The German government has for the first time agreed to a multiyear commitment to fund home care for needy Holocaust survivors, thus assuring survivors and the agencies that care for them that funding will be available as survivor needs peak in 2014, according to Julius Berman, chairman of the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany.

The announcement Tuesday came after a daylong negotiating session Monday at the Museum of Jewish Heritage in Lower Manhattan. It was the first time negotiations had taken place outside of Berlin.

JERUSALEM (JTA) -- Jonathan Pollard's wife in a meeting with Shimon Peres before he left for the United States said she asked the Israeli president to request clemency for her husband from President Obama.

Speaking after Sunday's meeting, Esther Pollard called it a "good meeting."

"The president listened to me, and I hope and believe that [what I told him] penetrated his heart," she told The Jerusalem Post.