In Brief

Senate Passes Sanctions Bill
WASHINGTON (JTA) -- Jewish groups are urging swift passage of a final congressional bill to impose new sanctions on Iran. The U.S. Senate's bill, passed by voice vote Jan. 28, hews closely to a companion bill passed last month in the U.S. House of Representatives. White House requests to roll back some of the harsher provisions went unheeded.

The measures target Iran's energy sector, singling out for sanctions any entity -- individual, company or even country -- that deals in refined petroleum with Iran, a major oil producer but with a refining sector in disarray.

Though the Obama administration has preferred to emphasize multilateral sanctions targeting Iran's leadership coupled with diplomatic outreach, Obama is likely to sign a final version of the bill despite his reservations, after the measures are reconciled.

The American Israel Public Affairs Committee, which led lobbying for the bills, urged swift passage and signing.

"Iran's possession of nuclear-weapons capability would be a devastating blow to America's national security interests," said AIPAC spokesman Josh Block. "The U.S. and our allies must impose biting diplomatic and economic pressure to try and peaceably prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons and avoid confronting more distressing alternatives."

Orthodox Woman Gets New Title
NEW YORK (JTA) -- An Orthodox clergywoman will now be known as "rabbah," rather than an acronym that had been created on her behalf. Sara Hurwitz, who has been performing rabbinical duties at the Hebrew Institute of Riverdale in New York City, last year had been given the title of Maharat -- a Hebrew acronym that stands for a leader in legal, spiritual and Torah matters. But Rabbi Avi Weiss, religious leader of the Hebrew Institute and Hurwitz's mentor, said that the acronym had failed to take hold, and that Hurwitz would now be called "rabbah," a feminized version of the title "rabbi." "This will make it clear to everyone that Sara Hurwitz is a full member of our rabbinic staff, a rabbi with the additional quality of a distinct woman's voice," Weiss said in a statement last week. Hurwitz, who has served at the Hebrew Institute for nearly seven years, has completed the same course of training and examination as male Orthodox rabbinical students. Her curriculum was modeled after that of the male students at the liberal rabbinical school Yeshivat Chovevei Torah in Riverdale, which Weiss founded and now leads.

Sarkozoy Grandson Gets New 'Début'
PARIS -- French President Nicolas Sarkozy's first grandson was circumcised according to Jewish tradition.

"It happened like all circumcisions, with a rabbi and a mohel," said Patrick Balkany, a friend of the president who was present at the brit for Solal, the son of Jean Sarkozy and Jessica Sebaoun, born Jan. 13.

Sarkozy did not attend, apparently because of work-related obligations, but Balkany said that the president's entire family was present, including his parents and brother.

Indiana U. Opens New Institute
INDIANA (JTA) -- Indiana University inaugurated an Institute for the Study of Contemporary Anti-Semitism, the second in the United States devoted to scholarly research on anti-Semitism, joining the Yale Institute for the Interdisciplinary Study of Anti-Semitism in New Haven, Conn.

Three major research institutes abroad studying the topic are the Stephen Roth Institute in Tel Aviv; the Vidal Sassoon International Center in Jerusalem; and the Center for the Study of Anti-Semitism at the Technical University in Berlin.

Initial funding will come from an existing endowment.