Newspaper Page Text
Vol. XLV
A Weekly Newspaper for Southern Jewry - Es' ose s ' f *925
two Se
Atlanta, Georgia, Friday, June 26, 1970
Section*—16
24 Jewish
Elected to
LONDON (JTA) — Grevffle
Janner, son of Lord £arnett
Jaimer, was declared theT victor
Friday in the fight for tne Lei-
cester, Northwest seat, which his
father had held for Labor over
many years. The then Sir Bar
nett Janner, 78, announced on
the dissolution of Parliament last
month that he was stepping
down. He was subsequently
named a lifetime peer. The
junior Mr. Janner was one of 19
Jewish Labor candidates elec
ted to the new House of Com
mons in the greatest political up
set in many years. Six Jews
have been returned to Parlia
ment as Conservatives. Among
them was Michael M. Fidler, pres
ident of the Board of Deputies of
British Jews, who will take a
seat in Parliament for the first
time. Sir Henry D’Avigdor
Goldsmid, president of the Jew
ish Colonization Association, was
reelected as was Sir Keith Jos
eph, who served in former Con
servative governments. Also
elected by the Conservatives
were Maj. Gen. J. D’Avigdor
Goldsmid, Geoffrey Finsburg,
and Harold Soref who is origi
nally from South Africa. Sir
Keith, who was appointed Sec
retary of Social Services in the
hew government, formerly
served as honorary treasurer of
the Friends of the Hebrew Uni
versity. Among the new faces
to be seen on the Labor side of
the aisle in the new House will
be that of Gerald Kaufman, a
well-known journalist who
served as press advisor to Prime
Minister Harold 11911800.
Other Laborites elected were:
Harold Lever, a former mem
ber of the Cabinet; Sir Meyer
Galpem, former Lord Mayor of
Glasgow; Ian Mikardo, a Labor
Party strategist; Edmund DeU, a
former junior minister; George
Strauss, a former member of the
Cabinet; Maurice Edelman, the
novelist; Maurice Orbach, a
member of the executive of the
World Jewish Congress, and Sim
Silkin, John Silkin, Dr. Maur
ice Miiller, CoL Marcus Lipton,
Julius Silverman, Leo Abse, Joel
Barnett, Paul Rose and Rene
Short. Reelected was Raphael
H. Tuck who squeezed through
in Watford with a hairline ma
jority of 76 votes. A number of
personalities considered friendly
to Israel will be seen on both
sides of the new House. Chi the
Tory side, they include Winston
Church hill Jr., Quentin Hogg,
former Foreign Secretary Sir Alec
Douglas-Home, and Mrs. Mar
garet Thatcher, president of the
Anglo-Israeli Friendship League.
On the Labor side, they include
Richard Crossman, Anthony
Wedgwood-Benn, and many
members of the Labor Friends of
Israel. Former Secretary George
Brown was defeated in a sur
prising upset His former Un
dersecretary of State for Foreign
Affairs, Evan Luard, who was
generally held responsible for
Britain’s anti-Israel vote in the
UN Security Council on the op
eration in southeast Lebanon,
was defeated in his Oxford con
stituency. John Diamond, a
prominent Labor member in. the
last House who was Financial
Secretary of the Treasury, was
one of the Laborites who failed
to win reelection.
JERUSALEM (JTA) — Pre
mier Golda Meir cabled “warm
congratulations and every good
wish” to Britain’s new Prime
Minister, Edward Heath whose
Conservative Party wipto an tip-
set victory in Britain** 'JpatitfBal
elections last Thumfigfc -J |f».
What Our Permmive Socti
Candidates Bos(on Vjg ; fantjes to k0a ,;;
r 0
Parliament
Meir added, "It is with particu
lar pleasure that I recall your
visit to . Israel last year (in
April) and I am confident that
under your distinguished leader
ship Britain’s relations with Is
rael will continue to develop on
the foundations of mutual con
structive friendship ”
The Conservative Party’s vic
tory was seen here as unlikely
to alter Israel’s relations with
the United Kingdom. Political
circles here believe that if there
is any change at all in Britain’s
policy toward the Middle East
conflict it will be for the better
from Israel’s point of view if
only because the Tories have
“greater sensitivity” toward Sov
iet penetration of the region.
The independent daily Haaretz
said here that “It is fair as
sumption that a Tory govern
ment’s views on the need to
curb the Soviet incursion into
the Middle East and the Persian
Gulf will be more vigorous than
those of the Labor government
and will find expression at the
United Nations, in the Four
Power talks and in contacts be
tween Washington and Moscow.”
Menachem Beigin, leader of
the right-wing Herat Party said
that he was favorably impressed
by Mr. Heath who he met a year
ago and regarded him as an
“ardent friend” of Israel. Po
litical circles here pointed out
that despite the extremely cord
ial relations, that exist between
Britain’s Labor Party and the
Israel Labor Party, there has al
ways been a vast discrepency
between Labor’s sympathy
toward Israel and its perform
ance while in office.
The blatantly anti-Zionist role
of the late Ernest Bevin, the
Labor Foreign Secretary during
the immediate pre-statehood era,
was recalled by some today.
More recently, it was noted, the
Labor government refused to sell
Chieftain tanks to Israel because
of political expediency.
The daily Yediot Aharonot
said editorially, “We can cer-
Continued on page 5
No. 26
ime
Areas Protecting Life, Property
BOSTON (JTA) — A police-
civilian patrol force is expected
to go on duty next month to pro
tect lives and property jn the
predominately Jewish areas of
Mattapan and Dorchester, an
area plagued by high crime. The
project was approved last week
following conferences between
Mayor Kevin White and Robert
M. Segal, president of the Jew
ish Community Council, and
Eight Leningrad Jews Held
After Alleged Hijacking Plot
LONDON (JTA)—Eight Len
ingrad Jews were among 21
persons who have been arrested
and 50 homes of Jews in several
Soviet cities have been raided
and searched according to re
ports from Moscow reaching
here.
The reports said the arrests
and searches may or not have
been in connection with the at
tempt to hijack a Soviet
plane at Leningrad Airport
on June 15 by a group said
to include some Jews who
wanted to go to Israel. The
hijacking attempt came to light
when correspondents found a
brief account on the back page
of the newspaper Leningrad-
skaya Pravda in the Moscow
public library. 'Die newspaper is
not sold in Moscow and does not
accept subscriptions from for
eigners. According to the account
“a group of criminals ^tryingjg
seize a scheduled airplane, was
apprehended.” They were not
identified. (New York Times
correspondent Bernard Gwertz-
man in a cabled report from
Moscow quoting Soviet “dissidetn
sources” said one of the alleged
hijackers was Mrs. Silva Kuz
netsov, Jewish, and her husband,
Edward, described as “half-Jew
ish.” Mr. Gwertzman’s sources
said Mrs. Kuznetsov was active
in Riga in trying to get permis
sion for Jews to leave for Israel.
According to the Times dispatch,
seven of the Jews arrested in
Leningrad in their home or at
work were identified by their -
last names—Kaminsky, Koren-
blit, Chemoglas, Butman, Drez-
ner, Yagmsrn and Mogilyever.
The raids ami searches of Jew
ish homes were said to have
taken place in Leningrad, Riga,
Moscow and Kharkov. According
to the “dissident sources” quoted
by the Times correspondent, the
Leningrad arrests and the
searches were authorized by
Article 64-A of the Russian Fed
eration Criminal Code or its
Ukrainian and Latvian equiva
lents. Article 64-A deals with
treason and lists among treason
ous crimes, “flight abroad.” Pun
ishment under the article ranges
from 10 years confinement to
death, Mr. Gwertzman report
ed.)
NEW YORK (JTA) — Two
American organizations working
on behalf of Soviet Jewry con
demned the arrest of eight Jews
IfTBSHnectioh With Mi -aReged- ploymefir'and mining.
Leningrad plane hijacking as such
Robert E. Segal, JCC executive
director, and Rev. Arthur Walm-
sley, general secretary of the
Massachusetts Council of Chur
ches. Reginald Eaves, adminis
trator for the Mayor’s Office on
Human Rights, said an initial
force of about 300 volunteers
was planned. They will under
go a 10-week on-duty training
program. They will be provided
with nightsticks and two-way
radios and will be deployed in
pairs. Their purpose will be to
report crimes being committed
to the Boston Police Department.
Volunteers between the ages of
19 and 06 will be accepted.
The project cranes under the
Federal Law Enforcement As
sistance ’ Administration. The
Jewish Community Council is
seeking $150,000-3200,000 from
the Federal Government to fi
nance the patrols under the Safe
Streets Act. Patrol members
will be neither paid nor uni
formed. Expenses' such as the
purchase of radios will be paid
by the city. The funds sought
from Washington are to pay the
salaries of additional policemen,
for policemen’s automobiles and
for trying out innovative meth
ods of law enforcement The
local Police Department will be
in full control of the civilian pa
trols and is responsible for their
organization, administration, de-
a “pretext” fofr repressing emi
gration demands.
Rabbi Herschel Schacter,
chairman of the American Jew
ish Conference on Soviet Jewry,
said the incident has been used
“as a pretext for terroriz. ing
and harassing Soviet Jews who
are known to have petitioned
the United Nations as well as
Soviet authorities to leave for
Israel.” One of the eight arrest
ed, he said, “has had the audac-
ity and courage to petition So
viet authorities on 32 separate
Continued on page 4
AMERICAN SCENE
By George Friedman
The Disappearing Synagogue
What is the future of the syn
agogue in the American Jewish
Way of life? A recent study by
Rabbi Ronald M. Goldstein of
Buffalo, N. Y., while, recognizing
that “there is a conscious effort
to maintain Jewish survival,”
nevertheless concluded that
“there are presently many Jews
whose needs are not being met
by the synagogue.”
In Brooklyn, New York, long
a “safe” borough for Jewish po
liticians, synagogues are disap
pearing faster than you can say
“Moshe Kol.” Many of them are
being sold to churches, which
technically is against Jewish
law. Many others are simply
being abandoned, With their
stained-glass wind o w s and
mogen dovids left behind, to be
covered with non-Jewish sym
bols by appropriators of the
premises. Those that continue
to be maintained often serve
ever-decreasing congregations.
The famous Brooklyn Jewish
Center, where Richard Tucker
used to be cantor and where
this writer received his ground-
in HebraicaW has diecpn-
its Hot ™ *
tion seem to hg two—a lack of
interest by many new-genera-
tion Jews and the dispersion of
Jewish communities through
racial integration.
A case in point is Temple
Petach Tikvah (“Gate of Hope”)
in the East New York section of
Brooklyn. Founded in 1915, it is
the borough’s oldest Conserva
tive temple. Rabbi Abraham P.
Bloch, spiritual leader for 33
years, talked the other day
about Petach Tikvah’s straits.
And he was not very hopeful
about the immediate future.
As recently as eight years
ago, he said, he could count on
500 Saturday worshipers; now
adays there are 60. Only two
years ago, 2400 attended Yom
Kippur services; now there are
500, and the balcony has been
closed off. The large adjoining
auditorium has been on the
selling block for years—the ask
ing price is $200,000—but there
have been no takers and the
only semi-interested party has
been St. Maty’s Hospital. On top
of that, one of the "unbreakable”
window-protectors has already
been broken ty vandals, and a
1906 llrq tost the tempi* $9$,-
ooo. mJ*
The & temple’s teen program
(“one of the finest,” says Rabbi
Bloch), was discontinued after
its attendance sank from 150 to
“less than 20.” The High Holiday
choir no longer exists for finan
cial reasons. Hebrew school
membership has dropped from
230 to seven. Remaining com
munity-oriented activities have
been relegated to afternoons and
weekends (many congregants
will not venture out at night,
although the now-integrated
neighborhood is not known for
racial outbusts.)
About all that remains is
Rabbi Bloch, strong-voiced -Haz-
zan Alvin F. Schraeter, a core
of elderly congregants, and an
Increasingjly empty temple
whose operating budget has
slumped 60 percent in half a
Rabbi Bloch attributes the de
terioration to a large extent to
what 'he calls the “totally new
phenomenon In Jewish life” —
unknown in Europe—of the “de
clining,” Le., shrinking; Amer
ican Jewish neighborhood. He 1$
particularly incensed at the
abandMunent
Crimes
mugging and robbery
have reached high proportions in
the Mattapan and Dorchester
areas. Two neighborhood syna
gogues were recently set afire by
arsonists causing heavy damage.
Synagogue worshippers were
given extra police protection
during the Shavuot holidays.
Jewish Museum
Bans Panther
Pamphlets
NEW YORK (JTA) — The .
Jewish Museum has removed
Black Panther pamphlets from
a lobby display because “quite
a number” of members and visi
tors objected to the party’s anti-
Zionism and alleged anti-Semi
tism.
But museum chairman David
Finn told the Jewish Telegraphic
Agency that the board’s decision
was not in any way in response
to last week’s threat by the Jew
ish Defense League to picket the
museum if the Panther literature
were not removed. Mr. Finn
said he had not heard of the
threat of the JDL, which con
siders the Panthers extreme
anti-Semites.
The chairman said there had
been an agreement with the New
York Artists Strike Against Ra
cism, Repression and War not
to include in its display any ma
terial “that is offensive to any
body of any religious persua
sion.” The dissident artists, who
include Panthers, charged the
museum with censorship and
unsuccessfully sought to add
pro-Israal material to their dis
play as a compromise. Among
the “offensive” portions of the
Panther material was an attaok
on “U.S. warmongers in Vlet-
a and Palestine;”
by the Jew
ary of