The federation's board last week voted to allow the Hess Corporation to drill for natural gas on the property it owns in Wayne County, Pa. The federation has two camps on the property, the Sam Field Y for children and the Associated Camps -- Block and Hexter Vacation Center for older adults. It seems that the region where the camps lie has become a hotbed for drilling for natural gas.

Hess will pay the federation $1.6 million for drilling rights, then another $1.6 million once it actually starts drilling, plus a 20 percent royalty for any natural gas discovered, the federation's president, John Shapiro, announced at the board meeting.

Has anyone checked out the land beneath Capital Camps?

Marry a Jew,

or you're out of the will

The Illinois Supreme Court last week ruled that a Jewish couple had a legal right to disinherit grandchildren who had intermarried.

"Equal protection does not require that all children be treated equally ... and the free exercise clause does not require a grandparent to treat grandchildren who reject his religious beliefs and customs in the same manner as he treats those who conform to his traditions," Justice Rita Garman wrote in a ruling that overturned decisions by two lower courts.

Max Feinberg had set the conditions in his will; following his death, his wife imposed the same restrictions. By the time she died, four of five grandchildren had intermarried -- proving the conditions did nothing to stem intermarriage, but did a lot to create family feuds.

Yeshiva leaders to men: Marry someone your own age

Brides and grooms should be within a year or two of the same age. That's the directive in a leter signed by more than 65 yeshiva heads, according to Yeshiva World News.

The yeshiva heads lament that too many women are left without mates because men typically marry women more than just a few years younger.

"At the very least, we urge those who are considering shidduchim to give preference to a girl who is age twenty and above," the letter said. "In addition, shadchanim should work primarily for girls who are age twenty and above."

And no May-December weddings.

Jewish woman may be on D.C. reality show

There's buzz that a Jewish Republican activist is among the women who will be cast in Bravo's Real Housewives of DC. The New York Social Diary's Carol Joynt is speculating that Lisa Wernick Spies is among the five women chosen for the show.

"My list may not be 100 percent accurate, but as often as I've heard these names, it's gotta be close. ... These women aren't just run-of-the-mill soon-to-be quasi-celebs, they're wives of the D.C. elite. So to speak," Joynt wrote.

Spies is executive vice president of the Republican Jewish Coalition's National Women's Committee, and her husband, Charles, was Mitt Romney campaign CFO.

She said, he said

The message purportedly read: "Bite me Jew boy!"

The recipient of that alleged slur was Alex Rosenwald, the director of media outreach at the Conservative group Americans for Limited Government.

The sender, the group alleged late last week, was Jane Stone, a veteran producer for NBC News.

According to an ALG press release on the dispute, Stone had responded to one of ALG's press release with the anti-Semitic sentiment.

NBC News president Steve Capus, however, denies that the correspondence ever took place, telling Politico that "we have done a complete e-mail analysis, all of our IT, all of our records."

The one thing both sides can agree on is that Stone did send ALG's Rosenwald an e-mail.

Is there an independent I.T. expert out there?

-- compiled with reports from JTA News and Features, The Jerusalem Post and other sources.