Newspaper Page Text
Vol. XLIV
The Southern Israelite
A Weekly Newspaper for Southern Jewry — Established 1925
Atlanta, Georgia, Friday, February 14, 1969
New York Holds Parley
On Rising Arson, Vandalism
NEW YORK (JTA) — Deputy
Mayor Timothy Costello of New
York and top officials of the
city’s Police and Fire Depart
ments met 94 Orthodox Jewish
leaders and rabbis here this week .
to discuss ways of combating the
wave of arson and vandalism
that has hit Jewish religious in
stitutions during the past few
months and the increase in mug
gings and other crimes in Jewish
neighborhoods. The meeting was
disclosed by Rabbi Joseph Kara-
sick, president of the Union of
Orthodox Jewish Congregations .
of America, which convened it.
In addition to Mr. Costello it was’
attended by Fire Commissioner
Robert O. Lowery, Police Com
missioner Howard R. Leary and
Chief Police Inspector Sanford
Garelik.
Rabbi Karasick said the offi
cials were apprised of the grow
ing alarm in the Jewish com
munity for the safety of children
attending Hebrew schools and
the safety of synagogues and
Jewish community centers hit by
fires and vandalism. Initial pro
posals ranged from improved
fire prevention and security
methods in synagogues to efforts,
through political channels, to
bring about increased police
man power, better law enforce
ment procedures and court ac
tion, as well as inter-racial con
sultation on the problems of
changing neighborhoods. Most of
New York’s Orthodox Jews tend
to congregate in old neighbor
hoods once exclusively Jewish
but now racially ifiixed.
The city officials noted that
while 14 synagogues and yeshi-
vas have had fires in recent
weeks and others have been bur
glarized and vandalized, houses
of worship of other denomina
tions have also been victims.
Police Commissioner Leary and
Fire Commissioner Lowery both
asserted that ca*reful studies have
shown no single pattern, such as
Maryland Man
Held in Blast
Of Synagogue
WASHINGTON (JTA)—Police
were holding a 30-year-old Chev-
erly, Md., man on charges of
dynamiting January 11 the
Shaare Tikvah synagogue in su
burban Temple Hills, Md. Dam
age to the year-old synagogue
was estimated at $200,000.
A small arsenal was found in
the home of David V. Maness, an
electrical worker, along with a
printed list of synagogues in
Prince Georges County, where
Shaare Tikvah is located, and a
handdrawn map of the Temple
Hills' area.
Among the charges filed against
Maness were dynamiting of a
house of worship. Some 38
pounds of dynamite, fuses and
detonation tapes were found in
his home along with weapons
and ammunition after police
picked him up in a car stopped
when it was recognized as be
longing to a convicted felon.
Found also in the home was a
quantity of literature produced
by the extreme right-wing Min-
utemen organi z a t r o (i which
teaches its members guerrilla
warfare. Officials did not say
whether Maness was a^Tinute-
men member.
Rabbi Robert Chcrnoff, the
synagogue’s spiritual leader, said
he hoped “there will be no prem
ature judgments made against
the man.” There were no in
juries in the explosion as the
synagogue was empty on the
Saturday night that it occurred.
The rabbi said repairs had begun.
The congregation is meeting in a
church.
racial conflict, could be attribu
ted to the outbreaks. They sta
rted that some cases had been
traced to juveniles living in the
vicinity of the affected syna
gogues, schools and churches
who were apparently bent on idle
mischief rather than arson.
They said in some cases evidence
of arson was found and others
indicated .the work of dope ad
dicts. All four city officials
urged the synagogue leaders to
implement Police and Fire De
partment guidelines for building
security and fire prevention.
They also pointed out the prob
lems encountered in court prose
cution of those charged with the
crimes many of whom are re
peters with long police records.
French I *ropos
OK’d by II. S.
03^
iii Changes
WASHINGTONN (JTA)— The
Nixon administration acted last
week tf> cooperate with a French
proposal for Big Four talks at
the United Nations on a possible
Mideast peace formula but with
substantial American modifica
tions of the French proposal.
The resistance of the former
Johnson administration tSL the
initial proposal from Frohch
President Charles deGaulle for
an imposed Big Four setttlement
led to French second thoughts
and a revised proposal excluding
any idea of imposing on Israel
and the Arab states whatever
formula the Big Four might
reach.
The revised proposal was for
Big Four talks at the Foreign
Minister level at the UN, with
the understanding that this
would be to buttress, rather than
weaken, the assignment of the
UN’s special Mideast emissary,
Dr. Gunnar Jarring.
Replying to a January 16
French note proposing the Big
Four talks at the UN, Secretary
of State William Rogers handed
French envoy Charles Lucet a
letter to Gen. de Gaulle in effect
rejecting the French proposal by
saying that preliminary meetings
No Jews Among Next
Defendants in Iraq
LONDON (JTA) — Egypt’s
Middle East News Agency had
reported from Baghdad that Iraq
is trying' a second group of
alleged spies but that none of
them are Jews. The news agency
quoted Iraqi president Ahmed al
Bakr as saying that Iraq’s esti
mated 3,000 Jews were free to
leave the country if they
wanted to. Another report reach
ing here was that between 21 and
25 Jews arrested after the Six-
Day War had been released from
jail.
The hanging on Jan. 27 of 14
Iraqis, nine of them Jews, after
a secret trial, spurred worldwide
protests and demands on the in
ternally-riven Iraqi regime that
it drop plans for a second trial in
which more Jews were to have
been “tried,” this time for
alleged spying for the CIA. The
first 14 victims were accused of
spying for Israel.
The report that Iraq had ap
parently responded to unremit
ting worldwide pressures, in
cluding criticism from some of
its Arab brothers, came as the
protests continued to be regis
tered.
In Amsterdam, JTA quoted
Foreign Minister Joseph Luns as
announcing that Jews leaving
Arab countries would be wel
come in Holland. In Rio de
Janiero, the Brazilian Foreign
Ministry announced that Brazil’s
permanent representative to the
United Nations had been instruc
ted to inform the Iraqi Govern
ment of Brazil’s “grave, humani
tarian concern” over the fate of
the Iraqi Jewish community and
the treatment given Jewish lead
ers. In Stockholm, foreign min
isters of the Scandinavian com
munity — Sweden, Norway, Den
mark and Finland — adopted a
resolution warning that the
Baghdad executions would ad
versely ^affect prospects for a
peace settlement in the Middle
East.
In the first reported published
comment on the executions in
the East European Communist
satellite bloc, a Bratislava news
paper, Pravda. denounced the
“inhuman methods and actions”
of the Iraqi regime. The Slovak
daily warned that such actions
would only harm Arab prestige
in the world. It said the execu
tions were more in the nature of
settling old scores than of liquid
ating spies.
Mrs. Rita Hauser, the young
New Yorker'appointed by Presi
dent Nixon as the American rep
resentative on the United
Nations Human Rights Commis
sion and UN Economic and Social
Council, said in Washington that
the execution ofVhe Iraqi Jews
would be the first agenda sub
ject taken up by the Commission
when it meets in Geneva, Feb.
14. She expressed concern over
the fate of the Iraqi Jewish com
munity and said she would urge
the President to press for U.S.
ratification of the human rights
and genocide conventions.
In Paris, Dr. Nahum Goldman,
World Jewish Congress president,
continued efforts to line up gov
ernments and international or
ganizations behind the WJC plea
to UN Secretary-General U
Thant to seek the emigration of
Iraqi Jews.
A massive demonstration of
solidarity with the Jews of Iraq
was given in Jerusalem. Thou
sands marched through the main
streets after hearing Menachem
Beign, Minister Without Port
folio, appeal to the nation^ of the
world and international organiza
tions to aid the Jews remaining
in Iraq. Another cabinet mem
ber, Police Minister Eliahus Sas-
son, participated in the memorial
services for the nine hanged
Jews, lighting nine candles. He
told the throng that the world
could not be absolved of respon
sibility for the fate of the slain
Continued on page 4
International President Bill Wexler of Savannah leads B’nai B’rith and communal leaders in a
Washington memorial service for the Jewish Iraqi martyrs.
should be held at the UN on a
bi-laterial basis before the major
powers met for the proposed
talks.
President Nixon added some
details at his second White
House press conference to the
careful spelling out of his ad
ministration’s Middle East policy.
In general terms, he said that
policy was an active one, that
the United States would take
“initiatives” to promote peace
and would not “wait for some
thing else to happen.” He reiter
ated his belief thart the area
“might explode into a major war”
and hence needed immediate at
tention.
On specifics, the President
said the approach would be five
fold: support of Dr. Jarring’s
mission: bi-lateral talks with the
Big Four at the UN followed by
formal talks; meetings with the
Middle East parties concerned
and advancement of aid plans foor
the region. He cited the plan
formulated two years ago by
Adm. Lewis Strauss and endorsed
by former President Eisenhower
to bring atomic-powered desal
ination efforts to the area.
Even-Handedness
Again Endorsed
Bu Ex-Gov. Scranton
BOSTON (JTA)—Former Gov.
William W. Scranton, ot Pennsyl
vania, who went to the Middle
East on a special iact-tinAIn#
mission for Mr. Nixon last year,
has reiterated his controversial
statement made at that time that
the United States should adopt a
“more even-handed” policy in the
Middle East.
Gov. Scranton told Christian
Science Monitor correspondent
Godfrey Sperling Jr., in an inter
view published this week that
there is “rightly or wrongly the
Impression all over the Middle
East (outside of Israel)—an im
pression that has been growing
in the last two or three years—
that the U. S. is interested only
in supporting Israel, regardless
of what It does.”
The Scranton report to Mr.
Nixon has not been made pub
lic. His recommendations, how
ever, were “said to bave moved
President Nixon, more than any
thing else, to make a No. 1 pri
ority of an effort toward achiev
ing peace in the Mideast,” Mr.
Sperling reported.
Sen. Hartke Says
V. S. May Be Paying
For Jordan Army
WASHINGTON (JTA) — The
United States Government may
be indirectly financing Iraqi mil
itary units based in Jordan, hi-
cluding artillery units that have
fired on Israeli kibbutzim, ac
cording to Sen. Vance Hartke,
Indiana Democrat.
Sen. Hartke, a member of the
Commerce Committee, which
handles revenue legislation, has
asked Secretary of State William
P. Rogers for a report on con
tinued American financial assis
tance to Jordan and on possible
Jordanian diversion of support
funds to cover logistical costs of
Iraqi units stationed on its ter
ritory.
The Senator suggested that
Jordan may he compensating
Iraq tor rations, lodging, and
even munitions and pay tor such
Iraqi military components ns the
Saladdin Brigade now in north
ern Jordan. The inquiry follow
ed recent developments in Bagh
dad including the hanging of
Jews.