Shorts: U.S.

$100 million donation to Yeshiva University

new york (jta) | New York's Yeshiva University received a $100 million gift from Ronald Stanton, chairman of Transammonia Inc.

The gift will be used to set up a "revolving' fund that the university president can use to buy or improve university facilities, pay faculty salaries, give scholarships and endow faculty research.

Stanton, whose company trades, distributes and transports fertilizer materials, liquefied petroleum gases, petrochemicals and crude oil, in the past endowed Y.U.'s Heidi Steinberg Library at Stern College, the school's college for women.




Jewish groups to rally for Israel at U.N.

new york (jta) | U.S. Jewish groups are trying to enlist thousands of Jews and non-Jews to greet members of the U.N. General Assembly with a message of solidarity with Israel.

The Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, Jewish Community Relations Council of New York, United Jewish Communities and the UJA-Federation of New York will hold a "Stand with Israel" rally in New York on Sept. 20, the first day of the General Assembly, according to the executive vice chairman of the Conference of Presidents, Malcolm Hoenlein.




Iranian Jews sue ex-president Khatami

new york (ap) | A group of Jewish Iranians who say their missing relatives were kidnapped and tortured by the Iranian government have sued the country's former president, Mohammad Khatami, delivering the summons to him directly Friday, Sept. 8, in Arlington, Va., while he was visiting the United States.

The families, who reside in Los Angeles and Israel, say their relatives were arrested at different times between 1994 and 1997 as they tried to leave Iran by crossing into Pakistan.

The lawsuit, filed Sept. 7 in Manhattan federal court, claims Khatami instituted polices that prevented relatives from having trials and did not give family members information about their whereabouts.




Jewish activists at center of Darfur rally

new york (jta) | As Darfur advocates are preparing for a "Save Darfur Day" rally for Sept. 17 in New York City's Central Park, American Jewish groups have once again positioned themselves at the center of the movement to save the war-torn African region from genocide.

In April, the Save Darfur Coalition, a collaboration of 175 faith-based and humanitarian organizations initiated by the American Jewish World Service and the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, drew 60,000 to 75,000 people to a rally in Washington aimed at bringing attention to the situation. Some 25,000 of those attending were Jews, according to Ruth Messinger, the president of the American Jewish World Service.

The Sept. 17 follow-up rally is meant to push the United Nations to deploy an international peacekeeping force to Darfur, in line with a resolution it passed recently.