Roundup
Roundup from page 10
restaurant Solo, where the men dined, told
the Post.
Tyson decided last spring to begin fol-
lowing a strict vegan diet, which he says
gives him more energy.
Plaza Renovations
JERUSALEM (JTA) Israel's Cabinet
approved a $23 million plan to renovate the
Western Wall Plaza and part of Jerusalem's
Jewish Quarter.
The five-year plan approved Sunday
will preserve and improve accessibility to
archeological findings, upgrade infrastruc-
ture and provide a place to hold educa-
tional activities for students and soldiers,
according to a statement issued by the
Prime Minister's Office.
Work is expected to start next year and
be completed in 2015. Some 8 million
people visited the Western Wall in 2009, up
from 4 million in 2004.
The plan will be administered by the
Prime Minister's Office and will be imple-
mented through the Western Wall Heritage
Foundation. It will be financed by the inte-
rior, transportation, tourism, public secu-
rity and education ministries, as well as by
the Israel Land Administration, according
to the statement.
New Cabinet
Level Director
WASHINGTON (JTA)
-- The U.S. Senate con-
firmed Jack Lew, an
Orthodox Jew, to the
Cabinet-level position of
the director of the Office
Jack Lew
of Management and
Budget.
Lew, who was confirmed in a voice vote
Nov. 18, will reprise the job he held late in
the Clinton administration. Currently the
deputy secretary of state, he succeeds Peter
Orszag, who left for the private sector.
Lew has close ties to the capital's Jewish
groups and often speaks at public events of
the difficulties of reconciling 24/7 govern-
ment jobs with his Orthodoxy.
Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La., had held up
Lew's confirmation for months while she
sought assurances from the administration
that it would reissue oil-drilling licenses
in the Gulf of Mexico after wells were shut
down in the wake of the summer's cata-
strophic oil leak.
Like many other such Senate holds,
Landrieu's objections had nothing to do
with the target.
Ban Circumcision?
SAN FRANCISCO/j the Jewish news weekly
of Northern California -- San Francisco-
area Jewish organizations condemned a
proposed ballot measure to outlaw Jewish
12
November 25 • 2010
JN
ritual circumcision in the city.
The Anti-Defamation League, the local
Jewish Community Relations Council, the
Board of Rabbis of Northern California
and the American Jewish Committee
together issued a statement expressing
"great concern" about the proposed mea-
sure, which would make the practice of brit
milah, or ritual circumcision, on anyone
younger than 18 a misdemeanor carrying
a $1,000 fine.
"For thousands of years, Jews around
the world have engaged in this important
religious ritual, which is of fundamental
importance in the Jewish tradition:' the
statement said.
"The organized Jewish community is
deeply troubled by this initiative, which
would interfere with the rights of parents
to make religious decisions for their own
families."
San Francisco resident Lloyd Schofield is
spearheading the effort to collect enough
signatures to get the anti-bris measure on
the ballot next year. At least 7,100 signa-
tures are needed to qualify. Schofield wants
to ban the practice of male circumcision,
including for Jewish religious purposes;
female circumcision is already illegal.
Likewise, Schofield argues, male circum-
cision on boys under the age of consent
should be illegal, too.
"People can practice whatever religion
they want, but your religious practice ends
with someone else's body',' Schofield said
in a recent interview with CBS. "His body
doesn't belong to his culture, his govern-
ment, his religion or even his parents. It's
his decision."
Iran Policy Limited
WASHINGTON (JTA) -- The U.S. focus on
"dialogue, engagement and sanctions" in
dealing with Iran is the right focus for now
and military force remains an option "in
the future,' the chairman of the U.S. Joint
Chiefs of Staff said.
Adm. Mike Mullen, meeting at the
Pentagon with his Israeli counterpart Gabi
Ashkenazi, was asked about demands
by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu that the United States make a
"credible military threat" against Iran to
get it to stand down from its suspected
nuclear weapons program.
"Right now, the focus is on dialogue and
engagement and sanctions:' he said.
"The sanctions are actually taking a
fairly significant bite; and that's the current
path. We've all been pretty clear here that
all options remain on the table, includ-
ing military options, and will — and will
remain on the table in the future."
Ashkenazi agreed: "We still have some
time to watch it and see what will be the
final outcome',' he said of the sanctions.
Cantor: New
Majority Leader
WASHINGTON (JTA)
-- Republican members
of the U.S. House of
Representatives elected
Rep. Eric Cantor, R-Va.,
their majority leader in
Eric Cantor
the next Congress.
Cantor won the elec-
tion uncontested, paving the way for him
to become one of the highest-ranking
Jews in U.S. government history. When the
112th Congress convenes in January, Cantor
will be the second-ranked member of the
House after the likely speaker, Rep. John
Boehner, R-Va. That would make Cantor
the highest-ranking Jew in congressional
history.
It is difficult to assess the relative power
of senior positions across the three branch-
es of U.S. government — the legislature, the
executive branch and the judiciary. There
have been numerous Jewish associate jus-
tices of the Supreme Court, and a number
of Jews have occupied senior Cabinet posts,
including secretaries of state, defense and
treasury.
Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., the outgoing
House speaker, was elected minority leader
in a 150-43 vote. As a party leader, Pelosi
made Jewish outreach a priority, designat-
ing Reva Price, a senior adviser and former
executive of a number of Jewish organiza-
tions, as her point person.
Comatose Sharon
Visits Ranch
JERUSALEM (JTA)
-- Ariel Sharon was
returned to a Tel Aviv
hospital after spending
a weekend at his ranch
for the first time since
Ariel Sharon
he fell into a coma in
January 2006. The former
Israeli prime minister spent the Nov. 12-14
weekend at the ranch in the Negev desert,
according to reports.
Since shortly after suffering a massive
stroke when he was prime minister, Sharon
has remained in a Tel Aviv hospital. He is
expected to be returned to the ranch in
coming weekends to test the possibility of
moving him back home permanently.
Lord's Prayer Jewish?
LOS ANGELES (JTA) -- The Lord's Prayer,
widely considered to undergird the founda-
tion of Christianity, "is utterly, totally, fully
Jewish — there's nothing in it that is par-
ticularly Christian:' a theological expert said.
John Dominic Crossan, a former
Catholic priest and now professor at
DePaul University, articulates this thesis
in the latest of his 26 books, The Greatest
Prayer: Rediscovering the Revolutionary
Message of the Lord's Prayer, released by
HarperOne. Crossan is one of the foremost
theological interpreters of the historical
Jesus.
The opening words of the Lord's Prayer
are "Our Father, who art in Heaven" and the
first two words are key to Crossan's reinter-
pretation. In traditional Christian thinking,
the prayer is seen as establishing a relation-
ship between the individual petitioner and
God, but Crossan takes a different view in
his book and in recent media interviews.
Within the context of Judaism in the 1st
century CE, the term "Father," or Abba in
Aramaic, would connote a householder who
must provide equally for all members of his
family, according to Crossan. In that sense,
God is "The Big Householder in the Sky"
who exercises "distributive justice" and who
would be appalled by the huge discrepancy
between rich and poor, Crossan argues.
That concept "reflects the radical vision
of justice that is the core of Israel's bibli-
cal tradition',' Crossan writes. "The Lord's
Prayer comes from the heart of Judaism to
the lips of Christianity."
There is "a huge discrepancy between
what most people think Christianity is real-
ly about and what Jesus thinks Christianity
is really about:' Crossan said in an inter-
view with the Religion News Service.
Crossan is an old hand at questioning
Christian dogma and is one of the found-
ers of the Jesus Seminar, a liberal Christian
group. The Seminar has proposed that
many of the miracles attributed to Jesus did
not occur, at least not as written in the New
Testament, and that Jesus did not physically
rise from the dead.
U.S. Weapons In Israel
WASHINGTON (JTA) -- The United States
will store an additional $400 million in
emergency military equipment in Israel.
The new equipment, which will arrive
in Israel over the next two years, will
be available to Israel in the event of an
emergency. It will bring to $1.2 billion the
amount of American military equipment
being stockpiled in Israel by 2012.
Congress approved the storage of
new weapons in Israel last month, but
the story was first reported this week in
Defense News magazine by its Israel-based
reporter, Barbara Opall-Rome. The agree-
ment between Israel and the United States
includes the conditions under which the
Israel Defense Forces may use the equip-
ment, Haaretz reported.
Israel used some U.S. stockpiles of
weapons during the Second Lebanon War.
The new equipment includes smart
bombs and other precision weaponry,
according to reports, and can be used by
U.S. troops anywhere in the world.