shorts: u.s.

UJC finds new CEO in Pittsburgh

washington (jta) | The United Jewish Communities has tapped Howard Rieger, president of the United Jewish Federation of Pittsburgh, as its next president.

Rieger, who has headed the Pittsburgh federation since 1981, will succeed Stephen Hoffman, who ends his three-year term this summer.

The UJC search committee unanimously recommended Rieger, who said he would accept the job, according to UJC's chairman of the board, Robert Goldberg. The UJC board of trustees is expected to approve the recommendation.




Holocaust archivists compare notes

new york (jta) | Holocaust archivists from Israel, Europe and North America met for the first time.

Participants in the first International Shoah Archivists Working Forum, which convened in New York this week, discussed ways to cooperate and improve their work.

"With the aging of the last generation of Holocaust survivors, it is essential that the evidence and documentation of the Shoah be rescued, preserved and made accessible for generations to come," said Julius Berman, chairman of the Claims Conference.




Kerry names Jewish liaison

washington (jta) | Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) named Jay Footlik as his campaign's liaison to the Jewish community. Footlik served as a fund-raiser in the Jewish community for Sen. Joseph Lieberman's (D-Conn.) presidential bid and was a Jewish liaison in the Clinton White House.

Kerry, the presumptive Democratic nominee for president, previously has relied on several prominent fund-raisers in the Jewish community to direct his outreach, as well as his brother, Cameron, who converted to Judaism 20 years ago when he married a Jewish woman.




Camp guard to be deported

washington (jta) | A U.S. court upheld a decision to deport a man who served as a concentration camp guard.

Last week's decision by the Board of Immigrant Appeals affirmed a 2002 decision that Mykola Wasylyk should be deported because he served as an armed guard at the Trawniki and Budzyn camps in 1943.

Wasylyk, 79, has been living in upstate New York.