"We derive great strength knowing we are not alone, that we as Jews are one people for better or for worse. We have a shared destiny. We are a community of fate as well as faith," said Israel's Prime Minister Ehud Barak to an enthusiastic audience of approximately, 4,000 at UJC's Israel Solidarity Rally in Chicago, where his speech was the high point of the General Assembly.

Barak received standing ovations as he outlined Israel's resolve to achieve a peace settlement that assures Israel's security. "I have seen too many Israelis lose their lives in battle to give up the struggle. I have dodged too many bullets to give up the ability of Israelis to live free of fire," he said. "Today, we bear the responsibility of completing the process of Israel's acceptance in the region, so that we may flourish as a secure Jewish state."

Praising the tireless work of President Clinton and his administration, Barak assured the audience that he would work closely with the next America administration to bring peace.

Democratic Senator Richard Durbin of Illinois spoke after Barak. He said, "This is the moment to stand up for Israel. This is the time to say end the violence. This is the moment to stand up for leaders like Prime Minister Barak."

The events taking place in Israel resulted in changes in the original scheduling of the conference. Jewish Agency Chairman, Sallai Meridor presented in his speech to the plenum the challenges facing the Jewish people at the beginning of the 21st century, despite the violence against Zionism. Meridor called on the conference participants to stand for a moment of silent to honor the memory of the victims of the Palestinian clashes. He cited a connection between anti-Semitic violence around the world and the events taking place in Israel. "The response to this violence is through acts - the continuation of aliyah and rescue, the strengthening of education for Jewish identity and the extension of unity in Israel."

Rabbi Michael Melchior, Minister of Israeli Society and the World Jewish Community said we should not allow the Palestinians to take by violence what we might be prepared to give through negotiations. If they sense that they can benefit by means of peace talks more than through violence, they will return to the negotiating table.

Nava Barak, the wife of Israel's Prime Minister Ehud Barak, who participated in the opening ceremony, expressed her appreciation to the Jewish leadership gathered in Chicago. "I am touched by your support of Israel. Our home is your home."

Chaim Chesler, Treasurer of the Jewish Agency, who appeared at the student's journalist conference and other forums during the conference, stressed the significance of the Jewish demographic issues related to the Galilee.

The families of the three Israeli soldiers kidnapped by Hizbollah issued a plea for the return of their sons during a November 12 press conference at the GA. Efforts to obtain the soldiers' location and condition have involved Israelis, US and European governments, the United Nations and the International Red Cross, which was denied permission to visit the soldiers.

So far, neither the families nor the Israeli government has received word about the soldiers, the Israeli Consulate said. However, both are holding out hopes that worldwide attention can end five weeks of anguish and uncertainty.

"We know this international pressure can help to bring information about our children," said Haim Avraham, father of one of the kidnapped soldiers. The waiting has started to take its toll on family members and friends. "We can't function. We can't differentiate between day and night. We are only waiting for Adi to return," said Ya'acov Avitan. Next month is Adi's 21st birthday.

The kidnapping was designed to provoke Israel to act against Lebanon and to create more chaos in the North, said Rina Idan, deputy head of the IDF Center for the Liaison with Families of the Missing Soldiers. "Hizbollah must provide a ways and means of communication and of exchanging the soldiers," she said.

The families will be special guests at the Solidarity Rally tonight.

Thirty Jewish students serving as journalists at campuses all over the US and Canada this week participated in a special seminar entitled "Do the Write Thing." This is the eleventh annual convention of its kind to be organized by the Jewish Agency for Israel and World Zionist Organization's Department for Zionist Activities and USD-Hagshamah department and it took place as part of the General Assembly in Chicago.

One of the goals of the conference was to expose Jewish students involved with the press to the Jewish media in the US. To this end, the students met with Gary Rosenblatt, editor of New York's Jewish Week, Aaron Cohen, editor of Chicago's Jewish United Fund News, who also serves as president of the American Jewish Press Association, Lenny Reif of the Phoenix Jewish News, one of the organizers of the conference, and members of American Jewish Press Association. The participants also met with Frances Kraft, a reporter for the Canadian Jewish News, and Brigitte Dayan, editor of the Chicago's Jewish United Fund News who herself is a graduate of the "Do the Write Thing" program held in Baltimore in 1991.

The idea for student conference is credited to the late Major General (Res.) Uzi Narkiss, the liberator of Jerusalem in 1967, in 1990 during his tenure as head of the World Zionist Organization's Information Department. Since then the program has been organized by Lifsha Ben Shach, deputy director general of the World Zionist Organization's Department for Zionist Activities.

The seminar is designed to increase the students' knowledge of Jewish organizations in the US, to strengthen their ties with the State of Israel and expose them to the Jewish press in the US, in part to further their employment opportunities in this field.

During the conference the participants paid a visit to the Chicago Tribune publication house and met with Israeli journalists posted in the US, including Nitzan Horowitz, the Ha'aretz correspondent in the US, and Carl Schrag, the editor at The Jerusalem Post who is currently on a study program at the Chicago Sun Times.

The students were also addressed by Jewish Agency Chairman Sallai Meridor who discussed the Zionist idea and unity of the Jewish people and Jewish Agency Treasurer Chaim Chesler, who spoke about the future of the Jewish people. Prof. Deborah Lipstadt, who won her libel suit against Holocaust denier David Irving, lectured on Holocaust denial in the media. The students also met with Prof. Ari Goldman, former New York Times reporter, who is now a professor of Divinity at Columbia University.

Thousands of dedicated professionals work on behalf of the Jewish people around the world through our overseas partner, the Jewish Agency for Israel (JAFI). On Monday morning, four of those uncommon people engaged in "Uncommon Conversations" with GA participants.

Karol Ungar spoke about opening the first transit station in Hungary and helping to rescue hundreds of thousands of Jews across the vast expanse of the FSU. The former IDF colonel who became "a soldier of the Jewish people" referred to what some might call the personal risk of the job as nothing more than an "occupational hazard." Rachel Barkai, who chairs the Partnership 2000 People-to-People Committee in Kiryat Malachi-Hof, Ashkelon, builds bridges of understanding and cooperation between the people in her community and Jewish communities in our Western Region. As a judge and through P2K, she devotes much of her time and energy to helping women and children at risk.

Rabbi Sergio Berman was born in Buenos Aires and is totally committed to rebuilding Argentina's declining Jewish infrastructure and education system. She spoke of JAFI's role in re-igniting a Jewish spark and in coordinating resources to forge stronger relations between Argentina and Israel. "It is not social work that we do, it is tikkun olam," Rabbi Berman said.

Mahareta Baruch's uncommon conversation was about her personal journey, both physical and professional. In 1984, she began a three-week trek across Ethiopia to join the exodus to Israel that became known as Operation Moses. Mahareta, along with her father, sisters and brothers, made their way to Sudan, where 4,000 died before they could board the JAFI rescue flights. Safe in Israel, she pursued her education with tuition provided by the agency and became a television and theater actress. Today she is studying for her Masters Degree and has joined the JAFI staff as a professional, helping integrate Ethiopian Jews into the Israeli society and looking forward to the time when they will be known not for their country of origin but simply as Israelis.

• 1093 olim arrived in Israel this week, 945 of them from the FSU and Eastern Europe. The rest came from France, Italy, Spain, Belgium, Argentina, Uruguay, Brazil, Peru, Venezuela, England, South Africa, Ethiopia, the US and Canada.

• 18,815 olim studied basic Hebrew at ulpanim during the first nine months of the year. 2,200 other students, including olim and Jewish youngsters from all over the world studied Hebrew at kibbutz ulpanim.

• 1240 olim from South America arrived in Israel during the first eight months of this year, 670 of them from Argentina.

• $526,000 - the budget for running the Jewish Agency's Education Department Pedagogic Center. The center, which is situated at the Kiryat Moriah educational campus, provides consultation and educational materials, in part through the internet, to Jewish educators and institutions all over the world.

• $2.34 million - Jewish Agency budget for the year 2000 to help in the rehabilitation of former prisoners of Zion.

• $305,000 - Jewish Agency budget for the WUJS Institute in Arad, which helps encourage students and academics, particularly from the west, to make aliyah. The student program comprises five and a half months of study and six months of voluntary work in Israel.

Hundreds of young olim this week joined the work force helping to pick fruit in the south of Israel, following the crisis in the agricultural sector. The olim helped farmers in the Mivtachim and Pitchat Shalom areas, who face a shortage of labor due to the closure which has been imposed on the territories.

Olim at the Jewish Agency's Yeelim absorption center in Beersheva and the Ibim student village at Shaar Hanegev took part in the operation. They arrived in Israel last September from the FSU without family within the context of the Jewish Agency's Selah (students before parents) and Chalom (vocational training) programs.

Another group of single olim who live at the Jewish Agency's Ulpan Etzion in Jerusalem are volunteering at Moshav Tal Shachar near Beit Shemesh.

Next week participants in the Chalom program based at the Jewish Agency's Altschul absorption center in Beersheva will join the operation. They will help pick citrus fruit in the Eshkol district.

Against the backdrop of the crisis in the agricultural sector, the Jewish Agency this week began to organize a special program called "Green Orange" to bring Jewish volunteers to Israel from the FSU to help kibbutzim and moshavim all over Israel. In this program, volunteers, aged 17-45, will do agricultural work for up to three months. The program will also include tours and trips around the country and information on aliyah and absorption possibilities.

Amos Lahat, director of the Jewish Agency's FSU Department, says that in this way Jews from the FSU can express solidarity with the State of Israel during this difficult period and help the Israeli economy in practical terms while getting to know the country and examine aliyah options.

Details of the program will be finalized over the next few days, together with the kibbutz movement, the moshav movement and the government ministries involved in the project.

The leaders of the Orthodox General Assembly are tensely awaiting, no less than other US citizens, the results of the US presidential election, particularly as Senator Joseph Lieberman has been invited to attend the conference as one of the guests of honor.

Eliezer Sheffer, Chairman of the Orthodox General Assembly, was informed by Lieberman's aides that Lieberman's participation at the convention depended on the outcome of the presidential election and any resulting commitments. Sheffer says that Joe Lieberman is proof of the role played by Orthodox Jews and flourishing Orthodox Jewish involvement in all walks of life in the US.

The Orthodox General Assembly leadership will convene in Jerusalem at the end of November, as a sign of solidarity with the Jewish communities in Israel against the backdrop of the tension in the region. The assembly, which will be the first of its kind, will be attended by 300 Jewish community leaders from 33 countries, including Chief Rabbis, presidents of communities, and education and media personnel. The assembly is being organized by the World Center for Religious Affairs.

During December a conference of Jewish Agency emissaries in the FSU will take place in Minsk, capital of Belarus.

Working conferences such as this, which are held once a year, serve as a forum for emissaries to examine work procedures, while providing an opportunity for staff to present updates, goals and guidelines for those in the field.

Senior staff of the Jewish Agency, the Chairman, the Director-General, Treasurer, departmental directors and staff who coordinates work in the field on a day-to-day basis, will participate in the conference.

Lecturers will discuss current issues, computerization and organizational culture.

In an effort to develop corps d'espirit among the participants, a tour of the city of Vitebsk (birthplace of the artist Marc Chagall) is also planned, as well as a tour of the village Hatin which was totally destroyed by the Nazis and a memorial ceremony for Holocaust victims at the 'Yama' site in Minsk.

"Yeladim," the first Jewish kindergarten in Khabarovsk, Siberia, recently began its second year. Located in Khabarovsk, Russia, the pre-school is supported by the Jerusalem-based LA Pincus Fund for Jewish education in the Diaspora, which offers incentive grants to encourage the opening of new kindergartens in the FSU. These pre-schools teach Jewish traditions, celebration of Shabbat and Festivals, and simple, age-appropriate Hebrew.

Khabarovsk is located in eastern Siberia, approximately 100 kilometers west of the Sea of Japan, fifteen time zones east of Greenwich. Today a city of 700,000 it is the last major stop on the Siberian Railroad, before Vladivostok.

"Yeladim" Kindergarten opened in October 1999, with an initial enrollment of twelve children, ages 3 through 6. During the course of the first year, enrollment grew to 32 children, and a second class was opened. Forty children currently attend the program. The staff recently surveyed the parents to determine why they enrolled their children. Most parents responded that they wanted their children to feel part of a large Jewish family, to become acquainted with their heritage, to learn about Jewish traditions and history.

The kindergarten offers educational programs for parents, including active preparation for Jewish holidays and group discussions. In the fall, parents were invited to attend the school's celebration of Rosh Hashanah, Sukkot, and Simchat Torah. The walls of the kindergarten classrooms and the hallways were decorated with children's holiday and Shabbat art projects, made of paper, cardboard, and plasticine.

Alexander Sherman, Kindergarten Director, reports that "the holidays were celebrated wonderfully through dramatized history, songs and poems in Hebrew, Yiddish, and Russian. There were dances to cheerful Jewish tunes and fascinating competitions between adults and children on knowledge of Jewish traditions. And what wonderful presents the children made by themselves and gave to parents and visitors!"

Mr. Sherman reports that the kindergarten staff is of a very high professional caliber, and includes teachers, tutors, a psychologist, and a speech therapist. The program was initiated by the Khabarovsk Jewish community. The Pincus Fund, which supports the program, was established in Jerusalem in 1977 through the joint efforts of the Jewish agency, the World Zionist Organization, and the Government of Israel. It currently supports 89 projects around the world, approximately 40% of which are located in the FSU.

After four months of rest and rehabilitation in Israel, 45 Chechen orphans yesterday returned to Russia. The children had been rescued last year from the cold and hunger of a temporary refugee camp near Chechnya by the Jewish Agency. For the time being the children and their care giving staff will be housed at a convalescent home provided for them by the Russian Ministry of Education in the city of Nalchek in the northern Caucasus. "In six months time," said Aslanvek Donevayev, director of the orphanage, "we hope that we will be able to return to our home in Grozhny, which is currently being renovated after having been totally destroyed in recent bombings."

At Russia's Min Vodi airport, the children were met by Abba Feigin, the Jewish Agency's emissary in Pyatigorsk, who personally helped the orphans after they were found last winter. Feigin organized a bus to take the children to Nalchek and arranged hot meals for them all.

In Israel, the children's stay at the Hadassah Neurim Youth Village, run jointly by the Jewish Agency and the Hadassah organization, aided by the Russian Jewish Congress. Donevayev thanked all those who had assisted in hosting the children in Israel and said that they had learned a lot about Israel and would now serve as good will ambassadors between the Israeli people and Chechenya.

Natascha Suchakova the only Jewish orphan in the group, on account of whom the Jewish Agency emissaries located all the orphans, remains in Israel. She resides at the Jewish Agency's Tiberias absorption center within the context of the Chalom program, which prepares youngsters for vocational education.

More than 200,000 people, including leaders from Germany and Jewish communities last week participated in a mass march in Berlin to mark 62 years since Kristallnacht. On November 9th, 1938, the Nazis set fire to hundreds of synagogues and smashed the windows of Jewish businesses all over Germany.

Anat Carmel Kagan, Jewish Agency emissary in Germany, reports that the marchers walked from the newly renovated synagogue in Berlin to the Brandenberg Gate in the city center. The march turned into a protest against Germany's extreme right and the demonstrators waved signs condemning racism and favoring tolerance.

German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, German President Johannes Rau, and president of the Association of Jewish Communities in Germany, Paul Spiegel, all spoke forcefully against violence at a ceremony following the march. After the ceremony an orchestra conducted by Daniel Barenboim performed Beethoven's Fifth Symphony.

Kagan added that the Kristallnacht anniversary was also marked in other cities around Germany including Mainz, Munster, Stuttgart, Mannheim, Essen and Dusseldorf.

A collection of Jewish holy objects smuggled out of Syria -- including ancient Bible manuscripts that were restored at the Jewish National and University Library of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem -- were displayed for the first time yesterday. The event was held at the residence of President Moshe Katsav.

The collection includes nine ancient Bible manuscripts (codices), about 40 Torah scrolls and 32 decorative boxes in which the Torah scrolls are held. All were brought out of Syria - one of Jewry's oldest Diaspora communities - in a series of secret operations. In all, most of the Torah scrolls and all of the Bible manuscripts that were in the possession of the Syrian Jewish community are now safely in Israel.

The Bible manuscript volumes were in a deteriorated condition when brought to Israel and were brought to the Jewish National and University Library of the Hebrew University, where they were cleaned and restored. The volumes are for the time being preserved at the library until such time as they will be placed in a center for the study and preservation of the Syrian Jewish tradition that will be established in Holon. The Torah scrolls were given to the Syrian Jewish community in Israel or, in some instances, to an institute for the restoration of the scrolls which repaired and restored them.

The Syrian Jewish community - one of the oldest in the Jewish Diaspora - consisted of some 4,000 people in the early 1990s, a remnant of a much larger community that existed there for many centuries. The remaining Jews were subject to great limitations, including restrictions on their freedom of movement. Today, only a handful of Jews still remain in Syria.

The holy books and scrolls were removed in stages from Syria, without official permission, due to the strong desire of the former rabbi of the Syrian Jewish community, Rabbi Avraham Hamra, to rescue these items while there was still time to do so. When his requests to do so officially via Turkey were denied, he succeeded -- with the cooperation of various parties -- to send the materials out of Turkey through other channels, via France and the United States. This was accomplished in greatest secrecy - only a few people were privy to the effort.

It is only after Rabbi Hamra immigrated to Israel in 1994 and after others who were involved left Syria at a later stage that knowledge of the rescue has been made public.

Among those who participated in the ceremony at the President's residence Tuesday were the Sephardic chief rabbi of Israel, Rabbi Eliahu Bakshi-Doron; Rabbi Hamra; Prof. Sara Japhet, director of the Jewish National and University Library; and leaders of the Syrian Jewish community in Israel

Leah Rabin laid to rest. Hundreds of people, including President Moshe Katsav, Prime Minister Ehud Barak, and the First Lady of the US, Hilary Clinton paid their last respects to Leah Rabin on Wednesday who was laid to rest in the section reserved for national leaders, on Mount Herzl alongside her late husband Yitzhak, the victim of a dastardly assassination.

Hizbollah attempt to abduct Israeli soldier is foiled. Accordingly an agent of that organization was expected to enter Israel, persuade a soldier to travel abroad where he would then be abducted.

Light sentences in Germany given Neo-Nazi who murdered migrant. Three of eleven accused of involvement of the murder were found guilty of manslaughter and sentenced to 2-3 years in prison. Two of them were let off with only cautions, the others received probation sentences of 1-2 years.

Ingredients

6 medium-sized potatoes
Cheese gravy with dried mushrooms

For Gravy

13/4 oz. butter
1 tsp. cornflour
1 level tsp. strong mustard
Salt and coarse white pepper
1 tsp. parve soup powder
1 tub cream
1/2 cup milk
31/2 oz. grated cheese
2/3 large packet of dried European mushrooms

Preparation

• Melt the butter in a small pan.

• Steam the mushrooms in the butter after washing them (cut the larger mushrooms in to smaller pieces)

• Add the cornflour, soup powder, mustard until thick

• Add the milk, cream, and stir while cooking until the gravy is smooth

• Add salt and pepper

• Peel the potatoes and slice thinly.

• Mix well with the gravy

• Sprinkle the rest of the grated cheese into the mixture

• Place in oven for 40 minutes on 270⁰ F

B'Te'avon! Bon Appetit!