Newspaper Page Text
Friday, June 6, 1969
THE SOUTHERN ISRAELITE
Page Five
Jacob Friend Tours Mid-East Jewish Groups Rap
CCNY Quota Plan
By Adolph Rosenberg
If you did not know Jacob L.
Friend as a man of proven in
tegrity and honesty, you might
never believe some of his yams.
They are the substance of
which legends are made and
they sound like legend because
they incorporate his rare capac
ity for romancing what was and
tying it up with what is. His ex
periences are his personal rec
ords of this century’s history to
date.
If he had not been so busy
being involved in the schemes of
living under such circumstances,
he would have succeeded fab
ulously as a writer.
Take his recent experience in
Israeli But before he managed
to visit the Holy Band' there
were chapters and chapters of
adventure and misadventure and
near-adventure wj/chHook him
as a refugee from Communist
Russia and in time from Jap
anese invaders at Shanghai and
then — but we could never re-
. count his full career in any
single story anyway. Those who
know Mr. Friend know of his
fabulous life story and the mag
nificence and valor of his great
achievements as a teacher, a
Jewish scholar and a scientist.
He has during late years been on
the staff of Ahavath Achim
Congregation.
Let us skip over why it was
he did not get to Israel sooner,
this man to whom the facts and
figures of the Bible are as fa
miliar as our own personal his
tory to most of us.
But go he managed finally,
stopping along the way of all
places in Egypt and bringing
back a photograph for this edi
tor of himself in a group with the
Sphinx in the background.
To be sure he was traveling
on a tour as the lone Jew with
a group of Christian ministers
and missionaries and he was
probably camouflaged for his
trip into an Arab country. But
it’s one way to see a part of
the globe which sometimes has
been strictly forbidden to Jew
ish travelers. And he probably
had a chance for great insight.
Actually, Egypt today is not so
ppry of the religious background
of tourists—only their dollars and
so all the “mishegas” about dual
passports is no longer necessary.
Anyway, so Mr. Friend is in
Israel and somehow in touch with
Slomo Farber at Technion Uni
versity in Haifa.
Now who is Slomo? How is he
connected \yjth this peripatetic
Atlantan?
None other than a former pupil
of Mr. Friend — from the year
1912 no less and in a distant
place called Olkeniki in Lith
uania.
Mr. Farber has himself be
come a noted educator and has
published fifteen books on vari
ous aspects of the subject.
In addition, he has autho-ed
a volume in Hebrew on the Jew
ish history of Olkeniki.
And there, bright as lightning,
is a picture of the first Hebrew
School in the community which
Mr. Friend created in 3912—at
the incredible age of 22. In the
picture too is a younger brother
of Mr. Friend, who was enroll
ed as a pupil as part of the agree
ment between the community
fathers and Mr. Friend.
Mr. Friend was then, so to
JACOB FRIEND VISITS THE SPHINX
The memorial volume depiots
the historic synagogue and tells
detail by detail the story of the
Jewish community. A brief his
tory—in English—contains these
tragic concluding paragraphs.
“In 26.6.1941, the Germans en
tered •and conquered Olkeniki.
“In 20.9.1941, on Sunday, on
the eve of the Jewish New Year
the local peasants, under the
orders of the Nazis, drove out all
Jewish inhabitants from Olken
iki and the neighboring Jewish
villages. They were driven out
Charge Arab Funds
Continued from page 1'
and to assist young people in pre
paring for settlement there. ZOA
president Jacques Torczyner
pointed to the increase in the
number of young Jews who are
preparing for aliya. He said that
at least 7,000 will go to Israel
this year—twice last year’s num
ber of aliya participants from this
country and declared that the
figure will grow. He stated that
the 600,000 affiliated members of
all Zionist movements in the
United States “who form the
largest single organized force in
the country besides the synagogue
memberships,’ ’are united on the
question of aliya.
Macon Notes
Friends of Mrs. Avrom Roobin
will be happy to hear that she
is recovering nicely from recent
surgery.
Among visitors to Israel this
summer will be Mr. and Mrs.
Louis Chanin and Mrs. Max Mass.
This year’s confirmands at
Temple Beth Israel were Lisa
Torch, Barbara Dreizin, Carol
Cohen, Alison Happ, Nancy
Friedman, Carla Schlosburg, Har
riet Goldstein, Cathy Dunn, Darcy
Beck, Pamela Wimpy and Kim
Kirz.
The Macon Chapter of Hadas-
by foot for 21 kilometers to
Eishinok.
“On the 25-26.9-41, the Nazis
murdered all the Jewish people
from Olkeniki, Salo and heipuni
together with the Eishinok’s Jews
and threw all into one common
mass-grave.”
Mr. Farber had managed to
reach the Holy Land much
earlier with his family. The
memoriai volume he compiled
from letters, documents and a
few survivors ... If you did not
know from so many sources of
the extent of Nazi horrors, you’d
think the author made up the
Sole story . . .
NEW YORK, (JTA) — The
tentative agreement at City Col
lege of New York, which would
reserve 50 percent of each fresh
men enrollment for students
from the city’s ghetto areas, came
under sharp attack this week by
Jewish organizations. They in
cluded the American Jewish
Committee, the Anti-Defamation
League of B’nai B’rith and the
Jewish War Veterans.
The ADL called the proposal
an attempt “to turn back the
clock of progress.” The ADL
told the Board of Higher Edu
cation that it had fought ‘“the
pernicious practice of quota sys
tems for college admittance” 25
years ago and had won the bat
tle. Since then, it pointed out
“qualified students who previ
ously would have been denied
admission to colleges and uni
versities on the basis of racial,
religious and ethnic criteria have
built a clear record of imposing
contributions to their commun
ity and country.”
The human riehts agency told
the Board, which will have the
determining voice on whether
the quota plan is adopted, that
it recognized the urgent need to
provide higher educational fa
cilities for socio-economically
disadvantaged youth but it
warned that “any attempt to
introduce a quota system is not
only short-sighted but self-
defeating to the University, its
students and those potential stu
dents who desire and would
orofit from higher education.”
It expressed support of the City
University’s master plan for
“compensatory education leading
toward successful college matri
culation” and called for firm dis
approval of any quota system
proposals.
The New York chapter of the
AJCommittee, in telegrams to
various City University officials,
said implementation of the pro
posal would result in CCNY be
coming “an apartheid institution,
granting different degrees to
blacks and whites” and would
set “a disastrous pattern in this
country.” Without referring di
rectly to the possibility that the
agreement might cost qualified
Jewish high school graduates
admission to CCNY, the AJCom
mittee statement noted that the
agreement could mean ‘discrim
ination against numbers of stu
dents whose individual accom
plishments and promise qualify
them for admission." The state
ment stropgly urged rejection of
the tentative agreement and de
manded that CCNY adhere to
the resolution backed by the
Board of Higher Education
which must approve the agree
ment to make it effective. . The
resolution adopted on May 4 op
posed racial and ethnic quota
for admission to any of the City
University Colleges, all of which
have a large population of Jew
ish students. Fears were ex
pressed that approval of the
quota arrangement for CCNY
would set a precedent for the
other CUNY colleges.
The New York Department of
the Jewish War Veterans also
called on the board of Higher
Education to reject the quota
system proposals warning that to
accept such a system would be
“to permit retrogression.” It
asserted that quota systems had
no place the educational sys
tem. At weekend the City Col
lege Faculty Senate voted tenta
tively to reject the dual admis
sions proposal in favor of one
which would increase by a fixed
number the black and Puerto
Rican enrollment.
sah, which is celebrating its 2, r ith
speak, in between completing his anniversary this year, held instal-
formal education and although j a (j on G f officers at a luncheon
he had sufficient yeshiva train- meeting on May 28 Mrs Ben
j n g to create a Hebrew School, . , . , -
look after its curricula and nd- Goldgar, a past president and life
ministration, he had not yet se- member of the chapter, served as
cured the in-depth education he installing officer. Mrs. Emanual
desired. So he did not remain j' ar j 3er w qj agiain serve as presi-
longer than the single year in e Qther officers include Mrs.
Li ¥he ni sch t c^r n 'continued and Harry Schwartz, Mrs. William
grew in size until the traumatic Brown, Mrs. Burt Haskins and
years of the 1940’s when things Mrs Harvey Cole, vice presidents;
Jewish were put to the torch Mrs Reuben Kalman, cor. sec.;
Mrs. Herbert Levy, rec. sec.; Mrs.
Melvin Haskins, fin. sec. and Mrs.
Morris Gordon, treasurer. Hos
tesses were Mrs. Myron Koplin,
Mrs. Melvin Kruger and Mrs.
Alvin Koplin.
and the Jewish residents killed.
Among the Jewish facilities
destroyed was the famous wood-
carved Olkeniki Synagogue, con
structed from 1782-1802. In
1812, Napoleon paid a personal
visit to the place and inspected
the beautiful building.
Organized 1925
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