Jerusalem

Cardinal William H. Keeler demonstrated his diplomatic skills as well as his concern for amicable interfaith discussion in his March 13 meeting with a group of American Jews, invited to his Baltimore home after their explosive reaction to a statement he had signed the week before.The climate for discussion was improved, but core disagreements remain unresolved.The criticized statement was issued March 6 by the cardinal and seven other Christian leaders as a public appeal to President Clinton.

JERUSALEM -- The clientele at the Krav gun shop and shooting range in Jerusalem has grown more numerous and more demanding, a measure of the fear and tension that have gripped the city over the past three weeks.Israeli men came in yesterday to trade their small-caliber weapons for something heavier. Women came to take up pistols for the first time in their lives. Young workers considered renewing a daily familiarity with guns they thought they had left behind with their army service.For Palestinians, too, protection is much on their minds, although they are prohibited by law from buying guns.

JERUSALEM -- Israel began its Passover observance with its police on alert and a closure that kept many Christian Palestinians from attending Good Friday services in the ancient city yesterday.Authorities put extra police on the streets and told them to be on special alert for bomb attacks during the seven-day Passover holiday, which began at sundown last night.Israel ordered all Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip to stay out of Israel, an order that kept thousands of Christian Arabs from attending ceremonial services yesterday.

Past efforts at resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict have failed for multiple reasons, chief among them the issue of Jerusalem. And while the leaders gathering in Annapolis have agreed not to agree about the holy city's fate for now, it will likely be the unbridgeable divide in the follow-up negotiations. As Madeleine K. Albright noted, "If Jerusalem were just a real estate issue, we could have dealt with it long ago." Jerusalem is hardly a real estate issue. It is at the heart of the Israel-Arab impasse, for it relates fundamentally to history, theology and national identity.

JERUSALEM -- Israeli officials are starting the new year armed with a new law, one that they say will put an end to Palestinian political activity in the Holy City.Israel's Knesset, or parliament, has approved legislation that the government of Prime Minister Yizhak Rabin and the main opposition party tout as a way to strengthen Israeli rule in Jerusalem.The legislation, which takes effect Monday, restricts activities of the self-governing Palestinian Authority to the Gaza Strip and the West Bank town of Jericho -- areas that Israel handed over to the Palestinians in May.It bars the Palestine Liberation Organization or the Palestinian Authority from carrying out any activity in Israel without Israeli government permission.

JERUSALEM -- In a city long accustomed to huge squabbles over tiny plots of land, the latest front line is a one-time hotel now housing a few dozen offices.A bit frayed around the edges, the once-grand stone building known as the Orient House hardly seems worth fighting for. Yet, Palestinians and Israelis arguing over its future say that nothing less than the fate of Jerusalem is at stake.The building's first floor is the local headquarters of the Palestine Liberation Organization, but unofficially it has become the de facto seat of government for the would-be Palestinian state.

Darrell D. Friedman, president and CEO of The Associated: Jewish Community Federation of Baltimore, has been honored for acting as a mentor of young professionals, pioneering executive roles and helping reorganize the Council of Jewish Federations.The Association of Jewish Community Organization Personnel gave Friedman its Distinguished Service Award recently in Jerusalem.Friedman has headed the federation since 1986. He has been active in the United Way of Central Maryland, the University of Maryland at Baltimore County and the Catholic Archdiocese Advisory Committee on Child Abuse.

Pianists Mary Stanton and Allan Sternfield will play a duo recital of Schubert, Mozart, Dvorak and Saint-Saens at 7:15 p.m. Sunday at Beth Tfiloh Congregation for the benefit of the Shaare Zedek Medical Center in Jerusalem.Stanton of Baltimore and Sternfield of Israel have played together and as soloists since forming the duo in 1967 at the Peabody Conservatory, where they were students.The program consists of Schubert's "Marsche Caracteristique," Mozart's "Sonata in B Flat Major," Dvorak's "Slavonic Dances," and Saint-Saens' "The Carnival of the Animals."

Israel Tabak, a retired Baltimore rabbi who was a former president of the Rabbinical Council of America, died April 17 at Shaarei Zedek Hospital in Jerusalem. He was 86.A resident of Jerusalem, he died of injuries received in a fall, said his daughter, Judith Goodman.In the late 1940s, Rabbi Tabak was president of the rabbinical council, the umbrella body of Orthodox religious leaders in the United States and Canada. He was later honorary president.Born in Romania, he was educated there and in Poland and completed rabbinical studies at Yeshiva University in Manhattan in 1928.

JERUSALEM -- In their latest dispute over the building of new Jewish settlements, Israel and the United States have focused attention on a border that remains crystal clear in international diplomacy despite Israel's concerted efforts to erase it on the ground.In recent weeks Secretary of State James A. Baker III and Israeli Foreign Minister David Levy have given new importance to the Green Line, the border dividing Israel from the territories itcaptured in the 1967 Six Day War, specifically where it divides the city of Jerusalem.