Newspaper Page Text
The Southern Israelite
A Weekly Newspaper for Southern Jewry — Established 1925
Vol. XLIII Atlanta, Georgia, Friday, May 3, 1968 No. 18
Thousands March in New York
In Three-Hour Salute to Israel
Plans for Jerusalem Parade
Unchanged by UN Objections
NEW YORK (JTA)—Thousands
of young people and adults
marched Sunday with bands,
floats, choirs and danoe groups
along Manhattan’s Fifth Avenue
in a three-hour Salute to Israel
parade. More thousands lined the
parade route to watch the festiv
ities in perfect spring weather.
Gen. Yitzhak Rabin, former Is
raeli chief of staff who is now
Israel’s ambassador to the United
States, was the guest of honor.
He hailed the theme of the pa
rade, “Jerusalem the Golden.”
Mayor John V. Lindsay welcomed
Gen. Rabin in his greetings to the
parade. Same 300 units, including
many from non-Jewish groups,
took part. The marchers came
NEW YORK—
A project to provide decent
housing for residents of Harlem’s
ghetto was underway this week
under the supervision of a volun
teer board of seven Negroes and
seven Jews with a Reform rabbi
serving as the 15th member and
mediator.
The project got underway with
the start of rehabilitation of two
grimy tenements on East 117th
Street in Manhattan. They are the
first of such 29 such buildings
slated for rehabilitation in a nine-
block area from 116th Street to
125th Street between Lexington
and Park Avenues. A total of 35
rental units Will be provided in
the first two tenements, which
are expected to be ready for oc
cupancy by the end of October,
according to Mrs. Mary lemma,
president of the Upper Park
Avenue Community Association
(UPACA). UPACA has set a goal
of creating 388 housing units in
the area.
Mrs. lemma and Mrs. Margaret
Jenkins, two Harlem housewives,
had long talked to neighbors
about “rebuilding our streets,”
an area of ga rbage-littered lots,
crumbling buildings and boarded-
up stores. The two women, to
gether with the New York Fed
eration of Reform Synagogues,
created UPACA as a non
profit housing corporation, each
group electing seven members to
the UPACA board of directors,
(CAR To Debate
Chaplaincy I)raft
NEW YORK (JTA) — An offi
cial of the Central Conference of
American Rabbis, the organiza
tion of the Reform rabbinate, has
disclosed that the question of
continued Reform participation
in the draft of rabbinic students
for the military chaplaincy would
be discussed fully at the CCAR
79th annua] convention in Boston
in June.
Widespread debate about the
desirability of the chaplaincy
draft led Orthodox Yeshiva Uni
versity to drop its participation,
starting last January, in favor of
a one-year experiment in which
graduates of its Rabbi Isaac El-
chanon Seminary have been
given ,the option of volunteering
for the military chaplaincy.
More recently, the Jewish
Theological Seminary announced
plans for a new chaplaincy
school, starting next fall, which
will offer an accelerated training
program for rabbinic candidates
choosing to accept military chap
laincy assignments on graduation.
from New York, New Jersey,
Connecticut, Pennsylvania and
Delaware. More than 30 floats
depicted various phases of the
parade theme.
Tlieodore Comet, parade chair
man, opened the event and 20
white doves, each representing a
year in the life of Israel, were
released from the reviewing
stand. Mr. Comet referred brief
ly to a counter-maroh staged by
about 50 Arab-Americans, who
were never in contact with the
Israel parade. Police were on
hand but had no reason to inter
vene. Mr. Comet said about the
counter-marchers that America
was a free country and that the
Arabs had the right to demon
strate.
with Rabbi Balfour Brickner as
mediator. Rabbi Brickner is di
rector of the Commission on In
terfaith Activities of the Union
of American Hebrew Congrega
tions, the Central Conference of
American Rabbis and the Jewish
Chautauqua Society, the major
institutions of American Reform
Judaism.
The joint effort had its genesis
in a long-standing battle by the
two Harlem housewives to induce
New York City housing officials
to act to provide good housing
for the area’s residents. On one
occasion they staged a 26-hour
sit-in at a city anti-poverty agen
cy office. Mrs. Ruth Brod, an
agency official, stayed to watch
the demonstration and became
acquainted with the two women.
She introduced them to Rabbi
Brickner, and to Mrs. Anita Mil
ler, a member of the staff of the
commission on interfaith activ
ities. Rabbi Brickner and Mrs.
Miller had been searching for a
role for the Reform movement to
aid the war on poverty.
The UAHC and its regional
unit, the Reform Synagogues
Federation, acted to help obtain
a 40-year mortgage of $5 million
to $6 million from the Federal
Housing Administration for the
project. Funds for “seed money”
needed for options on buildings,
and to pay for architectural and
similar services were obtained
from the New York City depart
ment of rehabilitation, whose co
operation throughout has been
described by Rabbi Brickner as
“magnificent.” Federal rent sup
plements have been arranged to
keep rentals on the new apart
ments within the capacity to pay
of local residents. Construction
of new housing in the area also
is planned in the project, Mrs.
lemma said.
Plans have been developed to
prevent one of the most painful
elements of suah housing plans—
the problem of finding suitable
temporary housing for those dis
placed in such projects. UPACA
is starting its program with
houses now empty. When the first
35 units are ready next fall, 35
families now resident in the older
housing will be moved in, thus
creating new empty structures for
more rehabilitation but without
leaving people temporarily home
less. This procedure will be fol
lowed throughout the life of the
building program, Mrs. lemma
said.
UPACA has received other
help, including a $50,000 anony
mous gift to help build a day
care center for children. Cornell
University experts have planned
a model apartment to be used to
JERUSALEM (JTA) — Prime
Minister Levi Eshkod said, at the
conclusion of a Cabinet meeting
at which a report was presented
on the unanimous Security Coun
cil resolution asking Israel to
abandon its plans for the Inde
pendence Day parade in Jerusa
lem, that the parade would take
place as scheduled on May 2.
A Government spokesman said
that the Cabinet has nothing to
add to the statement by Yosef
Tekoah, Israel’s ambassador to
the United Nations, who an
nounced, immediately after the
Security Council vote, that the
resolution was “unacceptable” to
Israel. The spokesman said that
teach tenants' afeout home care,
n u t r i t ion and child-raising.
Another anonymous donor pro
vided kitchen equipment for the
model apartment.
The seven Negroes — mostly
women—and the eight Jews meet
at least once a month, although
right now meetings are more fre
quent. They take an active role
in all decisions of the ambitious
effort. The board is expected to
continue in its advisory capacity
indefinitely. Initially, the board
is watching over the construction
work. It will later help tenants
to move in and become settled,
then will keep a collective eye
on maintenance. After that there
will be such ancillary programs
to be watched over as consular
education, the child care center,
recreation and related services.
Members will serve two years,
when elections will he held. The
board presidency will rotate be
tween a Jew and a Negro. Sid
ney Schwartz is vice president
of the first board.
Both Jew and Negro see the
project as more than only an urg
ently-needed effort to accelerate
the agonizingly slow process of
providing adequate housing for
the poor in the nation’s decaying
inner cities. Rabbi Brickner feels
that “we are rehabilitating more
than buildings. We are learning
to rehabilitate ourselves through
one another. It is slow, hard and
sometimes even painful, but it is
working.” Mrs. lemma has com
mented that “we feed that black
and white can work in partner
ship and must live in harmony.
It is the only way. We have our
ideas. The white structure can
give us a helping hand.”
the Cabinet agreed fully with the
envoy’s statement at the UN. He
added that other events and fes
tivities planned for Independence
Day would be held without
change.
The meeting heard a security
situation report from Defense
Minister Moshe Dayan, and a
representative of the army head
quarters reported on the incident
near Jericho in which 13 Arab
saboteurs were killed. Foreign
Minister Abba Ehan, in reporting
on the Security Council resolu
tion, noted that the Council had
rejected efforts by UN Secretary
Genera] U Thant and pro-Arab
states to include in the resolu
tion a reference to the armistice
agreement.
The Israeli press was unanim
ous in condemning the Security
Council resolution. E d i t o rial
writers and cartoonists were par
ticularly bitter against Secretary
General U Thant whose interven
tion, they said, prompted Jordan
to bring its complaint against the
parade to the Security Council.
Dress rehearsals for toe parade
were held. Throngs lined the
streets to watch the preparation*.
Cars estimated in the thousands
jammed the roads leading to Jer
usalem Airport where the mili
tary units to march in the parade
or fly over it are stationed. The
airport is also the repository of
much of the heavy equipment
captured from the Egyptians and
Syrians in last June’s war plann
ed for display in the parade.
Arabic leaflets were distributed
in the outskirts of Jerusalem
urging Arabs to stay away from
the Independence Day parade.
But many Arabs expected to see
it anyway since it will be toe
first public event to be televised
in Israel. General television
broadcasting is not expected to
begin for several months.
"Total Involvement" Urged
On Community Centers
SAN FRANCISCO (JTA) —
Total involvement in community
programs to alleviate the urban
crisis through helping to provide
jobs, education and better hous
ing for non-whites and other de
prived Americans was urged on
Jewish community centers in a
series of resolutions adopted at
the closing sessions of the Na
tional Jewish Welfare Board’s
1968 biennial convention here.
Tije resolutions noted that,
through such activities, the JWB’s
450 affiliated community centers
and Ys, and their 739,000 mem
bers, would be fulfilling their
“Judaic commitments."
Also adopted were resolutions
calling for aid to Jewish mer
chants who were victims of re
cent racial disorders and urging
Congress to give priority to legis
lation to aid the hard-core un
employed and needy. On the in
ternational scene, the convention
called on the United States Gov
ernment to protest the anti-Jew
ish campaign in Poland and pro
tested the Soviet Union’s con
tinued repression of Jewish cul
tural and religious life. The JWB
saluted Israel on its 20th anni
versary and gave its support to
the principle of direct Israel-
Arab negotiations to achieve a
secure peace in the Middle East.
Louis Stern, of South Orange,
N.J., was re-elected to a two-
year term as president of the
JWB. Mrs. Hugo DaLsheimer, a
Baltimore Jewish community
leader, was elected president of
TWO SABRA BABIES EPITOMIZE THE BACKGROUNDS OF
Israel’s population—European and Oriental. But UJA-supported
absorption programs aim to equalize opportunities for all. Your
1968 UJA gift to your Jewish Welfare Federation Campaign will
help prevent a divided Israel.
the World Federation of YMHAs
and Jewish Community Centers.
Sanford Solender, executive
vice president of the JWB, told
the 800 delegates that the social
responsibilities implicit in the
values of the Jewish people and
in the democratic commitments
of every community agency de
manded that Jewish communities
and Ys contribute to the common
effort to better the lot of the
Negroes and the poor and to im
prove the inner cities. The Jew
ish community center, he said,
can “give Jewishness relevance
to contemporary social affairs”
and can make an important con
tribution to solving the urban
crisis because “it has the ex
perience and competency in deal
ing with the transitional prob
lems of changing communities."
Dayan Warns
Jordan Its War
Will Backfire
TEL AVIV (JTA) — Defense
Minister Moshe Dayan has
warned Jordan that if it con
tinued to wage “a war of terror”
against Israel, the war would
pass to Jordanian soil and be
decided there.
Speaking at a meeting of the
regional council at Samakh, at
tended by representatives of set
tlements in the Lsraeli side of
the Jordan Valley, Gen. Dayan
emphasized that Israel would not
accept a cease-fire agreement
that was not applied to terrorist
activities and under which ter
rorist organizations were per
mitted to wage war on Israel’s
side of the cease-fire line. This
“unilateral right” is-not for the
Arabs alone, he warned.
“If Jordan wants to become
the sword of the Arab countries
and if Jordan tries to do what
Egypt stopped doing after it
evacuated residents of cities and
towns along the Suez Canal, then
Jordan would also have to pay
for it,” Gen. Dayrni declared. He
warned that the entire Jordan
Valley would become a battle
field with no place for civilian
life because families and live
stock could not “live under the
same roof with acts of war.”
He told the settlers that while
some 70,000 Jordanians had left
Jordan Valley settlements as
refugees in Jordan, there had
been increased recruiting of Is
raeli civilians and youth for bor
der settlements.
Decent Housing in Harlem
Joint Jewish-Negro Project
S -i By BEN GALUOB
(Copyright, 1968, Jewish 'telegraphic Agency, jlnc.K
