Front Lines

DIGEST

FOURTH ANNUAL

69 IDF Soldiers Injured
Jerusalem/JTA A Hamas spokes-
man praised Tuesday's rocket attack
on an Israeli army base, calling it a
"victory from God."
The rocket strike, which wounded
69 IDF soldiers, was followed by a
mortar barrage on the Gaza border.
The Islamic Jihad and the Popular
Resistance Committees claimed
responsibility for the attacks, and the
Islamic Jihad later posted a video on
its Web site purportedly showing the
Kassam rocket launch.
Although Hamas was not directly
involved, Israel holds the group
responsible for attacks out of Gaza
because it rules the area.

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Hadassah At VTU
Blacksburg, Va./JTA
Hadassah
sponsored services and a Shabbat din-
ner at Virginia Tech University Sept. 7.
Some 30 Hadassah members attended
Friday night dinner and services
with 75 VTU students in a program
organized in conjunction with the
university's Hillel chapter. Hadassah
gave the Hillel chapter 300 yarmulkes
with Virginia Tech colors and logos.
On Sunday, the groups held a cer-
emony honoring slain professor Liviu
Librescu, who was killed in the mas-
sacre at the school in April. The cer-
emony also recognized Librescu's wife,
Marlena, for whom the Danville, Va.,
chapter of Hadassah planted 400 trees
through the Jewish National Fund.

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Immigration Extended
Washington/JTA The Senate extend-
ed a law that enabled Jewish immigra-
tion from the former Soviet Union.
Sen. Frank Lautenberg, D-N.J., noted
the passage last week of an extension
of the amendment named for him
offering refuge in the United States to
victims of religious persecution. The
amendment was attached to the $34
billion foreign aid appropriations bill.
The State Department said,"Since
1989, the U.S. program has processed
nearly 430,000 qualifying refugees
under the Lautenberg Amendment,
which applies to individuals from
specified religious groups (Jews,
Evangelicals, and certain members of
the Ukrainian Catholic or Ukrainian
Orthodox Churches)."
In addition to the former Soviet
Union, the amendment applies to Laos
and Vietnam.

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Uzbek Director Killed
Moscow JTA A Jewish theater direc-
tor was killed in the Uzbek capital.

RENAISSANCE

:

MEDIA

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14

September 13 • 2007

Mark Vail, founder of Tashkent's Ilhom
theater, was assaulted last Friday eve-
ning at the entrance to his apartment
building, stabbed and had his skull
broken. He was pronounced dead at
the hospital several hours later.
Vail had been an outspoken critic of
the cultural policies of the country's
authoritarian ruler, Islam Karimov,
ever since Uzbekistan's independence
in 1991. Vail had not been a public
member of any political movement.
Uzbek officials have not commented
the murder, which has shocked
Tashkent's Jewish community. Vail's
murder is reminiscent of the assas-
sination of another famous Jewish
theater director 60 years ago, when
Samuel Michaels was killed in Minsk
by Soviet secret service agents. That
assassination marked the start of a
massive anti-Semitic campaign in the
Soviet Union in the late 1940s.
Vail had led the first privately run
theater in the Soviet Union, Ilhom
— meaning "Inspiration" in Uzbek for
more than 30 years. Outside his home
country, Vail staged performances in
the United States, Bulgaria, Russia and
Yugoslavia. Vail is survived by wife and
two daughters who live in Seattle.
The first night of his final produc-
tion, Orestea, was slated to be per-
formed in spite of Vail's sudden death.

German Downplays Iran
Berlin/JTA — A German state

president told U.S. Jewish leaders the
Iranian threat should be diffused by
offering Iran normal diplomatic ties.
"The key interest of Iran is not
destroying Israel," said Roland Koch,
president of the German state of
Hesse. "They want to be a respected
member of society."
The world community must find a
way of "offering them an honorable
place at the table of the world:' said
Koch. "Until we do that, they will con-
tinue to show us how important they
are by pursuing nuclear ambitions
and making trouble on the world stage.
The remarks rankled Malcolm
Hoenlein, the executive vice chairman
of the Conference of Presidents of
Major American Jewish Organizations,
who told Koch, "It's not respect they're
looking for. It's too easy to talk about
respect when you have a country bent
on your destruction."
Hoenlein said Germany has a
"special responsibility and a special
role to galvanize European support
for strengthening sanctions against
Iran to neutralize the threat to Israel's
destruction.

