Newspaper Page Text
I
/
)
!
The Southern Israelite
A Weekly Newspaper for Southern Jewry - Established 1925
Atlanta, Georgia, Friday, October 18, 1968
-Pidyon Haben
*
his infant son by paying five
pieces of silver to a Kohen no
matter where the father may be
when the son is 30 days old.
Sir hart Trial
Washington Prt °
Of ‘Phantoms’
No. 42
By MILTON FRIEDMAN
JTA Staff Correspondent
\fo /
+<>raet i'
Vol. XLIII
Vietnam Firsl-
LONG BINH, South Vietnam
(JTA) — The first known Pidyon
Haben to be celebrated in Viet
nam took place in Long Binh,
with three of the Jewish chap
lains in that area participating.
In his report on the event to the
Commission on Jewish Chap
laincy of the National Jewish
Welfare Board, Chaplain Jack
Ostrovsky stated that the Jewish
father is a first lieutenant whose
wife gave birth in Brooklyn.
Chaplain Bruce M. Freyer served
as Kohen and Chaplain Harold
Wasserman officiated and pro
vided refreshments for the Seu-
dah (ritual meal).
A Pidyon Haben is a ceremony
required when a first-born son
is born to a Jewish family and
neither parent is of a family of
priest (kohanim) or Levites. The
law prescribes that a father has
the responsibility of redeeming
To Open Dec. 9
LOS ANGELES (JTA) — A
Los Angeles judge announced
Monday that the trial of Sirhan
Sirhan, a Jordanian charged
with assassinating Sen. Robert
F. Kennedy, will begin Dec. 9.
Some observers believe that
Sirhan will seek to turn the
trial into an anti-Israel propa
ganda forum. Defense attorneys
expect that the prospective
jurors who may be Jews or
pro-Israel will be challenged
and disqualified from jury
duty. The jury will be locked
up nightly to prevent it from
being influenced by outside
elements.
WASHINGTON (JTA) —
President Johnson announced
this week that he had instructed
Secretary of State Dean Rusk to
start talks on sale of supersonic
jet fighters to Israel which Israel
has long sought. The President
made the decision known as he
signed the Foreign Aid Authori
zation Bill. He referred to the
Halpern-Wolff amendment in that
measure urging him to provide
Israel with supersonic military
planes. But questions were im
mediately raised over the an
nouncement.
The President did not specify
whether he meant the F-4 Phan
tom jets for which Premier Levi
Eshkol asked when he visited
the President last January at
the LBJ ranch, or some other
supersonic plane, such as the
F - 1 0 4 Starfighter, which the
United States has sold to Jordan
and West Germany. The Israel
Embassy here said it was con
vinced that the President meant
the Phantom. The President did
not say specifically he had made
a final decision to sell the planes,
leaving all details of negotiations
to Mr. Rusk. When Mr. Rusk was
asked at a press conference if
the United States had made a
decision to sell the jets to Israel,
the Secretary replied that “we
have taken a decision to negoti
ate the problem with Israel on a
basis on which I can then report
back to the President.’’
The President’s announcement
followed months of appeals by
political parties, trade unions,
veterans groups and most major
Jewish organizations. Presidential
candidates Hubert Humphrey,
Richard Nixon and George Wal
lace all are on record favoring
the sale. Mr. Johnson said his
decision was based on a joint
Congress resolution passed in
August deciding it was “the
sense of Congress” that the
President act to negotiate an
agreement providing for the sale
of enough supersonic planes “to
provide Israel with an adequate
deterrent force capable of pre
venting future Arab aggression.”
The resolution cited the rapid
air buildup of Arab war machines
by the Soviet Union.
Soon after the President’s an
nouncement, the State Depart
ment said the negotiations would
begin “reasonably soon” and the
Israel Embassy said it was “al
ready in touch” with the Depart
ment. But some State Depart
ment officials who have opposed
the Phantom sale to Israel said
they did not think the President’s
statement was a final commit
ment to sell the jets. They noted
that the President’s statement
left options open in that he said
he had asked Mr. Rusk to start
talks “and report back to me.”
Thus, the President would retain
control of further action. They
argued also that the President’s
language could not be taken as
a final decision confirming the
sale, to be followed by issuance
of export licenses.
Rep. Seymour Halpem, New
York Republican, said he was not
satisfied ' that the announcement
represented a final decision and
said he had asked President
Johnson for clarification. He said
that the announcement might
prove to be “nothing more than
a gimmick to evade the great
concentration of public opinion
for another month or so.”
(Continued on Page 5)
Less Than Four Weeks Away
General Assembly To Bring
Record Crowd To Atlanta
Max M. Fisher, chairman of Detroit’s local urban affairs com
mittee, created after 1967 riots, New Detroit, Inc., was named
by Richard M. Nixon as his special advisor on urban and com
munity affairs. The noted Jewish leader, who is president of the
United Jewish Appeal, and who headed its record breaking
first Emergency Campaign, is supporting Nixon because of his
“deep understanding of the problems of our cities and a pro
found knowledge of the situation in the Middle East and other
critical areas.”
Atlanta Will Host
AJC Board Meet
The national executive board
of the American Jewish Commit
tee will meet in Atlanta at the
Regency Hyatt House, October
25-27. It will address itself to
stalemated peace Goldberg
in the Middle East and its
threat to Israel’s future. Max M.
Fisher, of Detroit, is chairman
of the executive board of AJC,
and will preside.
The highlight of the weekend
events will be a dinner Saturday
night, October 26, at which the
presidential address will be made
by Arthur J. Goldberg, who be
came the fourteenth president of
the American Jewish Committee
last August. Mr. Goldberg i3
former Secretary of Labor, Su
preme Court Justice, and U.S.
Ambassador to the United Na
tions.
Now an attorney in New York
and partner in the firm of Paul,
Weiss, Goldberg, Rifkind, Whar
ton and Garrison, Mr. Goldberg
is a native of Chicago. The
youngest of eight children of
Russian immigrants, he attended
Chicago public schools and
Northwestern University, where
he graduated first in his class
and received a Bachelor of
Science in Law degree in 1929
and a Doctor of Jurisprudence
degree in 1930. He was admitted
to thfe Illinois bar in 1929.
Dufing World War II, Mr.
Goldberg served in the Office of
Strategic Services in 1942-43 and
in the U.S. Army in the Euro
pean Theatre of Operations in
1943-44, achieving the rank of
major.
Long active in Jewish affairs,
Mr. Goldberg was elected an
honorary vice president of the
American Jewish Committee in
1965, succeeding the late Herbert
H. Lehman in that post. That
same year he received the
American Jewish Committee’s
(Continued jm Page 5)
Leaders of communal organ
izations in the United States and
Canada this week continued their
countdown before some 1,000 del
egates began arriving in Geor
gia's capital city to blast off what
appears now the largest General
Assembly ever in the history of
the Council of Jewish Federations
and Welfare Funds.
The event will include a series
of brilliantly paced plenary ses
sions and auxiliary meetings,
workshops and conferences on
the problems and challenges
facing Jewry of these two Amer
ican countries.
Mrs. “Chippy” Alterman and
Max Rittenbaum, co-chairmen of
the Atlanta Committee on Hos
pitality and Local Arrangements
under the general chairmanship
of Max Cuba, have indicated that
preparations have been well
underway for several months to
make the event long remember
ed by out-of-town vistors.
Atlanta organizational and
congregational leaders have all
been marshalled to provide as
sistance in hosting the General
Assembly.
Something special, apparently,
attaches this year to the site of
the General Assembly and At
lanta communal leaders are seek
ing to meet this new interest in
every way possible.
This advance excitement is not
Atlanta Campaign’s
Top leadership
Goldwasser Raiser
(Story Atlanta Front — Page 9)
only manifest among the Atlan
ta committee members, it was
evident this past weekend in
New York as well when The
Southern Israelite Editor and
Publisher Adolph Rosenberg call
ed on the national headquarters
of the Council of Jewish Federa
tions and Welfare Funds.
“Everybody seems to want to
go to Atlanta,” stated Phil Bern
stein, the group’s executive di
rector. “We’ve never seen any
thing like it. We’ll have a record
crowd of delegates.”
Mr. Rosenberg was in New
York to confer with Mr. Bem-
(Continued on Page 5)
Prominent in the Humphrey-Muskie campaign is Mrs. Geri
Joseph, above, who helds the highest appointive office in the
Democratic Party as vice chairman and director of women’s
activities. Prominent in ADL and National Council of Jewish
Women’s activities, Mrs. Joseph spoke before the Women’s Na
tional Democratic Club, whose president, Mrs. Melville Locker,
is shown with her. Also in the group is Mrs. Michael Shapiro,
international president of B’nal B’rith Women.