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Wednesday, November 09, 2005
Some headlines and summaries from JTA
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Interfaith group rallies against Iranian pres.
American Jews and leaders of other faiths demanded that Iran’s president be held accountable for calling for Israel’s destruction.
The Ad Hoc Coalition for Justice, an interfaith group formed in the aftermath of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s Oct. 26 call to destroy Israel, held a press conference and rally in New York on Wednesday across from the Iranian Mission to the United Nations.
The mostly Jewish crowd of 250 or so people heard speakers ranging from Nobel laureate Elie Wiesel to Richard Holbrooke to leaders representing Jewish, Christian and Muslim communities.
“As everyone in this audience knows, too many Jews in Germany did not think Hitler meant it,” said Richard Holbrooke, a former American ambassador to the United Nations. “When a leader of a country says something as outrageous and as vile as what his been said by the Iranian president — or by Hitler — we must take notice and we must tell them that he and his government must retract it, and they must apologize.”
State Dept. broadens Israel critique
The U.S. State Department’s latest religious freedom report expands the examination of religious minorities’s status in Israel.
The report, released this week, placed special attention on non-Orthodox streams of Judaism. It reported “no change” in the state of religious freedom in Israel and Palestinian-controlled areas. It said Israel “discriminates against non-Jewish citizens and residents, the vast majority of whom are Arab Muslims and Christians, in the areas of employment, education, and housing.” It also described as a “problem” Israel’s “recognition of only Orthodox Jewish religious authorities in personal and some civil-status matters concerning Jews.”
The 2005 report was more expansive in addressing the status of religious minorities beyond the focus in previous years on the government’s relations with Orthodox Jews, Muslims and indigenous Christians. The report for the first time described a small community of Messianic Jews in Israel, and noted the diversity of faiths among immigrant workers.
The report also repeated previous concerns about whether the supremacy accorded Islam in draft versions of a Palestinian constitution would “translate into an effective legal protection of religious freedom.” It also noted Palestinian incitement against Jews.
Plan would increase Ethiopians in Israel
Ethiopian and Israeli government officials signed an understanding Wednesday that would double the rate of Ethiopian immigration to Israel.
The 20,000 Falash Mura who have been waiting, some of them for years, to come to Israel are descendants of Jews who converted to Christianity, but have since returned to Judaism. Hundreds of Falash Mura staged a hunger strike in Addis Ababa in September, claiming the immigration process has been going too slowly.
The Jewish Agency for Israel has been charged with upgrading the compounds in Addis Ababa and Gondar, where much of the community is living while waiting to emigrate. Jewish Agency staff members are to run Hebrew and Judaism classes, as well as courses in modern living, to prepare the community for life in Israel.
The United Jewish Communities, the North American federation umbrella organization, will help fund the operation to bring the remainder of the Falash Mura community to Israel.
Georgia, Israel enhance business
The governor of Georgia signed business agreements with Israel.
Sonny Perdue announced the agreements Wednesday while on a visit to Israel. The accords are both in the high-tech industry.
posted by Somebody @ 10:02 PM Permanent Link
 
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