Newspaper Page Text
The Southern Israelite
The Weekly Newspaper For Southern Jewry
Our 55th Year
\ t:
VOL. LV
Atlanta, Georgia, Friday, November 2, 1979
The crusaders
School head Hinson believes
evangelism problem Is minor
by Vida Goldgar
Responding to concern in the
Jewish community regarding a
report in last Sunday’s Atlanta
Journal-Constitution on
evangelism in DeKalb County
high schools, DeKalb School
Superintendent James Hinson said
this week that “they are doing
everything possible to correct the
situation.” «
At press time, Superintendent
Hinson had readily agreed to meet
with representatives of the
Atlanta Jewish Federation’s
Community Relations Committee
to discuss the situation further.
Journal staff writer Mike
Christensen reported that at
Henderson High School,
representatives of the Campus
Crusade for Christ “are allowed to
mingle with students in the
lunchroom and, in a few instances,
during study halls. They have also
presented the creationist viewpoint
to some classes.”
Hinson told the CRC in
conversation prior to the
scheduled meeting, that he believes
the situation has been blown out of
proportion by the media and “the
problem itself is very minor.” The
superintendent said, however, that
he had already talked with
Henderson’s principal, Frank
Campbell, and that the situation
will be brought up at the next
regularly scheduled meeting of
principals to assure that the
problem does not occur again.
Hinson said, “1 strongly believe
in the separation of church and
state and I believe this situation is
not really as widespread and open
as was reported in the papers.”
Associate superintendent Joe
Renfroe told a caller that the
position regarding visitors should
be that any visitor coming into a
school must sign in and state the
purpose and may see an individual
student but no one may come in
and go into study halls or talk with
a group of students.
DeKalb County, as is the case
with almost all metro Atlanta
school systems, has-#tr Written
policy oa campus evangelism. It is
considered “political dynamite,”
The Southern Israelite was told.
Fulton County is believed to be the
only school system in the metro
area which has a written policy
against religious practices in public
schools.
Strauss to address
AJF special session
Robert Strauss, special
representative for Mideast
negotiations, has agreed to address
a special session of the Atlanta
Jewish Federation’s Delegate
Assembly regarding the current
status of Mideast negotiations.
The meeting will be held
Thursday, Nov. 8, at 10:30 a.m. at
the Federation, 1753 Peachtree
Street, N.E. The meeting is being
called at this unusual hour because
of the complexity of Strauss’
schedule. A member of the Atlanta
community, knowledgeable in
Washington circles, commented,
“if there is one man the president
consults on almost every issue, be
it foreign or domestic, it is Bob
Strauss.” A local Atlanta political
activist stated, “Bob Strauss is
knowledgeable, respected and
well-known among leaders
throughout the country. He is a
shrewd negotiator and has a real
understanding of the complexity
of the issues confronting the
United States in the Middle East.”
Ambassador Strauss' commun
ity, business and public service
activities cover a broad base. He
Robert Strauss
has served on the Texas Bank
Commission, the board of
directors of the Xerox
Corporation, Braniff Airlines,
Columbia Pictures and had been
actively involved in the daily
operations of the Strauss
Broadcasting Company. Follow
ing the 1972 elections he was
elected chairman of the
Democratic National Committee
See Strauss page 21
Calm before the storm
An Israeli family relaxes at the Jewish settlement of Elon Moreh in the West Bank just
before the Israeli Supreme Court ordered the dismantling of the outpost. The Oct. 22 order
gives the settlers 30 days to leave.
Begin begins reshuffle;
no Dayan replacement
..ru*. * «S
by David Landau
and Gil Sedan
JERUSALEM (JTA)—Premier
Menachem Begin succeeded this
week in putting together the
elements of a reorganized coalition
Cabinet, averting a government
crisis, at least for the time being.
Under his plan, which the
Cabinet is expected to approve at
its weekly meeting next Sunday,
former Minister of Commerce
Yigal Hurwitz will replace Simcha
Ehrlich as Finance Minister,
Ehrlich will assume the yet-to-be-
created post of second Deputy
Premier and Minister-Without-
Portfolio, Moshe Nissim will
become Minister of Information,
another post that does not now
exist in the Begin government.
The sensitive problem of
replacing Moshe Dayan as
Foreign Minister is being held in
abeyance. Begin announced that
he will continue to serve
temporarily as Foreign Minister,
the post he assumed when Dayan
resigned a week ago, and that he
might appoint a Deputy Foreign
Minister to assist him. The Cabinet
reshuffle represents an attempt by
Begin to balance the conflicting
interests of the various factions in
his Likud-led coalition.
The impasse was broken when
Ehrlich, a leader of Likud’s Liberal
Party wing, agreed to become
second Deputy Premier which will
make him junior, albeit
unofficially, to Deputy Premier
Yigael Yadin, leader of the much
smaller Democratic Movement.
Ehrlich, who said he planned to
&<*■
resign anyway in “a week or two,”
accepted reluctantly. He explained
that he was doing it for the good of
the coalition that otherwise would
be endangered. His successor,
Hurwitz, is a member of the small,
ultra-nationalist Laam faction of
Likud. Nissim belongs to the
Liberal Party.
The new arrangement was to be
drafted formally at a meeting this
week between Begin, Ehrlich,
Yadin and Interior Minister Yosef
Burg of the National Religious
Party. Although Cabinet approval
is expected, the reshuffle may run
into trouble when it is presented to
the Knesset for endorsement. A
sharp debate is likely but the
government's majority is expected
to prevail over opposition critics.
There are other stumbling
blocks, however. According to the
basic law governing the Cabinet’s
structure, the creation of a second
Deputy Premier’s office requires
the approval of a Knesset majority.
Begin may have difficulty
mustering the necessary 61 votes
inasmuch as the Democratic
Movement which controls seven
Knesset seats is not happy with the
new arrangement.
Yosef Eliahu, chairman of its
Knesset faction, has called a
special meeting of his colleagues
for this Friday. He charged that
the appointment of a second
Deputy Premier would “degrade"
the office of Deputy Premier held
by Yadin. Ehrlich said, however,
that if creation of the new post is
delayed, he would be willing to
serve temporarily as a minister-
without-portfolio. Begin has
already instructed the govern
ment’s attorneys to draft the
necessary legislation.
There are long-range implica
tions in the projected Cabinet
reshuffle that could lead to a
serious internal crisis in the not
too distant future. If Begin's plan is
implemented, the hawkish wing of
the government will be
strengthened considerably at the
expense of moderates.
Hurwitz is a hard-liner who quit
Begin's Cabinet last year because
he opposed the Camp David
accords. When he re-enters the
Cabinet, he is expected to align
himself with the other hawks.
Agriculture Minister Ariel
Sharon, Transport Minister Haim
Landau and Educational Minister
Zevulun Hammer of NRP.
Moreover, the appointment of a
Foreign Minister cannot be
postponed indefinitely. At the
moment, the leading candidate is
believed to be Knesset Speaker,
Yitzhak Shamir, of Herut, whose
political views are close to those of
Sharon.
Some analysts predicted that if
Shamir is named Foreign
Minister, Defense Minister Ezer
Weizman would resign. There was
some speculation, however, that
the appointment of Ehrlich as
second Deputy . Premier might
prompt Yadin to reconsider
Begin’s offer of the Foreign
Ministry. Yadin turned it down
over the weekend because of the
sharp policy differences between
his faction and the coalition
majority.