Jewish news briefs: April 15, 2015

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U.S. Senate committee unanimously passes modified Iran oversight bill
(JNS.org) The U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Tuesday unanimously passed a modified version of a bill that would give Congress oversight of a final nuclear agreement between world powers and Iran.

Earlier on Tuesday, a bipartisan deal to amend the Iran Nuclear Agreement Review Act of 2015 was reached among the leading members of the Foreign Relations Committee, U.S. Sens. Bob Corker (R-Tennessee) and Ben Cardin (D-Maryland.). In the compromise, the bill’s initial 60-day period for Congress to review a nuclear deal was cut in half to 30 days. The review period also includes a maximum period of 12 days for the president to decide whether to accept or veto a Congressional decision on the deal.

Additionally, Corker agreed to modify the bill’s language on terrorism. The bill originally called for the president to certify to Congress every 90 days that Iran was not involved in terrorism against Americans, with sanctions being re-imposed if Iran was found complicit in terror. Under the new language, the president would need to send Congress periodic reports on Iran’s involvement in terrorism and on its ballistic missile program, but the details of those reports would not set off the renewal of sanctions that were lifted under the nuclear deal.

While President Barack Obama previously said he would veto any Congressional oversight bill on Iran, White House spokesman Josh Earnest said Tuesday that Obama would sign the newly modified version of the Iran Nuclear Agreement Review Act if there are no additional changes.

“I want to thank Senators Cardin and Corker for their hard work—they both did an excellent job,” U.S. Sen. Chuck Schumer said Tuesday after the committee-level passage of the amended bill. “It’s important that this process be as bipartisan as possible, and clearly they’ve been able to do that and come to an agreement. The American-Israel relationship has always been bipartisan and I’m glad we’re continuing in that fine tradition.”

The Iran oversight bill now goes to the full Senate, where it will need three-fifths approval (60 senators if all are present) in an initial cloture vote in order to come up for an actual vote. A majority of the senators present for the vote then need to vote in favor of the bill for it to pass. Since virtually all of the 54 Republican senators are expected to back the legislation, and with nine Democrats co-sponsoring the measure, it is expected to pass smoothly in the Senate.

If that happens, the bill goes for a vote in the House of Representatives, where a majority is needed to pass it. The bill then would move to Obama’s desk. If Obama defies Earnest’s most recent comments and vetoes the bill, both the House and Senate would then require two-thirds majority votes to override the veto.

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Apple acquires Israeli camera company LinX Imaging
(Israel Hayom/Exclusive to JNS.org) The American computer giant Apple has acquired LinX Imaging, an Israeli company that produces tiny camera modules for telephones and tablet devices. The Wall Street Journal quoted sources close to the deal who said that Apple paid $20 million for the Israeli firm.

LinX creates cameras that are smaller than any on the market today and can photograph multiple objects at once. Moreover, the company website says, LinX technology lets users create 3D images and refocus an image after the picture has been taken, providing 3D object modeling and real-time background replacement, a feature that can be used in video calls.

The TechCrunch blog speculated that Apple could use the camera technology in devices such as the MacBook. An Apple spokesperson confirmed the acquisition, but told The Wall Street Journal that Apple “buys smaller technology companies from time to time and we generally do not discuss our purpose or plans.”

LinX Imaging is the third Israeli company Apple has acquired. The company bought Anobit, a flash memory developer, in 2012 for $390 million, and PrimeSense, which develops movement sensors, for $300 million in 2013.

Apple CEO Tim Cook visited Israel in February for the inauguration of Apple’s Herzliya offices and told Israeli President Reuven Rivlin that Apple has “enormous admiration for Israel, not just as an important ally for the U.S., but as a place to do business.”
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Holocaust commemoration group seeks return of 35 Torah scrolls found in Poland
(JNS.org) Thirty-five Torah scrolls were recently discovered in a Polish monastery, where they have been hidden since the Holocaust.

It is believed that the scrolls were stolen more than 70 years ago by a local priest, a known anti-Semite who sought to uncover secrets that were apparently hidden by Jews in the sacred books. For decades, the scrolls were kept in the monastery’s rundown basement. Jonny Daniels, founder and chairman of an Israel-based Holocaust commemoration organization called From The Depths, learned of the scrolls’ existence, and after months of negotiating with the heads of the Polish Church, he was granted entry to the monastery in order to see the scrolls.

“Seeing 35 Torah scrolls sitting on dirty shelves in a Polish monastery offended my Jewish soul, because of the blatant disregard shown to the scrolls,” Daniels told Israel Hayom.

“Some of the books are torn and can’t be used, so unless we find someone who will able to repair them, we’ll have to bury them,” he said. “However, the majority of Torah scrolls are in good shape, and can be put back to use.”

Under Jewish law, burial is the only method of disposal for sacred objects deemed unfit for use. While the heads of the Polish Church agreed to give Daniels the scrolls, they appear reluctant to return them to Jewish hands. From The Depths has enlisted the help of Polish attorneys who have volunteered their services to ensure the scrolls’ safe return to Jewish hands.

“I expect the Polish government to intervene and see to the scrolls’ immediate return to the Jewish people,” said Daniels.
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Israeli film about female soldiers a hit at Turkish festival despite strained ties
(JNS.org) An Israeli film about female Israel Defense Forces (IDF) soldiers has had a successful run at the Istanbul International Film Festival despite strained diplomatic relations between the Jewish state and Turkey.

“Zero Motivation” tells the story of a female IDF unit at a remote desert base.

“It was exciting seeing Israeli humor, especially military humor, cracking up the Turkish audience,” said Israeli Deputy Consul General in Istanbul Ohad Avidan Kaynar regarding the film, which was screened three times at the Turkish festival.

“Military terms crossed the border and created laughter and excitement in Turkey,” he said.

The film’s stars, Israeli actresses Dana Ivgy and Nelly Tagar, attended its third screening in Istanbul. At the festival, Tagar had a conversation with Iranian filmmaker Ayat Najafi.

“We started talking—about Iran, about Lausanne (where the framework nuclear agreement was reached), about Yemen, a bit about [Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu, a bit about [Turkish President Recep Tayyip] Erdogan,” Tagar said, Yedioth Ahronoth reported. “And then we spoke about films, about Gondi (a Persian Jewish dish), about Isfahan, about Tel Aviv, about parties, and about girls. And then we hugged and pretty much solved the conflict.”

Israeli-Turkish relations deteriorated following the May 2010 incident in which militants attacked IDF soldiers who boarded a Turkish flotilla that attempted to break the blockade on Gaza. Nine Turkish citizens were killed in clashes with the Israeli soldiers.
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Simon Wiesenthal Center downgrades U.S. in annual Nazi-hunting report
(JNS.org) In its annual Nazi-hunting report, the Simon Wiesenthal Center downgraded America’s efforts from A to B, marking the first time that the U.S. has been ranked that low in the report.

According to prominent Nazi-hunter Efraim Zuroff, director of the Wiesenthal Center’s Israel office, the U.S. ranking was lowered in part because America did not take any action against Michael Karkoc, who was living in Minnesota and was found to have commanded an SS unit in an investigation by the Associated Press in 2013.

Afterward, Germany began its own investigation into Karkoc and determined that he had commanded a hunt that allegedly involved the burning of villages filled with women and children. The investigation also found that Karkoc lied to immigration officials in order to get into the U.S. several years after World War II.

The Wiesenthal Center’s report also praised Germany for loosening the rules on the prosecution of former Nazis.
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Israeli scientists regenerate heart cells in revolutionary discovery
(Israel Hayom/Exclusive to JNS.org) When the cardiac muscle is compromised and cells die, it can often lead to death. But researchers at the Weizmann Institute of Science recently discovered a mechanism that could be used to regenerate heart muscle cells. The discovery appeared this week in the Nature Cell Biology journal.

Cardiovascular disease is one of the leading causes of death around the world. One of the reasons for this is the fact that cardiac muscle cells do not regenerate. These cells, known as cardiomyocytes, cease dividing shortly after birth. In the event of a heart attack, these cells die, forming scars that interfere with the normal function of the heart.

The Weizmann Institute’s Professor Eldad Tzahor hypothesized that the reason for the failure of these cells to regenerate had to do with the embryonic development of the heart. In mice, the heart muscle cells continue to divide until about a week after birth, making it possible for a mouse to heal from injury. But this ability exists for only seven days.

The protein ERBB2 plays a role in heart development. ERBB2 is a specialized receptor, a protein that transmits external messages into the cell, and it generally works together with a second, related, receptor by binding a growth factor called Neuregulin 1 (NRG1) to transmit its message. NRG1 is already being tested in clinical studies for treating heart failure.

Researcher Gabriele D’Uva (a postdoctoral fellow on Tzahor’s team) and research student Alla Aharonov noted that cells treated with NRG1 continued to proliferate on the day of birth but that the effect dropped dramatically after seven days, apparently as a result of a drop in the levels of the protein in the cells. “Too little or too much of this protein had a devastating impact on heart function,” Tzahor explained.

The next step was to determine what happens when the protein is activated for a limited time after a heart attack. The team found that they could activate the protein in mice for a short interval following an induced heart attack and obtain nearly complete heart regeneration within several weeks. “The results were amazing,” said Tzahor.

The team is now working on perfecting the method, which could eventually be used to treat humans.

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