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BOOKS: OUR HERITAGE
JEWISH BOOK MONTH
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X> JWB JEWISH BOOK COUNCIL-
JULIB BIAJTMST*HT • NIW YORK. N.Y. IOOIO
The Southert
Israelite
The Weekly Newspaper for Southern Jewry
Our 55th Year
VOL. LV
Atlanta, Georgia, Friday, October 26, 1979
No.
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Carter taps Wise man
as Strauss successor
The resignation this week of
Robert Strauss as special
representative to the Mideast
peace negotiations in order to head
President Carter’s re-election
campaign had been predicted.
However, the move was not
expected to take place until 1980.
As The Southern Israelite goes
to press, Strauss is in Atlanta to
address a special session of the
Atlanta Jewish Federation’s
Delegate Assembly. Arrangements
for the briefing on progress in the
Mideast were made prior to
Strauss’ resignation. The meeting,
which is off the record to the
general press, will be the subject of
an exclusive report in next week’s
issue of The Southern Israelite.
Named to replace Strauss iq the
ambassador-level post in the
Middle East is Sol M. Linowitz,
65, a lawyer from Rochester, N. Y.,
and a former board chairman of
the Xerox Corp., who has served in
special diplomatic assignments for
Strauss
several American presidents since
Lyndon Johnson appointed him
aanhmmukot to the Organization
of American Suites (OA5). He is
chairman of the board of the
Jewish Theological Seminary of
America and a member of the
board of the American Jewish
Committee.
Linowitz helped negotiate the
Panama Canal treaties for the
Carter administration. Highly
regarded in Washington, he was
among the “wise men" who
advised the President in the
controversy over the presence of
Soviet combat troops in Cuba in
September.
On Oct. 23, Strauss, appearing
before the House Foreign Affairs
Committee’s subcommittee on the
Middle East, said that the U.S.
should not attempt to impose itself
in the lsracli-Egyptian talks to
speed autonomy plans for the West
Bank and Gaza Strip. •
A newspaper report published in
Washington this week and
attributed to a Stale Department
official**M that Strauss wanted to
be relieved of his Middle East
assignment because he was
frustrated and facing failure. A
source close to Strauss said such
statements were “beneath
contempt and dignified comment."
Family ‘drops
anchor’ in Atlanta
Chong Tro Ho, his three
daughters, Nhi Mui, Thi Thu, It
Ngoe, and his grandnephew,
Mau Mhin, arrived in Atlanta last
week. They are ethnic Chinese
from Viet Nam. There is very little
we know precisely about the Ho
family.
What we do know is that,
according to the U.S. State
Department, there are perhaps
170,000 Vietnamese refugees—the
ethnic Chinese, the “boat
people”—squatting on the beaches
and rocky islands of Southeast
Asia. And there are 160,000 less
conspicuous refugees camped
inland. These are the fortunate
ones, the ones who survived—
some say 200,000 of the refugees
may have been lost at sea.
What we do know is that the Ho
family has been waiting in the
Southeast Asian refugee camp
since September of 1977. We have
no idea how they got there. We
know nothing of the whereabouts
of the mother and we know that
the grandnephew's parents were
unable to leave Viet Nam.
The Ho family is the first “boat”
family to be resettled by the Family
and Children’s Bureau of the
Atlanta Jewish Federation under a
grant from the federal govern
ment.
Why is there so little factual
information to report about the
Hos? Primarily, because we have
no readily available Vietnamese
translator at the Family and
Children’s Bureau. What actual
language communication that has
been necessary, has been done by
the social worker at the JFCB
telephoning a Vietnamese
professor, explaining the problem,
and then having him speak to
father Ho over the phone.
Judith Siegel, a member of the
Resettlement staff of the JFCB,
has become a lifeline for the Ho
family. She has spent the past week
making human contact with the
family so that they feel safe in some
small way. Ms. Siegel spoke
emotionally about the experience
of developing a trusting
relationship with the Hos. She said
“Now that they feel secure around
me, 1 feel confident that they will
quickly begin to adapt to their new
surroundings. They are very hard
working and their new apartment
is immaculate. The only words of
English the Hos know are thank
you’ and they use that often."
The major problem the Hos are
suffering from is extreme culture
shock. Transported in less than a
week from a Southeast Asian
refugee camp'to a San Francisco
relocation center, to a motel in
Atlanta, and finally to an
New surroundings
apartment near Brookhaven, the
Hos are now in the process of
becoming Americanized.
Since the Ho family speaks no
English yet, they must be provided
with private transportation to
doctors, dentists, and English
classes. Volunteers are desperately
needed who can offer transporta
tion on a one-time or ongoing
basis. Persons with a little time and
a warm heart can volunteer by
calling the JFCB Resettlement
Office, 892-3118.
Ho family
CINCINNATI OH 45220