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Jerusalem square to be named after convicted spy Pollard
Mina Fenton, a Jerusalem city councilwoman, announced this week that the capital’s Paris Square will be symbolically renamed Pollard Square in a ceremony Monday, Jan. 7, before President Bush begins his first visit as U.S. president to Israel and the West Bank.
The move is meant to help lobby Bush to pardon Pollard, a former U.S. Navy analyst who is serving a life prison sentence for spying for Israel. — jta
Israeli scientists make tiniest Hebrew Bible
Israeli scientists have inscribed the entire text of the Hebrew Bible onto a space less than half the size of a grain of sugar.
The nanotechnology experts at the Technion Institute in Haifa say the book was etched on a surface that measures less than 0.01 square inch.
“It took us about an hour to etch the 300,000 words of the Bible onto a tiny silicon surface,” said Ohad Zohar, the university’s scientific adviser for educational programs.
The Technion’s microscopic Bible was created by blasting tiny particles called gallium ions at an object that then rebounded, causing an etching affect.
“When a particle beam is directed toward a point on the surface, the gold atoms bounce off and expose the silicon layer underneath just like a hammer and chisel,” Zohar said.
He said the technology will be used as a way to store vast amounts of data on biomolecules and DNA.
The tiny Bible appears to be the world’s smallest.
The previous smallest known copy of the Bible measured 1.1 by 1.3 by 0.4 inches, weighed 0.4 ounces and contained 1,514 pages, according to Guinness World Records spokeswoman Amarilis Espinoza. The tiny text, obtained by an Indian professor in November 2001, is believed to have been created in Australia. — ap
Hezbollah link to North Korea?
North Korea may have provided arms and training to Hezbollah, according to a recent report by the research arm of the U.S. Congress.
The report on North Korea’s backing of terrorism cited a number of “reputable sources” in France, South Korea and elsewhere that said the rogue dictatorship trained and armed the Lebanese terrorist group from the 1980s until well into this decade.
Bunker-building training might have considerably assisted Hezbollah during the war it launched against Israel in summer 2006, the report said. — jta
Jews steamed by soccer icon
Soccer legend Diego Maradona has inflamed Argentina’s Jewish community with his wish to meet Iran’s president.
“I have already met [Venezuelan President Hugo] Chávez and [Cuban leader] Fidel [Castro]. Now I want to meet your president,” Maradona told the top Iranian diplomat in Argentina.
Relatives of the 85 people killed in the terrorist attack on the Buenos Aires AMIA Jewish community center in 1994, believed to have been masterminded by Iran, slammed Maradona for his remarks. — ap
Ukrainians introduce tzedakah ATM
A leading Ukrainian Jewish community has introduced a tzedakah ATM.
The pioneering automated machine, or “Tzedakahmat,” which operates like a regular automated teller machine, enables congregants and visitors to make donations for charitable purposes by transferring funds from their credit cards to the Jewish community of Dnepropetrovsk.
Tzedakahmat also accepts cash in Ukraine’s currency, which can be deposited directly into the machine. — jta
Report: German Muslims ostracized
Muslims in Germany may become more radical because they are excluded from mainstream German society, an Interior Ministry report said.
The report’s authors, who interviewed 1,750 Muslims, classified about 6 percent of respondents as having “violent tendencies” and 14 percent as tending toward “anti-democratic” views. — jta
UJC to build Ethiopian school
Even as the Israeli government and the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee wind down their operations in Ethiopia, one major Jewish group is ramping up its efforts there.
A coalition of seven local Jewish charitable federations in North America are raising $350,000 under the auspices of the United Jewish Communities federation umbrella group to build a new Jewish school in the Ethiopian city of Gondar.
The school project is being undertaken by the North American Conference on Ethiopian Jewry (NACOEJ), which funds operations in Ethiopia for the Falash Mura — Ethiopians who claim links to descendents of Jews either by lineage or by marriage — and has campaigned to bring them to Israel.
“It’s an unassailably good thing to do,” said Jim Lodge, UJC’s vice president for Israel and overseas affairs.
The construction of the Jewish school in Gondar is likely to fuel concerns that some federations may be seeking to perpetuate Ethiopian aliyah by fostering a Jewish identity among Ethiopians that Israel’s Interior Ministry says are not Jewish.
NACOEJ and its UJC sponsors, however, say they are building the new school to satisfy a demand by the Ethiopian government that mandated its construction as a condition of keeping the current Jewish school open. — jta
CopyrightJ, the Jewish news weekly of Northern California