U.S. Report

Friday, August 15, 2003 | by

NEW YORK (JTA)—Martha Stewart pal Samuel Waksal is apparently spending his time in prison studying Judaism.

Waksal, the founder of ImClone who is serving time for insider trading, listed many Jewish books on his Amazon.com wish list, according to The New Yorker magazine.

Among the books entered on Waksal's list were Adin Steinsaltz's translation of the Talmud, commentaries on the Kabbalah and books on medieval and modern Jewish history.

Waksal began serving a sentence of seven years and three months in a Pennsylvania prison in July.

Mortimer Zuckerman voted sexiest mogul

NEW YORK (JTA)—The past chairman of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations was chosen as New York's "sexiest media mogul."

Mortimer Zuckerman, publisher of U.S. News & World Report and the New York Daily News, is one of the "50 Sexiest New Yorkers," according to New York magazine.

"Mort's got game as an Upper East side bachelor—tan and buff from playing hours of tennis every day,'' the magazine fawns.

Other sexy Jews in the current issue include Paul Rudd, Jon Stewart, Rabbi Balfour Brickner and New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer.

Bush will appoint Pipes over protests

WASHINGTON (JPS)—Over objections from some Muslim American groups, President Bush plans to sidestep Congress and appoint a Middle East scholar who has been derided by critics as anti-Muslim to a federally funded think tank, congressional sources said on Tuesday.

Bush's expected recess appointment of Daniel Pipes could spark a backlash from some Muslim Americans and Democrats in Congress, who oppose his nomination to serve on the board of the U.S. Institute of Peace, which was created by Congress to promote peaceful solutions to world conflicts.

Bank praises Hitler for finance policies

CHICAGO (JTA)—As Chicago Jewish leaders ponder what the long-term response should be to a bank's newsletter article that praised Adolf Hitler for his financial strategies, bank president David Raub, the author of the controversial article, admits that he made a "shocking error" because he "had tunnel vision blinders on to a shocking and astounding degree."

Bank executives have apologized to the Jewish community, but the incident has left Chicago Jews shocked and wondering how such an article could have been published, particularly in the newsletter of a bank catering to clients in the heavily Jewish North Shore suburbs.