U.S. Report

NEW YORK (JTA) -- Textbooks used in Islamic schools in New York teach anti-Semitism, according to a newspaper investigation.

According to the New York Daily News, the books teach that Jews betrayed the Islamic prophet Mohammed and believe in racial superiority.

The books, which also denigrate Christianity, are published by companies that distribute textbooks throughout Islamic schools in the United States. The founder and director of one of these companies, Abidullah al-Ansari Ghazi, told the Daily News that some passages need to be changed.

But the other publisher, Yahiya Emerick, stands by the books. "Islam, like any belief system, believes its program is better than others," he said.

Reform rabbis pray for safety of troops

WASHINGTON (JTA) -- Divided over the war in Iraq, Reform rabbis issued a resolution Wednesday praying for the safety of U.S. troops.

The Central Conference of American Rabbis, which represents 1,800 Reform rabbis, issued the pro-troops plank at its 2003 convention in Washington, though it "acknowledged that its ranks are of varied opinion" about the war.

The group "stands together in its prayers for the security and safe return of military personnel and civilians, separated from home and family, serving bravely far from home," and mourned for the loss of "all human life" in the war.

The rabbis also prayed that "all despotism" would "vanish speedily from the Earth."

Triangle fire site declared a landmark

NEW YORK (JTA) -- The site of the Triangle shirtwaist fire was designated a New York City landmark.

The site of the fire that killed 146 workers, many of them Jewish immigrant women, became a landmark on Tuesday, the 92nd anniversary of the fire.

The fire helped spur the U.S. labor movement and workplace safety measures.