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Vol. 1, No. 130

Friday Afternoon, September 7, 2007

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Israel and Middle East

$2.4 billion for Israel included in Senate version of Foreign Operations bill

If Iran has 3,000 centrifuges up and running, you can start the countdown

Dov Burt Levy: The unheeded words of peace

Europe

Shirley Cloyes DioGuardi: Albania and the Holocaust: Jewish Survival & the Ethics of ‘Besa’

United States of America

NJDC demands Democrat Moran retract his 'Israel lobby' comment

Saperstein welcomes court decision narrowing impact of Patriot Act

Judaism

Rabbi Leonard Rosenthal: We still refer to Moses in the present tense: Moishe Rabeinu

Rabbi Baruch Lederman: The priest returns a favor

Features

Jewish Grapevine

Shabbat Shalom!

$2.4 billion for Israel included in Senate version of Foreign Operations bill

-SDJW Staff Report-

WASHINGTON, DC —The American Israel Public Affairs Commitee (AIPAC) and various members of the Senate found much to praise in the Senate's version of the $34 billion Foreign Operations Appropriations bill approved Thursday night.

To begin with, there was $2.4 billion in military aid to Israel. In a news release, AIPAC said this amount "represents the last year of a 10-year-plan between Israel and the United States to phase out economic aid to Israel while gradually increasing the amount of military aid.

"Composing about one percent of the federal budget, the amount of foreign aid spending is a cost-effective way to demonstrate U.S. leadership and protect American interests around the globe."

The bill also included several provisions by Sen. Frank Lautenberg (Democrat, New Jersey) which he listed as follows:

● "Middle East Peace: restoring $5 million in funding for the Middle East Regional Cooperation Program, a vital program facilitating people-to-people interaction between Israelis and Arabs in the scientific community. The Bush Administration chose to zero out funding for MERC in its FY 2008 State Budget request, despite its 25 years of success," Lautenberg said.

● "Libya: blocking $110 million in funding for the construction of a U.S. embassy in the Libyan city of Tripoli because of the Libyan government's failure to fully resolve outstanding claims to the families of victims of terrorism from the 1988 Pan Am Flight 103 bombing over Lockerbie, Scotland and 1985 LaBelle Discotheque bombing in Berlin, Germany," the New Jersey Democrat added.

●Refugees: extending the Lautenberg Amendment," which has granted over 400,000 people, who are proven victims of religious persecution in the former Soviet Union, Vietnam and Laos, refugee status in the United States," Lautenberg said.

Senators Joe Lieberman (Independent, Connecticut) and Norman Coleman (Republican, Minnesota) were part of a group of senators who were able to restore $50 million for aid to dissident and democratic groups inside Iran. The administration had cut a $75 million budget to $25 million for this purpose.

"At a time when the Iranian regime is doing everything in its power to roll back dissidents and democrats, Congress has sent a powerful signal that we stand with the Iranian people in their struggle for freedom," Lieberman said. "There is an inextricable link between the domestic repression of the Iranian regime and its aggression abroad. Supporting Iranian dissidents is not only a moral imperative; it is a strategic necessity."

All 13 Jewish senators—nine Democrats, two Republicans and two Independents—voted in favor of the bill, which now goes to a Senate-House conference committee.

The measure had won 241-178 passage in the House in June after the Republican caucus decided to vote against it, partially in protest of a provision within the omnibus bill that would have permitted the United States to disseminate contraceptives to non-governmental organizations overseas.

Recalling that vote, the National Jewish Democratic Council issued a news release to "reverse course, drop their opposition to the bill, and stand with their Senate counterparts."

"Senate Democrats and Republicans alike should be applauded for their support of the Foreign Aid Appropriations Bill, and friends of Israel should be encouraged that Foreign Aid continues to enjoy bipartisan support in the U.S. Senate," said NJDC Executive Director Ira N. Forman. "Here's hoping that the House Republican leaders are swayed by public pressure and reconsider their opposition to Foreign Aid."

However, the Senate version includes what amendment co- authors Senators Barbara Boxer (Democrat, California) and Olympia Snowe (Republican, Maine) describe as the repeal of the "Global Gag Rule," precluding official U.S. involvement in the dissemination of birth control information.

“The repeal of the Global Gag Rule policy is long overdue,” Boxer said. “Thousands of women have died because of this dangerous policy, and I will work as hard as I can to see that it is finally overturned.”

The Boxer-Snowe Amendment repeals the Global Gag Rule, which President Bush established by executive order on his first working day in office in 2001. Also known as the Mexico City Policy, the Global Gag Rule denies U.S. international family planning assistance to foreign non-governmental organizations that use their own funds to counsel women on the availability of abortion, advocate for changes to abortion laws, or provide legal abortion services.

The preceding story incorporates information provided by AIPAC, NJDC, and the offices of Senators Boxer, Lautenberg and Lieberman

Israel and Middle East

If Iran has 3,000 centrifuges up and running, you can start the countdown

By Shoshana Bryen

"You are being cooperative," said the IAEA.

"No, we're not," replied Iran.

"Yes, you ARE being cooperative," insisted the IAEA. "ElBaradei told The New York Times that you are intentionally slowing progress on your centrifuges to be conciliatory. He had a 'gut feeling' that you were doing it for political reasons."

"No, no, no! We are definitely NOT being cooperative," shouted Iran, stamping its metaphorical foot. "We've got 3,000 centrifuges up and running."

The argument between the IAEA and Iran would be comical if it wasn't for the fact that if 3,000 centrifuges spin continuously for a year, they can produce enough enriched uranium for a nuclear weapon. If Iran has them running now, start the countdown.

One of them is wrong; which one is unclear. But the situation begs the question why, at the moment even France is becoming adamant about not accepting a nuclear Iran, would Ahmadinejad vehemently contradict IAEA Director General Mohamad ElBaradei, who is trying to protect his program? The answer may lie in the internal politics of Iran - much as Saddam's insistence that he was ready to "burn half of Israel" with chemical weapons had to do with something other than the truth. He used the threat of external enemies to maintain control of his fractious realm and had a not-uncommon need to appear more powerful than he was to frighten off internal and external enemies.

Ahmadinejad also despotically rules an unhappy people, has delusions about his place in the universe and may, like Saddam, underestimate American patience. Saddam never left the Middle East and killed advisors who brought him bad news, so his worldview was skewed.

Ahmadinejad is also not worldly in the way one would hope the leader of a historically rich country of 67 million would be. There are reports that Ahmadinejad has overplayed his hand in Tehran. His longtime rival, former president Ali Akbar Rafsanjani, is the newly elected speaker of the Experts Assembly, the body that elects and can remove Supreme Leaders of Iran.

Rafsanjani has been an advocate of speaking more softly and making certain accommodations with the West that increase Iran's economic and political maneuverability. Opposite to the approach of Ahmadinejad, though they vary little in goals.

Gasoline rationing has begun and the Iranian economy is in dreadful straits even without increased Western economic sanctions. Inflation and unemployment are high, and the religious police just closed 20 barbershops in Tehran for giving "inappropriate" haircuts. People are being arrested daily for what they say, do and write.

Ahmadinejad may be trying to rally the people around the idea that that he can bring Iran to glory with nuclear power/weapons. He may be lying to goad the West into threatening him for his own ends. Or, he may be presiding over a cascade of 3,000 centrifuges.

Bryen is director of special projects for the Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs

Dov Burt Levy
The unheeded words of peace

SALEM, Massachusetts (Press Release)—The media have been filled with remembrances of the death of Princess Diana ten years ago. But not remembered, except for their families andfriends, are the five people, four high school girls among them, killed in Jerusalem by a suicide bomber on September 4, 1997, just four days after Diana's death.

Beside my own apprehension about having been on the spot of the downtown Jerusalem bombing just 90 minutes before it occurred andhaving great sorrow for those killed and injured, my thoughts moved tomy grandchildren, Michael and Jenny, then 10 and 8 years old, who soon
enough would be the same age as the dead children.

When the editor of an American grandparent publication, for whom I had written, phoned a few days after the bombing to check on how my family was doing, I agreed to her suggestion to write something about the situation from a grandparent's perspective.

Here is how I linked grandparenting and the death of Princess Diana.

When my grandchildren were born in Jerusalem, I was the happiest grandfather in the world.

I always was a peacenik, but with each hug of these kids, I prayed that at least, by the time they were 18 years old, their military service would be a peacetime assignment.

I wrote that too many grandparents all over the world worry about terror and bombings, about wars declared and undeclared, about the kind of world they and their children have made for their
grandchildren.

I said that without major changes in the psyche and behavior of people and nations, innocents and soldiers would continue to die, victims of leaders who order their murder in the name of religion, nationalism or revenge.

I asked how much longer we would accept wars and killings as part of the natural order of things.

I told of my dream of what Princes Harry and William might have said at their mother's funeral.

"Our mother did her best to advance the cause of peace. She embraced the sick and dying. She called for the abolition of tools of war.

"What our Mom did not know was how much the people of the world loved her, how powerful would be your grief at her death. We are sad that she couldn't know how far you might have supported her efforts during her life.

"Today, in our collective grief we ask what can be done in her memory?

"Imagine if you all, the millions of you, refused to let your children go to war. Imagine if a million people surrounded the capitol building of every nation, stood with signs demanding peace, just as you walkedwith flowers for our mother's soul this week? "

Of course, the young princes never spoke my words. Today, 10 years later, my words read, even to me, as anachronisms, a throwback toancient history or utopian novels. They sound like a fairy tale, anidea with never enough takers, a notion that never encompassed much of the world.

Is the situation even worse today than it was 10 years ago? I think so.

And, while it pains me to say it, you and I and the citizens of most western countries are more passive than we were 10 years ago. Still, I believe a majority exists in almost every country for ending the killings, stopping the wars.

If, in most countries, millions of people could be gotten off their tushes and into the streets, peace could break out, and politicians would have to respond.

Don't we owe that to our progeny, if not ourselves?

To come full circle, grandson Michael is now a 20-year-old Israeli army sergeant, with one year of service remaining. Jenny, 18, begins her two-year service this month. No peacetime army service for them. My prayers of 20 years ago remain unfulfilled.

Dov Burt Levy is a regular Jewish Journal Boston North columnist. He may be contacted at dblevy@columnist.com

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Europe

Albania and the Holocaust: Jewish Survival & the Ethics of ‘Besa’

By Shirley Cloyes DioGuardi

Very few people know about the long history of Albanian religious tolerance and resistance to oppression. Neither do they know that during World War II, all Jews who lived in Albania or sought asylum in that country were saved from the ravages of the Holocaust. This information was suppressed by the Stalinist Communist regime of Enver Hoxha who controlled Albania for fifty years.

When European Jewry began fleeing to Albania to escape the unfolding events in Western Europe in the early 1930s, there were approximately 200 Jews living in Albania. (Archaeological evidence documents the presence of Jews in Albanian lands since the epoch of Roman rule.) At the end of World War II, there were close to 2,000 Jews living in Albania—the only nation that can claim that every Jew within its borders was rescued from the Holocaust.

One witness to the lack of anti-Semitism in Albania was Herman Bernstein, himself a Jew, who served as U.S. Ambassador to Albania from 1930 to 1933. Bernstein wrote in his letters that:

"There is no trace of any discrimination against Jews in Albania because Albania happens to be one of the rare lands in Europe today where religious prejudice and hate do not exist, even though Albanians themselves are divided into three faiths….”[1]

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United States of America

NJDC demands Democrat Moran retract his 'Israel lobby' comment

WASHINGTON, D.C. – The National Jewish Democratic Council (NJDC) called on Democratic Congressman Jim Moran of Virginia on Friday to retract comments from a recent interview with the publication Tikkun, in which he made the false claim that AIPAC pushed for the Iraq War. By misrepresenting the organization’s lobbying activities, Moran’s comments could be interpreted as implying that AIPAC was partially responsible for the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2002.

Rep. Moran’s comments are particularly troubling because they come at a time when Professors Stephen Walt and John Mearsheimer are peddling a new book which places substantial blame for the Iraq quagmire on the so-called “Israel Lobby.”

“It is never easy nor pleasant to criticize a fellow Democrat, but sometimes it is necessary,” said NJDC Executive Director Ira N. Forman. “While there is nothing wrong with criticizing AIPAC – or for that matter any organization with which you disagree – spreading false statements is clearly irresponsible. At a time when Professors Walt and Mearsheimer are attempting to defame the so-called Israel Lobby with a phony connection between the pro-Israel community and the Iraq War, Rep. Moran’s comments are not only incorrect and irresponsible – they are downright dangerous.”

In the September/October 2007 issue of Tikkun, Moran is quoted as having said that “… AIPAC is the most powerful lobby and has pushed this war from the beginning … because they are so well organized, and their members are extraordinarily powerful – most of them are quite wealthy – they have been able to exert power.” He distinguishes between AIPAC and the Jewish community in general – correctly noting that polls show Jews are more opposed to the Iraq War than any other ethnic group in America.

“For all their bluster, Moran, Walt and Mearsheimer fail to understand a simple truth, continued Forman. “If AIPAC or the Pro-Israel community were really so powerful, a substantial proportion of Jewish Members of the House and Senate would not have voted against the war. But they did.”

In 2003, NJDC strongly criticized Rep. Moran for saying: “If it were not for the strong support of the Jewish community for this war with Iraq we would not be doing this” and “The leaders of the Jewish community are influential enough that they could change the direction of where this is going and I think they should.'"

Earlier this week, the New York Jewish Week published Forman’s analysis of the Walt-Mearsheimer book (available online at www.njdc.org), in which he writes: “The authors’ most spectacular accusation — that the lobby has significant responsibility for the Iraq war — is also an illustration of their limited understanding of the Israel lobby. The professors describe how a group of neoconservatives conspired to push for a war with Iraq, and they conflate these neocons with the Israel lobby. Not only do the authors attach a significant amount of blame to the Israel lobby for the morass in Iraq, but they go on to warn that any future military action in Iran must inevitably be laid at the door of the lobby. To argue that a gang of largely Jewish neocons was able to bully Powell, Rumsfeld, Cheney and Bush into a war against their will is absurd. Even more ridiculous is the notion that these neocons were the Israel lobby….”

The preceding story was provided by the National Jewish Democratic Council

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Saperstein welcomes court decision narrowing impact of Patriot Act

WASHINGTON, DC (Press Release) - In response to U.S. District Judge Victor Marrero’s ruling striking down the Patriot Act’s provision allowing the FBI to issue national security letters to internet and telephone companies, Rabbi David Saperstein, Director of the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism, issued the following statement:

Americans have come to accept the realities of living in a post- September 11^th world, including the need to create a new balance between security and the protection of civil liberties. Yesterday’s (Thursday) ruling in New York District Court striking down the FBI’s almost unfettered access to communications records through national security letters (NSLs) is an important step in clarifying that line. By limiting one of the Patriot Act’s most troubling provisions the court has affirmed a commitment to protecting Americans from unduly invasive practices by the government with little oversight or means of recourse.

The Reform Movement has long been committed to providing law enforcement with the tools that are crucial to combat terrorism, but at the same time, and with the same vigor, we are committed to protecting the freedoms and values that have allowed liberty to thrive in America. We commend the court’s ruling and will continue to work toward an America where both our security and our rights are protected.

The preceding story was provided by the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism

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Judaism

Torah on One Foot
By Rabbi Leonard Rosenthal
Tifereth Israel Synagogue, San Diego

We still refer to Moses in the present tense: Moishe Rabeinu

SAN DIEGO—Whenever we refer to Moses we call him Moshe Rabeinu, Moses our teacher. It is curious that although when we normally add the words: zichrono l’ivracha, "May their name me a blessing," when we speak about someone who has died, when it comes to Moses we refer to him in the present tense: Moses our teacher.

An ancient tradition explains why. Parshat Vayeilech opens with the words: "Moses went and spoke these things to all Israel." (Deut. 31:1) Biblical commentators were quick to note that although the Torah said that "Moses went" it did not specify the location to which he traveled to address the Israelites.

One sage suggested that it was because Moses did not go to a physical location, rather his words entered into the hearts, minds, and lives of the Israelites. Within every Jew is a "spark" of Moses, and it comes out whenever we study Torah or perform one of the Torah’s mitzvot. (Maiyana shel Torah)

Another added that this is why the Torah says that "No one knows where Moses is buried" (Deut. 34:6). It is because we do not need to know the physical location. Rather Moses continues to found in every one of us. He continues to be our teacher until this day and in this way lives on past his physical years.

As Rabban Simeon ben Gamliel said: "We need not erect monuments for the righteous; their good deeds are their memorials."

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Rabbi Baruch Lederman

Amazing tales of Judaism
Congregation Kehillas Torah, San Diego

D'Var Torah - Parshas Netzavim

The priest returns a favor

SAN DIEGO —"And you will return unto Hashem your G-d..." (Deut. 30:2)

Rosh Hashanah approaching makes us think of returning to G-d. Sometimes this can happen in the most unusual and
unexpected ways, as the following amazing story points out:

Michael was held up at knife point in a New England Public High School. His parents wasted no time enrolling him in the local Catholic high school. One day he was assigned
a book report on a great historical personality. After looking through the library he came across the name Maimonides, the great Jewish leader and thinker. The next week, Father
McKenzie called him into his office, "Michael you're the first student I've ever had who did a book report on a Jew. Why did you select Maimonides?"

"Because I'm a Jew," the boy answered quietly.

"You're Jewish?" sputtered the astonished priest, "Then what are you doing in a Catholic school?" Michael explained that it was not for religious reasons that his parents enrolled him. Father McKenzie lapsed into a long silence. Finally he wrote something on a piece of paper, handed it to the lad and said, "Michael, let me give you some advice. If you ever decide to learn about your religion, visit Jerusalem and look up this address."

That conversation awakened Michael to the realization that his Judaism, though he knew nest to nothing about it, was extremely important to his life. At his high school
graduation, he asked his parents for a graduation gift for which they were not prepared - a trip to Israel. Upon arriving in Israel, Michael withdrew a scrap of paper from his pocket.

He located the Yeshivah, whose name and address were written on that paper - the paper Father McKenzie gave him years ago. He had never been in a Yeshivah before. He
was about to enter a new wonderful world.

Four years later Michael visited Father McKenzie, not as a catholic school student, but as a Yeshivah bachur (Rabbinical Seminary student). He thanked the priest and asked how it was that he came to give him that address. Father McKenzie explained, "When I was studying for the priesthood, I traveled to Jerusalem to study the sites and shrines of my people. I was curious to see the Wailing Wall which you Jews hold so dear. While there, a Rabbi approached me and offered to show me a Jewish school for young men with little or no Jewish education. I was taken aback by the warm reception I received at the Yeshivah. The people were so warm and friendly, so eager to help me. I stayed at the Yeshivah for three months of delightful study before returning to the States. I've always felt guilty about taking free tuition, room and board and never giving anything in return. Worse, I fooled every one of them into thinking that he was helping a Jewish kid find his roots. When I learned that you were Jewish and had some interest in your Judaism, I felt that this was an opportunity to pay back my debt."

The foregoing true story was brought to my attention by my daughter Rivka. It is documented in the Artscroll publication "Shabbos Stories" by Rabbi Shimon Finkelman.

Dedicated by Herb & Bette Shatoff in memory of their beloved parents.

Features

The Jewish Grapevine

CYBER-REFERRALS—San Diego Jewish World appreciates and thanks those individuals and organizations which recommend or post stories of interest to the worldwide Jewish community:

●Howard Feldman of San Diego: A YouTube video telling some of the accomplishments of Israel over the last 60 years.

● Jay Jacobson, St. Louis Park, Minnesota: An essay by Rabbi Daniel Gordis on the status and expectations of Arabs inside Israel. Here is the link.

● Republican Jewish Coalition: Column by Clifford May in The Washington Post on U.S. military successes in Iraq. Here is the link.

● Michael Rosen, San Diego: His column in Politico noting that six top contenders for the presidency are attorneys (so is Rosen). Here is the link.

● United Jewish Communities: A story on the Pope honoring victims of the Holocaust on the first day of his trip to Poland. Here is the link.

JEWISH POLITICAL FIGURES

● Mitchell Berner is hosting a fundraising breakfast for Todd Gloria, who is running in San Diego's 3rd City Councilmanic District for what will be an open seat, at 8 a.m. Thursday, September 13, or what is otherwise known as Rosh Hashanah, at the Cafe Westgate. "Suggested contribution," says the flyer, "$150."

● U.S. Senators Barbara Boxer and Dianne Feinstein (both Democrats, California) today lauded final passage of the College Cost Reduction and Access Act Conference Report, legislation which boosts college aid by roughly $20 billion over the next five years. Both Senators have continuously worked to improve college accessibility and affordability for students and families in California. In a statement, they said: "Twenty years ago, the maximum Pell Grant covered 40 percent of costs for attending a four-year college in California. Today, it covers just 30 percent. This bill helps our students when they start out by increasing the maximum Pell Grant award from $4,300 today to $5,100 in fall of 2008 and $5,400 in fall of 2011. This provision is particularly important to California, which had over 584,580 Pell Grant recipients in the 2005-2006 school year -- more than any other state in the country."

● U.S. Sen. Norm Coleman (Republican, Minnesota) announced the Senate today passed the College Cost Reduction and Access Act by a vote of 79 to 12. It contained a critical amendment authored by Coleman and Mary Landrieu (Democrat, Louisiana). Coleman’s provision, known as the Fostering Adoption to Further Student Achievement Act, ensures adopted teenagers who seek an education are not forced to choose between a loving family and financial aid for college. “This legislation helps tip the scale in the youth’s favor, making adoption more likely for even the oldest youth in foster care,” said Michelle Chalmers of the Minnesota Adoption Resource Network. “I can name dozens of Minnesota youth whose odds of joining an adoptive family and being able to afford college both increased exponentially with the passage of this bill.”

● U.S. Rep. Susan Davis (Democrat, California) took steps to end dog fighting by supporting legislation to strengthen federal laws and increase penalties. “Dog fighting is an inhumane and cruel practice that results in the suffering and sometimes death of innocent animals,” said Davis, a member of the Congressional Friends of Animals Caucus. “Those who are engaged in this reprehensible endeavor should know that there will be severe consequences if they participate in dog fighting.” The Dog Fighting Prohibition Act (H.R. 3219) makes it a federal crime to buy, sell, transport, train or possess fighting dogs, or to participate as a spectator at a dog fight. It also eliminates the requirement that federal prosecutors prove dogs were transported across state lines, and increases sentencing penalties from a maximum of three, to a maximum of five years in prison.

●U.S. Rep. Rahm Emanuel (Democrat, Illinois) has announced his skepticism about any report about Iraq that may come from the Administration. In a speech on the House floor, he said: "Instead of a new strategy for Iraq, the Bush Administration is cherry-picking the data to support their political objectives and preparing a report that will offer another defense of the President’s strategy. We don’t need a report that wins the Nobel Prize for creative statistics or the Pulitzer for fiction. Americans are demanding the facts, an end to this open-ended commitment, a surge on the political and diplomatic front. In short, the American people want a new direction in Iraq.”

● Do "veterans preferences" provide benefits commensurate with the service and sacrifice members of the Armed Forces make for the United States? The House Veteran Affairs Committee took testimony on this issue. Said its chairman, U.S. Rep. Bob Filner (Democrat, California): “Veterans’ preference is an important tool to honor the military service of our veterans, as well as help them return to civilian life, Returning veterans have shown their commitment and dedication to our country and by honoring the spirit of veterans’ preference, we can assist in this reintegration process.”

● U.S. Rep. Barney Frank (Democrat, Massachusetts), Chairman of the House Committee on Financial Services, offered the following statement in response to this morning’s August employment report: “The deeply troubling August employment report should end any debate about the action that the Federal Reserve Board must take when the Open Market Committee meets on September 18th. The notion that inflation risks out weigh the risks to output and employment growth is not supported by the evidence and a strong response is required – specifically, a meaningful interest rate cut.”

● U.S. Rep. Paul Hodes (Democrat, New Hampshire) has announced he will ask the Government Oversight and Reform Committee, chaired by U.S. Rep. Howard Berman (Democrat, California) to launch an investigation whether the White House was involved in the 2002 New Hampshire "phone gate" scandal in which members of a Republican campaign organization jammed the phone banks of the Democratic party during its "Get Out the Vote" efforts. "Voting is our most sacred right," Congressman Hodes said. "If anyone, let alone the federal government, has obstructed our right to free and fair elections, it is critical that it be known."

● Democratic brothers, Sen. Carl Levin and U.S. Rep. Sander Levin of Michigan are teaming up with Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson of Florida in support of reforming the presidential primary system. "“We need an orderly primary and caucus system that combines the need to bring Americans truly into the decision-making process with the need to allow candidates the opportunity to interact meaningfully with citizens throughout the nation,” said Rep. Levin. “This legislation spaces out the primary dates over several months, requiring candidates to establish themselves in multiple states. At the same time, each primary date will include at least one state from every region in the country, which will ensure that a broad spectrum of Americans' views is accounted for in the selection process,” concluded Levin. The legislation would establish six primary or caucus dates between March and June. On each of the dates, a state or group of smaller states from each region of the country would go on every day. Every election date would have a fair and representative presence from every region of the country.

● U.S. Rep. Henry Waxman (Democrat, California) says that the campaign mounted by the Bush Administration in 2005 to privatize Social Security cost taxpayers at least $2.8 million. "The initiative included campaign-style events featuring the President and a roster of top Administration officials as well as the creation of a “Social Security Information Center” in the Department of the Treasury," Waxman said. "The analysis shows that the White House effort cost more than $2.8 million, including more than $1.6 million for staging the events, more than $800,000 for Air Force One and Air Force Two travel, and more than $200,000 for the creation of the Treasury Department’s privatization war room and website. The $2.8 million estimate is an underestimate of the true costs, as it does not include the cost of staff time, Secret Service protection, and other expenses."

● U.S. Rep. Anthony Weiner (Democrat, New York), a member of the Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism and Homeland Security announced today the National Association of Police Organizations (NAPO), which represents over 230,000 law enforcement officers nationwide, has named his First Responder Funding Modernization Act as one of its top legislative priorities for the 110^th Congress. The bill would increase the amount of Department of Homeland Security (DHS) grants available to pay for salaries and overtime for anti-terror cops.

● U.S. Rep. Robert Wexler’s (Democrat, Florida) legislation repealing Medicare’s 45 percent rule was approved last month by the House of Representatives as part of the Children’s Health and Medicare Protection Act of 2007. Congressman Wexler has opposed the 45 percent rules since its passage in by the Republican Congress in 2003 because of "the disastrous impact it could have on Medicare beneficiaries. The 45 percent rule requires the President to submit to Congress a plan to cut Medicare spending when Medicare trustees predict that government revenues must be used to pay up to 45 percent or more of total program costs," Wexler said. As the the Republican Congress predicted, this trigger has in fact been reached, and without the passage of Wexler’s bill, Medicare could have faced "potentially drastic cuts by the Bush Administration," according to the congressman.

{Marc Kligman, who combines being a sports agent with his life as an observant Jew, invites you to listen. Click on the ad above for more information}

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Story Continuations

Albania...
(Continued from above)

The fact that Albanians had been isolated from centuries of institutionalized anti-Semitism in Western Europe was a factor in this remarkable record. However, the principal reason for Albanians saving Jews was their history of religious tolerance based on the Kanun and its underlying moral code of besa.

In the words of Mehmet Hysref Frasheri, a descendant of one of the most influential families in the political history of Albania who rescued Jews from the Nazi Holocaust, “People in Albania are not surprised; they thought that it was normal to save Jews.” His statement is echoed by Beqir Qoqja, a 93-year-old who today lives in the same house as he did when his family sheltered Avraham Eliasaf, aka Avram Gani, from 1943 to 1944. “I have always been a devout Muslim,” Qoqja told fine art photographer Norman in a 2004 interview. “We did nothing special; all Hebrews are our brothers and sisters.”

Muslim and Christian Albanians not only risked their lives to save Jews, but no incident has been found where they accepted compensation. When Avram Gani offered to recompense Beqir Qoqja for sheltering him, Qoqja refused, telling him that “Albanians give besa to a friend, but never sell it.”

Although the Kanun contains an oft-publicized, abhorrent, but now archaic set of injunctions for carrying out blood-feud, it is primarily a collection of Albanian customary laws that covers and regulates all aspects of conduct within one’s family, village, and clan, with members of other clans, and with complete strangers. The Kanun has been the foundation of Albanian society over centuries and, as Professor Leonard Fox has written in his superb introduction to his 1989 English translation of the Kanun, it is an “expression and reflection of the Albanian character.” [2]

BESA, which inextricably links personal honor and respect for and equality with others, is the foundation of the Kanun. Besa has multiple meanings, ranging from faith, inviolable trust, truce, and word of honor to a sacred promise and obligation to keep one’s word to provide hospitality and protection. It involves uncompromising protection of a guest, even to the point of forfeiting one’s own life.

For example, Book 8, Chapter 18, of the Kanun, which deals with “social honor,” opens with the maxim that “the house of an Albanian belongs to God and to the guest.” It continues by stating that, “A weary guest must be received and surrounded with honor. The feet of a guest are washed.” “Every guest must be given the food eaten in the house.” And, upon the entering the house, the guest “must give you his weapon to hold as a sign of guardianship, since after you have said, ‘Welcome,’ he must have no fear and know that you are ready to defend him against any danger.” The Kanun “demands that a guest should be accompanied…lest he be the victim of some wicked act.” “If someone mocks your guest or abuses him, you must defend your guest’s honor, even if your own life is in danger.”

THE modern Western concept of “foreigner” does not exist in the Kanun, only the concept of the guest.[3] Hence, there were no Jewish “foreigners” in Albania during World War II—only Jewish “guests,” who had to be sheltered and protected even at the risk of Albanian lives.

The story of Ali Alia, the owner of a general store in Puka, illustrates dramatically the extent to which Albanians went to save Jewish lives. In 1943, a German transport carrying nineteen Albanian prisoners on their way to hard labor and one Jew who was to be shot, stopped outside Alia’s store. Sizing up the situation, Alia, who spoke excellent German, invited the Nazis into his store, offered them food, and plied them with wine until they were drunk.

While they were drinking, Alia convinced the Nazis that he should give the prisoners some food. He handed the young Jewish prisoner a piece of melon. In it, Alia had concealed a note instructing him to flee into the woods and to wait for him at a designated place. When the Nazis got ready to leave Alia’s establishment, they discovered that the Jewish prisoner was missing and erupted in fury. They dragged Ali Alia into the village square and pinned him against a wall. Four times the Germans put a gun to his head, but he continued to maintain his innocence.

Abruptly they left to search for the Jewish prisoner. When they returned empty-handed, they threatened to burn the village down if Alia did not confess. He did not, and finally the Germans left Puka for good. Alia retrieved the Jewish prisoner, whose name was Yasha Bayuhovio, and hid him in his home for two years until the war was over. (Today he is a dentist living in Mexico.)[4]

ALBANIANS are generally recognized as the oldest inhabitants of Southeast Europe. They are the descendants of the Illyrians, the core pre-Hellenic population that extended as far as Greece and Italy. During the six centuries that the Romans ruled Illyria, the Illyrians resisted assimilation, retained their legal norms, and their culture and language—both of which are distinctly different from their neighbors in Southeast Europe. Today’s Illyrians are Albanians who use the Roman alphabet; their neighbors are Slavs who use the Cyrillic alphabet. Albanians are Muslims, Catholics, and Orthodox Christians who have lived side by side in harmony for centuries.

The Kanun has been central to Albanian survival in the face of hundreds of years of occupation and genocide. As such, it is a form of collective memory, cultural identity, and resistance. Some of the customs described in the Kanun are believed to have originated in antiquity. They were transmitted orally and handed down from generation to generation, with input from a variety of authors. Ultimately, the text of the Kanun (the word that gives us the English “canon”) was attributed to Leke Dukagjini, an Albanian prince who lived from 1410 to 1481. Educated in his native Shkodra, Albania, and Venice, Italy, Dukagjini emerged as a leader in the Albanian resistance to the Ottoman Turks, who invaded the Balkan Peninsula in the second half of the fourteenth century. Dukagjini was a contemporary and sometime compatriot of Gjergj Kastrioti “Skenderbeg”—the Albanian national hero and towering 15^th century figure who fought against the Ottomans for 25 years and prevented them from overtaking Western Europe.

Although Dukagjini continued the fight against Ottoman domination for a decade after Skenderbeg died of disease in 1468, he became best known for codifying the set of laws that came to be called the Kanun.

The late Albanian linguist Martin Camaj has stated that the “natural form of this unwritten law remained rooted in the spirit and memory of an ancient people forever in contact and conflict with the customs and laws of other peoples.” “The maxims of the Kanun,” he said, “were primary; they took precedence over all other laws.”[5] This was illustrated dramatically during the 500 years in which Albanians resisted Ottoman Turkish occupation, from the 15th to the early 20^th centuries. According to Syrja Pupovci in his introduction to the 1972 reprint of the Kanun, the preservation of the Kanun “was one of the most important elements in helping the Albanian people to maintain their individuality under Turkish domination.”[6]

When the Ottomans invaded Albanian lands, Albanian society had a well-defined clan system and all Albanians were Christians—either Eastern Orthodox or Catholic. The Ottomans set out to destroy the clans through forced conversion to Islam and acceptance of Islamic law. Although mass conversions to Islam occurred in the 17th century, when Ottoman officials levied discriminatory taxes against non-Muslims, the Ottomans never succeeded in destroying either the Albanian clan system or the power of the Kanun. Conversion to Islam was nominal. Until today, intermarriage between Muslims and Christians is commonplace, and religion is rarely the basis of conflict, because religion is secondary to Albanian identity—individually and collectively. According to the Kanun, there is no “distinction between man and man. Soul for soul, all are equal before God.”

The individual who would ultimately codify the Kanun in writing was a Franciscan priest born in Kosova in 1874 named Shtjefen Gjecov. Gjevoc was an ardent Albanian nationalist who participated in the 1912 uprising against the Turks, which began after a group of Albanian leaders declared Albanian independence in Prizren (in what is now Kosova) on November 28, 1912. No sooner did Albanians throw off 500 years of Turkish domination, than they found themselves battling Slavic incursion, beginning with the Balkan Wars of 1912-1913, in which half a million Albanians were killed or died of hunger and disease, followed by racism, forced assimilation, expulsion, occupation, and genocide at the hands of hostile Slavic regimes that would last in various forms until today.

That story is the subject of a separate article from this one. What is important to note here is the fact that, after the Balkan Wars, Albanians were unfairly and artificially divided. With the assent of the socalled Great Powers (Austria-Hungary, Britain, France, Germany, Italy, and Russia), Serbia annexed half of Albanian lands, including Kosova, and other parts were given to Montenegro and Greece. Only because of the intervention of then- U.S. President Woodrow Wilson was the State of Albania created in 1918.

In 1939, when Mussolini’s Italian fascist forces invaded and occupied Albania, the country had been a monarchy since 1925. The Italians were followed in 1943 by the German Nazis, who remained until they were defeated by the Allied forces a year later.

Early on, according to Apostol Kotani, the leading authority on the history of Jews in Albania and cochair with Dr. Petrit Zorba of the Albanian-Israeli Friendship Society, Albanians hid and protected Jews on their own initiative and in an uncoordinated way. Later, as it became more dangerous under the Germans, the rescue operation became more organized and “national liberation councils” in towns and village where Jews were hiding moved Jews from place to place—either with false passports or disguised as Albanian peasants. Albanian officials passed some anti-Jewish regulations, but only to placate the Italians and the Germans; they never enforced them. When the Germans asked Albanian leaders to provide a list of Jews living in Albania in 1943, they refused.[7] As American Jewish philanthropist Harvey Sarner has observed in his Rescue in Albania, “the importance of Albania as a sanctuary is demonstrated by the fact that only 10 percent of the 70,000 Jews who were in the surrounding territory of Yugoslavia survived the Holocaust.” That being said, many Albanians just outside of Albania’s current borders under Nazi occupation in Kosova, Macedonia, and Montenegro hid Jews and provided them with false documents and safe transport into Albania.

In the 50 years from World War II to the fall of the Berlin Wall, the history, culture, and reality of Albanians was either concealed or misrepresented by their oppressors. In Albania, Communist dictator Enver Hoxha subjected the country to 46 years of one of the most centralized and repressive totalitarian regimes that the world has ever known. Hundreds of thousands of Albanians were murdered and imprisoned until Hoxha died and the regime of his successor, Ramiz Alia, collapsed in 1991. Meanwhile, the Albanians living outside of Albania in what is now the former Yugoslavia were subject to anti-Albanian and repression under Marshal Tito.

Most of the Jews in Albania immigrated to Israel, as a result of the courageous efforts of Josef Jakoel and his daughter, Felicita, leading up to the fall of communism in 1991. (Josef, who was born in the historical community of Jews in Vlora that dates back to the sixteenth century, had been saved with his sister by an Albanian Muslim named Shyqyri Myrto.)

But we might never have known the extent of Albanian efforts to save Jews during the Holocaust if it were not for the trip made to Albania in 1990 by Congressman Tom Lantos, a Holocaust survivor from Hungary, and former Congressman Joe DioGuardi, as the first U.S. officials to enter the country in 50 years. Seeking to ingratiate himself with Congressman Lantos, dictator Ramiz Alia presented never-before-seen archives containing letters, photographs, and newspaper clippings about Albanians who saved Jews during World War II. DioGuardi subsequently sent the files to Israel, where they were authenticated by Yad Vashem. In 1995, with the help of Congressman Lantos and former Congressman Ben Gilman, the Albanian American Foundation worked with the U.S. Memorial Holocaust Museum in Washington, DC, to add Albania (previously overlooked) to the “Righteous among Nations” section of the museum.

Today, three and a half million Albanians live in the State of Albania and another three and a half million live side by side on its borders—in Kosova, Macedonia, Montenegro, the Presheva Valley (southern Serbia), and Chameria (northern Greece), while yet another eight million live in the diaspora, primarily in the United States, Western Europe, Turkey, and Australia—having fled Slavic state-sponsored terrorism and later Communism within and outside of the State of Albania.

Although millions were imprisoned, tortured, and killed in the post-war era, Communist and Slavic efforts to suppress or destroy Albanian customs and the major precepts of the Kanun failed. What has continually allowed Albanians to define themselves after a history of being defined by their subjugators is the powerful ethical underpinning of the Kanun. It also is what made Albanians take on the unique role of saving all Jews from the Holocaust, and powerfully illustrates the intimate interconnection between besa and religious tolerance that has been endemic to Albania.

In the 21^st century, Albanians must begin to overcome the destructive psychosocial consequences of hundreds of years of occupation, racism, and genocide. At the same time, their story is not only one of subjugation but—as epitomized by their courageous behavior during the Holocaust—it is also one of resistance to oppression, religious tolerance, and a commitment to justice.

Shirley Cloyes DioGuardi is the Executive Director of the Albanian American Foundation and a political analyst who has testified at several hearings on Southeast Europe before the House International Relations Committee. For more information, visit the website of the Albanian American Civic League and Foundation at www.aacl.com.

This article originally appeared in CONGRESS MONTHLY, the magazine of the American Jewish Congress, Volume 73, #1, January/February 2006. © American Jewish Congress”

[1] The Jewish Daily Bulletin, New York, vol. XI, no. 2821, April 17, 1934.

[2] Leonard Fox, Introduction to The Code of Leke Dukagjini, translated by Fox from the Albanian text collected and arranged by Shtjefen Gjecov (New York: Gjonlekaj Publishing Company, 1989), p. xix.

[3] Harvey Sarner, Rescue in Albania. Reprinted by the Albanian American Foundation (Ossining, NY); originally published by Brunswick Press (1997), p. 63

[4] Adapted from the account given to Norman Gersham by Alia’s son, Enver, Tirana, May 2004.

[5] Martin Camaj, Foreword to The Code of Leke Dukagjini, op. cit., p. xv.

[6] As quoted by Leonard Fox in his introduction to The Code of Leke Dukagjini, p. xvii.

[7] Apostol Kotani, “Acts of Heroism,” Illyria, #369 (New York, NY, 1997).