National News

Fireworks At AIPAC Gathering

This year’s American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) policy conference, which begins Sunday, will take place against a more dramatic backdrop than usual: a looming crisis in U.S.-Israel relations, an administration squeeze on Israel and tumult in the American Jewish community over how to respond.
AIPAC conferences are always at their best when there’s a big U.S.-Israel crisis, according to longtime observers of the pro-Israel lobby group. This year’s crisis should provide plenty of fireworks.

Washington — First Lady Hillary Clinton touched all the Jewish and pro-Israel bases and avoided treacherous curve balls in a Tuesday appearance before more than 2,100 delegates at Hadassah’s 85th national convention here.

Washington — In the first report card on American knowledge about the Holocaust and the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum here, respondents indicated that they knew more about the destruction of European Jewry than many experts believed.

More important, a solid majority of the sample — a representative cross-section of 1,641 Jews and non-Jews — said they see Holocaust education as vitally important in preventing new instances of persecution and genocide.

New Role For EuropeansIn Mideast Peace Talks?

This week’s flurry of Mideast diplomacy, which came during a visit to the region by British Prime Minister Tony Blair, reflected a decision in Washington to continue its mediation role and to avoid an all-out confrontation with the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, at least for now.

Bernard Madoff is not the only trustee of Yeshiva University who resigned in shame last week.

While international attention continues to focus on Madoff, who faces charges for his alleged $50 billion Ponzi scheme, some leaders in the Jewish community, particularly within Modern Orthodox institutions, are expressing shock and anger at the role played by J. Ezra Merkin, a prominent investment guru and philanthropist, who appears to have misled at least some investors.

As Irv Rubin lay on life support this week in a Los Angeles hospital after what authorities said was a suicide attempt, the controversial Jewish Defense League leader was remembered as “a fighter for Israel, a feisty old Brooklyn fighter.”

St. Petersburg, Fla. — In a bold address that implicitly criticized his constituents, the president of the Jewish Funders Network (JFN) said this week that in response to the economic crisis, member philanthropists and foundations must change the way they way they do business by consolidating efforts, collaborating with each other and sacrificing pet projects for the greater good of the community.

An Orthodox Jewish sailor lost 17 pounds while at sea for six weeks because the Navy refused to provide him with enough kosher food, and he was forced to pay shipmates $100 to work his shift on Friday nights and Saturdays so he could observe the Sabbath, according to the chaplain aboard the sailor's ship.
Lt. Gordon James Klingenschmitt said in a phone interview that partly because of his advocacy for the sailor, his commanding officer gave him a negative recommendation and that his contract as a Naval chaplain might not be renewed after three years of service.

The Jewish Theological Seminary is facing a new financial crisis and plans to dip into what its new chancellor calls a “rainy day fund” to cover a $2.2 million budget shortfall, The Jewish Week has learned.

Picking A FightWith Clinton?

The drill used to be simple. In times of tension between the United States and Israel, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee would lobby lawmakers to sign statements and letters to the administration backing Jerusalem. And the members would sign on, to pretty much universal applause from organized Jewry.