World Briefs

Slain Son of Columnist Buried

More than 2,000 mourners gathered on Tuesday in Ra’nanaa’s military cemetery to lay to rest Ari Weiss, a sergeant in the Nahal Brigade who was killed in a gun battle in Nabulus on Monday. Weiss, 21, was the son of Rabbi Stewart Weiss, director of the Jewish Outreach Center of Ra’anana and a Jerusalem Post columnist who moved to Israel with his family from Texas in 1992. Just weeks before his death, on Sept. 12, an article appeared in the Post about how his mother, Susie, had organized a shipment of food for her son and the 34 soldiers with him after hearing that he had only challah and humus to eat on Rosh Hashana. He is survived by his parents and five siblings.

Family Meets Organ Recipients

The family of a Jewish activist killed in a traffic accident met in Israel with some of the patients who received his organs. Jonathan Greenberg, the executive director of the Jewish Life Network, died Sept. 14 in Israel, a day after he was hit by a car while riding his bicycle. His organs were transplanted into six patients, including an Arab resident of East Jerusalem. His parents, Rabbi Yitz and Blu Greenberg, described Jonathan as full of life and giving, and said that his good deeds would live on in others, the Israeli daily Ma’ariv reported.

Israel: P.A. Helped Smuggle Iraqi
Oil

The Palestinian Authority helped Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein sell oil illegally, Israeli officials say. Citing documents they found in Yasser Arafat’s Ramallah headquarters, the officials told the CBS news magazine “60 Minutes” on Sunday that the Palestinian Authority helped smuggle Iraqi oil and received millions of dollars in kickbacks for their efforts. The documents also prove that Iraq and Iran helped fund and train Palestinian terrorists.

Philanthropist Walter Annenberg Dies at
94

Shtetl-Search Novel Wins Fiction Prize Jonathan Safran
Foer’s “Everything is Illuminated,” a humorous novel about a college student’s
search for his grandfather’s shtetl in Ukraine won the National Jewish Book Awards’ annual fiction prize.

Also, David Lieber and Jules Harlow earned the nonfiction award for editing “Etz Hayim: Torah and Commentary,” and Norman Finkelstein won the award for children’s literature for “Forged in Freedom: Shaping the Jewish-American Experience.” The 52nd National Jewish Book Awards, presented in more than a dozen categories by the Jewish Book Council, will be presented Oct. 30 in New York.

Organization to Aid Jewish Refugees

An organization seeking redress for Jewish refugees from Arab countries was launched Monday. The new group, the International Committee of Justice for Jews from Arab Countries, will document the claims of Jews who fled Arab countries during or after Israel’s 1948 War of Independence, and will press those claims during any Israeli-Palestinian peace talks.

The “historical truth” of the 865,000 Jews displaced from Arab countries has been swept under the “Persian carpet,” said the group’s honorary chair, Richard Holbrooke, the former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations.

Briefs courtesy Jewish Telegraphic Agency