Newspaper Page Text
The Southern Israelite
A Weekly Newspaper for Southern Jewry — Established 1925
Vol. xu
ATLANTA, GEORGIA, FRIDAY, MARCH 11, 1966
Winning Austrian Party
Disavows Anti-Semitism
VIENNA (JTA)—An official of
the conservative Austrian Peo
ples Party, which scored a major
victory in the country’s national
elections Monday, said that his
party had nothing to do with
pamphlets showing “anti-Semitic
tendencies” distributed during
the election oampaign. The Peo
ples Party has won a narrow
parliamentary majority as a res
ult of the elections.
Hermann Withalm, the party’s
general secretary, told the Jewish
Telegraphic Agency that he
sharply condemned anti-Semi
tism. He made his statement in
commenting on leaflets attributed
to the People’s Party which con
tained anti-Semitic remarks. He
said that any such material had
been ‘smuggled” into the party
propaganda by “unknown adver
saries” of the party.
Charges of anti-Semitism had
also been made during the elec
tion campaign against the new
Democratic Progressive Party.
However, this faction received
only 148,541 votes among the 4,-
800,000 ballots cast in the elec
tions.
Israel Among Fir* ^ ro
UN Pact Against Bigotr^ 9 ?#
no. ia
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’•8VS&T0
Pope Pius Letters Void of
Nazi Murder Condemnation
ROME (JTA)—The late Pope especially the Catholics of Berlin,
Pius XII made few references to have come with great love to the
Jews, and not once voiced any aid of the so-called non-Aryans
condemnation of the Nazi cam
paign to obliterate the Jews of
Europe, it appeared here follow
ing official Vatican publication
of a volume entitled “Letters of
Pope Pius XII to German Bish
ops, 1939-1944.”
The 450-page book, reproduc
ing letters from Pius and other
documents, contains 124 letters,
most of them in German, some
in Latin. In one letter, dated
April 30, 1944, the Pontiff praised
Msgr. Bernhard Lichtenberg, pro
vost of St. Hedwig Cathedral in
Berlin, who died in a Nazi pr'son.
A footnote explains that Msgr.
Lichtenberg had been imprison
ed by the Nazis for praying for
the Jews in public. Pope Pius
wrote of h ; s "fatherly recogni
tion” and sympathy for the mon
signor.
In another letter. Pope Pius
praised German Catholics who
helped Jew’sh victims of Nazism.
In this letter he stated: It has
pleased us that Catholics, and
Tech Prof.
Dies at 65
Dr. Jacob Mandelker, 65, of
Atlanta died Monday, Feb. 28.
Graveside services were held
in Crest Lawn Memorial Park
with Rabbi Emanuel Feldman
officiating.
Dr. Mandelker had been Pro
fessor of Engineering Mechan
ics at Georgia Tech since 1949.
He was bom in Zloczow, Austria.
He earned his first degree in
civil engineering and then a
Doctor of Engineering Science
degree from the Institute of
Technology in Vienna. He pur
sued his career in engineering
in Austria until forced to flee
from the Nazis in 1938, eventu
ally reaching Shanghai, China,
where he worked as an engineer
until 1941.
After that he was an engineer
ing consultant on a part time
basis both in China and in the
United States, but his primary
interest was in teaching. He
taught at St. Johns University
and Ta-Tung University in
Shanghai until 1948, joining the
faculty of Georgia Tech in 1949.
Dr. Mandelker was interna
tionally known for his research
and numerous publications in
the field of engineering mechan
ics and civil enginering. His
latest book, “Relativity and the
new Engineering Mechanics,”
was published in 1966 and was
received after hi* illness became
awn.
He ia survived by his wife,
Frances Mandelker.
in their difficulties. The Holy See
has done all within its power,
both economically and morally,
to help in charity the non-Aryan
Catholics and Jewish believers.”
Aside from these mentions, the
Turn to page 4
UNITED NATIONS, N. Y.
(JTA) — Israel was one of the
first members of the United Na
tions Monday to sign the new In
ternational Convention for the
Elimination of All Forms of Ra
cial Intolerance. The instrument
was opened for signature in the
office of Secretary-General U
Thant. The Convention was
adopted unanimously on Decem
ber 21 by the last session of the
General Assembly.
Ambassador Michael S. Comay,
Israel’s permanent representative
here, declared that the new Con
vention is “of emotional and his
torical importance to Israel.”
Pointing out that 90 percent of
Israel’s population is composed
of Jews “who belong to an anci
ent people which has been the
classic victim of religious and
racial bigotry for 20 centuries,”
Mr. Comay recalled the Hitlerian
holocaust as he prepared to sign
the anti-racist document.
At the same time, however, the
Israeli envoy noted that the anti
racist instrument “does not refer
expressly to anti-Semitism.” Dur
ing the debates leading to the
adoption of the Convention, the
United States, aided by Brazil,
tried to add an amendment spec
ifically condemning anti-Semitism
among the racist trends in the
world. That amendment was lost
after the Soviet Union had pre
sented a counter-move that would’
have equated anti-Semitism and
Zionism with Nazism and neo-
Nazism. As a reault of the Mos
cow maneuver, it had been de
cided that no specific “isms,” ex
cept for apartheid, would be
mentioned in the Convention.
Mr. Comay contended that,
despite the defeat of the effort by
the United States and Brazil,
“during the debate at the Gen
eral Assembly, it was accepted
that the general provisions of the
Convention embrace a condemn
ation of anti-Semitism as well.”
“Israel,” he stated, “particularly
welcomes the total rejection in
the Convention of discriminaton
based on color. Whether directed
against Jews, Negroes, or any
German Govt. Reports Rise
In Anti-Semitic Acts in 1965
BONN (JTA) —The year 1965
saw a ^‘slight increase” in the
right-wing radical forces in West
Germany, and a considerable rise
in the circulation of rightist
newspapers, some of them out
right anti-Semitic and anti-Is
raeli, Minister of the Interior
Paul Lueker reported here. The
report compares figures for 1965
and 1964. It shows, as far as ac
tual Nazi and anti-Semitic inci
dents were concerned, these had
risen vastly in 1965, totaling 521
for the year, compared with 171
in 1964.
The Minister of the Interior
stated that during the parliamen
tary elections last October the
National Democratic Party ob
tained 64,000 votes out of a total
of 32,000,000 ballots cast, while
another right-wing group got a
total vote of 52,000. There were
14 right-wing groups, he said,
with a total membership of 9,700
members by the end of 1964. The
number of groups, he reported,
had dropped to 11 in 1965,
through mergers and reorganiza
tions, but the number of members
had gone up to 16,700.
Right-wing youth groups, his
figures showed, diminished in
strength from 700 members in 17
organizations by the end of 1964
to 500 members in 10 organiza
tions by 1965. However, he stated,
50 other youth groups not organ
ized as political parties had 11,964
members in 1964 against 11,600 in
1965. Lumping together various
right-wing groups, youth organi
zations and groups providing
publishing services, Mr. Lueker
gave a figure of 22,500 at the end
of 1964 as against 28,600 in 1965.
In the publications field, 45
right-wing organs had a total cir
culation of 183,000 in 1964, going
up to a circulation of 227,000 in
1965. “The main cause for this
increase,” he said, “was the rise
in the circulation of the Deutsche
National-und-Soldatenzeitung and
the Deutsche Nachrichten Zei-
tung. ‘The latter is the organ of
the National Democratic Party.
In addition, 61 foreign and 40
German anti-Semitic periodicals
were in circulation in West Ger
many in 1965.
Of the 521 Nazi and anti-Se
mitic incidents in 1965, the Min
ister of the Interior said, 107 in
volved threats and insults, 54
cases were concerned with the
spreading of anti-Semitic posters
and leaflets 19 incidents involved
damage to Jewish cemeteries. A
total of 201 offenders were appre
hended, including 58 children.
Mr. Lueker said: “The increases
were not serious. In many cases,
punishment was avoided by the
right-wing radicals, posing as
persons loyal to the Constitution.
But while the situation was not
serious, the position of the right-
wing radicals has to be watched
carefully. The most sinister event
was the increase in the circula
tion of the Deustche National-
und-Soldatenzeitung, which has
succeeded in attracting national
interest and constantly propand-
izes against victims of the war
and against Israel.”
An official of a commission of
the Bundestag, the lower house
of the West German Parliament,
said that the question of whether
the extremist pamphlets and
newspapers could be prosecuted
was now under examination. H.
Schmitt-Vockenhausen, chairman
of the Bundestag Commission of
the Interior, also said that he felt
that the extreme right-wing or
ganizations were not an “acute
danger” to the constitutional
order of the federal republic. He
added he had found no evidence
of a general trend toward ex-
Tum to page 4
Eban Says U.S. Seeking Inspection Rights
Only On Proposed Desalination Reactor
JERUSALEM, (JTA) — The United States
Government has not asked for supervisory rights
over all Israeli nuclear installations in exchange
for financing a projected nuclear-powered desali
nation plant, Foreign Minister Abba Eban told a
Parliamentary Committee this week. He told the
Foreign Affairs and Security Committee that the
United States did ask for inspection on the nuclear
core of the proposed plant.
Mr. Eban said that the request was a “natural
one,” since the nuclear plant will be built Tjy Israel
together with the United States, and will be
operated jointly. His clarification followed a num
ber of reports from Washington that the United
States had decided to tie loans for the nuclear
desalintion plant to an Israeli agreement that all
nuclear installations in Israel be fully open to
international inspection.
Foreign Ministry sources here have consist
ently disclaimed knowledge of such a purported
U.S. condition for aid to the project. The United
States has sought for several years, through the
International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna, to
persuade Israel to allow inspection of its nuclear
facilities, particularly the larger one at Dimona.
Sen. Robert F. Kennedy on a CBS-TV special
program, “Town Meeting of the World” singled
out Israel and Egypt along with India and Paki
stan, as countries which must be prevented from
obtaining nuclear weapons. He said this was a
most urgent problem facing the world, citing
regional disputes and specifically mentioning the
Middle East, Israel and Egypt
other group, discrimination ia in
divisible and repulsive.”
In addition to Israel, the U. N.
members which signed the Con
vention were Byelorussia, Central
African Republic, Greece, the
Philippine Islands, Poland,
Ukraine and the USSR. The in
strument will go into force after
a minimum of 27 states had ac
ceded to it
Israeli Peace
Pilot Returns;
Freed on Bail
TEL AVIV, (JTA)—Abraham
Nathan, who became an over
night hero to Israelis with a
“peace mission” flight to Egypt,
returned safely in his small
plane—and was promptly ar
rested. He was immediately
freed on bail and escorted by his
waiting admirers to the Hilton
Hotel.
The Tel Aviv restaurant own
er faced such charges as leaving
without a flight plan, leaving the
country illegally and similar
problems but it was not expect
ed that he would actually suf
fer any great punishment.
He told a press conference at
the hotel, where he was offered
the Presidential suite by an
alert hotel management, that the
Egyptian authorities had treated
him well on his unusual ad
venture. He had said he planned
to fly to Cairo for a hoped-for
audience with President Nasser
of Egypt but got only as far as
Port Said, where startled of
ficials took him into custody. He
said the Port Said Governor had
been instructed to tell him on
behalf of the Egyptian Govern
ment, that there was “no point”
in Nasser receiving him.
Israelis who were fascinated
by his advance announcement
of his “mission” signed petitions
asking the Government not to
act against him. Thousands gath
ered near his Tel Aviv restau
rant to debate the pros and
cons of the “mission.”
Ask LBJ to Reject
Schwartz’s Resignation
NEW YORK (JTA)—Heads of
national organizations, Jewish
and non-Jewish interested in the
liberalization of immigration reg
ulations by the United States
Government, telegraphed Presi
dent Johnson, asking him not to
accept the resignation of Abba P.
Schwartz, who tendered his resig
nation from his post as admini
strator of the State Department’s
Bureau of Security and Consular
Affairs.
After tendering his resignation,
Mr. Schwartz said in Washing
ton that he was quiting his post
upon discovering that he was the
principal victim of a State De
partment reorganiza t i o n that
would abolish his bureau. He is
widely considered as one of the
Administration’s most vigorous
advocates of liberal immigration,
travel and refugee policies and
was the principal architect of the
new immigration law adopted
last year, wiping out the discrim
inatory “national origins” quota
system.
Mr .Schwartz said that the “re
organization” plan, presumably
linked to Government "economy,”
had been in the works for “many,
many months,” but that he had
known nothing about it until his
return from a confidential mis
sion abroad.