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Torah Center
Dedication
The Sara and Morris
Tugman Bais Chabad
Torah Center will
rededicate its learning
center in memory of
the late Gerald "Jerry"
Gerald Pollack
Pollack on Sunday,
July 19, 10:30 a.m. at 5595 W. Maple,
West Bloomfield. Brunch will be served.
Pollack was one of the founding mem-
Obama Links Slavery, Shoah
Washington/JTA — President Obama corn-
pared the history of slavery to that of the
Holocaust, according to the CNN Web site.
"It's one of those things that you don't
forget about," Obama told CNN in an inter-
view on Anderson Cooper 360, according to
a report on the Web site. Obama gave the
interview over the weekend while visiting
the African country of Ghana, once a major
slave trading center.
"I think it's important that the way we
think about it, the way it's taught, is not
one in which there's simply a victim and a
victimizer, and that's the end of the story':
the president said. "I think the way it has to
be thought about, the reason it's relevant,
is whether it's what's happening in Darfur
or what's happening in the Congo or what's
happening in too many places around the
world, the capacity for cruelty still exists:'
Obama called his visit to Cape Coast
Castle, a slavery dungeon,"reminiscent of
the trip I took to Buchenwald," a German
Nazi death camp. "It reminds us of the
capacity of human beings to commit great
evil': he said.
Obama said he hoped his daughters,
Malia and Sasha, who accompanied him
on the trip, learned about the history of
slavery during the visit. "And hopefully, one
of the things that was imparted to them
during this trip is their sense of obligation
to fight oppression and cruelty wherever it
appears': he said.
Brutal Slayer Of Jew Gets Life
Paris/JTA — The leader of the gang respon-
sible for torturing and murdering a French
Jew received the maximum sentence for a
crime judges ruled anti-Semitic. Youssouf
Fofana was sentenced Friday to life in prison
and 22 years without parole for organizing
the gang kidnapping, torture and murder of
Ilan Halimi in 2006. The verdict is the most
severe permitted under French law
Two of Fofana's lieutenants who played
particularly active roles in the 24-day tor-
ture of Halimi were sentenced to 15- and
18-year prison terms. The public prosecu-
tor had asked for 20. The young woman
known as "Emma," who was used to lure
Halimi to his attackers, was sentenced to 9
A22
July 16 • 2009
bers of Bais Chabad, which was built in
1982; the Torah Center's original social
hall was dedicated by the Pollack family.
Several years ago, Pollack founded and
dedicated the Elvin and Loraine Pollack
Learning Center in memory of his par-
ents. With Pollack's recent passing, the
learning center will now be known as
the Gerald Pollack and Elvin and Loraine
Pollack Learning Center.
For brunch reservations, e-mail
bctc770@aol.com or call (248) 705-3561.
years of jail time rather than 12. Of the 26
suspects on trial over the past two months,
two gang members were acquitted and
others received sentences ranging from 6
months to 18 years in prison.
The general prosecutor in the case told
French journalists that the court's final
decision was "fair:' The Jewish umbrella
organization CRIF criticized the court's
decision, calling it "too lenient" toward
Fofana's accomplices. CRIF regretted that
the trial was kept closed to journalists, a
condition that "withdrew the exemplary
and educational value that [the trial]
should have had:'
Halimi was found at the point of death,
naked and bound near the railroad tracks
outside of Paris in February 2006.
U.S. Aid To Israel, P.A.
Washington/JTA — The U.S. House of
Representatives approved foreign funding
that included aid packages for Israel and
the Palestinians.
Israel won 52.775 billion when the funds
approved in the bill 2010 appropriations
bill passed on July 9 are added to those
approved in an earlier supplemental fund-
ing bill, consistent with the memorandum
of understanding signed two years ago that
guarantees Israel $30 billion in defense
assistance over 10 years. Israel also was
allotted $25 million in refugee settlement
assistance, the only remnant of U.S. assis-
tance to Israel's domestic economy.
Also approved was more than $500
million in assistance for the Palestinians,
including up to $150 million that may
be transferred directly to the Palestinian
Authority and $100 million that will go to
training P.A. security forces.
Egyptian and Jordanian funding also
remained consistent: $1.3 billion in
Egyptian defense assistance and $250 mil-
lion in assistance for the Egyptian econo-
my; and $300 million in defense assistance
for Jordan as well as $363 million in eco-
nomic assistance. The bill also would keep
the U.S. Import-Export Bank from guar-
anteeing companies that have significant
stakes in Iran's energy sector.
The American Israel Public Affairs
Committee praised the bill's passage. "This
year's package holds heightened signifi-
cance with the United States, the region and
Israel facing renewed challenges from Iran's
drive to dominate the Middle East, acquire
nuclear weapons and its support for Islamic
terrorist movements, including Hezbollah
and Harnas," said AIPAC President David
Victor of West Bloomfield."Congress' sup-
port for this year's aid package sends the
strong, unambiguous message that the
United States stands firmly behind Israel
and underscores the strength of the U.S.-
Israel bond:'
The overall $48.8 billion bill passed
318-106; of the 106 voting against, 97 were
Republicans.
The U.S. Senate is considering a similar
bill. Subsequent to its passage, both bills
must be reconciled, subject to new votes
and then sent to President Obama for his
approval.
Ancient Jerusalem Quarry
Jerusalem/JTA — Israeli archaeologists
uncovered an ancient quarry whose stones
were likely used to build the Temple walls.
The stone quarry, uncovered during excava-
tions on Shmuel Hanavi Street in Jerusalem
prior to the construction of residential
buildings, dates from the end of the Second
Temple period.
"The immense size of the stones inch-
cates it was highly likely that the large
stones that were quarried at the site were
destined for use in the construction of
Herod's magnificent projects in Jerusalem,
including the Temple walls," said Ofer Sion,
the excavation director on behalf of the
Israel Antiquities Authority.
Among the artifacts discovered in the
excavation were metal plates referred to in
the Talmud as cheeks that were used as ful-
crums to sever the stones from the bedrock,
and coins and pottery shards that date to
the end of the Second Temple period.
Organic Kosher Poultry
New York/JTA — Empire Kosher poultry is
launching lines of organic and antibiotic-
free poultry.
The Pennsylvania company announced
last week that it is ready to roll out both
lines nationally.
ABF designates poultry that is not
injected with any antibiotics or hormones.
Organic chicken also adheres to ABF
standards, as well as U.S. Department of
Agriculture standards for organic poultry.
Empire also announced that new equip-
ment design would enable the company
to increase its peak production volume
from 350,000 chickens per week to nearly
800,000.
AJC Eyes Immigration Reform
New York — The American Jewish
Committee (AJC) has received a major
grant of $500,000 from the Ford
Foundation for a new initiative to create
momentum for comprehensive immigra-
tion reform.
Building on decades of experience work-
ing with diverse ethnic partners, AJC will
convene a series of roundtable discussions
with a spectrum of community stakehold-
ers in the immigration debate to seek corn-
mon ground. AJC will offer advocacy skills-
building workshops to Latino leaders and
organizations in four localities (Arizona,
Chicago, Houston and New Jersey).
"Our goal is to encourage a civil and
informed national discourse about immi-
gration that will lead to policies reflecting
America's fundamental commitment to
democratic values and human rights, and
also respond effectively to our nation's
national and economic security needs,"
said Ann Schaffer, director of AJC's Arthur
and Rochelle Belfer Center for American
Pluralism.
Wagner Family's Nazi Past
Berlin/JTA — Descendants of German
composer Richard Wagner announced
plans to have independent historians
research the family archives.
Katharina Wagner, a great-grand-
daughter of Hitler's beloved composer, and
now head of the annual Bayreuth Wagner
Festival together with her older sister, Eva,
told the Welt Online newspaper on June
18 that it was important to lay bare the
family's Nazi past.
Included in the family archives are
nearly 300 letters from Hitler.
"An independent and complete docu-
mentation of the history of Bayreuth will
be prepared without any influence from
us," Katharina Wagner told the Welt Online
edition.
The research will focus on the private
archive of the festival and of her father,
Wolfgang Wagner, born in 1919, who
retired last year as director.
"I don't know the extent to which other
family members will get involved in this
project,"Wagner, 31, said in the interview.
"But I want to emphasize that Eva and I
will make everything available that we
possibly can."
Rumors of a romantic involvement
between Hitler and Katharina Wagner's
grandmother, Winifred Marjorie Williams,
fueled in part by a 2008 novel by A.N.
Wilson titled Winnie and Wolf have never
quite died.
Katharina Wagner said she did not
know if there would be any surprises in
the archives."The subject has been han-
dled before but not thoroughly': she said,
"otherwise there wouldn't be questions
hanging in the air anymore."
An informal ban on the public perfor-
mance of Wagner's music in Israel has
been in place since the founding of the
Jewish state.