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Newsletter : 9fax0105.txt
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>Israel Faxx
>JN Jan. 5, 1999, Vol. 7, No. 2
Jewish Leader Presses Bonn on Holocaust Memorial
By IsraelWire
The head of the World Jewish Congress pressed Germany to build not just a museum but also a memorial in Berlin devoted to victims of the Nazi Holocaust. Culture Minister Michael Naumann wants to drop plans backed by former Chancellor Helmut Kohl to build a vast field of 2,700 pillars in remembrance of the Holocaust's 6 million dead. Naumann instead favors establishing a museum, possibly as a branch of US filmmaker Steven Spielberg's Shoah Foundation, which has built a text and video archive of personal accounts from Holocaust survivors.
Militants Shoot Two Israeli Women
By David Gollust (VOA-Jerusalem)
Two Israeli women have been shot and wounded in an attack blamed on Palestinian militants in the divided West Bank city of Hebron. The city -- where 400 Jewish settlers live amid 100,000 Palestinians -- has long been a flashpoint for violence.
Gunmen firing from an alley sprayed a van carrying Jewish settlers
with bullets as it drove through the part of central Hebron
controlled by Israel. One of the women was seriously hurt while the
other sustained a minor injury. The attack was condemned by the
spokesman for Hebron-area settlers, David Wilder. He blamed lax
security by Israeli troops and insisted the shooting was not an act
of random anti-Israel violence: "I'm sure that these terrorist
attacks do not take place without permission from the highest
sources in the Palestinian Authority."
Israel sealed-off all traffic to Hebron and imposed a curfew in the
city center, where two young Palestinians were later hurt by
rubber-coated metal bullets in a stone-throwing clash with Israeli
troops.
Millennium Cult Members Held for Questioning
By David Gollust (VOA-Jerusalem)
An Israeli judge has ordered three members of a U.S. Christian
sect, based in Denver, held for more questioning on suspicion they
plotted millennium-related violence in Jerusalem. Eleven other
members of the group are to be deported.
The three members of the group called "Concerned Christians" were
ordered held for at least another two days of questioning by a
judge near Tel Aviv, on what Israeli security officials alleged was
a plan to create havoc in the Holy Land for the millennium.
Israeli police spokesman Eliahu Ben-On said the group apparently
believes a violent upheaval in Jerusalem will hasten the return of
Jesus Christ.
"They were intending to commit what we describe as this extreme
violent act in the streets of Jerusalem toward the end of the year
1999 -- this year -- in order to start the process that they would
believe will bring Jesus Christ back to life in Jerusalem."
In all, 14 members of the group, including six children, were
detained Sunday in police raids on two houses near Jerusalem. Those
not being questioned further are being deported back to the United
States because their tourist visas have expired.
The leader of the group, Monte Kim Miller -- who is not believed
to be in Israel -- is said to have prophesied he would die on the
streets of Jerusalem at the end of this year and be resurrected.
A spokesman for the International Christian Embassy, an evangelical
group based here, says Israel has a right to be concerned about
extremists, but news reporting about the Denver group has been
over-wrought, and its members are not violence-prone.
Israel has been gearing up for 4 million Holy-Land visitors for the
millennial period -- some of whom, it is feared, believe in
apocalyptic prophesies about the second coming of Jesus, and may
try to foment violent unrest in the Middle East to help bring them
about.
Elaborate security measures are being prepared, focusing on the
politically-volatile Temple Mount in Jerusalem's Old City, which is
holy to both Muslims and Jews.
Chief Rabbinate May Accept Civil Marriage for Non-Jews
By IsraelWire
In the shadow of last week's Jerusalem District Court ruling
recognizing the Reform and Conservative conversions of 23 persons
-- the office of the Chief Rabbinate has indicated it would not
object to the establishment of a civil marriage system. The system
would cater to couples of which both partners are not recognized as
Jews or in cases where the persons involved may not wed under
Jewish law.
Speaking with the chairman of the Knesset Law Committee and Yisrael
B'Aliyah Knesset member Roman Bronfman, Sephardic Chief Rabbi
Eliyahu Bakshi-Doron stated there are situations in which the civil
wedding option was necessary.
Bronfman, the sponsor of a private bill dealing with such issues,
expressed optimism over the statements made by the chief rabbi,
explaining there was light at the end of the tunnel.
Bronfman stated there were many couples from the former Soviet
Union living in Israel today who were not recognized as Jews, and
were caught in a quandary by the current system which did not make
any accommodations for their precarious situation. A civil marriage
might offer these couples an acceptable solution.
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