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News Briefs
—Blacks-Jews
Arab countries cancel contracts
MONTREAL (JTA)—Iraq, Libya and Saudi Arabia have
cancelled over $4.5 million worth of contract! with Canada in
protest against plans to move the Canadian Embassy in Israel from
Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, the government disclosed Monday. The
Minister of State for International Trade, Michael Wilson, said the
contracts represented a $4.2 million sale of timber to Iraq, $60,000
worth of poultry products to Libya, and $350,000 due the
Canadian World University Service from Saudi Arabia for services
rendered to visiting Saudi students.
The Embassy shift, promised by Prime Minister Joe Clark
during his election campaign, has been postponed pending the
recommendations of Robert Stanfield who Clark sent on a fact-
finding mission to the Middle East.
Israeli Arabs head for Mecca
JERUSALEM (JTA)—Some 1,500 Israeli Arabs left Tuesday
for the yearly pilgrimage to Mecca in Saudi Arabia. They began
their journey by crossing over the Allenby Bridge to Jordan. A
total of 6,500 Israeli Arabs will be making the pilgrimage this year.
It is the second year that Israeli citizens of the Moslem faith are
permitted by the Jordanian and Saudi authorities to enter the
territory. In the past they were banned because of their Israeli
citizenship. The Israeli Arabs will join some 15,000 Arabs from the
administered territories to celebrate the Feast of Al-Adha in
Mecca.
Group says don’t draft women
NEW YORK (JTA)—President Carter was urged by Agudath
Israel of America to reject any attempt to register women if the
selective service system is reinstated. In voting 259-155 against the
reestablishment of selective service registration for 18-year-old
males for possible military service, the House of Representatives
recently called on the President to study and report to Congress on
whether women should be subject to registration.
As sbon as Agudath Israel learned of the impending debate on
women’s registration, it wired an alert to members of Congress.
The Agudath Israel telegram read in part: “To include women
would deal a severe blow to the traditional concept of the
American family and place Orthodox Jews in an unsolvable
conflict—the mandates of their religious conscience versus the law
of the land.”
WNET speeds up production
NEW YORK —First filming for “Civilization and the Jews”
was to begin in the Sipai desert last week, it was announced by
Robert Kotlowitz, vice-president and director of programming at
WNET/Thirteen which is producing the 13-part series for
broadcast in the spring of 1982. The imminent return to Egypt of
parts of the Sinai traditionally associated with the giving of the Ten
Commandments anrj the wandering of the Children of Israel in
their exodus from Egypt has accelerated the shooting schedule.
Teacher raps Sukkot election
ORLANDO, Fla. (JTA)—Orlando Federal District Court
Chief Judge George Young last week denied an American Jewish
Congress-supported petition by a Hebrew teacher to postpone the
vote last Saturday in the state-wide Florida Democratic caucuses
because it was being held on a Saturday, which was also the last day of
Sukkot. The judge said he denied the request because the
caucuses were non-binding and were not financed by state, local or
federal governments.
The suit was filed by David Kaufman, a registered Democrat
who is a Hebrew teacher at Temple Israel here. He was seeking a
court ruling to permit Sabbath observers to vote in the caucuses by
absentee ballot or on another date that would not require them to
violate their religious beliefs.
Americans flood Israel
* NEW YORK—An unprecedented 55 percent more Americans
1 vacationed in Israel duripg August 1979 than in August 1978.
I Announcing this statistic in New York, Israel Zuriel, Israel’s
*1 Commissioner for Tourism for North America, said that the
29,452 Americans who visited Israel in August 1979 represented
T the biggest August increase in American tourism in Israel in the
;| State's 31-year history.
a m »*■ *n w »
Continued from page I
point for the nation, but even here
the real power structure is only
secondarily interested in the
Middle East, if at all. There are
leaders in the black community
who are most anxious to sit down
and dialogue about any real
conflict that exists.”
The Community Relations
Committee of the Atlanta Jewish
Federation," Cohen said, “is
further involving itself in a more
ongoing process of understanding,
by meeting individually and in
small groups with members of the
Atlanta black community.”
The Southern Israelite has
learned that there is much diverse
opinion expressed within the black
community in Atlanta.
A prominent black Methodist
minister said “I don’t sense any
sense of hatred of Jews from the
black perspective. My Christology
says I should attempt to
understand and change rather than
alienate. Reverend Lowery was
seeking affirmation of basic
principles. Reverend Lowery was
seeking a dialogue: he wanted to.
share in and create rational
discussion.” The minister went on
to say, “It all began with Andy
Young's resignation and
snowballed from there. 1 would see
a closer bond generally between
blacks and Jews, than whites in
general, because we have shared a
common social suffering. Blacks,
however, have suffered an
economic deprivation that Jews
have not.
Within the black clergy in
Atlanta, he felt a common
admiration for Lowery and what
he had done. And he felt Lowery
operated out of a moral obligation.
The black experience, he said, “has
taught us that after demonstration
should come negotiation and this
was what Rev. Lowery was
attempting to create.”
A black business executive in
town expressed the feeling that the
“root cause is nothing but the
Andy Young issue.” “The black
and Jewish community is being
fractionated by a non-essential
issue. The support of the PLO is
becoming fashionable in the black
community without any real study
or knowledge. He also expressed
the feeling that he was "suspect of
why Jews are unwilling to trust
anyone, but each other.”
An established black public
servant stated “The problem is
based entirely on ignorance on
both sides.” He felt that blacks
knew virtually nothing about Jews
and conversely, Jews were
ignorant of the feelings and
agendas in the black community.
“I’m scared and frustrated," he
said. “I know that life is full of
risks, but I am beginning to
wonder if the Israelis really want
peace. I can’t understand some
of their actions anymore and 1
have a deep fear that someday the
United States will be forced to go
to warinthe MiddleEasttodefend
Israel. If that occurs. 1 might have
to go or my son might have to go
and 1 have worked hard to achieve
a good life for myself and my
interrupted.
“1 keep hearing that the Israelis
won’t even sit down and talk about
it. I wonder why people as smart as
the Israelis don’t make the PLO
show their real colors by saying
they’ll talk to them and that in turn
will take away the PLO’s thunder.
I mainly worry that for economic
reason, the U.S. really wants to go
to war, and if they do, it will be
blacks out there in the field
fighting it.”
Another black businessman
expressed the feeling “I’m not sure
whether we’re seeing real people
feelings or media feelings. I believe
we all have been duped by the
media and the system. I believe
none of this is accidental and it is
not coincidental that this is all
occurring in an election year.”
Another prominent Atlanta
leader said, “I believe lots of
people are talking for other people,
which created something that
never really happened. With me,
it’s business as usual and I am
sitting back and watching.” He
further expressed the view that it is
a necessity that blacks and Jews
stay together. “In my experience
the Jews are the only ones who will
bail us out when the going gets
rough.” tyith regard to Andy
Young, this leader expressed a very
high opinion of Young.
“I believe he (Young) is moral
and believes he’s doing what is
right, even though he may be naive
at times.”
A black also offered the feeling
that, “Blacks don’t have any guilts
where whites or Jews are
concerned, so we don’t carry any
banners. My perception and the
perception of other blacks is that
“Jews look out for themselves, and
in a sense that makes me admire
them, but it also makes me self-
critical, and there is clearly some
anger that emerges from that self-
criticism.” He went on to say that
he believed “that in order to
prevent another war like Vietnam
occurring in the Middle East, the
SCLC and many blacks were
willing to become a bridge between
two sides who appear to them to be
hopelessly deadlocked. And if you
are a bridge, you have got to be
prepared to get stepped on.”
A prominent black educator
offered this thought: “The major
awareness one must have in
dealing with the mainstream of the
black community, in Atlanta or
anywhere, is to make sure that no
one feels put down.”
After listening to the diversity of
opinion expressed within both the
black and Jewish communities in
recent weeks, this reporter could
not help but remember Gerald
Cohen's closing remarks to the
Federation’s Delegate Assembly
meeting, "It is the obligation of
each Jew in his ordinary pursuits
to establish contacts to dispel
tensions and fears. It must be done
at all levels. We all know the story.
We all share the burden."
Calling All
JNF Blue Boxes
Come home...We need you.
CITY-WIDE
COLLECTION
Sunday, October 21
At Your Congregation
or Zaban Park JCC
■$£ /! JEWISH NATIONAL FUND
/I’ 3 Piedmont Center, Suite 416
Atlanta, Georgia 30305 237-1132
Page 5 THE SOUTHERN ISRAELITE October 19, 1979