JUF News Express

Royal Dutch Shell PLC said Wednesday it is no longer selling gasoline to Iran, the latest oil company to make such a move during threats of tougher sanctions against the Islamic republic, reports The Wall Street Journal. Shell's move comes as a number of Western oil companies have decided to stop trading with Iran as international pressure bites deeper into its oil and gas industry. Traders Vitol Holding BV and Glencore International AG, historically key fuel-oil suppliers to Iran, recently decided to halt sales of gasoline to the country.

Meanwhile, Ingersoll-Rand PLC said it has prohibited its subsidiaries from selling products to customers in Iran. Caterpillar Inc., Huntsman Corp., General Electric Co. and the German conglomerate Siemens AG have made similar moves over the past year.

Israeli lawmakers are reviewing a bill that would allow current and former municipal rabbis to oversee conversions, which currently must go through the Chief Rabbinate, reports The Jerusalem Post. The bill, which is supported by Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman’s Israel Beiteinu party, is under consideration in the Knesset's Constitution, Law and Justice Committee.

A tentative agreement thought to have been reached Sunday between Israel Beiteinu, the Asheknazi Orthodox party United Torah Judaism (UTJ) and Shas, the Sephardic Orthodox party. However, UTJ legislators expressed such fierce criticism of the bill that Israeli President Shimon Peres personally visited 98-year-old Rabbi Aharon Leib Shteinman at the Ponovezh Yeshiva in Bnei Brak Wednesday in an effort to resolve the crisis. Following a Monday committee session, UTJ threatened to resign from the ruling coalition.

Meanwhile, Jewish Federations of North America (JFNA) reports that the proposed bill also includes a provision that could prevent a non-Jew who converts to Judaism, in Israel or in the Diaspora, from receiving Israeli citizenship under the Law of Return. In a statement, JFNA "urges the Government of Israel to enter into dialogue with Diaspora Jews before making any proposed changes to the Law of Return, which allows Jews to migrate to Israel and become Israeli citizens."

Technology contractor Alan Gross, 60, of Potomac, Md., has been languishing for three months in a Cuban high-security prison and his rare conversations are monitored by Cuban officials, reports the JTA's Ron Kampeas.

Rubinstein was arrested Dec. 3 as he prepared to return from Cuba, where he was completing work on behalf of the U.S. government. He has not been charged, but leading Cuban figures -- including President Raul Castro -- have accused him of being part of a plot to undermine the government.

After weeks of taking a quiet approach to secure Gross' release, his family and friends launched a public campaign that is spreading to Jewish communities across the United States, attracting the support of U.S. lawmakers and high-profile media outlets. It kicked off last month when Judy Gross issued a video appeal for the release of her husband of 40 years.

Lincolnwood children's author Charlotte Herman's latest family picture book, "First Rain," tells the story of a young girl who moves with her family to Israel -- known as "Aliyah" -- and the heartfelt separation with her beloved grandmother. Herman says ideas for new books come at her from observations and experiences in her everyday life, reports Mike Isaacs in the Skokie Review. 

This story would certainly qualify had Herman come up with it on her own: Her two daughters and their families live in Israel. But for the first time in her successful career, "First Rain" was not her conception.

About a year ago, Herman says, one of the editors of Morton Grove-based publisher Albert Whitman called her up with a special request.

"She said they wanted a book having to do with Israel. No one had asked me to do a book before," Herman recounts. "That was different. She wanted the story to be about the grandmother saying goodbye to her family."

 U.S. Vice President Joe Biden assured Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday that Israel enjoyed Washington's unstinting support for its security and repeated U.S. intent to curb Iran's nuclear program, reports The Associated Press.

"There is no space between the United States and Israel when it comes to Israel's security," Biden said as the two leaders made statements to the media following talks in Jerusalem.

Israeli political sources have said Biden is also making clear Washington does not want Israel to risk any military action against Iran while the United States is seeking a wide coalition for sanctions on Tehran.

Netanyahu said Israel's security priorities were ensuring Iran did not build nuclear weapons and establishing peace with the Palestinians and its Arab neighbors.

The Israeli organization Nefesh B'Nefesh ("soul to soul" in Hebrew) has decided to accelerate and deepen its activities in North America, to realize the potential increase in the number of immigrants to Israel during 2010, reports Ynet. In cooperation with the Jewish Agency and government offices, the organization will hold eight large fairs in major cities in the US and Canada, to give hundreds of potential immigrants reliable information, guidance and inspiration on immigration to Israel. Chicago's fair is scheduled for March 11.

The fairs will include seminars, workshops and personal meetings with advisers, and they will deal with various aspects related to the immigration and absorption process in Israel such as: Job opportunities in Israel, housing options and mortgages, financial planning, taxes, pensions in Israel, community selection, the health system, education in Israel, the immigration process, shipping property to Israel and information on Nefesh B'Nefesh project “Immigrating to the North”.

Lisa Kudrow, some of whose relatives died in the Holocaust, is producing a new show, “Who Do You Think You Are?” In it, celebrities trace their ancestry, reports The Forward.

Kudrow pitched, and sold, an American version of the Irish show, which premieres March 5, at 8 p.m. on NBC. The program is part documentary, part reality show — all with the added appeal of a little celebrity dish. Sarah Jessica Parker, running back Emmitt Smith, Brooke Shields and Susan Sarandon are among those who delve into their respective histories. Kudrow’s episode, the third of seven in the series, airs on March 19.