of credit to anyone investing in Iran's
energy sector.
The legislation protects fund manag-
ers who divest from such companies
from possible lawsuits.
Similiar legislation has been intro-
duced in the U.S. Senate. President
Obama, when he was an Illinois senator,
was the lead sponsor of a Senate version
in 2008, although the White House has
not yet taken a position on the bill.
JDub Adopts Jewcy
New York/JTA
JDub, the nonprofit
Jewish music label, is adopting the
online Jewish magazine Jewcy.com .
Jewcy, which was started as a for-profit
venture in 2006, was left in the lurch
last spring when its primary funders
abruptly pulled their money from the
project.
Since then the blog-heavy magazine
— JDub says it has 120,000 unique
visitors per month, most of them young
people — has been looking for a fund-
ing partner. Day-to-day operations of
Jewcy will be overseen by JDub Chief
Operating Officer Jacob Harris and
Jewcy Editor Lilit Marcus, who has run
Jewcy on a volunteer basis for the past
eight months and will officially join the
JDub staff.
The JDub-Jewcy marriage was funded
in part by the Jewish Federation of
Greater Los Angeles and several Jewish
—
foundations.
"Jewcy is an amazing brand," Harris
said. "We've been fans of the site since
it began and are very excited to lever-
age the natural overlap and keep Jewcy
thriving and growing. Jewcy's content
is similar to our music catalog in that
it proudly presents very diverse Jewish
thoughts, ideas, challenges and strug-
gles in a quality and relevant fashion."
"In these difficult economic times, we
are constantly seeking partnership and
collaboration with like-minded orga-
nizations," said Aaron Bisman, JDub's
chief executive officer. "We are creating
spaces and experiences without barriers
to entry where young people can find
their community and interact with it on
their own terms, be it through music,
blogging, events, or social media. We
hope JDub's adoption of Jewcy can serve
as a model for increased efficiency and
allow focus to remain where it belongs
— on culture, conversation, and real
community."
Gender Dilemma
Jerusalem/JTA
Citizenship ceremo-
nies for new Israeli immigrants will no
longer be held at the Western Wall. The
ceremonies, which present the immi-
grants with their identity cards, will
be moved to the Aish HaTorah Yeshiva
overlooking the Western Wall Plaza fol-
lowing an alleged gender-segregation
—
disagreement between the Western Wall
Heritage Foundation and the head of the
immigration and absorption committee
at the Jewish Agency.
Rabbi Shmuel Rabinovitch of the
foundation had demanded that women
sit separately from men during the
citizenship ceremonies, in addition to
being prohibited from speaking from
the podium at the ceremony.
Paula Edelstein, the head of the
agency's immigration and absorption
committee, would not agree to the
restrictions. But a spokesman for Jewish
Agency Chairman Natan Sharansky said
that Sharansky accepted Rabinovitch's
demands, agreeing that the ceremonies
were civic and not religious.
"This is a purely administrative
question about the character of the
Western Wall. The Wall is not a banquet
hall," Rabinovitch told the Israeli daily
Ha'aretz.
Aish HaTorah allows mixed-gender
groups to hold gatherings. The ceremo-
nies also may take place at Robinson's
Arch near the Western Wall, where
Reform mixed-gender prayer services
are held.
Family Murdered
Israelis were reacting
Jerusalem/JTA
with horror to the murders of six mem-
bers of a Rishon Lezion family. Among
the victims found stabbed to death
—
Saturday in their burning home were 3-
year-old and 4-month-old children.
Echoing the mood of a nation, Israeli
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu
expressed his deep pain and shock over
the murders of the Oshrenko family,
calling the violence "horrifying" and
"terrible" at the beginning of Sunday's
regular Cabinet meeting. He offered his
condolences to the family as well as to
Tourism Minister Stas Misezhnikov, a
family friend.
The members of the Oshrenko fam-
ily killed were Revital, 3, and Netanel,
4 months; their parents, Tatiana, 28,
and Dimitry, 32; and grandparents
Edward and Ludmilla, both 56. Tatiana
and Dimitry, Russian emigres, oper-
ated clubs and a restaurant for Russian
Israelis.
Police on Sunday raided the restau-
rant in Rishon LeZion, interrogating
the employees as well as the relatives
and friends of the family, as they sought
answers to their murder. The investiga-
tion, which is under a media gag order,
is on whether the killings are murder-
suicide or if they were committed by an
outsider, according to reports.
The family had celebrated Revital's
birthday on Friday night. The next
morning, firefighters were called to the
apartment to put out a fire and discov-
Roundup on page 28
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