Newspaper Page Text
The Southern
Israelite
The Weekly Newspaper for Southern Jewry
Our 54th Year
VOL. LIV
Atlanta, Ga., Friday, March 3, 1978
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Judaism’s branches-
the equality question
130 years old—
he never lost it!
MOSHAV YINON —Mussa Assad died here recently, aged 130.
He is survived by a wife, seven children and dozens of
grandchildren and great-grandchildren.
Assad was born in Yemen, where he outlived three wives and
nine children. He married his surviving wife, Hamama, when she
was 10 and he was 55. The wife and her children, the youngest being
55, all live on this moshav near Ashdod.
His sons said that their father’s sight and hearing were
unimpaired until the day he died and he continued doing the light
work round the farm up to a few years ago.
His daily diet consisted of fruit, homemade butter and the local
flat bread. He did not smoke cigarettes, but was addicted to
smoking nargila, and would puff away in the evening before going
to bed.
His wife said that Assad retained his interest in the opposite sex
until his last years. Jmmirm Po»i
Putting down roots
While his son plants a tree for the future at the Gush Kmunim settlement on the West Bank of the
Jordan River, this young father keeps his gun handy in case of terrorist attack. Mere about the
settlements and their importance on page 4.
to the Reform and Conservative
branches of Judaism in its
education programs abroad.
The Orthodox Mizrachi
delegates and some of their Herut
supporters were violently opposed
and for some 10 minutes, chaos
reigned in the huge conference hall
as opposing delegates battled in
the aisles and exchanged blows for
possession of the microphone on
the podium. Mizrachi threatened
to quit the WZO.
The motion was presented by
Aharon Yadlin of the Labor
Zionist delegation, a former
Minister of Education and Culture
who is currently chairman of the
Knesset's education committee. It
was in the form of an amendment
to a resolution adopted Sunday by
the £«ttgr»rs- education
comiJ£ttt^mriMM>rthodox and
Herut support, which called
merely tm ■ iw—glbrning Jewish
education abroad in order to “get
together all the groups in the Jewish
people, each with its own system.”
The Yadlin amendment was
much more specific and aimed at
granting equal status to the
Reform and Conservative
movements which have only
recently affiliated with the WZO.
It said: All Jewish educational
programs of the WZO should be
based upon the principle of
equality of the value and status of
all streams of Judaism. The WZO
will assist and support all the
religious and ideological streams
in their activities so as to reflect the
pluralism which exists in Jewish
life in the diaspora. The
amendment added that Jewish
education should emphasize the
humane and moral values of
Jewish culture and tradition.
The amendment did not sit well
with the Orthodox. They objected
loudly when it was introduced to
the plenum. Some Mizrachi and
Herut delegates demonstrated in
the aisles to demand that the
earlier education committee
resolution be declared final. When
Yadlin's amendment was adopted
by a majority show of hands, the
turmoil in the hall forced the
presidium to adjourn the session
until the afternoon.
The Mizrachi demanded a
second vote. When the plenary
session was reconvened, WZO
chairman Leon Dulzin announced
that the presidium agreed to a
second vote because the delegates
did not have the written text of the
amendment before them when the
first vote was taken. Dulzin was
roundly booed by supporters of
See Equality, Page 26.
by Gil Sedan
and Tuvia Mendeison
Whatta smile!
The infectious smile on this Israeli model seems to have spread to
buyers, an eager photographer and to Commerce Minister Yigal
Hurvitz during Israel's recent Fashion Week which drew nearly
700 buyers from 16 countries to Tel Aviv.
JERUSALEM, (JTA)—The
29th World Zionist Congress
confronted its first major crisis
Monday, Feb. 27, and erupted in
pandemonium after the plenum
twice voted in favor of a motion
calling on the World Zionist
Organization to grant equal rights
Rumors flying high
over prisoner swap
by Vida Goldgar
A report that four nations are
working out a swap of political
prisoners that could include
freedom for Anatoly Shcharansky
and Edward Kuznetsov has been
called “sheer specualtion" by the
National Jewish Community
Relations Advisory Council.
The United Press International
story, which appeared in the
February 26 Atlanta Journal-
Constitution, claimed unnamed
sources said negotiations have
been carried on in Chile, East
Germany, Israel and the United
Sates by private individuals.
In addition to Shcharansky and
Kuznetsov, the sources indicated
other imprisoned Soviet Jewish
dissidents could be included, as
well as up to a dozen Chilean
Communists, jailed since 1973;
Robert Glenn Thompson, an
American sentenced in 1965 to 30
years for spying for Russia: and
possibly an Israeli pilot downed
over Mozambique last year.
Marvin Schpeiser, community
planning director for the Atlanta
Jewish Welfare Federation, and
local NJCRAC spokesman, told
The Southern Israelite, “The UP1
story has no basis in fact.”
NJCRAC sources also stated
that a recent announcement that
the KGB had appointed an
attorney for Anatoly Shcharansky
is subject to verification. The
implication of an appointment of
an attorney usually indicates that a
trial date has been set. The KGB
official refused to identify the state
appointed attorney. According to
Mrs. Ida Milgrom, Shcharansky's
mother, the Soviet official told her
that the state had taken this action
because of the family’s failure to
hire a Soviet lawyer.
Mrs. Milgrom had previously
wanted to retain a foreign lawyer
on behalf of her son.and several
prominent attorneys both in the
United States and abroad have
volunteered their services.
Officials have insisted that only a
Soviet attorney may represent
Shcharansky.
Eugene Gold, chairman of the
National Conference on Soviet
Jewry, called this an “ominous
move towards what will surely be a
travesty of a trial against
Shcharansky.” Mr. Gold
continued, “According to Soviet
law, Shcharansky is entitled to
have observers at his trial and, at
this time, we demand of Soviet
authorities that we be permitted to
See Rumors, Page 26.
inatl, Ohio 45220
