Newspaper Page Text
The Southern Israelite
A Weekly
VoJ. XLIV
Newspaper for Southern Jewry - Estakjjfgv
Atlanta, Georgia, Friday, October 10, 1969
Political Gobblcdygook
Lindsay—Let Soviet
Jews Come to NY City
Rohan Pleads Innc
Arson Before Packed
No. 41
NEW YORK (JTA) — Mayor
John V. Lindsay called on the
Soviet Union to allow it§ Jews,
who he said, were trapped “half-
free and half-slave’’ to come to
New York City, “where they
will find the kind of freedom
you cannot grant.”
Asserting that “we are all bro
thers of the Soviet Jews,” the
Mayor spoke at Simhat Torah
demonstration at Dag Hammar-
skjold Plaza near the United
Simhat i Torah
Brings Out
12,000 in Moscow
LONDON (JTA)—About 12,000
Moscow Jews sang and danced
on the Quarter-mile long Arkhipov
St. outside the Choral Synagogue
in a spontaneous celebration of
Simhat Torah. Eyewitnesses said
that youngsters outnumbered the
middle aged and elderly. They
sang traditional Jewish songs, in
cluding “Hava Nagila” and some
groups chanted, “I am a Jew,
we are all Jews.”
The normally quiet street near
the headquarters of the central
committee of the Sovet Commun
ist Party was closed to traffic by
police. There was no interference
with the celebration which has
become a Jewish tradition in
Moscow on Simhat Torah. But
some elderly Jews told foreign
observers that they doubted if
oelebraticns of the holiday were
allowed on the same scale in other
Soviet cities with large Jewish
populations like Kiev, Kharkov
and Odessa.
One elderly Jew reportedly
complained to visitors that Mos
cow’s 300,000 Jews had no central
meeting place outside of the syn
agogue. The young people learned
of the holiday by word of mouth
because no Jewish calendars are
published in the Soviet Union and
the press never reports the event
of religious holidays. The outpour
ing of emotion was seen by ob
servers as a demonstration of
identification with Israel by some
Jews or simply of Jewish identity
by others. Moscow has no formal
Jewish schools but people in the
Simhat Torah crowd said many
youngsters studied Hebrew in
private groups.
Nations, at which New York’s
Jewish community expressed its
solidarity with Soviet Jews.
“We say to> the Soviet Union—
if you cannot let our brothers
live in freedom, then let our
brothers go. If you cannot per
mit them to raise their children
by the faith of their fathers,
then let our brothers go. If you
cannot let them think, speak,
pray and live as freemen, then
let our brothers go.”
The demonstration was organ
ized by the New York Confer
ence on Soviet Jewry and the
Student Struggle for Soviet Jew
ry. The Conference, under the
chairmanship of Rabbi Norman
Lamm, represents the major
Jewish organizations of New
York and the local branches of
major national Jewish organiza
tions. The theme of the gather
ing was "let them live or
let them leave.” The event was
organized as the American coun
terpart of the annual practice of
young Soviet Jews who mark
Simhat Torah with singing and
dancing in the streets outside
theh Central Synagogue in Mos
cow. Similar celebrations are be
ing sponsored by the American
Jewish Conference for Soviet
Jewry in 59 other American cit
ies. Seven religious processions
bearing the palm branches and
torches crossed Hammarskjold
Plaza, each in behalf ol a selec
ted Russian Jewish community
— Moscow, Leningrad, Kiev,
Odessa, Riga, Vilna, and Tash
kent, Mayor Lindsay led the first
procession.
Or VeShalom Has
First Bat Mitzva
On September 28, Miss
Terry Franco, daughter of
Mr. and Mrs. Charlie Franco
of Atlanta, observed her Bat
Mitzva at Or VeShalom Syn
agogue. This was the first
Bat Mitzva ever held at Or
VeShalom.
Out-of-town guests includ
ed Mrs. Franco’s parents,
Mr. and Mrs. Harry Shapiro
of Tampa and Mrs. Franco’s
uncle, Isaac Shapiro of Silver
Spring, Md.
JERUSALEM (JTA) —Michael
Denis William Rohan, the 28-
year-old Australian sheep-shearer
accused of setting fire to the El
Aksa mosque Aug. 21, pleaded
innocent Tuesday to each of two
charges of arson and two charges
of violation of a Holy Place, The
charges were read by Judge Henry
E. Bsiker, a Scottish-bom Israeli
jurist who heads the three-mem
ber district court trying Rohan.
The defendant pleaded Innocent
through his court-appointed law
yer, Yitzhak Tunik, a prominent
criminal lawyer from Tel Aviv.
The Rohan trial opened in a
400 seat hall of Binyanei, Haoma,
the city’s convention center. It was
packed to capacity with police se
curity guards, newsmen, TV cam
era crews and spectators including
members of the foreign diploma
tic corps, Moslem dignitaries from
East Jerusalem and Israeli offic
ials.
The sight of Rohan flanked by
two policemen in a bulletproof
Rabbi Hooted
At Montreal
MONTREAL (JTA) — Rabbi
Abraham Feinberg, rabbi emeri
tus of Toronto’s Holy Blossom
Temple, was shouted down this
week by Quebec separatists and
students during an address at
McGill University. He urged
Jewish students to become racial
activists but was repeatedly in
terrupted by shouts of “facist,”
“down with the Zionism,” and
“Yankee Go Home.”
Visibly shaken, Rabbi Feinberg
appealed to the hecklers to “re
spect a 70-year-old man and wait
for the question period.” He was
allowed to finish his speech and
some of the separatists, addres
sing him in French as a “fascist
Zionist,” demanded to know why
he talked about the struggle
for liberation.”
The Ontario Province rabbi re
plied that “I have a simple
answer to that. I don’t know
enough about it.” Earlier in his
address, Rabbi Feinberg told the
crowd that “to be a Jew is to
mean to be a radical. In my in
terpretation of Judaism, I be
lieve there is one unmistakable
command or life stule — and
that is to take the radical way.”
First Regional Meeting Oct. 12-15
For Brandeis U. Women’s Group
,eadors of the newly formed
itheast Region of Brandeis
iversity National Women’s
nmittee will gather in Atlanta
October 13-15
their first re-
inal confer
ee. Thirty
men from thej
ven chapter
s expected
lition to Mrs.&
m Tick, Riv-|„
lale, N. YJ
mediate past^
sident.
•s. Harold Mar-
! of Atlanta is
qorral presi- -
lt Mrs. Tick
Che program for the three days
LI center on the theme, “Bran-
is—Challenge of a New Dec-
e,” and will feature thought
ivoking and informative ses-
ns.
Df special interest to Atlanta
members and their husbands is
the dinner meeting on Monday,
Oct. 13, at 7:00 p. m. Thu pro
gram for the evening will deal
in depth with the question of
Black Studies Program on the
American Campus. The guest
speaker, Dr. Vivian Henderson,
president, Clark College, will dis
cuss national trends and his view
of such programs. Mrs. Sheldon
Cohen, immediate past president,
Atlanta chater, is in charge of
the program and Mrs. Bernard
Howard, national corresponding
secretary, is Dinner Chairman.
Conference co-chairmen arc Mrs.
Jack I. Freedman and Mrs. Harv
ey Jacobson.
Mrs. Tick holds degrees from
Hunter College and Hebrew
Union College School for Teach
ers.
Active" in community affairs,
Schaarai Zedek
In Tampa Plans
75th Milestone
Tampa’s Congreg a t i o n
Schaarai Zedek is preparing
to celebrate its 75th Anniver
sary with a special service of
commemoration at 8:30 p.'m.,
on Friday, Oct. 31.
Rabbi Maurice N. Eisen-
drath, president of the Union
of American Hebrew Congre
gations, will be the guest
speaker.
Rabbi David Zielonka will
be honored at the service for
his 40 years of service aa
spiritual leader of the con
gregation.
glass booth wearing earphones to
hear the simultaneous English
translation of the Hebrew pro
ceedings made comparisons with
the trial of the notorious Gestapo
deportation chief Adolf Eichmann
inevitable. Israeli ahthorities have
been anxious to play down the
resemblance.
But the Rohan trial is doubt
lessly the most important from
an international point of view to
be held in Israel since' Eichmann
was tried, convicted and executed.
The mosque fire set off violent
repercussions throughout the
Moslem world and Israelis are ad
mittedly anxious to give the trial
of the suspect maximum publicity
in order to refute Arab charges
of Israeli responsibility for the
blaze.
Rohan was seen to swallow
hard when Judge Baker stated
that each of the two counts of
arson against him carry a penalty
of 15 years' imprisonment and the
two counts of violating a Holy
Place, seven years each—a total
of 44 years. The court admitted
as evidence the confession he al
legedly made to Jerusalem police
who arrested him within 24 hours
of the fire. Also admitted as
evidence were color slides al
legedly taken by Rohan of the
exterior and interior of the mos
que before he set it afire. The
latter, according to police, show
ed incendiary material inside the
shrine before it was ignited.
Rohan’s alleged confession was
read to the court by David Offer,
a deputy police officer, at the re
quest of prosecuting attorney
Meir Shamgar, one of the lawyers
who helped prosecute Eichmann.
Deputy Offer testified that when
he questioned Rohan following
his arrest, the prisoner said, “I
got up in the morning, went out
and burned the El Aksa mosque.”
The alleged confession read by
Offer stated: “I read in Prophet
Zachariah that one person would
be called by God to build the
Temple. I deeply felt that God
wanted me to build the Temple
Aksa
Courtroom
and that I would have to prove
whether this call was true or not
by destroying the mosque.”
It went on to say that Rohan
paid Arab guides to take him on
tours of the mosque dozens of
times and to tell how he made
plans for setting it afire. Rohan
has claimed that he is a member
of the Church of God, a funda
mentalist Protestant sect with
headquarters in Cyprus. It Is the
alleged belief of the sect that the
resurrection of Jesus must follow
the restoration of the Temple In
Jerusalem. The mosque, the third
holiest shrine of Islam, occupies
the site on which the Temple is
believed to have stood.
The' charges against Rohan
stated that the accused made an
abortive attempt to set fire to
the mosque several weeks before
the Aug. 21 blaze. At the time
only a door was scorched. The
earlier fire went unnoticed and
was unreported by the Moslem
guards employed by the Waqf,
the Moslem religious council in
Jerusalem responsible for the se
curity and maintenance of Mos
lem shrines. A joint Israeli-Arab
committee inquiring into the cir
cumstances of the Aug. 21 fire
charged the Waqf with gross neg
ligence in a report to Premier
Golda Meir. Moslems on the
other hand, have charged Israeli
police with negligence in protect
ing the mosque.
The fire led to calls for a holy
war against Israel by several
Arab leaders, among them Presi
dent Gamal Abdel Nasser of
Egypt, King Faisal oaf Saudi Ara
bia and King Hussein of Jordan.
Arab wrath culminated In the
convening of an all-Moslem sum
mit conference at Rabat, Moroc
co last month. The conference
ended inconclusively but the
Arab states managed to pressure
the more moderate non-Arab
Moslem delegates to go along
with a demand that Israel should
rescind its annexation of East
Jerusalem.
she has headed the Riverdale
Women’s Division of the United
Jewish Appeal and is a member
of its Advisory Board.
Tashlich, Roth Hashana 8730. On tha seashore of Tel Aviv.
ISRAEL SUN Photo