Roundup
Woman To Lead B'nai B'rith
BLOOMFIELD TOWNSHIP -- On June
27 at Temple Beth El in Bloomfield
Township, Nancy Braun was installed
for a two-year term as president of B'nai
B'rith Great Lakes Region. Installed
with her were vice presidents Stuart
Novick, Steve Rotenberg and Sid Roth,
and 15 trustees, Arline Bittker, Shaindel
Braunstein, Patty Ceresnie, Ed Cohon,
Jonathan Dorfman, Josh Goldberg, David
Goodman, David Lubin, Marty Melton,
Jerry Olson, Mark Soltzs, Paula Goldman-
Spinner, Fran White, Sam Zeidman and
Lila Zorn.
Bobbie Levine, program director, was
installing officer, and Steve Zorn, past
president and B'nai B'rith senior inter-
national vice president, installed the
president.
John Rofel, past president and B'nai
B'rith special adviser to the international
president, was master of ceremonies. Peter
Perlman, past president and B'nai B'rith
International's fundraising chairman, pre-
sented certificates of appreciation to the
past presidents of B'nai B'rith Great Lakes
Region and the presidents of lodge/units.
He also presented a 50-Year Membership
Certificate and Pin to Jerry Olson.
The Invocation was offered by Bill
Braun, husband of the president. Harvey
Olson and Ira Kaplan conducted the tra-
ditional motze.
Other evening coordinators included
Nita Stearn, Great Lakes Region's admin-
istrative assistant, Jeannette Olson for
her creative centerpieces, Jerry Olson, the
resident photographer, and the staff at
Excellence Too Catering.
'Jabotinsky Targeted Hitler'
LONDON (JTA) -- Revisionist Zionist
leader Ze'ev Jabotinsky had devised a
scheme to kill Hitler and a number of
high-ranking officials, according to a
British colonel's diary.
In a special report, Ynet wrote
that according to Richard Henry
Meinertzhagen's "Middle East Diary,
1917-1956:' Jabotinsky visited the colo-
nel in 1939 with a plan to kill a number
of high-ranking Nazi officials, so Hitler
and other senior officials would gather at
their funeral. Jabotinsky planned to fill
one of the coffins with explosives and, as
the Nazi officials congregated around the
grave, have the grave digger set off the
bomb.
Meinertzhagen, then an adviser at the
War Office in London, brought the plan
to the Foreign Office. "The Foreign Office
frowned," he wrote in his diary, "and the
Nazis were saved."
July 12 was the 70th anniversary of
Jabotinsky's death according to the
Jewish calendar.
Jabotinsky, a Russia native, was a
founder of the Jewish Self-Defense
Organization in Odessa and a delegate
in Zionist congresses. He founded the
Revisionist Zionism, a nonreligious,
nationalist faction of the Zionist move-
ment. He was an early leader of the Irgun,
a militant underground organization that
fought to found the State of Israel.
Meinertzhagen, although supporting a
more moderate line of Zionist ideology,
said in his diary that the State of Israel
was founded because of Jabotinsky's
Irgun.
Jabotinsky died on Aug. 4, 1940, and
his body was later brought to Israel and
buried on Mount Herzl.
Homeland Security Funding
WASHINGTON (JTA) -- The U.S.
Department of Homeland Security released
$19 million to secure nonprofits, the vast
majority Jewish.
Of the 271 institutions named in a list
released this week by Homeland Security;
254 are Jewish, including synagogues,
schools, community centers and offices.
The funds were released as part of a
congressionally mandated program in place
since 2005 that targets institutions that are
vulnerable to attack.
Security measures funded include "blast-
proof windows; reinforced doors, locks,
gates, and fences; video surveillance; and
other equipment and enhancements" as
well as training, according to a release by
the Jewish Federations of North America,
the federations umbrella body that lobbies
annually for the funding.
"The Nonprofit Security Grant Program
is a proven resource that helps supplement
the work of local and federal law enforce-
ment to help keep us safe," William Daroff,
JFNAs Washington director, said in a state-
ment.
Other groups lobbying for the money
include two Orthodox umbrella bodies,
the Orthodox Union and Agudath Israel of
America.
OU called the funds "an important tool
to help prevent terrorist attacks and protect
civilians in case of such attack" and Agudah
said "threats and actual incidents of vio-
lence against Jewish targets in the United
States and around the world point to the
particular vulnerability of our community:'
Sen. Barbara Mikulski, D-Md., who has
shepherded the funding through congres-
sional appropriations, said she remained
committed to sustaining the program.
"I have fought for these funds in the past,
10 July 22 • 2010
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Nancy Braun, flanked by Peter Perlman, Steve Zorn and John Rofel
and I will keep fighting to protect institu-
tions that are vital to our communities and
the physical, social, spiritual and education-
al well-being of all Americans:' she said.
Nazi Rule Analysis
LOS ANGELES (JTA) -- Areas of Russia that
were not under Nazi rule are faring better
economically even today than areas that
were occupied, according to a new study.
The study by three American academi-
cians shows that the economies in large
areas of Russia under Nazi rule 65 years
ago lag substantially behind neighboring
areas that were spared Nazi occupation
and where most of the Jewish middle class
survived.
In cities and districts where Jews were
largely wiped out, not only do residents
earn less than in the rest of Russia, but they
are politically less reform minded and cling
more to old communist loyalties.
Professors James Robinson of Harvard,
Daron Acemoglu of the Massachusetts
Institute of Technology and Tarek Hassan
of the University of Chicago Booth School
of Business have opened up a new research
field in the area of Holocaust studies.
Their conclusions in "Social Structure
and Development: A Legacy of the
Holocaust in Russia" — a five-year study
of the long-range economic impact of
the extermination of Jews in some areas
occupied by the Nazis during World War II
— are based on research by political scien-
tists and economists
Drawing mainly on detailed Russian cen-
sus data, supplemented by reports of Nazi
death squads, the three professors studied
the demographics and economies of 48
oblasts, or administrative districts, across
Russia, of which 11 in western Russia were
overrun by the German army early in the
war, with the subsequent extermination
of 1 million Soviet Jews.
Although making up only a minute
fraction of the total population of the
prewar Soviet Union, Jews predominated
in the productive middle class. In some
of the oblasts under German control, Jews
made up 1 percent of the population but
represented 70 percent of the physicians.
Concretely, the study found that in
2002, per capita gross domestic product
in the 11 Nazi-occupied oblasts lagged 23
percent behind the nationwide GDP.
Obama's Pick For Budget Post
WASHINGTON (JTA) -- President Obama
nominated Jacob Lew, an Orthodox Jew,
as director of the Office of Management
and Budget.
Lew, who held the top OMB post under
President Clinton, is a deputy secretary of
state for management and resources. He
would succeed Peter Orszag, who also is
Jewish.
His current position parallels within
the State Department the OMB mission of
prioritizing government spending.
"As the budget director who left the
next administration a $237 billion surplus
when he worked for President Clinton,
I have no doubt that Jack has proven
himself equal to this extraordinary task:'
Obama said on July 13 in announcing the
nomination, which as a Cabinet-level posi-
tion must be confirmed by the U.S. Senate.
Lew reportedly has clashed with his
counterpart at the State Department,
James Steinberg, who is also a deputy
secretary.
Orszag reportedly is leaving to facili-
tate his move to New York, the home of
his fiancee, ABC News reporter Bianna
Golodryga.
Roundup on page
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