Richard Gere is hosting a fund-raiser for the architects of the “Geneva accord” proposal for Israeli-Palestinian peace. The movie star is holding a fund-raiser at his Manhattan apartment Thursday night. On Friday, the two lead negotiators of the peace proposal, Palestinian Yasser Abed Rabbo and Israeli Yossi Beilin, are launching a media blitz to refocus attention on their plan.
A group representing victims in the 1994 bombing of an Argentine Jewish center is calling for the former judge in the case to be put on trial. The group says Juan Jose Galeano was involved in bribing car mechanic Carlos Telleldin to accuse former police officers in the July 1994 bombing, which killed 85 people.
A U.S. judge again delayed the trail of an alleged Nazi collaborator. Chief U.S. District Court Judge Walter Rice rescheduled the federal trial of Ildefonsas Bucmys because a defense witness could not testify due to illness.
The umbrella organization of British Jews condemned a vegetarian group’s ad campaign that compares eating meat to the Holocaust. Neville Nagler, director general of the Board of Deputies, said the campaign by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals caused “enormous offense to victims of the Holocaust and their families.”
Some Syrian-born New York Jews are in Syria pressing for the release of the remains of Israeli spy Eli Cohen. The delegation is expected to meet with Syrian President Bashar Assad during the trip.
A German Jewish historian condoned the torture of suspected terrorists. Michael Wolffsohn, historian with the German Bundeswehr University in Munich, called torture a legitimate tool in the war on terrorism.
The Hadassah Foundation and Women’s Sports Foundation will train female coaches to work in Jewish Community Centers across America. Hadassah will provide more than $41,000 in grants for the Women’s Sports Foundation’s GoGirlGo! program, which provides sports opportunities for adolescent girls. The Women’s Sports Foundation also is contributing more than $22,000 for the program.
The head of French friends of Israel’s Likud Party admitted staging anti-Semitic phone calls to himself. Alex Moise received a two-month suspended sentence and a $1,000 fine from a Paris court Thursday for giving a false statement and for wasting the court’s time.
Some subway-card dispensing machines in New York City now offer Yiddish. MetroCard machines are offering Yiddish-language instructions at seven subway stops in Jewish neighborhoods in Brooklyn.
Rock star Lenny Kravitz is making a semi-autobiographical feature film about his black-Jewish roots. Kravitz, the son of a Jewish TV producer and actress Roxie Roker, told MTV.com he is making his cinematic debut in “Barbecues and Bar Mitzvahs,” a dramatic comedy about a musician searching for love and happiness.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
