Newspaper Page Text
The Souther»
Israelite
The Weekly Newspaper for Southern Jewry
Our 54th Year
VOL. LIV
Atlanta, Ga., Friday, August 11, 1978
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Cong. Levitas optimistic
about Camp David talks
Bikel: “You dishonor me as a human being and as a Jew...”
Bikel to Redgrave:
7 am appalled’
Editor's note: This is an excerpt from a letter
Theodore Bikel wrote to Vanessa Redgrave
concerning her anti-Israel sentiments.
Since you have addressed the Equity Council and the trade and
national press with reference to some remarks of mine regardifif 1
association with the PLO, l am answering you in this form. 1 fear this
letter will neither be very short nor very pleasant.
In the First instance, it must be stated emphatically that I take great care
when speaking in my capacity as president of Actors’ Equity to confine
myself to Equity positions alone without involving my private views.
Thus Equity has made no comment at all on your film “The
Palestinian." Theodore Bikel did; what I said and why, I shall discuss a
little later in this statement.
...The PLO’s policy and credo is spelled out by the Palestinian
Covenant of 1964 as amended in 1968. The basic tenet of this document
was never abrpgated or modified. Indeed, it was many times affirmed and
reaffirmed.
Farouh al-Kaddoumi, chief political strategist of the PLO, declared in
Newsweek in 1975: “Israel must be destroyed." Two years later he is a
little more public-relations minded; he proposes that Israel be destroyed
in stages: “The first phase is (return) to the 1967 lines and the second to
the 1948 lines;, the third stage is the democratic State of Palestine."
And so we come to Arafat’s statement in your transcript: “...to
establish our democratic Palestine state where Muslims, Christians and
Jews can live together, together.”
In the first place, one questions the sincerity of the statement since in
all of the Arab world there has yet to exist such a democratic state. Not
only can Arab Christians and Muslims apparently not live together, but
800,000 Jews were expelled from Arab lands since 1948 and quickly
absorbed by Israel and the rest of the free world.
In the second place, by your friends’ own pronouncements where
would such a “democratic state” be established if not on the very ashes of
the State of Israel?
And please spare me your sophistry (and Arafat’s who came to the
world’s peace forum carrying a gun): We are not against Jews, we are
against Zionists. Indeed.
In the wake of the Holocaust, it was for years unfashionable and
impolitic to say anything insulting and perjorative against Jews. Now
once again you can say anything you like about a Jew as long as you call
him a Zionist. You may want to be thought of as a supporter of
“liberation movements” and a champion of Palestinian rights.
It may surprise you to learn that 1 am not at all averse to entertaining
the notion of Arab or Palestinian aspirations. But you have anointed the
PLO as “the only representative of the Palestinian people.”
And thus, you make yourself an ideological partner of the murderers of
schoolchildren at Ma’alot, Of pregnant women at Kiryat Shmona, of
Olympic athletes at Munich, indeed of Wasfi Tal, an Arab minister, in
Cairo and of hundreds of Jews and Arabs alike in Jerusalem, Tel Aviv
and Gaza.
I am appalled by your apparent insensitivity and offended by your
pronouncements. You dishonor me as a human being and as a Jew by
distorting history and by pretending that there is a difference between
those Jew-haters who destroyed Jerusalem 2,000 years ago and those who
seek to destroy it now.
—Theodore Bikel
by Vida Goldgar
The surprising announcement
that Israel’s Prime Minister
Menachem Begin and Egypt’s
President Anwar el Sadat would
meet with President Jimmy Carter
at Camp David, Md., early next
month brought quick and positive
reaction from Georgia Congress
man Elliott Levitas.
Reached in Washington just
after the primary election in which
he had won a landslide Democratic
re-nomination for the Georgia
Fourth District seat, Levitas told
The Southern Israelite he was
hopeful of success for the coming
meeting.
“It is a very important and
dramatic breakthrough for
American diplomacy in the Middle
East aMuattoh,” Levitas said.
“While everyone acknowledges
there are high stakes involved, the
failure to take this opportunity
could result in the potential of
tragedy.”
Levitas called the Camp David
JUM*rnent beefing, had
ated that it was not his
meeting “a very constructive step
and one which holds potential for
continuation of the peace talks.”
He stressed that Carter, in a pre-
annot
indicate
purpose^ tC' Jopcve. terms and
conditions on Begin and Sadat.
Terming Sadat’s recent position
regarding renewed peace talks
“completely intransigent,” the
Georgia Congressman said, “The
fact that this has been overcome by
Secretary Vance’s initiative and
President Carter’s efforts is a
major step forward..."
Asked about the risks involved
in a meeting between the three
leaders at this time'Tevitas said, “I
think there are certainly obvious
risks if the talks don’t accomplish
some movement towards peace. If
(the talks) break down altogether,
we have a very serious situation.
See Camp David, Page 21.
All eyes on England
Atlanta rabbis react
to test-tube question
by Lisa Redacted
If you told your rabbi you were
having a test-tube baby, how
would he react?
Well it depends on who you talk
to because Atlanta rabbis have
differing opinions about the birth
last month in England of the
world’s first test-tube baby.
“I’m apprehensive about it,”
Rabbi Winokur of the Temple
said. “I wonder about the
repercussions of such a
breakthrough and the control a
doctor might have over the birth of
a child and the characteristics that
child might have. Science has a
certain role to play, but this is a
little too God-like for me to feel
comfortable with it.”
Rabbi Emanuel Feldman of
Beth Jacob Synagogue suspects
the tendency of halacha, Jewish
law, would be “not to look with
great favor on the test-tube baby.
“The implications transcend
merely having another child.
Jewish law would look with
caution before jumping in with
both feet,” Rabbi Feldman said
Rabbi Richard Lehrman of
Temple Sinai seems to agree with
Rabbj Feldman’s viewpoint.
“I think it’s against Jewish law
from everything I’ve read. It is
better to adopt than to have
artificial insemination. It’s against
the natural processes of man and
woman. I would hope babies
would come naturally and not
through the test-tube. Parents
should adopt rather than use
artificial insemination,” Rabbi
Lehrman said.
Rabbi Shalom Lewis of
Congregation Etz Chaim “finds
nothing wrong” with test-tube
babies, although he sees a
“danger.”
“In fact it is exciting to know
that with medical technology, the
mitzva of‘be fruitful and multiply’
can be extended to couples who
heretofore would have been
deprived of the joys of biological
parenthood. The danger exists in
the abuse of such technology in the
creation of the Orwellian ‘test-tube
See Test-Tube, Page 21.
Et tu, Bert?
Bert Lance, in an interview reported in Sunday’s Journal and
Constitution Magazine, made a statement which is a basic
misconception of anti-Semitism.
Answering a question about multinational investments, Lance
said: “I understand the concerns, but circumstances have changed.
There’s no special significance to the word Arab. I don’t know
whether all the hurrah stems from the great Jewish ownership of
the press or not.”
When contacted by a representative of the Anti-Defamation
League, Lance indicated he planned to clarify the statement.
Jack Redacted
Clifton Avenue
Cincinnati, Ohio 45220