Newspaper Page Text
Kennedy Denounces Senate
Amendment to Cut Aid to Egypt
WASHINGTON (JTA)—Presi
dent Kennedy stepped into the
Senate-State Department debate
over terminating aid to Egypt this
week with a denunciation of the
proposal and a warning that it
might produce results the oppos
ite of those intended.
Referring to a clause approved
by both the House and Senate in
the current Foreign Aid bill, the
President cited at his press con
ference the unfavorable repercus
sions of the United States decis
ion in 1956 to cancel aid to the
Egyptian Aswam Dam project. He
said 80 per cent of the United
States aid to Egypt was in sur
plus food. Calling Egypt a poor
and proud country, he said he did
not think the wording of the
amendment strengt hened the
United States in dealing with
Egypt. He stressed that he did not
think such ‘threats” would bring
about the desired result
The President admitted concern
over the slow withdrawal of
Egyptian troops from Yemen and
said he feared greater tensions
between Egypt and Saudi Arabia
unless that withdrawal was speed
ed up. He made it clear he be
lieved that if there were failures
in the Middle East, as well as
other areas, that the foreign aid
restrictions would be the cause
He called the bill the worst at
tack on foreign aid since the start
of the Marshall Plan.
He stressed that the President
bore the responsibility in Foreign
policy and in maintaining the in
fluence of this country abroad
and that he could not fulfill those
responsibilities without a foreign
aid bill suitable to his needs, i
serting “I need this program,”
criticized legislative restrictioi
imposed by Congress, including
the amendment aimed at Egypt.
Earlier in the week, Sen. Emest\
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X
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The Southern Israelite
A Weekly Newspaper for Southern Jewry — Established 1925
Vol. XXXVIII
ATLANTA, GEORGIA, FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 22, 1963
NO. 47
Accidents claim Livm CjFWF Views Cited on Youth,
(tj three Southern Leaders
Education, Jewish Centers
Paul, Leslie Beltz
MEMPHIS—The Jewish com
munity of Memphis last week
was saddened by the loss of
two young businessmen and civic
leaders, Paul, 33, and Leslie
Beltz, 28, sons of Mr. and Mrs.
Philip Beltz, long noted as com
munal leaders here.
The brothers lost their lives
in a plane crash on Wednesday,
Nov. 6, while returning in a
private plane from Buffalo
where they attended the opening
of that city’s new Holiday Inn,
leased by a realty development
firm of which they were vice
presidents.
Both young men were promi
nently identified along with
their parents and brother Jack
in various civic, religious and
—turn to page 5
Sam Novit
WALTERBORO, S.C—Samuel
Novit, 58, was drowned Sunday
while on a fishing trip with a
friend near here.
He fell from Sampson Island
Bridge into Sampson Creek.
The friend, removing his shoes,
leaped in and attempted to help
Mr. Novit. The two were swept
by the current downstream and
the friend barely managed to
save his own life after both had
gone down the second time.
The body had not been found
by the time The Southern Is
raelite was notified of the loss.
Long active in civic affairs,
Mr. Novit owned and operated
Novit’s Shoe Store here. He was
a charter member of the Waiter-
boro Rotary Club and active in
—turn to page 5
HOLLYWOOD, Fla. (JTA) —
Jewish college youth in the United
States accept their Jewishness na
turally but they are vague about
its content and significance and
peripheral in relating it to Jew
ish activities.
This evaluation was presented
by Philip Bernstein, executive di
rector of the Council of Jewish
Federations and Welfare Funds,
to the closing session of the
CJFWF General Assembly, at
tended by 1,200 communal leaders.
He said the loss of faith and re
jection of faith by college stu
dents “does not begin when they
arrive at college. That process is
only intensified; students follow
the pattern of worship set by their
said. To do so, they will need to
plan for how volunteers can best
be used.
He said Jewish community or
ganizations should not wait to be
pushed to act but should plan
ahead for a decade, setting their
own goals on what communities
should aspire to be and develop
programs to reach those goals,
aimed at both meeting the needs
of individuals and building better
communities “in which there is
no compromise with standards of
excellence.”
Ecumenical Council Starts Debate
On Catholic Stand on Jews
ROME (JTA)—The Ecumenical
Council at the Vatican started
debate on the subject of ecumen
ism, and, particularly, on the
fourth chapter of that subject
which treats of the attitude of
the Catholic Church toward Jews,
clearing the Jewish people of the
age-old accusation of edicide.
The entire schema was present
ed to the Council by Bishop Jos
eph Martin, of Rouen, Franee,
and was greeted by prolonged ap
plause from the assembled prel
ates. The ovation, however, was
Interpreted as a personal tribute
to Augustin Cardinal Bea, head
of the Secretariat for Promoting
Christian Unity, who drew up the
document. Including the chapter
absolving the Jews of blame for
the crucifixion of Jesus.
Two lines of objections were
voiced by nine speakers in the
Council, as the debate got under
way. One group of Fathers ob
jected to inclusion of the Jewish
question in the schema, holding
that the topic concerns the Cath
olic Church relations with other
Christian faiths and that, there
fore, the Jewish question should
be dealt with in another con
text. Another group held that, in
addition to treating of relations
with Jews, the chapter should
deal also with relations between
the Church and other non-Chris
tian religions.
One of the first speakers in the
debate was an American. Joseph
Cardinal Ritter, of St. Louis, who
hailed the entire proposed schema
as the end of the Catholic
Church'* 400-year-old campaign
against Protestantism.
An attack against the chapter
dealing with relations with the
Jewish people was voiced by
Ernesto Cardinal Ruffini, of Pal
ermo, Sicily. He told the Council
that, if it dealt with the Church
attitude toward the Jews, then it
should deal also with the attitude
toward “the many millions of
Christians who are following
Marxism and thus contributing to
atheistic materialism." He held
that other non-Christian religions
are less hostile to Catholicism
than Jews or Protestants and,
there, merit mention in the chap
ter.
Opposition to chapter four were
also voiced by the patriarch from
Alexandria, Egypt and from An
tioch, Syria. The first insisted
that no specific decree on con
demning any kind of persecutions
was needed, since the Church al
ways opposed such bias, and that
for that reason no mention of
anti-Semitism was needed. The
second advised that, if a chapter
on relations with Jews were
needed, it should be placed in
another schema.
It was at this point that Card
inal Ritter endorsed the schema
as a whole The American was
supported, with particular refer
ence to chapter four, by Archbis
hop Quintero, of Venezuela. Arch
bishop Tasuo Doi, of Tokyo, ap
proved the proposal that the
Catholic Church concede merit to
other religions, but declared that
other religions, in addition to the
Jewish faith, should be included
in chapter four
Catholic circles here said that
the opposition to the schema and
to chapter four came rather as a
surprise. However, they noted
that the opposition to chapter
four concerned not its purpose
but, rather, its exclusion of non-
Christian religions other than the
Jewish faith Some held that the
chapter belonged in the schema
entitled "De Ecclesia,” dealing
with the workings of the Catholic
Church. The debate on the entire
schema, including chapter four,
is to continue tomorrow.
parents and we must therefore
start before the youths get to col
lege. With 700 per cent of Jewish
youth attending colleges, com
munities will have to develop a
more intellectual approach to
reach and hold them.”
He reported that the commun
ities were increasingly concern
ed about what might be a need
less duplication of buildings and
classrooms which could involve
not only unnecessary costs but
also short-changing the quality
of Jewish education. He said
there was also much attention to ——
the idea of continuing Jewish State JT) e pf. M Xe8
education at the high school level r
and of giving more weight to
teacher training by communities
for all schools in recognition of
the fact “that the quality of
teachers if the indispensable re
quirement for quality education.”
He said community centers
were reappraising their role in
the light of changes in location
and character of Jewish commun
ities.
Discussing fund-raising, he said,
there were vast differences in
achievements with some cities 25
per cent ahead of the peak year
of 1948 and others 50 per cent
or more under their total of that
year. He said per capita giving
in some large cities was 400 per
cent greater than the contribu
tions in other large ones and that
in the intermediate and smaller
communities, some were raising
800 per cent more than others.
Such differences, he added, were
not explained by a few large gifts
or by differences in the economy.
He said Assembly evaluations
indicated that the differences
“can only be dealt with success
fully by the most fundamental
attention to the unde r 1 y i n g
strength of the federations and
Chattanoogans enjoying the swimming facilities at their new
Jewish Community Center. A campaign to complete the costs of
the $750,000 structure is now underway and copies of this paper
are going without any cost into every home in this Tennessee city
as a special service of The Southern Israelite.
welfare funds, the year-around
involvement of people in their
responsibilities and work—recog
nizing that the greatest under-
slanding and commitment comes
through participation.”
He reported marked and accel
erating progress in development
of endowment funds by federa
tions but that here too there were
great variations, some large cities
having built endowment funds
Irom 30 to 100 times larger than
federations in communities of
comparable size.
He said also that federations
must develop well-defined con
cepts of what they are trying to
build community commitment to”
and cited the “different American
Jewish community” of today,
based on an American-born, col
lege-educated middle class. With
continuing severe staff shortages,
federations must supplement staff
with greater use of volunteers, he
Request For Matzo
Deal With Russia
WASHINGTON, (JTA) —The
State Department, speaking at
the request of the White House,
Tuesday rejected a suggestion
by Rep. Leonard Farbstein, New
York Democrat, that the Soviet
Union should be asked to lift
restrictions on matzo baking in
connection with the sale of
American wheat to that coun
try.
Robert E. Lee, Deputy Assist
ant Secretary of State, said in a
letter to Rep. Farbstein that,
“even if it were practicable to
impose additional conditions at
the present advanced stage of
the commerical negotiations, the
United States Government would
oppose a consumer-use require
ment as likely to prejudice seri
ously the successful conclusion
of a transaction believed to be
in the interests of the United
States.”
Mr. Lee said that, “because of
the unfavorable reactions of
the Soviet authorities to any
approaches which the United
States Government has made in
the behalf of Soviet Jews, it is
the Department’s belief that
formal United States Govern
ment representations would not
be in their best interests.”
The Department expressed be
lief that “the course of action
most likely to bring about a
change in Soviet policies affect
ing the situation of Soviet Jews
lies in appeals by private organ
izations and individuals to the
Soviet authorities. Such appeals
may heighten Soviet sensitivity
on this subject, and may en
courage a decrease in Soviet
activity against these unfortun
ate people."
A suggestion was made by the
State Department that ‘‘serious
thought might be given to a
united appeal of private organ
izations representing worldwide
Jewry and, if possible, other
religious groups.”