Below is the OCR text representation for this newspapers page.

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