This Week

News Digest

83 -

due at signing

Violence Scares
British Tourists

fflos etemOW

2001 3.2 CI. Type "S"

°Nies'
velx‘cAe:1

too

FREE LiCE7 - vE

OIL CHANCES

Pr
r .11‘ SW' •

PLRCHiSE

2001 3.5 RI

Leather, Auto. FWD,

V6, CD

20013.2 TL

Changer

*All payments plus tax, title, license due. 12,000 miles

.3 SUBURBAN

(6_‘

ACURA

248-471-9200

25000 HAGGERTY • FARMINGTON

Just North of Grand River Ave.

Mon & Thurs 9-9, Tues, Wed, Fri 9.6

1011 are CONIi114 iftliiiO41 to altefld ollf Grad Opellill[

L , ,) 11C1111111 & C011111111Yfaio.„ ,_/(f/Ja
3844 West Nape hod • Bloomfield llillg YI 48301
248.642•
PektFFff #su#s2001 • N
Ple a se grailiu1 ' d'onyres, ilrill prize tir(lwiills.

,

Maxie
Collision, Inc.

Jim • Fleischer

"Since 1987"

2/23
2001

24

32581 Northwestern Highway, Farmington Hills, MI 48334

248-737-7122

London/JTA — Despite several high-
profile solidarity missions, British
tourism to Israel has fallen dramatical-
ly since Palestinian violence erupted
in late September.
Thomson Travel, Britain's largest
package-tour operator, has canceled
all trips to Israel through the end of
the year, and El Al has reduced its
number of weekly flights because of
low interest.
Thomas Cook, one of the largest
travel agents in Britain, told the JTA
that travel to Israel in January was
down by about two-thirds from the
same period last year. "In January
2000, we sent about 700 people to
Israel. This year, it was about 200,"
Thomas Cook spokesman Nick
O'Donnell said.
About one-third of British travelers
to Israel are Jewish, according to the
Israeli government tourist office.
Britain's Orthodox and Reform com-
munities have sent more than 100
people to Israel on separate solidarity
missions in the past few months.
Gaining from the decline in Eilat's
popularity is the nearby Egyptian
resort of Sharm el-Sheik in the Sinai
Desert, O'Donnell said.

Anti-Semitism
Up In Canada

Winnipeg/JTA — There were 280
anti-Semitic incidents across Canada
in 2000, a 5 percent rise over 1999,
according to a report issued Tuesday
by B'nai Brith Canada.
The number of incidents, which
include physical harassment, syna-
gogue firebombings, arson attacks and
a cemetery desecration, increased fol-
lowing the eruption of violence last
September in the Middle East, the
report said.

Court Supports
Chasidic School

New York/JTA — A judge's decision
may pave the way for a Chasidic com-
munity in upstate New York to con-
tinue operating a special school for its
disabled students.
Last week's ruling says a 1999 law
that allows a New York municipality
with at least 10,000 residents to peti-
tion for its own school district applies
to Kiryas Joel.

Several courts have ruled during the
past decade that the Satmar commu-
nity's public school for its disabled
children violates the constitutional
separation between religion and state.

U.S. Jews Meet
German Leaders

Berlin/JTA — Germany's top govern-
ment officials assured visiting American
Jewish leaders of their commitment to
a special relationship with Israel and to
the fight against racism at home.
"There was a real dialogue with
everyone we saw," said Malcolm
Hoenlein, executive vice chairman of
the Conference of Presidents of Major
American Jewish Organizations. "We
were reassured by everything we heard
that our decision to visit Berlin was
right:"
A delegation from the Conference
of Presidents met Thursday with
German Chancellor Gerhard
Schroeder and Foreign Minister
Joschka Fischer.

Russian Aliyah
Is Decreasing

Moscow/JTA — Immigration to Israel
from the former Soviet Union decreased
during the first six weeks of 2001,
according to the Jewish Agency for Israel.
Some 3,542 immigrants made
aliyah_during that time, a 30 percent
drop from the same period last year.
The decrease is due more to an
improved economic situation in
Russia than fear of Middle East vio-
lence, according to Carol Unger,
director of the Jewish Agency's
Moscow office.

Groups Slam
YMCA Report

New York/JTA — The World Alliance
of YMCAs in Geneva released a report
saying the group is taking "the side of
the oppressed Palestinian people" in
the Middle East conflict.
The YMCAs of the United States
and Canada distanced themselves
from the report, earning applause
from Jewish groups including the
Anti-Defamation League and the
American Jewish Congress.
The Simon Wiesenthal Center in
Los Angeles asked YMCA offices in
other countries to stop funding the
international office.

