, comprehensive way of looking at the entire continuum from critical illness through death and mourning,” says Zinner, who will co-direct the new institute with Rabbi Stuart Kelman of Berkeley, Calif.

Many of the volunteers at the conference spoke about the emotional toll of their work, as well as the spiritual satisfaction.

Reba Herzfeld of Atlanta described the “chevra huddle” her women’s burial group does after each ritual cleansing.

“We put our arms around each other, we say a prayer, someone says something nice about the woman,” Herzfeld says. “Even if we didn’t know her, we talk about how she was somebody’s daughter, wife, mother, something to send her soul peacefully to the next world.”

Herzfeld’s grandmother and mother both served on burial societies in Atlanta, but it “was something you didn’t talk about when I was growing up in the ‘50s,” she said.

It was only when she saw a friend’s 16-year-old son taken off a respirator 12 years ago that she “found the strength,” she says, to help organize one of the first Reform synagogue-based burial societies in the country.

Noting that three Reform synagogues in Atlanta now have burial societies, Herzfeld says the field is growing fast.

“I get a lot of soul satisfaction from this,” she says.

Getting younger volunteers is another challenge.

Risa Hanau, 42, says she is the youngest member of her Conservative synagogue’s chevra kadisha in Greensboro, N.C.

“A lot of the younger women are mothers, and their focus is on youth, the start of life,” she explains. “Also, it tends to be older people because they want to feel that someone will do it for them.”

In an effort to draw in younger congregants, her burial society is encouraging them to volunteer first for shmira, the round-the-clock guarding of the body as it awaits burial.

Rabbi Susan Tendler of Congregation Beth El, a Conservative synagogue in Norfolk, Va., ran an educational session on her congregation’s chevra kadisha last fall, specifically targeting younger congregants. Fifty people showed up.

“There’s an opportunity there to start getting younger people,” says Tendler, who is in her late 30s.

As new burial societies organize themselves, they often find themselves making decisions that raise questions of Jewish tradition, even Jewish law. What if a family wants a taharah, but the burial society knows the deceased will be cremated? Should a burial society perform a taharah on a non-Jew if the Jewish spouse requests it?

It’s up to each society, even each individual member, to decide.

The burial society in Los Alamos, N.M., polled its members on some of these questions, according to one of its members, Rick Light. Four said they would do a taharah before a cremation; eight said they would not. One said he would not do a taharah on a non-Jew, while five said they would as long as Jewish prayers were not said.

These decisions must be conveyed to the bereaved family.

“You’re walking a tightrope,” Light says. “You don’t want to offend people. It’s a very emotional topic.”