U.S. Report

LOS ANGELES (JTA) -- Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon will attend a Los Angeles vigil on the one-year anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks.

Sharon's visit to the United States will not include a trip to Washington, D.C. or New York, Israeli officials said.

N.Y. to U.N.: Throw Palestinian office out

NEW YORK (JTA) -- New York's City Council overwhelmingly approved a resolution Aug. 15 to shut down the Palestinian mission to the United Nations in Manhattan.

Because the City Council lacks the authority to close the office, the bill calls on President Bush to work with the United Nations to do so -- which many insiders deem highly unlikely. Still, "it's a major victory," said Rabbi Shmuel Herzfeld of the Coalition for Jewish Concerns -- Amcha, which lobbied for the bill's passage.

Rabbi who scolded Pope John Paul II dies

NEW YORK (JTA) -- Rabbi Mordecai Waxman, who challenged Pope John Paul II to confront Jewish issues, died Aug. 10 in Great Neck, N.Y., at 85.

Speaking in 1987 in Miami with the pope in the audience, Waxman called for the Vatican to pay more attention to Christian anti-Semitism, relations with Israel, and pain over the pope's meeting with Austrian President Kurt Waldheim.