Newspaper Page Text
in
brief
NEW YORK (JTA) — Close to
2400 Soviet Jewish transmigrants
in Rome waiting for arrangements
to be completed to proceed to the
United States and other Western
countries, celebrated their first
Passover holiday openly and in
freedom it was reported by Jack D.
Weiler, chairman of the Joint
Distribution Committee.
About 700 of the migrants
attended seders organized by the
JDC and the ORT.
* . * *
COPENHAGEN — A secret
conference of Palestinian
organizations was held recently in
the small town of Gilelie, north of
Copenhagen. Seventy delegates
from Britain, West Germany,
Holland and Belgium and other
countries attended the conference,
whose secret was kept even from
the Danish people. A leader of the
Danish Community for Palestine,
Eskild Hoiland Olsen, reported the
conference, saying that one of the
items on the agenda was the open
ing of a Palestine Liberation
Organization information office in
Copenhagen.
* * *
JERUSALEM — The Knesset
may interrupt its spring recess for
a special session to discuss the
situation of the Kurds in Iraq. Two
MKs of the National Religious
Party — Zevulun Hammer and
Dr. Yehuda Ben Mcir, have been
urging their faction and others in
Parliament to convene a special
recess session to voice a unified
Israeli protest against “the
genocide of the Kurdish people.”
Hammer and Ben Meir declare
that when the world keeps silent on
the persecution by Iraq of its Kur
dish minority, it is important that
Israel speak out. “The world
should know about the fate of
minorities in Arab countries,” the
NRP men said.
NEW YORK — Itta Nashpitz
and Batya Tsitlionok, the mothers
of Mark Nashpitz and Boris
Tsitlionok, began a three-day
hunger strike Sunday in front of
the Isaiah Wall opposite the
United Nations headquarters to
protest against the five-year exile
sentence imposed March 31 on
their sons by a Moscow district
court. The two mothers were join
ed in their strike by August Stern,
the son of Dr. Mikhail Stern. The
three are conducting their hunger
strike also in a dramatic plea for
support of oppressed Jews.
Americans Would Oppose
Mideas4 Intervention: Long
WASHINGTON,^ JTA) —
Sen. Russell Long (D.La.) said
April 7 that the American people
would not support U S. military
intervention in the Middle East
even if Israel’s security was
threatened because they were tired
of this country trying to be the
world's policeman.
They would support intervention
only if America’s security was
directly threatened, the Senator
told reporters here.
Long, chairman of the Senate
Finance Committee, is a member
of the Southern conservative wing
of the Democratic Party that has
always supported a strong U.S.
military presence overseas.
Asked about a situation in the
Middle East that threatened
Israel, he suggested that there
would be more public support to
move Israel to the U.S. in that
event than to send U.S. forces to
the Middle East.
mmmmm ti**
*
mum.
A Weekly Newspaper for Southern Jewry.
Established
1925
VOL. L
One Section, 12 Pages
Atlanta, Georgia, Friday, April II, 1975
NO. 15
Arab Boycott Poses Serious
Anti-Trust Questions: Levi
WASHINGTON, (JTA) —
U.S. Attorney General Edward H.
Levi sees “serious anti-trust
questions” in relation to aspects of
the Arab boycott but feels his
authority “may be limited” in the
area of religious discrimination.
The Department of Justice, Levi
said in a letter to Rep. Elizabeth
Holtzman (D.NY) that she made
public April 2, currently has
reports of the boycott’s “economic
activities" under investigation.
Ms. Holtzman, Rep. Sidney Yates
(D ill) and 136 other members of
Congress asked the Justice
Department to determine whether
federal anti-trust and civil rights
laws had been violated by Arab-
inspired discrimination against
Jews.
Among the reported violations
is the practice of some American
firms to agree with Arab demands
not to do business with companies
identified as trading with Israel.
“In my view an agreement
among separate firms doing
business in the United States not to
deal with a third firm would raise
serious anti-trust questions," Levi
wrote. “In the area of religious dis
crimination, however, the authority
of the Attorney General to combat
such discrimination through en
forcement of federal law may be
limited."
Levi referred to the testimony of
Antonin Scalia, Assistant At
torney General, on March 13
before a House subcommittee in
vestigating the boycott, that a
company would not necessarily
violate a law if it hired any persons
able to obtain the necessary visas
to enter the foreign country in
which it was interested. Saudi
Arabia effectively bans Jews by in
sisting on baptismal or other
documents attesting to the appli
cant's religious affiliation.
Regarding possible violations of
fair employment statutes, Levi
noted that the Department of
Justice no longer has authority to
bring lawsuits concerning the dis
criminatory practices of private
employers. The Civil Rights Act
prohibits discrimination in
employment on account of race,
color,, religion, sex or national
origin. Under this statute, the
Justice Department has authority
only with respect to state and local
governments.
Alleged discrimination in
federal employment is the respon
sibility of each individual agency,
Levi wrote. "I am informed that
both the State Department and the
Defense Department have
responded to Congress regarding
the assignment of Jewish personnel
to certain Middle East countries,"
Levi said.
“There are of course difficulties
which almost uniformly dis
courage Jewish foreign service of
ficers or military personnel from
seeking assignment to nations
which practice discrimination
against Jews, but the Defense
Department and the State Depart
ment assert that they do not follow
a discriminatory assignment
policy. Private employers are sub
ject to the jurisdiction of the Equal
Employment Opportunity Com
mission."
Funeral Held For Label Katz,
Ga. B’nai B’rith Parley
To Hear Governor Busbee
Former B ’mi B ’rith
NEW ORLEANS — Funeral
services were held April 4 for
Label A. Katz, a life-long activist
in Jewish affairs who as president
of B’nai B’rith in the early 1960s
led the first protest campaigns in
behalf of Soviet Jews.
Mr. Katz died April 3 at St.
Charles General Hospital here,
following a stroke. He was 56.
He was elected head of B’nai
B’rith in 1959 at the age of 40, one
of the youngest presidents in its
131-year history.
He served two three-year terms
and, following a visit behind the
Iron Curtain in the summer of
1961 to observe the status of
Jewish life there, traveled
throughout the country and
abroad as a persistent and out
spoken voice urging the restora
tion of religious and cultural
freedoms for Jews in the Soviet
Union. In Moscow, he presented
B’nai B’rith’s representations in
unofficial conferences with Soviet
authorities.
During his six-year tenure. Mr.
Katz traveled more than 300,00(1
miles, much of it to stimulate
public awareness of the plight of
Soviet Jews and to promote, in his
own words, “the right of the Jew to
he himself — to be Jewish on his
own terms and not those decreed by
political dictates."
In meetings with Presidents
Eisenhower, Kennedy and John
son, with Popes John XXIII and
Paul VI, with India’s Prime
Minister Nehru, Archbishop
Makarios of Cyprus and other
government, religious and educa
tion leaders throughout the world,
he sought their “diplomatic in
terventions" with Soviet and other
regimes that restricted Jewish life.
Mr. Katz continued his efforts
despite ailing health. He suffered
from diabetes and the pace he set
for himself, against the advice of
doctors, led to the loss of his sight
10 years ago.
The handicap notwithstanding,
he retained an active and lively in
terest in Jewish affairs until a
stroke, suffered last year, left him
bedridden.
President
His death came three days short
of the eleventh anniversary of the
founding of the National
Conference on Soviet Jewry, a
coalition of major organizations
which serves as the coordinating
body for protest activities in sup
port of Soviet Jews.
Mr. Katz was a principal con
vener of a 1964 assembly in
Washington which brought
together 24 Jewish organizations
and formalized the new group. He
was elected its first chairman.
David M. Blumberg, current
president of B’nai B’rith, in a
eulogy at the funeral service, cited
Mr Katz’s career as "fulfillments
for the Jewish community he serv
ed. His intellectual and cultural
convictions were strengthened by
— TURN TO PAGE 4
GOV BUSBEE
Georgia Governor George
Busbee will address the delegates,
wives and guests at the Annual
Georgia B’nai B’rith Association
Installation Banquet at 8:30 p.m.
Saturday April 19, at the Riviera
Hyatt House in Atlanta.
At the Banquet Larry Pike of
Atlanta will be installed as the
Association president for the 1975-
76 term. Dr. Irving Goldstein of
Atlanta will be the master of
ceremoniis, and the Governor will
be introduced by Atlanta attorney,
Irving Kaler.
The Georgia B’nai B’rith
Association has approximately
two thousand members throughout
the state, more than half of them
located in the Atlanta area.
Bill Waronker of Atlanta is the
outgoing president. Officers from
the Atlanta area who will be
delegates to the convention include
Bernard Iscoe and Marshall
Solomon, state vice presidents; Bill
Green, state secretary; Davis
Abrams, president of Gate City
Lodge; Milton Bach, president of
Atlanta Lodge and Michael Fried
man, president of Kehillah Lodge.
B’nai B’rith is the oldest and
largest Jewish service organization
in the world with more than a half
million members. The organiza
tion started in 1843. The eleven
Lodges in Georgia take active
roles in the communities in which
they are located and sponsor many
activities, such as aiding the han
dicapped to find jobs, providing
recreation for deprived youths dur
ing the summer months, presen
ting regularly scheduled talent
shows for veterans at the Veteans
Administration Hospital and
providing patients at the Jewish
Home for the Aged with entertain
ment and gifts during Jewish
festivals.
The Convention's business
sessions will be held on Sunday
morning, Apr. 20, at which time
the other officers for the 1975-76
term will be installed by District 5,
Dr. A. J. Kravttn of Columbus.
Atlanta Emphasis
MOSHE DAYAN, former Israeli Defense Minister, will
speak at 9:30 p.m. Saturday, April 12, at Glenn Memorial
Auditorium on the Emory University campus.
SOLIDARITY DAY for Soviet Jewry will be observed at 8:00
p.m. Sunday. April 13. at the Biology Auditorium of Emory with
a special program sponsored by students of Atlanta Hillel/
Federation.