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Daily Briefing

Thursday, January 20, 2011 Donate Now | Share This Email

Today's Daily Briefing Sponsored by: You! For only $180, you can use this prominent spot to announce an honor or celebrate a milestone. To make your announcement, click here. FEATURED STORY After fire, what types of trees are best suited for Israel? The recent fire in Israel's Carmel Mountains has cast a spotlight on what trees are best suited for Israel's varied regions. JTA's Dina Kraft also reports on what's already there, and how those trees got to the Holy Land.Read more » EDITORS' PICKS Repairing your world -- and your home The Jewish green day of Tu b'Shvat is not just the new year for trees anymore. It's also about "tikkun olam," repairing the world. But how about getting to that broken dishwasher first? JTA columnist Edmon J. Rodman weighs in. Going green for Tu b'Shvat While many in the Arab community had seen Tu b'Shvat in the past as a holiday symbolizing forest expansions intended to strengthen the Jewish hold on the land, groups and organizations are now using it to promote joint Jewish and Arab environmental activity, Haaretz reports. Stemming the brain drain Israeli policymakers and leading businesspeople at a Jerusalem conference formulate a plan for Israel to establish "leapfrog" growth, JTA's Dina Kraft reports. Will it be enough? Long look for espionage The FBI took a long look at the American Israel Public Affairs Committee for espionage activities during a nearly five-year counterintelligence probe of one of the pro-Israel lobby's top officials, according to The Washington Times. The Eulogizer: Sonya Peres, Milton Rogovin, Benny Hesse JTA's Appreciation column remembers the Israeli president's wife, a documentary photographer and an Israeli burial society director. Answering the call to greatness At a time of divisiveness and partisanship, we are reminded of the urgency of Martin Luther King Jr.'s call to greatness through service, an act upon which we can begin to build mutual understanding, Lynn Schusterman writes in a JTA Op-Ed. Jewish iconoclast in socks Speaking softly, Michael Steinhardt waves a big stick at "shameful" Jewish education in the United States and at organizations "whose lifeblood" is to show anti-Semitism, The Jerusalem Post reports. JEWISH IDEAS DAILY Sponsored Content A Zionist Who's Who In an astonishing labor of love, one man initiated and oversaw a nineteen-volume encyclopedia of the known, the less-known, and the unknown builders of Israel. Read more »

BREAKING NEWS Jewish groups called on U.S. Rep. Steve Cohen, a Tennessee Democrat, to apologize for using Holocaust terminology in attacking Republicans. Six floors of a building in New York City housing an Israeli bank were evacuated because of a letter bomb scare. Sonya Peres, the wife of Israeli President Shimon Peres for 66 years, has died. U.S. Sen. Joe Lieberman noted his "barrier-breaking" vice presidential candidacy in announcing his decision not to seek re-election. Twenty Jews from Tunisia have come to Israel amid the political upheaval and violence in the African nation. Alabama Gov. Robert Bentley apologized for saying in inaugural day comments that non-Christians were not his "brothers and sisters." Singer Macy Gray, after asking fans in a Facebook message whether to cancel her concert dates in Tel Aviv, said on Twitter that she will play in Israel as scheduled. Israel's three-year streak of reaching the list of five finalists in the Oscar race for best foreign language film has ended. A Holocaust denier who believes there is a Jewish conspiracy to eliminate other races received a gun license in Australia, despite being deemed a possible security risk. Senior White House adviser Dennis Ross arrived in Israel to discuss security arrangements under a possible peace deal with the Palestinians. Former U.S. officials and policy writers are urging President Obama to endorse a proposed United Nations Security Council resolution blasting Israel's settlement policy and calling for a return to peace talks. Work on the construction of a Jewish housing project at the site of the Shepherd Hotel in eastern Jerusalem resumed following the dismissal of a halt work injunction. Jews in Eugene, Ore., persuaded the local human rights commission to suspend for now a resolution condemning Israel for its flotilla raid last year. The Israel Sci-Tech Schools Network and Israel's Education Ministry have launched a $50 million campaign to improve 50 schools on Israel's periphery. Israeli lawmaker Tzipi Livni canceled a scheduled trip to South Africa due to a strike by her country's Foreign Ministry workers, the ministry said. The Israel Project has set up a China desk.