U.S. Report

Friday, July 21, 2000 | by

LOS ANGELES (JTA)—The man who starred as Captain Kirk in the original TV series "Star Trek" is planning to direct a movie based on his experience sitting shiva, the ritual mourning period, for his wife.

"During the process of sitting shiva, the concept occurred to me: Grief can be funny," said actor William Shatner.

Shatner's wife, Nerine, died accidentally in a swimming pool in their backyard last year.

Religious liberty act in Senate round 2

WASHINGTON (JTA)—Legislation requiring state and local governments to provide compelling reasons for passing zoning laws that block religious institutions—a synagogue, for example—was introduced in the Senate.

The Religious Land-Use and Institutionalized Persons Act, which has the support of many Jewish organizations, is a more limited version of the Religious Liberties Protection Act that failed last year. That version weighed in on such issues as allowing Jewish children to wear yarmulkes in school, allowing minors to drink wine for religious purposes and laws that conflicted with the Orthodox prohibition against autopsies.

Introduced by Sens. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) and Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), the new compromised version is more limited and applies only to zoning regulations and the rights of "institutionalized persons," including prisoners. But it would a require government to prove it was blocking religious liberties by the "least restrictive means" possible.

The legislation is the offspring of the Religious Freedom Restoration Act passed by Congress in 1993 and struck down by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1997. The court ruled that Congress had overstepped its bounds and declared the law unconstitutional.

Following that ruling, every major Jewish organization, along with numerous other religious and civil liberties groups, joined together to craft new legislation that would pass constitutional muster.

Maryland shul offers more choice in seats

BALTIMORE (JTA)—To increase its membership, an Orthodox congregation in Annapolis is offering mixed-gendered seating as well as a seating area where men and women are separated.

Although the 97-year-old Kneseth Israel is a member of the Orthodox Union, which considers mixed seating a no-no, synagogue president Jeffrey Goldstein told the Baltimore Jewish Times that the congregation actually only calls itself an Orthodox synagogue "for nostalgia reasons."

ADL kvetching leads VW to yank slogan

NEW YORK (JTA)—Volkswagen announced that it has discontinued a new advertising campaign utilizing the Yiddish word "chutzpah" after considering the complaints from the Anti-Defamation League.

The advertisement for the German car company's Beetle, which displayed the car with the slogan, "It's got chutzpah!," appeared on New York City buses.

Volkswagen, founded by the Nazis, employed Jewish slave laborers during World War II.

Place of worship slated for naval Jews

WASHINGTON—Some 154 years after the founding of the U.S. Naval Academy, the first Jewish center and chapel is planned for the campus yard, with land being provided by the academy and a nationwide fund-raising drive for the building and its perpetual upkeep under way.

The Annapolis-based Friends of the Jewish Chapel hopes to raise $10 million in the next two years, with the goal of building a $6 million facility.

The remaining $4 million will provide for a $1.5 million endowment for maintenance costs and a $2.5 million fund for programs, according to Harvey L. Stein, president of the group.

There are approximately 86 Jewish midshipmen among the 4,000 men and women attending the academy.

Nearly a third of these "mids" are women. Construction of the Commodore Uriah P. Levy Center and Jewish Chapel is expected to begin June 2001.

—Washington Jewish Week

New Tay-Sachs alert follows faulty testing

NEW YORK (JTA)—Some 8,000 people who were screened for Tay-Sachs disease by several companies between 1992 and 1998 are being asked to contact the firms to determine if they need to be retested.

Three babies were born with the disease after their parents were tested negative by Corning Clinical Laboratories, MetPath, MetWest or Quest Diagnostics. Three-quarters of the people who need to be retested live in the New York metropolitan area.

Tay-Sachs is more prevalent among Ashkenazi Jews and some other ethnic groups than in the general population.

Ohio medical center celebrates 150 years

CLEVELAND (JTA)—The Jewish Hospital in Cincinnati is celebrating its 150th anniversary.

The hospital is the oldest Jewish hospital in the United States, according to Jonathan Sarna, a Jewish historian at Brandeis University. In the aftermath of the 1849 cholera epidemic, the hospital was established with the mission of caring for "the indigent poor sick of the Jewish faith."

Like most American Jewish hospitals founded between 1850 and 1950, the hospital, while still receiving Jewish philanthropic support, now treats a very small number of Jewish patients.