News Brief

 (JTA) — The only privately held original copy of Oskar Schindler’s list of Jews is on sale for $2.2 million.

Gary Zimet, a historic document sales specialist in upstate New York, told news outlets that he is selling the document on behalf of an anonymous seller. It will not be auctioned but be offered on a “first come, first served” basis on his Web site, MomentsInTime.com, he said.

(JTA) —  Forty members of the House of Representatives signed a letter warning Cuba that improved relations are contingent on the release of a jailed Jewish American.

Alan Gross, 60, has been held since Dec. 3; he was arrested while reportedly assisting the Cuban Jewish community to connect to the Internet. His congressman, U.S. Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), initiated the letter.

 Two months after a Jewish teen from White Plains was detained and briefly handcuffed after wearing his tefillin during morning prayers on a Kentucky-bound flight, the Transportation Security Administration has added information about the leather boxes and straps to briefing materials for security officials across the country.

Henry Wittenberg, an amateur wrestler who won medals at the Olympic Games and Maccabiah Games and served as the wrestling coach at Yeshiva University, died March 9 at his home in Somers. He was 91.
 
Mr. Wittenberg, a native of Jersey City, competed in chess and swimming at Dickinson High School, but turned to wrestling at City College. A collegiate star, he went undefeated in more than 300 matches during the 1940s and won eight Amateur Athletic Union titles..
 

(JTA) — Two haredi men were arrested after allegedly throwing chairs at women preparing to pray at the Western Wall.
 
The women, from the Women of the Wall organization, had gathered Tuesday to mark the first day of the month of Nisan.
 
The women had not yet put on tefillin, which in the past has upset ultra-Orthodox visitors to the wall.
 
The police reportedly sent about 40 officers to protect the women.

The Friedberg JCC in Oceanside, L.I., opened Tuesday “with limited services,” three days after the building suffered slight damage in last weekend’s wind-and-rain storm.
 
Part of the roof in the rear of the one-story site was damaged Saturday afternoon, causing “mostly water damage” to a few classrooms and a youth lounge, said Judy Fishkind, marketing director. “We were very lucky – no one was hurt,” she said. “It didn’t affect the majority of the building.”
 

(JTA) — Two Democrats with solidly pro-Israel records are blaming Israel for the heightened U.S.-Israeli tensions.
 
The chairman of the U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee, Rep. Howard Berman (D-Calif.), told JTA that Israel deserved much of the criticism it has been receiving over the announcement during Vice President Joe Biden’s visit to Israel last week of plans to construct 1,600 housing units in a Jewish neighborhood of eastern Jerusalem.
 

(JTA) — David Kimche, the spy who played a key role in Israel’s 1980s entanglements with Iran and Lebanon, died Monday of brain cancer. He was 82.

Kimche, born in Britain, fought in Israel’s Independence War, and joined the fledgling Mossad by 1953 after reporting for a short period for the Jerusalem Post.

By the time Kimche retired as Mossad deputy director in 1979 to join the Begin administration as the Foreign Ministry’s deputy director, he had been involved in some of the Mossad’s greatest triumphs and worst failures.

(JTA) — Arnold Forster, an attorney who had a nearly 60-year career at the Anti-Defamation League, has died.

Forster fought against anti-Semitism and extremism, and advocated for civil rights and the State of Israel. He was 97 when he died Sunday night.

(JTA) — Israel’s U.S. ambassador has offered to return to the California university where students interrupted his speech last month.

Michael Oren in an open letter Monday said he would meet with students at the University of California, Irvine who disagree with his point of view.

Eleven students were arrested for disturbing the Feb. 8 lecture.

University President Mark Yudof and Chancellor Michael Drake apologized to Oren over the incident.