1■ 41 AT u •(. l Ai ) 14 GREATER DETROIT COUNCIL CHANUKAH CELEBRATION DONOR LUNCHEON minorities, and from the State's recognition of only Orthodox Jewish religious authorities in personal and some civil status matters concerning Jews." Lengthy passages in the report expand on the alleged discrimination, looking at the status of non-Jewish spouses of Jewish immigrants; allegations of discriminatory funding in favor of Orthodox schools; and the state of efforts to legislate civil marriage. Such allegations of discrimi- nation have circulated for years in Israel, but previous U.S. reports hardly addressed them. Rabbi Saperstein, who said his group has raised these issues in meetings with Bush adminis- tration officials, said the expanded interest was in keep- ing with the administration's recent emphasis on human rights abroad. "The State Department is try- ing to lay down more consistent standards in these areas and to hold friends and allies to the same standards as it holds other nations:' he said "It's hopeful that this will make Israel sit up and take notice when it sees the international community so deeply troubled!' Spokesmen for the Israeli Embassy in Washington and for- the State Department did not return calls seeking comment, but a briefing on the report suggested that the Bush admin- istration is intensifying its interest in religious freedoms abroad. "Even some of the most open societies in the world have lim- ited freedom of religion in ways that are difficult to justify," said John Hanford, the official who directed production of this year's report. "It is the purpose of this report to encourage abroad, just as we do here in the United States, a careful and continual examination by every govern- ment and society as to whether each person's right to believe as he or she chooses is fully pro- tected or unnecessarily limit- ed." There were other examples of heightened interest in how Israel treats its minorities. For Thursday, December 1, 2005 12:00 Noon Adat Shalom Synagogue the first time, the 2005 report listed complaints by "messianic Jews" — who believe in Jesus but still claim to be Jewish — that their members were denied entry to Israel and that anti- missionary groups harassed them. NINA GAINES A Look At Foreigners 80th Anniversary It also listed, for the first time, a breakdown of the religions of legal foreign workers, though it did not allege discrimination. The report broke down how religious councils spend money — the vast majority goes to Jewish councils — also a first in a U.S. report. There also were the tradition- al criticisms of how Israel treats its Arab minorities. If anything, these were expanded, with new attention paid to alleged neglect and mistreatment of aban- doned mosques. There also was a lengthy treatment of allegations that the Jewish National Fund discrimi- nates in the distribution of land, a facet of Jewish-Arab relations uncovered in earlier reports. The report did not take a stand on the allegations. The treatment of Palestinians also received close attention, with special attention to how Israel's West Bank security bar- rier that has reduced terrorist attacks also has kept Palestinian Muslims and Christians from reaching religious services in Jerusalem and Bethlehem. The report also upped its grade for the Palestinian Authority from "deteriorating" last year to "no change" in 2005, largely because of P.A. President Mahmoud Abbas' efforts to pre- vent anti-Israel incitement. 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