In this Issue:

• Watch Obama, Netanyahu live at Jewish Federation confab

• Sharansky to speak at U of C Nov. 16

• Goldstone-Gold debate on Gaza streamed live from Brandeis today

• Israel seizes Iran arms ship

• Festival of Israeli Cinema offers 3 more days of movies

• Ambassador's job centers on upholding positive U.S.-Israel relations

• One year later in Mumbai

• New project offers Arabic, Farsi translations of key Holocaust works

Andy Samberg, star of "Saturday Night Live" and an internationally acclaimed comedian, will joke his way through YLD's Big Event Nov. 15 at the Swissôtel Chicago. Tickets are $75 and include open bar, hors d'ouevres and a dessert reception. Last year’s event sold out, register in advance.

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Speeches by President Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at next week's General Assembly of the Jewish Federations of North America will be streamed live.

The Tuesday, Nov. 10 session at which the President will speak begins at 10 a.m. CST, while Netanyahu's session begins at 10 a.m. CST Nov. 9.

Jewish community leaders from around the world, including a strong delegation from Chicago, will be participating in this major annual conference.

Obama's scheduled speech is prompting much analysis in the Jewish media, including stories by James Besser in the NY Jewish Week and Jacob Berkman for the JTA.

In the aftermath of last month’s disruptions of former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert’s speech at the University of Chicago, former Soviet dissident and Israeli Minister Natan Sharansky will speak at a public program Monday, Nov. 16, 3:30 p.m., at the U of C's Ida Noyes Cloister Club. Recently appointed the chairman of the Jewish Agency for Israel, Sharansky will be speaking on “Searching for Moral Clarity in Today’s World.” The program is sponsored by JUF, Newberger Hillel Center at the U of C and Chicago Friends of Israel.

Dr. Dore Gold will debate Judge Richard Goldstone on "War Crimes in Gaza?" at Brandeis University today. The forum – the first, and possibly only, occasion when Goldstone and a senior Israeli policy figure will publicly discuss the report – will be streamed live beginning at 4 p.m. CST.

In related news, Israel's UN Ambassador Gabriela Shalev spoke about the Goldstone Report at the UN General Assembly Wednesday. "The report before you was conceived in hate and executed in sin," she told the delegates. "From its inception in a one-sided mandate, the Gaza fact-finding mission was a politicized body with predetermined conclusions."

Israel's navy has intercepted a ship carrying hundreds of tons of Iranian weapons intended for Hezbollah in Lebanon, the Israeli military has said.

The Antiguan-flagged vessel, Francop, was boarded about 100 miles off the Israeli coast, the military said, and has been towed to the port of Ashdod.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the arms were intended to strike Israeli cities.

The 2009 Chicago Festival of Israeli Cinema, applauding, celebrating and supporting Israel, its culture and cinema, is continuing with three more days of feature films, documentaries and shorts. All showings will be at the Wilmette Theatre (1122 Central Ave., Wilmette). Some showings are sold out, and organizers recommend checking the schedule before heading out. Tickets are also available online.

JUF Executive Vice President Michael Kotzin spoke at the festival's opening Oct. 29.

Israel’s Ambassador to the United States Michael Oren gave a rare glimpse into his day at a breakfast for Chicago community leaders and Jewish professionals in late October. During his time in Chicago, Oren also spoke to the Chicago Council on Global Affairs.

Oren detailed his routine, from early-morning calls from the Prime Minister’s office in Israel to meetings with Pentagon and national security officials to dealing with media leaks, solving diplomatic crises and speaking to Jewish and non-Jewish audiences throughout the United States.

In November 2008, more than 150 people were killed by terrorists in Mumbai. One target was the Nariman House, a center run by Rabbi Gavriel and Rivka Holtzberg, a young Jewish couple, who were murdered and perhaps tortured; miraculously, their toddler son escaped. A journalist for The Times of London went back to Mumbai to find out what happened that night and to explore the way the Chabad community is restoring its outpost in that city.