By Donald
H. Harrison
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."
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