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COMPILED BY ELIZABETH APPLEBAUM

Music Commission
Sponsors Contest

Jewish Music Com-
mission is sponsoring a
Jewish music contest for
Jewish
composers around the world.
Music must be original and
submitted by July 4. For a
brochure, write the Jewish
Music Commission, 15739
Ventura Blvd., Encino, CA
91436.
The music of the 15 finalists
of last year's contest is includ-
ed on an album, "The Ameri-
can Jewish Song Festival," just
released by the Jewish Music
Commission.
Founded in 1982 under the

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auspices of Valley Beth
Shalom Synagogue, the Jew-
ish Music Commission offers
annual prizes totalling $5,000
for the best pop, jazz, folk and
musical theater-oriented com-
positions with a Jewish theme.

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The family plans to begin
exporting its kosher vodkas to
the United States and Canada
beginning in 1995. This year,
/\=D the family is concentrating on
expanding its presence in Ger-
many and Western Europe.

he autographs of such
leading socialist and
anarchist figures as
Emma Goldman and Bar-
tolomeo Vanzetti will be up for
sale next month in New York.
Being sold through Swann
Galleries in Manhattan, the
autographs are part of the
Bruce Rubenstein Collection,
the largest private collection

on 19th- and 20th-century
radical movements ever to be
auctioned. It features mater-
ial on utopian communities,
women's suffrage and labor
history.
In addition to the Goldman
and Vanzetti

Along with four varieties of
kosher vodka, the family
produces two after-dinner
liqueurs and is planning to
produce a line of kosher-for-
Pesach vodkas.
Located in a town halfway
between Berlin and Hanover,
the factory produces what it
maintains is Germany's first
kosher vodka. The drink is
made at

the former Communist-
government-owned Absthof
spirits factory, which the Nis-
senbaums, together with a
senior manager at the plant,
took over after industry was
privatized in the former East
Germany.
So what is not kosher about
other brands of vodka?
Gideon Nissenbaum, a part
owner of the factory, said his
company uses only kosher
yeast. Others use yeast from
animal fat, he said.
All bottles of the Nissen-
baum kosher vodka carry a
seal of kashrut approval from
Rabbi D. Weisz of the
Orthodox Rabbinate in Berlin.

signatures, the collection in-
cludes socialist periodicals
that cover the Leopold and
Loeb trial and the McCarthy
witch hunts.

Christians Give Funds
To Assist Soviet Jews

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Up, Up And Away

erlin (JTA) — Comrade,
this drink's for you.
Within a year, vodka
drinkers in North America
will be able to order up a
kosher version of the drink
manufactured, in of all places,
the former East Germany.
The Nissenbaums, a west-
ern German Jewish family
that has made kosher vodka
a necessity in Poland, has now
begun producing the drink in
Germany.

Goldman, Vanzetti Signatures
To Be Auctioned In New York

he International Fellowship of Christians and Jews has
raised more than $300,000 from the Christian commu-
nity for the United Jewish Appeal's Operation Exodus
campaign.
Operation Exodus, an adjunct to the UJA's annual nation-
al fund-raising campaign, has brought nearly 500,0000 im-
migrants to Israel since
1989.
More than 6,000
Christians donated to
the 1993 Operation Ex-
odus. Much of the mon-
ey was raised through
"While the Door Is Still
Open," an educational
telethon developed by
the Fellowship and
aired nationwide on ca-
ble TV.
This year, the Fel-
lowship plans to pro-
duce a radio program,
highlighting the contin-
uing problems faced by
Jews in the former So-
viet Union, to be aired
on Christian stations.

Handbook Highlights
Volunteer Opportunities

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he American Zionist
Youth Foundation is
distributing a new
handbook that describes vol-
unteer and intern opportu-
nities in Israel.
Volunteer and Internship
Possibilities in Israel is for
students, young profession-
als and potential olim. It con-
tains general information
about work in Israel, profiles

of 160 organizations that use
volunteers and interns, and
an index of the organizations'
required time commitment
and level of Hebrew.
The book costs $10 and
may be ordered through the
University Student Depart-
ment-American Zionist
Youth Foundation, 110 E.
59th St., Third Floor, New
York, NY 10022.

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Come Home
To Natchez

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he Museum of the
Southern Jewish
Experience and
Temple B'nai Israel in
Natchez,
Miss., are
1' 4
rr4( hosting the "Natchez
Jewish Homecoming"
April 29-May 1.
'1E4
The weekend will ex-
plore the Jewish com-
munity of Natchez, the
history of which dates
back to the late 1700s.
The program will begin
with a reception at one
of Natchez's historic
homes, followed by
Shabbat services at
Temple B'nai Israel.
Other weekend activi-
ties include a driving
tour of Jewish Natchez,
panel discussions, a vis-
it to the Natchez Jewish
cemetery and a trip to
the Museum of the
Southern Jewish Expe-
rience at the Union of
1. American Hebrew Con-
gregation's Henry S. Ja-
cobs Camp in Utica,
Miss., for a "bagel and
grits brunch."
The weekend costs
$150 per person. For in-
formation, write the
Natchez Jewish Home-
coming, do Museum of
the Southern Jewish
Experience, P.O. Box
16528, Jackson, MS
39236, or call (601) 362-
6357.

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