NEWS BRIEFS

A rare menorah on loan from the Jewish Museum in Prague will be lit during a special White House ceremony. It is set to be lit on the sixth night of Chanukah, Dec. 16, during a Chanukah event at the White House that is expected to draw about 500 guests. First Lady Michelle Obama requested the loan, according to the museum, when she visited Jewish Tbwn and the museum during an official visit to Prague by President Obama in April. The menorah was created in 1873 by Viennese silversmith Cyril Schillberger and originally was dedicated most likely to the congregation in Prost�jov, according to the museum.

Chelsea Clinton is engaged to marry Marc Mezvinsky, her Jewish boyfriend. Clinton, 29, the only daughter of U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and former President Bill Clinton, became engaged over the Thanksgiving holiday weekend to investment banker Mezvinsky, 31. Mezvinsky, who works for Goldman Sachs, is the son of former U.S. Reps. Ed Mezvinsky (D- Iowa) and Marjorie MargoliesMezvinsky (D-Pa.). The elder Mezvinsky recently served a prison term for swindling $10 million from investors in a series of Nigerian e-mail scams. He was released in 2008. Mezvinsky and Clinton met in Washington in 1993, and both attended Stanford University. Clinton, a Methodist, was seen attending Yom Kippur services in September with Mezvinsky at the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York.

Hannah Rosenthal, the former head of the Jewish Council for Public Affairs, was appointed the U.S. State Department's special envoy to monitor and combat anti-Semitism. Rosenthal led the JCPA for five years and most recently was the vice president of community relations at the not-for-profit WPS Health Insurance Company. The post has been vacant since Gregg Rickman left at the end of the Bush administration. In a Nov. 20 statement, the State Department noted that "As Special Envoy, Hannah will lead our efforts to focus our diplomatic energies on challenging these deplorable [anti-Semitic] acts."

Prayers for the State of Israel and the welfare of Israeli soldiers were torn out of prayer books at the Western Wall. Yediot Achronot reported over the weekend that its investigation found that most of the Rinat Yisrael prayer books that contain the prayers had the pages ripped out or ruined. "Ripping pages from a prayer book is an act worthy of all condemnations, and I hope it is not repeated," Western Wall Rabbi Shmuel Rabinowitz said. It is suspected that anti-Zionist haredim committed the destruction, since they do not recognize the state.

- Jewish Telegraphic Agency