Jewry's Role in
Human Affairs

sor the measure in future sessions of
Congress.
Not so positive, Glickman said,
was the failure of the lame-duck law-
makers to reform objectionable pro-
visions of a 1996 immigration law.
"Those measures subject longtime
legal, permanent residents to impris-
onment or deportation if they ever
committed any in a long list of
crimes," he said. "Worse, it applies
retroactively. So even if an immi-
grant shoplifted as a youth, he or she
can be subject to deportation if the
INS finds out."
Many families of immigrants were
"ripped apart" by enforcement of the
measure, he said = including some
Jewish families.
Congress also failed to act on a
proposal to restore Food Stamp ben-
efits for legal immigrants that were .
cut off by the 1996 Welfare Reform
law. Some benefits were restored by
Congress in 1998, but hundreds of
thousands of immigrants are still not
eligible.

.

Embassy Moves

With only weeks left before the
moving vans remove him from the
White House, President Bill Clinton
appears to have forgotten his prom-
ise to reexamine the issue of moving
the U.S. embassy from Tel Aviv to
Jerusalem before the end of his term.
Jewish leaders are disappointed,
but hardly surprised.
Clinton recently issued another
waiver of the 1995 Jerusalem
Embassy act, which required the
administration to complete the move
by May, 1999 — unless the
President certifies that the move
would not be in the U.S. national
interest.
Administration sources say that
Clinton and his Mideast team con-
tinue to believe that any U.S. action
on the embassy in the absence of an
Israeli-Palestinian agreement on the
future of the city would damage the
peace process. And now that the
peace process is in intensive care,
they say, a move on the embassy
would be particularly dangerous.
President-elect George W. Bush
has promised to begin the process of
shifting the embassy soon after his
inauguration. He repeated the
pledge in a recent letter to the
Conference of Presidents of Major
American Jewish Organizations. "I
support moving the embassy from
Tel Avivko Jerusalem, and if elected,
I will set the process in motion

immediately upon taking office," he
said in the letter.
But the last phrase represents a big
loophole, Jewish officials concede;
like his predecessors, Bush could
simply promise to study the move
and its implications, while taking no
steps to actually build a new
embassy.
"Bush is probably serious," said an
official with another major Jewish
group. "But it's impossible to predict
how he will act when he's sitting in
the Oval Office, and getting bom-
barded with information about the
peace process, and how the embassy
move would affect it. We've heard
loose promises before, and the
embassy is still in Tel Aviv."

Ribbons For Remembrance

As the 106th Congress wound to a
tumultuous close last week, some
lawmakers were spotted wearing blue
ribbons on their lapels.
The ribbons were distributed by a
coalition of Jewish groups. The
object: to make sure officials here
remember the three Israeli soldiers
kidnapped by Hezbollah terrorists
along the Lebanese border on
October 7.
The idea for the ribbons came
from the Jewish Federation of
Metropolitan Chicago; the letters
were sent by the Jewish Council for
Public Affairs (JCPA) Washington
office. Also participating were the
Conference of Presidents of Major
American Jewish Organizations and
the United Jewish Communities.
"We sent the ribbons and a letter
to every member of Congress to
draw attention to the plight of the
soldiers," said Reva Price, JCPA's
Washington representative. "We also
urged them to contact Secretary of
State Madeleine Albright, (U.N.
General Secretary) Kofi Annan and
the International Red Cross to con-
tinue their efforts on behalf of the
soldiers." The idea is to keep inter-
national attention focused on the
kidnapping, she said.
"These prisoners must not be for-
gotten," the group's leaders wrote to
lawmakers. "Their plight, and the
suffering of their families, must end.
Your support is vital."
The Presidents Conference and the
UJC are also organizing a nation-
wide "Shabbat of solidarity" this
week to raise public awareness. That
event will also call attention to other
Israeli MIAs. ❑

REACHING FOR THE STARS •
In the book of mystical biblical commentary, the Zohar, often credited to
Spanish kabbalist Moses de Leon (1250-1305), he claimed that "The earth
revolves like a ball. When it is day on one-half of the globe, night reigns
over the other half." These speculations about celestial mysteries predated
Copernicus and Columbus by two centuries--suggesting the height of
intellectual curiosity through the ages of Jewish pioneers in astronomy and
cosmology.
As early as 240 C.E., the records find the
illustrious Babylonian astronomer, physician and
teacher, Mar Samuel, dean of the Nehardea
Academy of Higher Learning, justly observe, "The
paths of the heavens are as close to me as the paths
of Nehardea." The calendar produc , 1 by the
scholar, based on the motions of the stars, added
much to his repute in Babylon and Palestine.
During the Middle Ages, astrology was widely practiced by Jewish
advisors to the Moslem and Christian courts of Spain. Several llth Century
Hebrew sages in Toledo helped compile the famous Alfonsine Tables, the
foundations of scientific astronomy. And before the dawn of the 16th
century, more than 250 Jews were named in a short "census" of Europe's
foremost astronomers.
Treatise on the Sphere, published in 1536 by the Marrano
cosmographer, Pedro Nunes, guided Gerhardus Mercator in founding
modern cartography. And the voyages of discovery by Vasco da Gama and
Christopher Columbus were largely piloted by the counsel and astronomical
tables of the respected Spanish astronomer and historian, Abraham Zacuto
(c. 1450-1515).
Another towering figure in the field was
Sir William Herschel (1738-1822) of reputed
Jewish origins. Constructing some of the most
powerful refracting telescopes of his day, he
discovered Uranus in 1781, the first new planet
sighted since ancient times, and added much to
our knowledge of the solar system, galaxy and
nebulae. Herschel's theories helped lay the
groundwork for astrophysics. An older sister and
associate, Caroline, equally adept in astronomical
observation, discovered a number of star clusters,
eight comets and several nebulae.
Physicist Steven Weinberg has followed in his kinsmen's footsteps,
devising a 1979 Nobel Prize winning theory on elemental forces from
which the fundamental laws of nature are derived. In his many sweeping
writings, the now 69-year old visionary has helped transform our views of
space and time, of reality and comprehending the universe. Weinberg often
insists that his search for cosmology's holy grail--the unified theory--
foreshadows our finding an even deeper truth.
- Saul Stadtmauer

"Those should be the best loved who have contributed most to the elevation
of the human race."

- Albert Einstein

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