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Pat* 4 THE SOUTHERS ISRAELITE November 16. 1979
Vida Goldgar
Vida GofcHar
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Faith Pox rl
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Unda Inoln
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Rabbi Lehrman
Richard Lehrman died this week, and our community is
poorer for his passing just as, for the past IS years, we have been
richer because he was among us.
As spiritual leader of Temple Sinai since its very beginning,
and as assistant rabbi at the Temple before that. Rabbi Lehrman’s
impact on his congregants was enormous. His influence was felt
by the broader Jewish and general communities as welL
If there is comfort in the loss of one so young it will be in the
continuation of his principles and direction by those whose lives
he touched.
Help
Dear to (be heart of every detective film huff is the
scene when the victim or witness is called down to the
police station and confronted wi
hundreds, of photos of possible
perpetrators.
After hours of agonizing search,
shown on the screen by many
empty styrofoam coffee cups or
perhaps periodic zooming in on
the clock, the searcher looks long
and hard at a mug shot and
victoriously cries, “This is the
one.”
Since 1 never worked the police beat (or the “cop
shop” as journalists call it). I'm not really sure whether
it happens this way or not. But a report that jnst
crossed my desk from the Ben Gurion University of
the Negev lends credibility to the scene.
With Atlanta’s crime rate, perhaps our police
department should look into this new computer
program at BG.
Called PATREC (Pattern Recognition), the new
technique is the brainchild of Prof. Giacomo Della
Riccia, a Sorbonne-educated applied mathematician
who immigrated to Israel from Italy in 1970.
PATREC, he proudly asserts, is the only one of its
kind in the world.
Prior to PATREC, Israeli police had difficulty in
limiting the number of photographs to show
eyewitnesses or victims, especially if their descriptions
were incomplete. PATR EC provides a way of giving a
smaller number of photographs to the witness in order
to improve the possibilities of correct recotkction and
identification.
shop’
And if the suspect has no previous convictions, the
work of a police artist is greatly enhanced by
PATREC. By means of a type of mathematics known
as a duster analysis, the technique can actually
improve the eyewitness identification system of
unknown offenders and eliminate human errors to the
greatest possible extent.
How docs PATREC work? First, two sets of data
are fed into the computer. The first consists of
qualitative features of the face, such as beard,
moustache, color of eyes, facial scars, etc., and the
type of crime committed, be it a sex offence, fraud,
armed robbery, burglary or swindling.
The second set of data is based on geometric
measurements performed on the police artist’s facial
composite sketch and is drawn upon the basis of the
victim's descriptions. These variables include
thickness of lips, distance between the eyes, and
relative position of nose and chin.
Before Prof. Della Riccia added some recent
improvements to PATREC, the police were
compelled to use time-consuming punchcards to
obtain descriptive information. But now, if a law
enforcement officer wishes to obtain a list of
photographs to show a witness, he can receive
instantaneous feedback from the computer's central
banks via a graphic terminal.
So far, the cost of the project has been minimal, no
more than $10,000. But whatever the expense to put
PATREC into widespread operation, police officials
are taking a good look at this useful tool which may
play an important part in the fight against crime.
So what if the script writers have to come up with a
new scenario—it would be worth it.
for the 'cop
Tragic pawns of politics
by Alon Ben-Meir
This is yet another of those
moments when, after searching for
a sign of hope and some ray of
encouragement, I have almost
given up in despair. While the
tragedy of the Vietnamese “boat
people” continues to unfold, a
horror of unimaginable
dimensions threatens the
Cambodian people a disaster
comparable only to the Holocaust
during World War 11. A whole
nation is on the verge of extinction.
Although the U.S. and a few other
democratic countries generously
extend some economic and
medical relief, most of the world
averts its eye in silence, or uses the
occasion to deliver cynical lectures
about the wages of imperialist sin.
The anguish of the Vietnamese
and Cambodians, however, should
not be in vain; we can still learn
more harsh truths from their
experience. We must make a moral
breakthrough even where a gross
bceakdown in humanity has
occurred.
The villain of both the
Cambodian and Vietnamese
tragedies is Communist Vietnam.
During the past 30 years, the North
Vietnamese have authored one
Southeast Asian disaster after
another In the process, millions of
people have died, be it on
Indochinese battlefields or more
recently, as the result of forced
expulsion and starvation. The
rulers of North Vietnam have
made a mockery of international
law and have consistently used the
Vietnamese and Cambodian
people as pawns in their reckless
political games.
The irony of (his whole situation
is that the conduct of the
Communist Vietnamese is not
exclusive to them and that many, if
not most, people would probably
act in the same way under the same
*... Only man wages
wars of liquidation
against his fellow
or rival beasts. ’
or .similar conditions. It appears
that man learns nothing from
history. Future historians will
undoubtedly sift the ashes of the
Cambodian tragedy and instruct
us on its causes and consequences.
Yet, I doubt very much that they
will be able to shed any light on
human behavior.
For the past 35 years, we Jews
have convinced ourselves that the
Holocaust was a unique and
isolated phenomenon and that
man is simply incapable of again
inflicting a castastrophe of such
magnitude on his fellow man.
However, what we know about
others and ourselves, all historical
experience offers no supporting
evidence for this self-serving
conclusion. In fact, only man is
capable of consorting with the
devil, and of all living species, only
man wages wars of liquidation
against his fellow or rival beasts.
Is this a cynical view? I admit it;
indeed how can one be immune to
cynicism in such times? I am
enraged because only a few of my
fellow Jews have raised their voices
against the tidal wave of human
decadence which is resolved to
extinguish an entire nation. How
can we Jews conduct business as
usual when hundreds of thousands
of children arc starving to death in
the Cambodian jungles?
The Jews, who suffered most at
the hands of the Nazis and blamed
the world for complacency, are
guilty of the same charges today.
Yes. we of all people must sound
this alarm; we have a duty to speak
when others are silent, to act when
others will not. Jews must continue
to speak on behalf of all abused
and persecuted people, because
only (hen can we grasp the reasons
behind our own existence and
better explain the “secret" of our
own survival and redemption.
Thirty-five years have passed
since the Nazis attempted to
implement the “final solution” to
the Jewish question. Contempor
ary Jews arc still targets of
discrimination, and many large
and small countries would not
hesitate to dispose of (he Jews if
political necessity and expediency
so dictated.
The American Jewish commun
ity is blessed to live in a country
which offers both the means and
the flexibility needed to express
their outrage at and abhorrence of
conditions in Cambodia. We have
the means to help pay for relief; we
can petition the U.N. and bear
witness to our government with
our hearts and mouths and feet;
and we can require action of
ourselves and others. Why should
Jews sound the alarm? I say that
we simply cannot afford to remain
silent.