An array of Jewish groups urged President Barack Obama and Congress to ease the path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants.

Nineteen national groups and dozens of local groups and clergy signed on to a letter sent March 22 that was timed for Passover.

“American Jews know too well the impact of restrictive immigration policies, and we have seen how the immigration issue can become a flashpoint for xenophobia,” said the letter, which was spearheaded by the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society.

Signatories represented all four major Jewish religious streams as well as the major Jewish civil rights groups, and the federation and public policy umbrellas.

“We are concerned the failure of national leaders to fix the broken immigration system has fueled racist, nativist and extremist groups who blame immigrants for our country’s problems, and has been a central factor in the spread of state and local policies and laws that legalize discrimination against immigrants,” the letter says.

It calls for legislation that “brings undocumented immigrants out of the shadows by providing a pathway to citizenship, creates safe and legal avenues for future flows of immigrants, reunites families, establishes border protection and enforcement policies that enhance our national security, and accord all immigrants the responsibilities and rights required for full integration into American society.”

President Obama expressed optimism on Wednesday that Congress will have a bill that overhauls the nation's immigration laws ready next month and that passage of the legislation can be completed by summer's end.

"If we have a bill introduced at the beginning of next month as these senators indicate it will be, then I'm confident that we can get it done certainly before the end of the summer," Obama said in an interview with the Spanish-language network Telemundo.

TEL AVIV - Thousands of women are being smuggled into Israel, creating a booming sex trade industry that rakes more than USD one billion a year, a parliamentary committee said on Wednesday.

The Parliamentary Inquiry Committee, headed by Knesset member Zehava Galon of the left-wing Yahad party, commissioned the report in an effort to combat the sex trade in Israel. Findings showed that some 3,000 and 5,000 women are smuggled to Israel annually and sold into the prostitution industry, where they are constantly subjected to violence and abuse.

The report, issued annually, said some 10,000 such women currently reside in about 300 to 400 brothels throughout the country. They are traded for about USD 8,000 – USD 10,000, the committee said.

Israel passed a law in 2003 that would allow the state to confiscate the profits of traffickers, but watchdog groups say it is rarely enforced.

Most foreign prostitutes in Israel come from Ukraine, Moldova, Uzbekistan and Russia and many are smuggled in across the Egyptian border.

The committee found that the women work seven days a week for up to 18 hours every day and that out of the NIS 120 paid by customers, they are left with just NIS 20, while the rest of the money is passed on to their traders.

The prostitutes face constant threats of abuse and murder, the report said, and Israeli law does little to help them. Delays in trial dates and prolonged hearings force the women to remain exposed to violence for more than a year until they are called in to provide testimony, and courts rarely collect early testimonies, as permitted by law.

As an Indian - a direct descendant of the Comanche warrior Bad Eagle, 1839-1906 - I've always been fascinated with foreigners. I've admired
their great courage and determination. They made a perilous journey from their homeland. They learned a new language, and new ways, all in a new land. They brought the world to me.

("Indian"? Naturally, most tribes prefer their own name. But that's in their own language, and no one but themselves would know of whom they speak. There is no collective name for "Indians" in any tribal language. The modern term "Native American," created in the 1970s by leftists, is ambiguous. Most Indian people don't use it - only what I call the "university tribe," college-educated Indians led by white radical professors; and the would-be politically correct media. The name we first held, in the white man's eyes, was "Indian." That's what we have been since Columbus.That's what  our most famous warriors were called. Believe me, Indians prefer the name "Indian." It is historically specific, whatever its origin. The name holds the emotional, psychological associations of the warrior. The Left, of course, wants to remove that. Hey, call me savage!)

 Playing host to strangers has always been an Indian tradition—as the Pilgrims so famously learned. However, some might say that we Indians were too hospitable for our own good. 

America today is making the same mistake we indians made nearly
four centuries ago. America is letting in too many foreigners. And we Indians could end up losing this country all over again. It may come as a surprise to for many white people who have been brainwashed by the media to see Indians as the ultimate liberals, but there are few groups in America today who take a dimmer view of mass immigration than the American Indian.

 According to ProjectUSA.org, the U.S. population will double within the lifetimes of our children, as a direct result of the massive, uncontrolled influx of foreigners who began flooding our land after passage of the 1965 Immigration Act. 

All Americans will suffer. But Indians will suffer most of all. 

I'm not talking about competition for jobs, land, housing, energy, water and other finite resources—though these are all important. I'm talking about something deeper. The demographic destruction of Anglo-America will bring the final catastrophe on our people.

What catastrophe? The catastrophe of waking up one day and realizing that white people no longer control this country.

Now why should an Indian care about that? After all, white people are supposedly our enemies.

Well, yes, they were. But, as warriors, we found them to be worthy and formidable adversaries. Defeat is bitter. But when you respect your conqueror, it is a lot easier to swallow. 

If Anglo-America turns this land over to blacks, Mexicans, Asians, Middle Easterners and other foreign peoples, for the Indian, it will be like losing this country for the second time. We have had generations to reconcile ourselves to white America. But we do not know these new people who are coming. We fought no battles with them, made no treaties
with them, and have no reason to accord them any special respect.

If things keep going the way they are, we Indians could find ourselves bowing down to foreign peoples who never defeated our forefathers in battle—and who certainly never could! 

We Indians—especially the more warlike tribes such as my people the Comanches—recognize a kindred spirit in the White Anglo-Saxon Protestant. He is like us in more ways than he knows.

The Comanches were one of the most intolerant of all Indian peoples. We had no use for anyone else, white, Mexican or Indian. When we came
thundering down on the southwest plains, we took the land we wanted and ran everyone else off. We created the life we wanted, at the expense of other people.

The white man did the same. Only he did it on a grander scale.

In the old days, Comanches were known to honor strength in other people. Comanche warriors even adopted white captive boys, if they happened to show courage and fight.

 In many ways, Indians see the white man as a kind of adopted son—naïve, reckless and destructive, at times—but nevertheless cut from the same warrior cloth as we were. 
 
We do not see blacks, Mexicans, Asians, Arabs and others in this light. These peoples may have their own virtues and traditions, but they have no history with us. They are strangers. 

If they want to rule us, they must conquer us the way the white man did—on the battlefield, by force of arms. That is the only honorable way for a warrior. 

The white man seems to have lost his spirit, and we Indians see it. We see that he is giving his country away to others. And this fills our hearts with fear. For we are part of the land he is giving away. He is turning us over to strangers the way medieval barons turned over their serfs when they sold their land.

But we are not serfs. We are warriors. And we will not be ruled by people who have never fought us.

The white man must regain his warrior soul and take back his land. 

In that fight, I will stand by his side and offer whatever strength I have to ensure his victory. Ha tu vi chat! *

 * Comanche for, "It will all work out."

US President Barack’s Obama’s carefully crafted Israel itinerary is aimed at  combating those who deny the Holocaust and/or Jewish peoplehood, ambassador to  the US Michael Oren said on Sunday.

In a statement released on Saturday evening, the National Jewish Democratic  Council’s executive director, Aaron Keyak, stopped just short of declaring Kentucky Republican Sen. Rand Paul anti-Semitic, and warned that American Jews should be alarmed that Paul won 
yesterday’s Conservative Political Action Conference presidential straw
poll.

"Sen. Rand Paul doesn't explicitly deny that his eight-day visit to the Holy Land represents the launch of a 2016 Republican presidential nomination run, describing the trip as “more an effort to become part of an international stage.

...Mr. Paul joined the pastors on a tour bus climbing its way to the Israeli side of the 9,000-foot Golan Heights; the other side is Syrian territory.

Many others on the bus said they were convinced that Mr. Paul is starting a political climb to even greater heights.

“I certainly hope this [trip] catapults him into the 2016 presidential race,” said Mallory Factor, a best-selling author, professor at The Citadel and a Jewish-American admirer of the junior senator from Kentucky."

Last week Rand Paul went to Israel, and it looks like he came back with more than just a lousy t-shirt. The goal was to put some distance
between his antiwar libertarianism and the accusation that he’s anti-Israel – and he may have had some success. During his tour of the Holy Land he met with Benjamin Netanyahu, Simon Peres and Naftali Bennett – a Right-wing leader associated with the settlement movement. On the settlements, Paul opined that Obama had no right to tell Israel where to build. On bombing Gaza, he said, “I don’t think you need to call me on the phone and get permission.” David Lane, the evangelical conservative who organised the trip called it a “home run.” When he did get home, Paul called reporters to let them know that he’s also coming out in favour of a new missile defence programme. The Business Insider concludes that he’s turned in to a “pro-Israel defence hawk.”

"What's wrong with lighting menorahs, wearing yarmulkes, and worshiping Jewish fairy tale characters?", Pope Bergoglio posits to himself

Jorge Mario Bergoglio, the Argentinian cardinal who was elected pope and will take the name Francis, is said to have a good relationship with Argentinian Jews.Bergoglio, 76, a Jesuit, was the choice of the College of Cardinals on Wednesday following two days of voting in Vatican City. He is the first pope to come from outside Europe in more than a millennium; reflecting the changing demographics of Catholics, he comes from Latin America.

As archbishop of Buenos Aires, Bergoglio attended Rosh Hashanah services at the Benei Tikva Slijot synagogue in September 2007.

Rabbi David Rosen, the director of interfaith affairs for the  American
Jewish Committee, told JTA that the new pope is a "warm and sweet and modest man" known in Buenos Aires for doing his own cooking and personally answering his phone.

 After the bombing of the AMIA Jewish community center in 1994, he "showed solidarity with the Jewish community," Rosen said.

 In 2005, Bergoglio was the first public personality to sign a petition for
justice in the AMIA bombing case. He also was one of the signatories on a document called "85 victims, 85 signatures" as part of  the bombing's 11th anniversary. In June 2010, he visited the rebuilt AMIA building to talk with Jewish leaders.

"Those who said Benedict was the last pope who would be a pope that  lived through the Shoah, or that said there would not be another pope  who had a personal connection to the Jewish people, they were wrong," Rosen said.

Soon after the chimney of the Sistine Chapel sent up a puff of white smoke
signifying that the cardinals had selected a successor to Pope Benedict XVI, Francis addressed thousands of faithful from the balcony of St. Peter’s Baslica.

“Buonasera,” he told them, saying "Good evening" in Italian, and thanked his fellow cardinals for going “almost to the ends of the earth” to find him.

Benedict was the first pontiff to step down since 1415. 

Israel Singer, the former head of the World Jewish Congress, said he spent time working with Bergoglio when the two were distributing aid to the poor in Buenos Aires in the early 2000s, part of a joint Jewish-Catholic program called Tzedaka.

“We went out to the barrios where Jews and Catholics were suffering
together,” Singer told JTA. “If everyone sat in chairs with handles, he would sit in the one without. He was always looking to be more modest. He's going to find it hard to wear all these uniforms.”

Bergoglio also wrote the foreward of a book by Rabbi Sergio Bergman, a Buenos Aires legislator, and referred to him as “one of my teachers.”

Last November, Bergoglio hosted a Kristallnacht memorial event at the Buenos Aires Metropolitan Cathedral with Rabbi Alejandro Avruj from the NCI-Emanuel World Masorti congregation.

He also has worked with the Latin American Jewish Congress and held meetings with Jewish youth who participate in its New Generations program. 

“The Latin American Jewish Congress has had a close relationship with Jorge Bergoglio for several years," Claudio Epelman, executive director of the Latin American Jewish Congress, told JTA. "We know his values and strengths. We have no doubt he will do a great job leading the Catholic Church." 

In his visit to the Buenos Aires synagogue, according to the Catholic Zenit
news agency, Bergoglio told the congregation that he was there to examine his heart "like a pilgrim, together with you, my elder brothers."

"Today, here in this synagogue, we are made newly aware of the fact that we are a people on a journey and we place ourselves in God’s presence," Zenit quoted the then-archbishop as saying. "We must look at him and let him look at us, to examine our heart in his presence and to ask ourselves if we are walking blamelessly."

 Renzo Gattegna, the president of the Union of Italian Jewish Communities, offered Italian Jewry's congratulations to the new pope with the “most fervent wishes” that his pontificate could bring “peace and brotherhood to all humanity.”

When a delegation from the American Council for World Jewry went to North Korea, its agenda was typical of visits by Jewish organizations to developing nations: promote outreach to Israel, offer to broker assistance and training, gently raise problematic defense relations with Israel’s enemies.

Pyongyang’s agenda was much simpler but just as timeworn: Get to know these powerful Jews.

The two meetings, in 2008 and 2009, offered a window into the operation of the most cloistered country in the world -- and, many believe, the most dangerous – and how communist North Korea may engage as it gently teases apart the curtains.

It quickly became evident that the North Koreans were interested in the visit because they viewed American Jews as critical to influencing the U.S. power establishment.

“They, like many Asians, have all kinds of stereotyped images of the Jews,” Levin said. “Many of them are quite favorable, although as biased as any stereotype of the Jews. Because everybody else sees the Jews as an important group -- smart, successful, creative and powerful, and what do they know, they’ve never seen a Jew – they say if they’re that important, we should pay attention to them because maybe at one point they could be helpful to us on issues related to the U.S."

“If and when leadership changes in North Korea, they’re being able to go to the Rolodex” and reinitiate contact with Jewish interlocutors “could have potential value,” Levin said.

The North Koreans, Rosen said, were interested in the potential Israel had for educating its professionals, particularly in agricultural techniques. Outside experts say most North Koreans live at subsistence level.

“We found it interesting to see how openly they wanted to discuss more engagement with Americans, and took the time to talk about Israel to learn more about agricultural techniques,” he said. They also were interested in investment.

Levin said Israel’s expertise in agriculture, water conservation and economic development would be a natural for North Korea to seek.

“It's no secret their economy is a disaster,” he said. “They need help from A to Z and don’t have a lot of places they can turn to.”

While the world is used to seeing images of North Korean soldiers marching across Pyongyang's Kim II Sung Square, for New York native David Borenstein the memory of that square is entirely different. 

"We danced there," recalls the 40-year-old physician, who qualified as a doctor at Haifa's Technion and did his initial training at Rambam Hospital, as he begins to describe how he has visited the isolated Democratic People's Republic of Korea twice in the last two years. 

It was during his most recent trip in August 2005 that Borenstein spent an evening dancing and watching traditional North Korean performances in the famous square, which is usually used to show the might of the country's over-sized army. 

"The people of North Korea believe their country is under siege," says Borenstein, one of the few American citizens granted permission to visit the East Asian nation and certainly one of the few individuals with strong ties to Israel.

 "One person I met there told me that he'd never met a Jew but had been taught in university that Jews were the cleverest people in the world, followed closely by North Koreans," laughs Borenstein.

Borenstein says that the trip was designed as much to show a selected group of Western tourists the sites of the country, as it was to show the North Korean citizens that there are some Westerners who support the nation.