http://www.jstandard.com en-us http://www.jstandard.com N/A editor@jstandard.com Fri, 25 Jul 2008 13:34:44 MDT 20 http://www.jstandard.com/articles/4534/1/Hezbollah-swap-muddies-the-talks-to-free-Shalit Military police salute a convoy carrying the bodies of the soldiers returned to Israel in a prisoner exchange with Hezbollah on July 16. photo courtesy of GPO JERUSALEM - The long-awaited resolution to the Lebanese hostage crisis has cast a pall over efforts to retrieve the Israeli soldier held by Hamas in the Gaza Strip. Gilad Shalit was abducted to Gaza shortly before Hezbollah snatched Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev to Lebanon in the summer of 2006. Unlike the two army reservists, who suffered fatal wounds during their abduction and were repatriated for burial last week, Shalit is known to be alive. That, Israeli security sources say, has hindered Egyptian-mediated negotiations on Shalit's return. Having freed jailed Lebanese terrorist Samir Kuntar and four captive Hezbollah gunmen in exchange for two Israeli corpses, Israel is likely to face troubles bargaining down Hamas when it comes to a living hostage. Roy Eitan Fri, 25 Jul 2008 00:00:00 MDT http://www.jstandard.com/articles/4533/1/U.S.-presence-at-Iran-talks-lauded William Burns, U.S. undersecretary of state for political affairs, joined multilateral nuclear talks with Iran in Geneva on July 19. photo courtesy of U.S. Department of State ASHINGTON - For Jewish organizational leaders, last week's unusual U.S.-Iran encounter was a moment to put up or shut up. Jewish groups welcomed the attendance of the U.S. undersecretary of state for political affairs, William Burns, at multilateral nuclear talks in Geneva with Iran. If nothing else, the groups said, the talks clarified Iran's positions on its nuclear program. Ron Kampeas Fri, 25 Jul 2008 00:00:00 MDT http://www.jstandard.com/articles/4532/1/Another-bulldozer-rampage-in-Jerusalem JERUSALEM - Israeli police shot dead a bulldozer driver who rammed into cars and a bus in Jerusalem, injuring at least 16 people. In what appeared to be a copy of the July 2 road rampage on Jaffa Road, a bulldozer operator working in the Israeli capital's Yemin Moshe neighborhood began crushing cars without warning Tuesday. The bulldozer also crashed into a passenger bus. Jewish Telegraphic Agency Fri, 25 Jul 2008 00:00:00 MDT http://www.jstandard.com/articles/4531/1/Obama-sounds-hawkish-and-dovish-themes U.S. presidential candidate Barack Obama, right, meets with Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak in Israel on Wednesday. photo courtesy of MINISTRY OF DEFENSE/BPH Images DEROT, Israel - During his stops in Jordan and Israel, presidential contender Barack Obama stressed both his backing for tough Israeli security measures and his commitment to advancing the peace process. In meetings with several Israeli leaders Wednesday, Obama reaffirmed his commitment to Israel's struggle against terrorism and other violent threats, including Iran's suspected pursuit of nuclear weapons. Jewish Standard Staff Fri, 25 Jul 2008 00:00:00 MDT http://www.jstandard.com/articles/4512/1/Deals-at-Paris-summit%2C-but-nothing-major-on-Mideast-peace French President Nicolas Sarkozy, center, clasps the hands of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, left, and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert in Paris on Sunday. photo by Thaer Ganaim/PPO/BPH Images PARIS - While the French-initiated summit for the Union for the Mediterranean did not produce any major breakthroughs, French President Nicolas Sarkozy recognized one achievement: every Arab country but Libya sitting down with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert. "The fact that we were all in the same room is already a lot," Sarkozy said at a news conference Sunday in the French capital following the inaugural summit. Devorah Lauter Fri, 18 Jul 2008 00:00:00 MDT http://www.jstandard.com/articles/4511/1/Soldiers%92-families-get-closure%2C-but-no-joy JERUSALEM - Two black caskets, laid out by Hezbollah officials on the sun-drenched tarmac of a Lebanese border crossing, unceremoniously put to rest one of Israel's most wrenching hostage ordeals. The bodies of Israeli reservists Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev returned home for burial Wednesday, two years and four days after they were seized in the Hezbollah cross-border attack that triggered the 2006 Lebanon war. Roy Eitan Fri, 18 Jul 2008 00:00:00 MDT http://www.jstandard.com/articles/4510/1/UJC%2C-Jewish-Agency-press-Olmert-on-conversion-issue Israel Prime Minister Ehud Olmert speaks at the Jewish Agency for Israel's June 22 Board of Governors meeting, where members adopted a resolution "to act immediately to advance the conversion issue." photo by Daniel Cohen Diaspora Jews are stepping up pressure on Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert to intervene in a dispute in Israel over conversions to Judaism. Leaders of the United Jewish Communities federation umbrella organization sent a sharply worded letter to Olmert on July 9 urging him to assign his cabinet secretary "to oversee conversion." At issue in this case is a dispute over who can perform conversions and which conversions should be considered valid by Israeli religious authorities. Jacob Berkman Fri, 18 Jul 2008 00:00:00 MDT http://www.jstandard.com/articles/4509/1/Russian-Jewish-lawmakers-forge--common-cause Sergey Lagodinsky takes questions from a reporter at a summary meeting of the Parliamentary Club on July 11. photo by Grant Slater MOSCOW - There are no Russian-speaking members of the German parliament, but the miniature red, black, and gold flag was still perched on the edge of the conference table. All questions on Germany were directed to Sergey Lagodinsky, a de facto member of the Parliamentary Club of the World Congress of Russian Jewry. "I am as close as they get," Lagodinsky said. But if the club accomplishes its goal of adding to its ranks of Russian-speaking national lawmakers around the globe, that won't be the case for long. Grant Slater Fri, 18 Jul 2008 00:00:00 MDT http://www.jstandard.com/articles/4508/1/Seminaries-in-historic-partnership NEW YORK - The largest Conservative and Reform seminaries are partnering in a rabbinic training program that officials from both schools say is the first to provide joint instruction to future clergy from different movements. The program, funded by the Charles and Lynn Schusterman Family Foundation, will provide eight students from the Jewish Theological Seminary and Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion with funds for tuition and living stipends for two years while they receive professional skills training. Ben Harris Fri, 18 Jul 2008 00:00:00 MDT http://www.jstandard.com/articles/4507/1/Pelosi%2C-Itzik-talk-tough-on-Iran LOS ANGELES - Iran's nuclear ambitions are a security threat to the entire world, two of the top female politicians in the United States and Israel told more than 1,800 delegates in attendance at the opening session of the 94th annual Hadassah convention. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), the speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, and Knesset Speaker Dalia Itzik of the Kadima Party on Sunday joined in warning Western leaders not to underestimate the seriousness of the Iranian threat as they did Hitler in the years before World War II. Tom Tugend Fri, 18 Jul 2008 00:00:00 MDT http://www.jstandard.com/articles/4485/1/Jerusalem-attack-prompts-debate JERUSALEM - Last week's deadly bulldozer rampage in Jerusalem has prompted a furious public debate in Israel about what steps the government can and should take to protect Jerusalemites against Arab terrorists. The attack, in which a Palestinian from eastern Jerusalem used a bulldozer to kill three people and injure dozens on Jaffa Road, drew furious and sometimes confused responses from the Olmert government. Roy Eitan Fri, 11 Jul 2008 00:00:00 MDT http://www.jstandard.com/articles/4484/1/Agriprocessors-takes-aim-at-gov%92t%2C-gets-boost-as-group-drops-boycott NEW YORK - An Orthodox social justice group has dropped its boycott of the embattled kosher meat producer Agriprocessors, saying the company is "beginning to take significant steps" to address claims of worker mistreatment at its plant in Postville, Iowa. Uri L'Tzedek launched the action in mid-June to protest reports that Agriprocessors had employed underage workers, tolerated an atmosphere of sexual harassment, and paid workers below the minimum wage. In calling off the boycott, the New York-based group said it was encouraged by reforms instituted by a former federal prosecutor hired recently as the company's compliance officer. Ben Harris Fri, 11 Jul 2008 00:00:00 MDT http://www.jstandard.com/articles/4483/1/French-Jewry-to-Sarkozy%3A-Investigate-al-Dura-incident PARIS - The organized Jewish community in France is publicly calling on President Nicolas Sarkozy to launch an investigation into the controversial television broadcast of an alleged Israeli shooting of a 12-year-old Palestinian boy. Last week's call by CRIF, the umbrella Jewish organization, increased the pressure on the French government to intervene in the eight-year-old debate over the authenticity of the September 2000 video report by France 2 TV and its Jerusalem correspondent, Charles Enderlin. Devorah Lauter Fri, 11 Jul 2008 00:00:00 MDT http://www.jstandard.com/articles/4481/1/Disgraced-rabbi-fights-against-sexual-allegations A disgraced American rabbi with a tangled history of alleged sexual misdeeds is relaunching his career as a spiritual mentor and backtracking from an apparent confession he signed two years ago. Rabbi Mordechai Gafni acknowledged his "sickness" in 2006 after several students at his Israeli institute claimed they were lured into sexual liaisons through deception and psychological manipulation. For decades Gafni had been dogged by claims he engaged in improper sexual activities, including allegations that he molested two teenage girls. Ben Harris Fri, 11 Jul 2008 00:00:00 MDT http://www.jstandard.com/articles/4480/1/Destruction-of-Tajik-synagogue-leaves-community-in-limbo MOSCOW - Tajikistan's only synagogue has been reduced to a pile of rubble, leaving the small cluster of Bukharan Jews in the Central Asian nation in bureaucratic limbo. After four years of threats from officials and counter-proposals from the community, the city government of Dushanbe, the nation's capital, finished demolishing the one-story shul last month to make way for a new presidential palace and national park. Grant Slater Fri, 11 Jul 2008 00:00:00 MDT http://www.jstandard.com/articles/4482/1/Will-Mediterranean-union-advance-peace%3F French President Nicolas Sarkozy, left, being greeted in Israel on June 22 by President Shimon Peres, says he wants the Mediterranean union to include great focus on bridging gaps between Israel and its Arab neighbors. photo by Brian Hendler/JTA PARIS - Just days before his summit to launch the Union of the Mediterranean, French President Nicolas Sarkozy scored two key diplomatic victories for his initiative to bind some disparate nations around shared geopolitical, economic, and security goals. Sarkozy secured the participation of Algeria, which had expressed fears that the summit was a first step toward normalizing ties with Israel, and managed to schedule a one-on-one meeting between the leaders of Israel and the Palestinian Authority. Devorah Lauter Thu, 10 Jul 2008 00:00:00 MDT http://www.jstandard.com/articles/4461/1/Attack-leaves-at-least-3-dead Israeli police and rescue workers inspect a car crushed by the bulldozer used in an Arab attack on Wednesday in downtown Jerusalem. photo by Brian Hendler/JTA JERUSALEM - The deadly terrorist attack by an Arab bulldozer driver on a crowded street here Wednesday raised questions anew about how Israeli authorities can protect against attacks by lone assailants from eastern Jerusalem. At least three people were killed and dozens injured in the noontime attack on Jaffa Road. Husam Duwayat, a 30-year-old father of two from eastern Jerusalem, plowed through traffic on one of the busiest streets in the Israeli capital, overturning a commuter bus, crushing cars, and sending pedestrians in a mad rush for safety. "It was terrible, like nothing you could imagine," a bus passenger who gave her name as Bat-El told Israel Radio. Roy Eitan Fri, 04 Jul 2008 00:00:00 MDT http://www.jstandard.com/articles/4460/1/Olmert-survives-to-fight-another-day "Olmert knows how to authorize action and press ahead," says one senior Israeli security source of the prime minister's military leadership. photo by Moshe Milner / GPO / BPH IMAGES JERUSALEM - A year into his troubled term as prime minister, Ehud Olmert told a French newspaper he was "indestructible." That was in May 2007 - before a scathing report on Olmert's handling of the inconclusive 2006 war in Lebanon, a protracted face-off with Hamas in the Gaza Strip, the disclosure of his prostate cancer, and a corruption scandal that has rattled the prime minister's already restive coalition government. Still, Olmert remains in power, apparently set on proving he is one of Israel's great political survivors. Roy Eitan Fri, 04 Jul 2008 00:00:00 MDT http://www.jstandard.com/articles/4459/1/British-Jews-support-Israel-in-highly-visible-celebration Flag-waving celebrants at London's Salute to Israel fill Trafalgar Square on June 29 in an unprecedented display of support for the Jewish state. photo by Adrian Korsner Photography, Sound Images LONDON - With a pair of massive rallies for Israel held simultaneously in London's Trafalgar Square and Manchester's Heaton Park on Sunday, British Jewry may be signaling that its transformation is at hand. Some 30,000 participants attended the public shows of support for Israel, which were inspired by New York's annual Salute-to-Israel parade. Several thousand people waving Israeli and British flags marched from the Ritz Hotel to Trafalgar Square, followed by dozens of carnival floats, cyclists, dancers, and bands. At Trafalgar Square, an Israeli Cabinet minister, Britain's secretary of state for education, and Britain's chief rabbi all addressed the crowd. Israeli musicians performed between the speeches. Amiram Barkat Fri, 04 Jul 2008 00:00:00 MDT http://www.jstandard.com/articles/4458/1/Supreme-Court-rulings-strike-Jewish-groups-as-mixed-bag Jewish court watchers agree that this Supreme Court session was not as damaging as the last to issues that concern Jewish civil rights groups. photo by Supreme Court of the United States WASHINGTON - Perhaps the most noteworthy development for Jewish groups that watch the Supreme Court was not what it decided this session, but what it decided not to decide. In its 2007-08 session, which ended last week, the majority conservative court turned away a number of church-state cases where its decisions might have had a long-lasting impact in areas of traditional concern to Jews. "The less church-state cases the Supreme Court takes, the better off we are," said Jeff Sinensky, the counsel for the American Jewish Committee. Ron Kampeas Fri, 04 Jul 2008 00:00:00 MDT http://www.jstandard.com/articles/4456/1/Rabbi-serving-in-Iraq-keeps-chapter-open-at-Pa.-synagogue Rabbi Jon Cutler, left of Torah, with Jewish personnel in the chapel on his Iraqi base, says his faith has "grown stronger" as a chaplain in a war zone. Photo courtesy Rabbi Jon Cutler NEW YORK - Plenty of rabbis lead their congregation's book club, but Jon Cutler may be the only one who does so from a war zone. Cutler, the spiritual leader of Congregation Tiferes B'nai Israel in Warrington, Pa., for eight years, has been serving in Iraq since November as a U.S. Navy commander. The only Jewish Navy and Marine chaplain in Iraq, he is attempting to create a "viable Jewish community" at the five U.S. Navy bases in western Iraq with Shabbat services, learning programs, and even a beit midrash. Naomi Tarlow Fri, 04 Jul 2008 00:00:00 MDT http://www.jstandard.com/articles/4433/1/If-Israel-attacks-Iran%2C-what-would-the-U.S.-do%3F The presence of U.S. forces in Iraq, like these F-14B Tomcats, means that Israel would require a U.S. green light to fly in and attack Iran. photo by James Gordon/Creative Commons WASHINGTON - As the question of an Israeli attack on Iran edges from if toward when, a new question looms: What would the United States do? The question is preoccupying not just the White House but the Obama and McCain presidential campaigns, although neither would address the matter on the record. A number of neoconservatives in Washington, known for their closeness to the Israeli defense establishment, now predict that Israel may strike between the election in November and the inauguration of the next president on Jan. 21, if only because that's a time when Israel can count on U.S. support. Ron Kampeas Fri, 27 Jun 2008 00:00:00 MDT http://www.jstandard.com/articles/4432/1/Orthodox-leader-rankles-Argentine-Jews Guillermo Borger at his inaugural speech June 12 at the AMIA auditorium in Buenos Aires denied making a reference to "genuine Jews." photo by Florencia Arbiser BUENOS AIRES - Will the first Orthodox leader of Argentina's largest Jewish institution represent the entire community? Some Argentine Jews were pondering this question after Guillermo Borger, the new president of the 114-year-old Argentine Israeli Mutual Association, or AMIA, was quoted in a newspaper article referring to "genuine Jews." At his inaugural speech on June 12, Borger, the son of Holocaust survivors, denied making these statements, published five days earlier in the Clarin, Buenos Aires' leading daily. Florencia Arbiser Fri, 27 Jun 2008 00:00:00 MDT http://www.jstandard.com/articles/4431/1/Jewish-Agency-is-buoyed-by-Olmert%92s-ideas The Jewish Agency's board of governors at a finance committee meeting in Jerusalem on June 24 discuss repercussions of the weak U.S. dollar. Photo by Brian Hendler JERUSALEM - Comparing the challenge of overcoming his agency's financial woes with the ancient Israelites' struggle to enter the Promised Land, the chairman of the Jewish Agency's budget committee tried to sound an upbeat note. "We can do it," Shoel Silver told the agency's board of governors Tuesday. Nobody said it would be easy. The Jewish Agency is running a deficit this year of roughly $25 million and expects a budget shortfall of $45 million in 2009. Dina Kraft Fri, 27 Jun 2008 00:00:00 MDT http://www.jstandard.com/articles/4430/1/Agriprocessors-brings-homeless-from-Texas-to-keep-Iowa-plant-open NEW YORK - In an effort to restore lagging production at its Iowa plant, the country's largest kosher meat producer has been hiring workers from homeless shelters in Texas to replace employees detained in a massive federal immigration raid last month. According to a spokesman for the meat producer Agriprocessors, workers are recruited by a firm in Amarillo, Texas, and sent to Postville. In Iowa, they are processed by Jacobson Staffing, a Des Moines-based company that screens them for drugs and alcohol, and ensures they are legally permitted to work in the United States. Ben Harris Fri, 27 Jun 2008 00:00:00 MDT http://www.jstandard.com/articles/4419/1/Aliyah-diary%3A-Learning-to-talk-the-talk Chad is a Southern Baptist from Alabama. Fred is an evangelical Christian from Taiwan. Each has a distressingly difficult time wrapping his tongue around the Hebrew tongue, but both come faithfully each day to ulpan (intensive Hebrew class). Having been reading and writing Hebrew (if not speaking it) most of my life, I have a definite advantage over my poor classmates Chad and Fred. Still, our four-hour, five-day-a-week program is taxing even for me, given my conjugation-challenged brain. Abigail Klein Leichman Fri, 20 Jun 2008 00:00:00 MDT http://www.jstandard.com/articles/4414/1/One-year-after-takeover%2C-cease-fire-with-Hamas-appears-imminent U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice meets with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert at his residence in Jerusalem on June 15 during her sixth visit to Israel since the Annapolis conference in November. Matty Stern/BPH Images JERUSALEM - A six-month cease-fire between Israel and Hamas, due to go into effect Thursday, June 19, could help create conditions for wider peacemaking between Israel and the Palestinians. But there are two huge potential stumbling blocks: Israeli generals doubt whether the "tahadiyeh," or truce, will hold and believe the chances that Hamas and the more moderate Fatah, which controls the west bank, will work in tandem for a wider peace deal are remote. When Hamas violently took control of the Gaza Strip a year ago, Israeli and American leaders saw a window of opportunity for peacemaking with the relatively moderate Fatah leaders. The idea was that with Hamas out of the way, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas finally could negotiate the two-state deal Israel and the Palestinians have been trying to close ever since the signing of the 1993 Oslo Accords. Leslie Susser Fri, 20 Jun 2008 00:00:00 MDT http://www.jstandard.com/articles/4413/1/New-Presbyterian-statement-angers-Jewish-groups%2C-sparks-divestment-fears Just days before it is due to consider a range of motions on the Middle East at its biennial convention, the Presbyterian Church USA has released a document on combating anti-Jewish ideas. But Jewish organizational leaders say the statement is "infused with the very bias" it purports to condemn. The document, "Vigilance Against Anti-Jewish Bias in the Pursuit of Israeli-Palestinian Peace," aims to help Presbyterians advance existing church policies opposing Israel's occupation and the construction of the west bank separation barrier, while avoiding anti-Semitic and anti-Jewish rhetoric. Ben Harris Fri, 20 Jun 2008 00:00:00 MDT http://www.jstandard.com/articles/4412/1/A-Jewish-state-in-Weimar%3A-Fantasy%2C-provocation%2C-or-both%3F BERLIN - An Israeli artist is challenging boundaries - national, political, and artistic - with his project to create a Jewish state in the former East Germany. Ronen Eidelman wants to raise questions about national identity, anti-Semitism, and the complex relationship involving Germany, Jews, and Israel. Eidelman, who has been living in Germany the past year and a half, says his project reflects "the power of art to ask questions and put a mirror to society." "I want to blur the line between life and art," he says, "and I don't want to stay in the ghettos of galleries and museums" but go out into the streets. Toby Axelrod Fri, 20 Jun 2008 00:00:00 MDT http://www.jstandard.com/articles/4391/1/Israel-ponders-implications-of-Obama-presidency Barack Obama insisted that Jerusalem must remain Israel's undivided capital in his speech at the AIPAC forum on June 4. Courtesy Obama for America JERUSALEM - Although Israeli officialdom is not commenting on the possibility of a Barack Obama presidency, in private some officials in Jerusalem are expressing mixed feelings about the prospect. Some in government quarters are concerned that Obama, the presumptive Democratic nominee, might be soft on Iran, pressure Israel to make concessions on the Palestinian track, and even change the tenor of the strategic relationship between Israel and the United States. Yet Foreign Ministry experts on U.S. foreign policy say no American president, Obama included, would adopt an overtly anti-Israel posture. Leslie Susser Sun, 15 Jun 2008 00:00:00 MDT http://www.jstandard.com/articles/4390/1/Mofaz%92s-threats-against-Iran-seen-as-a-political-ploy Some say Shaul Mofaz, shown in 2003, was looking to show off his security savvy with his pronouncement on Iran. JERUSALEM - Israel's officials have long walked a rhetorical tightrope when it comes to Iran, balancing deterrence against diplomacy. Shaul Mofaz may have teetered a bit too far. The transport minister, a top rival to Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, predicted in a weekend newspaper interview that Israel would have to attack Iranian nuclear facilities if U.N. Security Council sanctions failed to curb Tehran's uranium enrichment projects. "If Iran presses ahead with its plan to develop nuclear weapons, we will attack it," Mofaz told Yediot Achronot. "The window of opportunity is closing. The sanctions are not effective. To stop the Iranian nuclear program, an attack is inevitable." Roy Eitan Sun, 15 Jun 2008 00:00:00 MDT http://www.jstandard.com/articles/4389/1/Weeks-after-raid-of-Agriprocessors%2C-kosher-meat-in-short-supply Rubashkin's butcher shop in Brooklyn was still well-stocked as of Tuesday, June 3, but elsewhere kosher meat was less plentiful. Ben Harris/JTA Jacqueline Lankry doesn't know how she's going to fill her orders. The owner of a kosher catering firm in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., Lankry orders a box of meat and poultry every week from Agriprocessors, which runs the nation's largest kosher slaughterhouse. But production there has slowed to a crawl since a federal immigration raid last month at its plant in Postville, Iowa. Lankry learned June 4 that this week's box isn't coming. "They told me they have no merchandise," she told JTA. "I'm closed for business today. I'm going from store to store looking for meat to fill my orders." Instead of buying wholesale chopped meat for $2.19 a pound, Lankry is dishing out $6.99 to buy it retail. That's going to hurt her bottom line in a big way, she says, but she's stuck. There are no other kosher meat suppliers in town - everything comes from Agriprocessors, which she and other caterers refer to as "Rubashkin's," after the family that owns it. Sue Fishkoff Sun, 15 Jun 2008 00:00:00 MDT http://www.jstandard.com/articles/4388/1/Falash-Mura-aliyah-to-end-in-July Advocates step up campaign Falash Mura gather at the synagogue of a Jewish aid compound in Gondar, Ethiopia. Ron Csillag/JTA With the final planeload of Ethiopian immigrants scheduled to land in Israel early next month, advocates of Falash Mura aliyah are hoping a last-ditch intervention by Israel's prime minister will extend immigration rights to thousands more. Former Israeli Supreme Court Justice Meir Shamgar held a closed-door meeting with Ehud Olmert in late May in a bid to convince the prime minister to order the immediate screening of an additional 8,500 to 8,700 Ethiopians for immigration eligibility. Also, a coalition of advocates is petitioning Israeli Knesset members, rallying American Jews, and filing lawsuits to force Israel to take in thousands more Ethiopian immigrants. Uriel Heilman Sun, 15 Jun 2008 00:00:00 MDT http://www.jstandard.com/articles/4387/1/Mistrial-declared-in-Seattle-rampage%3B-prosecutor-vows-to-retry-shooter Jurors deliberated on a verdict in the case of Naveed Haq, shown being led to the Seattle courtroom in April, before a mistrial was declared. Courtesy Seattle Times SEATTLE - A judge declared a mistrial last week in the case of the gunman who shot up the offices of this city's Jewish federation. The King County prosecutor vowed to retry Naveed Haq, 32, who claimed he was not guilty by reason of insanity. The jury said it could not agree on all but one of the 15 counts of murder and attempted murder against Haq, whose July 2006 shooting spree at the Jewish Federation of Greater Seattle left fund-raiser Pamela Waechter dead and five other women seriously injured. Jurors deliberated for eight days after a six-week trial that featured testimony from 32 prosecution witnesses and 16 for the defense. "Substantial justice cannot be done," Superior Court Judge Paris Kallas told a packed Seattle courtroom June 4. "There is no reasonable probability of the jury reaching an agreement. I declare a mistrial." Janis Siegel Sun, 15 Jun 2008 00:00:00 MDT http://www.jstandard.com/articles/4370/1/Obama%2C-Clinton-on-same-page-at-AIPAC-parley Barack Obama insisted, in his speech to AIPAC on Wednesday, that Jerusalem must remain Israel's undivided capital. Courtesy AIPAC WASHINGTON - After months of seeking to paint each other as opposites on Middle East policy, U.S. Sens. Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton were on the same page Wednesday at the AIPAC policy conference as they ripped into the Bush administration and John McCain on several fronts. In back-to-back speeches a day after Obama appeared to clinch the Democratic presidential nomination, the two senators eschewed any attempt to draw distinctions between themselves. Instead they opted to argue that the Bush administration's policies on Iran and Iraq have hurt American and Israeli interests. Ami Eden Fri, 06 Jun 2008 00:00:00 MDT http://www.jstandard.com/articles/4369/1/Beleaguered-Olmert-receives-tepid-response-to-AIPAC-remarks Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert stressed the nature of bipartisan U.S. support for Israel in his speech to an AIPAC forum on Tuesday. Courtesy AIPAC WASHINGTON - Dogged by political scandal at home, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert headed here this week in search of a friendly crowd at the annual AIPAC policy conference. (See page 34.) While his tough talk on Iran drew strong applause from the pro-Israel audience, his calls for peace talks with Syria and the Palestinians fell flat. Speaking to some 7,000 people Tuesday evening at the annual conference of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, Olmert was interrupted by applause several times as he delivered a hawkish message against the Islamic Republic. Uriel Heilman Fri, 06 Jun 2008 00:00:00 MDT http://www.jstandard.com/articles/4368/1/Signs-point-to-Olmert%92s-ouster Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, shown at the Knesset last month, is facing a probable ouster that is expected to end his political career. Brian Hendler/JTA JERUSALEM - The media and the political establishment in Israel already have decided: Prime Minister Ehud Olmert is through. The cover on Ma'ariv's weekend political magazine shows a framed portrait of a sad-looking Olmert on the wall of a government office with the caption "Ehud Olmert - Prime Minister 2006-2008." Now his Kadima Party is preparing for a new leadership contest and the country could be heading toward new elections. Leslie Susser Fri, 06 Jun 2008 00:00:00 MDT http://www.jstandard.com/articles/4366/1/Embattled-slaughterhouse-owner-charges-allegations-are-a-big-%91lie%92 Aaron Rubashkin, outside his Brooklyn butcher shop on Tuesday, says his Agriprocessors firm "don't do no injustice to nobody, not to a cat." Ben Harris NEW YORK - Aaron Rubashkin, the owner of the embattled kosher slaughterhouse Agriprocessors, denies he has engaged in unethical labor practices and blames the failure of U.S. immigration policy for his mostly illegal workforce. In the first substantive comments by an Agriprocessors representative since the government rounded up more than a third of its employees on immigration charges in a May 12 raid of its Iowa plant, Rubashkin flatly denied allegations of worker mistreatment and plant mismanagement. "Everything is a lie," Rubashkin told JTA. In a more than hourlong interview May 30 outside his Brooklyn butcher shop in the heavily Orthodox enclave of Borough Park, the 80-year-old Rubashkin was visibly angered by the flood of charges that have imperiled his business, the country's largest kosher slaughterhouse. Ben Harris Fri, 06 Jun 2008 00:00:00 MDT http://www.jstandard.com/articles/4365/1/%91Tommy%92-Lapid%2C-a-brash-political-and-media-figure%2C-dies-at-77 TEL AVIV - Yosef Lapid, among the most politically incorrect figures of Israeli politics, died of cancer Sunday. He was 77. Known to friends and foes alike as Tommy, a nickname from his native Yugoslavia, Lapid was a dominant figure among Israel's intelligentsia. As playwright, journalist, and commentator, he brought an old European brio to the nascent Jewish state. Memories of the Holocaust, in which his father died, gave Lapid a keen sense of the importance of Zionism. But though he came to Israel as a refugee immigrant, Lapid vociferously championed a secular Ashkenazi ideal, to the exclusion of many fellow citizens. Roy Eitan Fri, 06 Jun 2008 00:00:00 MDT http://www.jstandard.com/articles/4342/1/Israel-Syria-peace-deal-will-secure-regional-stability On May 21, the ground shook in the Middle East as two separate and significant conflicts suddenly and simultaneously headed in the right direction: toward peace. Warring Lebanese factions meeting in Doha, Qatar, reached an agreement after 18 months of great tension, and Israel and Syria announced the relaunching of formal peace talks following eight years of near silence. Many in the Middle East celebrated the news even as others looked on with cynicism and distrust. The following morning, new Israeli polls showed a clear majority of Israelis opposed to an Israeli withdrawal from the Golan Heights, even in return for peace. But there is room for optimism. Shai Ben-Zvi and Alon Liel Fri, 30 May 2008 00:00:00 MDT http://www.jstandard.com/articles/4341/1/Ceding-the-Golan-to-Syria-would-be-strategic-blunder A Palestinian stands near a signpost demarcating the old Syria-Israel border near Lake Kinneret, which stood until June 5, 1967.Photo by Brian Hendler Israel and Syria reopened their diplomatic dialogue this month after a hiatus of eight years. However encouraging this seems in the violence-plagued Middle East, the notion that Israel would have to give Syria the Golan Heights in exchange for a pledge of peace is extremely troubling. Israel captured the Golan in the 1967 Six Day War following nearly 20 years in which Syrian forces positioned on the strategic plateau pounded Israel's farms and towns below with artillery attacks. Despite advances in military technology, the Golan Heights remains a vital strategic asset for Israel's defense that Israel cannot afford to cede. Dore Gold Fri, 30 May 2008 00:00:00 MDT http://www.jstandard.com/articles/4339/1/Hagee-bows-out-of-%9208-race%2C-but-vows-to-fight-on-for-Israel The Rev. John Hagee on a YouTube video suggested that the Holocaust was a punishment for the Jewish rejection of Zionism. Courtesy Christians United For Israel Controversy may have driven the Rev. John Hagee from an active role in the presidential race, but the high-profile pastor is vowing to push forward with his pro-Israel activism. Hagee came under fire after a video surfaced of a sermon in which he suggested that Adolf Hitler was acting out a divine plan to drive the Jews back to Israel and the Holocaust was punishment for the Jewish rejection of Zionism. Ben Harris Fri, 30 May 2008 00:00:00 MDT http://www.jstandard.com/articles/4338/1/Vindication-for-French-watchdog-in-reversal-of-al-Dura-video-ruling PARIS - Ever since Mohammed al-Dura was shot and killed at Gaza's Netzarim Junction on Sept. 30, 2000 amid Israeli-Palestinian fighting, claims that the boy's death was staged for prime-time TV have struggled for credence outside the Jewish world. One French media watchdog who was especially strident in making this claim, Philippe Karsenty, paid a heavy price for his advocacy: He was sued for libel by the TV station that shot the al-Dura footage, France 2 TV, and slapped with fines totaling nearly $7,000. The 2006 ruling found Karsenty guilty of libel for claiming France 2 TV's report was "pure fiction." Devorah Lauter Fri, 30 May 2008 00:00:00 MDT http://www.jstandard.com/articles/4315/1/Bush-trip-fails-to-advance-policy-goals-or-bolster-Arab-moderates President Bush gestures at Israeli President Shimon Peres' "Facing Tomorrow" conference in Jerusalem on May 14. Brian Hendler JERUSALEM - After major speeches in the Knesset and at Sharm el-Sheik, President Bush left the Middle East Sunday with little to show for advancing America's strategic goals in the region. Israeli and Arab pundits alike pointed to a large gap between America's words and deeds, which they say is exacerbating a growing U.S. credibility problem. During Bush's visit, which was timed for Israel's 60th anniversary celebrations, the president failed to strengthen or reassure the moderate Arab alliance against Iran, made little headway on Israeli-Palestinian peace, and failed to offer an American plan for countering Iran's growing influence in Lebanon. Leslie Susser Fri, 23 May 2008 00:00:00 MDT http://www.jstandard.com/articles/4314/1/Syria%2C-Israel-announce-peace-talks JERUSALEM - In a surprise move, the governments of Israel and Syria announced that they are resuming peace talks - prompting a tepid endorsement from the United States. In statements Wednesday issued simultaneously from Jerusalem and Damascus, the longtime Mideast adversaries announced that representatives of the two governments have been meeting this week in Ankara to discuss restarting peace talks under Turkish auspices. Jewish Standard Staff Fri, 23 May 2008 00:00:00 MDT http://www.jstandard.com/articles/4313/1/Jewish-residents-not-surprised-by-jihadis-in-their-neighborhood PARIS - When Jewish residents of a northeast district here learned that some of their neighbors had gone to fight a holy war in Iraq, sometimes dying there in suicide attacks, they reacted with cool nods and hopeless shrugs. After last week's sentencing in France of seven jihadis, Jewish shoppers at the crowded pastry and vegetable market lining the Ourcq Canal said Jews here don't have much of a relationship with their Muslim neighbors. "We live together, but we mix less," said Michel Mergui, 45. Devorah Lauter Fri, 23 May 2008 00:00:00 MDT http://www.jstandard.com/articles/4312/1/JDC-official-offers-firsthand-account-of-Myanmar-devastation Devastation in Myanmar, May 2008. Photo courtesy of JDC NEW YORK - Amos Avgar won't talk about the signs of death he saw in Myanmar in the days immediately following Cyclone Nargis. "The death is apparent," the bespectacled and graying Avgar told JTA in the offices of the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee last week, a couple of days after returning from a weeklong fact-finding mission to the country. "There is evidence of bodies, but I am not going to talk about it." Avgar, the executive director of the JDC's nonsectarian arm, the International Development Program, was one of the first aid workers employed by an American nongovernmental organization to be allowed into Myanmar after the cyclone wreaked its hell May 3. Tens of thousands have died and 1.5 million Burmese are without food and shelter. Jacob Berkman Fri, 23 May 2008 00:00:00 MDT http://www.jstandard.com/articles/4311/1/As-Democrats-hobnob%2C-fears-voiced-over-Obama-and-the-Jewish-vote Trudy Mason, a New York state committeewoman, says an Obama-Clinton ticket would alienate many Clinton supporters. Photo by Ami Eden NEW YORK - It's become as much a campaign-season staple as Iowa and New Hampshire: Each election cycle Republicans predict a major shift in the Jewish vote and Democrats end winning upwards of 75 percent at the ballot box. This year, however, something is different. Many Jewish Democrats - at least in the heart of Hillaryland - are worried as it becomes increasingly likely that U.S. Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) will be the party's presidential candidate in November. The anxious mood was easy to detect Sunday night at the annual dinner of the New York chapter of the National Jewish Democratic Council, especially during a speech by one of the night's five honorees, U.S. Rep. Eliot Engel (D-N.Y.). Ami Eden Fri, 23 May 2008 00:00:00 MDT http://www.jstandard.com/articles/4310/1/Educators-learn-ways-to-welcome-GLBT-Jews-into-the-community GLBT professionals and lay leaders from across the country staffed the Keshet conference in Atlanta May 18-20. Photo by Tobi Ames ATLANTA - Let's say you get a memo at the Jewish organization you work for, instructing you to leave home any part of your identity that doesn't conform to Jewish tradition. Sure, there's room for interpretation. But let's just say you're gay. Or lesbian. Or transsexual. And you're pretty sure you get the subtext. Then what? This was one of the many scenarios posed to 35 Jewish educators in Atlanta this week at the first Hineini Education Project National Training Institute. The institute is a program of Keshet, a Boston-based group that advocates for the inclusion of gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender Jews within the community. So what were the answers? Rachel Pomerance Fri, 23 May 2008 00:00:00 MDT http://www.jstandard.com/articles/4309/1/Foundation-pledges-%243-million-to-let-Jewish-innovators-do-their-thing Arthur Fried, chairman of the Avi Chai Foundation, announces $1.15 million in grants at its New York office on May 12, 2008 to develop Jewish leaders. photo by Jacob Berkman NEW YORK - The philanthropic trend toward investing in people rather than projects is getting a boost from one of America's largest Jewish foundations. The Avi Chai Foundation, which has nearly $700 million in assets, according to its last available tax filing, awarded $1.15 million last week to six Jewish social entrepreneurs whom the foundation sees as emerging Jewish leaders. Foundations typically fund specific programs and tend to keep a fairly close eye on how their money is used. But Avi Chai gave four individuals and one team of two $75,000 per year over the next three years simply to create. Jacob Berkman Fri, 23 May 2008 00:00:00 MDT http://www.jstandard.com/articles/4308/1/Raid-spurs-threat-of-boycotts%2C-fear-of-shortages Grocers fear a shortage of kosher meat as a result of the raid on Agriprocessors last week that sharply cut the plant's production. photo by Aaron Wenner/Creative Commons SAN FRANCISCO - As federal hearings began this week involving hundreds of employees netted in a government raid on the nation's largest kosher slaughterhouse, some rabbis and consumers adopted a "wait-and-see" attitude before making any judgments - about the company's practices or the impact of the arrests on the kosher market. But for those already concerned about earlier allegations of animal cruelty and worker mistreatment at the Agriprocessors plant in Postville, Iowa, the latest legal turmoil is providing fresh ammunition for tough action against the company, including a potential boycott. Sue Fishkoff Fri, 23 May 2008 00:00:00 MDT http://www.jstandard.com/articles/4307/1/Kosher-plant%2C-Iowa-residents-cope-with-fallout-from-raid WATERLOO, Iowa - In a makeshift courthouse at a cattle exhibition center here, Angela Noemi Lastor-Gomez appeared before a federal magistrate judge on charges that she had used false documents to gain employment at the nearby Agriprocessors meatpacking plant, the nation's largest kosher slaughterhouse. The smell of stale cigarette smoke hung in the air as Lastor-Gomez, shackled at the hands and waist, the laces removed from her white sneakers, entered a guilty plea Monday before Judge Jon Stewart Scoles. Ben Harris Fri, 23 May 2008 00:00:00 MDT http://www.jstandard.com/articles/4283/1/Bush-facing-repudiation-of-Mideast-policies President Bush, center, is greeted on his January 2008 visit to Israel by Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, right, and President Shimon Peres. WASHINGTON - President Bush is about to preside over a series of events that mark the unraveling of the core principles of his Middle East peace policy. His trip this week to the Middle East - what was to have been Bush's triumphal coronation as Israel's best friend ever in the White House - is becoming, at least in policy terms, a repudiation of his three nos: no to negotiating with terrorists, no to negotiating with their state sponsors, and no to getting ahead of the Israelis and Palestinians in peace talks. Egypt is negotiating with Hamas at Israel's behest, Israel is itching to negotiate with Syria, and U.S. allies in the Middle East are pressing for Bush to impose a solution to breaking through the current Israeli-Palestinian impasse. Ron Kampeas Fri, 16 May 2008 00:00:00 MDT http://www.jstandard.com/articles/4282/1/At-pre-conference-summit%2C-Jewish-leaders-talk-about-action Benjamin Netanyahu, left, speaks with Dennis Ross and Malcolm Honlein at the Facing Tomorrow conference in Jerusalem on Tuesday. Brian Hendler/JTA JERUSALEM - Some of the Jewish world's top minds gathered in Jerusalem conference rooms this week to map coherent strategies for the challenges facing the Jewish people. From confronting radical Islam to keeping young Jews in the fold, the academics, former diplomats, and communal leaders talked strategy on the eve of Israeli President Shimon Peres' Facing Tomorrow conference. The conference and preliminary discussions Tuesday were organized by the Jewish People Policy Planning Institute, a Jerusalem-based think tank. The event is drawing global leaders such as President Bush. Dina Kraft Fri, 16 May 2008 00:00:00 MDT http://www.jstandard.com/articles/4281/1/Olmert-fights-for-survival-amid-political%2C-legal%2C-and-PR-troubles Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert denies that he accepted bribes from American businessman Morris Talansky in a statement May 8 at his house in Jerusalem. BPH Images   JERUSALEM - Ehud Olmert is fighting for his political life on three fronts: legal, political, and in the court of public opinion. The multi-pronged battle follows allegations that the prime minister may have violated campaign regulations or taken bribes as mayor of Jerusalem or minister of trade, industry, and labor. Olmert is said to have received hundreds of thousands of dollars - ostensibly as political campaign donations - between 1993 and 2006. The money allegedly came through Morris Talansky, an American fund-raiser, who handed over most of it in cash. Leslie Susser Fri, 16 May 2008 00:00:00 MDT http://www.jstandard.com/articles/4280/1/In-shift-toward-general-election-mode%2C-Obama-and-McCain-clash-over-Israel Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama, right, joins U.S. Ambassador to Israel Sallai Meridor at a gathering at the Israeli embassy in Washington in honor of Israel's 60th anniversary. Photo by Shmulik Almany The Democratic race may have a few more weeks left, but Sens. Barack Obama and John McCain are already waging a bruising battle for Jewish support in the general election. In recent days, the McCain team has stepped up its efforts to link Obama to Hamas, with several surrogates also misrepresenting the Democratic candidate's comments to make it seem as if he had criticized Israel in harsh terms. Ami Eden Fri, 16 May 2008 00:00:00 MDT http://www.jstandard.com/articles/4279/1/Missing-Israelis-found-in-China BEIJING - Two Israeli exchange students who were missing in the aftermath of a devastating earthquake in China were found injured but alive. (See related story, page 34.) An Israeli search team located the two women Wednesday in western China, where they had been hiking. Ma'ayan Segev and Anat Bilu, both in their 20s, were slightly hurt when they were found at the Longxi-Hongkou National Nature Reserve in Sichuan province. Three to five more Israelis also have been reported missing. ALISON KLAYMAN Fri, 16 May 2008 00:00:00 MDT http://www.jstandard.com/articles/4278/1/Burmese-Jew-going-home-as-Jewish-groups-mount-aid-effort The roof of Yangon's Musmeah Yeshua Synagogue suffered damage in the cyclone that ravaged Myanmar on May 3. Courtesy Sammy Samuels NEW YORK - The Starbucks on 50th Street and Second Avenue in Manhattan is a world away from the gruesome mayhem that is the aftermath of the cyclone that hit Myanmar last week. But as Sammy Samuels sips on a $4 coffee, his thoughts are with his home and family in the ravaged country's capital. His is one of only eight Jewish families in Yangon. Samuels is heading there this week to deliver suitcases of water purification tablets and medicine. When he arrives, the fourth-generation Burmese will become one of the few Westerners to bring aid into Myanmar, where an estimated 1.5 million people have been devastated by the cyclone that ripped through the country May 3. Jacob Berkman Fri, 16 May 2008 00:00:00 MDT http://www.jstandard.com/articles/4255/1/Rice-pushes-Mideast-peace%2C-but-has-little-to-show-for-effort WASHINGTON - Condoleezza Rice keeps talking about building peace and a Palestinian state in the Middle East, but she's still short on the building materials. The U.S. secretary of state's most recent foray into Middle East shuttle diplomacy produced many of the same pledges of progress and warnings of what its absence would bring - but few tangible results. Rice was preparing the ground for President Bush's visit to the region next week. Concerned with his Middle East legacy, Bush is eager for success on the Israeli-Palestinian front, particularly given the situation in Iraq. Ron Kampeas Fri, 09 May 2008 00:00:00 MDT http://www.jstandard.com/articles/4254/1/U.S.-rabbi-tied-to-Olmert-probe Scandal highlights perilous ties to U.S. Jewish money NEW YORK - The alleged involvement of a pulpit rabbi turned businessman in a financial scandal that could fell Israel's prime minister underscores the potentially perilous relationship Israeli politicians have with wealthy American Jewish supporters. During his days as mayor of Jerusalem, Ehud Olmert was well known for his ability to raise funds from Americans and other non-Israeli Jews. Israeli authorities long have explored whether Olmert, now Israel's prime minister, crossed the line of legality in the process, but they apparently did not have a material witness to wrongdoing until a few days ago. Jacob Berkman Fri, 09 May 2008 00:00:00 MDT http://www.jstandard.com/articles/4253/1/Probe-of-Olmert-could-derail-peace-process Prime Minister Ehud Olmert appeared to be making progress on several fronts in the peace process before the start of his corruption probe. Ariel Jerozolimski / BPH Images JERUSALEM - The corruption investigation of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, which is threatening to bring down the Israeli government, may have far-reaching consequences for Middle East peacemaking. The contours of the probe against Olmert are still unclear. After questioning Olmert and his longtime former bureau chief, Shula Zaken, multiple times, police requested court permission to take testimony under oath from a foreign citizen currently visiting Israel. A strict gag order prevented the disclosure of the allegations against the prime minister or the foreigner's identity, but the New York Post identified him as Morris Talansky, an American businessman from Long Island, N.Y. Leslie Susser Fri, 09 May 2008 00:00:00 MDT http://www.jstandard.com/articles/4252/1/Israeli-court-revokes-15-year-old-conversion%2C-sparking-uproar TEL AVIV - A recent rabbinic court ruling in Israel is prompting thousands of converts in the country to worry if their conversions to Judaism are at risk of being revoked. The ruling in the city of Ashdod retroactively annulled the conversion of a woman conducted 15 years ago after she acknowledged that she is not religiously observant today. Dina Kraft Fri, 09 May 2008 00:00:00 MDT http://www.jstandard.com/articles/4218/1/What%92s-behind-Kadish-arrest%3F-For-now%2C-only-speculation Ben-Ami Kadish, who allegedly spied for Israel, leaves the federal courthouse in Manhattan on April 22 after being freed on $300,000 bond. Ben Harris/JTA WASHINGTON - Is it connected to the classified-information case against two former AIPAC staffers? A bid to pressure Israel to concede more to the Palestinians ahead of a new round of peace talks? Connected to the murky circumstances of Israel's mysterious airstrike in Syria last September? For now, the main question surrounding the case of Ben-Ami Kadish, the octogenarian New Jersey man arrested last week for allegedly sharing classified information with Israel decades ago, is: Why now? The charges against Kadish are serious. He is accused of having shared with his Israeli handler U.S. nuclear secrets, plans for combat aircraft improvements, and missile defense information. Ron Kampeas Fri, 02 May 2008 00:00:00 MDT http://www.jstandard.com/articles/4217/1/Syria-and-Israel-appear-closer-to-deal A Syrian tank sits abandoned on the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, a key point in any negotiations between Israel and Syria. Robert Wallace/Creative Commons JERUSALEM - After several false starts over the past few years, Israel and Syria finally seem serious about peace negotiations. What's changed? Leslie Susser Fri, 02 May 2008 00:00:00 MDT http://www.jstandard.com/articles/4216/1/Muslim-states-easier-on-Israel-at-Durban-II-prep GENEVA - On a morning that began with charges that an Israeli shelling in Gaza had killed four Palestinian children and their mother - typically the kind of event that unleashes a torrent of anti-Israel condemnation at the United Nations - Arab and Muslim diplomats in this Swiss city remained focused on keeping the 2009 U.N. World Conference Against Racism on track. The Palestinian delegate, speaking Monday on behalf of Arab member-states during a two-week "preparation conference," skipped the opportunity to spotlight the plight of his people, instead urging the anti-racism forum to rid humanity of "this scourge in many parts of the world." Even Iran, which often singles out Israel for vitriol and created the biggest stir by blocking a Canadian pro-Israel advocacy group from attending the conference, seemed rather subdued. Michael J. Jordan Fri, 02 May 2008 00:00:00 MDT http://www.jstandard.com/articles/4215/1/Wright%92s-comments-still-unsettling-for-many-Jews Rev. Jeremiah Wright Jr. gives the keynote address at the 2008 NAACP Freedom Fund dinner in Detroit, Mich., April 27. REUTERS/Rebecca Cook WASHINGTON - In a series of speeches otherwise notable for their defiant tone against his real and perceived enemies, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright Jr. sounded some conciliatory notes toward Jews, casting them as fellow strugglers against inequity and for peace. But an outburst in a question-and-answer session and an analysis of what lies behind his remarks reveal that the Jewish community may still have reason to be less than comfortable with the former pastor to U.S. Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.). Wright launched a media blitz this week just as Obama entered the final stretch of his bid to become the Democratic nominee for president.   Ron Kampeas Fri, 02 May 2008 00:00:00 MDT http://www.jstandard.com/articles/4208/1/Carter-sounds-upbeat-note%2C-but-players-see-no-progress JERUSALEM - Jimmy Carter is sounding a positive note about his meetings with Israel's enemies, but few of the major players in the region seem to share the view that the former U.S. president achieved any significant progress. Though boycotted by both the Israeli and U.S. governments, Carter was upbeat Monday when addressing a packed Jerusalem audience about the results of his private shuttle talks with Hamas and Syrian leaders. Roy Eitan Fri, 25 Apr 2008 00:00:00 MDT http://www.jstandard.com/articles/4191/1/Peres-finishes-Torah-in-Warsaw Shimon Peres, at Warsaw's Chabad center, inscribed the final letters of a new Torah scroll. Photo courtesy of Lubavitch.com PRAGUE - Shimon Peres inscribed the final letters of a new Torah scroll used by the Chabad Jewish community center in Warsaw. The Israeli president took part in the ceremony Thursday at the presidential palace in Warsaw as part of the commemorations for the 65th anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto uprising against the Nazis. "The Nazis violated the Jewish people in body, but they could not touch the life and soul of our people: the Torah," Peres said. Rabbi Sholom Stambler, the Chabad representative to Poland and head of Warsaw's Chabad center, blessed Peres at the palace. Afterward, the Israeli leader carried the Torah scroll out of the palace and through the courtyard while under the chuppah canopy in a traditional procession of dancing and singing. The Torah was then installed in Warsaw's Chabad center. Jewish Standard Staff Fri, 25 Apr 2008 00:00:00 MDT http://www.jstandard.com/articles/4190/1/Clinton-takes-Jewish-vote-in-key-victory Presidential hopeful Hillary Rodham Clinton made a surprise appearance at a musical salute to Israel's 60th anniversary on April 17 at the Kimmel Center in Philadelphia. Her brief appearance came five days before the key Democratic primary in Pennsylvania. Scott Weiner Fxit polls showed Hillary Clinton taking the Jewish vote in winning Tuesday's Democratic primary in Pennsylvania. Clinton, a U.S. senator from New York, defeated U.S. Barack Obama (D-Ill.), winning 55 percent of the vote to his 45 percent. Exit polling found that Jews composed 7 percent of the electorate, and went 57 percent to 43 percent for Clinton. Her margin was much wider among whites overall, winning 62 percent to 38 percent. In particular, Clinton's performance among white Catholics was particularly strong, winning 71 percent to 29 percent. Jewish Standard Staff Fri, 25 Apr 2008 00:00:00 MDT http://www.jstandard.com/articles/4189/1/N.J.-man-accused-of-spying-for-Israel-raises-ghost-of-Pollard Ben-Ami Kadish has been charged with spying for Israel. New Jersey Jewish News The arrest this week of a retired Jewish man in New Jersey on charges of transmitting classified information to Israel two decades ago shows how the Jonathan Pollard spy case continues to haunt the U.S.-Israel relationship. Ben-Ami Kadish, a former U.S. Army engineer, posted a $300,000 bond in federal court Tuesday in Manhattan before being whisked away from a mob of reporters in a silver Chevrolet without answering questions. Kadish is facing four charges of conspiracy to share classified information with Israel. From 1979 to 1985, Kadish allegedly "borrowed" documents from the library of the Army facility in Dover, where he was employed, and shared them with the science affairs consul at the Israeli consulate in New York. Ron Kampeas and Ben Harris Fri, 25 Apr 2008 00:00:00 MDT http://www.jstandard.com/articles/4188/1/Students-urge-Jerusalem%92s-absentee-homeowners-to-rent JERUSALEM - When the masses of visiting American Jews who own vacation homes in Israel's capital leave Jerusalem to return home after Passover, they'll be leaving behind mostly empty apartments - and frustrated Jerusalemites. While many diaspora Jews consider their Israeli homes an important investment in the Jewish state, many locals say absentee homeowners have driven up market prices, drained the market of available rentals, and made many Jerusalem neighborhoods unaffordable for Israelis. Daniel Estrin Fri, 25 Apr 2008 00:00:00 MDT http://www.jstandard.com/articles/4165/1/Jimmy-Carter-shunned-in-Israel Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter and his wife, Rosalyn, lay a wreath at the grave of the late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat during their visit to the west bank town of Ramallah on Tuesday. Thaer Ganaim/PPO/BPH Images JERUSALEM - Three decades after he revolutionized the Middle East by brokering the first Israeli-Arab peace accord, Jimmy Carter is back in the region preaching reconciliation. (See page 21.) But this time around, the former U.S. president and Nobel laureate has found himself jilted by a Jewish state that once regarded him as a visionary guided by a heady mix of Christian compassion and realpolitik. Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and other Israeli government officials declined to meet Carter during his four-day stay here. He was refused permission to visit the Gaza Strip, and Shin Bet bodyguards were not even around to help his Secret Service detail. Roy Eitan Fri, 18 Apr 2008 00:00:00 MDT http://www.jstandard.com/articles/4164/1/In-Qatar%2C-Livni-asks-moderates-for-help-on-peace-process Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni meets with Qatar Prime Minister Hamed Eben Gasam Elthani in Doha. Moshe Milner/GPO/BPH Images JERUSALEM - Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni flew to the Qatari capital of Doha in the Persian Gulf this week with an ambitious goal: encouraging moderate Arab attitudes toward Israel. Livni hoped to convince the Persian Gulf states and other Arab moderates that they and Israel should be on the same side of the barricades against the extremists, and that they need to work together for regional peace. This approach is new. Instead of peace with the Palestinians paving the way for Arab ties with Israel, Livni wants to invert the traditional order: The Arabs, she says, must first help the Palestinians make peace with Israel. At the eighth annual Doha "Forum on Democracy, Development, and Free Trade," Livni was given a regal reception: four armored cars, Qatari bodyguards, and a procession of Arab leaders from all over the Gulf coming to shake her hand. Leslie Susser Fri, 18 Apr 2008 00:00:00 MDT http://www.jstandard.com/articles/4162/1/Claims-Conference-unveils-new-effort-to-gather-Holocaust-testimonials Pulitzer Prize winner Saul Friedlander, left, and Claims Conference Chairman Julius Berman in New York announce a new initiative Tuesday to collect unpublished Holocaust memoirs. Melanie Einzig/Claims Conference Just a week ago historian Saul Friedlander was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for his use of Holocaust-era diaries and memoirs. Now he's joining with the Claims Conference to herald a new initiative to collect firsthand testimonials before the last survivors have passed on. Claims Conference officials and Friedlander announced the initiative Tuesday at a news briefing in New York. The Claims Conference is urging survivors to submit previously unpublished materials, as well as to commit their unwritten memories to paper, and submit them to the database. Outreach efforts will span 75 countries, according to conference officials, and submissions will be accepted in any language. Ben Harris Fri, 18 Apr 2008 00:00:00 MDT http://www.jstandard.com/articles/4160/1/Doves-launch-effort-to-take-on-pro-Israel-establishment-in-D.C. Pro-Israel doves are launching J Street, an initiative to promote support in the U.S. Congress for the peace process and moderate Palestinians. JTA Staff WASHINGTON - After years of on-and-off policy wars with the pro-Israel establishment, liberal Jewish advocates for a more aggressive U.S. posture in Middle East peacemaking are taking the fight to the street. K Street, Washington's lobbying mile, that is. A conference call Tuesday was set to launch J Street, a lobbying outfit and political action committee backed by some of the biggest names in the dovish pro-Israel community. Until now, organizers of J Street have been unwilling to discuss their plans in detail. But in a recent interview with JTA, executive director Jeremy Ben-Ami said the goal is to take on the pro-Israel giants, particularly the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, where they are the most powerful: in Congress. Ron Kampeas Fri, 18 Apr 2008 00:00:00 MDT http://www.jstandard.com/articles/4137/1/Can-you-say-that-again%3F Authors' 'passion for Passover' spurs unique collection Talk about doing something from A to Z: In "300 Ways to Ask the Four Questions" authors Murray Spiegel and Ricky Stein parlay a shared passion into a potpourri of translations, with versions of the traditional Pesach questions in languages from Abkhaz to Zulu. Offering renditions of the text in living languages, ancient languages, sign languages, and "constructed" languages (such Klingon), the authors want readers to "have fun," said Spiegel, who called the book "a modern-day Rosetta stone - all the languages and tongues living together in the same document, all trying to convey more or less the same thing." Spiegel, with a background in speech research for telecommunications, and Stein, a longtime pharmacist, did not set out to collect hundreds of translations. The idea evolved after the two New Jersey residents met in a choir and discovered that they were both involved in the same activity, gathering the questions in a few languages from friends. Lois Goldrich Fri, 11 Apr 2008 00:00:00 MDT http://www.jstandard.com/articles/4134/1/Preparedness-drill-stirs-Israeli-fears JERUSALEM - A nationwide emergency drill of unprecedented scale again has Israelis worried about war. As official rhetoric and media speculation regarding a possible new confrontation with Lebanese Hezbollah, Syria, or even Iran continue to simmer, Israel's armed forces and public services this week are going through a five-day drill intended to test the homefront's readiness for enemy missile salvoes and other worst-case events. Prime Minister Ehud Olmert launched the exercise, dubbed "Turning Point 2," at Sunday's cabinet session by issuing a dummy declaration that the Jewish state was "at war." Roy Eitan Fri, 11 Apr 2008 00:00:00 MDT http://www.jstandard.com/articles/4133/1/U.S.%3A-Some-criticism-of-Israel-is-anti-Semitic WASHINGTON - The Bush administration has taken the groundbreaking step of identifying some virulent criticism of Israel as anti-Semitism, as it warns that anti-Jewish attitudes and incidents are on the rise worldwide. In a new study, the U.S. State Department cites Tel Aviv University's Stephen Roth Institute in reporting an increase of serious anti-Semitic incidents, encompassing physical attacks and vandalism, from 406 in 2005 to 593 in 2006. The new study, "Contemporary Global Anti-Semitism," also cites a range of other nongovernmental organizations to show dramatic increases in Latin America, Australasia, and Europe, including a 31 percent spike in incidents in Britain from 2005 to 2006 and a 35 percent jump in Argentina during the same period. Ron Kampeas Fri, 11 Apr 2008 00:00:00 MDT http://www.jstandard.com/articles/4132/1/After-their-verbal-sparring%2C-Hagee-and-Yoffie-may-meet Pastor John Hagee, above, says Reform leader Rabbi Eric Yoffie in a speech last week misrepresented his views. Christians United for Israel WASHINGTON - Now that they've called each other disrespectful, Rabbi Eric Yoffie and the Rev. John Hagee are ready to meet and discuss their differences - respectfully. The two religious leaders have been squaring off for the past week. Yoffie in a major speech April 2 called on Jews to dissociate themselves from Hagee and the organization he founded, Christians United for Israel, asserting that the pastor did not respect other faiths or the right of Israeli leaders to make territorial concessions. Five days later Hagee, a San Antonio-based evangelical mega-church leader and arguably the country's most influential Christian Zionist, fired back in a conference call with reporters. Ron Kampeas Fri, 11 Apr 2008 00:00:00 MDT http://www.jstandard.com/articles/4131/1/Upset-remains-over-conversion-prayer Pope Benedict XVI greets Rabbi Arthur Schneier, right, at the Vatican in March 2006. Fotografia Felici When news broke last year that Pope Benedict XVI was reviving an ancient prayer for the conversion of the Jews, the reaction in Jewish circles was outrage tempered by confusion. Communal leaders warned that the move would deal a serious blow to the four decades of progress in Jewish-Catholic relations following Nostra Aetate - the landmark document that absolved the Jews of collective guilt for the killing of Jesus - unless the pope clarified how the prayer meshed with Catholic doctrine. Last week, as the pope was preparing to visit the United States, that clarification finally arrived - sort of. Ben Harris Fri, 11 Apr 2008 00:00:00 MDT http://www.jstandard.com/articles/4130/1/Trial-of-alleged-Seattle-shooter-set-to-start SEATTLE - Lawyers on both sides are facing challenges as the trial is about to start for the man accused of shooting up the Jewish federation in Seattle more than a year and a half ago. As the King County Superior Court prepares for what is likely to be among the most high-profile cases in Seattle history, prosecutors must overcome possibly critical omissions in police procedures and the defense must back up its client's insanity plea. Janis Siegel Fri, 11 Apr 2008 00:00:00 MDT http://www.jstandard.com/articles/4122/1/With-the-economy-faltering%2C-nonprofits-get-a-sinking-feeling Americans continue to default on their mortgages in numbers not seen since the Great Depression. Banks continue to become more reluctant about lending money. The stock market continues a herky-jerky tumble downhill. The finance industry is still roiling from last month's stunning collapse of Bear Stearns, Wall Street's fifth largest investment bank. The dollar continues to fall against the other world currencies. And the philanthropic world is becoming increasingly fearful about what seems to be a perfect storm brewing against the financial world. While most philanthropy professionals feel some anxiety now, they are bracing for what could be a calamity in the world of charitable giving. Jacob Berkman Fri, 04 Apr 2008 00:00:00 MDT http://www.jstandard.com/articles/4121/1/Seminary-in-Israel-pushes-pro-gay-event-off-campus In a sign of continuing friction among Conservative Jews over the issue of homosexuality, a ceremony in Jerusalem to mark the first anniversary of the decision to admit gays to the Jewish Theological Seminary was held away from the campus of the movement's main educational institution there. A news release from the Schechter Rabbinical Seminary said the students agreed to move the March 26 ceremony off campus after refusing to "give equal expression" to a movement-approved religious opinion that upholds the traditional ban on homosexuality. Ben Harris Fri, 04 Apr 2008 00:00:00 MDT http://www.jstandard.com/articles/4075/1/Wiesel-organizes-Nobelists-to-press-China-on-Tibet Elie Wiesel Elie Wiesel has recruited 25 of his fellow Nobel laureates to sign a letter condemning the Chinese government's "violent crackdown" on protestors in Tibet. The letter, which was released March 20, urges the Chinese government to show restraint and calls for a resumption of talks with Tibet's exiled leader, the Dalai Lama, the 1989 Nobel Peace Prize winner. "We protest the unwarranted campaign waged by the Chinese government against our fellow Nobel laureate, His Holiness the Dalai Lama," the letter reads. "Contrary to the repeated claims of Chinese authorities, the Dalai Lama does not seek separation from China, but religious and cultural autonomy. This autonomy is fundamental to the preservation of the ancient Tibetan heritage." Ben Harris Fri, 28 Mar 2008 00:00:00 MDT http://www.jstandard.com/articles/4074/1/Cheney-talks-Iran-in-Israel%3B-U.S.-strike-seen-as-remote U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney, left, greets Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert following their news conference in Jerusalem on March 22. Cheney, who was in Israel to discuss regional issues, said the United States would never pressure the Jewish state to take steps that would endanger its survival. Photo by Brian Hendler/JTA JERUSALEM - With U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney in Israel this week talking about Iran, the big question was whether President Bush would be willing to use military force in the waning days of his presidency to stop Iran's nuclear weapons program. The answer from most Israeli intelligence analysts: not likely. They say the chances of a U.S. military strike against Iran or its nuclear installations - whether out of Bush's view of a strategic imperative or conviction that no one else will do the job - are remote. Leslie Susser Fri, 28 Mar 2008 00:00:00 MDT http://www.jstandard.com/articles/4073/1/Obama%2C-Clinton-in-dead-heat-among-Jewish-Democrats Hillary Rodham Clinton, left, and Barack Obama are running neck and neck in a Gallup Poll of Jewish Democratic voters taken this month. Hillary Clinton for President/Obama for America WASHINGTON - Even as conservatives continue to paint Barack Obama as being surrounded by anti-Israel advisers, a new poll shows the Illinois senator and Hillary Rodham Clinton in a neck-and-neck battle for Jewish support. A Gallup Poll tracking views according to religious beliefs March 1 to 22 found Jewish Democrats in a statistical dead heat in their support for their party's presidential nominees. Ron Kampeas Fri, 28 Mar 2008 00:00:00 MDT http://www.jstandard.com/articles/4047/1/Greeted-warmly-in-Israel%2C-Merkel-pressed-on-Iran-ties Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert accompanies German Chancellor Angela Merkel to a special cabinet meeting at his office in Jerusalem on Monday. GPO/BPH IMAGES JERUSALEM - On a deeply emotional and history-laden visit to Israel to mark the Jewish state's 60th anniversary, German Chancellor Angela Merkel focused on two pressing issues: Israeli-Palestinian peace and Iran's nuclear weapons program. Merkel outlined plans for an Israeli-Palestinian peace conference in Berlin in June, and the Israelis asked that Germany, one of Iran's biggest trading partners, do more about stopping Iran's fundamentalist regime from acquiring nuclear weapons. Leslie Susser Fri, 21 Mar 2008 00:00:00 MDT http://www.jstandard.com/articles/4046/1/Rothman-defends-Obama-in-Wright-controversy As images of Sen. Barack Obama's former pastor continue to play in the media, one of the senator's senior campaign workers and a congressional colleague said that the American people should not allow the pastor's hateful remarks to distract them from the goal of choosing the right person for the presidency. Rep. Steve Rothman (D-9), the Northeast coordinator of Obama's campaign, said in a phone interview Wednesday that all three candidates have received endorsements from people they later condemned and Obama's candidacy should not be judged because of the Rev. Jeremiah Wright's anti-American and anti-Israel sermons. Josh Lipowsky Fri, 21 Mar 2008 00:00:00 MDT http://www.jstandard.com/articles/4045/1/Obama%92s-speech%3A-Does-empathy-for-the-other-have-its-limits%3F Though Barack Obama, seen here in a televised address on race in America, called out his former pastor on some of his views, the candidate said such opinions must be heard if the country is to make progress. Obama for America Barack Obama has spent months fending off successive waves of highly misleading and outright false e-mail campaigns, but this week the Democratic front-runner found himself scrambling to respond to an indisputable YouTube-documented outrage: the inflammatory sermons of his longtime pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright Jr. "We have supported state terrorism against the Palestinians and black South Africans, and now we are indignant because the stuff we have done overseas is now brought right back to our own front yards," the Rev. Jeremiah Wright Jr. declared from his South Side of Chicago pulpit just days after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. Ami Eden Fri, 21 Mar 2008 00:00:00 MDT http://www.jstandard.com/articles/4044/1/Australian-P.M.-pushes-pro-Israel-measure CANBERRA, Australia - Despite dissent from a member of his ruling Labor Party and two unions, as well as a coalition of leftists who accused Israel of "ethnic cleansing," Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd on Wednesday led a bipartisan motion to celebrate Israel's 60th anniversary. As Rudd rose in parliament to laud "Israel's robust parliamentary democracy," a female heckler had to be escorted from the visitors' gallery for yelling: "What about the U.N. resolution?" Rudd, who has twice visited Israel, said that Australia's parliament was a poor comparison to the Knesset, "where you see the definition of 'robust' at work." Dan Goldberg Fri, 21 Mar 2008 00:00:00 MDT http://www.jstandard.com/articles/4043/1/McCain%2C-in-Israel%2C-stresses-%91deep-commitment%92 From left, Sens. Lindsey Graham, John McCain, and Joseph Lieberman lay a wreath at the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial's Hall of Remembrance in Jerusalem on Tuesday. Brian Hendler/JTA JERUSALEM - Wearing a white knitted kippah, Sen. John McCain stood at the Western Wall, tucked a note inside one of its crevices, and pressed his hand on the ancient stone, striking an image clearly meant to speak to American Jewish voters across the sea that he is indeed their man. McCain, the Arizona senator who is the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, spoke Wednesday of his "deep and abiding commitment to Israel" - a theme he stressed throughout his meetings this week with Israeli leaders. Dina Kraft Fri, 21 Mar 2008 00:00:00 MDT http://www.jstandard.com/articles/4042/1/Violence%2C-political-future-worry-South-African-Jews CAPE TOWN - Violent crime, political change, and the energy crisis are fueling a growing sense of panic among South African Jews. Several weeks ago the Jewish community was shaken when a Jewish man in Johannesburg, Sheldon Cohen, was shot to death while sitting in his car waiting for his son to finish soccer practice. In the past few months, at least two other Jews were murdered in the same city, including an elderly man on his way to synagogue on Shabbat morning who was shot for the contents of his tallit bag. Moira Schneider Fri, 21 Mar 2008 00:00:00 MDT http://www.jstandard.com/articles/4040/1/Jewish-groups%2C-police-team-up-in-Rhode-Island-firebombing A burn left by a Molotov cocktail mars the face of a Jewish Agency official's home in Providence, R.I., which was targeted in an attack over the weekend. Photo by Richard M. Asinof PROVIDENCE, R.I. - Three Jewish organizations, working in cooperation with this city's police department, are offering a $10,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of those responsible for the firebombing of an apartment where an Israeli emissary was living. The Jewish Federation of Rhode Island, the Anti-Defamation League, and the Hillel House serving both Brown University and the Rhode Island School of Design announced the reward at a news conference Monday at Providence Police headquarters. Richard Asinof Fri, 21 Mar 2008 00:00:00 MDT http://www.jstandard.com/articles/4017/1/Facing-threats-from-within-and-without%2C-Israel-offers-a-grim-intel-estimate JERUSALEM - Last week's terrorist attack at a Jerusalem yeshiva and the new Israeli national intelligence assessment presented to the cabinet on Sunday underscore the acute security problems Israel faces this year and beyond. The terrorist shooting spree in the Mercaz Harav yeshiva, which left eight students dead, raised questions about the vulnerability of Jews in western Jerusalem to terrorists emanating from the mostly Arab eastern part of the city. The gunman was from Jabel Mukhaber, a Palestinian village on the southeastern outskirts of the capital. Leslie Susser Fri, 14 Mar 2008 00:00:00 MDT http://www.jstandard.com/articles/4016/1/For-national-religious-Zionists%2C-yeshiva-attack-was-personal Mourners, above and on opposite page, attend a service in Jerusalem for the eight victims of last Thursday's attack on Mercaz Harav yeshiva. Funeral processions followed in the victims' hometowns. BRIAN HENDLER photos TEL AVIV - The one with glasses and a wide smile was the brother of a friend, the one with blue eyes and side curls the son of another. In the close-knit world of religious Zionism, no one feels far removed from the grief for eight young people gunned down while studying Talmud in their Jerusalem yeshiva. Dina Kraft Fri, 14 Mar 2008 00:00:00 MDT http://www.jstandard.com/articles/4015/1/After-a-bloody-week%2C-a-semblance-of-a-cease-fire JERUSALEM - A semblance of a cease-fire has emerged between Israel and Palestinian terrorist groups in the Gaza Strip, although both sides deny there is a deal. After a surge in Hamas cross-border rocket attacks, bloody Israeli ground and air operations in Gaza, and last week's terrorist attack in Jerusalem, Gaza entered this week with an unusual period of quiet. Coinciding with efforts by Egypt to restore calm so Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert can press ahead with peace talks with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, the lull quickly began being called a "truce" here. Roy Eitan Fri, 14 Mar 2008 00:00:00 MDT http://www.jstandard.com/articles/4014/1/French-Jews-hide-their-Jewishness PARIS - They started to pop up in clusters around town a few years ago: plain, black baseball caps made of thin fabric, pulled tight in the back and worn by men in nondescript, formal attire. It was a noticeable change in the Paris fashion landscape, where caps usually are multicolored and reserved for casual wear. Yet this slightly off-kilter Franco version of the American fashion accessory, the baseball cap, was meant not to attract attention but avoid it. Devorah Lauter Fri, 14 Mar 2008 00:00:00 MDT http://www.jstandard.com/articles/4013/1/Congress-balks-at-P.A.-funding-at-key-time-for-security-training A Jordanian officer trains Palestinian Authority troops in applying human rights standards to security enforcement. WASHINGTON - U.S. officials involved in helping train Palestinian security forces are pressing for more cash at a time when Congress is imposing greater oversight over spending on the Palestinians. A senior Western official involved in the training of the Palestinian security forces loyal to Mahmoud Abbas, the relatively moderate Palestinian Authority president, met recently with the JTA and touted the advances made in the training. Ron Kampeas Fri, 14 Mar 2008 00:00:00 MDT http://www.jstandard.com/articles/4012/1/Sex%2C-Israeli-connection-familiar-in-Spitzer-controversy New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer. U.S. Department of State A fast-rising Democratic governor, an out-of-control sex drive and an Israeli enabler - it feels like déja vu all over again on the Hudson. Just four years after the then-governor of New Jersey, James McGreevey, resigned amid allegations of an affair with his Israeli-born ex-homeland security chief Golan Cipel, Americans again were treated to the spectacle of the governor of a large northeastern state standing alongside a grim-looking wife and admitting he had erred. Ron Kampeas Fri, 14 Mar 2008 00:00:00 MDT http://www.jstandard.com/articles/4011/1/Jewish-community-has-warm-feelings-for-Spitzer-successor NEW YORK - Barely two days after news broke that Eliot Spitzer had consorted with a prostitute in a Washington hotel room in February, and before the New York governor had even announced his resignation, Jewish leaders already were kvelling over his successor, Lt.-Gov. David Paterson. "He's great," said New York state Assemblyman Dov Hikind, who represents predominantly Orthodox Jewish areas in Brooklyn. Hikind told JTA he considers Paterson his closest friend in Albany. Ben Harris Fri, 14 Mar 2008 00:00:00 MDT http://www.jstandard.com/articles/4010/1/Can-the-synagogue-help-bridge-diaspora-Israel-gap%3F NIR ETZION, Israel - Perched high in the forested hills overlooking the Mediterranean, a group of U.S. rabbis and Jewish leaders hunker down to study a riddle harder to solve than it might seem: how to make Israel meaningful to their congregants. A group from a Reform synagogue in St. Louis muses about solutions: hanging signs in their synagogue in Hebrew and English, organizing a Birthright-style tour for the shul's religious school teachers, hosting youth retreats with Israeli teenagers as guests, and using Jerusalem stone in a planned renovation of their synagogue, Temple Israel. Dina Kraft Fri, 14 Mar 2008 00:00:00 MDT http://www.jstandard.com/articles/4009/1/Darfur-project-head-wins-humanitarian-prize Rachel Andres, on a trip to Chad, received the Charles Bronfman Prize for directing an initiative to help the Darfur genocide's refugees. Jewish World Watch The simplest innovations sometimes lead to the greatest rewards, as Rachel Andres learned this week when she was named the 2008 recipient of the $100,000 Charles Bronfman Prize. The annual prize is awarded to a person or team of people younger than 50 whose Jewish values spark humanitarian efforts that help improve the world. Andres in her work provides succor to some of the most helpless and brutalized people in the world - 10,000 refugee families, mostly fatherless, who have escaped the massacres in Darfur. Tom Tugend Fri, 14 Mar 2008 00:00:00 MDT http://www.jstandard.com/articles/4008/1/Reform-rabbis-renewing-debate-on-officiating-at-intermarriages About 10 years ago, Rabbi Jerome Davidson of Temple Beth El in Great Neck, N.Y., changed his mind about officiating at interfaith weddings. After he had officiated at the marriage of two lesbians in 1995, some congregants asked Davidson why, if he would bend that far, would he not officiate at their children's weddings to non-Jews? The criticism hit home. Sue Fishkoff Fri, 14 Mar 2008 00:00:00 MDT http://www.jstandard.com/articles/3982/1/Black-and-white%3F-Or-256-shades-of-gray%3F Authors of the Holocaust Insurance Accountability Act, a bill before the House Committee on Banking and Financial Services, claim that it will allow survivors to sue insurance companies that are withholding payments on policies that date back to the Holocaust. If HR1746 passes, Congress will essentially disavow the International Commission on Holocaust Era Insurance Claims agreement. (For a list of sponsors and cosponsors, go to GovTrack.us.) Established in 1998, ICHEIC was created as the outcome of an international agreement signed by officials from the U.S. Department of State, the German government and that of other European countries, Israel, and Jewish organizations. It also involved U.S. state insurance regulators, European insurance companies, and the European Economic Commission. It was chaired by former U.S. Secretary of State Lawrence Eagleburger, whose leadership was sought precisely because of his well-earned ethical standing, Jeanette Friedman Fri, 07 Mar 2008 00:00:00 MST http://www.jstandard.com/articles/3978/1/McCain-faces-firestorm-over-Hagee-endorsement Many conservatives, not to mention Clinton supporters, were smiling last week during the Democratic debate in Ohio when MSNBC's Tim Russert asked Barack Obama about being praised by Louis Farrakhan. But the controversy faded almost before it started after Obama denounced the Nation of Islam leader's anti-Jewish remarks and, with a little prodding from Hillary Clinton, rejected his words of support as well. Instead it's John McCain who has spent the past week on the defensive over an endorsement from a controversial clergyman, John Hagee. Ami Eden Fri, 07 Mar 2008 00:00:00 MST http://www.jstandard.com/articles/3977/1/Dems-brace-for-ugly-campaign WASHINGTON - With Hillary Clinton's wins Tuesday setting the stage for many more weeks of an increasingly bitter campaign, Jewish Democrats are concerned that the increasingly abrasive tone between their party's frontrunners could seep into Jewish and pro-Israel issues. The concerns are being sharpened by the prospect of a seven-week campaign before a primary in Pennsylvania. Also looming is the likelihood of a rematch in Florida, whose delegates were not counted because the state held its primary early. Ron Kampeas Fri, 07 Mar 2008 00:00:00 MST http://www.jstandard.com/articles/3976/1/Muslim-call-for-dialogue-wins-support-despite-reservations Members of the Islamic Cultural Center in New York City examine a Torah in the Jewish Theological Seminary's Women's League Seminary Synagogue as part an interfaith dialogue. A landmark statement by leading Muslim intellectuals calling for Jewish-Muslim dialogue has won broad support from Jewish leaders, even as some elements were deemed problematic. The statement, released last week and titled "A Call to Peace, Dialogue and Understanding Between Muslims and Jews," was facilitated by scholars at the Centre for the Study of Muslim-Jewish Relations at the University of Cambridge in England. Unlike earlier efforts at dialogue, which often have sought to discourage discussion of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the statement openly acknowledges the conflict's centrality to Jewish-Muslim tension. Ben Harris Fri, 07 Mar 2008 00:00:00 MST http://www.jstandard.com/articles/3975/1/Who-is-Dmitry-Medvedev%3F Career of Russia's next president is marked by loyalty to Putin Observers say Dmitry Medvedev, above, was handpicked to be the next Russian president because of his loyalty to Vladimir Putin. foto.mail.ru MOSCOW - Winston Churchill may be dead, but his iconic description of Russia as a "riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma" remains alive and well. With the result of this week's election in Russia pretty much ordained, there wasn't much mystery about who would win. But with the enigmatic Vladimir Putin orchestrating Russia's transfer of power, the riddle over how his successor will run things - especially with Putin as prime minister - remains very much a riddle. So who is Dmitry Anatolyevich Medvedev? Matt Siegel Fri, 07 Mar 2008 00:00:00 MST http://www.jstandard.com/articles/3974/1/Study%3A-Israel-love-not-fading-away This chart from a new study compares respondents who feel close to Israel with respondents who feel distant from it. The spread between those indicating "close" and "distant" had a substantively unimportant increase of one or two percent. Steinhardt Social Research Institute's paper, "American Jewish Attachment to Israel: An Assessment of the 'Distancing' Hypothesis." Flying in the face of two decades of research that indicates that American Jews are falling out of love with Israel, a new report says that American Jews love Israel as much as they always have - and that in the future, that sentiment may grow more intense. Conventional wisdom, based largely on the work of sociologist Steven Cohen, is that American Jews are becoming less attached to Israel by the generation, as younger Jews typically feel less close to Israel and Israelis than older Jews. Jacob Berkman Fri, 07 Mar 2008 00:00:00 MST http://www.jstandard.com/articles/3950/1/Arab-League-nations-may-be-backing-off-two-state-solution An Israeli artillery piece at the Gaza Strip, pictured on Monday. Brian Hendler/JTA JERUSALEM - Irked by the slow rate of progress in Israeli-Palestinian peace talks, major Arab players are threatening to withdraw their offer to normalize ties with Israel once a Palestinian state is established. Underlying the Arab reassessment is a deeper problem: Arab belief in the viability of "the two-state solution," Israel and Palestine at peace, is diminishing. And the worry in Jerusalem is that this growing lack of confidence could undermine the fragile negotiating process so carefully put in place at the regional peace conference in Annapolis, Md., last November. Leslie Susser Fri, 29 Feb 2008 00:00:00 MST http://www.jstandard.com/articles/3949/1/Darfuris-get-Israeli-ID-cards-and-start-their-new-lives Yassin Musa, a refugee from Darfur, holds his Israeli identity card. photo by Brian Hendler/JTA TEL AVIV - Yassin Musa, a refugee from Darfur, removes his Israeli identity card from his worn leather wallet and holds it like a prize. Musa is one of more than 600 Sudanese refugees from Darfur who have been granted temporary residency in Israel. He and his fellow Sudanese fled the genocide in Sudan and passed through Egypt on their way to the Jewish state. Their new status here constitutes a major victory for the small Darfuri community in Israel and the non-governmental organizations that have been lobbying for them. Dina Kraft Fri, 29 Feb 2008 00:00:00 MST http://www.jstandard.com/articles/3948/1/Pew-survey-provides-Jewish-snapshot%2C-but-critics-say-the-sample-is-too-small American Jews are adopting and discarding their Jewish identities with increasing rapidity in a country that is becoming less white and less Christian, according to a new study of religious affiliation in the United States. But just hours after the study's publication Monday, Jewish demographers already were disputing some of the findings on Jews, contending that the sample is too small to draw meaningful conclusions. The U.S. Religious Landscape Survey (http://religions.pewforum.org), released by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life, shows how Jews fit into a national religious mosaic that is shifting at ever-increasing speed. It shows that more than one-quarter - 28 percent - of Americans have left the faith in which they were raised and either joined a different faith or profess no faith at all. Sue Fishkoff Fri, 29 Feb 2008 00:00:00 MST http://www.jstandard.com/articles/3947/1/Foxman%3A-Obama-has-settled-Farrakhan-issue WASHINGTON - The head of the Anti-Defamation League says it's time to pack away the Farrakhan fears when it comes to Barack Obama. "He was very clear," said Abraham Foxman, the ADL's national director, describing the response of the Illinois senator who was asked in a debate Tuesday about the public praise he received over the weekend from the Nation of Islam leader. Ben Harris and Ron Kampeas Fri, 29 Feb 2008 00:00:00 MST http://www.jstandard.com/articles/3946/1/Obama%2C-Clinton-vie-for-Jewish-votes CLEVELAND - Like a lot of the other prizes in this year's presidential landscape, Ohio's Jewish community should be Clinton country: Fierce pro-Israel sentiments are wedded to a tradition of advocacy for the domestic issues that U.S. Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) has championed. But pushback from the cadre of young campaigners working for U.S. Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) and an impassioned direct plea from the candidate himself appear to be having an impact in the community. In off-the-record chats, some of Clinton's Jewish supporters in Ohio told JTA that they are now questioning if she's viable as a candidate and are giving Obama a second look. Ron Kampeas Fri, 29 Feb 2008 00:00:00 MST http://www.jstandard.com/articles/3931/1/Keeping-an-eye-on-students-in-Israel The Eye Squad has offered American parents a way to keep an eye on their teens studying in Israel. JERUSALEM - Most of the 7,000 North Americans here for a year of study after high school are thriving, learning, and maturing. But not all of them. Like their counterparts away at college, some are homesick, lonely, or dealing with eating disorders and even suicidal thoughts. Some are spending their parents' money on alcohol, drugs, or gambling. Enter the Eye Squad. A free project of the Council of Young Israel Rabbis in Israel launched this month, the Eye Squad aims to help parents "keep an eye" on their teens and to act as confidential, independent liaisons between teens, schools, and parents. Abigail Klein Leichman Fri, 22 Feb 2008 00:00:00 MST http://www.jstandard.com/articles/3925/1/Independence-comes-at-time-of-uncertainty-for-Kosovo%92s-Jews PRIZREN, Kosovo - On a forlorn road dotted with half-built houses, Ines Quono reflects on her struggle in a land so remote to most Americans it might as well be Oz. But instead of a yellow brick road, there is crumbling, mud-drenched pavement piled high with garbage. "The only thing that works in Kosovo is the banks; we all have to borrow money to do something - anything," says Quono, 28. Quono is among the last Jews of Kosovo, a southern province of Serbia about half the size of New Jersey that declared independence Sunday. Dinah Spritzer Fri, 22 Feb 2008 00:00:00 MST http://www.jstandard.com/articles/3924/1/WORLD-BRIEFS Germany suspends EJC membership BERLIN - Another country has left the European Jewish Congress. The Central Council announced its decision Monday to suspend its membership in the EJC, becoming the fourth European Jewish organization to leave the EJC over a controversial decision made at its recent meeting in Paris. The EJC, which has 42 member countries and is a subsidiary of the World Jewish Congress, voted 51-34 on Feb. 10 to extend terms for officers to four years from two. The extension was applied retroactively to the EJC's president, Moshe Kantor, who was elected in June 2007, as well as to his board. Kantor is the first person from a former Eastern bloc country to lead the organization. The German-Jewish umbrella group, at its Sunday meeting, unanimously condemned the developments at the Paris convention. It announced its solidarity with the other three countries that had left the body in protest: France, Portugal, and Austria. The German council condemned "the methods of EJC President Moshe Kantor" as "deeply disturbing." But the council's secretary general, Stefan Kramer, told JTA that his group's withdrawal is a suspension and that he'd rather see the EJC's "success story continue" than build an alternative organization, as some other countries have proposed. The development underscores months of tensions between some of the Western European EJC members and Kantor. The EJC issued a statement of regret after Germany's decision, saying the EJC was working on "a conciliatory commission so that we can find the best way to bring unity back to the organization."   Sarkozy: jury still out on Durban PARIS - Nicolas Sarkozy said France would not participate in the Durban II racism conference if it repeated the 2001 anti-Semitic debacle. "France will not allow a repetition of the excesses and abuses of 2001," the French president told CRIF, the umbrella body of French Jewish groups, in an address this week. He suggested that the European Union, which will be under France's presidency ahead of the 2009 United Nations-sponsored conference, would follow France's lead. "I say to you: if ever our legitimate demands are not taken into account, we will disengage from the process," he said. The United States this week issued a similar warning. U.N. Watch, a Geneva-based watchdog that monitors how the international body deals with human rights abusers, said this week it had confirmed reports that South Africa plans to once again host the conference. The 2001 Durban conference devolved into an anti-Semitic and anti-Israel hate-fest led by Iran and radical Muslim and Arab groups.   Jewish Telegraphic Agency Fri, 22 Feb 2008 00:00:00 MST http://www.jstandard.com/articles/3923/1/As-protests-rage%2C-Jewish-leaders-lobby-in-Georgia TBILISI, Georgia - Inside the posh Marriott hotel on Tbilisi's Rustaveli Avenue, foreigners in neatly tailored suits and "new Georgians" dressed elegantly sit sipping their espressos and munching on $35 steak sandwiches. The music is light Euro-pop and the mood is easy. But out in the street, it's a different world. Thousands of protesters stand shoulder to shoulder under swaying red-and-white flags, chanting slogans against Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili, who won a second term in January in elections protesters say were rigged. Matt Siegel Fri, 22 Feb 2008 00:00:00 MST http://www.jstandard.com/articles/3922/1/Hezbollah-killing%2C-JCC-firebombing-put-U.S.-Jewish-institutions-on-alert NEW YORK - In the wake of last week's assassination of a top Hezbollah official and this week's firebomb attack at a Jewish community center in suburban Los Angeles, American Jewish groups should be vigilant, according to the head of a Jewish security consultant group. Although Israel has denied any involvement in Imad Mughniyeh's death in a car bomb in Damascus last week, radical Muslim leaders, including Hezbollah chief Sheik Hassan Nasrallah and the commander of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards, Mohammed Ali Jafari, have threatened to strike back against Israel and Jews abroad. Jacob Berkman Fri, 22 Feb 2008 00:00:00 MST http://www.jstandard.com/articles/3921/1/Hillary-news-is-fit-to-print-in-haredi-paper%2C-but-not-her-photo NEW YORK - Hillary Clinton could be America's next president, but her picture will never appear in the country's only Jewish daily newspaper. The English-language version of Hamodia, which touts itself as "The Newspaper of Torah Jewry," does not publish photographs of women because its editorial board believes that pictures of the female form are immodest and displaying them, even in the context of news coverage, would be out of line with Jewish law. Jacob Berkman Fri, 22 Feb 2008 00:00:00 MST http://www.jstandard.com/articles/3920/1/Even-as-Obama-surges-in-primaries%2C-he-faces-new-Israel-related-criticism Presidential hopeful Barack Obama addresses AIPAC in Chicago on March 2, 2007. WASHINGTON - Even as U.S. Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) solidifies his status as the Democratic front-runner with victories Tuesday in Wisconsin and Hawaii, he is facing a new line of attack from some Jewish circles regarding his advisers on foreign policy. In recent weeks, writers associated with several right-wing media outlets have taken aim at what they describe as anti-Israel voices advising Obama on Middle East issues, spurring a rash of mass e-mails voicing similar concerns. Ron Kampeas Fri, 22 Feb 2008 00:00:00 MST http://www.jstandard.com/articles/3919/1/Castro-gone-but-Cuban-Jews-expect-little-to-change%2C-for-now