I

Spotlight

Houston Jews And Ike
Houston/JTA — No deaths or injuries were
reported among Houston Jews two days
after Hurricane Ike. The fierce storm that
pounded southeast Texas inflicted little
damage on community property, accord-
ing to Toby Newman, a social worker with
Houston's Jewish Family Service.
Ike came ashore over Galveston on Sept.
12. Power outages in Houston remain wide-
spread, however, and Newman said authori-
ties told residents that it could be up to four
weeks before service is fully restored.
"The community is really pulling togeth-
er and doing the best that they possibly
can to try and get help," Newman told JTA.
Newman said the main priority is ensuring
an adequate supply of food, water and ice.

Judiciary Committee, urged the rejection
of a bill paving the way for lawsuits against
European insurance companies.
The Holocaust Insurance Accountability
Act is under consideration by the com-
mittee. It would open the door to lawsuits
against European insurers who defaulted on
policies held by Jewish victims of the Nazis.
Several major Jewish organizations have
actively opposed the bill, arguing it would
undermine ongoing restitution negotiations
with European governments.
But proponents argue that the bill reme-
dies the supposed failures of a commission
established to address the insurance issue,
but which paid out only a fraction of some
estimates of the value of prewar Jewish
policies.

Against Holocaust Bill
Washington/JTA — An American Holocaust
survivors' group reiterated its opposition
to a congressional bill on wartime insur-
ance policies. The American Gathering
of Jewish Holocaust Survivors and Their
Descendants, in a letter last week to U.S.
Rep. John Conyers, D-Mich., the chair-
man of the House of Representatives

Israeli Tourists: Leave Sinai
Jerusalem/JTA – Israel's Counterterrorism
Bureau warned Israelis to leave the Sinai
Peninsula immediately. Monday's warn-
ing came after what the bureau said was
concrete information about a plan by
Hezbollah and local terror groups to kidnap
Israelis and take them to Gaza. A travel
advisory suggesting that Israelis could be

in danger in the Sinai has been in effect for
several weeks.
Terrorists are said to be most interested
in kidnapping and holding for ransom
Israeli military personnellsraelis can not
be prevented from traveling to the Sinai, for
example by closing the Taba Crossing, since
there is a peace agreement with Egypt.

Paris Suspect Jewish?
Paris/JTA — One suspected assailant in an
attack on three Jewish teens in Paris may
have been Jewish, a French Jewish leader
said.
Richard Prasquier, the president of the
CRIF umbrella organization, told the JTA in
a phone interview Monday that Paris police
detained for questioning five to six youth of
mixed ethnic origin suspected of involve-
ment in the Sept. 6 beating of the kippah-
wearing teens. The victims were hospital-
ized temporarily with minor fractures.
Prasquier said the fact that one of the
alleged suspects may have been Jewish
complicated the affair, but still did not
negate the anti-Jewish nature of the crime,
which occurred on the same street where
Jewish teenager Rudy Haddad was severely

ILLIP PAUL MARCUSON

firly 1, 1953 —fitly 30, 2004

beaten in June.
Prasquier also noted that the suspects
were not in an organized gang. A spokes-
woman for Paris investigators confirmed.
to JTA that six suspects were being held for
questioning.
The Jewish faith of one of the suspected
assailants is likely to embroil an already
sensitive debate in France on whether such
violence is due to anti-Semitism or a mix-
ture of gang violence and random crime in
the 19th district, a low-income, immigrant-
heavy neighborhood that is home to the
capital's largest Jewish community.

Tel Aviv Stocks Drop
Tel Aviv/JTA — The Tel Aviv Stock Exchange
opened sharply down, reacting to the finan-
cial crisis in the United States. The exchange
plummeted Monday morning after the
U.S. investment bank Lehman Brothers
announced it would file for bankruptcy.
The drop, echoing markets around the
world, follows smaller losses after last
week's U.S. governmental takeover of
mortgage banks Freddie Mac and Fannie
Mae. Both the TA-25 and TA-100 indices
dropped more than 2 percent.

BENJAMIN SI-LAWN MARCUSON

You are forever in our hearts.
We love and miss you so much'

Dec. 9, 1985 Dec. 17, 2004

Love Til Eternity...Debbie (Mom) and Beth

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