Pesach Reminder U.S. Jewish troops in Iraq mark Passover in one of Saddam's palaces. JOE BERKOFSKY Jewish Telegraphic Agency New York hen Rabbi Mitchell Ackerson asks why this Passover is different than any other, the answer involves Saddam Hussein. Ackerson, the senior Jewish chaplain for Operation Iraqi Freedom, led historic seders this week for Jewish servicepeople and civilians in Saddam's former Presidential Palace in Baghdad. As he readied the seder for up to 125 Jewish troops, civilian administra- tors and diplomats, and even a few Iraqi Jews, Ackerson considered the location appropriate. "We've all come in partnership to provide freedom for this country, in a place where freedom was ripped apart," Ackerson said in a phone interview late last week from Baghdad. The seder marked another historic milestone: In a rare move, the Department of Defense requisitioned "seder kits" from a civilian supplier for the estimated MaPM., ,,kMO M IMMMR:MWNSBMIMiaSS MAIL W aSEM... 1,000 Jews serving in the Iraqi war effort and else- where. "This is the true spiritual victory over an evil empire," said Rabbi Jacob Goldstein, joint forces command chaplain for the National Guard in New York, who has helped ferry religious supplies to Jewish troops in the war. "Our government takes the religious needs of its soldiers very seriously and goes out of its way to make sure they are met." Other organizations also pitched in. The Aleph Institute in Surfside, Fla., sent Passover supplies to more than 1,300 soldiers around the world. The group, which is affiliated with Chabad-Lubavitch and also ministers to the needs of Jews in U.S. prisons, shipped thousands of pounds of shmura matzah, seder plates, Haggadot, grape juice, gefilte fish and macaroons to soldiers from Haiti to Italy to Iraq. E-mails to the Aleph Institute came from troops aboard Sixth Fleet ships off Italy; from Navy person- nel in Haiti; and even from a Protestant Air Force chaplain asking for help for 6-8 Jews. Other organizations, including the Jewish War .I MIMM IMMKW a:a. ...a 4m...mtmwwsast-acammtmaciwz,../wralsaatml Cautious Admission European report notes rise in anti-Semitism, but blurs question of responsibility. JONATHAN FISK Jewish Telegraphic Agency Strasbourg A long-awaited report on European anti- Semitism confirms that it is a growing prob- lem across the continent — but dances around the politically sensitive question of who is responsible. The 344-page report by the European Monitoring Center on Racism and Xenophobia, or EUMC, details a rise in anti-Semitic incidents in Belgium, France, Germany, the Netherlands and England. Physical assaults are absent or rare in Greece, Austria, Italy and Spain, the report found, but anti-Semitic dis- course is virulent there as well. Those findings are unlikely to surprise observers who have watched a rash of anti-Semitic outbursts spread across Europe since the Palestinian intifada began in September 2000. More surprising was the almost pass- ing reference made to the perpetrators. Newer actors, such as immigrant Muslim youth are mentioned in the report, but an EUMC press release accompanying the report sought to highlight the role of more traditional sources of anti-Semitism, such as far- right groups and skinheads. That came as a shock to Jewish groups, who were 4/ 9 2004 16 Veterans of New Jersey, the Jewish Federation of Rockland County, N.Y., and a newly launched group called the Jewish Soldiers Foundation, have helped fund similar efforts. These groups stepped in after some said Jewish troops were not receiving sufficient holiday supplies on time for other holidays. In the past, the Jewish Chaplains Council of the Jewish Welfare Board in New York was generally in charge of such efforts. A series of reports in the Jewish Week of New York detailed delays and other organiza- tional problems with the delivery of religious items under the Welfare Board's aegis. Rabbi Ackerson said the Defense Department pur- chased enough supplies for Jewish servicepeople in Afghanistan, Iraq, Kuwait and Qatar. They include two seder kits with Haggadot, seder plates that include the necessary ritual foods, beef stew, fish, fruit, grape juice and gum, along with kosher-for- Passover rations for 14 more meals, he said. The military's official kosher supplier, My Own Meals of Chicago, produced about 4,000 MREs (meals ready to eat) at $6.95 per ration, about 30 cents more than conventional rations, said its founder and president, Mary Ann Jackson. This was the first year the company got back into the Passover business, she said. In 1995 and 1996, the company made thou- sands of Passover meals, but the Welfare Board only ordered a few hundred. Rabbi Goldstein is among those who welcome the furious when the EUMC quashed an earlier report last year identifying Muslims and pro-Palestinian left- wingers as the main sources of the "new anti-Semitism" in Europe. The EUMC said that report was withheld because of methodological shortcomings — it eventual- ly was released under pressure from Jewish groups — but many suspected the findings simply had proven politically unpalatable given Europe's huge Muslim immigrant community. "After the scandal of the previous report, the EUMC has compiled an impressive quantitative analysis that shows an unprecedented wave of anti-Semitism in Europe," said Elan Steinberg, executive vice president of the World Jewish Congress. "But they studiously avoid going into the causes of the anti-Semitism; you're almost left with the impression that it occurred from outer space. "It's an intellectual whitewash and an instance of moral cowardice." Contradiction Serge Cwajgenbaum, secretary general of the European Jewish Congress, said, "It's contradictory that the EUMC puts an emphasis on white, right-wing perpe- trators, "whereas the report reveals that the majority of attacks in most countries are committed by young Muslims of North African origin. wasI,zsam-3amm ' ->M1allUMW&MMINMIIM "How can we effectively fight anti-Semitism when we refuse to identify the true perpetrators?" he asked. "The E.U. still appears unwilling to acknowledge its own findings that Muslim immigrant youth are increas- ingly responsible for anti-Semitic violence motivated by the conflict in the Middle East," the Anti-Defamation League noted in a statement. Roger Cukierman, president of the CRIF umbrella organization of French Jewry, said the response to the spread of anti-Semitism needs to be "education, sanc- tion and integration." Cobi Benatoff, president of the European Jewish Congress, said the report was important enough to be presented to the European Parliament. "However, to be forthright, this is only a first step," he said. "We must get the message of the fight against anti-Semitism into the streets, into the schools, the universities, the church- es and the mosques of Europe. In order to achieve this goal, we must have the support of our political leaders and of the media." At a roundtable discussion following presentation of the report, EUMC Director Beate Winkler said, "The main question this report raises is: How will Europe deal with multi-culturalism and its diversity in the future?" According to the study, "racist incidents decrease when political leadership makes it publicly clear that there is zero tolerance for xenophobia," she said. The report marks the first time that data on anti- Semitism has been collected systematically across all 15 E.U. member states under common guidelines set down by the EUMC. The study calls for a strong E.U. legal framework to support policy decisions and an effi- cient data collection system to monitor future incidents.