News Brief

Two boxes of Carmel kiddush wine are headed from Australia to Baghdad for soldiers’ Shabbat celebrations. The wine will enable Jewish Australian and American troops celebrate Shabbat in the war-torn city. Rabbi Yossi Segelman, the Jewish chaplain to the Australian Defense Forces, told JTA Tuesday that he had received a request by e-mail from an Australian Jewish major serving in Iraq. “There’s about a couple of dozen Australian and American Jewish soldiers who get together every Friday night,” he said. The soldiers have formed a congregation called “Bnei Baghdad,” said Segelman, a Lubavitcher who was born in London. He said the Israeli sacramental wine had to be cleared by parliamentary officials before it could be sent by freight to Baghdad and that it was being added to the official list of goods requested by soldiers serving overseas.