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•*»•« 4 THIi SOUTHERN IS HA I. III K April 7, I
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Vanessa’s at it again!
It's not bad enough that actress Vanessa Redgrave has publicly
and vehement)) voiced her support of the PLO—even putting her
money where her mouth is and producing an anti-Israeli
documentary for them. Now she has injected politics into this
week's Oscar awards, referring to “Zionist hoodlums." Taken out
of context, that phrase stirs further anger and resentment.
News stones referred to several hundred JDL members who
picketed the awards ceremony and then quoted Redgrave's praise
of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for not being
intimidated “by the threats of a small bunch of Zionist hoodlums
whose behavior is an msuhto the stature of Jews all over the work)
and to their great anOhWpic struggle against Fascism and
oppression."
She even said she would continue to fight against “anti-
Semitism and fascism.”
New twist, eh? Is she having second thoughts? Or does she fear
repercussions to the all-powerful box office take?
: Let's not forget that just a few months ago, the actress,
defending her PLO film, said “...Israel is a racist, fascist state and
it has to go.”
We doubt Redgrave changes her viewpoint as easily as she
changes costumes and her feeble attempt to soften her statements
just doesn't cut it.
Did you know April 20 i* Hitler’i birthday?
If you are like me, you could care less when the^
monster was born—but I assure you there are people
out there who do care.
In fact, the much publicized
march by the swastika-clad
American Nazi -party through
Skokie. Illinois—a town in which
10 perceht of the residents are
Jewish Holocaust survivors—was
originally planned to coincide with
Hitler's birthday A federal judge
wisely scotched the commemor
ation by issuing a 45-day stay,
which barred the Nazis from making the march,
pending appeal
Unfortunately, the Skokie affair is not an isolated
instance of Nazi insanity rearing its ugly head.
Earlier this year, for instance, in the peaceful
French city of Dijon, slogans appeared on walls which
said. “Jew get out of France, Hitler was right” and
“Put the Jews into camps.” Suddenly, there was a
rash of anti-Semitic acts in southern France. The head
of the Jewish community and the local rabbi of Dijon
were barraged with threats of violence and a low point
of the outbreak of neo-Nazism was the chilling
discovery of two students in Marseille wearing yellow
T-shirts with the inscription. “Hungry 1 Put a Jew in
vonr oven ”
As might be expected. Germany has also been the
scene of several nasty Nazi incidents. In Hanover,
Jewish shop keepers wt, c threatened, followed by
cemetery desecrations, distribution of anti-Jewish
pamphlets and anti-Semitic slogans on walls.
Particularly disturbing was the widely reported
mock “burning of Jews” by West German army
officers who yelled. “Put another Jew on'” as they
threw scraps of paper onto a fire.
South America has also been a hotbed of Nazi
groups In fact, threats against several American
Jewish. Committee employees in Buenos Aires led the
agency to close its office after 39 years of operation
and Nazi literature appears openly on newstands
throughout Argentina.
In Portugal, a highly inflammatory leaflet was
distributed in one high school: “All is not lost.
National Socialism is the answer to the material and
spiritual needs of Western man. Those who call Hitler
a madman will come to understand the reason for his
glorious acts.” Shortly afterward, students in Lisbon
painted swastikas on walls and roamed the streets
chanting “Heil Hitler.”
Jn England, that supposed bastion of freedom, the
racist National Front Party is now the third largest
political faction and similar Nazi groups have been
reported in Chile, Finland, Denmark and Australia
One Jewish news service recently surveyed the
American scene and reported that “here in the United
States, news stories chronicle threatened Nazi
marches, clashes between Nazis and outraged citizens
in Milwaukee, San Francisco, and St. Louis, and
synagogue desecrations."
The story goes on to cite recent news headlines from
major newspapers: “Nazi Lover Slays 5, Then Kills
Himself,” "Hit List Linked to Jew’s Killing.” and
“Swastika-Wearing Youth Kills Black Man and Self.”
Does all this mean the Nazis are coming?
Many experts, including the American Jewish
Committee, think there is no real cause for alarm. "A
widespread assumption that Nazism u taking root in
America is simply not true,” one study conduded.
I’m not so sure.
I don’t predict an immediate takeover of the world
by Nazism but I confess a certain uneasiness with
these disturbing world-wide incidents.
Call me paranoid if you wish, hut I am not
comfortable with marches that celebrate Hitler's
birthday.
V.G.
Coming out of Lebanon
This past week Israel began to "thin out” its forces in Lebanon
to make way for the UN peace keeping troops.
Somehow “pulling back” out of captured territory has become
a way of life for Israel in its short history.
The pattern has been repeated so many tupes that one begins to
marvel at Israel's trusting nature in believing that perhaps this is
the last time.
Lois Jaffe: a woman
unafraid to face death
by Vida Gold gar
They raised glasses and toasted
“L'Chaim” in the social hall of
B’nai Abraham Synagogue in
Butler. Pa , Sunday afternoon at
the request of Lois Silverstein
Jaffe. She wasn't there to hear it.
hut she had known it would be
done Funeral service for the 50-
vear-old leukemia victim had been
held just hours before.
It was five years ago, almost to
the day. that Mrs. Jaffe team'd she
had leukemia, with, statistically,
perhaps a year and a half to live.
Like everything else in the last
five years of Lois Jaffe's life, she
had carefully planned her
leavetaking. It was on Kh^
instruction that, after a private
funeral and graveside service,
friends and colleagues yvere invited
to join her family in the synagogue.
Her Rabbi, Eliezer Ben-Yehuda.
spoke in tribute to her religious
and community life. The dean of
the University of Pittsburgh
■ School of Social Work, where she
had been an associate professor,
spoke of her professional life. And
then Arthur Jaffe. her husband of
almost 30 years, shared his
memories of their life together
The glasses were raised “to life.”
and to the courage and
determination of Lois Jaffe.
Back in Atlanta the following
day. her parents. Mr and Mrs
Hyman Silverstein. were able to
talk about the last five years, clear-
I.ois Jaffe
“To lift”
eyed and proad. Their daughter
had prepared them, too, as well as
her husband and four children, to
face their kiss courageously
In a national magazine article
she wrote in 1975, Lois Jaffe said,
“Death is a moment in time we all
must face -some sooner, s> tie
later. I have been relegated to the
'some sooner' category " She wrote
that her own perspective had
changed from a concern about
quantity of life to quality.
An outstanding mental health
and social work professional, 1 ois
Jaffe was used to working with
other people's problems Now,
facing her illness squarely, she
shifted direction and began
educating both the public and
social service professionals about
thanatology (death knd dying).
She taught graduate seminars in
the sociology of dying and led
counseling programs for
terminally ill patients and their
families. She convinced hospitals
to be more sensitive to their needs
During two periods of
remission, Mrs. Jaffe wrote books,
lectured, and freely submitted to
the newspaper and television
interviews that probed her deepest
and most intimate thoughts on
death. Each time she entered the
hospital her room was full of file
folders of work to be done. In the
beginning, she wrote, “All I could
think about was our four children:
the oldest was 23. the youngest 15.”
The openness with which she
insisted on dealing with her illness
was a strengthening factor for the
family, which shared anger,
sadness and frustration —as well as
small joys. “We have found.” she
wrote, "that the use of ‘gallows'
humor has been one of the best
safety valves for all of us, so'much
so that my husband has begun to
refer to himself as a ‘victim of
terminal candor.' ”
Lois Jaffe had shveral years
more of life than the doctors had
anticipated. She lived them fully,
helping herself while she helped
others.
But time ran out last Saturday.
