Roundup
Google Brings
Yad Vashem Online
JERUSALEM -- Yad Vashem and Google
announced a partnership that will facili-
tate preservation of, and access to, the
world's largest historical collection on the
Holocaust.
The Jerusalem-based archive is devoted
to the documentation, research, education
and commemoration of the Holocaust.
As of Jan. 26 (International Holocaust
Remembrance Day), Yad Vashem's photo
collection was made more widely acces-
sible for people around the world to search
and discover photographs on the Yad
Vashem website and to share their own
personal stories and thoughts behind the
photos and documents.
About 130,000 photos from Yad
Vashem's archive are viewable in full reso-
lution online. This is a first step towards
bringing the vast Yad Vashem archive
online over time.
Google has implemented experimental
optical character recognition (OCR) tech-
nology to carry out this project, making
previously difficult-to-locate documents
searchable and discoverable online.
Two years ago, Yad Vashem launched a
YouTube channel to showcase a series of
videos of Holocaust survivor testimonials.
The YouTube channel is available at www.
youtube.com/yadvashem . The collections
are visible at http://collections.yadvashem.
org/photosarchive/en-us/photos.html.
P.A. Calls Elections
RAMALLAH (JTA) -- The Palestinian
Authority said it would hold elections
by September in what is being seen as
a response to the political upheaval in
Egypt.
The decision to have parliamentary
and presidential elections was announced
Saturday. It followed a meeting of the
executive committee of the Palestine
Liberation Organization, which is led by
P.A. President Mahmoud Abbas and over-
sees the Palestinian Authority.
Hamas rejected the announcement and
said it would not participate in the elec-
tions.
Taysir Khaled, a member of the PLO's
executive committee in Ramallah, told the
Washington Post that the decision to hold
elections "is not connected in a direct way
to what happened in Egypt."
"But," he added, "you
have to understand we
are affected by how
things are around us. We
do respect the wishes
and the demands of the
Egyptian people."
Also Saturday dur-
ing the PLO meeting,
Saeb Erekat
8
February 17 • 2011
Letter Urges Strong Support For Israel
Washington
A
s Congress prepares to consider
final funding levels for this
year's budget, and with rising
uncertainty about the future stability of
Egypt, Democratic U.S. Rep. Gary Peters
of Michigan and a Republican colleague
from Illinois co-write a congressional
letter urging that
America's support for
Israel remains strong.
Peters, a sec-
ond-termer from
Bloomfield Township,
and GOP fresh-
man congressman
Rep. Peters
Robert Dold sent a
bipartisan letter to
top Republicans and
Democrats on the
House Appropriations
Committee calling for
Congress to maintain
full funding for secu-
rity assistance to Israel.
Rep. Dold
The amount for fiscal
chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat
resigned his position. Abbas accepted the
resignation, according to the New York
Times. Erekat has been part of the negoti-
ating team for nearly 20 years.
He reportedly resigned due to the
fallout over more than 1,600 leaked
internal memos detailing negotiating
sessions with Israel, which indicated that
Palestinian peace negotiators were will-
ing to turn over nearly all of the Jewish
neighborhoods in eastern Jerusalem and
accept a shared authority of the Temple
Mount. In one document, Erekat told U.S.
officials that the Palestinians were giving
Israel "the biggest Yerushalayim in his-
tory."
The documents reportedly were stolen
from Erekat's office. Erekat told Israel's
Army Radio that he is stepping down
to take responsibility for the leak of the
documents.
Meanwhile, P.A. Prime Minister Salam
Fayyad dissolved his Cabinet and will
form a new government.
Abbas asked Fayyad to form a new
Cabinet with "the broadest representa-
tion possible" of Palestinian political
movements, said government spokesman
Ghassan Khatib, according to the Wall
Street Journal.
Israel's Military Chief
JERUSALEM (JTA) -- Maj.-Gen. Benny
Gantz became Israel's military chief
year 2011 is $3 billion. In response to
concern over Israel's appropriation, Peters
initiated reaching across the aisle, first in
Michigan, then elsewhere, to build back-
ing for the letter.
The Feb. 10 Peters-Dold letter prompt-
ed Dold to join with Austin Scott of
Georgia, another congressional newcom-
er, to author a similar pro-Israel letter
the next day. That letter sought full GOP
freshman support for continuing Israel's
aid level. It was addressed to Speaker of
the House John Boehner, Majority Leader
Eric Cantor and Majority Whip Kevin
McCarthy. The Republican Party controls
the House.
"We know that the national security
of the United States is directly tied to
the strength and security of the State of
Israel;' Peters and Dold wrote in the let-
ter. "As Israel faces threats from renewed
instability in Egypt, Hezbollah in
Lebanon, Hamas in Gaza and the existen-
tial danger posed by Iran's nuclear pro-
gram, U.S. security assistance to Israel,
including supporting Israel's acquisition
of the Iron Dome rocket defense system,
has never been more important for our
own national security interests."
In addition to the traditional security
assistance that the United States pro-
vides Israel to help defend against the
military threat posed by neighboring
states, Dold and Peters called for sup-
port for Israel's Iron Dome short-range
artillery rocket defense system. The
Iron Dome is a short-range artillery
rocket defense system approved by the
House last year. Iron Dome batteries are
designed to defend against attacks on
civilians from short-range missiles, rock-
ets and mortars such as those used by
Hamas and Hezbollah.
In their cover letter to GOP freshman
congressional colleagues, Dold and Scott
wrote, in part: "In recent weeks, we have
all witnessed a succession of mass pro-
tests and turmoil in many Middle East
nations. This regional upheaval, most
clearly on display in Egypt, underscores
the importance of Israel as the preemi-
nent, table democracy in the Middle East
and America's strongest democratic ally
in the region:' I I
of general staff following unanimous
approval by the Cabinet.
Gantz was named to the position after
the rescinding of the decision to appoint
Maj-Gen. Yoav Gallant over a personal real
estate scandal.
lains who died while on active duty in the
Armed Forces of the United States."
The design would be subject to the
approval of the secretary of the Army.
The resolution notes the absence from
the memorial of, among others, Rabbi
Alexander Goode, one of four chaplains
who gave their lifejackets to soldiers when
the USS Dorchester was sunk by German
torpedoes in 1943 and went down togeth-
er in prayer.
Memorial To Chaplains Urged
WASHINGTON (JTA) -- Jewish and vet-
erans' groups urged the U.S. Congress
to pass a resolution that would add the
names of Jewish chaplains to an Arlington
Cemetery memorial.
Wehrwolf A Museum
Groups including the Jewish
BERLIN (JTA) Hitler's Eastern front
Federations of North America, the Jewish
military headquarters in central Ukraine
Welfare Board, the Jewish War Veterans
will be turned into a museum.
and the American Legion wrote Congress
The opening is scheduled for May 9,
members Feb. 9 asking them to back a
known as Victory Day, which marks the
congressional resolution now circulating
surrender of Nazi Germany to the Soviet
in both houses.
Union in World War II.
"Chaplains Hill in Arlington National
Some 20 wooden cottages and barracks
Cemetery appropriately memorializes
and three bunkers remain on the site of
the names of 242 chaplains who per-
the headquarters, known as Wehrwolf.
ished while on active duty:' said Cheryl
The Nazis destroyed much of the site
Fishbein, the chairwoman of the JFNA
when they abandoned it.
North America Domestic Affairs Cabinet.
The headquarters were built over the
"But astonishingly, none of the 13
course of 11/2 years ending in April 1942.
Jewish chaplains who have died while
Some 10,000 Soviet war prisoners and
serving are honored on Chaplains Hill.
some 1,000 local citizens participated in
"All chaplains who have served our
building the headquarters.
country should be honored."
"It is time to make the Wehrwolf head-
The congressional resolutions urge
quarters a tourist destination, a memorial
the provision of space "for a memorial
to the victims of fascism;' the head of the
marker, to be paid for with private funds,
local administration, Mykola Djiga, told
to honor the memory of the Jewish chap-
the UNIAN news agency.
Roundup on page 10