News on Assimilation from Israel and the World

Rafael Amar (22) from Lunel, France, observed Jewish Holiday's celebrated his Bar Mitzvah, and was on his way to a promising career in computers. He converted to Islam, and got carried away by extremists, and against his parents better judgment, he travelled to the Middle East. A month ago he was killed in a bombing attack. The Jewish population in France sees this as a new phenomenon. Note: Rafael's father is Jewish, and Rafael and his mother underwent a process of conversion to Judaism.

Josef O'Connor who was the Cardinal of News York for the past 16 years * O'Conner was actually of Jewish descent * Abraham (Abe) Foxman, President of the Anti-Defamation League, described him as a true friend of the Jewish people. "He acted like a brother and he was a brother.” * His sister says that the family is proud of their Jewish ancestry, and of the newly discovered roots. "My eyes fill with tears and I smile as I think of how my brother would have cherished the thought." * Yad L'achim, who have lists of many Jewish children who were hidden in Holland at the time of the Holocaust, and connection with them was lost, comments on this discovery: "It is a most basic humanitarian obligation to reveal the true identity to a person whose identity was unknowingly taken from him