Newspaper Page Text
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The Southern t
Israelite
The Weekly Newspaper For Southern Jewry
'Since 1925'
Vol. LIX Atlanta, Georgia, Friday, December 16, 1983 No. 50 ^
Kuwaiti bomb attack! 1
add more fuel to the fire
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by Boris Nmolar
f dilor tn-emrrHus. J TA
The Hanuka-Christmas season
is usually marred by irritation in
some communities over Chnstological
programs in public schools and
especially over nativity pageants.
All major Jewish organizations are
opposed to the observance of
religious holidays in public
schools. They view such
observances as a violation of the
traditional American principle of
the separation of church and state
They are also against joint religious
observances such as Christmas-
Hanuka and Easter-Passover,
which they consider no less of a
breach of the separation principle.
The National Jewish Community
Relations Advisory Council the
coordinating body of 11 major
national Jewish organizations and
111 local Jewish community
councils evaluating developments
of concern to the Jewish
community in ]he field of
community relations—has long
held that government involvement
in the erection and placement of
religious symbols constitutes, in
effect, governmental support of
religion in general, and even
specific support of one sect or
creed to the exclusion of others.
Such support is considered by the
NJCRAC a serious impairment of
the church-state separation
principle.
Jewish organizations expect
that attempts to introduce prayer
and religious practices into the
public schools will continue to be
made during the coming year
through a constitutional,
amendment that would sanction
public school prayer, particularly
since this has the active backing of
President Reagan Continuing
attempts, at the local and state
level, to bring prayer and other
season
religious practices into the schools
also are expected.
A call by President Reagan for
passage by Congress of a
constitutional amendment to
permit “voluntary prayers" in
public schools was strongly
criticized in a joint statement by
major national Jewish religious
and lay organizations, by the
National Council of Churches, and
by leaders of the Baptist Church.
In seeking to justify this move,
Reagan declared that “no one must
ever be forced or coerced or
pressured to take part in any
religious exercise, but neither
should the government forbid
religious practice."
The joint statement opposing
Reagan's call declared that its
signatories are "distressed" over
the president’s intention to
sanction prayers in public schools.
The statement pointed out that the
faith of Americans has been kept
strong through the home, the
church, and the synagogue, and
that it will continue to be strong if
it is free from government
meddling "Religion.” it said,
"dbes not need and should not
have—the sponsorship or support
of the government." It stressed that
efforts to introduce religious
practices in public schools
generate the very inter-religious
conflict that the First Amendment
was designed to prevent. The
statement also insisted that
religious practice should never be
made a matter of majority
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constituent national and local
groups for their activities in 1984.
the NJCRAC urges them to
continue to oppose government
involvement in the erection or
placement of religious symbols.
See Season, page 25.
by Joseph Polakoff
TSI'i Washington correspondent
WASHINGTON —Impact on
strategists at the State Department
and the Pentagon of the increasing
antagonism in Arab capitals
against United States-Israeli
political and military cooperation
is being carefully watched by pro-
Israeli sympathizers who have seen
pledges to Jerusalem undermined
in the past by a concert of Arab
and domestic foes less severe than
i$ being manifested currently.
The bombings in Kuwait against
the American and French
embassies and other pro-Western
installations and the threats in
statements at the anti-U.S.
demonstrations in Syria are seen as
the latest development providing
ammunition to domestic
opponents of Israel who demand
setting aside of the recent Reagan-
Shamir agreement, stoutly
supported by Secretary of State
George Shultz, and urge
abrogation of the Lebancse-Israeli
agreement of May 17 calling for
bilateral withdrawal of Syrian and
Israeli troops from Lebanon.
Israeli sympathizers point out
that the scheduled January
meeting of the Israeli-American
committee announced by
President Reagan on Nov. 29, after
meeting with Prime Minister
Yitzhak Shamir, will show
whether the agreed cooperation is
solidly based. The primary
elements are whether bilateral
planning to coordinate U.S.-
Israeli strategy is meaningful and
substantive prepositioning of U.S.
military supplies in Israel is not
merely a cosmetic gesture of
storage and that joint maneuvers
are of the kind that meet
conditions in the Middle East.
In Damascus, anti-U.S.
demonstrators heard threats of
war against “America and its
reactionary agents” which spread
beyond the confines of Lebanon,
and Syrian officials spoke oat
against the Reagan-Shamir
agreement.
Division again has developed
between Washington and
Jerusalem over the removal of the
Palestine Liberation Organization
forces in Tripoli. The State
Department’s support for
evacuation of the Yasir Arafat
force, numbering about 4,000, in
five Greek ships flying the United
Nations flag, has been followed by
an equally pro-Arafat position at
the White House.
The State Department said it
joined the United Nations Security
Council’s “consensus endorsing
the use of the U.N. flag because
and Arabs have worked out an
arrangement whereby Arafat will
depart Tripoli by ship."
“Arafat has asked that the ships
fly the U.N. flag,” the statement
said. “We went along with this
decision. We did so out of
humanitarian concern and,
through the departure of a large
number of PLO fighters, as a step
consistent with our objective of the
withdrawal of foreign forces from
Lebanon.” v- . - '.7.
On Tuesday, reiterating the
State Department’s statement,
White House Deputy Press
Secretary Larry Speakes indicated
that Israel’s refusal to give
assurances that its navy would not
attack the Greek ships is not in
See Kuwaiti, page 24
Out of this world
Astronaut Jeff Hoffman visits Hebrew Academy
by Allen Rabinowitz
This was more than just the
usual Friday afternoon assembly
at the Hebrew Academy. There
was a special excitement in the hir.
The students knew they were in for
a rare treat—a visit from a real, live
astronaut.
As headmaster Dr. Ephraim
Frankel counted off the classes in
descending order, space fever
caught the youngsters as they
joined in: “Eight...Seven. Six...
Five... Four...Three... Two... One...
BLAST-OFF!” the children yelled
out.
Off to the side. Dr Jeffrey
Hoffman prepared to address the
eager young faces. Though a
veteran of presentations to
students, his audiences usually
have been of the college variety
rather than grade schoolers. He
steeled for the task as if taking on a
challenge in orbit, ready for
whatever might come his way.
Dr. Hoffman (profiled in the
Sept. 2, 1983, issue of The
Southern Israelite) hasn't made
many of these presentations since
NASA assigned him to a Space
Shuttle mission scheduled for
August 1984. But this was more
than just another talk, this was a
chance to be an example for other
young Jews who have dreamed of
blasting-off into space.
There was one student at the
Academy who expressed a great
deal of pride on the astronaut's
appearance. Dylan Pollard, whose
mother is Dr. Hoffman’s cousin,
took the stage to introduce the
space explorer. Dr. Hoffman
was in town to help the Pollard
family celebrate Dylan’s bar
mitzva; and Dylan said how long
he had waited for this opportunity
to present the most famous
member of his family.
To enthusiastic applause. Dr.
Hoffman walked on to the stage,
dressed in his on-board flight suit
and space helmet. After reassuring
the students that he wasn't Darth
Vader under the mask, he
demonstrated the uses of the many
See Astronaut Hoffman, page 24.
Astronaut Hoffman captures the attention of the students at the Hebrew Academy.
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