Israeli Journalist Dies

JERUSALEM — Nechemia Meyers, an Israeli-American journalist and spokesperson for the Weizmann Institute of Science, died last week at age 79 after a long illness. Meyers  wrote hundreds of columns chronicling life in Israel for Jewish and secular publications. In the months before his death, Meyers was compiling his columns for publication as a book, according to his wife, Adeerah. Meyers was born in Minneapolis, Minn., and lived in Los Angeles before making aliyah in 1951. He lived in Kibbutz Urim in the Negev until joining the Government Press Office in 1958. He moved to Rehovot in 1962 when he was named the publications director and spokesperson for the Weizmann Institute there.

Rev. Blames Zionists

WASHINGTON — U.S. President Barack Obama’s former pastor said he misspoke when he said Jews are keeping him from talking to Obama, saying he meant Zionists. “I misspoke,” Rev. Jeremiah Wright said on a satellite radio show. “Let me just say Zionists.” He continued: “I am not talking about all Jews, all people of the Jewish faith.” Wright was referring to remarks he made to a Virginia newspaper that “Them Jews aren’t going to let him talk to me. I told my baby daughter that he’ll talk to me in five years when he’s a lame duck, or in eight years when he’s out of office.” Obama broke with Wright last year after learning he blamed U.S. policies for 9-11 and had links to Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan.