by Bayla Sheva Brenner
Football champion Alan Veingrad is still making all the right moves. In 1992, Alan Veingrad, former offensive lineman for the Dallas Cowboys, made all the right moves to protect the quarterback and ward off the other team's advances, helping to secure his team a Super Bowl victory. Today, he's taken that same sense of discipline and strength of will to focus his sights on what he considers a significantly more meaningful "end zone" - observant Judaism. Born in Brooklyn and raised in Elizabeth, NJ and Miami, FL, Mr. Veingrad says he grew up like most Jews in America -- with a "very secular" background. "We lit candles Friday night and got together with family on Chanukah and holidays," he says. "The focus was mainly on the chicken soup, kugel and latkes." In order to ready their son for the required bar mitzvah celebration, his parents insisted on Hebrew school. "I just didn't connect," he remembers. "After my parents dropped me off, I'd walk in the building and go out the back door. I spent the time throwing stones into a lake." By 14, he had fulfilled his Hebrew school obligation and devoted his free time to ...   more »

By Chris Mitchell
CBN News
February 1, 2007
CBNNews.com - JERUSALEM - For thousands of years, empires, countries and kings have fought over the fate of Jerusalem. Today, the fight for Jerusalem continues, and the final claim on its destiny will have worldwide consequences. Since the 1967 Six-Day War, the city of Jerusalem has been under the sovereignty of the state of Israel. And just four months from now, Israel will celebrate the 40th anniversary of its capture of the city of Jerusalem. But one generation later, Jerusalem is still the epicenter of conflict: Israel's enemies are trying to advance their jihadist plan to take back Jerusalem and Israel for Islam. Whether it's Hamas within Palestinian territories, Hezbollah on Israel's northern border or Iran's mullahs and their genocidal plans, many Islamic groups are striving to take back the city of Jerusalem and make it the capital of a worldwide Islamic empire. In his new book, The Fight for Jerusalem, former Israeli United Nations Ambassador Dore Gold warns about the plans of radical Islam to claim Jerusalem. Gold has written numerous books and articles on the Middle East, including Hatred's Kingdom: How Saudi Arabia Supports the New Global Terrorism  and Tower ...   more »

Adelson family gift will double to at least 20,000 the number of free summer trips to Israel offered to Diaspora Jews by birthright israel; 'The birthright israel program is one of the best ideas of our time,' Sheldon Adelson says
A new gift to the Taglit - birthright israel program (BRI) will double to at least 20,000 the number of free summer trips to Israel offered by BRI this summer. The gift is being made by The Adelson Family Charitable Foundation, established by philanthropists Dr. Miriam and Sheldon G. Adelson, one of the world's richest people and the richest Jew in the United States. The USD 25 million gift is in addition to a grant made by the Foundation to birthright israel in December to fund 2,000 additional spaces for the winter session, and brings the Foundation's total contribution this year to USD 30 million. The Foundation anticipates making similar gifts to birthright israel in future years.Taglit - birthright israel is funded by the Government of Israel , private philanthropists and Jewish communities around the world. The USD 25 million gift is contingent upon BRI’s other funding partners maintaining their annual collective commitment of USD 51 million.Adelson, estimated by the Forbes Magazine ...   more »

CWNews.com –Venezuela (MNN) -- Venezuela's Congress Wednesday gave initial approval to a bill granting President Hugo Chavez powers to rule by decree for 18 months as he tries to force through nationalizations key to his self-styled leftist revolution.Voice of the Martyrs Todd Nettleton says, "President Hugo Chavez is gaining almost dictatorial powers over that country. He will be allowed to stay in office as long as he wants and basically rule the country by his decree."Chavez forced a U-S based mission organization out of tribal areas last year. Right now it's unclear what this will mean for national Christian workers in Venezuela, but Nettleton says Chavez doesn't have a good track record. "Chavez is very fond of Fidel Castro. We know he's not a friend of the church in his country. So, you just look at the evidence and you look at the past and you look at who Hugo Chavez' friends are, it's got to make you nervous if you have Christian workers in Venezuela."Voice of the Martyrs doesn't have work in the country yet, Nettleton says, "It hasn't been a country where we say Christians are persecuted, what we would identify as a restricted nation. ...   more »

ABU DHABI — German Chancellor Angela Merkel met the President, His Highness Shaikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, yesterday as part of her talks with Gulf leaders on international efforts to revive the Middle East peace process.
Shaikh Khalifa and Chancellor Merkel conferred on a number of current issues in the region, particulary Palestine, the situation in Iraq and Lebanon.Merkel briefed Shaikh Khalifa about Germany’s new initiative that it wants to present during its presidency of the European Union to revive the Middle East peace process.Shaikh Khalifa told Merkel that the UAE was keen to strengthen its economic cooperation with Germany, noting that the two countries are endowed with potentials that should be translated into an enduring and mutually beneficial partnership.“The UAE-German relations have developed significantly in recent years, thanks to bilateral cooperation agreements signed in various fields,” said Shaikh Khalifa, citing the role of visits exchanged by officials from both sides. The German chancellor said she was pleased about her visit and her subsequent meeting with the UAE President.She expressed her hope that the visit would broaden the scope of cooperation between the two countries, particularly in the areas of trade and investments.“My visit to the UAE is of ...   more »

by Irwin Cotler
Indifference in the face of evil is complicity with evil.
From the keynote address by Professor Irwin Cotler, delivered January 29th at the Holocaust commemoration ceremony in the historic Salle des Assemblées of the European Headquarters of the United Nations in Geneva.Whenever I speak on the Holocaust I do so with a certain degree of humility, and not without a deep sense of pain.For I am reminded of what my parents taught me while still a young boy - the profundity and pain of which I realized only years later -- that there are things in Jewish history that are too terrible to be believed, but not too terrible to have happened; that Oswiencim, Majdanek, Dachau, Treblinka -- these are beyond vocabulary. Words may ease the pain, but they may also dwarf the tragedy. For the Holocaust was uniquely evil in its genocidal singularity, where biology was inescapably destiny, a war against the Jews in which, as Nobel Peace Laureate Professor Elie Wiesel put it, "not all victims were Jews, but all Jews were victims".Lesson 1: The Importance of Holocaust RemembranceThe first lesson is the importance of Zachor, of remembrance itself. For as we remember the six ...   more »

Defense officials told settlers on Monday that it was still likely that the security fence would be constructed in the Judean Desert, even though work there had been halted last month due to environmental concerns. Environmentalists and settlers have joined forces to persuade the Defense Ministry to find an alternative to the security fence in the region. They had argued that the security fence would scar the landscape, harm wildlife and disrupt the ecosystem of the area. Initially, the Defense Ministry agreed to halt work there and explore other options to secure the area. But on Monday, security officials told South Hebron Regional Council Chief Tzvika Bar-Hai that Defense Minister Amir Peretz had not been swayed by the alternative options presented and that he was still of the opinion that the security fence was the best idea. On Monday, OC Central Command Maj.-Gen. Yair Naveh toured the area under construction in the Judean Desert with Bar-Hai and officials from environmental groups. "We are working on finding a solution that will not harm the wildlife or the environment but will at the same time provide the necessary protection against Palestinian terrorists," said a source in the Central Command. The route runs ...   more »