Newspaper Page Text
Postal to Speak May 29
at AJPA Banquet in Memphis
Bernard Postal, one of the old-time pros in Jewish jour
nalism, will he the principal speaker in Memphis on May 29,
when The Southern Israelite and the Hebrew Watchman will be
honored for their fifty-year service.
Both newspapers were founded in 1925. They will be given
recognition at the annual banquet of the American Jewish Press
Association, meeting in Memphis May 28-30.
Mr. Postal, currently editor of the Jewish Digest and on the
Staff of the Jewish Week of New York and Washington, has
himself been active in journalism for more than half a century.
He was for many years the public relations director for the
National Jewish Welfare Board.
Leo Goldberger, editor emeritus, will represent the paper he
founded.
Mr. Goldberger is a life-time Zionist and as a youth was
prominent in Young Judapa circles. He turned the editorial
helm of the Watchman over a few years ago to his son Herman.
Adolph Rosenberg, joined the staff of the Atlanta based
Southern Israelite a year and a half prior to World War II.
With the exception qf war-time service in the Pacific Theater of
Operations and a brief interlude with the advertising depart
ment at Rich’s, he has been with the paper ever since. He was
elected three times to head the AJPA.
NsMip/tpEH
AwxsMfon - SamM im
A Weekly Newspaper for Southern Jewry.
Established
1925
VOL. LI
One Section, 16 Pages
Atlanta, Georgia, Friday, May 2, 1975
NO. IS
Johannesbury Consulate
Attacked by Jewish Guard
Black Leaders Gather
To Spur Support of Israel
NEW YORK, (JTA) — The
formation of a newly organized
group, the Committee of Black
Americans Supporting Israel
(BASI) was announced at the first
meeting of the group here Thurs
day night, April 24.
At a reception at the house of
Dr. Robert Gilmore, treasurer of
the A. Philip Randolph
Educational Fund, it was disclosed
that more than 100 prominent
Black leaders have already agreed
to join the committee, which was
initiated by 86-year-old A. Philip
Randolph, who is the president of
the Randolph Educational Fund
(REF).
“We are here to express our sup
port for the State of Israel," Byard
Rustin, executive director of REF,
said. “Whenever minorities seek
justice, they hate to defend
democracy. We seek to defend
democracy in the Mideast and
therefore we support Israel," he
stated. Rustin explained that "our
support of -Israel does not mean
that we do not support self-
determination for the
Palestinians,” but, he added, “We
are not for the self-determination
of the Palestinians if they arc
dedicated to the destruction of
another people ..."
Rustin was also critical of the
"Arabs attempting to bring dis-
crimation to the United States by
their boycott" and promised that
the American Black community
was not going “to sit idly” in the
face of “imported Arab dis
crimination." He noted the Blacks
in America have struggled for a
long time against discrimination
and that “we will continue our
struggle and support of fundamen
tal principles."
Randolph, who noted that
American Jewry always supported
the rights of Blacks here, said: “I
would like to see the Blacks of
America register their support for
the State of Israel. It will he a
crime for anyone, and especially
for Blacks, not to support (he just
cause of Israel."
According to Rustin, BASI ac
tivities will include organized tours
of Blacks to Israel. The first will be
a group of 20 disc jocj^ys who will
leave for Israel in a few weeks.
Rustin explained that the disc
jockey is a tremendously influen
tial person in the Black community
“where our folks listen to him 24
hours a day."
Representing Israel at the recep
tion which included reporters from
both the Black and Jewish media,
were Ambassador David Rivlin,
Consul General of Israel in New
York, Moshe Bitan, former Israeli
Ambassador to Ghana and
presently Director General of Paz,
the Israeli Oil Corporation, and
Consul Yakov Levi, of the Con
sulate in New York. Addressing
the meeting on the issue of the
Arab oil boycott, Bitan observed
that “it is superficial to believe
that if Israel gives in, the price of
oil will go down." He said that the
Arab oil producers will reduce
production to get higher prices.
Bitan arrived here Apr. 23 for a
two-week lecture tour throughout
the United States.
What had at first appeared to be
a terrorist attack on the Israeli
Consulate General in
Johannesburg, S. Africa, ended
Tuesday with 2 dead and at least
33 wounded.
In custody was the lone
perpetrator, a 26-year-old South
African Jewish security guard who
said he had a grievance against the
Israeli government.
David Protter, who fought for
Israel during the Yom Kippur
War, indicated he wanted to be
Mown to Israel lor talks with
Premier Yitzhak Rabin.
First reports indicated six
terrorists had taken over the con
sulate on April 28. Protter had
used various voices and accents in
his walkie-talkie communications
with police to mislead them.
Of the original 21 hostages
tricked by the security guard into
thinking he was conducting a
security exercise, six men and four
women were still being held by the
Levitas Takes Issue with
Ford’s “Reassessment
5?
by VIDA GOLDGAR
Congressman Elliott Levitas
called for this nation to get away
from "a foreign policy based on
defeat" and scored President
Ford’s view of “reassessing" the
United States’ role in the Middle
East.
Speaking at the annual dinner of
the Atlanta Chapter, American
Jewish Committee, on Sunday
night, Levitas said, “I think the
United States does need to talk
about reassessment ... but I think
the need is to talk about reassess
ing its role as a world power.”
. . . “When Kissinger returned
from his abortive trip to the Mid
dle East, Ford announced the
United States would reassess its
position in the Middle East. Those
words brought fear to the streets of
Israel, smiles to the Arabs and
doubts throughout the world."
Levitas urged the foreign policy
reassessment based on the
“integrity ... of this nation" un
hampered by the cloud of oil or
events in Vietnam. “We need to let
the rest of the world know we are
still capable of making decisions."
The Fourth District (Ga.) con
gressman emphasized that the
United States has done more for
the Arab states since 1973 than the
Russians have done in all the years
they have held the Arab States as
their clients. Noting that this coun
try has increased military sales of
armaments of Arab nations.
gunman when he was taken into
custody.
Shot by Protter was his Israeli
superior, security officer Giora
Raviv and a South African
employe, Edwin Malpo. Protter
was armed with two submachine
guns, three revolvers and some
hand grenades when he took over
the office.
Officials in Jerusalem met in the
Prime Minister's office during the
siege, keeping an opgn phone line
to Johannesburg. Informed
observers indicated the Israel
government was leaving the situa
tion mostly in the hands of the
South African security authorities.
Operating at that time under the
assumption that the consulate had
been attacked by terrorists, Rabin
told a group assembled for the
Seventh International Book Fair
on Monday evening that the attack
was perpetrated by “enemies of
human culture whom he enlighten
ed, civilized world must condemn
and extirpate."
Following the attack on the Con
sulate, Jewish and Israeli in
stitutions in Johannesburg and
other South African cities were
given special protection. The El A1
offices near the Consulate building
were placed under heavy guard.
Local Jews kept watch over syn
agogues and Hebrew schools.
Jewish community leaders
gathered in the offices of the
Zionist Federation and then went
as near to the besieged Consulate
as police would permit to find out
what was happening. But police
gave out no information or details.
Chose Death Over Brothel
Levitas remarked that Chief of
Staff General Brown has been in
Saudi Arabia discussing what ad
ditional armaments they would
need . . . while the Department of
Defense is recommending a cut
back in Israel's requested aid.
Explaining his own vote against
the recent foreign aid bill as it first
appeared in the House of
Representatives, Levitas com
mented on the great support which
for Israel which exists for Israel in
Congress. He declared, “The
foreign aid bill wouldn't have got
ten 50 votes if it hadn’t had aid to
Israel in that bill. But it was not an
‘aid to Israel' bill. Very little went
to Israel. Most of the money would
be going to countries that are not
our friends."
Insisting that “Israel cannot nor
will not be pressured into suicide,”
Levitas said, “American national
self interest in the Middle East
remains today as it was two, five
and 10 years ago . . . and we can
not, as Americans, permit this to
change."
In his introductory remarks at
the dinner honoring Edward and
Suzanne Flson, Levitas showed a
flash of his usual wit when he
referred to the often ponderous
deliberations of Congress, saying,
“The only thing Congress can do
in nine days is make minute rice."
Sen. Herman Talmadge, who
had at one time been in Israel with
the Elsons, made the presentation
of the AJC’s Human Relations
Award
TEL AVIV, (JTA) — Ninety-
three Jewish girls aged 14-22 who
were abducted from their school in
the Warsaw Ghetto in 1942 to a
brothel for SS officers, committed
suicide rather than submit to their
captors.
Details of that little known
tragedy were revealed in a last will
and testament written by one of
the girls. I 7-yeqr-old Chaya Fried
man, who said that all she and her
companions hoped for was that
someone would recite kaddish for
them.
The letter, written in Yiddish,
was found in Poland recently and
was sent to the Nazi war crimes
documentation centef in Haifa, ac
cording to Tuvia Friedman who
heads the center. He has sent it to
West Germany where it will be
used as evidence in the trial of
Ludwig Haan, an ex-Nazi who was
in charge of the Warsaw Ghetto.
Friedman said he received a
center of the letter via New York
where it was read recently at a
memorial meeting of survivors of
the Jewish community of Radom,
Poland.
The letter described how the
girls were taken from their school
in the Warsaw Ghetto — Beth
Yaacov — on July 27, 1942 and
held in four dark rooms for a day,
given only water. In the evening
they were taken to a house outside
the ghetto where their clothes were
taken away and they were given
nightgowns and told that they
would be visited by SS officers and
men who they were expected to
entertain.
“I do not know when or if this
letter will reach someone
sometime," Chaya Friedman
wrote. "But if it reaches anyone,
we shall not be alive by then.
Please recite Kaddish for 93 clean,
innocent Jewish girls who decided
to take their lives in their own
hands and not be mutilated and
dishonored by the dirty SS of
ficers." According to the letter, the
girls committed suicide by poison.
Kahane
Leaves
Jail — Daily
NEW YORK, (JTA) — Rabbi
Meir Kahane, founder of the
Jewish Defense League, who was
sentenced last month to a one-year
term in a federal prison, is
reportedly allowed to leave a
Manhatten half-way house for
federal prisoners and travel around
the city for seven hours each day.
The half-way house is a
Manhattan West Side apartment
hotel to which Kahane was sent,
pending transfer to a rninimum-
security federal prisoners and
travel around the city for seven
hours each day.
The half-way house is a
Manhatten West Side apartment
hotel to which Kahane was sent,
pending transfer to a minimum-
security federal penetentiary in
Allentown, Pa.
He was convicted of violating
conditions of a 1971 parole and
sentenced by Brooklyn Federal
Judge Jack Weinstein Weinstein
granted the order which allows
Kahane out of the apartment from
6 a m. to 9 a m , noon until I p in.;
6:30 to 9:30 p.m. Weinstein said he
approved the order because the
.11)1 leader had protested that the
federal Bureau of Prisons had
refused to provide him with kosher
food at the Allentown prison.