Famous Uzbek theater director murdered
Mark Vail, founder of the Ilhom theater in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, was assaulted the evening of Sunday, Sept. 9 at the entrance to his apartment building, stabbed and had his skull broken. He was pronounced dead at the hospital several hours later.
Uzbek officials have not commented the murder, which has shocked Tashkent’s Jewish community. Vail had led the first privately run theater in the Soviet Union, Ilhom — meaning “Inspiration” in Uzbek — for more than 30 years. Outside his home country, Vail staged performances in the United States, Bulgaria, Russia and Yugoslavia. He is survived by his wife and two daughters. — jta
Nicaraguan Jews get Torah
A new Torah scroll was sent to Nicaragua in August, replacing the one that left the country for Costa Rica after a fire ravaged the country’s only synagogue in 1978 and the leftist Sandinista Revolution the following year forced the country’s Jewish community into exile. The damaged synagogue was expropriated in the 1980s and now is a funeral home.
Since the Sandinistas lost the 1990 elections, Jews have been trickling back into the country. Nicaragua’s Jewish community today numbers about 60. Chana Sorhegan of New Jersey donated the scroll, which will be kept in the home of a Sabbath-observant community member, because the community has no permanent meeting place or synagogue.
The Torah is to be welcomed in a celebratory ceremony following the High Holy Days, community president Eduardo Translateur said. “The Torah was brought here last week and it is very beautiful. Slowly, slowly we are moving forward.”— jta
Rabbi’s stabbing fuels debate
The day after a knife attack against a rabbi in Frankfurt, a German Jewish leader was fueling the debate about extending “no-go areas” beyond eastern Germany.
The rabbi, 42, was reported in stable condition with injuries that are not life-threatening. The attack reportedly took place late Friday, Sept. 7. The victim described his attacker as a “Mediterranean type” who spoke Arabic. He reportedly said something in Arabic, threatened to kill the rabbi and then stabbed him in the stomach.
A spate of attacks on people of African and Indian background has prompted renewed discussion on whether certain areas in the former East Germany are truly dangerous for those who appear to be non-German. — jta
Jewish diplomat appointed Blair aide
The Bush administration named a veteran U.S. diplomat to assist Tony Blair in promoting Israeli-Palestinian peace.
Don Bandler, a former ambassador to Cyprus and a former director for Israeli and Palestinian affairs at the State Department, will be based in Jerusalem. He will represent the former British prime minister, now the lead Middle East envoy of the Quartet, the coalition of the United States, Russia, the European Union and the United Nations promoting Israeli-Palestinian peace. Bandler, the scion of a Philadelphia Jewish family, most recently worked for the Kissinger McLarty consulting firm headed by Henry Kissinger, the former secretary of state.— jta
CopyrightJ, the Jewish news weekly of Northern California