U.S. Report

NEW YORK (JTA) -- The American Jewish Congress denied a report published last week that financier Marc Rich offered the group a donation with the understanding that the group would write to President Clinton in support of a pardon.

AJCongress Executive Director Phil Baum clarified Sunday that agents for Rich asked the organization to "intervene on Rich's behalf."

However, no mention was made of a pardon, said Baum, who declined to speculate on how the AJCongress interpreted the request.

In addition, though Rich's philanthropy in the Jewish community was well known, no mention was made of a potential donation to the AJCongress, Baum said.

In the end, Baum said, he declined to help Rich, believing that his good works "didn't excuse the harm he had done in other contexts."

The president wants a Shabbat of his own

WASHINGTON (JTA) -- President Bush joked that he would convert to Judaism so he could ease his work schedule.

However well intentioned, he missed the Shabbat mark slightly.

At the Radio-Television Correspondents Dinner last week, an event where presidents often poke fun at themselves, Bush said he was so impressed by the fact that Orthodox Jewish Sen. Joseph Lieberman refrains from work on the Sabbath that he was considering conversion "so I don't have nothing to do from sundown Saturday to sundown Friday."

Synagogue's opening marred by vandals

BALTIMORE (JTA) -- A Reconstructionist synagogue in suburban Maryland was vandalized over the weekend right before its members celebrated the opening of the new building.

Vandals sprayed three swastikas and the words "go home" on the pavement near the parking lot of the Adat Shalom Congregation in Bethesda. Police were able to remove most of the graffiti before the synagogue's dedication ceremony.