Comments (0)Foreman to Defend Title at Yankee Stadium
March 9, 2010New York
JTA Wire Service
Orthodox boxer Yuri Foreman’s first title defense appears to be a go for Yankee Stadium on June 5.
A scheduling conflict with a bar mitzvah at the year-old stadium has been worked out, setting the stage for Foreman (28-0) to face former welterweight champion Miguel Cotto (34-2) for the WBA junior middleweight crown, Top Rank promoter Bob Arum told the Associated Press on March 4.
Yankees chief operating officer Lonn Trost told AP that team executives had to approve the deal.
“We have a preliminary agreement with them. Nothing has been signed or finalized,” he said. “We do plan, if things go well, to have it on June 5.”
With the Sabbath ending at sundown, the bout is expected to begin at 11:30 p.m. to accommodate the observant Foreman, a Belarus native now living in New York and studying to be a rabbi.
Foreman and Arum both agreed to meet the bar mitzvah celebrant, Scott Ballan, the son of the lead bond lawyer for the financing of the $1.5 billion stadium, the AP reported. The entire family will be guests at the fight.
The boxing card will be the first at the new Yankee Stadium. The old stadium hosted some classic bouts, including Joe Louis’ knockout defeat at the hands of the German Max Schmeling in June 1936 as the Nazis were rising to power. Louis would avenge the loss two years later.
Justice Dept. Declines to Intervene in Rubashkin Case
The U.S. Department of Justice declined to intervene in the case of a convicted kosher meat executive, despite a plea from several Orthodox rabbis.
In a letter last week to Rabbi Aron Raskin, and copied to several other rabbis active in this matter, the director of the Executive Office for United States Attorneys said the case involving Sholom Rubashkin had been “fully litigated” and there was nothing more to be done.
“Mr. Rubashkin has fully litigated the issue of whether detention pending sentencing is appropriate,” H. Marshall Jarrett wrote. “Both the district court and the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals have determined that Mr. Rubashkin is a flight risk. We are sorry that we cannot be of further assistance in responding to your concerns.”
Rubashkin, the former manager of the Agriprocessors kosher meat plant in Postville, Iowa, was convicted of 86 counts of financial fraud last November and ordered held pending sentencing.
In January, a coalition of rabbis wrote to the U.S. attorney general asking for reconsideration of the case, in which they claim that prosecutors were unnecessarily harsh in their treatment of Rubashkin. The rabbis have said that Rubashkin’s incarceration interferes with his religious practice and that securing his release is a humanitarian issue.
Last month, the Des Moines Register reported that Rubashkin had been moved to a private jail cell after a disagreement with a fellow inmate over the volume of a television set became physical.
“Sholom Rubashkin is a very religious man who has proposed that he be imprisoned pending his sentencing under 24-hour armed guard at his home, where he can engage fully in religious observances,” said Rubashkin’s lawyer, Nathan Lewin. “There is no basis in law and no reason to keep him in a local jail until he is sentenced in April.”
‘Ajami’ Passed Over at Oscars, ‘Jew Hunter’ Wins
Israel’s half-century jinx at the Oscars continued and three Jewish-themed films were passed over, but “The Jew Hunter” took home an award.
The Israeli entry “Ajami,” a gritty film about the Jewish-Arab tensions in the mixed quarter of Jaffa, lost out Sunday for best foreign language film at the Academy Awards to Argentina’s entry, “The Secret in Their Eyes (El Secreto de Sus Ojos),” directed by Juan José Campanell.
Three Jewish-themed films vying for the best picture nod—“Inglourious Basterds,” “A Serious Man” and “An Education”—also missed out. And Quentin Tarantino lost in the directing category, despite high praise for “Inglourious Basterds,” a brutal counterfactual fantasy in which a band of Jewish GIs scalps German soldiers and assassinates Nazi leaders.
“Inglourious Basterds” did win the first award of the night, with Christoph Waltz taking the Oscar for best supporting actor for his portrayal of Hans Landa, aka “The Jew Hunter,” the terrifyingly and hilariously meticulous German colonel charged with capturing the Jewish soldiers.
“Oscar and Penelope, that’s an uber-Bingo,” said Waltz in his acceptance speech, referencing the award being presented by the sultry actress Penelope Cruz and invoking one of the Austrian actor’s classic lines in the movie.
Co-host Steve Martin also drew laughs with a Hans Landa joke during the night’s opening segment: “[You] played a Nazi obsessed with finding Jews in ‘Inglourious Basterds,’ “Martin said, as he opened his arms to the crowd. “Well Christoph ... the mother lode.”
It was the third consecutive Oscars in which an Israeli film nominated for best foreign language film left empty-handed—the Lebanon war-themed films “Beaufort” and “Waltz with Bashir” were considered leading contenders before being passed over in 2008 and 2009, respectively.
“Ajami” was a joint production of two young Israeli filmmakers, Scandar Copti, a Christian Arab, and Yaron Shani, a Jew. It was Israel’s top drawer at the box office in the past year.
Just hours before the Oscars ceremony, Copti said he was not representing Israel.
“I am not the Israeli national team and I do not represent Israel,” Copti said in an interview on Israel’s Channel 2. “It is an extremely technical thing, that’s how it works in the Oscars. It says ‘Israel’ because the funding comes from Israel. There’s a Palestinian director, an Israeli director, Palestinian actors and Israeli actors. The film technically represents Israel, but I don’t represent Israel.”
Culture and Sports Minister Limor Livnat criticized Copti’s remarks.
“The film ‘Ajami’ was produced and received an Oscar nomination thanks to funds from the State of Israel, which Scandar Copti now tries to renounce,” Livnat said. “Without the state’s support, Copti would not be walking on the red carpet tonight.”
This story reprinted courtesy of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency.