Newspaper Page Text
The Southern Israelite
A Weekly Newspaper for Southern Jewry — Estah ,: "
Vol. XXXVII
ATLANTA, GEORGIA, FRIDAY, JUNE 29, 1962
Russia Condemns
5 More to Death
iV J .^cAVoV\
.*0 .9**
NO. 26
PARIS, (JTA) -— Five more
Jews have been condemned to
death in the Soviet Union re
cently for "economic crimes,”
according to reports made public
in Soviet newspapers arriving
here this past week.
Two of the death sentences
were meted out to Jews after a
trial in Odessa, where two other
Jews were given heavy prison
sentences. This report was print
ed in Pravda Ukrainy, official
organ of the Ukrainian Commun
ist Party. The June 12 issue of
that newspaper, reaching here,
lists the condemned as Binyamin
A. Gulko and Moshe A. Fuks.
The newspaper reported that an
eight-year prison sentence was
given by the same court to Betya
B. Rothstein, and a five-year
sentence was imposed on Tzila
G. Lapidus. All four had been
accused, the Communist news
paper stated, of "dealing in for
eign currency.”
Three* other Jews were con
demned to death after a trial at
Dniepropetrovsk, which is also in
the Ukraine. The men condemned
there, according to a Moscow
dispatch, were N. Scachevsky, I.
Stavisky and L Kocher. All three
have already been executed, the
Moscow report stated. At least
four Jews had previously been
sentenced to death in Moscow.
(In New York, a Moscow dis
patch to the Herald Tribune last
week reported that 18 persons, at
least five of whom have Jewish
names, are currently on trial for
“economic crimes” in Minsk.
Six of the 18 were named, and at
least five of these six are be
lieved to be Jewish. They were
denounced in the White Rus
sian press as ‘‘rascals, rogues,
thieves, bribers, speculators.” The
six named are Michael Bursak,
allegedly leader of the group,
Nathan Friedman, Shaim Heiger,
Meir Wilensky, Zola Murokh and
Zalya Friedman.)
WASHINGTON, (JTA) — Dr.
Joseph E, Johnson, the United
Nations Palestine Conciliation
Commission’s special envoy to the
Middle East, charged with at
tempts to ease the Arab-Israli
impasse over the Arab refugee
problem, is virtually a repre
sentative of the U S. State De
partment and a “traveling sales
man for the ruling Israeli cir
cles,” according to an official
Soviet publication disseminated
here by Soviet diplomats.
The charges against Dr. John
son, who returned last month
from his second visit to the Mid
dle East capitals, were printed in
New Times, an official Soviet
propaganda organ published at
Moscow in eight langues, includ
ing Russian and English.
AIgerian Jk v* .tinuv
To Flee to Fi ance
a skeleton staff in Algeria, closed
its office in Oran.
PARIS (JTA)— Algerian Jews
are continuing to flee from Al
geria, despite the recent cease
fire understanding with OAS, the
European underground movement
lighting Algerian Independence,
officials here reported this week.
In recent days, a large num
ber of Algerian Jewish notables
have arrived in France, including
the Chief Rabbi of Oran, who
biought with him his congrega
tion's Torah Scroll, and officials
of the Algerian Jewish consis
tory.
No accurate figures were avail
able on the number of fleeing
Jews, partly because French au
thorities do not maintain migra
tion statistics by religion and pait-
ly because not many Jews ask
French Jewish welfare organiza
tions for help immediately on ar
rival. However, officials ot tht
Ponds Social Juife Unifie, the
piincipal Jewish welfare agency,
Bulgaria Ready to Pay Damages
To Families of Plane Victims
JERUSALEM (JTA) — The Is
raeli and Bulgarian Governments
have reached an understanding on
payments by the East European
country of damages to families of
victims of the shooting down in
1955 of an El A1 airliner over
Bulgaria with a loss of 58 lives,
official sources reported this
week.
These sources said a final agree
ment on the lengthy and much-
delayed settlement could be ex
pected in a few weeks. Dr. Chaim
Yachil, director-general of Is
rael’s Foreign Ministry, visited
Sofia, the Bulgarian capital, sev
eral days ago and expressed sat
isfaction with the talks he had
there with Bulgarian Government
officials.
After many month? of futile
talks with Bulgarian officials, who
at first rejected responsibility for
the crash and then admitted res
ponsibility for the disaster, Israel
lodged a complaint in 1959 with
the International Court of Justice
at the Hague. Israel told the
Hague court that damages equiva
lent to $7,462,803 had been claim
ed.
The United States Government
filed a brief and evidence on be
half of six American citizens who
were among the victims and who
left American next-of-kin. The
court decided, however, that it
was not competent in the case.
indicated that some 20,000 Alger
ian Jews have reached France
since the cease-fire, and that the
stream will continue unabated.
All Jewish communal life in
Algeria has been disrupted by the
Jewish departures, and interna
tional Jewish organizations no
longer have representatives there.
A World Jewish Congress rep
resentative who went to France
for a meeting of the Fonds Social
two months ago did not return
to Algeria. Top officials of tht*
Federation of Jewish Communities
also remained in France. The
Jewish Agency, which is keeping
Grand non of Cantor
In Candidate for
N.Y. Governornhip
NEW YORK (WUP) —Tht
grandson of a former Rochester
Cantor has announced his candi
dacy m the Democratic guberna
torial race in New York. He is the
42-year-old Howard J. Samuels ot
Canandaigua, father of eight chil
dren
Opposing Mr. Samuels in tht gu
bernatorial race is Queens District
Attorney O’Conner who has an
nounced his opposition to Presi
dent Kennedy’s position on the
question of Federal aid to public
and parochial schools. Mr. O’Con
ner favors such aid while Mr.
Samuels stands by the Kennedy
program.
Samuels was born in 1919 in
Rochester, N. Y., the son of Bertha
and the late Harry Samuels. He
attended public schools and the
Massachusetts Institute of Tech
nology. During World War II he
rose to the rank of Lieutenant
Colonel. Today he is the Presi
dent of Kordite, a firm he found
ed 16 years ago with his brother
Richard. The plastic company has
grown into a $50 million plant.
Court Tent
Cantors Right
To Conduct
Weddings
CHICAGO (JTA) — A divorce
case on trial here, behind closed
chamber doors, before Superior
Court Judge David A. Canel, may
result in a ruling that could af
fect the right of a cantor to of-
ficate at a Jewish wedding in the
State of Illinois. Four rabbis have
been called as witnesses in the
case, and the court has appoint
ed a Jewish attorney, Aaron
Cohen, to act as “friend of the
court, and help advise the judge.
Furthermore, the judge himself
has served four terms as a presi
dent of a synagogue, KINS, of
suburban Rogers Park, according
to The Sentinel, Jewish weekly
here.
The case grew out of a petition
i f annulment of marriage filed
by Mrs. Judith O. Polland against
her husband, Arnold Polland. She
claims that their marriage, in
1958, was “illegal” because the
wedding was performed by a can
tor, Moses Silverman, and not a
rabbi She contends that State law
provides that marriages must be
performed only by ordained min
isters, and Cantor Silverman has
no ordination.
Testimony given in the case was
not made public under the court's
orders. But the list of witnesses,
who are believed to have testified
about the Jewish law involved,
included Rabbi Ralph Simmon,
Rabbi Herman Schaalman, Rabbi
Moses Menscheloff and Rabbi
Nathan I. Weiss, executive secre
tary of the Chicago Rabbinical
Council. Rabbi Mescheloff is the
spiritual leader of KINS, the syn
agogue which Judge Canel served
as president.
Reform Rabbis Discuss Growth of Mixed Marriages at Convention
MINNEAPOLIS, (JTA) — The Central Conference
of American Rabbis, meeting at its 73rd annual conven
tion here, authorized last week a detailed study of mixed
marriage in this country. The decision was taken after
the 500 delegates heard a report from Rabbi Eugene
Mihaly, professor at the Hebrew Union College-Jewish
Institute of Religion, who had stated that intermarriage
between Jews and other religious groups is increasing
and will continue.
The CCAR, rabbinical organization of Reform Juda
ism in America, also adopted resolutions strongly cen
suring (he State Department for its failure (o protest
more vigorously against Soviet restrictions on Jews;
expressing opposition to nuclear testing by any nation;
endorsing President Kennedy’s Medicare program for
the aged; and sharply condemning the so-called Chris
tian anti-Communist Crusade and other extreme right-
wing groups as “ominous threats to American freedom
and democracy.''
The convention also approved the report of a special
committee in the relation of Reform to Judaism and the
State of Israel, in which the Reform rabbinate commit
ted itself “to provide the fullest measure of moral and
material support and assistance for the people on the
State of Israel but declared that American and Israeli
Jews have no right to speak for each other.
The rabbis also called upon the United States Gov
ernment to act without further delay in demanding and
initiating steps toward an Arab-Israel peace settlement.
At the same time, the rabbis voiced strong concern over
Egyptian President Nasser’s use of American economic
aid to purchase Soviet arms for use against Israel’s
people
The convention and the CCAR executive board agreed
that Rabbi Albert G. Minda of Minneapolis and Rabbi
Leon Feuer of Toledo, CCAR president and vice-presi
dent respectively, were fully authorized in issuing a
plea earlier this month for the commutation to life im
prisonment of the capital punishment sentence of Adolf
Eichmann “in accordance with the standing policy of
the CAAR regarding public statements endorsing ac
cepted CCAR principles.” Twelve Reform rabbis had
issued a statement on their own immedately following
the clemency plea issued by Rabbis Minda and Feuer
“repudiating” the action of the CCAR president and
vice-president
The Reform rabbis strengthened their platform up
holding the separation of church and state with adoption
of a policy statement opposing the use of public school
property by religious groups during school hours, the
placing of religious symbols on public school buildings
and grounds, and the practice in many public schools
“released time” for religious instruction.
Rabbis Morris N. Kertzer of Larchmont, N.Y., moved
the police statement’s adoption as chairman of the CCAR
Committee on Church and State. The statement included
a review of important cases pending in the nation's
highest federal and state courts. Rabbi Kertzer termed
the past year “a prelude to historic legal decisions”
which he told the rabbis would probably be handed
down later this year. Most of the cases mentioned by
Rabbi Kertzer involved Bible reading and prayer in the
public schools.
The policy statement included a section which goes
much beyond the stand of any other American Jewish
organization on a program which has come into promi
nence in recent months and is known as "shared time,”
Rabbi Kertzer said. The statement cautions against this
program. The shared time proposal involves the joint
use by parochial and public schools of tax-supported
educational facilities. The policy statement called on Re
form rabbis to ‘‘urge their school communities to under
take further studies before launching time programs.”
The convention heard also from Rabbi Sidney L.
Regner of New York, CCAR executive vice-president,
who reported that the CCAR membership stood at just
under 850. The session also heard presentations by Rabbi
Leon Fram of Detroit and Rabbi Levi A. Olan of Dallas,
who emphasized in respective papers that Judaism was
both a “missionary” and “liberal” faith.
The organisation was urged to take the lead in
marshaling the world religions for “the observance nf a
universal Tom Kippur” whose worldwide prayers would
demonstarte humanity’s overwhelming determination
“to avert the man-made evil decree” of nuclear war.
I)r. Minda made the proposal in a keynote address which
opened the convention.
Rabbi Minda called on the rabbinical group to “in
spire all religious groups to join with us in the observ
ance of a Universal Yom Kippur, a day of atonement
and reconciliation, a day of prayer, penitence, and of
seeking the path leading to the blessing that shall make
for the life of all and the death of none.”
Rabbi Minda recalled that “there were those who,
not many years back, declaimed that American Judaism
could not develop a momentum of its own; those who
insisted that it was entirely dependent on the heritage
bequeathered to us by the “shtetl” and the richly en
dowed centers of Jewish life in pre-war Europe. Sooner
or later, they predicted, it would come to a dead end.
These dire prophecies have not been fulfilled.”
Rabbi Minda told the convention that the Reform
Judaism in America has produced “numerous Jewish
scholars, indigenous to the American scene,” and is de
veloping a literature that bears the stamp of Jewish
and American creativity. “We have reared a genera
tion of youth to whom their Judaism is not a hostile
block in their life’s program but who have found it an
inspiration and guidance," he asserted