National briefs
By JTA
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Hodes on ‘CNN Heroes’
JERUSALEM (JTA)—Dr. Rick Hodes will be featured on “CNN Heroes.” Hodes, the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee’s medical director in Ethiopia, is a finalist in the “Championing Children” category of the program, which highlights individuals for their extraordinary achievements.
CNN will feature a three-minute segment on Hodes at 9 p.m. (Eastern time) Thursday. He also will be featured at www.cnn.com/Heroes along with a link to a special page on www.jdc.com. Hodes’ work over the past two decades on behalf of the JDC—providing emergency medical assistance and special nutritional programs to the Falash Mura population while it awaits processing to determine who is eligible to immigrate to Israel—has reduced the mortality rate to less than half that of the general Ethiopian populace. Category winners will be announced on “CNN Heroes: An All-Star Tribute,” a live CNN event on Dec. 6 featuring a video montage of all category finalists, musical performances and presentations by special guests.
Florida mohel performs brit in Alaska
SAN FRANCISCO (JTA)—A mohel flew from Florida to Alaska to perform a brit milah. Alon Razla, a Lubavitch businessman and mohel affiliated with the Florida-based Brit Yosef Yitzchak organization, performed the ritual circumcision on the 8-day-old son of an Israeli couple living in Anchorage.There are no mohels in Alaska, according to Rabbi Yosef Greenberg, co-director of the Lubavitch Jewish Center of Alaska. Greenberg said there have been about 10 ritual circumcisions in the past 15 years in Alaska, all performed by volunteer mohels sent by Brit Yosef Yitzchak.
Agudah adopts united Jerusalem stance
WASHINGTON (JTA)—Agudath Israel of America adopted a resolution opposing any relinquishing of Israeli sovereignty in Jerusalem. The decision, adopted Nov. 25 at the organization’s 85th national convention in Stamford, Conn., followed a plenary session at which Agudath’s Council of Torah Sages expressed its opposition to dividing the city. Rabbi Yaakov Perlow, the Novominsker rebbe and the head of the council, described a meeting in Jerusalem with two leading rabbinic authorities, Rabbis Yoseph Sholom Elyashiv and Aharon Yehuda Leib Shteinman, in which both expressed their opposition to any change in the status quo. Perlow noted that it is Agudah policy on matters relating to Israel to refer to rabbinic authorities based in Israel. “Agudath Israel will find appropriate ways to express itself on this matter,” he said. Agudah’s resolution came two days before the U.S.-sponsored conference in Annapolis, Md., aimed at restarting the moribund Israeli-Palestinian peace process. Other Jewish groups in advance of Annapolis have expressed opposition to dividing Jerusalem.
12 Jewish Democrats back funding for P.A.
WASHINGTON (JTA)—Twelve Jewish Democrats are among 135 U.S. Congressmen urging increased assistance to the Palestinians. Rep. Gary Ackerman (D-N.Y.), the Jewish chairman of the House’s Middle East subcommittee, and Rep. Charles Boustany (R-La.), an Arab American, initiated the letter sent Nov. 19 to Condoleezza Rice, the United States secretary of state. The letter argued that increased funding would be critical to bolstering Palestinian moderates now that Rice is convening renewed Israeli-Palestinian peace talks.
AJCongress taps Singer
WASHINGTON (JTA)—Israel Singer was named chairman of a council at the American Jewish Congress. The AJCongress released a two-line statement last month announcing Singer’s appointment to the group’s international policy council of the Council for World Jewry. Singer spent years as the top professional at the World Jewish Congress and the president of the Claims Conference until he was found to have improperly used WJC finances. Singer was not accused of any illegalities in the investigation begun in 2004 by the New York state attorney general, but Singer was fired in March after then-WJC president Edgar Bronfman said Singer tried to transfer $1.5 million of WJC money into a non-WJC Swiss bank account. Singer, who played an integral role in the Soviet Jewry movement and the Holocaust restitution fight, has denied any wrongdoing. “Rabbi Israel Singer has a decades-old record of distinguished service to the Jewish people worldwide,” the AJCongress said in its statement announcing Singer’s appointment. “It is hard to imagine a vigorous international Jewish life in which he is not centrally involved.” Earlier this year, Singer announced he would not run for another term as president of the Claims Conference, a position he had held since 2002.
U.S. funding terrorists?
WASHINTON (JTA)—A new audit shows that the office in charge of foreign aid cannot “reasonably ensure” aid doesn’t go to terrorists. The U.S. government’s Internal Audit Agency for International Development conducted the study after reports revealed that aid from the United States had gone to a Palestinian university with terrorist ties. Rep. Mark Kirk (R-Ill.) pushed for the audit after Palestinian security arrested five Iranians who were allegedly making bombs and rockets at Islamic University in Gaza. That college received $140,000 in USAID funds. The report shows that USAID gave $180,000 to a Bosnian group whose president is prohibited from traveling to the United States and $1 million to an aid partner involved with a disciple of Osama bin Laden. Funding for both groups has been stopped. The audit warned that “USAID risks providing funding or other material support and resources to terrorists or terrorist organizations.”