For Jews ‘millennium 2000’ is a sabbath eve in 5760

WASHINGTON, Dec 21: When Rabbi George Bernard, spiritual leader of Northern hills Synagogue in Cincinnati, Ohio, surveyed all the hoopla surrounding new year’s 2000, two words came to mind: "Millennium Shmillennium"

Indeed, that was the title of his sermon this year on Rosh Hashana, the Jewish new year.

For Jews around the world, December 31, 1999, will be the 23rd day of tevet in the year 5760. Sunset Friday night will mark the start of Shabbat, the Sabbath, when observant Jews pray, reflect and shun television, automobiles, shopping and other worldly distractions.

Though Jews observe the modern secular calendar, they note its Christian roots. Years are marked off in relation to the birth of Jesus. The precise measurements of weeks and months in use today were set by a 16th century Pope.

Jews are not the only religious group to face a year 2000 quandary. Muslims and Hindus, among others, have their own calendars and spiritual cycles and do not necessarily see world history as divided primarily into "before" and "after" the Christian era.

Muslims will gather at mosques and say "Taraweeh," the normal nighttime prayers during the holy month of Ramadan, said Ibrahim Hooper, spokesman for the Washington-based Council on American-Islamic Relations.

"What we’ll be doing is not specifically tied to the millennium," he said. "It’s not tied to new year’s eve — for a practicing Muslim that has no significance."

But the situation is particularly complicated for Jews this year because the holiday falls on the Sabbath.

Marking secular milestone

Some American Jews, particularly but not exclusively the orthodox, will simply ignore the secular new year’s.

"I don’t think the millennium means anything to us," said Rabbi Bernard, who leads a conservative congregation.

"Shabbat is Shabbat," said Rabbi Avi Shafran of Agudath Israel, an orthodox organisation. "It is for peace, tranquillity, family. New year’s eve stands for the polar opposite."

But many jews are seeking a way to mark the secular milestone in a way that is compatible with their religious sensibilities.

"It’s new year’s on the secular calendar, and it’s shabbat. We in the conservative Jewish community recognise that we live in all of these worlds," said Rabbi Moshe Edelman, who as programming director of the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism sent 20 pages of ideas to help congregations plan for the "Shabbat of the centuries."

"All agree that the millennium has no Jewish religious meaning," said Rabbi Daniel Freelander, Director of Programming for the Union of American Hebrew Congregations, a reform group. But he noted "a date of such significance in the secular culture will inevitably have an impact on us."

With that in mind, many congregations are having special evening services, with pot luck family dinners or more formal catered meals. They are planning sing-alongs, study sessions, Israeli dancing and kosher "I’chaim" champagne toasts.

Weekend to gather with friends

The Princeton Jewish centre in New Jersey, for instance, has even designed what it calls "the biggest 20th century Jewish Trivia game ever organised."

Rebecca Adams decided the millennium weekend was a perfect moment for her bat mitzvah at temple Hillel B’Nai Torah in West Roxbury, Massachusetts. Her parents initially flinched, she said: "But I kept whining for it. It seems like a cool date and it was right around my birthday."

She said her parents will let her stay up to see in the new year Friday night, and if she gets her way they will even let her share it with some friends instead of the customary Sabbath with family. "But at 12:01 I have to go to bed" to be rested for the Bat Mitzvah, she said.

Worshippers at temple Beth El, a reform congregation in Las Cruces, New Mexico, plan to sing the traditional "Adon Olom" song of praise to conclude evening services, but they will skip the age-old Jewish melodies and adapt it to the tune of "Auld Lang Syne" instead.

Adas Israel, a large conservative congregation in Washington, DC, will celebrate both the Dec 31 Shabbat Plus its own 130th anniversary with a service, dinner and klezmer music.

A long-hidden scroll

On Saturday morning, the congregation will use for the first time a recently obtained torah scroll that had been hidden some 60 years ago by the last surviving Jews in a Ukrainian village. A member of the synagogue learned of the scroll when visiting the village, where his own family had roots.

At Lincoln Square Synagogue in New York, an orthodox synagogue within walking distance of the outdoor celebration in times square and the fireworks in central park, they are planning a big congregational dinner and bringing in a special scholar for study sessions.

"I think it’s a great opportunity," said Lincoln Square Rabbi Adam Mintz. "It’s definitely not a new year’s eve party but we are taking advantage of the excitement about the millennium."

Rabbi Mintz said he certainly would never encourage anyone to stroll over to the nearby festivities. But he isn’t going to scold them if they do, particularly not if they are in synagogue for friday evening services and back at 9 a.m. to pray on Saturday.

Rabbi Walter Rothschild, currently serving the Jewish community in Berlin, often is questioned about the year 2000, when by his religious reckoning it is 5760.

"I do point out to them that, when they ask a jew what he thinks about the year 2000, the correct answer is ‘well, it was almost 4000 years ago. I regret I have totally forgotten it." (REUTERS)

Terrorism in Sri Lanka hinders peace: Annan

UNITED NATIONS, Dec 21: UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan expressed shock at two suicide bombings in Sri Lanka and condemned terrorism, saying the violence could dim prospects for peace in the country.

He sent his condolences yesterday to the families of the more than 30 people killed and 107 injured at two political rallies. Among the injured was President Chandrika Kumaratunga, who was wounded in the right eye and face by a woman suicide bomber.

"He has sent her a message wishing her a speedy recovery," UN spokesman Fred Eckhard said. "The Secretary-General wishes to reiterate his condemnation of terrorism from whatever quarter."

"He is concerned that these continuing acts of terrorism in Sri Lanka may make the prospects for achieve peace even more difficult," Mr Eckhard said.

Mr Annan expressed the hope that today’s Presidential elections, in which Ms Kumaratunga is a candidate, would be "credible and, in particular, free of any additional forms of violence," Eckhard added.

No one has claimed responsibility for the attack in the capital, Colombo. But police blamed the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) rebels, who are fighting for a homeland for minority Tamils in Sri Lanka’s North and East. (REUTERS)

Environment, poverty aggravate Latin America floods

MEXICO CITY, Dec 21: Catastrophic floods — aggravated by deforestation, haphazard building and climate change — are becoming a recurring Latin America nightmare, striking Venezuela this week and killing more than 10,000 people.

The carnage and desperation are a grim replay of last year’s hurricane mitch, which drenched Nicaragua and Honduras, wiping out bridges, roads, towns and plantations, causing 6 billion dollars in damage and killing perhaps 9,000 people.

Disaster groups and environmentalists say that a dangerous cocktail of environmental factors and poverty have made many areas in Latin America disasters waiting to happen. Because of ripe conditions, death tolls are worse than they have to be.

"Everyone is aware of the environmental problems of global warming and deforestation on the one hand, and the social problems of increasing poverty and growing shantytowns on the other. But when these two factors collide, you have a new scale of catastrophe," Astrid Heiberg, President of the International Federation of the Red Cross, said earlier this year.

In an annual report, the red cross predicted more and worse crises in Latin America, and worldwide, because of climate change and poverty. Forecasts for more deadly and devastating natural disasters seem to be coming true in latin america.

Mitch was called one of the century’s most deadly atlantic storms and the flooding was the worst of the century in Honduras.

Houses that had stood for 150 years in colonial towns were torn away by raging rivers.

In Mexico two months ago, the strongest floods and landslides of many decades melted hillsides and filled valleys with water in four Eastern states, killing about 400 people. A year earlier, catastrophic floods in Southern Mexico also killed hundreds.

Climate change

Scientists are not in agreement whether temporary extreme weather fluctuations such as El Nino and La Nina, or overall global warming — blamed on emissions of greenhouse gases —are causing killer storms, but experts in Latin America say higher temperatures have meant stronger and more intense rains.

"In the Venezuelan case, you can clearly see a climate change over 50 years, that there are higher temperatures," said Julio Cesar Centeno, a doctor in Forestry and Professor at the Universidad De Los Andes in Venezuela.

Ricardo Sanchez, Director of the UN environment program’s Latin American region, told Reuters that recent disasters have claimed more lives because of climate change.

"Even if all the evidence is not in yet, we are having a strong climate change influence, which in our region is manifesting itself with an increase in hurricanes and an increase in frequency and intensity of rains ... Which makes the impact more intense," Sanchez said.

Deforestation

Centeno said the average annual deforestation in Venezuela over two decades is 1.2 million acres, 1.1 percent a year, twice as high as in Brazil.

Environmentalists say that a lack of forest cover means that rainfall runs off hillsides faster, increasing erosion, which can lead to flooding and mudslides.

Ed Harp, a geologist with the central geologic hazards team of the US geological survey, told Reuters that while the link between deforestation and landslides or flooding is not as dramatic as many people suggest, "There is an effect, and I think sometimes it’s fairly marked."

Harp explained that heavy rainfall soaks through the soil, saturating it completely and then pooling on the top of bedrock, destabilising entire areas of topsoil until they slip away. A big slide can move down hill rapidly, tearing away at other areas and gathering more material, moving as far as 15 kms.

Although landslides can occur in forested areas, forest cover could prevent some landslides by absorbing moisture, he said.

Poor neighbourhoods affected more

In Venezuela, Honduras and Mexico, while the floods did not spare the rich, the precarious buildings of the poor, on steep cliffs or on flood plains, suffered disproportionately.

"Many poor people live in areas that should not be inhabited and in houses not designed to resist any unstable earth movement. It’s a lethal combination. This happens every year on a smaller scale here. This year it came a lot stronger," Centeno said.

Red cross and UN officials said the region needs to learn from these lessons, and quickly.

"These are elements that are surfacing time and time again, and it underscores the need for us to not only deepen our work in the area of community education and disaster preparedness, but also amplify it geographically," Martha Keays, head of the Guatemala-based regional delegation of the International Federation of the Red Cross, told Reuters.

Keays pointed out that developed nations — which pledged 9 billion dollars to Central America after mitch — could spend less and get more results through prevention efforts such as promoting better-built houses structures in safer areas. (REUTERS)

Pak ready to help over Laden, says Interior Minister

KARACHI, Dec 21: Pakistan is ready to help resolve the row between the united States and Afghanistan over indicted terrorist Osama Bin Laden, Pakistan’s Interior Minister told AFP.

It is originally a matter between the US and Afghanistan. They should hold negotiations with Afghanistan, but if they think we could resolve the issue then we will extend whatever support we can, Moinudeen Haider said in an interview late yesterday.

First those Governments should hold negotiations and listen to each other’s point of view, the retired Army General said.

Then we will try our best to resolve the issue.

Washington want Afghanistan’s ruling Taliban militia to hand over Bin Laden, a billionaire Saudi dissident who is on the FBI’s 10 most wanted list.

Bin Laden has been charged in the United States with the bombings of the US Embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in August last year in which 224 people died.

But the Taliban refuse to hand over Bin Laden, saying that would breach their traditional cultural obligations to a guest.

We think there should be a direct dialgoue between the two if America believes that Osama is a terrorist and should not live in Afghanistan, Haider said.

Pakistan never believes in a policy of interference.

Haider said Pakistan’s military ruler, General Pervez Mushaarraf, who seized power in a coup in October, was committed to putting an end to terrorism as a priority. (AFP)

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