Shorts: U.S.

Democrat backs president on Palestinian aid

washington (jta) | A Massachusetts lawmaker sent President Bush a letter in support of direct aid to the Palestinian Authority.

Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.) told Bush this week that he supports direct financial aid to the Palestinian Authority and expressed regret over other lawmakers' failure to stand behind the president's move.

Asserting that U.S. support of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas is likely to advance peace, Frank condemned congressional restrictions on direct aid, "which seem to be counterproductive and in fact directly in contrast to the best interests of Israel."

Bush offered Abbas $50 million in direct aid during their May 26 meeting despite congressional demands that funds be directed through third parties in order to ensure transparency.




Bush officials meet with Conservatives

washington (jta) | The head of U.S. homeland security told Conservative Jewish leaders that government must balance security needs with costs to society.

Michael Chertoff, son of a Conservative rabbi, had been invited to speak this week to leaders of the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism and the Rabbinical Assembly as part of an expanded effort by the movement to influence public policy.

"We in the Conservative movement, for a number of years, had not really taken advantage of the potential to be players in this game," said Rabbi Jerome Epstein, United Synagogue's executive vice president and CEO.




Former prof accused of 'double life'

washington (jta) | Prosecutors accused a former professor at a U.S. university of living a "double life" as a conduit for Islamic Jihad.

The trial of Sami Al-Arian opened this week in Tampa, and prosecutors alleged that the former University of South Florida professor raised money and organized operations for the terrorist group. His defense attorney suggested that the case is about Arian's right to free speech, including making aggressively anti-Israel statements.

Arian was fired from the school in 2003 after he was indicted. He has been under investigation for more than a decade, and the case was at the center of last year's Florida Senate race.




Yiddish paper's publisher dies

new york (jta) | Gershon Jacobson, founder and publisher of a leading Yiddish-language newspaper in the United States, died Sunday at age 70.

In 1972 Jacobson founded Der Algemeiner Journal, which often focuses on tensions within the Chassidic community, The New York Times reported.

Jacobson, who had a graduate degree from the Columbia University School of Journalism, was born Boris Yacobashvili in Moscow. He immigrated to the United States after World War II and after his father escaped from a Stalinist labor camp.