EXCLUSIVE EXHIBIT PREVIEW Become a member and join us for our members-only exhibit preview. The E-Rate Controversy Ex-JN staffer breaks story on federal tech grants in NYC haredi schools. Your membership will entitle you to a year of free admission and programs. T Memberships start at $18/students, $36/singles and $50/families and are tax-deductible. Meet artist Fay Grajower and preview Where the Past Meets the Future, a mixed media exhibit that revisits the vibrant Jewish life in Poland before the Holocaust and reflects hope and interest in contemporary Polish Jewish life and culture. Enjoy a violin performance by acclaimed musician Gabriel Bolkosky. Kosher refreshments will be served. To RSVP, please call 248.553.2400 x29 ..$1' bAEMN holocaustcenter.org HOLOCAUST MEMORIAL CENTER ZEKELMAN FAMILY CAMPUS %),„„,,,,, 28123 Orchard Lake Road • Farmington Hills, MI 48334 -1 Claims Conference nwnnn n -t)vi v A The Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany Holocaust-Era Assets in Former East Germany The Claims Conference has established a Late Applicants Fund ("LAF") of €50 million in order to accept applications from the following heirs of a former Jewish owner ("persecutee") of property/ assets in the former East Germany for which the Claims Conference received proceeds as Successor Organization under the German Property Law of 1990: (a) The immediate testamentary heir of the persecutee; (b) Children, grandchildren, or great grandchildren of the persecutee; (c) Siblings of the persecutee; (d) Children of siblings listed under (c); (e) Spouses of persons listed under (b), (c) and (d). Applications can be filed directly with the Claims Conference for no fee. There is no need for applicants to pay a fee to any party. The LAF will accept applications through December 31, 2014. After the application deadline, the Claims Conference shall determine the payment that each eligible heir will receive. This determination will be based on a number of factors detailed on the Claims Conference website. The Claims Conference has published on its website, www.claimscon.org , a list of the properties/ assets received by the Claims Conference as of the date of publication, and such assets for which claims by the Claims Conference are still pending under the German Property Restitution Law, including the name of the former owners and/or businesses, as well as the addresses of the properties/assets. The detailed rules of the LAF, applications, and other information are also on the Claims Conference website, www.claimscon.org . All communications regarding the Late Applicants Fund should be submitted to: Claims Conference Successor Organization, Sophienstrasse 26, D-60487 Frankfurt am Main, Germany. Fax: 011-49-69-97-07-08-11. Email: claims-conference-laf@claimscon.org To aid applicants who do not have complete information, the Claims Conference has a Department for Property Identification. If you believe that you or your relatives may have owned Jewish property in the former East Germany, please include as much information as possible in your application and the Department will endeavor to identify such property. Please write to the above address. There is no charge for this service as well. The Claims Conference has appointed an Ombudsman. To contact the Office of the Ombudsman, please email Ombudsman@claimscon.org or write to The Ombudsman, PO Box 585, Old Chelsea Station, New York, NY 10113 20 March 7 • 2013 metro >> Jews in the digital age JN he importance of increasing access to technology in our schools became a top prior- ity during the Clinton administration. In that vein, President Bill Clinton and Vice President Al Gore sought to incorporate technol- ogy into the classroom and ensure equal oppor- tunity for students to benefit from technology by creating E-rate. In the years since its creation, these federal grants have helped public and private schools across the country connect to the Internet, increase the number of computers in classrooms and provide technology training for teachers. Julie Wiener, a for- mer Detroit Jewish News reporter who is now associate editor of the Jewish Week in New York City, recently uncovered potential fraud relat- ing to the E-rate Julie Wiener program in ultra- Orthodox schools in New York. In a three-part expose, Wiener, together with special correspondent Hella Winston, explained how several ultra- Orthodox day schools and yeshivahs in New York have been receiving mil- lions of dollars of technology through the E-rate program, but never actually putting that technology to use in their schools because of their community's disdain for the Internet. Wiener's four-month investigation revealed that of the almost 300 Jewish schools benefiting from E-rate, 10 schools (all but one Chasidic) col- lectively were approved for nearly $9 million in E-rate-funded services in 2011, which amounted to almost one- third of the Jewish total. One yeshi- vah submitted requests in 2012 for 65 direct connections to the Internet including 40 computers, but no com- puter or Internet connection were ever installed. Wiener's investigation also found a disparity in the amount of technology funding the New York area's ultra- Orthodox schools were receiving. She writes, "While Jewish schools enrolled approximately 4 percent of the state's K-12 students, they were awarded 22 percent of the state's total E-rate allocations to schools and libraries:' After reading the three- part series, I had a chance to talk with Wiener about her investigative reporting and what she hopes will hap- pen now that these schools' alleged misuse of a federal technology fund has become publicized. "I'd like to see more inves- tigation and oversight on the part of the FCC and the USAC [Universal Service Administrative Company, which oversees E-Rate], including more audits and actual visits to make sure the equip- ment that's actually paid for is being used. I also want more people to know about E-rate. There are more schools that could benefit that haven't even heard of the program:' Wiener, who has been writing about Jewish education and technol- ogy over the past few years, says she first honed her investigative skills at the Detroit Jewish News in the mid- 1990s. She answered some questions about the E-Rate story: How did you find out about E-rate? JW: My colleague Hella Winston, who has done a lot of coverage of the ultra-Orthodox community, got a tip from someone several months ago and then found the E-rate Central site, where all the data is contained. The idea immediately appealed to us, because the Asifa — the May 2012 [haredi] rally against the Internet — was still fresh in our memories, and also, I had been covering the whole issue of technology in Jewish educa- tion and yet had never before heard of E-rate. Initially, it felt overwhelming to go through the enormous amount of data, but fortunately I was taking a class at CUNY Journalism School this fall, which both inspired me to do data- driven articles and empowered me. What was the process? JW: We decided early on to nar- row our focus to New York state. That's because this was already an enormous project and because we are based in New York. We also knew Controversy on page 22