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Friday January 12, 2007

Shorts: U.S.

UJC seeks signatures to free soldiers

The United Jewish Communities and other Jewish groups are circulating a petition for the release of three captured Israeli soldiers. The petition, which will be presented to new United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon, President Bush and high-level U.S. officials, is part of a major public awareness and advocacy campaign, freethesoldiers.org.

The petition will be presented when it has 1 million signatures, the UJC said in a release.

The umbrella organization of North American Jewish federations is urging petitioners to also buy and wear dog tags bearing the names of soldiers Ehud Goldwasser, Eldad Regev and Gilad Shalit. Goldwasser and Regev were captured by Hezbollah in July, while Shalit was taken by Palestinian gunmen in June.

“We must never forget our Israeli brothers who were abducted by terrorist groups,” UJC Chairman Joseph Kanfer said. — jta

Peace Now chides Bush on Mideast

Americans for Peace Now accused President Bush of neglecting Arab-Israeli peace and urged him not to obstruct Israel-Syria talks.

In an open letter to Bush sent this week, the dovish pro-Israel group said 2006 “will go down in history as a year where the U.S. decided to stay on the sidelines of Israeli-Arab relations. The tragic and dangerous results speak for themselves. Mr. President, for the sake of Israel, we urge you to follow a very different course in 2007.”

The Bush administration claims to be actively engaged in the Middle East, but will not deal with groups or nations that back terrorism. — jta

O.U. offers $20,000 outreach grant

The Orthodox Union will provide a grant of up to $20,000 to a synagogue that develops the best outreach initiative to unaffiliated Jews.

The grant is part of a broader O.U. response to high assimilation rates in the United States. Grant applications are due by March 1, with a final decision expected by March 29. — jta

Jewish Renewal ordains five

Four women and one man have received Jewish Renewal ordination.

Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi, founder and leader of Jewish Renewal, ordained two rabbis, two rabbinic pastors and one cantor recently at the annual conference of Ohalah, the association of Jewish Renewal rabbis, in Boulder, Colo.

All 112 Renewal rabbis ordained since 1974 have received ordination directly from Schachter-Shalomi. Few serve as pulpit rabbis for the world’s 40 Renewal congregations, most of which are lay-led. — jta

Judge orders SS guard deported

A U.S. judge ordered the deportation of a Wisconsin man who acknowledged his past as an SS death camp guard.

Josias Kumpf was stripped of his citizenship in 2005 after it was established that he concealed his Nazi past when emigrating from Austria to the United States in 1956. Last year, U.S. authorities launched deportation proceedings against him, and immigration judge Jennie Giambastiani issued the order earlier this month.

According to a Justice Department release, Kumpf acknowledged his role as a guard at “Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp in Germany; at an SS labor camp in Trawniki, Poland, where 8,000 Jewish men, women, and children were murdered in a single day as part of a two-day mass-murder operation involving 42,000 victims at three camps.” Kumpf, who says he never participated in the killings, plans to appeal. — jta

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