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The Southern Israelite A Weekly Newspaper for Southern Jewry - Established 1925 Vol. XIIV Atlanta, Georgia, Friday, October 24, 1969 No. 43 Atlanta Voters Choose Jewish Candid L C Ry Adolph Rosenberg *5 uowa Ma-ZOL Tov! Ma-ZOL Tov! Atlanta has a Jewish mayor, miracle of miracles. And in addition as though this were not enough. Atlanta has a Black Vice Mayor. deprived Coney Island Synagogue Vandalized NEW YORK (JTA) — The president of the Brooklyn Board of Rabbip, appealed this week to Catholic and Protestant clergy men to join him in condemning vandalism against houses of wor ship after a Coney Island syna gogue was found desecrated. Rabbi Kurt Klappholz made his appeal after Morris Glassman, president of Congregation Che- vra Bigur Cholem,, reported that the synagogue had been ruined. Rabbi Mendel Epstein said that he and a member of the congregation, which has 30 regu lar worshippers, most of them elderly, found the vandalism when they arrived for morning services. It was the second time that the synagogue had been vandalized in a month. Dam ages were estimated at thousands of dollars. Angry congregation members, asserting that abandoned homes in the neighborhood were hiding places for drug addicts, muggers and vandals, demanded that the three mayoral candidates visit the synagogue. Rabbi Epstein said “we found prayer books thrown all over the place, and human excrement smeared in the aisles.” He add ed that the Torah Scroll and the Ark in the sanctuary had been left untouched. Police said they were looking for a gang of six Negroes and Purerto Rican youths suspected of the vanda lism. A patrolman was placed on guard at the synagogue. SWISS CASE Israel Claims Envoy Charges “Unwarranted” JERUSALEM (JTA) — The Israel Government has informed Switzerland that it considered charges against i t s military attache in Berne, Col. Zvi Allon, to be “unwarranted” and ex pressed regret that the Swiss Government has seen fit to de clare him persona non grata. The Israelis statement was con tained in a reply to a Swiss note of Oct. 6 which accused Col. Allon of involvement in the theft of the jet engine plans from the Sulzer works in Winterthur by a Swiss national, Alfred Franken- knecht. According to a Ministry spokesman, the Israeli reply de nied any knowledge of activities on the part of Embassy person nel in Bern which could be con strued as injurious to Swiss se curity or national interests. It emphasized that Israeli Embassy personnel are required to respect the national security of Switzer land at all times. Col. Allon was expelled from Switzerland on charges that im plicated him in the theft of Mi rage III-S jet engines which Sul zer manufacturers for the Swiss Air Force on license from the French firm of Marcel Dassault. Mr. Frauenknecht, a Sulzer em ploye, was arrested last month for allegedly smuggling plans, models and tooling instructions for the engines to Israeli agents in West Germany. France Studying Mirage' Refund PARIS (JTA) — A French ministerial committee is study ing ways to refund an estimated $60 million that Israel paid for 50 Mirage III supersonic jets that were never delivered because of the embargo imposed by former President Charles de Gaulle af ter the Six-Day War, it was learned here this week. Most observers here believe the Government has already decided in principle to keep the planes and return the money to Israel. The committee’s task is to de vise a way of accomplishing this without creating serious econm- ic, diplomatic and military re percussions, it was reported. MIT’s Luria Shares 1969 Nobel Prize NEW YORK (JTA) — A Jew ish microbiologist, Dr. Salvador E. Luria of the Massachusetts In stitute of Technology, was an nounced this week as one of three American scientists jointly awarded the 1969 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for their discoveries in the field of virus and viral diseases research. The three scientists, who will share a $73,000 cash prize, were hailed by the selections committee in Stockholm as having “set the solid foundation on which mod ern molecular biology rests.” Dr. Luria. 57, was born in Turin, Italy and studied medi cine there before coming to the United States in 1940. He did research and teaching at Co lumbia University, the Carne gie Institute, the University of Illinois and the University of Indiana before joining the facul ty at MIT, where he is Sedwick Professor and head of microbiol ogy. He is active in the anti- Vietnam war movement. Postpones Strauss Music at Concert TEL AVIV (JTA The Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, bowing to heavy pressure and threats of demonstrations outside the Mann Auditorium here, has indefinitely “postponed” a performance of Richard Strauss’ tone poem, “Till Eulenspiegel” which was on the program of its next concert. The orchestra announced that it would submit the controversy to a high level public committee for decision. Bitter protests were mounted against the work by organiza tions of concentration camp sur vivors and ghetto fighters on the grounds that Strauss was an anti- Semite and a Nazi-sympathizer. They were joined by many con cert subscribers and others. Israeli writers, journalists and intellectuals who usually abhor censorship and take a sophistica ted view of such matters have privately advised the orchestra management to drop the per formance. Their argument was that it would be “offensive” to many Israelis and might reflect unfavorably on the entire coun try. No works of Richard Strauss or of Richard Wagner, also reputedly an anti-Semite, have ever been performed in Israel though compositions of other German and Austrian com posers have. Combination of these two leaders to pace the city into the 1970’s was causing many on Wednesday to rejoice with a “our cups runneth over’” feel ing. Not all however was hosan nah’s. Pessimistic persons won dered if it would be good for the Jews. But Sam Massell did not enter the race as a Jew and he did not campaign as a Jew. He brought charges of “Anti- Semitism” during the last few days before the run-off, when smear tactics were brought into the campaign in behalf of his opponent, Alderman Rodney Cook, a competent and experi enced alderman and legislator. Cook maintained that these tactics, leveled because of sol icitation of funds for the Massell campaign by his controversial and mal-a-prop brother, were brought without his knowledge by the retiring mayor. Traditionally, the last few mayors of Atlanta have not en dorsed a candidate but Mayor Ivan Allen indirectly deviated from this precedent when he launched a “get-out-the-vote” campaign as a response to the small turn-out in .the general election earlier this month and later called for Massell’s with drawal because of the solicita tion matter. Massell’s response however was to stick in the race and fight against the implications of any wrong-doing and against the obvious now alarmed “power structure” which he bitterly charged with “anti-Semitism” because of the Cook endorse ments. “They do not want me to sit in their social clubs and now they do not want me to sit in the mayor’s seat,” he charged. It was too much for many voters who now saw him in the role of the underdog and de terminedly switched support as a blow to the power structure. Both Atlanta daily papers had endorsed his opponent in what was a blatant orders-from-the- top mandate. Liberals of the city wondered whether the late Ralph McGill would have permitted the Constitution to be subjected to this indignity. In the final analysis, Massell was swept into office with 61,- 558 votes, or 55.5 of the total vote, through the good offices of the Black voters. Negro pre cincts almost down the line went for Massell, who also carried a good percent of the totals in white precincts as well. Lines were also drawn along political lines since Cook is a Republican and Massell a De mocrat. Cook’s suave tv and radio spots seemed prepared by Madison avenue experts. Massell’s material was geared This strategy apparently work ed. Massell has apparently lived in a political atmosphere all his life. His father was Sam Massell Sr., a veteran lawyer and not Ben Massell, the noted builder and philanthropist—the mayor- elect’s uncle. The father was prominent in political life. The son was a political tour de force even while a student at the Uni versity of Georgia. In' his very early thirties, he ran and won for the presidency of the Atlanta Aldermanic Board, or vice mayor’s slot and against all odds emerged in the run-off. Four years later, he won the same post, but this time running away. His service has been disting uished by hard work and dyna mism. He has especially been ac tive in the arena of “human re lations” and race improvement. “Human relations,” he said in a final tv enterview, remains “the most critical area we must face in this city.” And how will this be a part of his administration if elected, the interviewer asked. “By living with it, by prac ticing it, by working for it,” came the rejoiner. Election of a Jewish mayor seemed to indicate the exact opposite of the swing of the pen dulum from the religious bigoted times of the Tom Watson-Leo Frank era around fifty years ago. Is it good for the Jews to have a Jewish mayor? Who Continued on page 5 MAYOR-ELECT MASSELL, HIS WIFE DORIS, DAUGHTERS CINDY AND MELANIE, AND SON STEPHEN. Time Ripe for Reform - Conservative Merger? BORIS SMOLAR — Page 4