Newspaper Page Text
The Southern Israelite
A Weekly Newspaper for Southern Jewry — Established 1925
Vol. XLIV
Atlanta, Georgia, Friday, January 31, 1969
No. 5
Atlanta Raises Fund
Goal to $3,000,000
The Atlanta Jewish Welfare Federation has set a campaign
goal of $3,000,000 for 1969.
This was unanimously approved at the second annual mem
bership meeting of Federation held last Sunday following the
recommendations of the 23-men Mission to Israel who had re
turned from a one-week fact-finding “Operation Israel.”
The campaign goal included $1,250,000 for the Regular Cam
paign for the support of 56 beneficiary agencies, and $1,750,000
for the Israel Emergency Fund.
Meyer Balser and David Goldwasser, general co-chairmen of
the 1969 drive, who led the special one-week study, reported
together with other members of the Mission that Israel is facing
a “most- serious economic problem.”
They added, “This is due to the fact that the people of Israel
must spend more for defense purposes as a result of the wn-
tinuing threats of the Arab countries. World Jewry, and especially
American Jewry, must therefore extend increasing support for
the health, welfare and educational programs. These programs
are especially designed for the immigrants who are coming into
Israel in greater numbers, as well as for those who have not
yet been absorbed.”
Balser and Goldwasser pointed out that the Atlanta com
munity raised last year $2,005,000. They confidently predicted
that the community would respond to the increased goal of one-
third more. “W^ started our campaign in Israel when Our group
pledged $444,250 as compared with $267,000 which they contri
buted in 1968.”
Premiership Again Eshkol Aim;
Likes Dayan In His Present Job
JERUSALEM (JTA) — Prime
Minister Levi Eshkol, 74, has de
clared he intends to seek the
Premier»hip again after the gen-
ral election next October and
has no intention of stepping
down.
He also had kind words for
his potentially chief rival for the
top Government post, Defense
Minister Moshe Dayan. He said
he would not consider anyone
but Gen. Dayan for the post of
Defense Minister and that there
was no reason to replace him.
Mr. Eshkol held both theh Pre
miership and the defense port
folio until the May, 1967 crisis
when he relinquished the latter
to Gen. Dayan under popular
and political pressure.
He said that while he formerly
believed that the Prime Minister
and Defense Minister should be
the same person he had changed
his mind. “The Premiership is
a full time job and the ,defense
post requires a special man to
fulfill it.” Mr. Eshkol said.
The election will be for seats
ays Sirhan's Lawyers Ponder
ial as Propaganda Forum
WASHINGTON (JTA) — De
fense lawyers for Sirhan B. Sir-
han, accused assassin of Sen.
Robert F. Kennedy, are ponder
ing how far to push the “Zionist”
angle in the trial of the 24-year-
old immigrant from Jordan,
Washington Post correspondent
George Lardner Jr. reported
from Los Angeles. “So far the
lawyers have said they intend to
make Sirhan’s experiences as a
youth in Palestine a key issue in
their effort to save Sirhan from
the gas chamber,” Mr. Lardner
wrote.
“They plan to argue that the
young Jordanian immigrant was
so scarred and so obsessed by the
Arab-Israeli conflict that he was
incapable of premeditated, first
degree murder when he shot
down Sen. Kennedy,” Mr. Lard
ner said.
He noted further that “not a
few Arabs and Arab-Amerioans
have expressed the view that the
trial would be an ideal forum
for ‘the Arab position’ in the
Middle East.” One of these is
Mrs. Mary Sirhan, the defend
ant’s mother.
Mr. Lardner said that Sirhan’s
defense lawyers, among them
Emile Zola Berman, who is Jew
ish, “insist they will be able to
stop short of trying the rights
and wrongs of the Arab-Israeli
conflict.”
Chief defense counsel Grant B.
Cooper has said, “It might never
become an issue” in the case.
“Mary Sirhan caught him during
a recess. 'Don’t say it won’t be
come an issue,’ sh^ is said to
have told him. ‘It has to be’,”
M r. Lardner reported.
The jury accepted for the trial
includes persons from several mi
nority groups. One is Jewish.
Iraq Hangings
Action Demandt
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UN
NEW YORK (JTA)—American
Jews this week reached with out
rage to t'hb" execution Monday of
nine Iraqi Jews, and five non-
Jews, by the Baghdad Govern
ment on charges of spying for
Israel. The Jewish Nazi Victims
Organization scheduled a mass
rally and memorial service, ex
pected to be attended by over
have been hela
since June, 1967, ^een sub
jected to close eillance and
have been absoli..ely limited in
movement and communication.
The fact, that it was clearly im
possible for Jews in Iraq to have
engaged in the alleged subversive
plot has in no way deterred the
savagery and barbarism of the
1,000 in front of the Iraqi Mis- blood-thirsty court.”
in the Knesset (Parliament). Un
der the Israeli system, the party
which polls the most votes forms
a Government which must win a
vote of confidence before taking
office. Gen. Dayan, hero of the
1956 Sinai campaign, is credited
by many Israelis for the light
ning victory in the Six-Day War
and is considered to be the most
popular political figure in Israel
today. Mr. Eshkol and his older
colleagues of the Labor Party
and former Mapai Party control
the political machinery.
Many observers have seen a
contest looming between the
two. The Labor Party, now in
political alignment with Mapam,
controls 63 of the Knesset’s 120
seats, an absolute majority for
one party for the first time in
Israel’s history. If it retains that
proportion* after the October
elections it would be able to
form Israel’s first non-coalition
government. Some Labor Party
leaders, however, have recom
mended retaining a coalition in
the interests of national unity.
sion to the United Nations.
Arthur J. Goldberg, American
Jewish Committee presid e n t,
urged the United States Govern
ment, the UN and a!' membei-
states, together with non-govern
mental agencies, to condemn the
executions so that “hopefully fur
ther executions may be avoided.”
. Expressing “horror and grief,”
ihe American Jewish Congress
urged the State Department to
use “every available diplomatic
means” to prevent the executions
of 65 persons still to be tried for
allegedly spying for Israel.
AJCongress president Rabbi Ar
thur J. Lelyveld in a telegram
to Secretary of State William P.
Rogers said that the executions
were “all the more monstrous be
cause Iraq’s 3,900 to 4,000 Jews
Eshkol Outraged;
Denies Spy Charges
JERUSALEM (JTA1 — Prime
Minister Levi Eshkol, shaking
with anger, appeared before a
grim Parliament to denounce the
pre-dawn hanging of nine Jews
as “genocide” that will be stopp
ed by Israel if it is not halted
from outside.
Mr. Eshkol, whose face reflect
ed the rage felt by Israelis when
they learned of the hangings from
their newspapers and radios,
quoted scripture in what some
interpreted as a threat of reprisal
against Iraq. “Oh, daughter Bab
ylon, that are to be destroyed,
happy shall he be that- repayeth
thee as thou has served us. The
I,ord shall avenge their blood,”
Mr. Eshkol said.
He declared further, “Between
the design of genocide and its
perpetration, there stands the
State of Israel alone—Israel and
its strength.” .The scriptural ref
erence was appropriate since
Iraq is located on the site of
Babylon, an enemy of Israel in
ancient times. (Reports from
Baghdad said that Iraq has placed
its armed forces on the alert in
anticipation of an Israeli repri
sal.)
The Prime Minister said the
Jews who were executed were
not spies for Israel. “Their only
crime was that they were Jews.”
He described the hangings as part
of a scheme by the Iraqi Gov
ernment to direct attention from
its internal troubles. “It was a
criminal plot,” he said, “and de
mands for the ‘liberation of Pal
estine’ are part and parcel of the
same design,” he said. “The land
of Iraq has become one great
prison for its Jewish remnant, a
gallows for its Jewish citizens.”
State Department
Expresses ‘Concern’
WASHINGTON (JTA) — The
executions are a matter of “gen
uine concern” to the United
States Government, State Depart
ment sources said. They added
that the U. S. did not have the
facts of the case at first hand
because America has no func-
toning embassy in Iraq. Diplo
matic relatioiTS'" Wcre severed by
the Iraqis in June, 1967, as a
insult of the Six-Day War. Offic
ials said the prevailing Iraqi at
titude toward the U. S. was suoh
that it might do other persons
facing execution more harm than
good for Washington to attempt
overt diplomatic pressures in
their behalf.
The AJCongress addbd that
everyone with concern for jus
tice—Jew and non-Jews—should
communicate immediately with
President Nixon and Secretary
Rogers imploring that every step
be taken to prevent the murder
of those still to be tried.”
Dr. Emanuel Neumann, chair
man of the Jewish Agency-Amer-
ican Section, urged in a telegram
to President Nixon that Washing
ton intervene through diplomatic
channels to forestall further
litical assassinations.” He
“If Iraq wants to be ‘Juden
it should permit its Jews to leave
peacefully for Israel and other
lands. Only thus can Iraq pre
serve whatever it may still pos
sess of humanity and decency.”
From The
Four
Arabs Hire Help
To Im^ove Image
Among Britons
LONDON (JTA) — The Arab
League has retained a British
public relations firm to improve
the Arab image in this country
and counteract the unpopularity
of the Arab countries since the
June, 1967 war.
The firm, Michael Rioe and
Co., numbers several prominent
public figures on its board of
directors, among them Patrick
McNair Wilson, a Conservative
Member of Parliament, and Sir
George Middleton, a former
British Ambassador to Cairo, who
is chairman of its overseas sub
sidiary.
Mr. Rice refused to disclose
the fee his company is being
paid. He said, “The Arabs feel
there has been a very definite
shift of opinion in Britain in
favor of Israel’s position because
of the failure in communications
between themselves and the
West.”
British WJC
Launches Drive
For Arab-Held Jews
LONDON (JTA)—The British
section of the World Jewish Con
gress, joined by other Jewish
bodies, has launched an interna
tional campaign to arouse world
opinion on behalf of Jews im
prisoned, harassed or on trial for
their lives in various Arab coun
tries. A pamphlet has already
been distributed likening the per
secution of Jews in some Arab
states to Jewish suffering under
Hitler.
The WJCongress noted that 18
months after the June, 1967 war,
hundreds of Jews are still de
tained in Egyptian prisons and
concentration camps without
formal charges having been
brought against them. They have
been denied aeoess to legal as
sistance and many have been
subjected to cruel indignities by
their' jailers, the WJCongress
said.
Yiddish Theater Sets
Plans for Poland
PARIS (JTA) — Two Polish
Jews associated with the Yiddish
theater told the Jewish Telegra
phic Agency that they intended
to return to Poland following
their vocations in Paris.
Jacob RottbaurrvJL.producer of
the Wroclaw State T’heiTtpr, said
he was producing a play based
on the works of Sholom Aleichem
with a group of Jewish actors.
He said he had been giving Yid
dish recitals in his city and, al
though the audience was steadily
diminishing, he had not been
bothered by Polish authorities.
Ruth Taru Kowalska, a well
known Yiddish actress of the
Jewish State Theater in Poland,
said she was returning to War
saw next week where the theater
is playing a full season.
Corners
ORT Adopts
Record Budget
Of $17 Million
NEW YORK (JTA)—More than
500 delegates to the 47th nation
al conference of the American
ORT Federation (Organization
for Rehabilitation Through
Training) approved a record $17
million budget here which will
aid over 50,000 persons in 23
countries. The new budget rep
resents a $1.8 million increase
over last year’s budget.
Dr. William Haber, Federation
president, said that one of the
principal beneficiaries would be
the network of ORT schools in
Israel. He said that with a small
population and surrounded by
enemies, Israel could not afford
“to close one-fifth of its young
generation, for lack of training
for the places they will hold.” He
said ORT planned to establish Is
rael’s first institution of practical
engineering in Jerusalem.
Delegates heard Dr. Vladimir
Halperin, World ORT Union di
rector, report that “successive
waves of refugee immigration in
the last 15 years have more than
doubled the Jewish population of
France to over 550,000.” He noted
that almost 25,000 North African
Jews had come to France since
the Six-Day War and announced
plans to open additional ORT
schools and training facilities for
them.
The conference received a mes
sage from President Richard M.
Nixon who hailed the interna
tional endeavors of ORT as “an
important contribution to better
ing the lot of fellow men.” Sen.
Jacob K. Javits, New York Re
publican, who delivered the prin
cipal address, urged a “joint U.S.-
USSR initiative” to bring about
meaningful Israel-Arab negotia
tions. The Senator was honored
for 20 years of service on ORT’s
advisory committee and board of
directors.
Israel Asks Speed-Up
Of Ford Production
JERUSALEM "t JTA) — Israeli
officials reported that the man
agement of Ford in Israel had
been asked to speed up assembly
of cars to meet local needs. The
request was made at a meeting
between Transport Minister
Moshe Carmel and Dr. Shaul
Lifshitz, a Ford representative.
The locally-assembled Fords,
which contain several Israeli-
made components, sells for about
$425 less than the imported ver
sion. There is currently a 12-
month
hide.
waiting list for the ve-