Harleys will ride for Israeli ecology

NEW YORK (JTA) — Motorcycle riders in the New York area are planning to ride for the Jewish National Fund's projects in Israel.

The first 60-mile "Harleys on the Hudson" ride, to be held Sept. 21, is open to anyone with $25 and a motorcycle, and corporate sponsorships are available.

The JNF focuses on reforestation and water projects in Israel. Information is available at (800) 207-9580.

U.S. Open getting 1st kosher food cart

NEW YORK (JTA) — The U.S. Open tennis tournament now has a kosher food cart.

Hot dogs, pretzels and knishes are among the items available at the cart run by Jeffrey Striks of Strictly Kosher, which also operates kosher food carts at New York Yankees and Mets baseball games, and at Nassau Coliseum on Long Island.

Every evening during the Open, Striks is organizing a minyan of 10 men for evening prayers. "It's my trademark," he said.

Deportation order is upheld for Nazi

NEW YORK (JTA) — A federal board upheld the deportation to Romania of a former concentration camp guard.

The U.S. Board of Immigration Appeals found that Michael Negele, 82, served as a guard in the Sachsenhausen concentration camp, near Berlin.

A native of Romania, Negele had been living near St. Louis since entering the United States in 1950.

'Hidden children' meet in Washington

WASHINGTON (JTA) — Jews who were hidden as children during the Holocaust recently gathered in Washington to share their stories.

The Aug. 26 to 29 gathering of close to 500 people — including hidden children, their spouses, children and grandchildren — was the first such meeting to take place in almost 10 years. The Hidden Child Foundation/Anti-Defamation League Conference on Child Survivors honored Jews who rescued other Jews during the Holocaust.

Neo-Nazi graffiti upsets Long Islanders

NEW YORK (JTA) — Neo-Nazi graffiti was recently found in two places on Long Island. White-power slogans and anti-Semitic messages were recently scrawled on Kings Park High School and the Kings Park Jewish Center.

The Anti- Defamation League is working with local authorities to provide background information on local white-power groups.

For more JTA stories, go to http://www.jta.org

Kosher symbol fraud is on the decline

WASHINGTON (JPS) — There has been "an appreciable decline in the fraudulent use" of kosher symbols on food items throughout the United States in recent years, according to Kosher Today, the kosher food industry's trade publication.

Just three years ago, the newsletter says, there were 1,000 instances in which kosher symbols were deceitfully or inappropriately used on various products. These included cases in which symbols of kosher supervising agencies were used without permission or after a product's kosher certification had expired.

The number of such cases has dropped significantly, thanks to greater monitoring efforts by the public and by the kosher certification services, many of which have Web sites where updates and alerts concerning misleading labels appear. In addition, laws in several states protecting consumers from kosher fraud are also said to have had a deterrent effect.