World
Mary Frances •
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DIGEST
Playboy Mansion Visit
New York/JTA — One of the Jewish
community's most storied charities is
turning to the Playboy brand name to
help raise funds.
The Jewish National Fund sent out
a mass e-mail announcing that it
would be auctioning an all-expenses-
paid trip to a VIP party at the leg-
endary mansion of the magazine's
founder, Hugh Heftier, in Holmby
Hills, Calif.
The bidding will take place Oct. 11
in Manhattan at what is being billed
as the first "JNF Sports Bonanza."
JNF's decision to include a Playboy
prize package comes just months
after Israel's tourism ministry
launched an ad campaign featuring
bikini-clad women and the Israeli
Consulate in New York placed a sexy
spread of female soldiers in the
men's magazine Maxim.
Some Israeli officials and Jewish
feminists criticized the two ini-
tiatives, arguing that they were
demeaning to women.
Deborah Meyer, the executive
director of Moving Tradition, an
organization that helps young
women become bat mitzvah, ques-
tioned the JNF's decision to embrace
Playboy.
"It seems like a bit of a lapse of
judgment to offer as a prize a trip to
the Playboy mansion," she said.
"You have to wonder what they are
thinking about who are the members
of the Jewish community and what
message they think they are send-
ing not just to young women, but to
men, about Jewish values and what is
appropriate in the year 5768."
JNF officials dismissed such criti-
cism, noting that other charities have
offered similar prizes in recent years.
"If people don't want to bid on it,
they won't," said Anita Jacobs, the
director of the JNF's Greater New
York branch, which is organizing the
auction. "This is America."
Asked if she thought Playboy
objectifies women, Jacobs replied:
"No, not at all."
New Reform Prayers
New York/JTA — In a groundbreak-
ing move to recognize the experi-
ences of transgender Jews, the Reform
movement has published several
prayers for sanctifying the sex-change
process.
The Union for Reform Judaism
released the second edition of Kulanu
(Hebrew for "all of us"), its 500-page
resource manual for gay, lesbian,
bisexual and transgender inclusion.
The guide includes two blessings
authored by Rabbi Elliot Kukla for
transitioning genders.
Kukla, who was known as Eliza
when ordained in 2006 by the move-
ment's New York seminary, originally
wrote the blessings for a friend who
wanted to mark each time he received
testosterone therapy.
Still, Kukla believes they are
appropriate for multiple moments
in the sex-change process, including
moments of medical transitions:'
Broad sections of the Jewish com-
munity now accept gays and lesbians
serving as rabbis and cantors, and
many support rabbinic officiation at
same-sex commitment ceremonies.
But the Reform movement, the
country's largest synagogue denomi-
nation, had never gone as far as to
say that it is kosher to recite a bless-
ing for a sex change.
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Temple-Era Tunnel
Jerusalem/JTA — Archaeologists
uncovered the remains of an escape
route used by Jews in Jerusalem dur-
ing the Roman occupation.
Israel's Antiquities Authority
unveiled the approximately half-mile-
long tunnel discovered under the
City of David, located in Jerusalem's
Silwan Valley.
According to the authority, the tun-
nel was designed as drainage canal
for winter rains that would flood
Jerusalem in the Second Temple era.
During the Roman siege of the
walled city, Jews would also use it
for shelter or to escape to the Judean
Desert.
Israeli Arab Numbers
Jerusalem/JTA — Israeli Arabs are
reproducing well above the rate of
their Jewish compatriots.
Israel's Central Bureau of Statistics
said that the national population
stands at 7.2 million.
Jews comprise 75.8 percent of the
population and Arabs nearly 20 per-
cent. The rest are naturalized foreign
workers or other religious minorities.
According to the Central Bureau of
Statistics, Israel's Jewish population is
growing at a rate of 1.8 percent annu-
ally.
By contrast, the growth rate for
Israeli Arabs is 2.6 percent. The rate
is highest among Arab Muslims, who
comprise the vast majority of Israeli
Arabs —2.9 percent.
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September 20 • 2007
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