World Jewry

Thumbs Down! Jewish Refugees from Arab Countries Unrecognized

In the 1940s nearly one million Jews lived in Arab countries and Iran. Today, only 5,000 remain. HR 848 and SR 494 would require recognizing that multiple refugee populations, including more than 850,000 Jews uprooted from Arab countries, were created in the Middle East and that their rights and losses must be addressed. Send a "Recognizing Forgotten Jewish Refugees" letter, before March 23, 2008, urging support of the House resolution. Support the plight of Jewish refugees.

Big Business To The Rescue: Corporate Social Responsibility Crops Up in Israel, at a Center for Ethiopian Teens

We usually think of social workers or community leaders as those who work with troubled Ethiopian Jewish teenagers in Israel. But an unlikely group has stepped in to offer some support: Baran Group is doing its part to help Ethiopian adolescents, a group that is "torn between the traditions of their parents and expectations placed on them by Israeli society." The multi-million dollar Negev-based engineering company is designing a new, sorely needed center for Ethiopian youth in Beersheba and running volunteer programs such as tutoring the teens in math and business. Corporate investment in the community becoming more popular in Israel, just in the nick of time.

Petition Urges U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights to switch focus from Israel to Darfur

The newly formed United Nations Human Rights Council has passed eight one-sided anti-Israel resolutions (four more are planned) while ignoring the situation in Darfur, which the U.N. itself has admitted is the world's worst humanitarian crisis. Here is Simon Wiesenthal Center's petition, which you can sign, urging the Council to stop bashing Israel and instead focus on human rights abuses in Darfur.

Normal trade relation status granted to Ukraine

Both houses of Congress recently passed legislation that grants permanent normal trade relation status to Ukraine. The National Conference on Soviet Jewry strongly supported Ukraine’s graduation as a way to recognize Ukraine’s democratic gains and the growth and development of Ukraine’s Jewish community. NCSJ was one of the original supporters of the Jackson-Vanik Amendment to the Trade Act of 1974. The amendment denies normal trade status to “non-market economy” countries with restrictive or discriminatory emigration rules. Although it focused originally on free emigration, the amendment has come to encompass the observance of internationally recognized human rights.

Integrate Ethiopians

Editorial reprinted from The Jerusalem Post, September 7, 2005

On the first day of school last week 50 youngsters – dressed up, toting schoolbags and new supplies – were turned away from Or Yehuda's Sa'adya Gaon Elementary School by orders of the mayor, who protested "the imposition" on his anyway underprivileged township of immigrants even worse off than the original population.

Law firms aren't opening doors to Ethiopian attorneys

By YUVAL AZOULAY

Law students and recent graduates attending a conference commemorating 30 years of Ethiopian immigration described their difficulty in finding internships at legal firms. Some blamed a stigma, while others said the problem stemmed from the fact that Ethiopians don't have connections in the legal profession.