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News Digest
Likud Lags
In Local Polls
Jewish Book Fair in Detroit last year
was moved from the Jewish
Community Center to Temple Shir
Shalom because of the controversial
nature of his work.
Jerusalem/JTA — Local elections in
Israel showed diminished grass-roots
support for the ruling Likud Party.
Only 41 percent of eligible voters cast
their ballots, a record low turnout.
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's party
lost three of the five main cities it
controlled prior to Tuesday's elections;
according to early results, it kept
another 62 local councils.
The Likud's main rival, the Labor
Party, took two more cities, ending up
with control of eight of the country's
12 major municipalities. Runoffs were
planned in 10 municipalities due to
poor voter turnout.
The local polls do not threaten
Sharon's national rule — general elec-
tions are not scheduled until 2007 —
but some observers say the local elec-
tions serve as a bellwether of public
sentiment amid terrorism and eco-
nomic malaise.
German Jewish
Population Grows
Bonn/JTA — By 2005, the Jewish
community in Germany will grow by
30 percent, to 130,000, a German
Jewish leader said.
The rapid growth of German Jewry
began in 1990 following the fall of
communism, which prompted an
influx of Jews from the former Soviet
Union.
Lawmakers
Press Ford
Washington/JTA — Lawmakers are
asking the Ford Foundation to better
monitor its grantees to ensure they are
not engaged in anti-Semitism.
The action was prompted by a
Jewish Telegraphic Agency investiga-
tion, which found that the Ford
Foundation funds the Palestinian
Non-Governmental Organization
Network and other groups that coor-
dinated anti-Semitic attacks at the
U.N. World Conference Against
Racism in Durban, South Africa, in
2001.
Rep. Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., is cir-
culating a letter to colleagues accusing
the foundation of turning a blind eye
to information that grant recipients
are using funds to promote bigotry
against Jews.
The foundation, endowed by Henry
and Edsel Ford, no longer has any
connection to Ford Motor Company.
Malaysian Aid
Made Conditional
Washington/JTA — The U.S. Senate
made military aid to Malaysia condi-
tional on religious freedom, including
greater tolerance of Jews.
The Senate passed an amendment
to its foreign aid spending bill that
would require a State Department
determination of religious freedom
and tolerance in Malaysia before the
country could receive a planned $1.2
million military aid package.
The move came after Malaysia's
prime minister, Mahathir
Mohammad, told the leaders of
Islamic countries that Jews "rule the
world by proxy" and that the Muslim
world must unite to defeat them.
Ramon's Name
On Memorial
Spock's Photo
To Museum
New York/JTA — New York's Jewish
Museum is buying a controversial
photograph by Leonard Nimoy for its
persorial collection.
The photograph of a nude woman
with her arms folded over her torso,
based on the Kabbalah, is from
Nimoy's collection Shekhina, which
was published in book form last year.
Spock's speech about his book at the
.,
Washington/JTA — The names of the
seven astronauts who died in the
Columbia space shuttle explosion were
carved into the national Space Mirror
Memorial.
The family of Israeli Col. Ilan
Ramon joined the relatives of the six
others who died in the February
explosion as the names were unveiled.
The names of the Columbia astro-
nauts join those who died in the 1967
Apollo fire and the 1986 Challenger
e xtx onion.
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