Assad invites Israeli rabbi to visit Damascus

May 1st 2011

Over the course of Mimouna celebrations at Moshav Gimzo, between Lod and Modi’in, last week, Jack Avital, the visiting head of the Brooklyn-based Sephardic National Alliance, told Rabbi Yeoshiau Pinto that the Syrian ambassador to the US, Imad Moustapha, had asked him to invite the rabbi to Syria.

One of Pinto’s forefathers, after whom he was named, was the rabbi of the Jewish community of Damascus in the first half of the 17th century.

Avital, one of the leaders of the Syrian-Jewish community of North America, has maintained good relations with President Bashar Assad and with Syrian officials in the US, and even headed small delegations of American Jews to Syriafor official visits in 2004 and 2006. A year ago, Avital told Pinto of his visits to Syria and suggested the rabbi visit there as well.

Pinto asked Avital to explore the possibility. An opportunity to do so arose at the wedding of Avidat’s daughter four months ago, attended by both Moustapha and the Syrian ambassador to the UN, Bashar Ja’afari, following which Avital spoke with the two diplomats.

[link to hussainabdulhussain.blogspot.com]

'Organ trafficking': Rabbis arrested over massive crime ring

US agents have arrested 44 elected officials and Jewish rabbis in New Jersey in a huge anti-corruption sweep across the state.

Charges of extortion, bribery, money laundering and human organ trafficking were stunning even for a state long notorious for official corruption and organised crime.

Five rabbis were among suspects, along with the mayors of Hoboken, Secaucus and Ridgefield, the Jersey City deputy mayor and council president, two state assembly members, and numerous other politicians, prosecutors said. FBI officials painted a picture of brazen criminality.

The money laundering ring allegedly stretched from New Jersey and New York to Israel and Switzerland, while politicians easily exploited loopholes in state law to disguise bribes as campaign contributions.

Although New Jersey is more famous for a history of Italian Mafia families, it was Jewish clergy who allegedly played a central role in the crime network.

Authorities raided several synagogues and among those arrested was the chief rabbi of Syrian Jews in the United States.

[link to www.theage.com.au]