Heads-up for Obama fundraiser
Jewish supporters of the presidential bid of U.S. Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) are selling “Obama ’08” yarmulkes to raise funds. The jewsforobama.blogspot.com Web site is marketing what it calls “Obama-kahs” for $5, plus $5 for shipping.
“The yarmulkes are professionally made of ivory white suede with ‘Obama ‘08’ printed in blue, and the campaign’s logo directly above the text,” the Web site says. The aim is to distribute them before the High Holy Days so they will be visible in synagogues. — jta
Rabbi sues town for filming home
A New Jersey rabbi filed a civil rights suit against a municipality, alleging that it filmed prayers at his home to prove he was running a “house of worship.”
Rabbi Avraham Bernstein, a Chabad rabbi who hosts Sabbath prayers in his Freehold home, was given a summons by the township for operating a “house of worship” without zoning permission, according to a story appearing Aug. 29 on lubavitch.com, the Chabad Web site. Bernstein sued, saying the council was overreaching.
Subsequently, the rabbi alleged, the council set up a camera to monitor comings and goings to his home. That prompted a federal civil rights lawsuit with the assistance of the Rutherford Institute, a group that advocates for religious freedoms. — jta
5 Calif. schools make Jewish popularity list
For the second year in a row, the University of Florida is the favorite public university for Jewish students, while New York University retains its top spot as top private school.
The “RJ Insiders Guide to College” appears in the Fall 2007 issue of Reform Judaism magazine, which is sent to every member of a Reform congregation. The listing can also be found at www.reformjudaismmag.org.
No private California schools made the list, but among public universities UCLA ranked 20, California State Northridge, 25; U.C. Santa Cruz, 26; San Diego State, 28, U.C. Davis, 29.
The ratings were compiled with the help of Hillel: The Foundation for Jewish Campus Life and the Union for Reform Judaism’s KESHER College Department.
The guide offers information “specifically for students looking to live Jewishly during their college years,” said Nicole Rand, assistant director of Youth Programs for the Union for Reform Judaism. It documents colleges by Jewish population — the top 30 private and top 30 public North American schools Jews choose.
Medal given to Righteous Gentile
The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum has honored a non-Jewish Ukrainian who helped save a Jewish woman from the Nazis.
In conjunction with the Israeli embassy, the museum will presented the Medal of the Righteous Among the Nations on Tuesday, Sept. 4 to the son of Yevgenia Zamoroko-Lysenko, a Ukrainian who with her roommate obtained false papers for a Jewish woman and allowed her to share their apartment.
Masha Spivak lived with the pair until April 1942 and performed forced labor in Germany until her liberation. She immigrated to Israel in 1948. Yad Vashem, Israel’s national Holocaust museum, has honored 21,758 non-Jews for their efforts to save Jews from the Nazis. This represents the first time the American Holocaust museum will present such a medal. — jta
CopyrightJ, the Jewish news weekly of Northern California