News Digest
Master Spy
Dies In Israel
Jerusalem/JTA —Issar Harel, one of
the founders of Israel's intelligence
community, died Feb. 18 at the age of
91.
Harel, who headed the Shin Bet
domestic security service for 15 years
and the Mossad for 11 years, is consid-
ered responsible for establishing their
worldwide reputations. Harel oversaw
Israel's 1961 capture of Nazi war crimi-
nal Adolf Eichmann in Buenos Aires.
He left the Mossad in 1963 after a
dispute with David Ben-Gurion over
how to deal with German scientists
who were developing missiles for
Egypt.
Harel was born in 1912 in Russia
and immigrated to Palestine in 1931.
Archaeological
Center Dedicated
Jerusalem/JTA — U.S. Jewish leader
Mortimer Zuckerman dedicated an
archaeological research center in his
daughter's honor in Jerusalem.
Zuckerman, chairman of the
Conference of Presidents of Major
American Jewish Organizations,
opened the Abigail Zuckerman
Educational Center. The center essen-
tially is an archaeological dig next to
the Western Wall Tunnel that will
include educational material on the
history of the site and of Jerusalem.
The dig to date has uncovered arti-
facts from the First Temple period; a
mikvah, or ritual bath, from the
Second Temple period; and a water Cis-
tern from the Crusader period.
Doomed Shuttle
Tests Are Salvaged
Jerusalem/JTA —More than 80 per-
cent of the results of Israeli experi-
ments conducted aboard the Columbia
space shuttle were relayed to Earth
prior to the shuttle disaster.
A report published this week by the
Israel Space Agency and scientists from
Tel Aviv University and Open
University said a large portion of the
data was relayed to Earth in real time,
the Israeli daily Hdaretz reported.
According to the report, the data
yielded a number of important scien-
tific findings, including photographs of
lightninc, formed at high altitudes and
dust movement in the Middle East.
vails in the Middle East, that even
Jordan and Egypt — the countries that
have signed peace agreements with
Israel — are viewed by most
Americans as being hostile to Israel."
UJC Names
New Official
New York/JTA — The United Jewish
Communities named Rabbi Sheldon
Zimmerman to serve as vice president
of its Jewish Renaissance and Renewal
pillar.
Rabbi Zimmerman will oversee one
of UJC's four main areas of focus, the
development of programming for the
North American Jewish Federation sys-
tem to strengthen and enrich Jewish
life. He most recently served as execu-
tive vice president of Birthright Israel.
Israel OKs
Americans Don't
More Ethiopian
Trust Arabs On Israel Jerusalem/JTA — Israel's Cabinet
New York/JTA — Most Americans do
not believe that Israel's Arab neighbors
are ready to accept Israel's right to
exist, a new poll says.
The poll, conducted by the Institute
for Jewish and Community Research,
says most Americans believe the
Palestinian Authority, Egypt, Syria,
Jordan and Saudi Arabia all refuse to
accept Israel's existence.
According to Gary Tobin, the
research firm's president, "Perhaps it
should not be surprising, given the vir-
ulently anti-Israel atmosphere that pre-
approved a plan to immediately bring
some 18,000 Falash Mura from
Ethiopia.
The plan okayed was proposed by
Interior Minister Eli Yishai following a
call by the spiritual leader of the fer-
vently Orthodox Shas Party to "save
the souls" of the Falash Mura, whose
ancestors converted from Judaism to
Christianity in the 19th century. Most
of the Falash Mura say they have
returned to Judaism.
The plan reverses existing policy,
which calls for Ethiopian immigrants
to be brought to Israel gradually based
on the Law of Return and family
reunification efforts.
Iraqi Refuses
Israeli's Question
Rome/JTA — Iraq's deputy prime
minister refused to answer a question
by an Israeli journalist at a news
conference following his audience with
Pope John Paul II.
Menachem Gantz, Rome correspon-
dent for Ma'ariv, asked Tariq Aziz
whether Baghdad might attack Israel
should the United States go to war
against Iraq. Aziz's refusal to answer
prompted boos and whistles from several
of the 100 or so journalists in the room.
About 20 reporters, including journalists
from Israel and Germany, walked out.
The mayor of Rome refused to meet
with Aziz after Aziz refused to answer
the question from Gantz. "I cannot
accept that a public figure like yourself,
the representative of another country,
can set a veto and discriminate against
someone, denying them the right to
express themselves, no matter what
position they may represent," Mayor
Walter Veltroni said in a letter to Aziz.
Group Files Brief
With High Court
New York/JTA — The American
Jewish Committee is filing a brief
with the Supreme Court supporting
the University of Michigan's affirma-
tive action program.
On The Record
U-M never had relationship with Damascus University, officials say.
DIANA LIEBERMAN
Staff- Writer/Copy Editor
T
he University of Michigan
does not have, now or in the
recent past, a cooperative
educational agreement with
Syria's Damascus University, according
to officials at the Ann Arbor-based uni-
versity.
In supporting Wayne State
University's recent scientific and cul-
tural agreement with Damascus
University, U.S. Sen. Carl Levin, D-
Detroit, and WSU Board of Governors
2/21
2003
10
member Eugene Driker both stated in
a letter and a commentary, respectively,
in the Feb. 14 Jewish News that U-M
had partnered with Syria's Damascus
University.
Neither Levin nor Driker could be
reached for comment on Wednesday.
The state-run university is part of a
Middle East dictatorship known to
support terrorist groups like Hezbollah
and Hamas.
U-M had only one indirect relation-
ship with the country of Syria, offi-
cials said.
"Our department of epidemiology
had an $18,000 subcontract from Yale
University, a project given by NASA
[National Aeronautics and Spaces
Administration] to Yale, to study a dis-
ease spread by sand fleas in subtropical
Africa," said Dennis Cebulski, admin-
istrator of the U-M division of research
and development. "According to our
records, the project ended in 1999."
The NASA agreement was with the
Syrian Ministry of Health.
No exchange of scholars took place,
Cebulski said, and the U-M part of
the project, which involved laboratory
studies, took place entirely on the Ann
Arbor campus.
According to Christine Billick, assis-
tant to the director of the U-M
International Institute, "There is no
university-sponsored affiliation with
any university in Syria."
Billick came to this conclusion after
examining International Institute
records and contacting departments
and individual professors who might
be involved in academic projects or
student exchanges with universities in
the Middle East.
Three representatives of Detroit
Jewry — Federation President