Groups can buy Torahs online, but must beware of dangers SAN FRANCISCO (JTA) — New Jewish communities are relying on the Internet to communicate, organize, build community — and sometimes to obtain Torahs. Four-year-old Minyan Tehillah in Cambridge, Mass., applied online to Save-A-Torah Inc., a Maryland organization that rescues and restores Eastern European Torahs and donates them to needy congregations.
“We qualified — we’re students and young adults,” ritual coordinator Rachel Milner Gillers says.
Commissioning a new Torah, which can cost $20,000 to $60,000, was out of the minyan’s reach.
Read more http://stlouis.ujcfedweb.org/content_display.html?ArticleID=208863
Thursday, February 22, 2007
Police Break Up EBay Gang
An Oceans 11-style crime syndicate that carried out more than 200 highly planned jewellery raids across Europe has been smashed by police.
Forces in seven European countries have broken up the network which channeled more than £25m from jewel heists into drugs and real estate.
The money came from highly choreographed raids on jewellers, mainly in northern Italy, with the goods fenced on eBay and through pawn shops, Europol said.
Police made 35 arrests after swooping on the homes of suspects in Estonia, Lithuania, Finland, Spain, France and Germany.
Italian police have been working on the case since 2005.
The gang usually worked in teams of four thieves to rob high-end jewellery stores in operations often lasting less than a minute, said the agency, which coordinates police intelligence throughout Europe.
Stores in at least a dozen other countries were targeted.
Without intelligence cooperation, "it is very unlikely those countries would have known that the group responsible was one and the same," Europol director Max-Peter Ratzel said.
Spokesman Soren Pedersen said more arrests were expected around Europe. "This is just the start of a major police operation," he said.
The stolen items were swiftly moved out of their country of origin and sold, allegedly to finance hashish and cocaine trafficking from Spain to Scandinavia.
Forces in seven European countries have broken up the network which channeled more than £25m from jewel heists into drugs and real estate.
The money came from highly choreographed raids on jewellers, mainly in northern Italy, with the goods fenced on eBay and through pawn shops, Europol said.
Police made 35 arrests after swooping on the homes of suspects in Estonia, Lithuania, Finland, Spain, France and Germany.
Italian police have been working on the case since 2005.
The gang usually worked in teams of four thieves to rob high-end jewellery stores in operations often lasting less than a minute, said the agency, which coordinates police intelligence throughout Europe.
Stores in at least a dozen other countries were targeted.
Without intelligence cooperation, "it is very unlikely those countries would have known that the group responsible was one and the same," Europol director Max-Peter Ratzel said.
Spokesman Soren Pedersen said more arrests were expected around Europe. "This is just the start of a major police operation," he said.
The stolen items were swiftly moved out of their country of origin and sold, allegedly to finance hashish and cocaine trafficking from Spain to Scandinavia.
eBay Addresses Vladuz Hacking Incident
Rumors have been circulating since December that a Russian had hacked into eBay databases. Screenshots of discussion-board posts by eBay moderators that were composed and signed by "Vladuz" were posted by eBay members as proof that the hacker had accessed eBay email accounts. An eBay spokesperson did not respond to an inquiry made by AuctionBytes last month looking for information about the alleged hacking incident.
But a small group of eBay users kept discussing the Vladuz matter online. On Wednesday, eBay finally responded to an inquiry from the Register in the UK and acknowledged that someone had obtained access to a small number of eBay email accounts (http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/02/20/ebay_conspiracy).
Read more http://www.auctionbytes.com/cab/abn/y07/m02/i22/s03
But a small group of eBay users kept discussing the Vladuz matter online. On Wednesday, eBay finally responded to an inquiry from the Register in the UK and acknowledged that someone had obtained access to a small number of eBay email accounts (http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/02/20/ebay_conspiracy).
Read more http://www.auctionbytes.com/cab/abn/y07/m02/i22/s03
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