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March 30, 2006 - Adar 30, 5766

Antisemitism remains at high levels in Canada
League for Human Rights releases 2005 data

OTTAWA – The League for Human Rights of B’nai Brith Canada released its 2005 Audit of Antisemitic Incidents, an annual study on patterns of prejudice in this country, last week.
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What the audit found

The League for Human Rights of B’nai Brith Canada released last week its 2005 Audit of Antisemitic Incidents, an annual study on antisemitism in this country. The Audit discusses the data in-depth, offering additional discussion by five leading experts. The entire Audit is available online at www.bnaibrith.ca.
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Tri-Elm sale price had one too many zeros

In our March 23 issue, we reported on the recent purchase of Tri-Elm catering and its renaming as Gan Eden Catering. We would like to clarify a few matters.
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Israel ambassador has ‘supportive’ meeting with PM

Two major meetings of interest to the Jewish community took place last week, the Jewish Tribune has learned.
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New president looks to rejuvenate Maccabi Canada
Won’t discuss internal acrimony

Canada placed third in the 2005 Maccabiah Games in Israel, behind Israel and the US.
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May movie event to aid Israeli kids

Canadian Friends of Israel Elwyn is sponsoring a movie event at the Toronto Jewish Film Festival being held at the Miles Nadal Jewish Community Centre on Sunday, May 7.
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Nazis on the Triborough Bridge?

Controversy recently erupted in New York City over the awarding of a huge construction contract to a British architect who had associated with an anti-Israel group.
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Education minister’s ruling interpretation called false

Re: Extend equal funding to all schools (Kingston Whig Standard, Feb. 25 and Jewish Tribune, March 23)
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Sharansky got it wrong, reader says

Natan Sharansky succinctly described how Israel and the western democracies subsidized and appeased the corrupt and murderous Palestinian Authority headed by Arafat and then Abbas (Jewish Tribune, March 16).
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Kennedy said playing role of Haman in school funding story

Conservative Opposition Leader John Tory is in favour of solving the obvious discrimination in this issue. The premier says the current denominational school funding exclusion is unjust.
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UNMASKING UNRWA
A veteran of other refugee crises, relief director faces her greatest test

NEW YORK (JTA) – The honeymoon was sure to end sooner or later. Since Karen Koning AbuZayd took the reins nearly a year ago of the UN relief agency for Palestinian refugees, Israeli officials had praised her for steering clear of the politics of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
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Israel’s disengagement behine Hamas election win: Ya’alon
Small pro-Palestinian demonstration doesn’t mar event

A noisy but small pro-Palestinian demonstration, complete with Palestinian Authority flags, led by a York University teaching assistant, Rafif, did not deter an overflowing audience from attending a stirring, no-holds-barred speech by former IDF Chief of Staff General Moshe Ya’alon at Beth Emeth Bais Yehuda Synagogue.
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B’nai B’rith trip ends in tragedy as dozen die in Chilean accident

WASHINGTON (JTA) – Twelve American tourists on a B’nai B’rith trip to South America were killed last Wednesday when their bus fell 300 feet down a mountainside.
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Halifax: the newest destination for Jewish law students

HALIFAX – The Jewish Law Students’ Association (JLSA) welcomed Alan Baker, the Israeli Ambassador to Canada, to Dalhousie (Dal) Law School in Halifax earlier this month.
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Performance marks Yiddish writer’s 90th anniversary

The timeless world created by the great Yiddish writer, Sholom Aleichem – the man who gave us such memorable characters as Tevye the Dairyman and inspired the Broadway musical Fiddler on the Roof – will be brought to life on April 2 in a unique tribute marking the 90th anniversary of his death.
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Halloween pales in comparison to Purim in Israel

I’m waiting for the bus in Ramat Aviv Gimmel or just ‘Gimmel’ to those in the know, Tel Aviv’s residential paradise. Gazing at the upscale plaza opposite the bus stop I see teenagers in Uggs and Gucci gabbing over mocha lattes frappes, diamond-studded women huddled over their healthy salads and men in suits enjoying an espresso before heading home for the night. It’s quiet and I notice the silence immediately.
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WORLD BRIEF

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Halloween pales in comparison to Purim in Israel

Hard-hitting questions on the Toronto Star’s policy regarding Israel dominated the question and answer session after a speech by Star publisher Michael Goldbloom, who addressed the B’nai Brith Covenant Breakfast at Beth Emeth Bais Yehuda Congregation on Sunday.
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Renanim Youth Singers, vocal groups captivate audience

The award-winning Renanim Youth Singers, led by conductor Susan Michaels and accompanied by pianist Mark Andrews, were one of a number of vocal groups who treated the Toronto community to a delightful pre-Passover concert last week at Leah Posluns Theatre.
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Audit cited as authoritative source on antisemitism

Before B’nai Brith Canada established a broad-based mechanism for collection and analysis of antisemitic incidents across Canada almost a quarter century ago, the Jewish community had to rely on a hit-and-miss approach. Now government agencies around the world know where to turn for the definitive picture on antisemitism in this country.
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CRTC gives nod to new Montreal radio station

MONTREAL - The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) last week granted the first license to an all-Jewish radio station in the western hemisphere to a Montreal group.
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Canadian Zionists to vote for WZO delegates

Canadians affiliated with religious and political Zionist organizations are being encouraged to make their voices heard in Jerusalem at the 35th World Zionist Congress in June. The Zionist Congress convenes once every four years to set the policies of the World Zionist Organization (WZO). The election of delegates in this country takes place at the beginning of April.
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Trafficking in women a worldwide epidemic, Malarek says

MONTREAL – Calling human trafficking one of the greatest human rights abuses of our time, Canadian journalist and social activist Victor Malarek addressed the Jewish community at a Montreal synagogue last Thursday.
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Not yelling at kids? Is it possible?

Many parents in the Toronto community familiar with this city’s well-known family therapist, Sarah Chana Radcliffe, were thrilled to hear of her latest book, Raise Your Kids without Raising Your Voice. It is indeed exciting that the knowledge and advice of this respected author of five books on Jewish family life will reach well beyond the Jewish world with this jewel of a book published by HarperCollins.
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Passover cooking goes Creole

NEW YORK (JTA) – When Hurricane Katrina roared into New Orleans, destroying much of the Big Easy, the flood waters also altered Jewish life in this sultry city. With so many homes in ruin, there’s now only a fraction of the original 9,500 people left to celebrate Passover in this fabled port, famous for strong coffee and decorative ironwork balconies.
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Antisemitic Vandalism in Montreal

MONTREAL – Three separate incidents of vandalism against Jewish communal property were reported to B’nai Brith Canada’s Anti-Hate Hotline over the past few days.
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Oratorio coming to Toronto

Journey To Jerusalem, the Jewish People’s Oratorio, will mark its 10th anniversary with its Toronto premiere on April 3 at Beth Tikvah Synagogue.
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Baseball: the next big hit in Israel?

Few would have thought that hockey and figure skating could slowly evolve as sports in the land of ‘milk and honey’ – but they did. Now, it looks like baseball is on the verge of unprecedented growth in Israel, thanks to Larry Baras.
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March 23, 2006 - Adar 23, 5766

Equal school funding not a ‘priority,’ despite ‘injustice,’ Kennedy says
Multi-Faith Coalition members vow to fight on

Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty said it was “an injustice” that Roman Catholic schools receive the same amount of funding as secular public schools, but that schools of other faiths do not, forcing parents to pay exorbitant tuitions while at the same time paying for public schools through their property taxes.
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Tri-Elm back in business as Gan Eden
New owners take over client list, leases

Like the mythical phoenix of yore, Tri-Elm Catering of Toronto has risen from the ashes. The company, which lost its kosher certification from the Kashruth Council Of Canada (COR) in November, has been purchased by a group of private investors, and renamed Gan Eden Catering.
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Hit with avian bird flu, Israel starts mass sorting, killing of poultry

JERUSALEM (JTA) – For once, terrorists are not the infiltrators most worrying Israelis.The Jewish state joined the fraternity of nations affected by avian flu over the weekend, when a contagion in the Negev prompted the mass sorting of poultry and quarantine of several farm personnel.
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Congresswoman: Palestinians bilked US taxpayers of $3 billion

JERUSALEM (WorldNetDaily) – The United States government must conduct an inquiry into the almost $3 billion in taxpayer funds that may have been distributed as aid to the Palestinians in part based on fraudulent data provided by the Palestinian Authority, Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-Fla.), chairwoman of the House International Relations Subcommittee on the Middle East, told WorldNetDaily.
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The real tragedy is not West Bank settlements

A narrative has emerged that Israel’s settlements in the West Bank are a “tragedy.” The fatal flaw lies in the original sin of supposedly lawless occupation of land, in contravention of the Geneva Convention. It makes a strong emotional pitch to a sense of justice, a major influence on the thinking of many American Jews. But the narrative is built on a flawed foundation.
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MYTH: ‘Saudi Arabia has ended its boycott of Israel’

FACT: In late 2005, Saudi Arabia was required to cease its boycott of Israel as a condition of joining the World Trade Organization (WTO). After initially saying that it would do so, the government subsequently announced it would maintain its first-degree boycott of Israeli products.
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UNMASKING UNRWA
Neutral aides or active partisans? UNRWA staff comes in for scrutiny

NEW YORK (JTA) – There may be no greater test of the United Nations’ vaunted neutrality than to be a Palestinian staffer of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) in the Gaza Strip or West Bank.
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History of UNRWA, 1950-present: where did the refugees come from?

UNITED NATIONS (JTA) – The UN General Assembly established the United Nations Relief and Works Agency in 1949 as a temporary agency focused on relief work for the Palestinians. It began operating in 1950.
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Israelis showing little interest in March 28 election

TEL AVIV – Election fever is in the air. Politicians jostle indefatigably to win over one more undecided voter. Pictures of the candidates and promises of a brighter, safer, wealthier, peaceful future are flagged on banners in every junction. Like each of the five election campaigns in the past 10 years, candidates believe that the March 28 vote is more crucial than any other.
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Hamas becoming ‘terrorist authority’: Mofaz

JERUSALEM (Arutz-7) – The new Hamas government presented to Mahmoud Abbas for his approval is a sign that the Palestinian Authority is becoming a terrorist authority, says Israel’s Defence Minister Sha’ul Mofaz.
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‘A leopard does not change its spots,’
B’nai Brith Canada reacts to news of Hamas’ new cabinet

B’nai Brith Canada has reacted to the formation of the Hamas government by again expressing its concerns that Canada’s humanitarian aid to the Palestinians could all too easily be diverted for terrorist causes.
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UJC funding system scrapped

NEW YORK (JTA) – The North American federation system has implemented a new system to determine overseas funding.
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Kicking back with the family in Orlando

There is no doubt that the Disney empire has made Orlando the hugely popular destination that it is today. Numerous travel surveys have shown it to be the number one family vacation destination in North America.
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Prolific Jewish Montreal songwriter/record producer thriving

MONTREAL – He may be one of the most sucessful Jewish songwriter/record producers in all of Canada. Montrealer Steven Eisenberg, who goes by the stage name Steven Tracey, has written more than 1,000 songs, of which some 300 have been recorded and released internationally by the likes of Céline Dion, Mireille Mathieu, Natasha St-Pier, 2Unlimited, Technotronic, Loverboy, Triumph and Paul Anka.
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Art plays major role in saving survivor

Toronto artist Herman Grunfeld’s story is an example of art’s potential to liberate a soul, and to save a life. At a recent event at the Lodzer Centre Holocaust Congregation, Hanna Grunfeld, Herman’s wife, shared his remarkable story, which brought him from the despair of Bergen-Belsen, through to prominence as an elite jeweller, to his current status as a respected and admired artist.
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Wolverines’ Ruden, Bailey in hunt for championship

One is an American who is finishing his collegiate career. The other has played for Canada and the US, and is beginning his collegiate ice apprenticeship. Noah Ruden and Jason Bailey are part of the University of Michigan Wolverines’ current quest for playoff success in the Central Collegiate Hockey Association (CCHA).
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March 16, 2006 - Adar 16, 5766

Fire ravages small Montreal synagogue

MONTREAL - Worshippers jumped for their lives last Friday night as a terrible fire ravaged a small Montreal synagogue.

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Post editor raises funds for Amona legal fight -Tells Zionists what is really going on in Israel

Caroline Glick, deputy managing editor of the Jerusalem Post, visited Toronto last week on a two-pronged mission: to address the Jewish community: to let them know what is going on and to help raise funds for a legal battle.

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Hamas platform - Terrorism is legitimate

JERUSALEM (Arutz-7) - The Hamas movement, about to assume control over much of Judea/Samaria, presented its platform over the weekend - defining Israel as the "Zionist enemy" and approving continued terrorism.

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Tribunal fines white supremacists $13,000

In a landmark ruling the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal has found two white supremacists liable for spreading hatred on the internet and for the first time held a Canadian internet web-hosting service responsible as well.

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Hamas win reflects vote for 'fixing potholes,' not vote against peace, Clinton says

MONTREAL - Former US President Bill Clinton chose to focus a lot of attention on Israel and the Middle East last week as he addressed more than 5,000 people at the Montreal edition of the cross-Canada Power Within conference series. He also spoke in Ottawa and Vancouver.

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Sharansky faults Bush on democracy

WASHINGTON (JTA) - Natan Sharansky said US President George W. Bush's policy of democratization has failed because Bush is rushing tyrannies to elections.

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Canada does right by Israel in first UN test for new government

The UN Commission on the Status of Women, by a vote of 41-2, adopted a resolution last

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On the curious vagaries of the vocabulary of the Middle East

One of the remarkable things about the discourse on Middle Eastern politics, especially where Israel is concerned, is the use of vocabulary patterning that few have analyzed or studied.

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MYTH: FACT

'The PA is entitled to international aid because Hamas was democratically elected and the Palestinian people should not be made to suffer because Israel doesn't like the election outcome.'

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Give globally: It's time to focus charitable giving on the world's poor

NEW YORK (JTA) -- The Jewish commitment to charity is both deep and illustrious, going to the core of the Jewish faith.

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Xenophobia surfaces on kirpan issue

MONTREAL - What are we to make of the unanimous Supreme Court decision that will allow ceremonial daggers in Canadian schools?

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Esther's story carries a lesson: help women unable to get Jewish divorce

RAMAT GAN, Israel (JTA) - The Jewish calendar is replete with dates that bear the mark of national memory.

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Unmasking UNRWA, the Palestinians' relief agency

NEW YORK (JTA) - As Washington and the West weigh a cutoff of aid to a Hamas-led Palestinian Authority, the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) could become a crucial lifeline to millions of Palestinian refugees who depend on it for vital services.

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Unique self-help book for aspiring entrepreneurs draws on personal adventures

Wet Behind the Ears: The Adventures of an Entrepreneur and the 7 Essential Lessons Learned, by Bruno Gideon, is not the typical, unrealistic guide to business success.

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Hana's Suitcase: seamless transition from book to play

More than a vessel for keepsakes, the story of Hana's Suitcase traverses years and borders, to teach a valuable lesson in a touching way.

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Views of everday Israelis cook up tasty dish

In September 2003, while the second intifada was still raging in the Middle East, London documentary playwright Robin Soans visited Israel, Gaza, Judea and Samaria, interviewing over 80 Jews and Arabs from a wide range of backgrounds, using food as a means of trying to reach a common ground while at the same time exposing their personal views of the Arab-Israeli situation.

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Markham community treated to spirited fun at pre-Purim dinner theatre

Chabad Lubavitch of Markham presented a side-splitting musical comedy, produced and performed by its own talented members last week.

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It's all in the family for one-man Kafka and Son

Highest praise is due to Alon Nashman for his performance in his one-man play Kafka and Son, which he and director Mark Cassidy adapted for the stage from Franz Kafka's Letter to His Father, which can be seen at the Al Green Theatre at the Miles Nadal JCC until March 18.

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Blizzard blast through basketball season - perfectly

The most impressive basketball team in Toronto these days is the Bialik Blizzard, the best of the 11-team Toronto Jewish Day School Boys Basketball League.

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The Price of ignoring Palestinians' needs

JERUSALEM (Arutz-7) - Hamas's victory in the Palestinian elections is the logical outcome of a 'peace process' more than a decade long that completely ignored what was happening within Palestinian society.

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March 9, 2006 - Adar 9, 5766

Mostyn to represent Jewish community in Ottawa

Michael Mostyn, a leading community activist, has been appointed to head the key government relations and diplomatic affairs portfolio of B'nai Brith Canada, Canadian Jewry's only independent national grassroots community organization.

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Passover prices expected to rise

Prices for packaged Passover foods are expected to rise once again this year, as Jewish Canadian consumers struggle to observe dietary laws despite the excessive financial strain.

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Self-proclaimed white nationalist arrested, 'hate-crimes file,' police say

Bill Noble, self-proclaimed white nationalist from Fort St. John, British Columbia, was arrested last Friday on an outstanding warrant in Edmonton, where he was held over last weekend pending a bail hearing.

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Tempers flare over church firecrackers

JERUSALEM (JTA) - It only takes a few loose screws to throw Israel's delicate interracial mechanism out of whack.

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Iran joins EU, US in funding Hamas-led PA

Iran will fund the Hamas-led Palestinian Authority.

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Olmert's plan: destroy most Yesha communities

JERUSALEM (Arutz-7) - Acting Prime Minister Ehud Olmert plans to withdraw tens of thousands of Jews from Judea/Samaria.

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Authorities begin destroying Tajikistan's lone shul

MOSCOW (JTA) - Tajikistan's government has begun demolishing the Central Asian nation's only synagogue, offering in exchange a plot of land far from where most Jewish community members live.

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BRIEFS

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A different response to Iran's Holocaust-denial

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has earned international condemnation for his recent statements calling the Holocaust "a myth."

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Reader ponders a Muslim-controlled America

Daniel Pipes' article on the recently published Danish cartoons caught my eye (Jewish Tribune, Feb. 16 issue).

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Globe fear-mongering on school funding

On Feb. 21, the day after PC Leader John Tory announced that his party will, if elected, provide some form of funding to non-Catholic, faith-based schools, the Globe and Mail published an offensive fear-mongering editorial arguing that extending funding would have "hugely negative consequences for public education and for its key melting-pot role in a multicultural society."

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'Muslims have taken away freedom of speech'

Recently (Jewish Tribune, Feb. 23 issue) you printed copies of antisemitic cartoons for your readers to look at. Last week you couldn't print anti-Muslim cartoons because you were being sensitive to their feelings.

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Flag burning called off

Sometimes the most significant news is about things that didn't happen.

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MYTH :FACT

'America's Arab allies routinely support US positions at the UN'

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Jewish diversity and why it's important to talk about it

LONDON - A conference recently took place in San Francisco that was about Jewish diversity.

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Israelis in Iran hunting nukes, British paper claims

JERUSALEM (Arutz-7) - An Israeli special operations team is working undercover in Iran, according to a report Sunday in a British newspaper.

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Dubai reaffirms policy of refusing entry to Israelis

WASHINGTON (INN) - Despite heavy criticism in Washington over its continued enforcement of the anti-Israel Arab boycott, the government of Dubai has reiterated its refusal to allow Israeli citizens to enter Dubai.

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Munich, Paradise Now denied at award ceremony with Jewish gags

LOS ANGELES (JTA) - Munich and Paradise Now, two films that caused considerable controversy in the American Jewish community and Israel, came up empty-handed at this year's Academy Awards.

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ADL resigns from hate panel

The Anti-Defamation League resigned from a hate-crimes panel to protest the inclusion of a Nation of Islam representative

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PA to turn into 'terror organization' under Hamas: PM's brother

WINNIPEG - A leading Middle East political insider and strategist maintains that the victory of Hamas - which has been condemned for its terrorism against Israel by Canada, the US and the European Union

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WORLD BRIEFS

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Jerusalem Municipality 'whitewashed' illegal Arab building

JERUSALEM - The state comptroller has been asked to investigate the alleged "whitewashing" by the Jerusalem municipality of at least 300 cases of illegal Arab construction in the capital.

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Israeli surgeons save infant's life in rare heart operation

PETACH TIKVAH (Arutz-7) - Israeli doctors have successfully carried out an extremely difficult open-heart operation on a premature baby weighing just two pounds.

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AGO free till June

The AGO has temporarily waived the cost of general admission, offering free access to contemporary art, special children's activities, and until March 20, selected works from the permanent collection.

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The Mona Lisa of the Galilee beckons to wannabe archaeologists in ancient Sepphoris

TZIPORI, Israel - Remember the romance of The Source, James Michener's blockbuster 1965 novel about an archaeologist excavating in the Holy Land?

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Dig in: info on volunteering at archaeological sites in Israel in 2006

Most archaeological excavations in Israel encourage volunteers. Field conditions are less than luxurious.

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Despite aging Jewish community, Windsor resists change

WINDSOR, ON - It is surprising that in a community of 1,500 Jews and three synagogues, there is no Conservative option.

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Move over, yentas - Matchmaking for the Orthodox hits the Internet

NEW YORK (JTA) - Bitachon.com is not your grandfather's matchmaker.

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Orthodox Jewish contestants pray they'll avoid Donald Trump's wrath

NEW YORK (JTA) - Viewers of last week's premiere of The Apprentice didn't see any kippas, but they did witness the debut of two Orthodox Jews on the reality television series.

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Mitch all abuzz about Buzzers

Mitch Goldenberg has worn several hockey uniforms over the years, including B'nai Brith. Safe to say the current Royal Blue color of the defending Ontario Provincial Junior Hockey League champions (OPJAHL), St. Michael's Buzzers, is fitting him quite nicely today.

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Purim: the holiday of disguise

The late Jewish comedian, Alan King, once quipped, "A short summary of every Jewish holiday: They tried to kill us.

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March 2, 2006 - Adar 2, 5766

CJPAC's wall of silence not in spirit of lobbyist's code of conduct

MONTREAL - The Canadian Jewish Public Affairs Committee, which proudly defines its mission as working on behalf of Jewish community interests, continues to maintain a wall of silence surrounding the availability of basic information to the public.

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Harper nominates third Jewish justice to high court

After becoming the first Supreme Court of Canada nominee to appear before an all-party partiamentary committee to answer questions in a televised hearing on Monday, Manitoba's Marshall Rothstein - Prime Minister Stephen Harper's first high-court appointment - is now ready to take up his post.

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El Al wins lawsuit

In an exclusive interview with the Jewish Tribune, Stanley Morais, El Al general manager for Canada, said a Feb. 22 Ontario Superior Court ruling clearly supports the airline, despite claims of unlawful interference and restraint of trade as alleged by the plaintiff, Thornhill travel agent Shalom Even.

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SPHR flouts Concordia rules: holds press conference, raises banner

MONTREAL - Hatred resonated throughout Concordia University recently as students were confronted by a cemetery built in the school's mezzanine as a part of Israeli Apartheid Week.

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Secular, religious medical ethics at odds, say lecturers

OTTAWA - Who owns your body? Well, it depends who you ask. If you ask a Jew (a Jew who knows Halacha, or Torah law) the answer is Hashem.

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Israeli politician fights cancer

BENNY ELON (centre) is fighting cancer

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Matas honoured as person of the year by Interfaith group

VANCOUVER-RICHMOND - David Matas, B'nai Brith Canada's long-time senior legal counsel, was honoured by the Vancouver Brotherhood Interfaith Society as Person of the Year, in recognition of his outstanding humanitarian accomplishments.

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Religious intolerance past and present points to a chaotic future

It was the famous French writer Jean-Jacques Rousseau who once noted: "There is no odium worse than the odium theologicum." Translation: "There is no hatred worse than religious hatred."

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MYTH:FACT

'The Palestinians have maintained a truce and ceased terror operations against Israel'

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David Irving deserves to be ignored, not jailed

Last winter, on a cold and black night, I went to hear Holocaust denier David Irving speak at the University of Colorado. I arrived early to get a good seat and soon after me came five huge young men, all of them looking like skinheads.

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I'm not dancing hora over Irving verdict in Austria

ROME (JTA) - David Irving's arrest and three-year jail sentence for having denied the Holocaust has been met with a chorus of cheers in the Jewish community.

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The Foreign Students Have Returned

The four-year intifada virtually killed the programs for foreign students at Israeli universities. Now, once again, they are flourishing.

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'Don't tell Israelis how to conduct their affairs,' Tribune told

I do not think it is appropriate for Jews, living in the comfort and presumed safety in the Diaspora, to continually tell Israelis how they should conduct their affairs.

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Media coverage of Israel 'unbalanced,' Baker says

Israel is unhappy with the "unbalanced media coverage" it receives from the world media, said David Baker, senior foreign press coordinator for Israel's Prime Minister's Office, in a speech at Beth Sholom last Wednesday in Toronto.

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Law students' Israeli dinner a success

A cheery, life-affirming take on Israel was on full display last Tuesday at Osgoode Hall Law School of York University, where the Jewish Students Law Association (JLSA) held the school's first Israeli Dinner.

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Canadian JNF Tu B'Shevat celebration dinner a treat

The elegant Windsor Arms Hotel was the place to be last Wednesday as the Canadian Jewish National Fund held its Tu B'Shevat Celebration Dinner.

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Teatron Theatre showcases The Tenth Man

Paddy Chayefsky's The Tenth Man will close Teatron Theatre's third season from March 8 to 12 at the Leah Posluns Theatre.

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Between worlds - but the best of both

Do you feel like a tourist in Israel

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Kadis appointed associate critic

THORNHILL - Just weeks after being re-elected as the MP for Thornhill, Susan Kadis has been named the Liberal associate critic of infrastructure and communities by Opposition Leader Bill Graham.

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Shahar is making rapid impression on tennis peers

Shahar Peer has, since her early youth, hoped to be one of the best tennis players in the world doing it slowly one tournament at a time.

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Jewish skater earns a silver

NEW YORK (JTA) -- US Jewish ice skater Ben Agosto and his Canadian-born partner earned a silver medal in ice dancing at the 2006 Olympics.

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B'nai Brith takes back invitation of Russian envoy for Holocaust Memorial Day

The B'nai B'rith World Centre in Jerusalem has withdrawn an invitation for the Russian ambassador to make a keynote address in its coming Holocaust Day commemoration due to Moscow's policy towards Hamas.

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Yad Sarah makes push in Canada

If not much is known about Yad Sarah in Canada that will change shortly.

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Olmert house sale under investigation

JERUSALEM - Acting Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's confident march towards victory with his Kadima party in the coming elections

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February 23, 2006 - Sh'vat 25, 5766

Speakers present slanted views at U of T Apartheid Week

Upon entering the building the first noticeable item is the sign "End Canadian support for Israeli Apartheid" followed by a poster showing the map of Israel with only Palestine written on it and placed right next to South Africa.

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B'nai Brith Canada welcomes Tory pledge to reinstate fair funding provisions

B'nai Brith Canada has welcomed the remarks by Conservative Party Leader John Tory who expressed support in principle for a policy that would establish equal funding for all of Ontario's faith-based schools.

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Holocaust denier sentenced

VIENNA (JTA) - An Austrian court sentenced David Irving to three years in prison for denying the Holocaust.

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Masterful teacher celebrates Jewish commonalities

In Toronto, where Jewish education is usually very denominational, Channa Sargon's adult Bible-study classes are most unusual.

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Beloved songstress dead at 83

TEL AVIV - Shoshana Damari, regarded not only as Israel's greatest singer, but also one of the world's most important songstresses of the mid-20th century, died at Sourasky Hospital following a brief severe bout of pneumonia. She was 83.

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A dangerous new Russian tactic

I am very concerned about the upcoming meeting between Russia and Hamas and the unwelcome comments by Russian officials that Hamas is not a terrorist group

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Progressive Conservative weekend-Shabbton

It had all the earmarkings of a Shabbaton. Delegates, observers and representatives of the Jewish Tribune participated in the Progressive Conservative Convention.

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Iran defames Holocaust suffering

TEHRAN (JTA) - Iran said the suffering of the Palestinians is worse than the Holocaust.

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The sensitivities of moderates

WASHINGTON - As much of the Islamic world erupts in a studied frenzy over the Danish Muhammad cartoons, there are voices of reason being heard on both sides.

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They've changed the rules

This week a number of Israeli politicians were echoing the statement once made by American Vice President Spiro Agnew when he was punished for political shenanigans that had previously gone unpunished when committed by others.

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MYTH:FACT

'Israel is responsible for disparaging cartoons of the prophet Muhammad'

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The House: it may be homey, 'but it's not a drop-in centre'

Entering The House for the first time, you are struck by the sheer bachelor padishness of it all: Ikea cheap chic; kitchen, den and dining room sharing one open space; familiar comfy mess.

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Muslim Council Of Montreal commends Calgary Jewish Council for attacking local Jewish press

The Muslim Council Of Montreal (MCM) takes this opportunity to thank the Calgary Jewish Community Council and the Canadian Jewish Congress regarding their respective positions on the offensive cartoons depicting the Prophet Mohammed (peace be upon him).

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B'nai Brith Canada issues challenge to Muslim Council of Montreal

"B'nai Brith Canada calls on the very same Muslim groups that were so quick to denounce the depictions of the prophet Mohammed to be equally quick in their condemnations of vicious antisemitic cartoons

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Two major Jewish organizations respond to Danish cartoons

B'nai Brith Canada and Canadian Jewish Congress take stands in regards to the Danish cartoons

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Frank and Spivak enhance Spirits' spirit for Stouffville

Two young men have carved a nice beginning to potential successful hockey careers. Shawn Frank and Daniel Spivak are, at press time, competing in the Ontario Provincial Junior Hockey League playoffs with the Stouffville Spirit.

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League for Human Rights files complaint against Three Wishes

Following calls by concerned parents and educators to the League for Human Rights of B'nai Brith Canada's Anti-Hate Hotline, a complaint was filed by the League with the Toronto District School Board regarding a book by Deborah Ellis entitled, "Three Wishes: Palestinian and Israel Children Speak Out".

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The 'Voice of the Children' in Hebrew song

Hundreds of children united in singing in Hebrew and left sold out crowds beaming and moved at the UJA Federation Board of Jewish Education's annual Zimriya (choir festival) held Feb. 12 at the Toronto Centre for the Arts.

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Intergenerational family saga teaches proud history of Zionism

Yahrzeit, by Liat Taiber Ben-David, is one of the best novels I've read in a long time. Published in 2005, this historical fiction should be required reading at Jewish high schools.

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'Sweet' Israeli film premiers in Toronto

On February 12, the Toronto Zionist Partnership (TZP) presented the Canadian premier of an Israeli movie, "Something Sweet," at the Miles Nadal Jewish Community Centre on Spadina Avenue.

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February 16, 2006 - Sh'vat 18, 5766

Foreign Affairs meeting turns into mini-Durban

MONTREAL - Jewish delegates who have in the past attended the annual human rights consultations with the Department of Foreign Affairs, never expect these meetings to be smooth sailing. Every year Canadian NGOs gather to discuss a pre-selected list of thematic and country specific issues, with a view to helping Canada prepare for the annual United Nations Commission on Human Rights (UNCHR).

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Knesset overrules Olmert, approves Amona inquiry

The Knesset dealt a stinging blow to acting Prime Mininster Ehud Olmert last Wednesday evening when it approved the holding of an inquiry committee into last month's violent evacuation of the West Bank outpost of Amona.

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Conference at U. of T. puts students at risk, says B'nai Brith Canada

TORONTO- B'nai Brith Canada has expressed concern over the University of Toronto's hosting "Israel Apartheid Week" for the second consecutive year, despite the poisonous environment that this conference engendered last year. The week-long event, which began on Monday, has spread to other campuses across Canada.

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Sherman wants every Jewish group in on Tomorrow Project at Lebovic Campus

VAUGHAN - The new UJA-Federation Tomorrow Project promises to be the most ambitious and far-reaching Jewish communal building project outside of Israel.

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Concordia University duped by Apartheid Week organizers

MONTREAL - Israel Apartheid Week, which last year reared its ugly head on the University of Toronto campus, is now set to stage a repeat performance. Only this time around it has spread its reach to include the Montreal campuses of Concordia and McGill.

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B'nai Brith Canada condemns stabbing of Montreal Imam and vandalism of mosques

MONTREAL - B'nai Brith Canada has condemned the recent incidents of vandalism against two Laval mosques, which were followed by an attack on Imam Fayçal Zirari at a Montreal metro station.

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Why ignore Hamas's hate indoctrination?

A familiar quality of unreality pervades much of the news and commentary about the ascendance of Hamas in recent Palestinian elections.

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Letter writer taken to task on school funding

Adele Freedman's letter bolsters a popular perplexity on a remedy for Ontario's blatant discrimination in (Jewish) denominational school funding.

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MYTH:FACT

'Israel is digging under the Al-Aksa mosque and intends to destroy it'

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Cartoons and Islamic imperialism

The key issue at stake in the battle over the 12 Danish cartoons of the Muslim prophet Muhammad is this: Will the West stand up for its customs and mores, including freedom of speech, or will Muslims impose their way of life on the West? Ultimately, there is no compromise. Westerners will either retain their civilization, including the right to insult and blaspheme, or not.

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The only rule: Take zealots at their word

While it is probably true, as everyone says, that Hamas won the recent Palestinian elections not because it promised to wipe out Israel, but because it promised to pick up the garbage in Gaza City

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Greater understanding for stroke victims after Sharon

"Until Prime Minister (Ariel) Sharon suffered a stroke, politicians and government officials were loathe to give us a hearing," said Sandra Levy, chair of Neeman, a body devoted to helping stroke victims and their families.

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'Someone is trying to scare people' at JPPS, police say

MONTREAL - For the second time in five days, Jewish People's and Peretz elementary school (JPPS) in Montreal evacuated their buildings after receiving a bomb threat. The mid-morning telephone calls received on Feb. 2 and 8, are believed to have been made by an English-speaking male, although police are hesitant to provide further details.

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42-storey third tower of Azrieli Centre set to go

TEL AVIV - Israel's boom-bust economy may be entering a new growth phase symbolized by an agreement signed at the end of January to complete the 42-storey third skyscraper of the architecturally bold, US$350-million Azrieli Centre here - notwithstanding the 1.2 per cent shekel depreciation against the US dollar following Hamas' Jan. 25 election for the Palestinian legislative assembly.

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A world of opportunity

Did you know that the federal government recently passed new legislation eliminating foreign content restrictions on Registered Retirement Savings Plans (RRSPs)?

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New retirement strategies for canadians over 45

If you're a Canadian investor over 45, the annual retirement savings mantra of "the earlier you start saving, the better your retirement" is getting increasingly tired. Most people have been focusing on other priorities, including looking after children and developing careers, to say nothing of mortgages and enjoying their lifestyle.

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An unusual location for an unusual exhibit

JERUSALEM - Nobody likes hospitals - that's one thing on which everyone agrees. However, the question is, how can a stay or a visit to hospital be less intimidating? This has been gnawing at the minds of many at the Shaare Zedek Medical Centre.

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Barney Ross was the real Cinderella Man

Barney Ross entered the world of boxing as a result of personal tragedy, became a national hero during World War II and maintained his devotion to Judaism through thick and thin.

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Future bright for young soprano

She positioned her lean frame by the piano in one of the lesson rooms at the York Region Conservatory of Music (YRCM), a mix of black, blue, and purple braid extensions framing her youthful face. Her fully black attire complemented her black nail polish, numerous earrings, a silver labret piercing below her bottom lip, and several bold necklaces.

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February 9, 2006 - Sh'vat 11 5766

UTT fire bomber out of jail, Jewish schools get bomb threats

MONTREAL - B'nai Brith Canada has expressed deep concern over the early parole granted last week to United Talmud Torahs (UTT) convicted fire bomber Sleiman El-Merhebi. He is scheduled to be released in May at which time he will have only served two-thirds of what was widely viewed by the Jewish community as an already inadequate sentence.

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Katzav condemns Amona violence as special Knesset session called

JERUSALEM (Arutz-7) - Israel President Moshe Katzav criticized both sides in last week's Amona violence and the Knesset Speaker has agreed to a Likud/Shas request for a special session.

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Jewish world weighs the impact of financial impropriety at the WJC

NEW YORK (JTA) - When a top official of the World Jewish Congress was relieved of financial management responsibilities after an investigation found financial impropriety, some members of the Jewish community saw it as a wake-up call for other Jewish groups.

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Fabricated cartoons worsened Danish controversy

The Washington-based Investigative Project on Terrorism (IPT) revealed new information last Thursday about the controversy surrounding the Danish cartoons on the Prophet Mohamed. IPT senior terrorism expert Lorenzo Vidino exposed how, in an effort to gain publicity for their concerns, a delegation of Danish Muslims toured the Middle East to meet top Islamic leaders and showed them very offensive cartoons that had never been published by Danish newspapers, thereby recklessly and maliciously stirring up a reaction that shows no end in sight.

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Dialogue not destruction, muslims urged

B'nai Brith Canada, reacting to the global outbreak of violence over cartoons depicting the prophet Mohamed, said that while being on the receiving end of hurtful messages is painful, the answer isn't violence.

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Olmert okays US$53.2 million to finance PA

JERUSALEM (Arutz-7) - A government committee chaired by Olmert has approved the transfer of NIS 250 million (US$53.2 million) to the Palestinian Authority (PA), after a five-day delay.

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WORLD BRIEFS

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Tu B'Shvat, New Year or Bar Mitzvah?

The rabbis of the Talmud taught us that Tu B'Shevat is the New Year for trees. It is considered a minor holiday. The explanation is that by the 15th of Shevat, the tree has taken up enough moisture from the ground to be able to produce the new fruits.

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Israel's troubled environment needs boost, green group says

KIBBUTZ KETURA, Israel (JTA) - Like nature itself, Tu B'Shevat has gone though many different seasons throughout its existence.

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Hamas: turning point for the better?

WASHINGTON - Amid much gnashing of teeth, the Hamas victory in the Palestinian elections is being called a disaster. On the contrary. It is deeply clarifying and ultimately cleansing. If the world responds correctly, it will mark a turning point for the better.

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Hamas and Israel - predictions

Reactions to the lopsided Hamas victory over Fatah Jan. 25 in the Palestinian Authority elections divided into three. Some, like the American Israel Public Affairs Committee expressed dismay, worried about Hamas openly boasting of its goal to destroy the Jewish state, seeing this as the end of the peace process.

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The Bin Laden-Zawahari Show: Al Jazeera's contribution to modern culture

Whatever one may say about the dark forces that propel the folks at Al-Qaeda, there is no gainsaying the fact that they have a taste for the dramatic.

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Torontonians raising $1.2M for Netzarim evacuees

The Israeli military completed its evacuation of the 60-family village of Netzarim on Aug. 22, 2005, and with that act officially ended Jewish settlement in Gaza. It soon became clear, at least to anyone who had harboured doubts until that final anticlimactic moment, that new homes would be required for living, new jobs for eating and new communities for growing.

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Anti-Olmert rally brings 100,000 to Zion Square

JERUSALEM (Arutz-7) - A rally protesting the political and security policies of acting Prime Minister Ehud Olmert brought an estimated 100,000 demonstrators to Jerusalem's Zion Square Sunday night. The demonstration, the largest since the government uprooted 25 Jewish communities from Gaza and northern Samaria last August, is taking place under the shadow of last week's demolition of nine homes in Amona and the brutal police reaction to people who protested the destruction.

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Who's who in Hamas? A look at the Palestinian group's leaders

JERUSALEM (JTA) - Ever since the targeted killing of Hamas leader Sheik Ahmed Yassin in March 2004, the big boss of Hamas is Khaled Meshaal, head of the Hamas political bureau, in exile in Damascus.

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What is Hamas? A guide to the Palestinian terror organization

NEW YORK (JTA) - Hamas, which will form the next Palestinian Authority government that ostensibly is to negotiate peace with Israel, has a long history of non-diplomatic dealings with the Jewish state.

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What Hamas tells its people

WASHINGTON (MEMRI) -Hamas leader Mahmoud Zahar (also known as Mahmound al-Zahar) said in an interview that aired on Al-Manar TV on Palestinian Authority election day, Jan. 25, 2006: "Palestine means Palestine in its entirety - from the [Mediterranean] Sea to the [Jordan] River.. We cannot give up a single inch of it.. Why should we recognize Condoleezza Rice...or Israel's right to exist?"

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PMW's Marcus calls Hamas 'Fatah without makeup'

That was the dominant theme of a well-attended speech at Kehillat Shaarei Torah Congregation last week by Itamar Marcus, the co-founder and current director of Palestinian Media Watch, a Jerusalem-based organization, which monitors Palestinian media.

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Kadima unveils list

JERUSALEM (JTA) - Ariel Sharon is absent from the Kadima Party's candidate list for March 28 elections.

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Local Jews, Israeli company seal joint venture with Czechs

PRAGUE (JTA) - The ambitious leaders of the tiny Jewish community in the Czech town of Teplice sat around the table with government officials earlier this month, toasting the country's first government-assisted investment deal with Israel.

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Quebec Confidential

Will Irwin Cotler stay on in Parliament?

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The whispers began moments after the federal election results were final.

"Irwin Cotler won't stick around as an opposition Liberal backbencher," one of his diehard campaign workers told me.

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Turin Games provide another home for 'wandering' Jewish hockey star

NEW YORK (JTA) - Mathieu Schneider's father calls him "the Wandering Jew."

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Israeli team hopes to skate into history with ice-dancing routines

NEW YORK (JTA) - Galit Chait left Israel with her family as an infant and grew up in the United States. Sergei Sakhnovski grew up in Russia and immigrated to the Jewish state at the age of 19.

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Israel's environmental companies seek Canadian participation

Problems with the environment are critically escalating around the world. Even US President George W. Bush in his fifth State of the Union address last Tuesday night emphasized the need to invest in new technologies to revolutionize the way the country heats its homes and businesses and powers its cars so as to "dramatically improve our environment.and make our dependence on Middle Eastern oil a thing of the past."

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Health crisis in Israel, poll finds

JERUSALEM (JTA) - More than a quarter of Israelis cannot afford comprehensive health care, a poll has found.

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Led by Spielberg's Munich, Jewish flavour permeate Oscar nods

LOS ANGELES (JTA) - Two films that have encountered fierce controversy in the Jewish community and Israel received Oscar nominations this week.

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Accomplished journalist explores Jewish identity through 'celebrity' book

To someone to whom Jewish continuity is a cherished ideal, reading Stars of David by Abigail Pogrebin can be a depressing experience.

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Hundreds wounded in melee

JERUSALEM (Jerusalem Newswire) - Hundreds of Jews were sent to the hospital (by fellow Jews), the settlers were further demonized increasing an already deep national rift, and yet another thriving community was destroyed all for the sake of gaining a few extra mandates in Israel's general election next month.

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Arabs build 10,000 illegal living units in Jerusalem

JERUSALEM (IMRA) - At a conference that took place on Jan. 7, 2002, at the Jerusalem Center for Women, Hatem Abed El-Khader Eid, a member of the Palestinian Legislative Council representing the Jerusalem district, proudly announced that, during the last four years, Palestinians have erected 6,000 homes (in Jerusalem) without building permits, out of which only 198 were demolished.

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February 2, 2006 - Sh'vat 4, 5766

Taking stock - post-Hamas victory

Following the Hamas victory, which saw one terrorist organization replace another, it may be opportune to review the public relations strategies and campaigns that have prevailed over the last 15 years.

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Worldwide reaction to Hamas majority:

The radical Islamic movement Hamas swept to a shocking victory in last Wednesday's Palestinian parliamentary elections, doing something that no Israeli government has ever been able to do: win an absolute majority of the house seats and leaving Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah movement in shambles.

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'Jewish-owned' media blamed for candidate's defeat in BC

RICHMOND, BC - In a scathing, antisemitic diatribe, a campaign manager for a BC Conservative candidate in last week's federal election blamed a Jewish-owned, liberal-biased media for some of the challenges of the campaign.

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No change in Sharon's condition

JERUSALEM - There has been no change in Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's condition, which doctors continue to define as critical but stable, four weeks after he had suffered a severe stroke on Jan. 4.

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Hebron families agree to compromise, despite Mazuz's statement

HEBRON (Arutz-7) - The 11 families living in a disputed Hebron neighbourhood near the Machpelah Cave agreed to a State-proposed compromise. They handily dismiss the attorney-general's declaration that no agreement exists. After several hours of deliberations throughout the night, the families agreed to evacuate their apartments, in exchange for an IDF promise that they will return in two months.

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Elmasry group calls for government to support Hamas

In contrast to statements by Canadian leaders (see page 16), the Canadian Islamic Congress, headed by its president, Mohamed Elmasry, a professor at the University of Waterloo, issued a press release after the Hamas election victory last week supporting the terrorist group Hamas and imploring Canadian Prime Minister Designate Stephen Harper to respect the results and "adopt a balanced policy in the region in order to work towards, and ultimately achieve, peace with justice."

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Tribute planned for head of nursery school

After 48 years as the director of the downtown JCC Nursery School, Hélène Comay is retiring. The parents, the graduates, the board of directors and the whole community will gather to celebrate this remarkable woman on the afternoon of Sunday, Feb. 5 at the newly refurbished Miles Nadal JCC from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m.

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Orchestra celebrates 50th anniversary

The Toronto Mandolin Orchestra will kick off its 50th anniversary season with a program called Romancing the Classics on Sunday, Feb. 12 at 2 p.m. at Leah Posluns Theatre.

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Hamilton's UN Holocaust Commemoration sets example

HAMILTON - A standing-room-only crowd of more than 300 came to the Joey and Toby Tanenbaum Pavilion at the Art Gallery of Hamilton last week to pay tribute to local Holocaust survivors at the1st Annual United Nations Commemoration of the Holocaust. The city of Hamilton marked the occasion with a very dignified and deeply moving program that reached out across all ethnic, racial and religious lines.

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Canadian travellers to Israel up 17 per cent to 50,784

More than 1.9 million tourists arrived in Israel in 2005, a 27 per cent rise over 2004. Increases were registered in the number of tourists arriving from most countries compared to a year earlier. Ministry of Tourism statistics show that a record 311,400 French tourists visited the country in 2005, 21 per cent more than in 2004.

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Oprah and Auschwitz

She probably didn't realize it, but Oprah Winfrey has just opened the door for millions of Americans to learn about America's failure to bomb the Auschwitz death camp.

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'We will be watching' Conservatives, reader says

I am appalled at the stand you have taken with the article regarding the results of the election (Jewish Tribune, Jan. 26). Your reporting of it, is so lopsided, I could barely read your online version of the Jewish Tribune as my monitor was leaning to the left. Had those hopeful Conservative candidates, been sent to Ottawa, don't be so sure they would possess a more pro-Israel approach to Jewish concerns.

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Basketball coach sells Western Wall - will it help?

Visitors to Jerusalem's Western Wall were surprised recently to see famous basketball coach Pini Gershon being photographed in front of the Wall, where he was delivering an impassioned statement about the site's importance to the Jewish people. Though hardly an expert on such matters, Gershon became a genuine Israeli hero after his team, Maccabi Tel Aviv, twice won the European basketball championship. So he was chosen to spearhead the campaign to persuade all Israelis, and particularly Israeli youth, to visit the Western Wall.

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Father of suicide bombing victim deplores award for film

Yossi Zur, whose 16-year-son Asaf was killed by a suicide bomber in Haifa on March 5, 2003, wrote the following piece after learning that the Palestinian movie "Paradise Now" was awarded the Golden Globe for Best Foreign Film by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association Monday.

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UN investigator backtracks under audience questioning

Direct, hard-hitting questions from the Israeli and Jewish viewpoint regarding the UN, sent Richard Goldstone, the chief prosecutor of the United Nations Criminal Tribunals for the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda, reeling.

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Fateless looks into heart and soul of young survivor

Fateless, Hungarian director Lajos Koltai's haunting and profound movie, takes us into the heart and soul of a 14-year-old boy who survived the Nazi death camps but his eventual return to Budapest after the liberation isn't a joyful one. His family, home and former friends are all gone. He knows he is supposed to feel differently but he has a strange yearning for the camaraderie of the camp and a certain kind of happiness he had experienced briefly after he had given up, when he was alone in the sunshine of nature.

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World Briefs

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Toronto's David Miller: The mayor is a mensch

On a wall in the reception area of the mayor's office, is a huge oil painting of Toronto in l854. It shows a short stretch of buildings, dotted with a few church steeples alongside the waterfront at Front and Jarvis Sts., where Toronto's original City Hall was located. Now it's the site of the St. Lawrence Market.

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A life lived

Louis Shenfeld died a year ago on Jan. 26 at 75 years of age of pancreatic cancer. With his passing, the Canadian and international scientific community lost a superb environmental engineer - one of the earliest, and foremost, experts on urban air pollution.

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Middle east briefs

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Why is Israel relevant today? Read this comic book

NEW YORK (JTA) - Glimpsed from certain angles, the wild tufts of white hair that leapt skyward from David Ben-Gurion's head looked like wings. Even so, the diminutive first prime minister of Israel seems an unlikely comic book character.

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Translation of Torah for India's Bnei Menashe nearly complete

For the first time, members of a Lost Tribe of Israel in northeastern India will soon be able to study the entire Torah in their native tongue.

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Katz adds U of T basketball to list of successes

After achieving great success in their profession with an employer over a 19-year period, many would hesitate before starting over with a new organization. Mike Katz isn't one of those people. He had no qualms in becoming the head Coach of the University of Toronto (U of T) Blues men's basketball team, of the Ontario University Athletics (OUA) East Division.

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January 26, 2006 - Teves 26, 5766

Despite win, bureaucrats may thwart pro-Israel moves

Despite a slim minority government for the Conservative party, insiders speculate that it will be very difficult to move the bureaucrats who have been instrumental in helping to set a policy that has Canada voting against Israel at the UN.

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Worshippers greeted with Swastika, graffiti at church

EDMONTON - Worshippers at the Unitarian Church of Edmonton arrived for their morning service Sunday to find a swastika and the words 'white power' painted on the church's wooden doors.

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Jewish community congratulates Harper on election victory

B'nai Brith Canada has extended its congratulations to Prime Minister-Elect Stephen Harper and the Conservative Party of Canada. B'nai Brith Canada's Gerry Weinstein, national president based in Montreal, and Frank Dimant, executive vice president, who is currently on a visit to Israel, issued the following statement:

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UIA Federations Canada seeks Finkelstein replacement

A search for a successor for Maxyne Finkelstein, former executive vice president of UIA Federations Canada - and one of the architects of the Canadian Council for Israel and Jewish Advocacy (CIJA) - and now the new CEO of the Jewish Agency in New York, will soon begin.

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Nightly audio webcast set for Jewish teens

Nishma, a dynamic hour-long audio production for Jewish teens across North America airs on www.jacobmedia.org, from Monday to Thursday, at 9 p.m. EST, beginning Feb. 6, 2006.

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Be smart with your charity dollars

WINNIPEG - Rabbi Eli Teitelbaum, a rebbi at the Yeshiva and Mesivta Torah Temimah, director of Camp S'dei Chemed International, Israel, and executive director of the Torah Communications Network, warns us that charity has always been an easy way to scam and rip off the well-intentioned public. It's always existed and it will continue to exist until people carefully re-examine their charity habits.

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The Pope and the Koran

Islam and Muslims are expected to be a priority for Pope Benedict XVI, but he has been publicly quite muted on these topics during his first nine months in office. One report, however, provides important clues to his current thinking.

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SUICIDE WATCH

The recent US Supreme Court decision concerning Oregon's physician-assisted suicide law was really about whether a federal drug-control law provided a US Attorney General the authority to punish a state's doctors for acting in accordance with a state statute. But by contending that physician-assisted suicide is a "legitimate medical purpose" for the prescription of a drug, there can be little doubt that the ruling helped bring the idea of abetting suicide a bit closer to mainstream thinking. That's a deeply unfortunate thing.

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Palestinian responses to suicide bombings means long road to peace

It has been said that nations who endorse suicide bombings are themselves engaged in the act of committing suicide. One of the features of the descent into that syndrome is the loss of any moral compass and the dislocation of the coherent thinking synapses in the brain. This occurred in 1945 when the Japanese sent their kamikaze pilots to attack American ships and aircraft in the last days of the Pacific War.

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Israel - a democracy in action: anatomy of a crisis

Ensconced, high in the soaring, modernist ministry compound clad in pink stone, overlooking Jerusalem, next to the Knesset, sat Vice Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, lean and baggy eyed, busily engaged in multiple duties as Minister Of Industry Trade And Commerce, Acting Minister Of Finance and a clutch of other ministries, while organizing the new centrist party called Kadima (Forward), created by Ariel Sharon to change the political map of Israeli politics. The March elections loomed.

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Untimely death of major philanthropist shocks and saddens Jewish community

NEW YORK (JTA) - Andrea Bronfman kept the book-lined study in her Jerusalem home exactly as it had been when the house belonged to her parents years before.

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Kent can't catch a ride on Conservative bandwagon

TORONTO - There was jubilation at the York Theatre on Eglinton Avenue just east of Yonge Street, when, during the election night gathering of St.Paul riding Conservatives, CTV election coverage announced, soon after the polls had closed, that Stephen Harper would be Canada's next prime minister, heading a Conservative Party of Canada minority government.

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Walking into the unknown under the shadow of Hamas

JERUSALEM - The political reality in the Middle East is about to change. Barring a last-minute upsurge in violence within the Palestinian Authority, the legislative elections will have taken place on Jan. 25 and will herald the emergence of a new political power - Hamas - which has already declared its intention to form a coalition government with Chairman Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah party.

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PA condemned for allowing Hamas to start TV channel

New York (IMRA) - The Zionist Organization America has condemned Mahmoud Abbas' Palestinian Authority (PA) for allowing the Islamist terrorist organization, Hamas, which it is supposed to be disarming, to set up its own television channel within the PA.

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PA leadership duplicity: PA leader Qadura Faras talks peace to Israelis and terror to Palestinians

Palestinian Media Watch has for years documented the duplicity of the Palestinian Authority leadership, which sends a peaceful message to the world media and hate and terror message to its own people in Arabic.

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Olmert seeks to start peace process

JERUSALEM (JTA) - Ehud Olmert said he would seek to restart peace talks with the Palestinians if elected Israeli prime minister.

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Kaplan, Kwinter help Dryden celebrate York-Centre win

Liberal incumbent Ken Dryden was easily re-elected in York Centre, receiving 22,439 votes or 52.7 per cent of the vote, beating Conservative candidate Michael Mostyn by almost 10,000 votes. While this represents a solid victory for Dryden, it was a slightly lower margin of victory than in the 2004 election, where Dryden won 58 per cent of the vote.

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Mostyn's campaign a family affair

TORONTO - Michael Mostyn is a home-grown candidate who was making his second attempt to carry the Conservative banner in York-Centre. Although he was not elected, he was very pleased that the Conservative Party of Canada would be forming the next government.

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Cotler overwhelms Drabkin for third victory

MONTREAL - Few residents in the Mount Royal riding were surprised late Monday night when the election results declared that Incumbent Irwin Cotler was re-elected to Parliament for the third time.

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Thornhill's Kadis wants new Parliament to work together

THORNHILL - Election night 2006 was bittersweet for Liberal MP Susan Kadis. She won her battle in Thornhill handily over Conservative Anthony Reale, but her party lost the nationwide war for Parliament to Stephen Harper's resurgent Conservatives.

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As Holocaust becomes part of past, need to personalize memories grows

JERUSALEM (JTA) - Imparting memory has always been an integral component of Jewish tradition. The commandment to remember and pass on formative events in our history to the next generation is a religious obligation, reinforcing faith and establishing tradition.

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Israeli cabinet to meet at Yad Vashem

JERUSALEM - Following the decision of the United Nations last November, countries throughout the world will mark International Day of Commemoration in memory of the victims of the Holocaust tomorrow (Jan. 27).

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Youth club gives foreign youngsters a place of their own

"Look around and tell me what you see." -These were instructions given to my group as we walked around Tel Aviv's New Central Bus Station back in October. I slowly looked from side to side, up ahead and behind. It was as if I had been transported away from Israel and back to the multicultural city streets of Toronto. It was at this bus station, its name a misnomer as it is a far cry from the chic centre of town, that I first witnessed the diversity of Israel.

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Wills: knowledge and approval of content

Anneta Sguigna, an 86-year-old immigrant to Canada, spoke very little English. She hired an Italian-speaking lawyer and told him to make a Will giving all her assets to her son Fred. The Will was signed, but no one translated it for Anneta before execution. The court accepted that the Will was drafted in accordance with her instructions. Arguably, since Fred was the only surviving son, the Will made logical sense. The court accepted that Anneta knew and approved of the main provision of the Will: that all her money was to go to her son Fred. Nevertheless, disappointed relatives successfully challenged the Will.

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Story of orphan 'Greenies' based on little-known fact

Myra Paperny's life has been a cultural whirlwind and an amazing adventure. This mother of four and grandmother of nine, a number she has crossed out from seven on her CV, has also managed to travel the world, carve out an extraordinary career in teaching and journalism and still find time to write four books for young adults, the latest being The Greenies.

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Avant-garde musical happening celebrates Mozart's 250th birthday

An exciting and unique musical fundraising event takes place this evening - Thursday, Jan. 26 - at the newly restored Gladstone Hotel. Presented by the Glenn Gould School of the Royal Conservatory of Music (RCM) and Mastercard, the performances at Toronto's oldest hotel feature the school's most gifted students. The goal of the administration and the 45 students at Glenn Gould is for music to move beyond the confines of traditional settings - a completely different approach than what would be expected from the RCM. According to Danielle Iverson, president of PR thing inc. and publicist for the event, the musical evening is a way for the young musicians to express themselves.

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Winnipeg's Micflikier heads to hockey's 'frozen four'

Jacob Micflikier has travelled extensively pursuing his love of hockey, on both sides of the 49th parallel. His current stop with the NCAA Division I University of New Hampshire Wildcats has validated the hard work. The 21-year-old Winnipeg native - 5 feet, 8 inches, 180 lbs - plays left wing.

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January 19, 2006 - Teves 19, 5766

Dryden election brochure raises spectre of political interference

A letter written to thank MP Ken Dryden for his participation in a ceremony commemorating the 10th anniversary of the assassination of former Israel Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, has become a hot potato on the campaign trail and raises the spectre of political interference from another country, in this case Israel.

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CJPAC offers aid to political spoiler, as Conservative waits

THORNHILL - At least one of the 25 candidates running under the banner of the Progressive Canadian Party (PC Party) has been offered volunteers by the Canadian Jewish Political Affairs Committee (CJPAC), while the Conservative candidate in the same riding had been offered none - until last week.

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Jewish neighbourhoods in Hebron declared 'closed military zone'

HEBRON - The Israel Defence Forces declared the Jewish neighbourhoods in the West Bank town of Hebron a closed military zone on Monday evening after hundreds of settlers clashed with security forces in recent days to protest orders to evacuate two illegal outposts in the town.

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Man stabs eight at Moscow synagogue

MOSCOW (JTA) - Jewish leaders have blamed Russian authorities, law enforcement agencies and societal atittudes for the stabbing attack this week at a Moscow synagogue, saying that the authorities have not responded properly to previous antisemitic and hate incidents.

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Jewish community condemns anti-Israel group's Bloc Quebecois connection

MONTREAL - The Bloc Quebecois has infuriated Montreal's Jewish community after three of its candidates attended a press conference last week organized by the Palestinian and Jewish Unity (PAJU), which champions itself as a human rights organization that condemns all violations of human rights.

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Spielberg barrows Palestinian narrative

WASHINGTON - If Steven Spielberg had made a fictional movie about the psychological disintegration of a revenge assassin, that would have been fine. Instead, he decided to call this fiction Munich and root it in a real historical event: the 1972 massacre by Palestinian terrorists of 11 Israeli athletes at the Munich Olympics.

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Voting: it's our civic and religious responsibility

As we all know, Canada is in the midst of a Federal Election. While it is not appropriate for us to attempt to influence your vote, it is nevertheless important to make you aware of certain facts.

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Reader wants more scrutiny of Muslim groups

RE: Muslim group takes Canadian Islamic Congress to task (Jewish Tribune, Jan. 12 issue)

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Putting the ax to the tree-chopping canard

The mainstream media have long sought to demonize Jewish settlers in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, painting them as violent destructive bullies.

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Israel 'legitimizes suicide bombers,' candidate tells synagogue audience

In a stunning revelation, a New Democratic Party candidate told an audience at Beth Emeth Bais Yehuda Synagogue last week that acts committed by Israel "legitimizes suicide bombers."

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Former Liberals jump on Peter Kent's bandwagon

Key Liberals have defected and joined others in supporting Peter Kent, the Conservative candidate in toronto's St. Paul's riding, it was announced at a press conference last week

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Winnipeg candidates 'more alike than different' at debate

WINNIPEG - It was billed as a B'nai Brith Town Hall Election Debate on issues of importance and concern to the Jewish community.

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Green Party wades in

WINNIPEG - After lodging a protest against their exclusion from the B'nai Brith Election Forum at the Asper Campus on Jan. 10, the Green Party was invited to set up a display table in the lobby of the Berney Theatre.

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Book reveals dark chapter on Jewish white slavery

Bodies and Souls by Toronto author Isabel Vincent reveals for the first time in English, a little known and shocking, dark chapter in recent Jewish history.

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Foreign issues top concerns at candidate meetings in Montreal

MONTREAL - B'nai Brith Canada's Quebec Region jumped into the federal election last week, courtesy of a series of meet-the-candidate meetings in Montreal.

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Rash of antisemitic incidents in Montreal cause for concern: B'nai Brith

MONTREAL - The League for Human Rights of B'nai Brith Canada, which monitors patterns of antisemitic incidence, has identified a rash of hate activity occurring in the Snowdon area of Montreal last week.

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Cartoon using Nazi imagery 'inappropriate'

B'nai Brith Canada has criticized a cartoon published by the Vancouver-based Canadian Alliance for Social Justice and Family Values Association (ASJFVA), which employed Nazi imagery to communicate its message.

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January 12, 2006 - Teves 12, 5766

When it comes to funds, federations better at collecting than distributing, writers claim
More than $300 million collected, victims get only $16 million

United Jewish Communities (UJC), the umbrella organization for North American Jewish federations, and the Jewish Agency, its representative in Israel, have been accused of using “heartrending pictures of terror victims” to persuade donors to contribute to its Israel Emergency Campaign and then giving only a fraction of the amount collected to victims of terror.

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Sharon still in serious condition
Olmert ‘to do what Arik would want’

JERUSALEM – After being placed in a medically induced coma for five full days following a severe stroke he had suffered last week, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon on Monday started breathing on his own and responding to pain stimulus as physicians at the Hadassah University Hospital, Ein Karem, began to awaken him gradually.

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CJPAC continues to evade questions

“CJPAC (Canadian Jewish Political Affairs Committee) is different from other organizations active in the Jewish community in that it is not funded by charitable dollars, and therefore, it can be involved in political action. While there are many organizations that perform outstanding work with both government and the community (such as CIJA-PAC), CJPAC is the only political, national, membership-based advocacy organization.”

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Stepping into Sharon’s large and mysterious shoes

Ariel Sharon gave Israel three weeks to come to terms with the idea that he might not be around to lead the country in the coming years. Since his first stroke, people have come to realize how dominant Sharon has been in the country’s politics, and what a vacuum he will leave behind him. How this huge vacuum could be filled remains to a wide extent unclear.

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Muslim group takes Canadian Islamic Congress to task

After endorsing the Liberal Party in the 2004 elections, The Muslim Canadian Congress (MCC) says that the Canadian Islamic Congress (CIC) has come out with a hodgepodge recommendation using voodoo statistics that rate candidates instead of political parties.

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Slurs against Saada stirs controversy

MONTREAL – As political campaigns across the country continue to heat up, a web-based fracas is brewing in Montreal. The controversy centres on the closely fought riding of Brossard-La Prairie, and concerns a recent posting to the Montreal Muslim News web site suggesting that Muslims not vote to re-elect the Honourable Jacques Saada, the Liberal MP for the riding and a Tunisian-born Jew.

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Following the Sharon Plan

WASHINGTON – This much is clear: whoever follows Ariel Sharon will follow Ariel Sharon.Sharon himself followed no one. In the army, he was famous for not following orders. Later, in various governmental posts, he did pretty much as he pleased – building settlements in the West Bank and Gaza, plunging into Lebanon, deserting one political party for another (even Likud, the one he helped form) and, ultimately, reversing himself by dismantling the Gaza settlements and abandoning Gaza itself.

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‘100% on target in seeking accountability’

As one who has experienced first-hand the lack of accountability, cloak of secrecy, bullying techniques, and outright falsehoods that are the modus operandi of a prominent Jewish agency, (B’nai Brith’s Frank Dimant) is 100 per cent on target in seeking accountability and disclosure, particularly when it comes to funding allocations, staffing and salaries (Dimant target of planned attack, Jan. 5, Jewish Tribune).

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Does the squeaky wheel get the grease in Canada?

I also attended the lecture by Senator (Jerry) Grafstein (Pinch-hitter Grafstein goes to bat against antisemitism, Jewish Tribune, Dec. 22) on Thursday Dec. 8 at the Leah Poslum Centre. Although I enjoyed his excellent speech, he concluded that the Jewish community must write more letters to the government in order to be noticed.

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MYTH: ‘The Arab invasion had little impact on the Palestinian Arabs.’

Once the invasion began in May 1948, most Arabs remaining in Palestine left for neighbouring countries. Surprisingly, rather than acting as a strategically valuable ‘fifth-column’ that would fight the Jews from within the country, the Palestinians chose to flee to the safety of the other Arab states, still confident of being able to return. A leading Palestinian nationalist of the time, Musa Alami, revealed the attitude of the fleeing Arabs:

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Better late than never for Canada’s First Nations

Kudos to B’nai Brith Canada and its executive vice president (recognized recently by being designated as honourary chief of the Keewatin Tribal Council) for making important démarches toward the First Nations People in Canada’s far north. Although contacts were established several years ago, the impetus for a renewed and expanded effort was the intemperate attack made against Jews by David Ahenakew, a one-time leader of the First Nations during a press conference in Saskatoon at the end of 2002.

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Why is no one doing anything about Iran?

WASHINGTON – The wild pronouncements of the new Iranian president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, have gotten sporadic press ever since he called for Israel to be wiped off the map. He subsequently amended himself to say that Israel should simply be extirpated from the Middle East map and moved to some German or Austrian province.

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Poet Irving Layton, 93, leaves lasting literary legacy

MONTREAL – Irving Layton, one of Canada’s most influential writers and perhaps the most positively Diaspora Jewish poet in the 20th century, died on Jan. 4 at age 93.

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St. Paul’s candidates reflect gab, garb of their parties

Two competing adages vie for human beings’ opinions about dress. There is the cautious ‘Don’t judge a book by its cover’ perspective, espoused by wise men the world over. And then there’s the common-sense ‘Clothes make – or at least reflect – the man’ approach, which at times seems too apt to ignore. This past Sunday was one of those times.

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Ethnic Vote Key in Quebec Ridings

As we head into the final stretch of the federal election campaign, Paul Martin’s Liberals are counting on a strong ethnic vote to avoid a bloodletting at the hands of the separatist Bloc Quebecois.

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Vatican muscling in on Jerusalem
Says Jews cannot be trusted with ownership of their ancient capital

JERUSALEM (Jerusalem Newswire) – The Roman Catholic Church says the Jewish state cannot be trusted to exercise control over the city of Jerusalem – ancient and eternal capital of the people of Israel.

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Program for at-risk youth stresses dignity and self-esteem

Regesh Family and Child Services, a non-profit agency serving troubled youth and their families, deserves to be better known within the Toronto community.

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Court rules in ‘Roma’ hate crime case, as two plead guilty

A decision by the Ontario Court of Justice last week brought a long standing hate crime case to a close with somewhat mixed reviews.

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Camp Whine… for the rest of us

One year our older son enjoyed a sports day camp at the Jewish Community Centre (JCC). He and his friends were 11 years old. The camp was held Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays.

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Off to Camp – whether I like it or not

My daughter confessed to me the other day that she hated going to camp, that she hated everything about camp, that she hated it the first year and even more the second year.

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The crying only lasts till the parents are out of sight

Camp for my family began with mornings at the Jewish Community Centre (JCC). My children’s first experiences was three hours every morning, Monday through Friday.

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You’ll feel like welcome ‘Ushpizin’ when you see this movie

At this time of year, when thoughts have been focused on The Festival of Lights, take a moment to reflect on our last major holiday, The Feast of Booths. This is the background to the film Ushpizin, the latest release from Israeli director Gidi Dar.

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Ahskenaz brings top entertainers to Toronto

The Ashkenaz Foundation, known worldwide for its bi-annual festival of Yiddishkeit at Harbourfront, will present Israeli artist Chava Alberstein and the French group Les Yeux Noir in concert at the George Weston Recital Hall, Jan. 21.

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January 5, 2006 - Teves 5, 5766

CJPAC: mystery continues to swirl around new group

Despite attempts to to find out what the Canadian Jewish Political Affairs Committee (CJPAC) is, what it does, who belongs to it, who is on the payroll, who has put up the money behind it, the mystery continues.

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Dimant target of planned attack

he Jewish Tribune has learned from authoritative sources that the executive vice president of B’nai Brith Canada – who also serves as the publisher of this paper – has been targeted for personal attack aimed to undermine his position within the Jewish community.

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Toy story: gifts bring ‘a little happiness’ to First Nations kids

WINNIPEG – Many have had the pleasure of seeing the delightful movie Toy Story. In fact, the animated film, with Tom Hanks’ voice speaking the lines of the little cowboy, was such a big Christmas hit with children and parents throughout the world a number of Christmases ago, a sequel was made the following year.

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Liberal candidate’s position
‘I don’t believe Hamas wants elimination of Israel’

MISSISSAUGA – While Omar Alghabra, the federal Liberal candidate for Mississauga-Erindale, has rejected allegations that he made pro-Islamist statements at his nomination meeting – allegations that have subsequently been retracted – his statements regarding the Middle East could be a cause for concern.

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IDF officer killed, 3 wounded in suicide bombing

TULKARM – An IDF officer was killed, one soldier was severely wounded and two other soldiers were moderately wounded in a suicide bombing attack carried out last Thursday at a roadblock near the village of Jbara, south of Tulkarm. Two Palestinians were also killed during the morning attack.

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Rumours run rampant as caterer, restaurant lose COR certification
Council refuses to explain, cites privacy

Disappointment has been coupled with curiosity following the loss of kashruth certification to a number of well-frequented establishments in the Toronto area. Many unsubstantiated rumours circulated as a result of speculation and misinformation.

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Edmonton synagogue defaced

Edmonton’s largest synagogue, Beth Shalom, was defaced just as Chanukah was set to begin.

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The best option for our survival

A few days before Christmas I was asked by media to offer a suggestion on how intermarried couples can best celebrate Chanukah and Christmas. How the holidays can be blended and how a universal message emanating from these two holidays can be articulated to children in a mixed marriage.

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MYTH: Israel’s disengagement from Gaza was a victory for terror.

Israel’s disengagement from the Gaza Strip and northern West Bank was applauded by the international community as an important and painful step towards resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Even the United Nations,

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Disturbed by article, rabbi’s supporter says

I was much disturbed to note the implied disrespect to Rabbi Miller in your article Toronto Orthodox community in uproar (Jewish Tribune, Dec. 15).

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Time for Conservatives, Reform to emulate Orthodox

With 56,000 Jewish singles in the city of Toronto, the Jewish community must find a way to facilitate and help these young people to meet.

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The Person of the Year and the media’s failure in Darfur

They are crowd-pleasing choices for Persons of the Year. The three people – Irish Rocker Bono, and the world’s richest couple, Bill and Melinda Gates – are not only famous and fabulously wealthy, they are also compassionate people who dedicate an enormous amount of time to philanthropy and social action.

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Christians, Jews and Muslims

America was founded by Protestants fleeing from religious persecution. They not only had an appreciation for the need for religious liberty but also had respect for the Hebrew Bible. As a result the US Constitution reflected both. One hundred years before the Constitution, Jews and Protestants in Europe were being burned at the stake for religious heresy.

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65% of Palestinians support Al-Qaeda attacks in the US and Europe:
religious war against ‘Infidels’ inherent to PA religious ideology

JERUSALEM (PMW) – A poll published recently and reported in Palestinian newspapers on Dec. 23 found that 65 per cent of Palestinians “support Al-Qaeda actions in the USA and Europe.” Religiously motivated Al-Qaeda attacks against those referred to as “Infidels” have killed thousands of Americans and Europeans.

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Abbas, Fatah watch as Hamas gains ground

TEL AVIV – Faced with discouraging polls that predict a sharp drop in support for his ruling Fatah party in the coming legislative elections, Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas must be looking back and asking himself what went wrong. How has Hamas – considered by many to be a radical Islamic militant group on the fringes of Palestinian society – become a consensual party threatening the hegemony of Fatah over the Palestinian Authority?

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More Israelis, fewer Palestinians support 2000 peace deal

TEL AVIV – As Israel gears up for the March elections, and with Palestinian elections less than a month away, a recent survey showed that a stable majority of Israelis but a declining number of Palestinians favour the peace plan, which former US President Bill Clinton presented both sides in December 2000 following the collapse of the Camp David peace talks several months earlier.

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‘You just cry. You don’t know what to do,’ says visitor to former Gush Katif residents

TEL AVIV – As Israel gears up for the March elections, and with Palestinian elections less than a month away, a recent survey showed that a stable majority of Israelis but a declining number of Palestinians favour the peace plan, which former US President Bill Clinton presented both sides in December 2000 following the collapse of the Camp David peace talks several months earlier.

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New national president set to take reins of Hadassah-WIZO

CALGARY – What is refreshing about Sandy Martin is her honesty. She is not always searching for the right thing to say; there impervious stonewalls surrounding a frosty interior. She doesn’t suffer from taking herself too seriously, taking my observation about her ‘natural’ blond hair being exactly the same shade as my mom’s, as nothing more than gentle ribbing.

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Aliyah flying high: 3,000 North Americans in 2005

JERUSALEM (Arutz-7) – An end-of-the-year Nefesh B'Nefesh-sponsored flight of new immigrants from North America will round out a year of increased aliyah. Almost all recent immigrants are satisfied with their move. The flight is expected to leave New York on Tuesday and arrive at the new Ben Gurion Terminal 3 the following day with more than 200 new olim from the United States, Canada and Mexico.

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Chinese university receives donation of Hebrew bibles and Jewish books from Jewish Publication Society

PHILADELPHIA – JPS Tanakhs (Hebrew Bibles) as well as other Jewish Publication Society (JPS) books have been sent to the Centre for Judaic and Inter-Religious Studies of Shandong University, China. The books were sent as part of the JPS Mitzvah Project program and will be translated for study.

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December 22, 2005 - Kislev 21, 5766

PM Sharon's stroke: political implications?

TEL AVIV (JTA) - Although Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon appears to be recovering from his stroke, his illness will probably have some political ramifications.

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College offers scholarships to kids of Gaza evacuees

ARIEL - In an effort to help families evacuated from the Gaza Strip under the disengagement, the College of Judea & Samaria has recently begun offering special scholarships to students whose parents have yet to find jobs.

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PA ridicules US demand to oust Hamas from election

JERUSALEM (PMW) - The US House of Representatives last Friday threatened the Palestinian Authority with a loss of funding should the terrorist organization Hamas participate in the Palestinian elections in January.

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B'nai Brith Canada congratulates Stronach on inauguration of Magna village

On the occasion of this weekend's formal opening of Magna Village in Simmesport, Louisiana, B'nai Brith Canada has extended its congratulations to Magna Chairman Frank Stronach, the visionary and mobilizing force behind this project.

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Hilary Clinton backs Israel's right to erect security fence

NEW YORK (JTA) - Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-NY) backed Israel's right to construct its West Bank security barrier.

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Jewish judges appointed to Ontario court

Three new Toronto judges, two of whom are Jewish, began their tenure Dec. 14. The judges' appointments to the Ontario Court of Justice were announced earlier this month by Attorney General Michael Bryant.

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Netanyahu wins Likud race

TEL AVIV, (JTA) - Benjamin Netanyahu is back in the saddle and raring to retake the Israeli premiership - but it's not clear if his Likud Party has enough strength to take him to victory.

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Why Syria welcomed David Duke

David Duke, perhaps America's most notorious racist and Holocaust-denier, has finally found a country that welcomes him: Syria.

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CJPAC opens 'Pandora's Box'

Re: Mystery Surrounds Jewish Political Committee CJPAC (Jewish Tribune, Dec. 15)

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Build lives not buildings, UJA urged

I read with great interest that monies are pouring into the UJA and by 2008 we can expect to have raised about $1 billion. The articles printed in the Dec. 15,2005 Canadian Jewish News presented a glowing picture but something is missing.

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CJPAC unfairly portrayed, chair claims

I would like to respond to Rick Kardonne's article dated Dec. 15 (Mystery surrounds Jewish political committee CJPAC) and clarify the facts on the newly formed Canadian Jewish Political Affairs Committee (CJPAC) that was unfairly portrayed and mischaracterized in his article.

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Politely eliminating Israel

There is a right way and a wrong way, strangely, to call for the elimination of Israel.

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Chanukah and international pressure

What induced Antiochus Epiphanes to attempt to eradicate Judaism? Some speculate that he had his own political motives. However, he initially had good relations with the Jews who had helped him take Jerusalem from his rival, the Egyptian Ptolemy.

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Israel: where supremacies and superlatives thrive

TEL AVIV - While Israeli society is rife with talk of seismic changes that are occurring in the political firmament - Sharon's kidnapping of the Likud and the coopting of former Labour

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Top Jordanian downplays Iranian president's belligerence

JERUSALEM (Jerusalem Newswire) - Jordan's former ambassador to the United Nations, Hassan Abu Nimah, has criticized leaders of the Western world for their "hysterical" reaction to Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's denial of the Nazi Holocaust and suggestions that Israel be replanted in Europe.

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December 15, 2005 - Kislev 14, 5766

Mystery surrounds Jewish political committee CJPAC

As the 2006 Canadian federal election gets under way, a new organization called Canadian Jewish Political Affairs Committee (CJPAC) has been formed, which claims its purpose is to advance issues of concern to the Canadian Jewish community by encouraging participation directly in the political process.

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Finkelstein to leave UIA Federations

Maxyne Finkelstein, executive vice president of UIA Federations Canada, announced on Dec. 7 that she will be departing her position as a senior professional of the Federations movement in Canada and taking a major position in the Jewish Agency operations in New York.

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Likudniks flow to Sharon, motives questioned

TEL AVIV, (JTA-Arutz-7) – When Ariel Sharon quit Israel’s Likud Party last month to form a new one, his rivals predicted it would be a political retread of the centre-left Labour Party.

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Israeli Canadian developer plans resort and 700 cottages in Port McNichol

JERUSALEM – Israeli-Canadian businessman Gil Blutrich recently purchased 200 hectares in Port McNichol, a picturesque harbour town on Georgian Bay 90 minutes north of Toronto, and plans to develop a holiday village, hotel and marina at the site, the Tel Aviv daily Yedioth Achronoth reported.

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Mock to chair hate crimes advisory group

The McGuinty government is fighting hate crime and strengthening communities with the help of a new advisory group whose members were announced today by Attorney General Michael Bryant and Community Safety and Correctional Services Minister Monte Kwinter.

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Way paved for Israel to join International Red Cross after ‘red crystal’ adopted

Ending a decades-long diplomatic dispute, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) Dec. 8 adopted an additional, religiously neutral emblem, the ‘red crystal,’ which paves the way for Israel’s full-fledged membership in the organization.

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Canadian firms involved in Tel Aviv mass transit project

TEL AVIV – When the Red Line – the first phase of Tel Aviv-Jaffa’s CDN$1.5-billion mass transit project begins operating in 2013, it will be thanks to at least one Canadian company.

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Toronto Orthodox community in uproar

Toronto’s Orthodox community was in uproar this week following the circulation of a letter by one of the city’s leading Rabbinic authorities, Rabbi Shlomoh Eliyahu Miller, head of the Kollel Avreichim (an advanced institute of Talmud study for married men).

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Is Sandy Koufax Syndrome dead?

Sandy Koufax, of course, is the brilliant Jewish pitcher who played for the Los Angeles Dodgers and who, when he was at the very top of his game and unquestionably the best pitcher in all of baseball, refused to pitch in the opening game of the 1965 World Series because it fell on Yom Kippur – Kol Nidre actually.

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MYTH: ‘One million Palestinians were expelled by Israel from 1947-49’

The Palestinians left their homes in 1947-49 for a variety of reasons. Thousands of wealthy Arabs left in anticipation of a war, thousands more responded to Arab leaders’ calls to get out of the way of the advancing armies, a handful were expelled, but most simply fled to avoid being caught in the cross fire of a battle.

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Concern over terrorists ‘just common sense’

Although Daniel Pipes usually gets his analyses right, I am not sure what he is trying to convey in his recent article, Anti-Muslim racism? Note the evolution (Jewish Tribune, Dec. 1).
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Talks about Syria’s future show differences between Israel, US

WASHINGTON (JTA) – When it comes to Syria today, Israel and the United States agree that President Bashar Assad is bad news.
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Israel, UN favourite? History shows it’s only temporary

Each round of Israeli disengagement, withdrawal, retreat (or whatever one wishes to call it) wins the temporary approval of the wide world, as symbolized by the United Nations General Assembly.
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‘Don’t remain silent,’ Horowitz tells Toronto Jews

American-born Ellen Horowitz, a prolific columnist and artist living in Israel’s Golan Heights, was recently in North America on a mission. Her purpose was to enlighten the Jewish communities as to the continuous destructive policies of the Israeli government and to implore diaspora Jewry to speak up “for the sake of Zion and Jerusalem.”
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UN ceremony includes map of ‘Palestine’ in place of Israel

The United Nations held a ‘Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People’ last week. A large map of ‘Palestine,’ with Israel literally wiped off the map, featured prominently in the festivities.
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Rogers first to carry The Israeli Network

Rogers Cable is the first in Canada to carry The Israeli Network, offering the service to digital cable customers in Ontario.
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Jerusalem court okays Achille Lauro survivors’ case against PLO

JERUSALEM (IMRA) – In a case that was brought against the PLO by two American survivors of the infamous 1985 Achille Lauro cruiseliner hijacking, the Jerusalem District Court has denied the Palestinian defendants’ motion to dismiss the proceedings.
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New hope for Alzheimer’s patients: Weizmann Institute

REHOVOT, Israel – With the help of a unique theatre, a researcher in Israel is playing a key role in better understanding how Alzheimer’s disease affects the brain.
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Israeli ‘toy’ for toddlers teaches 16 languages, including Hebrew

It is a common feeling that finding a gift to hold a child’s attention beyond the eight days of Chanukah would be a good reason to celebrate. If it is both an educational and fun gift, that would seem to be one more holiday miracle.
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HELENE COMAY TO RETIRE
For 48 years, nursery school director made learning fun for generations of Jewish kids

After 48 years as the director of the Downtown Jewish Community Nursery School and a pioneer of progressive individual-oriented education, Helene Comay is retiring on Dec.23.
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Chanukah and the art of frying

NEW YORK (JTA) – Some women have a knack for savoring life. Shoshana Barer, author of The Jewish Maven Cookbook, is that rare combination of glamour girl and domestic goddess.
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Chanukah and the art of frying

NEW YORK (JTA) – Some women have a knack for savoring life. Shoshana Barer, author of The Jewish Maven Cookbook, is that rare combination of glamour girl and domestic goddess.
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December 8, 2005 - Kislev 7, 5766

UN votes still on radar screen

A B’nai Brith Canada delegation – Frank Dimant, executive vice president; Amos Sochaczevski, national chair of the Institute for International Affairs; and Ruth Klein, national director of advocacy – has met with Canada’s UN Ambassador Allan Rock to seek clarification on Canada’s coming votes at the United Nations.

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Award dinners in Montreal, Winnipeg add to successful year for B’nai Brith

B’nai Brith Canada and UJA-CJA Federations are winding down their fundraising efforts for 2005.
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Supreme Court paves way for extradition of Israeli underworld kingpin

Zeev Rosenstein, one of Israel's most feared underworld figures, can be extradited to the United States, where he is wanted for alleged drug distribution offences, Israel’s Supreme Court ruled Dec. 1.
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Palestinian terrorism: five dead in Netanya

NETANYA – For the second time in five months a Palestinian suicide terrorist has killed five people at the HaSharon Mall in Netanya. More than 50 others were wounded, including at least three in critical condition. The blast occurred last Monday morning at 11.30.
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Antisemitism attacks move into cyberspace

Antisemitic attacks have spilled into cyberspace as hackers deface web sites with antisemitic vitriol. Two Jewish magazines have reported that their sites were broken into.
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Taking tradition seriously

At the recent 68th General Assembly of the Union for Reform Judaism in Houston, the group’s president, Rabbi Eric Yoffie, said some important things.
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Too much hysteria about Iran?

Iran will have the bomb. It won’t be anytime soon, but perhaps in 5 years, more likely 10, certainly in 50. Any expansion of the nuclear club is dangerous, and the idea that a nation that openly calls for Israel's destruction and considers America the “Great Satan” will have the capability to inflict catastrophic damage on both is disturbing. Still, does Iran’s pursuit of nuclear weapons merit the apocalyptic predictions now emanating from some quarters?
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After ‘big bang,’ analysts wonder: can Likud pick up pieces?

JERUSALEM (JTA) – The twin earthquakes that hit Israeli politics in the past month have left the once-dominant Likud Party reeling, with a question mark over its future as a relevant political force in Israel.
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Sharon’s jigsaw puzzle

As of now, it appears that Kadima, Sharon’s new party, will be the big winner in the March elections. Even if this happens, which is by no means certain, Israel will still be a country that is extraordinarily difficult to govern.
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B’nai Brith Canada’s Award of Merit dinner honours Raymond McFeetors

WINNIPEG – A capacity crowd of almost 600 gathered at the Fairmont Winnipeg Hotel Nov. 30 as B’nai Brith Canada presented its Award of Merit to Raymond L. McFeetors, president and CEO of Great-West Life, London Life and Canada Life.
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A tribute in Montreal to Réal Raymond

MONTREAL – More than 1,000 people paid tribute to Réal Raymond, president and CEO of the National Bank of Canada, who was the recipient of the 2005 Award of Merit from B’nai Brith Canada – Quebec Region, at a gala dinner that was held on Nov. 30 at the Fairmont Queen Elizabeth Hotel in downtown Montreal.
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EU can’t enforce security at Rafah

TEL AVIV (MENL) – The European Union has been denied enforcement authority at the Palestinian Authority terminal along the Egypt-Gaza border.
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University event focussing on peace in Middle East sabotaged

VANCOUVER – A Hillel event at the University of British Columbia and Simon Fraser University was reportedly sabotaged despite pre-event discussions and security arrangements.
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Some quick thoughts on UJC General Assembly

Now that some time has elapsed since the UJC General Assembly in Toronto ended, there are a few items worth thinking about.
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Israel’s politicians reshuffle the deck

JERUSALEM – The storm that recent political events has stirred seems to be gaining momentum. The birth of Ariel Sharon’s new centrist Kadima party and the election of Amir Peretz as chairman of the Labour Party have caused both an unprecedented reshuffling in the Knesset and the entry of new faces into the political arena over the last week.
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Resurgence of European antisemitism captured in Ever Again

Ever Again, the latest Moriah Films production by the Jack and Pearl Resnick Film Division of the Simon Wiesenthal Centre, meticulously documents the resurgence of antisemitism in western Europe. It is a hard-hitting chronicle of what is happening today, which should be required screening on all major TV networks.
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Book helps kids brush up on religions

A faith like mine: A celebration of the world’s religions – seen through the eyes of children
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Toronto author wins new BookAdz award

EDMONTON – Alvin Abram, a Toronto author and former B’nai Brith Canada lodge president, has won the first BookAdz award for best book with An Eye For An Eye. This historical fiction tale of love, persecution and betrayal is set in the chaos of post-World War II.
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Podlesh gets his kicks on field and in classroom

The University of Maryland Terrapins recently completed an inconsistent (5-6) 2005 Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) season, in NCAA Division I-A football. However, one highlight was anything but inconsistent: the play of Adam Podlesh, 22, who over the years has shown that there’s more to his athleticism than just being the Terrapins punter.
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December 1, 2005 - Cheshvan 29, 5766

Arab federation draws party leaders to annual reception

OTTAWA – It’s hard to find many events outside Parliament and television election debates where all party leaders are together and giving speeches. But on Nov. 22, that is exactly what happened, during the third annual Canadian Arab Federation (CAF) reception at the National Press Club in Ottawa.

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Canada’s Centre for Peace and Democracy taken to task

While B’nai Brith supports Canada’s efforts to bring stability, peace and democracy to the region, it was concerned that the government’s announced plans to build a Centre for Peace and Democracy conspicuously omitted any references to Palestinian terrorism.

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Virtual employees and the demographic misconception

A recent report by IMRA adds to the evidence of fallacious information regarding Palestinian population figures. According to the report, the Palestinian legislature has been unable to account for approximately 25 per cent of its security officers.

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One of Cotler’s ‘most important weeks’ comes on eve of election call

MONTREAL – On the eve of a general election call, federal Justice Minister Irwin Cotler outlined his latest accomplishments on his justice ministry agenda during what he described as “one of the most important weeks I had since becoming justice minister.”

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Intellectual Jewish journal launched at U of T

otebook: A Discussion of Contemporary Jewish Issues was launched Nov. 24 at the University of Toronto law school. Many students came to celebrate and there was clearly a feeling of pride and accomplishment.
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Conference aims to empower Jewish students

o help parents, educators and youth workers better understand the spiritual dangers that students will eventually face, Jews for Judaism will be convening a special conference on Sunday, Dec. 11 from 9.30 a.m. until 4 p.m. The Empowering Our Students conference will be held at Shaarei Tefillah Congregation, 3600 Bathurst St.
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Rabin: the difficulties of peace making

Of course, a serious rethinking of past policies is always welcomed by historians, but perhaps the occasion of the 10th anniversary memorials to the late Yitzhak Rabin was not the best chosen time for Professor Sally Zerker to label him a ‘dupe’ (Jewish Tribune, Nov. 17).
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Full funding issue needs new ideas: reader

When it comes to treatment of Jewish schools like Catholic boards, I believe that the same old tune will not turn the clock in favour of full funding for Jewish schools.
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MYTH: ‘Israel must dismantle all the settlements in the West Bank or peace is impossible.’

When serious negotiations begin over the final status of the West Bank, battle lines will be drawn over which settlements should be incorporated into Israel, and which must be evacuated. In August 2005, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon acknowledged that “not all the settlements that are today in Judea and Samaria will remain Israeli.”
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Kadis wants Canada to oppose ‘dishonest’ UN resolutions

The time is now for Canada to continue building on our work to curb the steady flow of one-sided resolutions that persistently chastise and unfairly criticize Israel at the United Nations.
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Avraham refuses to surrender

TAvraham Stein had butterflies in his stomach when he returned to his classroom at the Kibbutz Yavne high school for the first time in a year. Badly injured by a mine while in military service, he had spent the interval undergoing a series of operations that had left him with iron hooks instead of hands,
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Anti-Muslim racism? Note the evolution

My talks at university campuses sometimes occasion protests featuring leftists and Islamists who call me names. A favourite of theirs is “racist.” This year, for example, a ‘Stand up to Racism Rally’ anticipated my talk at the Rochester Institute of Technology.
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Former Gush Katif residents to receive clothing from US campaign

The clothing and household goods of many former residents of Gush Katif have been placed into containers, to which they have no or limited access.
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Make war criminal prosecutions an election issue, Nazi hunter says

MONTREAL – A prominent American Nazi hunter is urging Canadians to make the prosecution of war criminals residing in Canada a prominent issue in the coming federal election.
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Canadians raising funds to train seeing-eye dogs for blind Israelis

RISHON LE-ZION – Toronto philanthropist Bluma Appel has visited Israel many times. But on a recent trip here to the Israel Guide Dog Centre for the Blind (IGDC) at Beit Oved 20 kilometres southeast of Tel Aviv
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Chanukah song writer wins for 7th time

Laura Silberberg, 19, of North York has won the Amadeus Choir’s Chanukah Song Writing Competition in the Youth/Child category this year for her piece Hanukkah Blessings. This is her seventh win. She took the words of the song from a traditional Hebrew prayer for the blessing of the candles on Chanukah.
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WORLD BRIEFS

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Welcoming back Majorca’s crypto-Jews

MAJORCA (Israel National News) – Majorca’s Jews are gearing up for a seminar aimed at strengthening the Jewish community on the small island off the coast of Spain, and reaching out to the area’s large crypto-Jewish population.
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Mike Feldman honoured by Beth Emeth and community-at-large

This year’s annual Yakir Hakahal [Precious to the Community] Tribute Dinner of Beth Emeth Bais Yehuda Congregation on Nov. 17 was a lively, festive occasion.
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Community flocks to Shomrai Shabbos dinner

More than 700 guests attended a dinner held by Shomrai Shabbos in the banquet hall of Beth Avraham Yoseph of Toronto Nov. 20.
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Jewish community not alarmed by talk of independence

MONTREAL – Ten years after Quebec faced a referendum on sovereignty, talk is ripe here again about another divisive vote.
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Israel suffers for lack of long-term goals, Gold says

ARIEL, Israel – Any official in the foreign ministry would agree that it isn’t easy defending Israel’s positions abroad. Even supporters of Israel across the world find it difficult today to put their finger on the essence of Israel’s diplomatic objectives.
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Meir Medical Centre Doctor looks to North America for hospital funds

It stands alone, but not aloof. The overlooked yin to Hadassah, its more famous yang in glamourous Jerusalem. The sea to its west and Kalkiliya, that hotbed of militant Palestinian activity, to its east.
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Charities fund Bnei Brak recovery room

BNEI BRAK, Israel – Israel’s busiest maternity hospital is Maayanei Hayeshua (Fountains of Joshua) in Bnei Brak, a city with the lowest average income and highest population density in the country.
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JNF rewards Lebovics for helping Negev bloom

There could not have been more deserving honourees for the 2005 Jewish National Fund Negev Dinner than Joseph and Wolf Lebovic, who, by funding the Reservoir at Lachish, in Israel’s northern Negev Desert, will truly make the desert bloom.
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Massive Pollard rally in Jerusalem

JERUSALEM (Arutz-7) – Several Pollard events took place last week, including a mass afternoon rally Nov. 23, a special Knesset session Nov. 22, school classes, and a rare televised interview with Esther Pollard.
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Massive Pollard rally in Jerusalem

JERUSALEM (Arutz-7) – Several Pollard events took place last week, including a mass afternoon rally Nov. 23, a special Knesset session Nov. 22, school classes, and a rare televised interview with Esther Pollard.
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November 24, 2005 - Cheshvan 22, 5766

Delicate balance between the Federations and the Jewish community

A very fine balance currently exists between the Federations and their UJA campaigns – which raise in excess of $130 million annually – and the other Jewish non-profit organizations that work for the betterment of the community. All Jewish non-profits rely on fundraising to support their programs.

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Sharon quits Likud to form new centrist party

TEL AVIV – Prime Minister Ariel Sharon threw Israel into political turmoil Monday after announcing he was quitting his Likud party to form a new, centrist party. Earlier in the day, the 77-year-old veteran politician met with President Moshe Katsav and requested that the Knesset be dissolved and early elections be held.

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Federations must be more transparent, experts at GA say

In a UJC General Assemby session, Responding to the Demand for Accountability and Transparency, the program description said that donors and the public are demanding greater accountability and transparency and recommended a course of proactive action to demonstrate the effective and efficient use of Federation dollars,

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Now is right time for peace in Middle East’: Dershowitz

MONTREAL – This is the right time for peace in the Middle East, but it will not be an easy peace, according to prominent lawyer, Harvard Law School professor and best-selling author Alan Dershowitz.

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Extremist Islam not new, Churchill says

TORONTO – “I have counted myself a Zionist, firmly believing in the justice of the existence of the state of Israel,” declared Winston S. Churchill, grandson of British Prime Minister Sir Winston S. Churchill, to prolonged applause at the Canadian Society for Yad Vashem 2005 Annual Gaza Dinner at the Royal York Hotel, where he was the keynote speaker.

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Christians face trying times under PA

The Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs is proud to offer the following link to Professor Justus Reid Weiner’s new Monograph Human Rights of Christians in Palestinian Society. It is a 1.4 megabyte PDF file (www.jcpa.org/christian-persecution.htm).

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20 Jewish candidates win in Montreal

MONTREAL – Almost half of the Jewish candidates – 20 out of more than 40 who ran – were elected to council seats or the mayoralty during the municipal elections held across the island of Montreal on Nov. 6. This was the first time elections were held after 15 Montreal suburbs voted to demerge from the megacity as a result of a referendum that was held in June of 2004.

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Got that ‘Ooo La La’ intifada feeling?

HAIFA (Arutz Sheva) – Well, there are very few things as amusing these days as watching the French grapple with their backyard intifada. The suburbs of Paris are now more dangerous than Jenin, and the French are getting their comeuppance for decades of snootiness, for anti-American and anti-Israel agitprop, for decades of cowardice, and especially for the repulsive French love of old Jerry Lewis movies.

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Tefillin not ‘extra edge’ for Jews

A letter in a recent issue from Rabbi Chai Cohen, Tefillin helped win, rabbi says (Jewish Tribune, Nov. 3), celebrated the magnificent win of the Maccabee Elite basketball team over the Toronto Raptors professional team.

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The story of a survivor

Legacy and Redemption: A Life Renewed, the autobiography of Joseph Tenenbaum, a survivor of the Holocaust, makes for very interesting reading.

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Why does Foxman tout ‘menace’ of evangelicals? To raise more money

SEATTLE (JTA) – Devoted to fighting anti-Jewish bigotry, the Anti-Defamation League is America’s most influential Jewish group. So what are we to make of the weird air of unreality in the ADL’s public statements about Christians?
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ADL not anti-religion, but it is against religious coercion

NEW YORK (JTA) – It’s unfortunate that David Klinghoffer sets up a number of straw men in his condemnation of my speech warning about certain efforts to Christianize America.

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Gaza evacuees victims of grievous wrongs, panelist says

TORONTO – Jews who were evacuated from Gaza were victims of grievious wrongs, said a panelist discussing the August 2005 Gaza Israeli army pullout and Jewish civilian expulsion from the Gaza Strip and the northern Shomrom last week at the UJC General Assembly at the Metro Convention Centre.
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JA to spend more on people, less on buildings

Newly elected Jewish Agency Chair Zeev Bielski presented an ambitious agenda at the UJC General Assembly here last week, combining unprecedented humanitarian aid for Ethiopian Jews both within Ethiopia and Israel, new youth programs aimed at the Diaspora, along with fiscal trimmings and revamping.
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Multi-Faith Coalition demands more funding from province

About 400 supporters were on hand at Queen’s Park to demand Nov. 16 a large demonstration took place in front of Ontario’s Parliament, Queen’s Park protesting what they see as a fundamental inequity over school funding. A similar rally was also held in Ottawa.
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Film puts ‘Protocols’ under magnifying glass

In his riveting new documentary, The Protocols Of Zion, filmmaker Marc Levin sets out to understand the notorious return of the century-old forgery about the Jews’ master plan to rule the world.
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Provocative memoir gets memorable reading

One of the anticipated highlights of the recent Toronto Jewish Book Fair at the Leah Posluns Theatre was an event sponsored by B’nai Brith Canada. George Jonas, one of Canada’s most vigorous intellectuals and journalists, was scheduled to speak on Beethoven’s Mask:
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Israeli Standard time and culture shock kick in

TEL AVIV – It’s been almost three months into my stay in Israel and culture shock is finally setting in.

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Arrest made in Belleville antisemitic graffiti case

BELLEVILLE – Belleville police have confirmed that an arrest has been made in an unsolved case of graffiti involving the local synagogue.

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Gobuty taking her game to a new level

Marisa Gobuty,16, has used life experiences of two countries – the US and Israel – to hone her basketball talent. The five-foot, six-inch 125 lb. dynamo was born in Toronto.

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Ettinger on Landau: ‘I represent a very viable candidate’

Yoram Ettinger, a brilliant insider on US-Israel relations, Mideast politics and overseas investments in Israel’s high-tech industry and a former consul general in Houston, who has served as Minister for Congressional Affairs in Washington, with the rank of ambassador,

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November 17, 2005 - Cheshvan 15, 5766

‘Israel’s values are Canada’s values.’ Martin proclaims

TORONTO – “Israel’s values are Canada’s values: justice and freedom,” declared Prime Minister Paul Martin as he addressed the 2005 United Jewish Communities General Assembly Opening Plenary at the Toronto Convention Centre on Sunday.

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Court issues landmark injunction against Internet hate

OTTAWA – For the first time in Canadian legal history, the Federal Court of Canada has issued an injunction to stop a London, ON, man from posting hate propaganda to the Internet.

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Thousands gather for Rabin memorial

Thousands gather at Tel Aviv’s Rabin's square during the Rabin memorial rally last Saturday.

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Cotler credits parents ethical, humanitarian outlook as justice minister

TORONTO – In a stirring speech Justice Minister Irwin Cotler, at an afternoon session at the United Jewish Communities (UJC) General Assembly, drew a clear linkage between his Jewish ethical upbringing and his humanitarian outlook as Canada’s Justice Minister and Attorney General.

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French Jews happy to be in Israel

About 3,000 Jews move from France to Israel each year, one of the highest rates of Jewish immigration from any single country.

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Jews speak with one voice called false perception at ‘Parallel conference’

TORONTO – As the annual United Jewish Communities’ General Assembly (GA) convened at the Metro Convention Centre, another Jewish conference of quite a different sort took place just a short distance away at Metro Hall on John Street on Sunday.

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Peretz victory in Labour means shake-up coming

JERUSALEM (JTA) – The election of Amir Peretz, a 53-year-old underdog, as leader of the Labour Party is almost certain to change the face of Israeli politics.
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The intifada comes to France

I have spent the greater part of my adult life studying, teaching and advertising the genius and grandeur of French literature and civilization. The English, it is true, have Shakespeare and there is no French counterpart to him but on the whole I have always felt that French literature and civilization have no peers.

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Canada urged to vote ‘No’ on UN resolutions

The following letter was sent to Prime Minister Paul Martin with copies to Foreign Affairs Minister Pierre Pettigrew and Minister of Citizenship and Immigration Joe Volpe:

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Reflections on the revolution in France

The rioting by Muslim youth that began Oct. 27 in France to calls of “Allahu Akbar” may be a turning point in European history.

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Yitzhak Rabin: hero, traitor, or dupe?

What I have to say about the late Yitzhak Rabin will be shocking to many readers, so be warned. If you are unwilling to hear any unfavorable judgment of Rabin, stop right here.

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B’nai Brith sports banquet serves up feast and Darryl Sittler

THORNHILL – A capacity crowd gathered at Beth Avraham Yoseph of Toronto Synagogue recently for the 9th Annual B’nai Birth (Toronto) Sports Corporation’s Sports Award Banquet, to honour individuals and teams with awards and accolades for their on-field, on-ice and on-court achievements.

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Dallaire recognized for Rwandan efforts with humanitarian award

While the recent Holocaust Education Week served as a reminder of the suffering of the Jewish nation, among others, during WWII, it also brought to the forefront the reality that other genocides have since occurred and may continue despite the vow of ‘never again.’

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Author discusses media’s negligence during WWII

Laurel Leff, author of Buried by the Times: The Holocaust and America’s Most Important Newspaper, addressed an audience of 350 last week at Beth Avraham Yoseph of Toronto Congregation.

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Some music resurrected of lost Jewish composers

Gideon Klein. Erwin Schulhof. Viktor Ullmann. Aldo Finzi. These were just a few of the Jewish composers who would have been household names today had it not been for the fact that they were murdered in the Nazi German death camps during the Holocaust.

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Church-sponsored event connects Holocaust and bullying

A recent Holocaust Education Week event might lead one to pause. How Not to Be a Bystander: Confronting Racism, Anti-Semitism and Bullying was the title of a Nov. 7 church-sponsored event that took place in the rustic, pastoral setting of L’Arche Daybreak in Richmond Hill.

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Web exhibit preserves Jewish women’s role in history of US feminism

When it comes to the history of American feminism, the role that Jewish women played and the importance of feminism in shaping American Jewish life are often overlooked.

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Michael Rubenfeld drew on personal experiences for Factory Theatre’s Tideline

Michael Rubenfeld is an accomplished actor, director and playwright. He’s performed under the direction of R.H. Thomson and Richard Rose, directed a soldout run of his own play,

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70-year union still going strong

MONTREAL – Back in 1935, William Lyon Mackenzie King was re-elected as prime minister of Canada after an absence of five years. King George V of England celebrated his silver jubilee.

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Visually impaired learn to face new future

SAFED, Israel – In a secluded location in the mystical town of Safed stands a pink, single-story building, known as Beit Yael, where a unique program has been taking place to aid newly blind and visually impaired Israelis to retrieve part of the independence lost with the loss of their sight and to deal with the psychological aspects of their condition.
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Italy’s chief rabbi boycotts Vatican to attend Toronto symposium

Forty years ago the Vatican issued a document that revolutionized Christian-Jewish relations and redefined the Catholic Church. The document, Nostra Aetate (Our Times), repudiated the concept of continuing collective Jewish guilt for the death of Jesus and paved the way for recognition of Israel by the Vatican.

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B’nai Brith honoured by First Nations

Dimant first Orthodox Jew to be named honourary chief

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JDL member killed in prison

LOS ANGELES – A Jewish Defence League activist imprisoned for his role in a plot to bomb a California mosque and the office of a Lebanese-American congressman was killed at a federal prison in Phoenix, an FBI spokesman told The Associated Press last Saturday.

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November 10, 2005 - Cheshvan 8, 5766

Quebec lawyer admits code of ethics violation

Months after his initial allegations, lawyer Guy Bertrand conceded that his statements concerning the efforts of Jewish individuals and organizations to conspire against his client Leon Mugasera, were a mistake.

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A hair-raising experience

The time of Bat Mitzvah is a time for introspection and a time

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Parliamentary friendship group to promote Israel

With little fanfare, and absolutely no debate, on Oct. 31, Parliament adopted a unanimous resolution expressing “its deep dismay and offence at the antisemitic statements of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad,” who said, among other belligerent statements two weeks ago, that Israel should be “wiped off the map.”
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Red Cross to accept Magen David

JERUSALEM (Arutz-7-staff) – The International Red Cross has agreed to accept Magen David Adom as a member after a long-standing policy of shunning Israel’s ambulance and rescue service, Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom said Oct. 31.

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World’s greatest cantors

The world’s greatest cantors were in concert to honour Cantor David Bagley Nov. 1 at the Toronto Centre for the Arts.
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Adath Israel honours Jewish war vets

About 100 Jewish veterans were feted at the fifth annual Adath Israel War Veterans’ Service at the synagogue’s Shabbat morning service Nov. 5.
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Middle East suffers from war in Iraq

AMMAN – In some respects, Jordan is not having a bad war. Émigré Iraqis are buying real estate here, the high-tech sector is booming, the port of Aqaba is busier than ever, contractors of all sorts stay in the hotels, and a lot of what the military needs in Iraq comes through Jordan. This country is one big supply base.

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A spiritual moment in Toronto

The opportunity for the diverse religious components of the Jewish community to come together for an evening of spirituality is rare indeed. Yet that is exactly what happened on Tuesday, Nov. 1, 2005 at the Toronto Centre for the Arts.

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Jewish groups make the list

NEW YORK (JTA) – The Chronicle of Philanthropy recently released the Philanthropy 400, its ranking of the top 400 charities in the United States. The Jewish groups appearing on this year’s list, which looks at fund raising in fiscal year 2004, raised more than $2 billion. Here they are in the order in which they appeared, with the amount in private funds raised:

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Ten years after Rabin killing, Sharon has emerged as his heir

JERUSALEM (JTA) – As world leaders gather in Israel to commemorate the 10th anniversary of Yitzhak Rabin’s assassination, Israelis are asking to what extent the killer’s bullet changed the course of Israeli-Palestinian history.
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Link Ma’aleh Adumim to the capital

JERUSALEM – The real test that lies ahead for Ariel Sharon is linking Ma’aleh Adumim to Jerusalem by building in Area E-1. The fate of the Jewish state depends largely upon Sharon’s ability to take immediate action and populate E-1 with thousands of Jews.
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Troops win points during pullout but government seen as failure, poll says

TEL AVIV – Given the tense apprehension that preceded Israel’s disengagement from the Gaza Strip and the northern West Bank, the operation went surprisingly smoothly and a recently released poll indicates that Israelis were overwhelmingly pleased with the behaviour of their troops – though largely disappointed by their government – during the tumultuous pullout.
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Treatment of former Gush residents called ‘degrading’

The 9,000 former Jewish residents of Gaza, who were forcefully expelled from their homes last August, are being treated in a degrading manner by the Israeli government who expelled them, according to their spokesperson Rachel Saperstein, who was recently in Toronto to expose their plight.
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Students captivated by Kindertransport

The children that filled the large auditorium of B’nai Brith Canada’s headquarters watched and listened transfixed, as they saw clips from the award-winning documentary,
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Aftershock: a must-read in our confusing world

David Matas, senior legal counsel to B’nai Brith Canada, discussed his latest book, Aftershock: Anti-Zionism and Anti-Semitism, last Sunday at Toronto’s Jewish Book Fair. The program was sponsored by B’nai Brith’s League for Human Rights.
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Charismatic speaker recalls gifted Yaacov Herzog

JERUSALEM – The real test that lies ahead for Ariel Sharon is linking Ma’aleh Adumim to Jerusalem by building in Area E-1. The fate of the Jewish state depends largely upon Sharon’s ability to take immediate action and populate E-1 with thousands of Jews.
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The Future of Jewish Ritual

In the future, Jewish religious ritual and services will be shorter in length than today, more musically-theatrically oriented, more socially-activist-oriented and more congregational-egalitarian with less emphasis on the rabbi leading the service.
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Exciting aspects of Jewish music missing from discussion

The Futures of Jewish Music panel discussion at the ReJewvenation 2005 international conference at the U of T should have been called: The Futures of Diaspora Ashkenazic Secular Jewish Music.
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No crystal ball for future of Jewish literature

Today, “Israel is too complex and problematic for this conference.”said Professr Sidra Dekoven-Ezrahi of Hebrew University and the University of North Carolina, who, describing contemporary Israel as an “elephant,” declined to discuss Israel in the context of The Future of Jewish Literature…
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Exhibit revives history of Jews fleeing to Shanghai

During WWII, more than 30,000 Jews fled Europe and found refuge in Hongkou, Shanghai in China. They formed a thriving community comprising cafés, kosher European food, synagogues, and their own newspapers and schools.
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Antisemitic pamphlets found on Toronto university campuses

Viciously antisemitic pamphlets were distributed on Toronto university campuses, and some of the smaller colleges as well, during the first few days of November.
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Israel junior hockey begins long road to Metulla ’06

During WWII, more than 30,000 Jews fled Europe and found refuge in Hongkou, Shanghai in China. They formed a thriving community comprising cafés, kosher European food, synagogues, and their own newspapers and schools.
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500 Canadian students expected for 2006 March of the Living

The 2006 March of the Living is expected to draw 500 Canadian students and chaperones to Poland in 2006. The annual event commemorates the millions of innocent people murdered by the Nazis during the Holocaust.
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UN Holocaust resolution seen as sign of changed mood

UNITED NATIONS (JTA-Staff) – Sixty years after the United Nations was founded on the Holocaust’s ashes, Jewish leaders are hailing passage of a Holocaust commemoration resolution in the General Assembly as an important step forward.
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November 3, 2005 - Cheshvan 1, 5766

US Church leaders denounce Sabeel’s Toronto ‘road show’

Just hours after a suicide bombing killed five people in Hadera, Israel, and wounded 30 more, the Sabeel Ecumenical Liberation Theology Center, a Jerusalem-based organization that claims to promote peace, opened a pro-divestment conference in Toronto which has been called little more than a propaganda fest against the Jewish State.
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CIDA funding Sabeel conference?

Rev. Naim Ateek’s opening speech at the conference was prefaced by a filmed message of support from South African Anglican Bishop Desmond Tutu. A spokesperson from Kairos, Canadian Ecumenical Justice Initiatives, one of the sponsors of the Sabeel conference, gave this presentation a warm introduction.
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Iranian president’s call for annihilation of Israel: More than strong message needed, government told

While reaction in Canada to Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s belligerent call last week for Israel to be wiped off the map was swift, in some circles there was a feeling that it did not go far enough.
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B’nai Brith Canada urges government task force to ensure safe living conditions in Aboriginal communities

B’nai Brith Canada responded positively to the news of the evacuation of residents of the Kashechewan First Nation by the Ontario government, following reports that the Reserve’s water supply tested positive for E. coli.
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Knesset forum debates evictees’ plight

JERUSALEM (Arutz-7) – Knesset Members and evicted Gush Katif residents held an emergency session on Oct. 26 to discuss the need to find immediate housing solutions.
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Iran’s final solution plan

“Iran’s stance has always been clear on this ugly phenomenon [i.e., Israel]. We have repeatedly said that this cancerous tumour of a state should be removed from the region.”
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MYTH & FACT:

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Tefillin helped Maccabi win, rabbi says

Sunday, Oct. 16 was a magic day in Toronto. The Maccabi Elite team was facing the Toronto Raptors in a basketball game that was close from start to finish.
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Commentator’s solution to conflict called confusing, harmful

Ted Belman’s (Jewish Tribune, Oct.20) attempt to provide a solution to the Israel-Arab conflict is confusing and harmful to the Israeli people
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Court decision and McGuinty ‘ban’ won’t affect Get law

Certain commentators such as Sara Horowitz in her recent column on Agunot, Relgious Courts and the Get Legislation (Canadian Jewish News, Oct. 6) keep reporting that Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty’s announcement “to ban religious courts” will affect our Get law and other absurdities.
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A second Holocaust Memorial Day

Perhaps the time has come to create a second Holocaust Memorial Day, one for the original tragedy in which six million Jews were killed and another for a second six million who will die if something isn’t done to thwart the plan of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to wipe Israel off the map.
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France fighting antisemitism – and winning, ambassador says in exclusive interview

The government of France takes antisemitism very seriously, perhaps more seriously than the government of Canada, if statistics are to be believed.
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Jordan cancels antisemitic TV series following rabbis’ protest

The government of Jordan has agreed to cancel an antisemitic television series after receiving a letter of protest from 24 American rabbis who had met last month with Jordan’s king.
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Israeli vendors to visit Toronto Israeli Consumer Products Fair at the General Assembly (GA) and Bathurst JCC

Following several highly successful Israeli product fairs over the past three years, Torontonians will again have the opportunity to purchase quality goods flown in directly from Israel.
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Ensemble dips into American songbook

Art of Time Ensemble, in association with Harbourfront Centre, will perform a concert of classics from the American songbook in brand new arrangements Nov. 4 and 5 at 8 p.m.at Harbourfront Centre Theatre.
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Montreal municipal election has major Jewish flavour

MONTREAL – There is a definite Jewish flavour in the Montreal municipal election campaign, as voters head to the polls across Quebec on Sunday, November 6.
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Bill Gates praises Israel´s high-tech

HAIFA (ARUTZ-7) – Microsoft founder Bill Gates, in Israel for a short visit, met with high-tech leaders, high school students and government leaders, and lavished praise on Israel’s high-tech industry.
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Bonaventure Lodge: ‘community within a community’

MONTREAL – In its November 1966 newsletter, Montreal’s Welcome Hall Mission had this to say about B’nai Brith’s Bonaventure Lodge No. 2401 after it held another successful annual Thanksgiving Turkey Dinner for destitute men: “They’re just nice people enjoying being kind.”
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Winnipeg Jewish and Aboriginal high school students to exchange visits

WINNIPEG – “Dozens of Winnipeg Jewish and Aboriginal high school students will exchange visits several times this year in a new program aimed at increasing mutual understanding,” said Shelley Faintuch
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Award-winning Jewish producer turns attention to Star Trek, Bronfman empire

MONTREAL - Award-winning Montreal-based Jewish documentary producer Alan Handel continues to show he has the magic touch in terms of innovative subject matter.
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Not just another Sunday jog, as far as Glassman is concerned

If you think putting together an outdoor running event involving the equivalent of a small town and closing streets in Canada’s largest city for several hours is simple, Jay Glassman would beg to differ.
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Israeli hockey juniors spank Canadians

No longer an oddity, Israeli hockey emerges as an international power
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IDF kills Hadera attack mastermind

HADERA, Israel (Arutz-7) – The IDF killed three terrorists Sunday night, including the mastermind of last week’s suicide bombing, which killed five Israelis and wounded 30 here.
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October 27, 2005 - Tishrei 24, 5766

Senator garners support for bill from anti-suicide bombing group

TORONTO-OTTAWA – Suicide bombings all over the world should be specifically defined as constituting a violation of the Criminal Code of Canada as part of the definition of ‘terrorist activity, says Senator Jerry Grafstein, who has introduced a private member’s bill, Bill S-43, to that effect in the Senate.

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South Tel Aviv: from kibbutz holiday to the real world

The vacation is officially over. After six weeks of Ulpan classes and swimming, our time at Kibbutz Beit Guvrin has come to a close. I now find myself a resident of South Tel Aviv, with screaming families and speeding cars replacing the familiar sounds of jackals, dogs and crickets.

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Bush called soft on PA security compliance

To Mahmoud Abbas’ credit, from the very first day he recognized that when it comes to the Palestinians, the Bush team isn’t really serious about security compliance. That the White House is more interested in the melody than the lyrics.
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Hundreds rock at Christian concert honouring the Jewish people

BRANTFORD, ON – Imagine a Christian church devoted to supporting Jews and the Jewish state without any conditions? Well, you don’t have to imagine it: Rev. John Tweedie’s New Covenant Church in Brantford and the international organization, Christians for Israel, which he represents in Canada, are doing just that.
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Jewish Book Fair: an event not to be missed

This year’s 29th annual Jewish Book Fair at the Leah Posluns Theatre takes place Nov. 3-13, and promises to be as exciting as ever.
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The TALI – Toronto Connection

The TALI (“Enriched Jewish Studies”) Education Fund ( TEF) will introduce its first translated textbook into easy Hebrew at the United Synagogue Day School in Toronto this fall.
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Antisemitism on sale at German book fair

BERLIN (JTA) – Antisemitic tracts are on sale at the Frankfurt Book Fair again this year.
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Meet the Jewish press

The fact that you are reading this means that the newspaper you are holding or the web site you are viewing cares to provide a traditional Orthodox Jewish point of view.
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Wife speaks in general’s stead

Dorit Stern is not a celebrity. In fact, until a few weeks ago, no one had ever heard of this religious woman in her 40s.
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Letters

Reflection on previous articles
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Christian-Jewish dialogue celebrates Nostra Aetate

Forty years ago a document was signed by Pope Paul VI that astounded the entire world. It was called Nostra Aetate (Our Time) and it formally declared that the Jews were not responsible for the death of Jesus. To mark this event the Christian-Jewish Dialogue has invited Rabbi Riccardo Di Segni of Rome, Chief Rabbi of Italy and friend of the late Pope John Paul II, to speak at a special seminar and dinner, Nov. 10.
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Attention bargain hunters: bazaar set for Nov. 2

The Toronto Hadassah-WIZO Bazaar is set for Nov. 2 from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m., at the National trade Centre halls C & D at Exhibition Place, although the organizers say that the best bargain hunters start lining up at 5 a.m.

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Thornhill singer preeminent interpreter of Holocaust songs

THORNHILL – Probably the world’s most prominent and authoritative singer of songs from the Holocaust, Thornhill’s Jenny Eisenstein, was the star performer at one of Israel’s most significant events this past spring commemorating the 60th anniversary of the liberation of the Nazi death camps: the Yom Hashoah Memorial Service and Yizkor for Zagelmbie Martyrs, held at Modi’in, the home of the Maccabees.

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Poking good-natured fun at suburban Jewish family

If you’re looking for a literary work of art, then Hostile Makeover doesn’t make the cut. However, for a light escape novel in the category of women’s fiction, it’s a fine choice.

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Filmmaker, 75, tackles Memory and old age at Baycrest

Acclaimed Canadian director Allan King unmasks common myths about dementia in his new documentary, the beautiful and poignant, Memory for Max, Claire, Ida and Company, shown recently at the Toronto International Film Festival. The film shatters stereotypes haunting us about who we will become upon losing some of our cognitive skills. More…

Fatah killed ‘settlers,’

Palestinian media, officials say: Voice of Palestine Radio, the official voice of Mahmoud Abbas’s Palestinian Authority, declared Oct. 16 that recent attacks on Israelis were carried out by members of the Fatah organization headed by PA President Mahmoud Abbas.

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Canada can play key role in deterring Iran in nuclear quest, Israeli nuclear hero says

Exactly four years after the Al Qaeda attack on the World Trade Centre, and more than 24 years after he saved the world from atomic catastrophe by leading an Israel Air Force raid on Saddam Hussein’s nuclear reactor at Osirak,

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It was Maccabi magic at Air Canada Centre

On a coolish Oct. 16 afternoon, the arena began to slowly resemble a giant succah. Looking up from courtside into the stands at all levels one could see Israeli flags swaying held by numerous Jewish basketball fans of all denominations, who started chanting intermittently…

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Maccabi’s success no fluke

Maccabi Elite Tel Aviv is synonymous with basketball success in Israel. The team’s back-to-back Euroleague championships in 2003/2004 and 2004/2005 were the fifth time overall and third in the last five years.

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A great finish to B’nai Brith’s first soccer season

B’nai Brith Canada’s first soccer season ended on Oct. 2, with the championship final and the culmination to a wonderful first season. The game was an exciting affair between two fierce rivals, Thornhill United and SAB.

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October 20, 2005 - Tishrei 17, 5766

Aliyah Centre relocates to the Lipa Green Building

The Israel Aliyah Centre relocated to the campus of the Bathurst Jewish Centre in Toronto earlier this month as part of the Jewish state’s strategy of increasing immigration consciousness – and numbers – among the Jews of Canada and the United States.

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Fans roar for Maccabi Tel Aviv

More than 17,200 screaming basketball fans cheered on their team at the Air Canada Centre on Sunday.
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Unhappy with merger, parents start new ‘TTT’ school

In the wake of a high-profile merger between two Toronto area Jewish day schools earlier this year, some parents from one of the original schools have founded a new one.
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Olmert honoured, heckled at Yom Kippur service

JERUSALEM (Arutz-7) – Ehud Olmert, who doubles as deputy prime minister and finance minister, was verbally attacked at Yom Kippur (Kol Nidre) evening services at Jerusalem’s Great Synagogue Oct 12.
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Israeli right, Zionists seek to topple ‘illegitimate, non-Zionist’ regime

JERUSALEM – While some in Israel may consider the dramatic days of disengagement and the storm it raised in society a thing of the past, members of the religious Zionist community and Israel’s right are now starting to grasp the extent of the quake their ideology has gone through and are discussing various reactions to what they say is the “state’s betrayal.”
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Afghan president said ready to meet Sharon, consider diplomatic ties

JERUSALEM – Afghan President Hamid Karzai said is willing to meet with Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and that the two countries could form diplomatic ties once a Palestinian state has been established, Yediot Ahronot said in a report published last week.
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Sukkah-vision

The defining element of the sukkah – the temporary dwelling in which Jews are commanded to spend a week each autumn, beginning five days after Yom Kippur – is the once-growing but now detached material that must comprise the structure’s roof.
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Bush declares war on radical Islam

 A courageous speech by George W. Bush two weeks ago began a new era in what he calls the “war on terror.”
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CHAT article left many questions

I read the front page article (Jewish Tribune, Oct. 6) and I’m still left with many questions:
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Bringing back ‘Spanish’ flu brilliant – and terrifying

WASHINGTON – While official Washington has been poring over Harriet Miers’ long-ago doings on the Dallas City Council and parsing the Byzantine comings and goings of the Fitzgerald grand jury, relatively unnoticed was perhaps the most momentous event of our lifetime – what is left of it, as I shall explain.
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The ‘Peace Process’

Contrary to his commitments, Yasser Arafat pursued the goals of the PLO Charter, which he never changed, with violence, propaganda, incitement, duplicity and mendacity.
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New Israeli desalination plant may defuse Middle East water crisis

ASHKELON, Israel (JTA) – An Israeli-led consortium is completing the world’s largest, most technologically advanced and economical water desalination plant, a project that backers say could influence prospects for Middle East peace and development of arid regions worldwide.
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Ground-breaking set for new war memorial

The Jewish War Veterans of Canada are erecting one of the most significant war memorials built in Canada since World War I, the Jewish War Veterans International Memorial, Flames of Memory.
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Israel Space Agency head provides ‘new drive and vision’

Space teleportation, human communities living dozens of kilometres above our heads, space travel. Dr. Zvi Kaplan, the director general of the Israel Space Agency, is ready to toy with these ideas, however far-fetched they may seem with today’s technologies.
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Elie Wiesel to be honoured by Dalai Lama during DC visit

WASHINGTON – The Dalai Lama will present Holocaust survivor, writer and peace activist Elie Wiesel with the International Campaign for Tibet’s Light of Truth award during the Tibetan spiritual leader’s visit to Washington, DC, in November.
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Blown from New Orleans to Haifa

TEL-AVIV – It was a last-minute decision that made Sasha Solomon go to study in the bustling city of New Orleans, but it was Hurricane Katrina that made the young student come to the Haifa University on the green slopes of Mount Carmel.
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Canada, US working well on security issues, Cellucci says

“Security trumps trade.” This slogan has been frequently used by former US Ambassador to Canada (2001-2005) Paul Cellucci, who spoke at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre on Sept.27, under the auspices of the Speakers’ Forum Leaders Lecture Series. This timely speech was sponsored by Accenture, along with associate sponsors Standard Radio, The Globe and Mail, and SAS.
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New Teletoon character learns Hebrew

Carl, the latest animated brainchild from the dynamic Jewish producing duo of Lisa Olfman and Joy Rosen, is learning how to speak Hebrew.

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24 hours in Amsterdam

My KLM flight from Toronto to Amsterdam has an early arrival…7 a.m. – that’s 1 a.m. ET.

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10 Cantors to honour colleague, establish scholarship fund

Ten of the world’s revered cantors will be making history when they join voices in a benefit gala concert in honour of Toronto-resident and legendary cantor, David Bagley.
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B’nai Brith softball champs put on a show

Another season of exciting action in the B’nai Brith (Toronto) Softball League, has come and gone. Playoff championships were best two out of three series, unless otherwise noted.
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October 13, 2005 - Tishrei 10, 5766

Musicians assocation apologizes - Meeting still held on Rosh Hashanah

Neil Spalding, the vice president of the Toronto Musicians Association (TMA), has apologized for the scheduling of the union local’s annual meeting for the nomination of officers, which took place at 6.30 p.m. on Oct. 3, or Erev Rosh Hashanah.

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Court issues injunction to prohibit alleged hate postings

In a ground-breaking court decision for Canada, Federal Court Justice Yves de Montigny ruled last week that London, Ontario’s Tomasz Winnicki can not use the Internet to spread his alleged antisemitic and racist vitriol while awaiting a decision by a tribunal of the Canadian Human Rights Commission.
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Israel's Jewish majority in decline, statistics show

Israel’s population continued to grow till the end of 2004, but it also became less Jewish, with its Arab community continuing its gradual growth of recent years, according to figures published by the Public Bureau of Statistics released last week.

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ReJEWvenation forum set for U of T

One of the most significant Jewish cultural forums ever to take place in the Diaspora will happen at the University of Toronto during the weekend of Oct. 28-31 called ReJewvenation 2005.

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Masters of reconciliation

The first half of the twentieth-century saw Americans locked in a fierce ideological debate surrounding economic class and the distribution of wealth.

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MYTH

Hamas should be permitted to participate in Palestinian Authority elections.

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Gush Katif residents now homeless

We would like to bring to your attention the plight of the evacuees of Gush Katif who still await fair and decent compensation.

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Mohamed Elmasry and Naomi Klein

In his letter to the editor in the Globe and Mail on Oct. 5, Mohamed Elmasry, president of the Canadian Islamic Congress, points out that he is not against Jews, because, although he objected to Jonathan Schneiderman and Leo Kolber being appointed to important government jobs, it was because they are pro-Israel and not because they are Jews.

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Antisemites love Ovadia Yosef

Most Israelis were outraged by the latest brainwave of Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, who attributed the damage done by Hurricane Katrina to American support for the Israeli withdrawal from Gaza and to the fact that the African-Americans of New Orleans weren’t studying Torah.

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‘Land For Peace’ called PLO’s version of Nazi slogan

It is unusual in the publishing industry for the name of an author to appear on the cover of his book in letters larger than its title.

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The Shofar: more than a primitive trumpet

Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur – a day of sweetness and a day of atonement – are the culmination of a month-long process of coming back to God.

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New Shul in Thornhill appoints rabbi

Aish Toronto has created the Thornhill Community Shul and appointed a full-time rabbi to lead it.

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Cancer survivors discuss emotional challenges faced after treatment

L’Chaim Cancer Support Group for Jewish Women was formed by cancer survivors in 1999 to provide peer support to Jewish women newly diagnosed with cancer. Today L’Chaim is composed of about 60 dedicated volunteers, all Jewish women cancer survivors, who have been trained to provide confidential and caring support to newly diagnosed clients.

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Alberta, Canada and JNF Sign Partnership in Water Research

JERUSALEM (Arutz-7) – A Canadian province and the State of Israel have signed an agreement for water research, which will benefit water-scarce countries worldwide. The government of Alberta has pledged $1 million (Canadian) towards a joint venture with the Jewish National Fund for Israeli and Canadian scientists to research water irrigation and conservation techniques in Israel.

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Sweetpea Baby Food

On a recent Monday evening, I found myself surrounded by hungry babies and their eager mothers awaiting the ultimate taste-test: Sweetpea Baby Food, a new line of all-natural, organic frozen baby food versus a leading jarred organic brand.

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Google opens branch in Israel

JERUSALEM (Arutz-7) – Google Inc. has announced that it is setting up a branch in Israel as part of the expansion of its international activities.

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Holocaust curriculums in Jewish schools:

From basic to innovative programming, schools set individual course when teaching about the Shoah.

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Sweet story provides food for thought

Sometimes we plan to give what is not really needed. In life we have to learn to adapt our generosity to meet the true needs of those around us. When we can open our eyes and see what help is wanted, our gifts will be more useful and appreciated.

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A look into the Yiddish heart and soul.

Once upon a time there was a young rabbi. An orthodox rabbi who was pretty well integrated in North American society.

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Israel Brief

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New England Holocaust Memorial - Six glass columns along Boston’s Freedom Trail

On a recent trip to Boston, I noticed six tall glass columns on a little parkette across from Boston City Hall in one of the oldest areas of the city.

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World Briefs

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Sports plus Judaism and gelt equals the ‘write’ way

Participation in sports is part of an immediate experience uncommon in other parts of daily life, whether one is a child, or an adult. The Centre for Sports and Jewish Life (CSJL), based in St. Petersburg, FL., takes this concept one step further in linking sports to the overall Jewish experience, in a unique and fascinating manner.

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October 6, 2005 - Tishrei 3, 5766

CHAT leaves fair-funding association

The Community Hebrew Academy of Toronto (CHAT) has left the Ontario Association of Jewish Day Schools (OAJDS).

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A trademark approach to raising funds: building bridges between grassroots and corporations

Fundraising in the Canadian Jewish community has become a fine art. With organizations respecting an informal set of rules and guidelines. While all organizations engage in some direct solicitation, the Federations, through their various campaigns – the United Israel Appeal, the United Jewish Appeal and in Montreal the CJA – will raise $130,000,000 this year.

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Canada’s synagogues proud of their handicap access

“Every Jew Belongs In Shul,” says an advertisement by Orthodox Union, part of a campaign advocating facilities for the handicapped. The Jewish Tribune decided to poll synagogues across Canada to see just how much the handicapped “belonged” and what facilities are in place.

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Man arrested for threat against Jewish community

ST. CATHARINES, ON – One day after pro-Palestinian demonstrators broke up a Hamilton Police Services Board forum regarding a controversial trip to Israel by Chief Brian Mullen, a “co-president” of the Niagara Palestinian Association was arrested by Niagara Regional Police for allegedly making a terrorist threat against the Jewish community.

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Earthquake shakes Israel

JERUSALEM (Jerusalem Newswire) – Israelis preparing to see out the old year and welcome in the new with the sound of Shofar blowing felt their country shaking as a 4.3 scale earthquake struck the region.

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Stop slaughter in Sudan, human rights experts exhort

Despite assurances from Khartoum and Paul Martin’s recent speech at the UN asking for UN intervention in troubled spots like the Sudan, violence against the indigenous Black population of Sudan, perpetrated by the murderous government-controlled militias, the Janjaweed, continues unabated.

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Façades in our community

In the days preceding Rosh Hashanah, we tend to press the replay button in our memory banks to conjure up the images of days long gone, of the wonderful moments we had in childhood and even those moments that might have been less than wonderful.

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Jewish goodwill not recognized by mainstream media

I usually depend on my computer’s thesaurus to get me through writing a somewhat decent article. This time I can’t be bothered. That is how hot under the collar I really am tonight.

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To the Jewish communities on the occasion of Rosh Hashanah 5766

Rosh Hashanah is a time when we, as a community, celebrate the New Year, and also reflect on the status of the state of Israel and the Jewish people.

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A newly Orthodox rabbi’s journey is ‘roller coaster’ of self-discovery

LINDEN, NJ – Some people approaching the big 5-0 take stock of themselves by looking at their friends and acquaintances – who’s richer, who’s happier, who’s worse off.

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Can't Buy Me Love

When James Wolfensohn and Mort Zuckerman raised $14 million to buy the Gush Katif hothouses from Israeli farmers to give to the Palestinians, many people were surprised. “We thought it was a chance to show the Palestinians that there were more benefits from cooperation than confrontation," Zuckerman explained.

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Alzheimer’s residence will provide highly personalized care

Years ago, when human life expectancy was comparatively brief, Alzheimer’s was little more than the possessive form of a German surname. Today, of course, with life expectancy in Canada well over 75 years, Alzheimer’s disease is a household word, and the challenges it brings in its wake for both those who suffer with it and their families can be heartbreaking. The David and Martha Sud B’nai Brith Residence, slated to open in September 2006, will alleviate most of these painful challenges. Space is limited to 24 residents; B’nai Brith is now accepting pre-registration applications from across the country.

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Israelis in Canada urged to aid in fostering new trade ventures

The Free Trade Agreement between Canada and Israel, which came into effect four years ago, was “the best thing possible,” declared Ephraim Shoham, Consul Trade Commissioner for Israel to Canada. “It means Israel can compete better.”

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Middle East Briefs

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Does size really matter?

(NCI) – When it comes to the height of your partner, size may not really matter, according to a recent survey of Canadians conducted for GM Canada. The survey found that nine out of 10 Canadians do not think it’s important for married or common law couples to be similar in height.

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Practice proper driver ergonomics to avoid strain and fatigue

(NCI) – Many drivers are setting themselves up for muscle strain and dangerous fatigue behind the wheel before they even start the engine, according to a Canadian ergonomics expert. But proper use of vehicle features and a few simple ergonomic principles can keep drivers comfortable and safe on the roads.

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What children need to know about vehicle safety

(NCI) – Whether it’s carpooling to school, being driven to soccer practice or tagging along for the grocery shopping, children spend a lot of time in the car. To help keep children safe and educate them about vehicle safety, consider these lessons for the road:

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’60s poet-singers get royal treatment at film festival

The Toronto International Film Festival featured documentaries on Bob Dylan and Leonard Cohen, two of the world’s greatest songwriter-poets and counter-culture icons.

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Garbe and Miller star in ‘That ’70s Show’

At a stage of life when most people relax and reduce or stop strenuous athletic activity, Laurie Garbe and Murray Silver are testaments to the adage that you are never too old to play a kid’s game.

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Israeli Thai boxers gain respect of adversaries at worldwide match

BANGKOK (JTA) – The night before the opening day of fights, the three Israelis slip into their silver-coloured tracksuits, which shimmer with a dim metallic sheen under neon-lighted Chinese ideograms.

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News

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Exhibit to lure boomers to Baycrest

Jews from across Toronto are getting a delightful blast from the past through Get Back: The Boomer Experience…Growing up Jewish in the 1950s, ’60s and ’70s, a year-long exhibit at the Silverman Heritage Museum of the Baycrest Centre for Geriatric Care.

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September 29, 2005 - Elul 25, 5765

Clothing donors generous, enthusiastic in aid of Katrina survivors

From all across central Canada, enthusiasm was high for the B’nai Brith Canada clothing drive to aid survivors of Hurricane Katrina from metropolitan New Orleans.

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After rocket attacks, Israel drawn back to Gaza border

JERUSALEM (JTA-Arutz 7) – Just weeks after Israel’s withdrawal from the Gaza Strip, fighting with the Palestinians resumed with sound and fury – and, some feared, the potential to evolve into a full-blown border war.

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Hate speech not charter right in Canada: court

The Federal Court of Appeal has taken an important step in reminding Canadians that free speech does not include hate speech.

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‘Volatility’ mars forum probing police chief’s Israel visit

HAMILTON – Hamilton Police Chief Brian Mullen has been the object of criticism, along with other law enforcement officials, for travelling to Israel in March to learn first hand about terrorism and how to control it and its aftermath.

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Rosh Hashanah: a time to set our priorities

This Rosh Hashanah coincides with a time of immense challenge for the Jewish people worldwide, a challenge, which impacts on the community here in Canada in ways many still find hard to acknowledge. Human nature being what it is, much like a hurricane victim who is loath to leave his house even in the path of impending disaster, we are simply not programmed to accept warning signs, even when they are staring us in the face.

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President Musharraf’s historic speech

When the Malaysian currency tanked in late 1997, the country’s then-prime minister, Mahathir Mohamad, said he had “definite information” that Jews were the cause. “We do not want to say that this is a plot by the Jews, but in reality it is a Jew who triggered the currency plunge, and coincidentally [financier George] Soros is a Jew.” Mahathir went on to say that just as “the Jews would rob Palestinians… this is what they are doing to our country.”

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Hats off to York University

It was meant to be the sign of the times. Antisemitism is up and running these days. Some of the Jewish faith have even jumped on the bandwagon. That is nothing new.

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Now there’s a web site for Israel backers

I am a reservist for the US Army and a strong supporter of Israel. I firmly believe that because the enemies of America and the enemies of Israel are the same, in helping Israel and helping America you are serving the same cause.

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Global justice

The first order of business when the federal cabinet next meets should be revoking the citizenship of four Nazi collaborators – Vladimir Katriuk, Helmut Oberlander, Jacob Fast and Wasyl Odynsky.

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Simon Wiesenthal, 96, called ‘conscience of the Holocaust’

BRATISLAVA, (JTA) — Simon Wiesenthal, who died in Vienna on Sept. 20 at 96, often was called the “conscience of the Holocaust.”

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Shrinking Jewish population? There’s a single answer

Around the world the Jewish population has been shrinking not from war, not from serious health issues, but by self-imposed massive assimilation. The number of Jews in the Diaspora is now estimated to be between 500,000 and 1 million less than it was in 1970.

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Cantor gives prized music collection to synagogue

One of the world’s largest historical collection of Jewish music, compiled and owned by one of the most acclaimed cantors of the 20th century, Cantor Louis Danto of Toronto, has been formally dedicated to Beth Emeth Bais Yehuda, the synagogue where he served as cantor for nearly 30 years.

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Friedman’s Fresh Fish gets to the market early

Hurricane-Schmurricane. Moishe Friedman is worrying about fish heads – Rosh Hashanah is looming ever closer and will he have enough?

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Kibbutz Beit Guvrin: first stop on a 10-month journey

“You must not think of this as a year off, but a year ‘on’.” These were some of the first words that greeted us, the guinea pigs of the 10-month Israel volunteer program, Tikun Olam in Tel Aviv. We were a ragged bunch; exhausted from our long flights, excited for the adventures to come and extremely confused as to what we would actually be doing in the near future.

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5765: For Israel, the year remembered most for one word: disengagement

JERUSALEM (JTA) – Israel’s unilateral withdrawal from the Gaza Strip and the northern West Bank dominated the year 5765. After months of rancorous confrontation with Jewish settlers and other opponents of the “disengagement” plan in the Knesset, the courts and the streets, the government moved in mid-August to evacuate 21 settlements in Gaza and 4 in the northern West Bank.

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Jewish Montrealer named Canada’s consul general in Miami

MONTREAL – With tongue planted firmly in cheek, Marcy Grossman has been known to tell friends that the Department of Foreign Affairs let her out of jail to become Canada’s new consul general in Miami.

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Happy Birthday, World: A Rosh Hashanah Celebration

This is a sweet, simple yet very effective book that uses the familiar symbols of a birthday celebration to convey the meaning of some Jewish New Year rituals.

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New trio debut features Jewish prayer and Arab music

It may be the first time in music that Jewish prayer and Arab melody, have been found in the same composition. But Yitzhak Yedid and his new trio, who performed his new Oud-Bass-Piano Trio Suite in Five Movements recently at the Al Green Theatre, are not your usual musicians.

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‘Making of film came after bunch of happy accidents’

Everything Is Illuminated, American actor Liev Schreiber’s directorial film debut, takes the audience on a ridiculously sublime journey beginning as black comedy that deepens into an emotionally powerful and revelatory experience. Based on Jonathan Safran Foer’s critically acclaimed novel of the same name, the film tells the story of a young American also called Jonathan Safran Foer who tries to find the woman who saved his grandfather in Trachimbrod, a small Ukrainian town obliterated by the Nazis.

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The disengagement: one soldier’s view

Millions in Israel and across the world had their eyes peeled on their TV screens as they witnessed history in the making during the evacuation of the Gaza Strip and the northern West Bank settlements. But taking part in the making of history was reserved for the few – in this case, several thousand settlers and the security forces that carried out the historic decision.

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It started as a great idea, then fate stepped in

It reads like the opening to a classic but hackneyed joke: Three Jews walk onto a Major League baseball diamond. And yet, depending on your particular definition of Jew, this is exactly what happened. Still, this is old news. It was previously reported in the Jewish Tribune, and it originally happened back on Aug. 8. Why then, the need for an additional article?

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Italian ‘Wallenberg’ revealed in spectacular documentary

HAMILTON – Giorgio Perlasca, an Italian businessman, was in Budapest, Hungary, buying cattle when he found himself face-to-face with Nazi brutality towards Jews. Like Swedish diplomat, Raoul Wallenberg, Perlasca waged a personal war to save morre than 5,000 Jews, posing as a Spanish consul – after the Spanish diplomats had abandoned their embassy – and bribing and bullying German soldiers and officers while walking a tightrope of death. An episode in which he saved two Jewish children by putting them in his limousine and facing down a German official was especially chilling.

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A look at the High Holidays as observed by Crypto-Jewish women

Observance of Jewish holidays presented the crypto-Jewish women of Spain with a major challenge. While a woman who had been born as a Jew (and then converted) still retained memories of her life as a Jewess, she who was born after the forced conversions of 1391 had to rely on information gleaned either from friends, from family members or from Jews, at least until their expulsion in 1492.

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Israeli Folktale Archive preserves folklore of Jews from many countries

HAIFA, Israel (JTA) – “This is our holy of holies,” says Idit Pintel-Ginsburg with great reverence as she opens the door to a small, windowless room where rows of long shelves are lined with hundreds of cardboard files.

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Reform Torah translation ‘gender sensitive’

NEW YORK (JTA) – In the past, when Rabbi Elyse Frishman sought to draw meaning from Torah passages for her congregation, she’d sometimes resort to translating the biblical text herself. The translation and commentary then in use in most Reform congregations, she said, didn’t always do the trick.

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No UK synagogue welcome

As we start to enter the High Holy Days of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, we are told to reflect on ourselves and indeed our actions, so that when we enter the synagogue we can pray.

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Rosh Hashanah 1944: A Holocaust controversy

Every year, on the eve of Rosh Hashanah, American presidents, candidates for office, and assorted other VIPs send the Jewish community their wishes for a happy new year. Under ordinary circumstances such greetings are welcomed in the spirit of friendliness in which they are offered.

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Italian Jewish recipes for breaking the fast

NEW YORK (JTA) – “Jews settled in Pitigliano, the medieval Tuscan village where I was born, in the 14th century, and perhaps as early as 1100,” says Edda Servi Machlin, the author of Classic Italian Jewish Cooking, a recipe collection culled from her three previous books on the subject.

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How to follow rabbinical parents? A woman examines her guilt feelings

LOS ANGELES (JTA) – I’ve spent this past year editing a book titled The Modern Jewish Girl's Guide to Guilt, so it may not be such a surprise that I spend an awful lot of time feeling guilty, thinking about why I feel so darn guilty, and wondering why I’m so thoroughly guilty that I’m willing to devote a year of my life to the topic.

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September 22, 2005 - Elul 18, 5765

Political ‘A’ list pays tribute to Frank Stronach

As various levels of government floundered amidst the devastation wrought by Hurricane Katrina, perhaps America’s worst natural disaster in history, Canada’s auto parts manufacturer Frank Stronach took matters into his own hands.

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Jewish York professor wants school open on High Holidays

York University History Professor David Noble is asking the Ontario Ministry of Post-Secondary Edcuation to end his schools’ tradition of cancelling classes during the High Holidays.

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PA breaks promises, gets more money from PM

Prime Minister Paul Martin heaped the Palestinians with praise and payments last week when he announced on Thursday from New York City – where he was attending the United Nations 60th anniversary celebrations – that he was pledging another “$24.5 million in additional Canadian assistance to help strengthen the capacity of the Palestinian Authority (PA) and improve the lives of the Palestinian people.”

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ZAKA employees file for receivership after missing pay for several months

JERUSALEM – Employees of the rapid search and rescue organization ZAKA have recently submitted a request for temporary receivership to the Jerusalem District Court after the organization failed to pay its employees’ salaries for several months.

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Asper Foundation still needs $120 million for human rights museum

WINNIPEG – The Canadian Museum of Human Rights, slated to be constructed in the centre of Canada, at the intersections of the Red and Assiniboine Rivers in downtown Winnipeg, will be Canada’s only major Holocaust museum on a scale equal to Yad Vashem or the Holocaust Museum in Washington, DC.

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World Briefs

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Wingate branch gives fallen Jewish soldiers their due but legion numbers diminishing

The General Wingate Branch 256 of the Royal Canadian Legion, the only Jewish branch in the Toronto area, recently held its annual memorial service for Jewish soldiers who have fallen in combat. The ceremony, which took place on a Sunday morning that happened to coincide with the World Trade Center attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, unfolded under a cloudless sky within the peaceful setting of Mount Sinai Cemetery.

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Let’s bring some sanity to our security measures

WASHINGTON – Six percent of British Muslims – more than 100,000 citizens – thought the July 7 London terror attacks were justified. A quarter of British Muslims merely sympathize with the bombers. Even more shocking, nearly one-fifth of British Muslims say they feel little or no loyalty to Britain. Yet the most disturbing news from the July 23 London Telegraph poll is that these trends are worse among younger British Muslims.

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MYTH: Israel has moved the border so it will not withdraw completely from the Gaza Strip

FACT: Mohammed Dahlan, the Palestinian Authority’s minister of civil affairs, has claimed that Israel moved the northern border of the Gaza Strip about 1.2 miles, and that Israel’s disengagement will not be complete unless it withdraws to the 1949 armistice lines. By suggesting that Israel is holding onto a piece of Gaza, the Palestinians are threatening to create a Shebaa Farms issue that could undercut the prospects for peace created by Israel’s courageous decision to evacuate all its citizens and soldiers from the area.

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Budapest cemetery damage shocks readers

I was shocked to see in your Aug. 25 issue the photos of the desecration of the tombstones in the Kozma Street Jewish Cemetery in Budapest, Hungary, with the brief accompanying article.

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Senseless in Gaza

Those nefarious Jews did it again. They had the gall to not destroy their 19 synagogues in Gaza, leaving them to silently stoke the passions of uncontrollable Arabs. It was a “political trap,” in the words of Mohammed Dahlan, the Palestinian civil affairs minister.

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A proposal to the Nobel committee for literature

In the last 25 years four Jewish writers have been awarded the Nobel prize for literature: S.Y. Agnon, Nellie Sachs, Elias Cannetti and Imre Kertesz. Three of these Nobel laureates were novelists and essayists. Only Nellie Sachs (O! The Chimneys) among that august group, was a poet.

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B’nai Brith’s Robert Levy is Knight in shining armour for Jews in Ukraine

“I would like to see people pay more attention to what I do rather than to the fact that I was named Knight of the Legion of Honour,” is the first thing Robert Levy says when asked about the title the French Republic has honoured him with for his humanitarian work.

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Conservative MP on the stump for Toronto candidates

Despite his name, Leon Benoit is an Alberta Member of Parliament, a Conservative representing Vegreville-Wainwright and the 55-year-old takes the word “representative” very seriously; duty to his voters surpassing loyalty to party.

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Israeli flag burnt at CHAT’s Richmond Hill campus

RICHMOND HILL – The burning of Israeli flags has become almost commonplace in today’s world but not, one would expect, in Richmond Hill, ON, in front of the Community Hebrew Academy of Toronto (CHAT).

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York regional police officer receives international award

An 18-year York Regional Police veteran has been selected to receive the 2005 International Association of Women Police Community Service Award to be presented at this year’s International Association of Women Police Annual Conference.

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Sheba Medical Center gets new CEO

TEL HASHOMER, Israel – Professor Zeev Rotstein, 55, has been appointed CEO and director general of the Chaim Sheba Medical Center at Tel Hashomer in Israel. The centre is the largest hospital and medical research complex in the Middle East, recognized internationally for its excellence in healthcare and medical research. It cares for more than one million patients a year.

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Man for all seasons conquers mental illness

One bright sunny day, Barry Shainbaum, 18, stood at a bus stop in his hometown of Hamilton with a guitar in his hand. As he got on the bus, he had a premonition that he was somehow leaving.

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STOLPERSTEINE
Gunter Demnig’s homage to the Holocaust

On a cold, dull winter Sunday morning in Cologne, Germany, when everything is closed as tight as a clam, the streets devoid of people, it was with luck that a young man who could speak English, read the sign above the unanswered bell I had been ringing for an hour.

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Swartz brothers are diamonds in the rough

Thornhill-based brothers Shawn and Myles Swartz have been steeped in baseball, so their success at Maccabi Games in both Israel and the US, respectively, this summer comes as no surprise.

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September 15, 2005 - Elul 11, 5765

Ontario Liberals threaten to outlaw rabbinical courts

In an announcement that surprised supporters and opponents of Sharia law, Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty told Canadian Press in an interview Sunday afternoon that he plans to move quickly to outlaw all religious arbitration in the province – including Jewish rabbinical courts.

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B’nai Brith’s relief efforts for Hurricane Katrina victims spark outpouring of Jewish community support

Last week’s announcement by B’nai Brith Canada of a nationwide emergency clothing drive to aid survivors of Hurricane Katrina has sparked on outpouring of support in the Jewish community.

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Israel ends era by leaving Gaza Strip; synagogue razings stoke fear of chaos

NEVEH DEKALIM, Gaza Strip, Sept. 12 (JTA) – A blazing orange sun set over the Mediterranean as Israeli soldiers lowered the country’s flag at the army’s Gaza headquarters, signifying the end of an era in this sandy strip of land.

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Jews For Jesus set to converge on Montreal

MONTREAL – B’nai Brith Canada’s Quebec Region has issued a community alert as the Christian missionary group Jews for Jesus prepares to descend upon Montreal Sept. 18 for what it is calling a three-week ‘Behold Your God’ campaign.

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There’s always blame in a disaster

WASHINGTON – In less enlightened times, there was no catastrophe independent of human agency. When the plague or some other natural disaster struck, witches were burned, Jews were massacred and all felt better (except the witches and Jews).

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Is Israel Ready for its Katrina?

Israel has no reason to fear tsunamis or hurricanes, neither of which are a threat to this part of the world. But sometime in the next few decades it will almost certainly face a natural disaster of great magnitude, namely a major earthquake, and it is ill prepared to handle such an event.

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Montreal rabbi wrong, professor says

Rabbi Reuben Poupko errs in urging North American Jewry’s silence (Jewish Tribune, Sept. 8) on the Israeli’s governments’ policies with regards to the Arabs.

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The Golden Age of American Jewry coming to an end?

The Jewish High Holidays this year fall in early October, and that’s when a massacre was planned against two Los Angeles synagogues, as well as other targets, according to an indictment just handed down against four young Muslim men.

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What God wants us to learn from Katrina

The images of suffering are overwhelming. Watching TV coverage of Hurricane Katrina, you can feel the anguish of the victims of this awful disaster. An unpredictable confluence of circumstances brought about a ‘perfect storm’ that killed thousands and left hundreds of thousands homeless. Katrina is a true human catastrophe.

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‘I am anxious to serve,’ newly minted Senator says

MONTREAL – When Montreal lawyer Yoine Goldstein recently got the call from Prime Minister Paul Martin about his appointment to the Canadian Senate, his reaction was typical of one receiving such an honour, but he didn’t forget about the roots that brought him there.

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Police chief’s trip to Israel okay: board

A Canadian police board rejected a complaint that a police chief’s visit to Israel made him more likely to engage in racial profiling of Arabs and Muslims.

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Jewish library gets new gift from community chronicler

The significant and hitherto underexposed recent history of the Toronto Jewish community, is being further enhanced by its leading chronicler, Irving Naftolin, who has dedicated another four books of historical archives to The Jewish Public Library.

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Soldiers biggest battle was with his conscience

Haim Watzman is not your grandfather’s soldier. No Russian roulette, a la Deerhunter, for him. He could probably live without any Conan the Barbarian imagery, too. He probably doesn’t even like the smell of napalm in the morning. Some may occasionally mock him: for his qualms about occupation, for his left-wing politics, even for his insistence on continuing in the Israeli reserves until his body unequivocally says “No.” For the most part, though, his peers in Company C respect him. They like him. They’re his friends.

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Brilliant graphic novel about love and loyalty

This brilliant and beautiful graphic novel by one of France’s most gifted comic artists is above all a story about love and loyalty. It explores the love and devotion of a cat for its masters, a rabbi and his daughter living in Algeria in the 1930s. It documents in detail a father’s overprotective love for his only daughter Zlabya and her love for her new husband, a young rabbi. Also at issue are the husband’s conflicting feelings toward his own secular Parisian family.

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A personal look at Toronto’s Jewish past

Growing up in the ’70s and ’80s in the northern part of Toronto, it gradually dawned on me that North York, Downsview, et al, hadn’t always comprised the grand total of Jewish life in this city. I don’t recall exactly when the light bulb went off. Maybe it was the time that I learned about “another” JCC, at Bloor and Spadina of all places! (“But Mom, why is there a Jewish Community Centre there, if there are no Jews?”) Perhaps it was hearing about a mysterious synagogue downtown, known only as ‘The Mintz.’

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Jews in Toronto help build a JCC in Eastern European city

TORONTO (JTA) – An Eastern European city known for an infamous pogrom a century ago is getting a Jewish community centre of its own.

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Sex Slaves doc to air on CBC

Sex Slaves, the riveting investigative documentary from the Emmy-winning team at Associated Producers, sears into your consciousness with a haunting sorrow. Director Ric Esther Bienstock and her crew descend undercover with secret cameras into the shadowy multi-billion dollar world of sex trafficking mostly populated by women from the former Soviet Union. These women are lured, trafficked, raped, sometimes murdered and then abandoned once they have served their masters and are often too sick from the ravages of HIV and other diseases to continue “servicing” customers.

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Israelis meet Tunisians

JERUSALEM (JTA) – Israeli and Tunisian officials are meeting in Tunis in a sign of improved relations between Israel and the Muslim world. The officials reportedly are discussing Israel’s attendance at a world summit on information and technology, slated to take place in Tunisia in November.

The suburban gallery: art that’s just around the corner

I approach the courtyard of Jonathan Hiltz’s townhouse, curious to see his new gallery. Hiltz greets me at the door with partner Stephanie Cole, also his art dealer. Their two cats welcome me as I enter the main floor. I am instantly struck by the contrast between the neutral décor and Hiltz’s vibrant, colourful artwork adorning the walls.

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Moon over Judaism: Holidays vary due to waxing, waning lunar calendar

ENCINO, Calif. (JTA) – Jewish time, to most people, means that Shabbat services and synagogue board meetings begin 15 to 30 minutes late.

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From a village in China to the wedding canopy in Jerusalem

JERUSALEM (Arutz-7) – For the first time, a Chinese Jewish couple were married Sept. 7 in accordance with the Law of Moses (Halakah) under a wedding canopy in Jerusalem. Shlomo and Dina Jin are descendants of the Jewish community that existed for nearly 1,000 years in Kaifeng, China.

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A new type of chip – 30 years in the making

When Elaine Katz, a nutritionist and nurse from Long Island, NY, received a phone call years ago from the social worker at her son’s school saying that her 5-year-old, Jared, was hyperactive it was cause for great distress. At the time – some 30 years ago – the term ADD wasn’t loosely thrown around as a common explanation for children’s excited behaviour. “It was a big stigma then,” she said.

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Danish day school marks 200 years

COPENHAGEN (JTA) – A Jewish day school in Copenhagen celebrated its bicentennial.
Queen Margrethe II attended the Sept. 1 celebration at the Caroline School.
The school has an almost-unbroken record of teaching since its start in 1805, closing only between October 1943 and August 1945, during the Nazi occupation.

Aliyah revolution continues: 200 more Jews from North America

JERUSALEM (Arutz-7) – Yet another planeload carrying 200 Jewish immigrants from North America touched down in Israel Sept. 7, bringing the total number of summer immigrants from that continent to more than 1,800. The flight was the sixth and last for this summer organized by Nefesh b’Nefesh, an organization “dedicated to revitalizing North American Aliyah by removing or minimizing the financial, professional, logistical and social obstacles” that potential olim face. Another flight is scheduled for December.

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More British Jews move to Israel

LONDON (JTA) – More British Jews moved to Israel last month than in any other month since the beginning of the Palestinian intifada in 2000.
More than 100 British Jews moved to Israel during August, most of them single, bringing the number for the year so far up to 324, the Israeli daily Ha’aretz reported.
More than half of the new arrivals are Orthodox, with some 10 per cent describing themselves as fervently Orthodox.
The town of Ra’anana has overtaken the capital, Jerusalem, as the most favoured place for British immigrants to live.

Deaf and blind theatre troupe opens audience’s eyes

Just having completed a triumphant tour of Switzerland, including soldout performances at Zurich’s Schauspielhaus (Switzerland’s largest theatre) and the UN headquarters at Geneva, Israel’s Nagala’at Theatre, consisting of deaf and blind actors, will present their acclaimed show, Light is Heard in Zig Zag, at the Bluma Appeal Theatre in the St. Lawrence Centre on Sept. 20, courtesy of The Jerusalem Foundation of Canada.

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Canadian lawyer’s true passion is silver-screen yiddishkeit

Move over Elwy Yost. Meet Sy Langer. Although versed in matters of international law, Sy Langer’s true passion is the silver screen. For the past six months Langer has been speaking on the subject to enthusiastic Toronto audiences.

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Kicker bounces back after leg injury

Punter/Kicker Hayden Epstein has tasted success at the US collegiate and professional football levels. His return to pro football late August with the Edmonton Eskimos of the Canadian Football League is a testament to his determination to rebound from a potentially career-ending injury.

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September 8, 2005 - Elul 4, 5765

B’nai Brith mobilizes Jewish community for New Orleans homeless

MONTREAL – Gerry Weinstein, national president of B’nai Brith Canada, has announced a plan of action to focus the Jewish community’s efforts to aid the most destitute of the Hurricane Katrina victims.

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The 12,000 Jews of New Orleans flee to safety

NEW ORLEANS (Arutz-7) – The Jewish community throughout the southern United States, and elsewhere as well, has awoken to the plight of their co-religionists affected by Hurricane Katrina. The Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles, for instance, has established an emergency fund, and has already sent $100,000 to the Gulf Coast to support victims. B’nai B’rith International (www.bnaibrith.org), United Jewish Communities (UJC), Union for Reform Judaism (www.urj.org), and Chabad-Lubavitch of Louisiana (www.chabadneworleans.com) have established funds to aid victims in Louisiana, Alabama, Mississippi, the Western Florida panhandle and other affected areas.

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Israeli government strives to develop AIDS vaccine

JERUSALEM (Arutz-7) – The Israeli government is embarking on an effort to develop an AIDS vaccine using patented biological material in the state’s possession.

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After Five Centuries, Bnai Anousim Visit Israel

JERUSALEM (ARUTZ-7) – Twenty Bnai Anousim hailing from Spain, Portugal and Brazil have been touring Israel this week on a solidarity visit. The tour was arranged by the Jerusalem-based Shavei Israel organization, which assists “lost Jews” seeking to return to the Jewish people.

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Likud rabbi lambastes pro-Gush Katif supporters

MONTREAL – Prominent Montreal spiritual leader Rabbi Reuben J. Poupko is standing by comments he made critical of a recent anti-disengagement rally here, saying that it is not the place of Diaspora Jews to criticize the polices of the state of Israel.

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Lamentations of Iraqi constition overblown

WASHINGTON – I’ve never been a big fan of the Iraqi constitution project. Issues such as federalism and the role of Islam are simply too large and fundamental to be decided this early in Iraq’s democratic evolution. It is more appropriately the work of years as Iraqis learn accommodation and tolerance and the other habits of self-government.

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When push came to shove, they threw pickles

When they write the story of the Jewish people at the turn of the millennium, I hope they won’t forget the pickles.

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Islamists: If they don’t like our way of life… get out

As the full implications of London’s terrorism by domestic jihadis sink in, Westerners speak out about the problem of radical Islam with new clarity and boldness.

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Statements by politicians have Alice In Wonderland quality

Statements by Arab and Israeli politicians sometimes have an Alice in Wonderland quality to them. Just as Alice had trouble understanding adult behaviour that seemed strange, comments by Shimon Peres often have the same quality. On July 24, 2005, IMRA reported that Peres said that the meaning of President George W. Bush’s letter (that is frequently used to rationalize the expulsion of Jews from Gaza) is that “President Bush does not object to Israel retaining large settlement blocs – if the Palestinians agree.”

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Jewish Senate soap opera ends

MONTREAL – Well it certainly took long enough! Last week, 19 months after Leo Kolber retired as the de facto Jewish Senator from Montreal, lawyer Yoine Goldstein inherited the much-coveted post often referred to as ‘Liberal bagman.’ Kolber earned the ‘bagman’ title for his prolific fundraising abilities. When he retired, Prime Minister Paul Martin was deluged with ‘suggestions’ regarding a replacement.

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Middle East Briefs

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YU senior from Toronto researches in infectious diseases

NEW YORK – Ilana Pister of Toronto, a senior at Yeshiva University’s (YU) Stern College for Women, spent the summer conducting research in infectious diseases at YU’s Albert Einstein College of Medicine (AECOM).

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Maimonides Fellowships: Bringing ‘lost’ Jewish students back to Judaism, promote leadership

“Many community leaders are witnessing a vacuum in Jewish leadership. Jews today are less and less inclined to volunteer or work for Jewish causes than ever before. The Maimonides Leaders Fellowship program was created to address this need,” said Rabbi Mark Zelunka, the program’s director at York University.

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Jewish orphans prepare for final reunion

MONTREAL – For the last number of years Judy Gordon has been on a mission of sorts. The Toronto resident’s two books – Four Hundred Brothers And Sisters: The Story of Two Jewish Orphanages in Montreal (1909 – 1942) and Four Hundred Brothers and Sisters Their Story Continues – offer a rare glimpse into what was once a very well-kept secret.

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Jewish War Vets launch $7-million campaign

Bathurst Street, the main artery through the Jewish community of Toronto, is populated by thousands of board signs promoting hundreds of worthwhile Jewish organizations, just causes, tribute dinners and calls to action. Not to be lost amongst the street noise is a sign at Earl Bales Park, just south of Sheppard, which announces a memorial to Jewish War Veterans worldwide, designed by world famous architect Daniel Libeskind. This incredible structure is to be erected in the Toronto park.

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A candle lighting a dark place

Jay Rawlings knows he doesn’t have enough time to complete the task he has set for himself. From his home outside Jerusalem, he and his family run a project which serves as a bridge between Israel and the world, he says, spreading the truth about Israel across the world. “We’re trying to light a candle in a dark place, and it’s very hard.

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Thornhill’s karate champ raked in Maccabi medal haul

While Canada’s medal efforts at the recent Maccabiah Games in Israel were exemplary, there was a GTA athlete who turned in a remarkable performance. Nataliya Muntyanova, 18, won five individual medals. The achievement was not surprising to those who have been involved in her evolving karate career.

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World Briefs

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September 1, 2005 - Av 27, 5765

Terror reigns again after Gaza pullout

JERUSALEM (JTA) – After months of focusing on its withdrawal from the Gaza Strip, Israel returned to an all-too-familiar experience this week: Palestinian terrorism.

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From Gush Katif to tent cities with nowhere else to go

TEL AVIV – With the disengagement over and all the Gaza settlements razed, the evacuated settlers are now facing the daunting task of rebuilding their homes and lives elsewhere in Israel. This task is turning out to be an uphill struggle for some who say that although the state has offered them different temporary, or sometimes permanent, housing solutions in various places across of the country, it still refuses to heed their requests to continue living as integral communities.

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New Jewish senator named from Quebec

Yoine Goldstein, a former national chair of the United Israel Appeal Federations and a member of the elite UJA community, has been named the newest senator from the province of Quebec.

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Man draws anti-Jewish graffiti, waits for police

What would possess a vandal to draw swastikas and anti-Jewish slogans on a sidewalk in front of a synagogue and then sit on the curb waiting for the police to arrive?

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No more land concessions, minister demands

JERUSALEM – Israeli Health Minister Dan Naveh has called for a declaration by the Israeli government that there will be no further land concessions made by Israel after the withdrawal from Gaza and part of northern Samaria.

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Disengagement is over, government can fall

JERUSALEM (Arutz-7) – Knesset members from the opposition Meretz and Arab parties are now being joined by government coalition members in Labour, and even the Likud, in calls to bring the current government to an end.

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Mohammed Def: First Gaza, then Israel

JERUSALEM (Arutz-7) – Muhammad Def, Israel’s Number 1 wanted Palestinian terrorist for a decade, released a videocassette last Friday night, vowing to continue the terrorism against Israel that led to the withdrawal from Gaza. Def appeared exultant in the tape, threatening not only that his Hamas organization will not be disarmed, as Israel demands, but that terrorism will continue until Israel is erased.

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Word Briefs

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Ontario opens coffers to fight hate crimes, criminal extremism

An infusion of new funding will help make Ontario safer by expanding a network to support police units that target hate crime and extremism, Monte Kwinter, minister of Community Safety and Correctional Services, said at a press conference at Police Headquarters on College St.

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The amazing matriculation of Ariel Sharon

The three lives of Ariel Sharon have mutated through discrete changes. In the first phase, the hero of special forces Unit 101, the battle hardened commander of the Six Day War, the saviour warrior of the Yom Kippur débâcle, the bold leader of the 1982 invasion of Lebanon – maintained a steely grasp of matters military.

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Last chance for Abbas

When Mahmoud Abbas was elected PA President, Israeli officials believed he was someone they could work with, because he was prepared to accept Israel as a neighbour. Unfortunately, he squandered his first seven months as president, proving unable to maintain order in the increasingly lawless Palestinian Authority, and unwilling to fulfill his road map obligation to stop terror.

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The last Jewish commonwealth?

WASHINGTON – The world has noted – though it will not credit, and will soon forget – those deeply moving scenes of the Israeli evacuation of Gaza: the discipline and self-control of the Israeli army; the cohesion of a society torn over policy but determined to follow the dictates of democracy; and the deep, abiding attachment of Israelis to every inch of soil they have reclaimed from sand and swamp.

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How terrorism obstructs radical Islam

Do terrorist atrocities in the West, such as 9/11 and those in Bali, Madrid, Beslan, and London, help radical Islam achieve its goal of gaining power?

No, they are counterproductive. That’s because radical Islam has two distinct wings – one violent and illegal, the other lawful and political – and they exist in tension with each other. Not only has the lawful one proven itself more effective, but the violent approach gets in its way.

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Coordinator of B'nai Brith House appointed

MONTREAL – Wendy Rosenberg has been appointed coordinator of B’nai Brith House, a non-profit corporation whose primary goal is to provide housing and services to frail and elderly members of the Montreal community who are of low and moderate income.

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Sigmund (Siggy) Reiser committed to work, family, community

Sigmund Reiser was born in Poland and came to Canada after spending several years in refugee camps in Germany. Winnipeg was Siggy’s first home and London Life Insurance Company in Winnipeg his employer.

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EL AL second quarter profit up 427 per cent

EL AL Israel Airlines announced its largest second quarter profit in recent history on Monday. The carrier’s quarterly net profit was $29.9 million, a 427 per cent increase compared to $7 million for the same period last year (all figures in US dollars).

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Eclectic guitarist leads jazz, blues greats to El Mocambo

What springs to mind when you combine jazz, blues, rock ’n’ roll and Middle Eastern funk? Once Sept. 14 comes around, and Yosi Piamenta, an eclectic guitarist, plays the El Mocambo, along with numerous jazz and blues musicians such as Jerome Godboo and Prakash John the answer will be crystal clear.

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Bank Leumi bringing top Israeli films to Toronto

Bank Leumi, Israel’s leading financial institution, is bringing some of the latest and most outstanding Israeli films to Toronto. The festival will be held at the Cineplex Odeon Shepherd Grand on Sept. l8, 20 and 21.

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Bin Laden protégé nurtured in Niagara Peninsula

It is hard to believe that the bucolic setting of the Niagara Peninsula could nurture the murderous fantasies of a young, intelligent, good-looking Canadian Muslim.

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Toronto Jewish Folk Choir invites new members

The Toronto Jewish Folk Choir invites singers to join it for its 80th season.

The mixed choir (men and women) begins rehearsals for the milestone season on Wednesday, Sept. 14, 7.30 p.m. at the Winchevsky Centre, 585 Cranbrooke Avenue (just east of Bathurst, five blocks north of Lawrence). Interested new members are welcome to take part.

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Jewish communities thrive on Australia’s Gold Coast

ROBINA, QUEENSLAND, Australia – In what university is the head of the Jewish Students Association also the head of the Law Students Association?

At Bond University on the Gold Coast.

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Dunn’s deli is smokin’ (meat) again

MONTREAL – If Myer Dunn were alive today he would no doubt be very proud of how his grandson, Elliot Kligman, has revived and expanded the famous deli he founded nearly 80 years ago.

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50,000 books donated to Jewish early childhood programs

NEW YORK – The Union for Reform Judaism is donating a library of Jewish books to more than 280 Reform early childhood programs in the United States and Canada. Each school will receive more than 150 books.

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Choralairs seeking singers

The Choralairs of North York will start their new season on Tuesday Sept. 6 at 8.15 p.m., at the Earl Bales Park Community Centre, 4169 Bathurst St. (Bathurst, south of Sheppard) Room 2 – and they are looking for new members.

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Marty York returns to his sports media roots

One just knew that Marty York would not be absent for any great period of time, from the Toronto’s sports media scene. He returned to his original media roots in mid-August with a thrice weekly ‘York Report’ sports column in the Metro commuter tabloid newspaper.

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August 25, 2005 - Av 20, 5765

The disengagement took the 'Israeli' out of one evacuee

HOMESH, Northern West Bank – For the first time in many days, Almog Menny decides to switch the television set on and watches the live images streaming in from the Gaza Strip, where the settlement evacuation is well under way. The evacuation of the Neveh Dekalim synagogue is imminent. She sits back in a big black sofa and sighs. She knows that what today is broadcast on TV was expected to happen to her family Tuesday, Aug. 23 in her own home in Homesh.

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Competing Israel rallies in Montreal

MONTREAL – The debate over Israel’s disengagement policy sparked competing rallies last week in the predominantly Jewish Montreal suburb of Côte St. Luc At Pierre Elliott Trudeau Park, where hundreds gathered to express their outrage over the Gaza pullout.

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Palestinian attitude to disengagement disappointing, Israel’s UN Ambassador says

MONTREAL – There’s no reason for a pocket of 9,000 people, however hard-working and wonderful they are, to be surrounded by a million-and-a-half Palestinians, says Israel’s United Nations Ambassador Dan Gillerman.

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Elmasry’s latest outburst targets members of Jewish community

Mohamed Elmasry, national president of the Canadian Islamic Congress (CIC), has urged the Government to re-examine its selection of two Liberal appointees for their perceived pro-Israel views.

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Conspiracy web site headed by Ottawa professor sets dangerous example for students

B’nai Brith Canada reacted with concern after reviewing materials posted on the GlobalResearch.ca web site run by Michel Chossudovsky, a professor of economics at the University of Ottawa, which are rife with anti-Jewish conspiracy theories and Holocaust denial.

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Institute in Israel will try ‘to lift Jewish genealogy to new heights’

TORONTO (JTA) – A group of Jewish genealogists want to give the study of the Jewish past a brighter future.

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Gaza pullout the end, not the beginning

WASHINGTON – The Israeli abandonment of Gaza is a withdrawal of despair. Unlike the Oslo concessions of 1993, there is not even the pretense of getting anything in return from the Palestinians. Nonetheless, unilateralism is both correct and necessary. Israel has no peace partner – Mahmoud Abbas has nothing to offer and has offered nothing – and in the absence of a partner, there is only one logical policy: rationalize your defensive lines and prepare for a long wait.
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Tears will determine our future

As the Sabbath slowly drew to a close, Jews around the world prepared for the day of Tisha B’Av. Saturday night did not have its usual frivolity. Gone were the social gatherings, the movies and the get-togethers with friends for an evening of discussion and good times.
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Condemnations of Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings lacking in perspective

The first days of August this year were filled with media stories on the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945. The clear majority of these stories reflected highly moralistic interpretations of these events by concentrating on the personal disasters experienced by the survivors of those horrendous events.
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Common enemy in Iraq, Gaza Strip defeating US, Israel

It is the solemn obligation of a columnist to connect the dots. So let’s call one dot Iraq and another the Gaza Strip, and note that while they are far different in history and circumstance, they are both places where Western democracies – the United States and Israel – are being defeated by a common enemy, terrorism. What is happening in Gaza today will happen in Iraq tomorrow.
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BUDAPEST CEMETERY ‘Obvious hatred in a sacred place’

Hundreds of thousands of Jews are buried in the Kozma Street Jewish Cemetery in Budapest.

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First Nations delegation on mission of support, study

JERUSALEM – In these days of political tensions, ‘expect the unexpected’ goes almost without saying in Israel. But the sight of three First Nations chiefs dressed in their traditional costumes standing next to the orthodox mayor of Jerusalem still managed to spark excitement among people here.

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PLAY BALL I B’nai Brith takes 1,000 community kids to the ballpark

Kids. Summer. Baseball. The combination is so natural, that’s why B’nai Brith Canada has been sponsoring Blue Jay Day at the Rogers Centre (formerly Skydome) for the past 25 years.

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300 sacred books thrown in lake at summer camp

MONTREAL – A break-in at a synagogue near a camp for ultra-Orthodox Jews in Val Morin, about 60 kilometres northwest of Montreal, resulted in about 300 sacred books dumped into toilets and a nearby lake at the summer camp.

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Word Briefs

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SEEING IS BELIEVING! Blind Israeli golfer shoots 92 at Oakdale

Looking for all the world like the Israeli soldier he had been when an accidental chemical spray robbed him of his sight, Zohar Sharon stepped up to the tee at Toronto’s Oakdale Golf & Country Club, accompanied by his caddy, Shimshon Levy, and his seeing-eye dog, Dylan, to show the sighted golfers how it is done. He shot a 92 against his host, Jonathan Kirshblum, who shrugged and laughed off a request to reveal his own score.
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Zundel a ‘Holocaust survivor,’ says guest on Web TV show

“Ernst Zundel is a Holocaust survivor,” said a call-in guest on a two-hour, live video show on the Internet, last Thursday night. Of course, he was referring to the Allied bombing of Germany but that’s how twisted the message was on www.current issues.tv.
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The Naked Archeologist exposes Biblical history

He nearly lost a leg to an insect bite while on a film shoot in Sudan. Extremists and bullets threatened his life in the West Bank. But Simcha Jacobovici refuses to back down in the face of a good story.
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Correspondence provides window to immigrant life

A Thousand Threads is a useful historical document. Through the letters written by Tzvi Shapiro in the early 1920s, the reader is given some insight into the immigrant experience of that period.

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30-minute film packs a powerful anti-pullout punch

JERUSALEM – The reasons that Benjamin Netanyahu resigned as finance minister in the Sharon government are dramatically underscored in a half-hour Israeli-produced and Los Angeles-distributed DVD entitled A Stab in the Heart, which comprehensively and authoritatively states the case against the Gaza disengagement.
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Hamas gloats over Gaza withdrawal

JERUSALEM (JTA) – Hamas said the Gaza Strip withdrawal was the “beginning of the end” of Israel.
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August 18, 2005 - Av 13, 5765

Security forces and opponents brace for action during pullout

GAZA STRIP – A year and a half after Prime Minister Ariel Sharon first announced his plan, the disengagement was set in motion early Monday morning, with thousands of security forces deployed inside and around the Gaza Strip to carry out and secure the evacuation of the nearly 8,500 families living in the settlements.

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Won’t disarm after Gaza pullout, Hamas says

Hamas will not surrender its weapons to the Palestinian Authority in the Gaza Strip after Israel’s pullout from the territory, one of the movement’s top leaders has said.

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PA rejects discovery of King David's palace

JERUSALEM – Famed Israeli archaeologist Eilat Mazar of Jerusalem’s Hebrew University announced earlier this month the possible discovery of King David’s ancient palace in the Israeli capital, angering the Palestinian Arabs, who reject all Jewish historical claims to the city.

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250,000 / Mass prayer against expulsion fills Jerusalem’s Old City

JERUSALEM (Arutz-7-Israeli Sun) – More than a quarter million people attended a massive prayer rally at the Western Wall Aug. 10 to beg their Heavenly Father to have mercy and annul the expulsion decree.

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For developer, Eden Hills represents a David versus Goliath victory over Israel’s bureaucracy

JERUSALEM – Too late. Since you are reading this after Aug. 15, 2005 you’re too late to benefit from pre-construction prices at Eden Hills – or Harei Eden as the new Israeli town is known in Hebrew.

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Residents block soldiers’ entry

NEVEH DEKALIM, Gaza Strip – Thousands of soldiers are spread throughout Jewish Gaza this morning, trying to distribute expulsion orders to the several thousand residents who are to be expelled. The name of the mission: “Brotherly Hand.”

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Canadian activist refuses deportation

JERUSALEM – A Canadian-Israeli far-right activist who was last week placed under administrative arrest over fears he would carry out attacks in a bid to thwart the impending disengagement, refused an offer made by the Shin Bet security services to leave the country and return to Canada.

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Car passengers hurl antisemitic epithets, McMaster student charges

THORNHILL – Jacob Kocsis, a McMaster University student, claims that on Aug. 7, while driving north on Bayview Avenue, just north of Highway 7, the driver of a black car in front of him began an erratic series of braking, accelerating and side-to-side movements, culminating in pulling up on the right (passenger) side, beside Jacob’s car, motioning for him to lower his window and letting fly with a torrent of antisemitic vulgarities.

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A paralyzing syndrome

During these very charged and trying times for the Jewish people in Israel, the North American Jewish community is abnormally quiet.

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Reader has questions for Ayalon

I have the following questions for the Israel ambassador to the United States, Daniel Ayalon. who wrote Gaza, a test case for peace (Jewish Tribune. Aug 4, 2005).

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Jewish victims identified in London bombing

RE: British Jews On Alert (JTA), Jewish Tribune, July 14, 2005.

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A ‘terrorist’ by any other name would smell as sweet

I would like to help the CBC with their ongoing policy of refusing to use the word ‘terrorist’ out of respect for and preservation of the dignity of the minority mass murderer community (MMM). Toward this end, I suggest the following alternatives for the term ‘terrorist’:

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Why we, as Christians, wear Orange

JERUSALEM – I am a Gentile South African. My wife is a Gentile Czech. Our five children are Jerusalem-born, but because they are Gentile they are half South African, half Czech. We are a Christian family; living our lives according to the teachings of that great Jewish Rabbi, Jesus of Nazareth.

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Holocaust assets remain in Canada but nothing's been done to give them back

“The fact that the Swiss were reluctant to return the assets of Jewish Holocaust victims is well known. Much less known is that a similar problem also exists in regard to Canada,” says Dr. Yosi Katz of Bar-Ilan University.

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The last moments before disengagement: Between a rock and a hard place

SHIRAT HAYAM and NEVEH DEKALIM, Gaza Strip – The settlement of Shirat Hayam, situated on the Gush Katif coast, embodies the struggle against the impending disengagement. This tiny enclave had up till several months ago less than a dozen families living in caravans and tattered houses built by the Egyptians before 1967.

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Exhibit honouring righteous gentile diplomats launched in Montreal

MONTREAL – At a time when antisemitism in Canada is on the rise and ethnic tensions continue on university campuses, the Canadian Friends of Tel Aviv University (CFTAU) have launched a unique exhibit, which speaks to the very meaning of tolerance.

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Israeli invention takes oxygen out of water, enables diving without tank

Israeli inventor Alon Bodner has found a way to use the small amounts of air already in the water to provide oxygen to divers and even to submarines.

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Holy water network

JERUSALEM (JTA) – Archaeologists uncovered an ancient water system outside Jerusalem.

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Alleged Internet hate site still running, as operator gets more time to find lawyer

Tomasz Winnicki – who, out of his London, ON, home, allegedly operates a hate-filled Internet hate site targeting Jews and non-whites – succeeded on Aug. 9 in convincing a Canadian Human Rights tribunal to give him additional time to retain a lawyer, even though he’s already had more than a year to do so.

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Comic finds surprises in search for what makes a Jewish mom

MONTREAL – Throughout her career in stand-up comedy, Judy Gold has always incorporated into her act the relationship she has had with her mother. This has always gotten her a lot of laughs; however, it didn’t sit well with a reporter from the New York-based newspaper The Jewish Daily Forward.

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Cartoons fight hate with humour

The Fight Hate with Humour Project is the collaborative effort of Ed Margolis and his nephew, Noah Crissey. Ed is an attorney and freelance writer; Noah is an artist and illustrator.

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Magen David Adom donates ambulance to remote area serving 600,000 in Kenya

TEL AVIV – The Israeli Red Star of David (Magen David Adom) has donated an ambulance to the local Red Cross in the city of Kwale north of Mombasa in Kenya. This ambulance is the area’s first and will serve more than 600,000 people living in the district.

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Canadian Idol’s two Jewish judges make their mark

With an average of 2.2 million viewers per episode, CTV’s Canadian Idol remains one of the top-rated television programs in the country. Two of its most high-profile personalities just happen to be Jewish.

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Cyclist determined to overcome devastating crash

Don’t tell Leah Goldstein that cycling is merely a recreational sport. During a descent in the first stage of the July 11 ‘Cascade Classic’ in Bend, Oregon, Goldstein crashed and suffered traumatic injuries.

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Jews take field for Boston

NEW YORK (JTA) – Three Jewish baseball players took the field at the same time for the Boston Red Sox.

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Unusual collection of stories insightful

This most unusual collection of short stories is like none other that I have read. The themes vary: a married woman contemplating an affair, a lonely girl growing up with a non-caring stepmother, a depressed mother trying to fulfill her parental responsibilities, the impending death of a family member, and other heartbreaking situations.

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Messianic melee

NEW YORK (JTA) – A billboard calling the late Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson the messiah went up in Manhattan. Newsday reported Aug. 7 that the billboard’s sponsor, a group called Jewish Women United for the Messiah, believes that publicly acknowledging the deceased Chabad leader as the messiah will hasten the onset of the messianic era, according to a spokeswoman for the group, Basha Oka Botnick. Chabad officials repeatedly have distanced themselves from such messianic groups.

Fines in Michigan for fake kosher

WASHINGTON (JTA) – Health inspectors in a Michigan county may impose fines on food sellers who falsely claim food is kosher.

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August 11, 2005 - Av 6, 5765

Jewish community outraged by murderous attack against civilians in Israel

B’nai Brith Canada immediately condemned the vicious murder of four Israeli Arabs and the injuring of others by a Jewish gunman who opened fire inside a bus in northern Israel last Thursday killing four and wounding 12 others.

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Marchers stopped outside Ofakim, hundreds attempt Gaza entry

OFAKIM (Arutz-7) – More than 45,000 determined protesters remained at the Peduyim Junction on the outskirts of Ofakim all night last week after the march to Gush Katif was blocked by thousands of soldiers and police. Meanwhile, hundreds took to the fields and back roads, attempting to enter Gush Katif and northern Gaza’s Jewish communities in small groups.
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Disengagement rally fizzles

A widely publicized demonstration in support of the Disengagement Plan the last week of July failed to attract more than a few dozen participants. The campaign claimed to represent the majority of Israelis.
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Netanyahu quits, creates havoc

JERUSALEM (JTA) – Finance Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has thrown Israeli politics into disarray with an 11th-hour resignation in protest at the coming Gaza Strip withdrawal.
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Darfur rally rides to Ottawa

OTTAWA – About 150 people gathered on Parliament Hill Sunday for the Ride Against Genocide, a protest against the lack of attention to the death and destruction going on in the Darfur region of Sudan.
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Liberal PM appoints Conservative to Senate

New appointments to the Senate by Liberal Prime Minister Paul Martin include Conservative Party member Hugh Segal, who, as chief of staff during Brian Mulroney’s government, was one of the highest serving non-elected Jews up to that time in the Canadian government.
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Film at Jabotinsky Memorial event warns of grave dangers after pullout

“How long will it take before Qassam (rockets) reach Ashkelon, Ashdod, and even Tel Aviv?” should Israel pull out of Gaza, said former B’nai Brith Canada president, and now Canadian Coalition for Democracies Senior Vice President Rochelle Wilner.
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Today Gaza, tomorrow Jerusalem

Are Israel’s critics correct? Does the ‘occupation’ of the West Bank and Gaza cause the Palestinians’ antisemitism, their suicide factories, and their terrorism? And is it true these horrors will end only when Israeli civilians and troops leave the territories?
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Catholicism ‘not a friend of the Jews’

Rabbi Bretton-Granatoor states in the July 21st issue of the Jewish Tribune that “It’s clear that new pope is a friend of the Jews.” I disagree.
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MYTH:
“Israel has no right to be in the West Bank. Israeli settlements are illegal.”

FACT
Jews have lived in Judea and Samaria – the West Bank – since ancient times. The only time Jews have been prohibited from living in the territories in recent decades was during Jordan’s rule from 1948 to 1967.
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Gaza withdrawal shakes fundamental roots of Zionism

KEDUMIM, West Bank (JTA) – The Jewish people are in the grasp of a powerful catalyst called the disengagement plan, which envisions the unilateral withdrawal from Israel’s settlements in the Gaza Strip and parts of Samaria.
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With conflict raging, Israel is better off without Gaza

I watched Death in Gaza, a BBC documentary, and came away with the realization that the present situation is untenable.
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Vandals deface property, posters with antisemitic graffiti

The walls of two buildings in Montreal were defaced with vicious antisemitic graffiti by vandals during the evening of July 4. More recently UJA posters and an apartment door in the Greater Toronto Area, as well as driveways and buildings in Windsor have also been marred by graffiti.
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Aboriginal Mission to Israel aims to repudiate antisemitism of Ahenakew

B’nai Brith Canada will be accompanying a First Nations ‘Stand with Israel’ Mission Tour that departs from Winnipeg for Israel on Aug. 13.
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Where are all the Palestinian M-16 assault rifles?

WASHINGTON (Arutz-7) – US General William Ward cannot account for thousands of M-16 assault rifles, which Israel gave to the Palestinian Authority.
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CJS Receives Approval for First Master's Degree

The College of Judea & Samaria is pleased to announce that the school has received official approval from the Council of Higher Education (CHE) to begin registering students for a Master's degree in its Department of Social Work.
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Company helps to build Israel by focusing on ‘corporate aliyah’

NEW YORK (JTA) – Move over telecommuting and cross-country conference calls. Make way for corporate aliyah.
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Fast track security measures, Canada urged

While commending Great Britain and its Prime Minister Tony Blair for the security measures it intends to speedily implement to protect its citizens, B’nai Brith Canada questioned an announcement by Canadian ministers relating to a new round of consultations envisioned for this country.
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Ambassador makes first Toronto trip

Minister of Community Safety and Correctional Services Monte Kwinter and officials from the Ontario law enforcement community met new United States Ambassador to Canada David Wilkins late last month to discuss public security and policing issues and challenges facing leaders in the United States and Canada.
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International course on dealing with emergencies opens at Hebrew University

JERUSALEM – An international summer course for advanced training of people who have to deal with emergency situations resulting from natural or man-made disasters, including terror attacks, opened this week at the Rothberg International School at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
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Rabbi Irwin Witty, 73, guided BJE for 28 years

Rabbi Irwin Witty, former executive director of the Toronto Board of Jewish Education, passed away July 30 at the age of 73.
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Glatt Kosher Israeli steakhouse opens

The Jerusalem Two Restaurant, a Glatt Kosher Israeli steakhouse, has launched a new Israeli-Yemenite dining experience at 3030 Bathurst, demonstrating a unique fusion cuisine developed in Israel. The theme of the restaurant will be ‘Dine in Toronto but feel like you are in Jerusalem.’
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Support for plan among Jews at 39 per cent

Israeli polls make interesting reading. According to the latest polls, the Israeli public is only 48 per cent in favour of the disengagement plan, but only 39 per cent of Jewish Israelis favour disengagement.
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Allies didn’t understand German codes: report

The Allies failed to understand coded Nazi messages regarding the Holocaust, a US government report suggests. The report, Eavesdropping in Hell, said Britain intercepted messages beginning in 1941 that could have confirmed the scope of the Holocaust, The New York Times reported. But the report said that the Allies could have done little with the information to save some of the Jews killed in the Holocaust. – JTA

Graphology: it’s Kabbalistic, not voodoo

Good thing this article is typewritten. Otherwise, you may be able to tell that while I’m bright and dynamic I have too much male expansiveness in my personality, which makes me highly energetic and determined. I just want to charge into the world. Yet with such a turbo-charged system I may not know when to put on the brakes and truly unwind.
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NO SWEAT / Canadian women recruiting hockey players for Israeli women’s hockey

With the stifling heat and humidity that has characterized the summer of 2005, what better way to cool off than with ice – namely, ice hockey. Before too long there will be a new aspect to the burgeoning Israeli hockey program – namely the creation of a women’s national hockey team that will strive to match the achievements-to-date of the men and junior teams.
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Best Maccabiah Games for Canada

JERUSALEM – Canada wrapped up its most successful performance since the Maccabiah Games started in 1932 – but the focus wasn’t entirely on awards.
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Carver headlines benefit concert for downtown Jewish day school

One of Canada’s most famous musical theatre performers – and the star of the new Lord of the Rings musical opening soon in Toronto – Brent Carver, headlined a truly outstanding variety benefit concert in May for the Paul Penna Downtown Jewish Day School at the Miles Nadal Jewish Community Centre’s Al Green Theatre.
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August 4, 2005 - Tammuz 28, 5765

Escalating tensions as pullout nears

Leaders of the Yesha Settlements Council on Wednesday announced they were planning to stage a second mass march into the Gaza Strip in as many weeks to protest the disengagement plan, which is slated to start in mid-August.

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Canada condemns anti-Israel remarks of UN official it helped to elect

Jean Ziegler is at it again. Only this time, the United Nation’s "Special Rapporteur on the right to food" is not only outrageously bashing Israel – comparing its soldiers with Nazis – but he is actually getting some appropriate reactions from a few of his UN superiors. The Canadian Government has also condemned his remarks.

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Jewish community security focus of meeting with police chief

B’nai Brith officials met last week with newly installed Toronto Police Chief Bill Blair to welcome him to his new position and to discuss a range of issues involving Jewish community security and terrorism.

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Zionist hero’s bid for Jewish Agency thwarted

MONTREAL – Natan Sharansky’s unsuccessful eleventh hour decision to enter the race to become the chairman of the executives of the World Zionist Organization and the Jewish Agency for Israel has prompted a complete review of the nominating process.

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Jewish community security focus of meeting with police chief

B’nai Brith officials met last week with newly installed Toronto Police Chief Bill Blair to welcome him to his new position and to discuss a range of issues involving Jewish community security and terrorism.
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Imams denounce terror in English only

On the day of the second round of London bombings, Muslim Imams from across Canada issued a declaration at a downtown Toronto mosque denouncing terror and calling on Muslims to challenge and confront extremism.

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Preachers of hate under investigation

Following the urging of B’nai Brith Canada and other groups lobbying for greater protections against hate speech, a special RCMP counter-terrorism team has been assigned to investigate the writings and preaching of Younus Kathrada, a Vancouver Imam who has promoted violence, including holy war, against Jews and other non-Muslims.

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Gaza, a test case for peace

Next month thousands of Israelis will be uprooted from their homes in 25 settlements, against the backdrop of widespread political opposition and intensifying Palestinian terrorism. Israel faces difficult days ahead.

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Israel Update

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Letters

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The great pretense

The current situation of Israel and Israel-Palestinian negotiations can only be described as bizarre. But understanding future events requires accurately describing what exists now.

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Lebanon's new government faces the risk of losing all credibility

It is strongly believed that Lebanon's newly formed government has become from its day one in office a hostage to Hezbollah's fanaticism mentality, Islamization of Lebanon endeavors, terrorism inclinations, intimidation tactics, rejection of others beliefs, and a bold anti state doctrine.

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Conservatives pledge support for Israel

Firm support for Israel was a major promise by Conservative Party of Canada candidates who spoke at a Beth Tzedec Tory rally on July 19.

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The 2005 George Orwell’s ‘Newsspeak’ award goes to… the CBC

Let us affirm first of all that the CBC is not all bad.

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Montreal Jews slam disengagement

MONTREAL— Rabbi Asher Jacobson took a bold step in Montreal July 18. Concerned that representatives from mainstream organizations were not giving the Jewish community at large an opportunity to express their views on Israel’s disengagement policy, he called a public forum at his Chevra Kadisha B'nai Jacob - Beit Hazikaron Congregation (CKBJ).

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The facts on disengagement

On August 15 Israel will begin a controversial, unilateral disengagement from all of its 21 communities in the Gaza Strip, encompassing 380 square kilometers, as well as from four communities measuring 770 square kilometers in the northern Samaria.

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PA continues support of terror

While the world continues to praise the Palestinian Authority for its "fight" against terror, in Arabic the PA continues its unabated legitimization and glorification of terror targeting Israelis.

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Betrayal and loss: a West Bank resident’s personal account

HOMESH, West Bank – Assi Menny, 30, considers himself a modern-age pioneer living according to ideals epitomized by the early kibbutz movement.

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Keeping the Iraqi Jewish faith

Preserving the traditions of a legacy dating back 2,500 years isn’t easy. But members of Toronto’s Iraqi Jewish community have already made great strides.

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Special to the Tribune – an interview with the producer of Everybody Loves Raymond

MONTREAL – Nearly 20 years ago, Phil Rosenthal left his native New York for L.A. to become an actor. Instead, he ended up as an Emmy Award-winning television writer and producer.

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B'nai Brith soccer kicks off

B'nai Brith Canada's first ever soccer league began in June to the delight of Jewish enthusiasts of the sport.

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