Shorts: U.S.

Jewish group seeks donations after second Asian quake

new york | The American Jewish World Service relaunched its tsunami relief efforts after hundreds of thousands of people in Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Thailand and India were traumatized when an 8.7 earthquake emanated from the shores of a remote Indonesian island earlier this week.

"Our partners, in-country directors, volunteers, as well as local government authorities were on top of the situation, alerting communities about the potential dangers," said Julia Greenberg, deputy director of international programs for AJWS. "The damage appears to be isolated, but the psychological effects of this quake on an already traumatized population will be devastating," she added.

To date, AJWS has received more than $10 million in donations for its Tsunami Relief and Reconstruction Fund from individuals, foundations and Jewish federations throughout the United States. More than 30 grants have been made to community-based non-governmental organizations in South- and Southeast Asia and Somalia, totaling nearly $2 million. Additionally, the organization has placed 14 skilled volunteers through its AJWS Volunteer Corps to assist with relief and reconstruction.

Donation information: (415) 296-2533 or www.ajws.org.




Reform movement offers resources on end-of-life issues

new york (jta) | The Reform movement offered its congregations resources to deal with the Terri Schiavo case.

Posted last week at http://urj.org/jfc/ bioethics/life, the resources deal with Jewish responses to end-of-life issues.

"The Schiavo case reminds us of the need to regularly sponsor teaching sessions on making sacred decisions at the end of life," the movement said.

A Reform rabbi, Steven Jacobs of Kol Tikvah congregation in Woodland Hills, joined a teleconference last week by the liberal Interfaith Alliance that said the Schiavo case represented a manipulation of religion.




A Jewish living will?

new york (jta) | A U.S. Orthodox rabbinical group reissued guidelines for a living will based on Jewish law.

The Halachic Living Will issued by the Rabbinical Council of America comes amid media spotlight on Terri Schiavo and the issue of the "right to die." The document is available at http://www.rabbis.org.




AJCongress invests in Caterpillar

washington (jta) | A U.S. Jewish group bought shares of stock in a company under attack because the Israeli army uses its bulldozers to destroy Palestinian homes.

The American Jewish Congress announced this week that it had bought shares in Caterpillar as part of its initiative to fight calls for divestment from companies doing business with Israel. The group also said it would forge a coalition with Jewish and Christian groups opposed to the divestment push.

A few Protestant churches recently have approved measures calling for divestment from Israel, and it is a frequent call among anti-Israel campaigners on college campuses.

In an attempt to support Israel's economy, the AJCongress also said it would hold a series of conferences on technology and business in the Jewish state.




Destroyed Holocaust museum to reopen

washington (jta) | A Holocaust museum in Indiana that was destroyed by fire is reopening.

The CANDLES Holocaust museum in Terre Haute is slated to reopen this week. The 4,500-foot museum its formal name is the Children of Auschwitz Nazi Deadly Lab Experiments Survivors was housed in a former print shop in a strip mall on a busy highway. Run by Eva Kor, a survivor of genetic experiments conducted by Dr. Josef Mengele at Auschwitz, it mostly educated local school children about the horrors of the Holocaust.

In November 2003 someone broke into the museum after hours, set it ablaze and scrawled "Remember Timmy McVeigh" on an exterior wall, a reference to the Oklahoma City bomber who killed 168 people in 1995 and subsequently was executed in a federal prison in Terre Haute.




Jewish feminists claim e-mail hoax

new york (jta) | A Jewish feminist group claimed credit for a hoax e-mail aimed at the Conservative movement this week.

Jewish Women Watching, a watchdog group whose members retain their anonymity as they attack what they see as hypocrisy, sexism and homophobia in the organized Jewish world, claimed credit for an e-mail that claimed the Conservative movement was planning to "achieve gender and sexual equity" in all of its ranks. It also said the movement would begin ordaining gay and lesbian rabbis by the year 2010, by which time all Conservative synagogues would be required to become "fully egalitarian."

In fact, declared gays and lesbians are officially barred from the Conservative movement's rabbinical seminaries; each synagogue is free to make its own decision about egalitarian practice. On Wednesday, a follow-up e-mail claimed credit for the hoax.