World

Digest

is a sign of hope."
French historian Jean-Dominique
Durand alerted the French episcopate
to the writings in February.

Growing After 2,000 Years

Jerusalem/JTA— Using a seed found in
the Masada fortress, Israeli scientists
have sprouted an ancient date palm tree.
The date palm, which is praised in
Jewish and Islamic writing, once grew
throughout Israel but disappeared over
the centuries. The date palms in mod-
em Israeli agriculture are descendants
of a different line of trees from other
parts of the Mideast.
Dr. Elaine Solowey, of the Arava
Institute for Environmental Studies,
grew the plant, which dates back
approximately 1,990 years, according
to DNA testing.

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6/16

2005

24

Berlin/JTA — Postwar Jewish life in
Germany is to receive a new boost
with the opening of a traditional
Jewish preschool in Berlin.
The Talmud Torah Or Avner, under
the auspices of the Rohr Chabad
Center of Berlin, is scheduled to open
with 18 pupils in August.
The new Talmud Torah "is not an
Orthodox school to make people
Orthodox, but it works on tradition,"
said Rabbi Yehudah Teichtal of
Chabad Berlin. "We want to show
people the beauty" of Judaism.

Fridman Gets Medal Back

11,11

FDIC
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Chabad School In Berlin

Lois Haron, Allied Member ASID • 248-851-69891

Jerusalem/JTA — An Israeli Olympic
champion retrieved his stolen gold
medal.
Gal Fridman, a windsurfer who tri-
umphed at the 2004 Athens Games,
had his medal stolen from his parents'
home last week. He was told by police
that the medal was found in a forest in
central Israel.
He told Israeli media that the culprit
probably decided to abandon the
medal after realizing it could not sell it,
given the public outcry over its theft.
There was no sign of the rest of the
booty from the burglary, including
jewelry belonging to Fridman's mother
and a handgun belonging to his father.

`Sir Jonathan' In UK

London/JTA — Britain's chief rabbi
was knighted.
Queen Elizabeth, marking her 79th
birthday, bestowed the vaunted "Sir"
title on Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, chief
rabbi since 1991, in recognition of his
services to the Jewish community and
interfaith relations.

Beatification Delayed

Paris/JTA— The beatification of a
French priest has been postponed due to
concerns over his anti-Semitic writings.
The beatification of Leon Dehon
was OKd by the late Pope John Paul
II, but his successor, Benedict XVI, is
having Dehon's file re-examined.
Dehon, who died in 1925, was the
founder of the order of priests of Sacre
C'ur.
Among Dehon's anti Semitic state-
ments: Jews should wear a "special
garment" identifying them as Jews
and be "consigned to the ghettos."
According to Dehon, "anti-Semitism

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Settlers Sue Soldiers

Jerusalem/JTA — Anti-pullout activists
sued two Israeli army commanders
over the evacuation of an illegal West
Bank settler outpost.
In an unprecedented move, the
activists traveled to the homes of
deputy IDF Chief of Staff Maj.-Gen.
Moshe Kaplinski and Samaria's com-
mander, Col. Yuval Bazak, last week to
serve them with a civil suit demanding
$70,000 in damages.
Israeli media reports said the suit
rejected by the officers accused them of
wantonly destroying the Givat Shalhevet
outpost outside Nablus in January.

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Israel's Critics

The Charge

The Israeli government's proposed
plan to connect Maale Adumim,
east of Jerusalem, will make impos-
sible the creation of a Palestinian
state having territorial continuity.

The Answer

The land area between Maale
Adumim and Jerusalem is uninhab-
ited. Its absorption by Israel is nec-
essary to connect Israel's largest
community beyond the Green Line
with Jerusalem. All areas east of the
community would provide north-
south contiguity to a future
Palestinian state.

— Allan Gale, Jewish Community
Council of Metropolitan Detroit