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Tin* Southern Israelite
A Weekly Newspaper for Southern Jewry - Established 1925
Vol. XLVII Atlanta, Georgia, Friday, June 9, 1972 Two Sections—12 Pages No. 23
Author Michener Walks Out
On Soviet “Arts” Press Meet
for Security Checks
Passengers, Planes
By Jimmy Wisch
MOSCOW—- James Michener,
prize winning American author
called a planned Soviet Cul
tural Committee response to a
question by this writer “Dis
graceful and a shame.” “You are
making a joke out of a very
serious problem,” he screamed
as he left the press conference
attended by over two hundred
journalists and Soviet cultural
artists. .
The committee had asked
that questions be put in writing.
The following question was ask
ed by me: “There is a great
absence of vibrant Jewish news
papers in the USSR which print
news of Jewish interest from
world wide Jewish sources.
Do you plan to do anything to
increase Jewish and Yiddish
publications carrying spot news
and general interest news about
other world-wide Jewish com
munities?” In order to insure
accuracy, the question was then
typed and presented.
Tlhe Russians were ready.
When reading the question in
Russian and in English they
transferred the word “commun
ities” into singular: “commun
ity.”
Then A. C'nakovsky, editor of
“Literaturnaya Gasett” used the
word community to imply there
was a “conspiracy” between
worldwide Jewry. He ridiculed
the idea of' such a question
being presented and then to
complete the staged act he
quoted from a 1934 Russian
book “The Golden Calf’ which
dramatized the vain effort of a
Jew travelling Russia looking
for a “Jewish problem.” “We
have none,” he said to a laugh
ing overcrowded Russian audi
ence.
James Michener castigated the
speaker and I said that the
question was distorted in trans
lation in both Russian and Eng
lish. A fiery debate continued
whereupon the Russian chairman
had to promise that he would
give me time to reply before
the press conference was over
but not before I reminded them
"that we are here as journalists
to help alleviate conditions of
JERUSALEM (JTA) — Pres
ident Zalman Shazar and Pre
mier Golda Meir received a
special delegation of the Jap
anese Government here Sunday
which informed them that sym
bolic payments would be made
to the victims of the Lydda
Airport massacre and that a
sum of money would be put at
the disposal of the Israel Red
Mogen David for humanitarian
purposes.
The delegation was headed by
Kenji Fukunaga and included
three officials of Japan’s For
eign Ministry. On separate visits
to President Shazar and Mrs.
Meir they were accompanied by
the Japanese Ambassador, Eiji
Tokura.
Speaking to journalists after
wards, they said contributions
would be made to the wounded
and payments would also be made
to the bereaved families of the
oppressed peoples everywhere.”
“Do you agree that there is
an anti-Semitic problem in the
United States?” Chakovsky ask
ed. “Yes, I do not think you
have a monopoly on that. I be
lieve there are people problems
everywhere. In the United
States we have a chance to ex
press ourselves and do some
thing about it.”
The chairman promised the
rebuttal at this point and prom
ised a response to the question.
They then made a formal apol
ogy for the distortion.
The Soviet speakers then
“talked out” the rest of the
meeting until they announced
that time had expired and the
press conference was over.
Following the conference a
lively debate ensued between
Chakovsky and me. He tried to
use gobbledygook but had to
again admit the question was
distorted.
“But,” he said, “Can we get
to the substance of the ques-
Continued on page 4
GOV. FRANK LIGHT of Rhode
Island delivered the graduation
address at the American College
in Jerusalem, stressing the Im
portance of the cultural link
between Israel and the United
States. The American College is
Israel’s first four-year English-
language liberal arts college.
There were fifteen graduates.
massacre victims. They refused
to state the sum involved or
how much would be contributed
to the Red Mogen David
through the Japanese Red Cross.
Fukunaga said he gave Mrs.
Meir a letter from Premier
Osako Sato of Japan expressing
the Japanese peoples’ sorrow.
Ho said Mrs. Meir was deeply
moved by the concern showed
by the Government of Japan
and said the common tragedy
might bring the people of Israel
and Japan closer together. Re
plying to questions, the Japa
nese visitors said the facts re
lating to Japanese outlaws
training in Lebanon were under
investigation by their Govern
ment. Two Japanese police offi
cers are in Israel aiding in the
interrogation of the gunman
captured in the Lydda massacre,
Meir Calls
To Protect
JERUSALEM (JTA)— Premier
Goida Meir warned the Arab
states that they would have to
bear full responsibility for the
Lydda Airport Massacre. She said
the deed would not deter Israel.
Delivering a special statement to
a full Knesset which replaced all
other parliamentary business May
31, Mrs. Meir promised that Is
rael would find a way to foil the
new Arab terror menace as it
had foiled similar threats in the
past.
TEL AVIV (JTA)—Tel Hasli-
omer Hospital was flooded with
cables and telephone calls from
Puerto Rico and elsewhere from
relatives desperate to know the
names of the victims of the Lyd
da Airport carnage. Identification
of victiims was delayed, however,
because luggage and documents
were scattered and in some cases
destroyed.. Of the six known Jew
ish dead, four were identified as
Prof. Aharon Katzir-Katchalsky,
58, of the Weizmann Institute of
Science; Yehoshua Berkowitz, a
customs official; Adam Zamir,
and Henia Ratner, a 39-year-old
mother of three wno was at the
airport to meet her husband.
Two other victims were identi
fied as Mrs. Sprinze Riegal, 22.
the mother of two small children,
and Mrs. Luna Sabba, 82, a Ca
nadian tourist.
Mrs. Riegal. was waiting at ithe
airport for her hushand, who was
due in on a flight from Rumania.
Mrs. Sabba's daughter, Simone.
19 was slightly wounded. Her
husband. Abraham, a Montreal
textile executive who immigrated
to Canada from Morocco, flew to
Israel to attend his wife’s fu-
She urged all governments and
international airlines to cooperate
in instituting thorough security
checks of planes and passengers.
Proper probes would have pre
vented the Sabena hijack of three
weeks ago as well, she added.
It is high time, Mrs. Meir said,
that the world took note of her
criticism expressed two years ago
after the Swiss air tragedy. At
that time she said the Arab cap
itals harboring terror gangs were
still ports of call for internation-
neral.
Many other victims, dead and
wounded, were waiting behind
the customs barrier to greet ar
riving relations when the bustling
passenger terminal was suddenly
turned into a chamal house.
Zamir, an 18-year-old high school
senior and the son of Polish im
migrants who settled in Israel in
the 1950s ■<’?- waiting with his
parents to greet an aunt he had
never seen. He fell dead in front
of them as a bullet crashed
through the glass divider sep
arating the visitors from the cus
toms area.
Mrs. Ratner, of Eilat, was
waiting for her husband, who was
returning from a business trip
abroad. Mrs. Avivia Oslander of
Tel Aviv, mother of a 20-year-
old daughter and a 16-year-old
son, was awaiting her husband,
who was arriving from West
Germany where he owns a public
relations firm. Both were killed
instantly by maehinegun fire.
Possibly crippled for life was An
tonia Zecharya, 26, a Rumanian-
born El A1 stewardess. She was
standing at the air crews customs
station when' bullets and grenade
al airlines. Mrs. Meir named Bei
rut, the capital of Lebanon, as a
center of terrorists headquarters.
She stressed, however, that she
did not consider the three Jap
anese terrorists as representatives
of their nation, and said that Is
rael's friendly ties with Japan
would not be affected.
* * *
JERUSALEM (JTA)— Israeli
Foreign Minister Abba Eban call
ed for an international airline
boycott of Beirut to force the
Lebanese government to expel the
terrorist organizations that plan
attacks such as the one carried
out May 30 at Lydda. “Surely
international airline companies
and governments can say that a
capital which makes itself the
capital of piracy cannot also be
the recipient of an abundant
stream of air traffic which en
riches its economy,” Eban said.
The Popular Front for the lib
eration of Palestine, which claim
ed responsibility for the attack,
has its headquarters in Beirut.
UNITED NATIONS (JTA) --
Israel demanded in a letter to the
Security Council that the Arab
governments,” and especially Leb
anon,” put “an immediate and
effective end” to such attacks as
the massacre at Lydda Airport.
The letter from Yosef Tokoah,
Israel ambassador to the UN, was
addressed to George Bush, the
US ambassador and the Council
president for May.
fragments ripped through her
legs.
Miss Zecharya was leaving the
airline to marry a lieutenant in
the Israel Navy. They were to
have announced their engagement
officially May 31.
Prof. Katzir-Katchalsky, an in
ternationally famous scientist,
head of the Polymer Department
at the Weiz-marm Institute of Sci
ence in Rchovoth, was returning
from a scientific conference in
West Germany. He was 58. He
was fatally wounded by a Jap
anese gunman as he was walk
ing towards the customs barrier
where his wife, Rena, and his
son wore waiting to greet him.
Prof. Katzir-Katschalsky was
a cousin of the Manny Farbers
and Mrs. Mose Scharfman of
Macon.
Mrs. Katzir-Katchalsky was
slightly wounded. His body lay
in state at the Weizmann Insti
tute, where funeral services wore
held. Prof. Katzir-Katehalskv was
born in T odz, Poland, in 1914,
came to Palestine in 1925 and
was educated at the Hebrew
University in Jerusalem, where
he earned his PhD in chemistry.
His speciality was thermo-dyna
mics of irreversible processes
and their application to biological
membranes.
His special field of research
was the brain. Prof. Katzir-
Katchalsky and colleagues at
the Weizmann Institute were
credited with a major scientific
breakthrough recently when
they developed a process to con
vert chemical energy directly to
mechanical energy without an
intermediary process. Prof. Kat
zir-Katchalsky headed many
Israeli and international scien
tific bodies, and held the Weiz
mann Prize, the Israel Prize in
Continued on page 4
You Help Make This Happen
Approximately <0,000 new immigrants are expected in Israel
this year — many are Jews from the Soviet Union. A minimum
of one million dollars a day Ls needed to provide them with
vital humanitarian services. Atlanta Jews participating in the
1972 Federation Campaign help bring Russian Jews to Israel and
help provide humanitarian needs for Jews all over the world.
“But a pledge Ls only a promise to pay. To keep the promise,
please pay your Jewish Welfare Federation pledge now,” urged
Meyer L. Balser, Cash Collction Committee Chairman, who
announced that June 4 to 9 Ls Cash Mobilization Week for the
Atlanta Jewish Welfare Federation,
Japanese Promise io Make
Symbolic Payments to Families
Foremost Scientist Victim
Of Lydda Massacre