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Southern Israelite
Published weekly by Southern Newspaper Enterprises, 390
Courtland St., N.E., AtianU. Georgia, 3«J08, Phones 870-8249, 870-
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tion, 110.50. The Southern Israelite invites literary contributions and
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writers. Deadline is S p.m. Friday, but material received earlier will
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Adolph Rosenberg, Editor and Publisher
■Vida Goldgar. Assistant Editor
Kathleen Nease, Edward M Kahn, Kathy Wood
Hard Blackburn. June Neumark
BETWEEN YOU AND ME
by BORIS SMOLAR—EDITOR-IN-CHIEF EMERITUS, JTA
NNA
1 PER
Association - Founded 1895
L Jewish Telegraphic Agency
Georgia Press Assn
W
Auschwitz Revisited
Seven Arts Features
World Union Press
AJPA Features
JDC IN ACTION: Jack D.
Weiler, chairman of the Joint
Distribution Committee, is a
man of action and achievement.
He acquired this reputation by
his untiring activities in the
United Jewish Appeal, the New
York Federation of Jewish
Philanthropies and other agen
cies in which he is playing a
leading role.
He gained it also in the JDC
this year — the first year of his
■ This is about the poiffnant recollections of Samuel Pisar, holding the chairmanship of this
the youngest survivor of Auschwitz and a U.S. citizen by pr “ tlgl0U8 or K an,zat ‘°n .
' special act of Congress. The se " era h , undre ? J * wl9 l t l
The Jewish Telegraphic Agency reports this week that ^miry attending
Pisar was the personal guest of French President Valery KdC annu“ meeLg in New
Giscard d’Estaing when the French leader visited the site of York starting December 10 will
the infamous Nazi concentration camp June 18 for a learn of a number of innovations
ceremony commemorating its liberation by the Soviet army introduced by him in the 61-
30 years ago. During the fteremony, Pisar, who is today an in- year-old Jewish relief organiza-
ternational lawyer in Paris and Washington, issued an ad- t ' on Immediately after his
dress titled “Never Again,” Auschwitz 1975. becoming the top leader of the
It began with the statement: ‘To return at your side Mr J he j^s^rnVn^xecXecom-
President, to this altar of the holocaust, where as a boy of 14 I mittee _ he enounced that the
died so many deaths, lived so many tortures and executive committee, and not he
humiliations, where all I ever loved was reduced to cinders, is as chairman, will be the maker
an experience that staggers the soul. But it is also a journey of decisions in the organization,
from tragedy to triumph. By your presence here today, the As chairman, he wdi present
date on which from London, 35 years ago, Charles de Gaulle’s matters to the executive body
call to resistance redeemed the honor of France, you add a not on 'y f° r discussion and ap-
new dimension to the historic meaning of the 18th of June.” P r p va * but for decision — he will
Earlier this month, Sen. Abraham Ribicoff (D. Conn.) e ?? V. m at 5£ a j Ct , lon t u y
entered this address in full into the Congressional Record. In y duri the entjre of
entering it, Ribicoff stated: Thirty years after Auschwitz, ^j s chairmanship,
with the tragic votes in the United Nations (regarding the Another major development
anti-Zionist resolution). . . again sowing the seeds of horrible initiated by him during the year
anti-Semitism, it is essential that the words of Mr. Pisar be was the appointment of a team
read by all, understood by all and followed by all.” of experts in Jewish communal
In his address, Pisar recounted the horrors of Auschwitz wor k to make an independent
and declared: "If they seem relevant today it is because we ’Study, in depth, of the gover-
dare not forget that the past can also be a prologue, that nance °f the JDC, its philosophy,
amidst the ashes of Auschwitz we behold the true specter of 1 . °Pf ra ,0 ”®’. 1 needs and its
, , , , . • , j priorities. This group of con-
doomsday - a warning of what might still lie ahead . . £ u | Unt9 _ head( £ b v Henrv L
“Mr. President, in this cursed and sacred place you are fac- z uc ker the noted social worker
ing your greatest audience. Here you stand in the presence of and honorary executive vice-
four million innocent souls. In their name, and with the president of the Jewish Corn-
authority of the number engraved on my arm, I say to you munity Federation of Cleveland
that if they- could answer your noble words they would cry — is now deep in its work. Its
out: 'Never again!’ Never again between Frenchman and Ger- final report will be ready by
man, between Turk and Greek, between Indian and Pakistani.
Never again between Arab and Jew . .
Giscard d’Estaing, in his own remarks at the ceremony, can e see ? nr , rorn P relimmar y
stated: W ho can say, even here that the worst is not yet to on ^ DC work in * Igra el alread
come? ... W e must insure that the youth of the world will not
forget this horror.”
Pisar, who was deported at the age of 12 with his entire
family, of which he is the sole survivor, escaped from Dachau
in March, 1945 and was liberated by the American forces near
Munich at the age of 16. The internationally famed lawyer is
author of “Weapons of Peace” and ‘Transactions Between
East and West,” prefaced by the French President of 1973.
Pisar’s address was restated to President Ford when the
American chief executive visited the site of Auschwitz on July
29.
March 1976 and will contain
basic recommendations. This
completed by the team.
A major achievement by Mr.
Weiler was also his finalization
of the JDC agreement for the es
tablishment of the Brookdale
Institute of Gerontology and
Adult Human Development in
Israel. The Institute, which will
become a great work center
devoted to the object of bringing
new dignity and value to the
lives of aging and aged — by
ameliorating the effects of the
aging process — is part of the
JDC. Its work is funded by JDC
and financed by a $5 million
grant from the Brookdale Foun
dation in New York and by
matching funds from the Israel
government. It took almost
three years to negotiate the
agreement.
STRENGTHENING LINKS:
On the record of the Weiler Ad
ministration will also be the fact
that the JDC in Israel will now
move its quarters from Tel Aviv
to Jerusalem, the seat of the
Israel government.
Mr. Weiler favors the inter
nationalization of JDC by having
on its executive committee also
members of Jewish communities
in Canada, England, South
Africa and other countries
which contribute funds to JDC
for its worldwide relief and
rehabilitation operations. He
also plans to build the JDC
governing bodies on a
geographically-balanced basis
with more members from cities
outside of New York.
His experience as JDC chair
man has convinced him that out-
of-New York members of the
JDC executive are eager to play
an active part in the organiza
tion. No matter where they
reside, they attend regularly the
monthly executive meetings in
New York, flying in for this pur
pose to New York in the morning
and returning to their home
towns the same day, after the
meeting. A geographically-
balanced JDC executive, Mr.
Weiler feels, will strengthen the
link between JDC and the com-
Prize Author Thought Jewish
PARIS (JTA) — France’s
main literary prize, the “Gon-
court,” was awarded at the
beginning of this month to a
book with a strong Jewish flavor
whose author, believed to be
Jewish, has kept his real identity
a well guarded secret. The book,
“Life Ahead” narrates the story
of a young Arab boy who lives in
the Arab-Jewish Belville slum
section of Paris. Most reviewers
saw it as an essay in Arab-
JeWish co-existence in a limited
area and under conditions of
squalor and poverty.
The book’s author is Emile
Ajar; bufno one in France has
yet managed to discover the
author's real identity. He is
known to be Jewish, born of
Russian-Polish parents in the
south of France and to have been
traumatised by his wartime ex
periences under Nazi occupation.
He is believed to be 35-years-
old and to have no real profes
sion. In one of his former books
he described himself as "some
sort of anarchist,” half-hippy,,
half middle class. The prize nor-'
mally assures its recipient a sale
of at least a quarter of a million
books in hard cover and
countless more in pocket book
editions.
munities outside New York.
Interested in seeing things for
himself, he intends to visit all
the countries where the JDC
operates and gain personal im
pressions of the Jewish needs in
each country. This year he
visited Rumania, and Latin
American countries — and, of
course, Israel, which he had been
visiting previously several times
each year, but not as JDC chair
man. In 1976 he expects to visit
Hungary and a number of other
countries where Jews are in need
of aid.
• • •
CHANGING THE GUARD:
The JDC annual meeting this
week will witness the retirement
of Samuel L. Haber — one of the
ablest executives who has been
more than 30 years in JDC ser
vice. He will retire from his post
of executive vice-chairman with
the title honorary executive vice-
chairman and with functions to
perform.
In the words of chairman
Weiler, Mr. Haber will devote
himself “to put JDC on the
map.” He will travel widely for
JDC and UJA to tell the story of
these two important agencies to
local Jewish leaders in various
communities and to wide
audiences. Special honors will be
bestowed upon him at the JDC
annual meeting for his devotion
and dedication to the organiza
tion during more than half of his
adult life.
I met Sam Haber for the first
time in Munich after the libera
tion of Germany, when he was in
charge of aiding the Jews
liberated from the Nazi camps. I
came there to inspect the camps
for the displaced Jews in the
Munich area and saw him at
work. It was no easy task to deal
with emaciated masses of Jews
who had literally faced death
every day not knowing when
they would be marched off to the
gas chambers by the Nazis. It
was not easy to bring them back
to normal life both physically
and psychologically.
Sam Haber did it. Several
years later he and I were on a
UJA mission to Germany. The
camps for the displaced Jews
were long closed. Their inmates
had long been enabled by JDC to
emigrate illegally to Palestine
and later legally to Israel. There
were, however, some liberated
Jews who had chosen to remain
in Germany and to rebuild their
lives anew there.
It is hard to describe the joy
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