San Diego (special) -- Students at the San Diego Jewish Academy are selling special friendship bracelets to aid 
families who lost loved ones in the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.  A special program is 
planned at the Lawrence Family JCC on how the arts can help healing.  Congregation 
Dor Hadash has invited an expert to lecture members and guests on terrorism and 
international law.  The Agency for Jewish Education has scheduled special free classes 
for people who may have become unemployed to learn how to become teachers at 
religious schools in the area.

All these are responses within the local Jewish community in the wake of the terrorist 
attacks on the United States and the ensuing bombing of Afghanistan by American and 
British forces.  In the political arena, meanwhile, U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein began 
crafting legislation to tighten up America's program for granting visas to foreign 
nationals.

The friendship bracelet project was conceived by the Saad family while watching 
television footage showing the results of the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center 
in New York City and the Pentagon in Washington D.C.  

Aviva Saad, her husband Jorge, and children Joseph, 15, and Sarah, 13, were struck by an 
idea presented by a psychiatrist who was asked by television interviewers what children 
could do.  He recommended that they make something to send to the families of the 
victims.

Along with their cousin Nira Lieberman, 11, the Saad family decided to craft friendship 
bracelets, decorated with strands of red, white and blue yarn.  People may acquire a 
matching pair of bracelets by making a donation in any amount through the San Diego 
Jewish Academy for the relief of the children of the victims of the New York Fire 
Department.  The money will be turned over to the San Diego Fire Department for relay 
to their New York colleagues.

The idea is for a child in San Diego to wear one bracelet in the pair, and for a child of a 
fallen New York firefighter to wear the other.  A note accompanying the bracelet will 
read: "This is a Friendship Bracelet made by the students of the San Diego Jewish 
Academy. It is a token of our friendship and support for our friends in New York. It 
comes with three wishes, each wish being represented by a knot in the bracelet. We hope 
that as we wear our bracelet, our wishes will come true.  Thanks for being our heroes."

The purchaser of the bracelet would include with this note his or her three wishes. By last 
week, the Saads reported $1,000 in donations had already been raised by the project.

Installation artist Sharon Siskin was to have had her exhibit titled "Farvos" (Why?) 
displayed in the Gotthelf Art Gallery of the Lawrence Family Jewish Community Center 
in September.  But grounding of flights in the wake of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks 
prevented her from shipping the exhibit from her home in the San Francisco Bay Area.

After commercial aviation resumed, the four-part exhibit came to San Diego for 
installation, and was opened to the public on October 3rd.  One of its themes -- providing 
support for those who are grieving --took on an extra poignancy, and it was decided to 
combine a free gallery reception for Siskin, at 7 p.m., Thursday, Oct. 25, with a 
presentation by Rabbi Rafael Goldstein, the community chaplain, on the arts and healing.   
 
Congregation Dor Hadash, meanwhile, invited William Aceves, an associate law 
professor at Cal Western, to discuss international law and terrorism during the 
Reconstructionist congregation's Shabbat services at 7:30 p.m., Friday, Nov. 30.

In announcing Aceves' appearance, the congregation noted that the lecturer works closely 
with such human rights organizations as Amnesty International, the Center for 
Constitutional Rights and the Center for Justice and Accountability.

The terrorist attacks had a dramatic immediate impact on the airline industry, which laid 
off thousands of workers nationwide, as well as on other industries, such as the tourism 
and aircraft industries, which are dependent on airline travel.

Disconcerted that so many people had been thrown out of work, while at the same time 
good jobs in other fields are going unfilled, the Agency for Jewish Education decided it 
could help.

"Positions are available for Jewish educators in San Diego," the agency announced.  "The 
Agency for Jewish Education will train qualified individuals free of charge to be effective 
Jewish educators in a supplementary Jewish school.  Free job placement is offered."     
The agency suggested that persons looking for such an opportunity fax their resumes to 
the AJE at (858) 268 9590.

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U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., is a member of the Technology, Terrorism and 
Government Information Subcommittee of the Senate Judiciary Committee.  At an Oct. 
12 hearing, she expressed concern that "in the last 10 years, more than 16,000 students 
came (to the United States) from such terrorist supporting states as Iran, Iraq, Sudan, 
Libya and Syria."

She said this was just one of her concerns about the lack of a sophisticated system to 
track the whereabouts of visitors in the United States.  Without such a system, she 
warned, "our country becomes a sieve, creating ample opportunities for terrorists to enter 
and establish their operations without detections."

The senator said there have been indications since 1979 that the system needs fixing.  
That year, during the Iranian hostage crisis, "The INS was unable to locate 9,000 of an 
estimated 50,000 Iranian students studying in the United States," she said.

"In 1991, the Washington Post reported that the United Nations weapons inspectors in 
Iraq discovered documents detailing an Iraqi government strategy to send students to the 
United States and other countries to specifically study nuclear-related subjects to develop 
their own program. One of those students, Samir Al Araji, received his doctorate in 
nuclear engineering from Michigan State University and then returned to Iraq to head its 
nuclear weapons program."

The Senator continued: "In 1998, the Richmond Times and New York Times did 
extensive reports on Rihab Taba, the mastermind of Saddam Hussein's germ warfare 
arsnal.  Also known as 'Dr. Germ,' Taha studied in England on a student visa. England is 
one of the participating countries in the (American) visa waiver program, which means if 
she could have gotten a fraudulent passport from England, she could have come and gone 
without a visa in the United States."

Feinstein said INS record keeping has been unreliable, and American borders too porous, 
to provide anyone any confidence that the United States can identify and track criminals 
coming to America.  

Further, she said, "in an era in which terrorists use satellite phones and encrypted e-mail, 
the INS, our nation's gatekeeper, is considered by many observers to still be in the 
technological dark ages.  The agency is still using paper files and archaic computer 
systems that are often non-functioning, do not communicate with each other and do not 
integrate well with other law enforcement computer systems.

Noting that a large percentage of visa holders overstay the length of time they are 
authorized to be in the country, the senator suggested that the United States require exit 
visas like other countries do.

Even if the visa system is fixed, she said, efforts must be made to improve how available 
information is evaluated by law enforcement.  She said that Sheik Omar Abdel-Rahman, 
who was convicted of conspiracy following terrorists effort in 1993 to  blow up New 
York's World Trade Center, had "legally entered the country on a visa, although he was 
already on the 'watch list' of suspected terrorists."