Comments (0)Kidnapped Israeli Freed in Nigeria
September 4, 2008Jerusalem
JTA Wire Service
An Israeli man kidnapped in Nigeria was set free. Nigerian police said Monday that Ehud Avni, a diabetic, was in good condition. He spoke to his family shortly after his release. Avni, 60, a project manager for the Israeli firm Gilmor, was kidnapped last week by four gunmen from the driveway of his home in the Nigerian coastal city of Port Harcourt. He was being held for a ransom of $12 million. Avni was returned to his home, located in an area that has been the scene of numerous kidnappings in recent years. Israel’s ambassador to Nigeria, Moshe Ram, told the Ha’aretz newspaper that he did not believe that a ransom was paid. Ram had traveled to the area to assist in the negotiations for Avni’s release.
Argentine President Vows to Find Bombers
Argentina’s president renewed her commitment to achieve justice in case of the terrorist bombing of the AMIA Jewish center. Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner held a protocol meeting Thursday with the new AMIA executive committee. The president of the AMIA Jewish central institution, Guillermo Borger, thanked de Kirchner for facilitating the recent meeting held between Latin American Jewish leaders and the Venezuelan president, Hugo Chavez.
Liberal Rabbis Ordained in Holland
Reform rabbis were ordained in Holland for the first time. The Robert A. Levisson Institute ordained its first five graduates Wednesday at the Spanish and Portuguese Synagogue of the Liberal Jewish Congregation in The Hague. Rabbi David Lilienthal, who founded the institute in 2004, blessed the new rabbis, who include Tamarah Benima, Marianne van Praag, Albert Ringer, Navah-Tehila Shmuelit-Livingstone, and Kineret Sittig. The new rabbis are all Holland residents who took part in the five-year, part-time rabbinical program while continuing in other careers. Lilienthal, the Swedish-born son of refugees from Germany and Russia, served as Holland’s main Reform rabbi from 1971 until 2004, when he left to build the new institute. He told JTA his dream was to encourage people from Holland who wished to pursue rabbinical studies but could not afford to do so abroad. The new institute recently received the approval of major Reform Jewish institutions, including Hebrew Union College in Israel, the Abraham Geiger College in Germany, the Central Conference of American Rabbis, and the Leo Baeck College in London, from which Lilienthal received his own ordination in 1971. There are some 40,000 Jews in Holland today, and about 4,000 are members of Reform congregations, Lilienthal said. The Institute is named after the late Levisson, a prominent member of the Reform Jewish Community in the Netherlands who died in 2001.
This story reprinted courtesy of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency.