Newspaper Page Text
Friday, Dec. 17, 1971
THI SOUTNMM ISRABJff
Page Fifteen
Propaganda 11
Continued from page 14
ity leadership in other cities.
The Soviets booked no other
public gathering «ind opportun
ities for open intellectual con
frontation were lost.
But if the JDL upset the
Washington planning, so did the
prominent Washington rabbi,
although in quite another way.
He disregarded the pleas of na
tional and community Jewish
leaders fighting for Soviet Jew
ry that he was falling into a
propaganda trap. Former Bran-
deis President Morris Abram
had advised, and the Jewish
Telegraphic Agency reported
his advice, that Jews in the tour
group should be welcomed to
visit Jewish homes and talk
with fellow Jews as Jews but to
come alone and not with non-
Jewish companions. The rabbi,
however, invited the whole
group. TThe local newspapers
emphasized the elegance of the
rabbi’s home, the kosher meal
served to atheists, and a stand
off between the disputants in
the discussion. From the press
treatment, the distinterested
reader might well have won
dered what the fuss over Soviet
Jewry is all about when such
a congenial dinner party for op
pressing atheists could take
place in the moral atmosphere
of a friendly rabbi’s home.
How the rabbi entered on the
scene is a curiosity in itself.
One of his congregants informed
him that if the rabbi phoned the
Soviet Embassy’s Cultural Af
fairs Counsellor, the rabbi’s in
vitation would be accepted. This
precisely happened and the rab
bi was told he woud be invited
to the Soviet Union in return.
Some State Department
spokesmen vested with respon
sibility for Soviet visitors
sought to pass off the whole
tour as unofficial but when the
group visited Capitol Hill, Con
gressmen were alerted in mys
terious ways, including advice
from an entrepreneur with a
Jewish name, that this was an
official cultural group. “We
were conscious of their sensi
tivity and cautioned to be care
ful,” a Congressman’s aide said.
OPEN
UNDER NEW MANAGEMENT
Serving 11 A.M. till 8:30 P.M.
TUESDAY thru SUNDAY
Special Business Lunch
11:00 a. m. — 2:30 p. m.
Tuesday through Saturday
HOME COOKING SERVED
FAMILY STYLE
QUAINT ATMOSPHERE
Kosher Pickles a Specialty
COTTAGE TEA ROOM
4225 Roswell Rd. Phone 252-4638
Atlanta, Georgia
SEASON’S
GREETINGS
Park-Tome North Apts.
1432 N. Cliff Valley Way N. E.
Atlanta, Ga. 634-9871
One Congressman who hosted
the group in his office delayed
issuing his press release on the
visit until after the group was
back in Moscow, about two
weeks after the event. “We
didn’t want to jeopardize the
cultural visit,” an aide said.
Another admitted his Congress
man invited the group to in
gratiate himself to the Soviet
Embassy in hopes of obtaining
a long-pending invitation to
visit Russia.
Dragunsky held the center of
attention almost everwhere. In
New York, he led a press con
ference on the style of his
doings in South American cities
and Brussels. In Los Angeles,
when Jewish activists encircled
a private home where the group
was being entertained, Dragun
sky emerged to say “shalom” to
the demonstrators and immedi
ately reentered the house. Later,
when the whole group was
leaving the party, the demon
strators asked Dragunsky to
take a message to the Soviet
Jews but his host whisked him
away.
In Kansas City, Dragunsky
spoke fluent Yiddish while he
visited one of the city’s seven
synagogues, the community
center, the Hebrew Day School
and a home for the aged. The
tour was an indication to him
that in free America Jews need
not go to Israel to live a full
Jewish life if they wished. He
exhibited curiosity about fund-
raising and seemed surprised
that the community had its own
Jewish newspapers. To the
credit of the Kansas City lead
ers, Dragunsky admitted, de
spite his consistent denial of
anti-Semitism in the Soviet
Union, that some things that
happen over there are unfortu
nate. Both he and Khidujatov
accepted cuff-links of replicas
of an ancient Israeli coin.
Reports from various places
indicated that Lawyer Zivs was
the most anti-Jewish of the four
Jews. In Kansas City, he curtly
dismissed the need for Jewish
institutions and declared that
the “very few” Soviet Jews who
wished t6 emigrate are suffer
ing from “personal frustration”
or in need of “psychological
counseling.”
In general, the media paid
scant attention to the group. It
did not use the occasions to
point up the contradictions
between the visitors’ repetition
of the Soviet official lines and
evidence such as printed ma
terials circulated against Jews,
Soviet Ambassador Jacob
Malik’s diatribes in the United
Nations only a few days before
the visitors’ arrival, and the per
sistent Soviet violations of hu
man rights by its political
policy.
Information available yields
an impression that the Jewish
community is united in seeking
to help Soviet Jewry but when
confronted by professional prop
agandists like the Soviet Eleven
many of the community’s indi
viduals and segments tend to
go their own way and often fail
to distinguish 'between diplo
matic blandishments and honest
friendship and personal emo
tional appeals and impersonal
political realities.
Copyright 1971, JTA
HANUKA
GREETINGS
•
NELSON
BROKERAGE
COMPANY
Terminal St, N.W.
523-2817
Atlanta, Georgia
Hanuka Greetings
HUIET AND POWELL
116 Pryor St., S. W. 688-8985
Atlanta, Georgia
HANUKA GREETINGS
Lullaby Diaper Service
875-9991
ATLANTA, GA.
HANUKA GREETINGS
Jerry Canter Standard Service Station
1017 Virginia Ave., N. E. Atlanta, Ga. 30306
HANUKA GREETINGS
ANSWERING - ATLANTA
Answering Service — Radio Paging
(Atlanta, Decatur and Chamblee)
701 Bank of Georgia Bldg. — Phone JA. 3-4646
HANUKA GREETINGS
BRYANT ENGINEERING SERVICE
415 E. COLLEGE AVENUE
DECATUR, GA. 30030
HAPPY HANUKA
CIGARETTE SERVICE COUP.
890 Avon Ave., S. W. PL. 8-6731
Atlanta, Georgia
******************)M>4>*******4-*****+*************
Macy’s Cinderella Beauty Salon
778 N. Highland Avenue, N. E.
Atlanta, Ga.
***4>***4>***********»****-*********»*****»*»»***»*
WVWVWYWYSWWWYVWWWWWk/WWWWWWWWW
HANUKA GREETINGS
PLAZA NEWS
66 Pryor Street
Atlanta, Ga. 30303
/VVWVWJVWAVA\W^VNWAVAWWVWJWWU\W\
VVVW\AVW^VWi^AWAVVVAWAr/AW/V\AYVWWV
Shackelford Drug Store
1411 N. Highland Ave., N. E.
872-3521 Atlantta, Ga.
^AiW5AAAAA/VVWAWVVVVVVV^VWWVVVVVVVWVVWS/VVWW
HANUKA GREETINGS
Charlie Weeks Harper Method Beauty Salon
75 PONCE DE LEON AVE., N. E. 872-5121
ATLANTA, GEORGIA
HANUKA GREETINGS
JmwI pair Ptraonnrt Srrtnc*