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MEU/S BRIEFS
‘Shaloms’ greet Israelis In Cairo
CAIRO, (JTA)—Thousands of excited Egyptians shouting
“Begin Shalom, Sadat Shalom” greeted the Israeli delegation to
the Cairo peace conference as they arrived Dec. 17 for prayers at
the city’s central synagogue, the Shaar Shamayim Synagogue on
Adly Street.
It was the first time that Eliahu Ben-Elissar, Israel’s chief
negotiator, and his fellow Israeli negotiators had made a public
appearance The unanimous and enraptured reaction by the
Egyptian public upon seeing them showed the enormous popular
support for President Anwar Sadat’s bid for peace with Israel. This
support has been shown until now only to Sadat himself on his
return from Jerusalem.
A Jewish school In Madrid!
TEL AVIV, (JTA)—Sephardi Chief Rabbi Ovadia Vosef is
leaving soon for Spain to attend the dedication of the first Jewish
school in Madrid, the first school in Spain since the expulsion
of Jews from Spain by the Inquisition in 1492. Israeli religious
circles are attaching great significance to Yosefs visit to Spain as it
would mean the annulment of the “herem deraban”—the boycott
of Spain declared by the rabbis of the Inquisitiion era. There are
some 9000 Jews presently in Spain, 3000 of them in Madrid.
JNF project helps settlement
JERUSALEM, (JTA)—A new moshav in the Negev, Ashalim,
some $0 kilometers from Beersheba, will be inaugurated soon on
land being prepared by the Jewish National Fund. The JNF
announced completion of work on the first 175 acres to be used for
homes and light industry. Further land will now be prepared for
the beginnings of the new settlement’s agriculture. The settlers
themselves are currently receiving their training at the nearby
kibbutz of Mashavei Sadeh. Another JNF project is to provide a
further 250 acres of workable land to the kibbutz of Sde Boker.
More help wanted for blacks
NEW YORK.—The president of the American Jewish
Committee and American Jewish Congress have called for
increased efforts at the junior and senior high school levels to help
blacks prepare for medical and other professional schools.
Such measures, said Richard Maass of the Committee and
Rabbi Arthur Hertzberg of the Congress, would be far more
effective than any restrictive quota system in admissions in moving
toward “the goal of more black physicians, lawyers, and other
professionals in our society."
U.N. does It again!
UNITED NATIONS, (JTA)—The General Assembly adopted :
Dec. 14 a resolution condemning Israel “for its Collaboration with 8
the racist regime of South Africa." The anti-Israel resolution was |
one of 14 resolutions condemning the apartheid policies of the |
Pretoria government. The vote condemning Israel was 88-19 with |
30 abstentions.
The resolution against Israel was sponsored, among others, by |
Angola, Cuba, Egypt, Kenya, Somalia, Tanzania and Zambia and |
was described by them as following from the report of a special I
committee on apartheid that cited Israel’s military and economic 8
ties with South Africa.
Virtually all the Western countries, including the United States,
voted against the resolution condemning Israel. Guatemala also
voted negatively. Abstaining were many Latin American nations
as well as such African countries as Swaziland, Malawi, Liberia,
the Ivory Coast and the Central African Empire. Japan, Thailand,
Singapore and Iran also abstained.
Begin nice to both U.S. parties
WASHINGTON, (JTA)—During his visit here. Premier
Menachem Begin met with National Security Affairs Advisor
Zbigniew Brzezinski, several Senators, Jewish leaders, and struck a
note of friendship with both major political parties. Sunday
morning he met for one hour each with former President Ford and
former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger who brought his son
David to Blair House. At the lunch which Ambassador Simcha
Dinitz gave for some 40 guests, those attending included AFL-CIO
president George Meany; Vice President Walter Mondale; Rabbi
Alexander Schindler, chairman of the Conference of Presidents of
Major American Jewish Organizations; Leonard Strelitz, general
chairman of the United Jewish Appeal; and Sam Rothberg,
general chairman of the Israel Bond Organization.
Before leaving Washington, the Begins stopped at the home of
Sen. and Mrs. Hubert Humphrey.
"9
S
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H
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s
letters to Iheedilor
Clarifying the kosher question
Editor;
I read with interest and admira
tion your fine article regarding
the “Baby Bluming Bris".
Two points in the article,
however, I believe were based on
misinformation and stand to be
corrected.
You state “the food was flown in
from New York so it would be
kosher." The statement may
erroneously imply that there are no
facilities for kosher food here in
Atlanta, which is clearly and
totally untrue. On the contrary,
there are a number of fine markets
and facilities in Atlanta where
kosher food is available.
If kosher did play a role in
having the food flown in—then I
believe you’re missing the key
word—“GLATT Kosher", which
is a slightly different—possibly
more stringent—form of kashrut.
There is a growing number of
families in Atlanta that have
chosen to eat only “Glatt Kosher.”
Therefore there are those who have
their “simehas”—festive affairs—
catered Glatt, so that no one is
excluded, and everyone will feel
comfortable eating there. Al
though Glatt meat is available in
Atlanta, there is not yet, to my
knowledge, a private Glatt caterer
here. Definitely, however, there is
no intention to cast aspersions on
any other form or standard of
kashrut.
The other statement referred to
the bris beginning “as the women
were motioned to move towards
m
90
Z
55
the-back." This is an error of fact. ^
It simply did not happen. I was m
there. Although in orthodox syn- ~
agogues there is a separation of the rr
sexes during prayer services— o
a bris is not a prayer service. 3
Paulette S. Mutnick 9
(We have talked with Rabbi <f
Bluming about the reference men- kj
tioned In the above letter. The
reference was not a direct ^
quotation on Rabbi Bluming's
part and carried no intent to
question the kashruth standards of
the existing kosher facilities in
Atlanta on our part. As to
the second item, the writer stands
on her impression but agrees it
may have been an individual,
rather than an official, request.—
EDITOR)
Small turnout for Soviet Jewry rally
Editor:
On Dec. 12 the Women’s Plea
for Soviet Jewry had a
community-wide rally at the
Temple. The weather was
gorgeous, the location central,
great newspaper coverage and
organizational notifications. All
three TV stations and the radio
were there to cover this outcry of
women against the inhuman
Russian treatment of their
refusniks and activists.
The speaker was a Catholic nun,
who dedicates day and night to
work towards the improvement of
the lot of oppressed Soviet Jewry
and other persecuted minorities—
and lo and behold—she faced only
about 300 concerned Jewish and
non-Jewish women.
Sister Ann’s message was
powerful and it was also well
understood by the 200 children
from the three day schools, who
sang so beautifully. They were
impressed that there was a non-
Jewish woman so concerned about
the plight of Russian Jews. Where
were the women of our
community?
To quote Sister Ann “When we
are vocal and they are in the
spotlight, they are safer." Does it
really take a program for us to
show concern and be counted?
Helen Spiegel
Separate peace may help
Editor:
It appears that the Cairo-
Jerusalem negotiations, now
under way, are making our
administration in Washington
very nervous indeed. A
fantastically curious item in the
Wall Street Journal of Dec. 14,
1977, expressing dire misgivings
should Israel and Egypt make a
separate peace has all the ear
marks of State Department
inspiration.
The suggestion (which has
appeared in print before) that a
separate peace would further split
the Arabs and radicalize so-called
moderate Arab leaders is so
patently absurd that one wonders
at the capacity for mental
distortion existing among the
Arabists in our state department.
This kind of twisted logic has lead
to the tragic events in Asia of
recent history and could cause a
fiasco that would completely
destroy our credibility in the
Middle East.
The inexorable logic that
buttresses Sadat's great initiative is
quite simple and unencumbered by
the barnacles that beset the
thinking in our ship-of-state. A
firm Egyptian-Israeli peace will,
through its own dynamism, exert
irrcstible pressure upon Jordan,
Lebanon and Syria to conclude a
similar peace with Israel.
Indeed one may, without
torturing the imagination,
visualize a wider arrangement that
would include Iran. Saudi Arabia,
the Sudan and perhaps even
Turkey in a solid phalanx that
could with credible authenticity
exclude further Soviet penetration
into the Mideast. Of course our
state department, in order to
regain some of our lost influence
and prestige with the Turkish
government, requires some lessons
concerning the “facts of life” in
the eastern Mediterranean and in
“how to win friends and influence
people."
The prospects for success of the
above scenario, giving due
consideration to our fatal
penchant for antagonizing our
friends and essential collaber-
ationists, cannot be highly rated at
this point in time.
However since optimism is
preferable to defeatism one may
hope that geopolitical realities will
induce some logical thinking
among the experts of our
Department of State.
R M. Travis
Was Churchill a Zionist?
Editor:
Winston Churchill was many
things, bright and brave He was
an excellent politician. A “real
Zionist" as stated by Martin
Gilbert (in his article “Churchill,”
11/18/77)—I’m not sure.
In a White Paper issued 6/22/22
by then Colonial Secretary
Winston Churchill, he gave the
first hint that Britain would waffle
on the Balfour Declaration. While
he did state the validity of the
Declaration and the right of Jews
to be in Palestine, he made it clear
that Britain did not contemplate
that Palestine as a whole should be
converted into a Jewish National
Home. More importantly, he
introduced into the interpretation
of the Balfour Declaration the
principle, of “economic absorptive
capacity" as the yardstick for
Jewish immigration. Thus was set
up the bureaucratic net work which
first controlled and later shut-off
Jews from Palestine.
It’s true the Mid-East
represented a political puzzle to
Europe in the 20’s and 30’s. That
puzzle became most complicated
as war clouds loomed. Churchill
and most European politicians
were concerned with Arab
relations to the Axis powers, not
with Israel and Zionism except as
Israel and Zionism served their
political needs.
Wiibam A. Grainick
Southeast Regional Director
American Jewish Committee
