NEW YORK (JTA) – Approximately two dozen students, alumni and staff gathered at the Reform movement’s rabbinical seminary in New York to honour those killed in the Iraq war. At last Monday’s memorial ceremony at the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, names were read of 5,708 Iraqi and coalition troops who have perished in the fighting, marked the third anniversary of the beginning of the war. “We hope that this day of remembrance will remind both supporters and opponents of the war that the obligation to honour the dead transcends ideology and political affiliation,” Rabbi Shirley Idelson, associate dean of the college, said during the service. “It is a solemn task that falls upon all the living.”
NEW YORK (JTA) – A Chabad-affiliated group became the second Jewish agency empowered to endorse US military chaplains. The Aleph Institute, a Miami-based non-profit that serves Jewish prisoners and members of the military, was designated this month by the Department of Defence as an endorsing agency empowered to recruit and approve Jewish military chaplains. The first endorsing agency is the Jewish Welfare Board’s Jewish Chaplains Council, an agency of the Jewish Community Centers Association, which has been approving military chaplains since 1917. Unlike the JWB, which endorses rabbis from all streams, the Aleph Institute will recruit and endorse Orthodox rabbis only. We will not be involved in endorsing Reform rabbis,” said Rabbi Sanford Dresin, a retired Army colonel and longtime military chaplain who is now Aleph’s director of military programs. There are currently 28 rabbis serving as active duty military chaplains – 15 Orthodox, nine Conservative and four Reform.
NEW YORK (JTA) – El Al is offering reduced airfare to Israel for the March 28 election. The $695 round-trip special from New York to Tel Aviv is aimed at Israeli citizens living overseas who wish to vote in the March 28 election. Hundreds have taken advantage of the deal so far, El Al representatives said. Passengers must depart March 26 or March 27 and return April 9 or April 10.
WASHINGTON (JTA) – The US Supreme Court declined to hear Jonathan Pollard’s petition for access to classified information used to convict him. A former US Navy analyst, Pollard is serving a life sentence in a US prison for spying for Israel. Last Monday, the high court rejected Pollard’s request for a hearing on a petition for his attorneys to receive access to the evidence to bolster Pollard’s argument for clemency. A hearing would not have affected Pollard’s conviction, but would have addressed whether federal courts may grant access to classified material for clemency, which is the purview of the executive branch.
WASHINGTON (JTA) – US President George W. Bush said the United States would use “all military might” to protect Israel. Bush fielded national security questions last Monday at Cleveland’s City Club. Asked about Iran’s nuclear threat, he said, “The threat from Iran is, of course, their stated objective to destroy our strong ally, Israel.” He added: “I’ve made it clear, and I’ll make it clear again, that we will use military might to protect our ally, Israel.”
NEW YORK (JTA) – A leading US Catholic bishop said Israel’s occupation is a factor in the persecution of Christians in Muslim lands. “The failure to secure a just solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, with its resulting occupation of Palestinian lands, sometimes spills over into prejudices and distrusts of indigenous Christians in Muslim nations,” said Bishop Thomas Wenski of Miami. Testifying last week in Congress, Wenski, chairman of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops’ committee on international policy, also cited globalization, the Iraq war and perceptions of anti-Muslim sentiment in the West as factors in the persecution of Christians.
NEW YORK (JTA) – More than 40 professors and staff members at the University of Michigan presented a letter supporting divestment from Israel. Submitted online and to university regents last Friday, the letter argued that the school’s financial involvements in Israel posed “serious moral or ethical questions.” During apartheid, university regents voted to divest stock of companies doing business with South Africa, and some Jewish observers worry they will do the same now with Israel-related stocks. Backers of divestment say the move will pressure Israel not to violate Palestinian human rights, but opponents say it ignores the reality that Israel is responding to Palestinian terrorist attacks.
NEW YORK (JTA) – Seven Torahs destroyed in Hurricane Katrina were buried in Louisiana. More than 200 people attended the March 19 ceremony near New Orleans. The Torahs belonged to Beth Israel, a 102-year-old congregation that was flooded during the August 2005 storm, the New Orleans Times-Picayune reported. According to Jewish law, Torahs that are damaged or destroyed must be buried.
MOSCOW (JTA) – Russian prosecutors urged a 16-year sentence for the man accused of stabbing several worshippers at a synagogue in Moscow. Alexander Koptsev is on trial for the January attack on Moscow’s Bolshaya Bronnaya Street Synagogue. He is charged with attempted murder and activities intended to humiliate a religious or ethnic group.
NEW YORK (JTA) – One of Israel’s chief rabbis called for an international organization of religions. Yona Metzger, Israel’s chief Ashkenazi rabbi, called for a “United Nations of religious groups” as the second World Congress of Imams and Rabbis for Peace opened in Seville, Spain, the BBC reported. Also speaking at the three-day meeting, Rabbi Israel Singer of the World Jewish Congress’ Policy Council rejected the idea that Jewish-Muslim tensions lie at the root of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. He added that “religious crusaders” like Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad “must be exposed for what they are: impostors.” Some 150 rabbis and imams are taking part in the conference.
NEW YORK (JTA) – A delegation from a US Jewish group met the pope. Interfaith efforts were a focus of the March 16 discussions between Benedict XVI and the American Jewish Committee delegation at the Vatican. Benedict has made interfaith dialogue a focus since he became pope in April 2005. In a related development, the AJCommittee will mark its 100th anniversary with gala events in Jerusalem, Berlin and Washington.
NEW YORK (JTA) – The pro-Israel lobby has turned America’s Middle East policy against US interests, according to a report by researchers at Harvard and the University of Chicago. The analysis, distributed March 16 by Palestinian officials in Washington, said groups like the American Israel Public Affairs Committee and other supporters of Israel have skewed US policy, Ha’aretz reported. The report, which used newspaper accounts and reports from the Israeli human rights group B’Tselem, also suggests supporters of Israel pushed the United States into war with Iraq.
NEW YORK (JTA) – The state of New York’s pension fund will invest $100 million in Israeli high-tech companies. New York’s state comptroller, Alan Hevesi, made the announcement recently during a visit to Israel. The investment will bring the state’s pension fund total investment in Israel to more than $1 billion.
OAKLAND, Calif. (JTA)– The Reform community in Bobruisk, Belarus, celebrated Purim last week with its first Scroll of Esther. The megillah, believed to be the first donated to a Reform congregation in Belarus, was sent by the Hendon Reform Synagogue in London and is for the use of the entire Belarus Progressive movement. Hendon is twinned with the Bobruisk congregation through Exodus 2000, which assists Progressive communities in the former Soviet Union. The British congregation plans to bring young people still suffering from the effects of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster to London next year.
PARIS (JTA) – A Jewish man was attacked in his car in the Parisian suburbs. The March 11 attack was carried out by three men of African and North African origin, according to the Office of Vigilance Against Antisemitism. The three forced the man to stop his car and forcibly removed him from the vehicle, allegedly calling him a Jew in Arabic. The man was thrown to the ground and beaten; his attackers fled when another car passed by. The victim managed to get his attackers’ license plate number and go to the police station to press charges. The three men were then located and arrested.
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