Jerusalem No Place For Y2K Party...12/29/99

JERUSALEM (AP) - While much of the world celebrates New Year's Eve, it'll be "Lights out!" in Jerusalem. Rabbis have barred hotels from staging parties. The only organized event for Christian tourists - a performance of Handel's Messiah at the Jerusalem Convention Center - has been canceled for lack of funds, and police have scrapped a dance party at the city's main soccer  stadium for security reasons. Some say it is simply unreasonable to expect big bashes in Israel. For observant Jews, sundown Friday is the start of the Jewish Sabbath, not New Year's Eve. Saturday is an ordinary day in the Hebrew calendar year 5760, rather than the dawn of a new millennium.