Roundup

Emanuel Quits
White House
WASHINGTON (JTA)
Rahm Emanuel,
President Obama's chief
of staff, quit to run for
Chicago mayor.
Emanuel, who resigned
Rahm
last Friday, started cam-
Emanuel
paigning for the top job
in his hometown on Sunday.
Emanuel focused mostly on shepherd-
ing domestic initiatives through Congress
since assuming the Obama staff job in
January of 2009. He was deeply involved in
passing health care reform.
The son of an Israeli doctor who moved
to the United States in the 1950s, Emanuel,
who speaks Hebrew, also played a role in
reaching out to Israeli leaders when ten-
sions between the Obama and Netanyahu
administrations flared earlier this year
over settlement building.
Emanuel spoke emotionally of his par-
ents at his departure ceremony.
"Both my parents raised me to give
something back to the country and the
community that has given us so much;
and I want to thank you for the opportuni-
ty to repay in a small portion of the bless-
ings this country has given my family:' he
said to Obama.
"I give you my word that even as I leave
the White House, I will never leave that
spirit of service behind!'
Peter Rouse, a senior aide, was named to
replace Emanuel. Rouse, who was Obama's
chief of staff when he was a U.S. sena-
tor from Illinois, has close relations with
Jewish groups.

Palestinian Mosque Torched
JERUSALEM (JTA) -- A Palestinian
mosque in a Hebron-area village was van-
dalized and set on fire, allegedly by Jews.
In addition to graffiti spray-painted on
the building, several volumes of the Koran
and prayer rugs were burned in the fire set
late Sunday night.
"The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) and
security officials are working in order to
find those responsible; and we view this as
a grave and serious incident',' head of the
Israeli Civil Administration, Brig. Gen. Yoel
Mordechai, said Monday.
Mordechai offered to open a joint inves-
tigation with the Palestinian Authority,
according to the Israeli military.
Residents of the southern West Bank
village of Beit Fajar told several media
outlets that Jews from a nearby settlement
attacked the mosque.
It is the third Palestinian mosque to be
torched, allegedly by settlers, in the past
year.
The New York-based Anti-Defamation

League condemned the incident: "We are
outraged by the attack on the mosque in
Beit Fajar. We join with Israeli officials
in condemning this act of hate and hope
that the joint IDF-Palestinian investiga-
tive team will identify and apprehend the
perpetrators of this vicious act and bring
them to justice according to the law.
"These violent acts, which are believed to
be the work of Israeli Jewish extremists, are
unacceptable.Political opposition should be
expressed in peaceful and legal ways."

Vichy Persecution Of Jews
PARIS ( JTA) -- The head of France's Vichy
regime may have pushed for tougher laws
against French Jews than were requested
by Nazi Germany, a newly discovered
document shows.
Philippe Petain is believed to have
edited a document to toughen a bill aimed
at discriminating against Jews in the fall
of 1940, when the French government
collaborated with and was under Nazi
Germany's control.
The document — a marked-up early
draft of a law that was passed Oct. 3, 1940,
and which infamously classified Jews as
second-class citizens by forbidding them
access to certain jobs — was deposited
at the Memorial of the Shoah museum in
Paris at the end of last week by an anony-
mous individual.
Serge Klarsfeld, a lawyer and head of an
organization for the memorial of children
of deported French Jews, was put in charge
of determining the authenticity of the
document for the museum.
On Sunday, Klarsfeld told French media
that the handwriting on the document rec-
ognizably belongs to Petain.
The corrections on the document call
for tougher discriminatory laws against all
Jews in France, whereas the original type-
written draft said descendants of Jews born
in France or who became citizens before
1860 were exempt from the new law. The
modifications also increase the types of
jobs that are forbidden to all Jews residing
in France.
Though France has apologized formally
for its collaboration with Nazi Germany,
some still believe that French-born Jews
were protected by Petain, according to
Klarsfeld.
"We now have the proof that he [Petain]
intervened to extend the range of bans
and to restrain the possibilities of exemp-
tion" for Jews, Klarsfeld told the French
daily le Monde in an interview published
Monday.
"It is a confirmation of Petain's anti-
Semitism because he did not try, contrary
to what some claim, to save the Jews; and
finally because he did not hesitate to align
himself with Nazi racial ideology"

CNN Sacks Anchor
WASHINGTON (JTA) -- CNN fired
anchorman Rick Sanchez after he sug-
gested that Jews run the news business.
Sanchez made his remarks in a free-
wheeling exchange Sept. 30 with Pete
Dominick, a Latino stand-up comedian
and radio show host who is friends with
Jon Stewart, the faux-news Comedy
Central star who has made Sanchez'
robust style the butt of many jokes.
Sanchez, a native of Cuba, alleged that
Stewart singled him out because of white
bigotry.
Dominick pushed back, saying that
Stewart, because he is Jewish, is himself a
member of a minority
"I'm telling you that everybody who
runs CNN is a lot like Stewart, and a lot of
people who run all the other networks are
a lot like Stewart, and to imply that some-
how they, the people in this country who
are Jewish, are an oppressed minority?
Yeah," he said.
On Oct. 1, Sanchez's 3 p.m. broadcast did
not appear. At 6 p.m., in a short statement,
CNN said he no longer worked for the
network.

honor the outcome of this referendum; it
must allow for and help advance humani-
tarian work and peacekeeping efforts in
Darfur; and it must hold the perpetrators
of mass violence accountable in order to
bring a sustainable peace to the region,"
American Jewish World Service President
Ruth Messinger said in a Sept. 29 state-
ment.

Helping Holocaust Survivors
WASHINGTON (JTA) -- The House of
Representatives has introduced a resolu-
tion aimed at helping Holocaust survivors
in the United States in need of in-home
care.
U.S. Reps. Debbie Wasserman Schultz,
D-Fla., and Frank Wolf, R-Va., introduced
a resolution Sept. 29 to raise awareness of
the social service needs of Holocaust sur-
vivors — specifically the need for them to
be able to age in place.
The resolution, which was referred
to the House Education and Labor
Committee, expresses congressional sup-
port for efforts that help Holocaust survi-
vors in America continue to live at home
and applauds nonprofit organizations
such as the Jewish Federations of North
America for their work honoring and
Obama Praised On Sudan
assisting Holocaust survivors.
WASHINGTON (JTA) -- Jewish groups
It also urges the Obama administration
praised President Obama for focusing
and
the U.S. Department of Health and
international attention on preventing
Human
Services to provide Holocaust
renewed civil war in Sudan.
survivors
with needed social services
Obama appeared late last month at a
through
existing
programs, and to develop
United Nations conference on the situation
and
implement
programs
that ensure
in Sudan, putting the U.S. government's
Holocaust
survivors
are
able
to age in
weight behind efforts to ensure that inde-
place
in
their
communities
and
avoid
pendence referendums take place in the
institutionalization
during
their
remain-
sub-Saharan African country as scheduled
ing
years.
in January.
Of the approximately 127,000 Holocaust
"The stakes are enormous:' Obama said.
survivors
living in the United States, more
"We all know the terrible price paid by the
than
three
quarters are older than 75 — a
Sudanese people the last time north and
majority
are
in their 80s and 90s.
south were engulfed in war — some 2
Some
two-thirds
of the survivors in
million people killed."
America
are
living
alone;
and many lack
Rabbi David Saperstein, director of
the
financial
resources
for
basic neces-
the Religious Action Center of Reform
sities
such
as
proper
housing
and health
Judaism, commended Obama on his lead-
care.
ership at the U.N. High Level Meeting on
Most Holocaust survivors fall beneath
Sudan.
the
federal poverty threshold that would
Your leadership is indispensable if we
place
them at risk of institutionalization.
are to make real progress on safety and
Institutionalized
settings are especially
security for the long-suffering people of
difficult
for
Holocaust
survivors, research
Sudan," Saperstein said in an Oct. 1 letter.
has
shown,
because
such
environments
"As people intimately acquainted with
reintroduce
the
sights,
sounds
and rou-
the horrors of ethnic cleansing and geno-
tines
reminiscent
of
their
Holocaust
expe-
cide, we know the dangers of international
riences.
silence in the face of ethnic violence," the
Wasserman Schultz said the United
letter added.
States has "a moral obligation to acknowl-
"It is clear that President Obama shares
edge the plight and uphold the dignity of
our belief that if government of Sudan
Holocaust survivors to ensure their well-
wants a path towards normalized rela-
tions with the nations of the world, it must being in their remaining years."
allow for a peaceful referendum on pos-
Roundup on page 12
sible secession for southern Sudan; it must

JN

October 7 • 2010

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