6 The Jewish Herald • Friday, March 22, 2013 XX SEVE N DA BRIEFS President Obama implied


in Ramallah that a settlement freeze should not be a precondi- tion for Israeli-Palestinian nego- tiations. He made the statement at a news conference following a long meeting in the West Bank city with P.A. Chairman Mah- moud Abbas. “If the only way to begin the conversation is that we get everything right at the outset, then we’re never going to get to the broader issue, which is how do we structure a State of Palestine and how do you pro- vide Israel confidence about its security,” Obama said. “That’s not to say settlements are not im- portant.” Early in his first term, in 2009, Obama called on Israel


ing their treatment. The less severely injured Syrians will be returned to Syria “later on,” the IDF statement said. Seven Syrian rebels entered Israel through the Golan Heights in February and were treated in Israeli hospitals. •


Ohio has bought $42 mil-


lion in Israel Bonds, reportedly the largest single government purchase of Israel Bonds in U.S. history. “We believe this is a sound investment for the tax- payers of Ohio and consistent with our strategy of investing in safe and strong securities,” Ohio State Treasurer Josh Mandel, who is Jewish, told the Cleveland Jewish News. The purchase in- creases the total amount of Is- rael Bonds in the state’s trea- sury portfolio to more than $80 million. In applauding the Ohio purchase, Israel Bonds Presi- dent & CEO Izzy Tapoohi said, “The Bonds organization appre- ciates Treasurer Mandel’s his- toric investment, which high- lights the resilience of Israel’s economy and underscores the value of acquiring Israel bonds for financial portfolios.” To date more than 80 state and munici- pal governments have invested over $2 billion in Israel bonds. •


to freeze settlement building in the West Bank; Israel partially acquiesced after initially resist- ing. Since that 10-month freeze expired, during which little diplomatic activity took place, Abbas has demanded another freeze in order to resume talks. •


Egyptian authorities re-


scinded a ban on the screening of a documentary about Egyp- tian Jews. “Jews of Egypt” will be screened in theaters beginning late this month, director Amir Ramses said in a tweet. “We won the war against National Secu- rity. We got the permit,” Ramses said on Twitter and Facebook. The film had been banned ear- lier this month by the country’s Censorship Bureau, which in- sisted that security officials clear the film before its release. It follows the lives of the Egyp- tian Jewish community in the 20th century until Jews left in large numbers under duress in the 1950s. “Jews of Egypt” was screened in Egypt last year in a private film festival after be- ing approved by censors, a reg- ular procedure in Egypt, but re- quired a different license to be screened in theaters. •


Israeli soldiers provided


medical care to four wounded Syrians on the Golan Heights border after the Syrians ap- proached the border fence, the Israel Defense Forces said in a statement. Two of the Syrians were taken to Israeli hospitals due to the severity of their in- juries, according the IDF. They will be returned to Syria follow-


A Cypriot court convicted


an admitted Hezbollah agent of plotting to attack Israeli tour- ists. Hossam Taleb Yaacoub, 24, a citizen of Lebanon and Swe- den, was found guilty on five of the eight charges, including participation in a criminal orga- nization, in a ruling that could have significant repercussions for Hezbollah operations in Eu- rope. Yaacoub, who admitted in court last month that he was a member of Hezbollah, will be sentenced next week, according to a report by the Swedish tele- vision station SVT. The judge ruled that Hezbollah acts as a criminal organization. He is be- lieved to have made maps during a visit to the Mediterranean is- land in November 2011, taking into account popular modes of transport frequented by Israeli tourists. Observers said the con- viction may give further impe- tus to efforts to have Hezbollah designated a terrorist organi- zation by the European Union. •


A Jewish infant in New


York survived an eight-story fall after his mother, Cynthia Wachenheim, strapped him to her body and apparently jumped to her death. Wachenheim, who was 44, landed on her back in her Harlem neighborhood in the March 13 incident, allowing 10- month-old Keston to roll away virtually unscathed, according to media reports. She had been on maternity leave from her work as a lawyer and left a 13-page suicide note for her husband, Hal Bacharach, 48. Wachenheim believed the boy had suffered


brain damage in two falls and that she was to blame, the New York Times reported. A gradu- ate of Columbia University Law School, Wachenheim attended B’nai Jeshurun, a synagogue on Manhattan’s Upper West Side, and volunteered with the American Jewish World Service. •


An Algerian immigrant


who admitted to planning to blow up synagogues in New York City was sentenced to 10 years in prison. Ahmed Ferhani, 28, was the first person convict- ed under a state terror statute that went into effect following the 9/11 attacks. Ferhani could have been sentenced to up to 25 years in prison, but entered a plea agreement in December. He also will serve five years of probation under the terms of the agreement. Ferhani and his alleged accomplice, Mohamed Mamdouh, whose case is still pending, were arrested after they bought three firearms and what they believed was a live gre- nade from an undercover police detective. They reportedly had planned to disguise themselves as chasidic Jews in order to get into the synagogues. •


Prosecutors in Poland are


investigating reports of the ko- sher slaughter of a cow that may have violated Polish law. The pros- ecutor began investigating the shechita, or kosher slaughter, of a cow in the northeastern town of Tykocin after hearing about it from a county veterinarian in


Bialystok. Michael Schudrich, the Polish chief rabbi, called on the government to resolve the kosher-slaughter issue soon. “This case was not about pre- paring large quantities of meat for export but a small amount of meat to allow the Jews to fulfill the religious obligations of Pass- over,” he said in a statement. “I would like [the] Polish govern- ment to make decisions in this matter in the near future.” Po- land’s Agriculture Ministry has said it will work to enshrine rit- ual slaughter in Polish legisla- tion this year that is designed to streamline the way that Pol- ish procedures correspond with E.U. regulations. •


A U.S. appeals court pan-


el heard arguments on wheth- er Americans born in Jerusa- lem can list Israel as their place of birth on passports and birth certificates. Attorney Nathan Lewin, representing a couple that had moved to Israel in 2000 from the United States and had a child born in a western Jeru- salem hospital, argued before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia that listing one’s place of birth is simply a matter of self-identification — the same as listing height, or eye or hair color — and should carry no further weight. Those born in Jerusalem now have the city listed rather than the country like other U.S. passports. U.S. Department of Justice attorney Dana Kaersvang told the three- judge panel, however, that all


information on a passport must be consistent with U.S. policy. A decision on Tuesday’s hearing is not expected for several months. •


The U.S. Department of


Education outlined new efforts to bring non-profit private schools into federally funded programs. Their inclusion has been sought by Orthodox Jewish groups, among others. State and local educational agencies “must en- sure the equitable participation of eligible private school students and, as applicable, their teachers and parents” in such programs, the department’s Office of Inno- vation and Improvement said in its proposed plan for such inclu- sion posted last week on the de- partment’s website. Such schools, including religious schools, also must be included in programs falling under the disabilities ed- ucation law, it said. The Ortho- dox Union welcomed the initia- tive, saying in a statement that it was “an important and prag- matic first step in improving the delivery of federally fund- ed educational services to the nonpublic schools students who are entitled to receive them.” •


More than 1,000 people


demonstrated in front of the president’s residence in Jeru- salem calling for the release of Jonathan Pollard. The protest was held hours before President Obama was scheduled to land in Israel. The protesters outside the home of Shimon Peres called for Obama to grant clemency to


YS


British Jews Bury Jewish Victims Of A Medieval Massacre S


A M S Remains of 17 bodies discovered at


bottom of well in Norwich given a Jewish burial; evidence points to violent deaths


of Norwich in 2004, were given a Jewish burial in Earlham Cemetery on Tuesday. The bodies, which were dated to somewhere


J


between the 12th and 13th centuries, were found during an archaeological dig prior to construc- tion of a new shopping center and are suspected to belong to Jews. According to the 2011 BBC documentary “History Cold Case: the Bodies in a Well,” fractures and other physical evidence may point to violent deaths. Eleven of the skeletons belonged to children


under 15 years old and Jewish community rep- resentatives have stated that “fractures suggest the throwing of the bodies of the adults down the well, head first.” Jews have lived in Norwich since 1135, which


is famous for the 1144 murder of William of Norwich, a young boy whose death, subsequent- ly blamed of the town’s Jewish population, led to the propagation of the world’s first blood li- bel.


Despite a fierce debate among scientists as


to the identity of the bodies, the Board of Depu- ties of British Jews, the umbrella organization for England’s Jewish community, decided to go ahead with the Jewish burial. According to a statement by the board on Monday, despite in- conclusive results from DNA testing conduct- ed on the bodies, “rabbinical advice was that there was sufficient possibility that the bones


should be interned in a Jewish cemetery as they will tomorrow.” Among those who are skeptical of the bodies’


Jewish identity is Norwich Castle Museum cu- rator Alan West, who was quoted in London’s Jewish Chronicle asserting that “there is noth- ing to suggest they are of Jewish origins.” According to the Jewish Chronicle, research-


ers at the University of London initially indi- cated that “the balance of probability made it likely that these individuals did indeed have Jewish ancestry,” but further examination led them to determine that “the interpretation that


ERUSALEM — The remains of 17 bodies, discovered at the bottom of a well in the city


O K O L


Illustration Rick Nease


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