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LXI
Following the leader
Israeli Minister of Defense Yitzhak Rabin visits Hebron during
a tour of the administered areas. Speaking to reporters, he said,
“We will continue to do all we find necessary to ensure security for
the Arab inhabitants who wish to live in peace; and security for the
Jewish inhabitants.”
The Jewish position
on issue of apartheid
by Boris Smolar
Edilor-in-Chief. emeritus, JTA
American Jewish organizations,
while opposing apartheid and the
recent escalation of violence against
the black population there, are
divided on the question of eco
nomic sanctions against the govern
ment of South Africa.
Under legislation passed June 5,
in the House of Representatives by
a bipartisan majority of 295-127,
an immediate ban would have been
imposed on loans by American
banks to the Republic of South
Africa and government-run corpo
rations, except those providing edu
cation and housing on a non-discrim-
inatory basis.
The House legislation would also
have banned the sale of computer
and of nuclear equipment, sup
plies, material and technology to the
South African government. New
investment by American businesses
in South Africa and the sale of its
coins here would have also been
prohibited, but these sanctions
could be waived if certain steps
were taken to dismantle the apart
heid system.
The Senate Foreign Relations
Committee voted 16 to 1 to ban
only bank loans and to consider
deferring for 18 months the ban
ning of new investments by U.S.
business firms. A House-Senate
conference committee later reached
a compromise for milder sanctions.
Supporters of sanctions sought
a vote by the full Senate on July 31,
three days before Congress ad
journed for its August recess. Their
effort failed and the Senate ad
journed without voting on the com
promise bill.
President Reagan and his admin
istration remain opposed to sanc
tions. Reagan may use his presi
dential right to veto any economic
sanctions bill. However, support
ers of sanctions in both Houses
command the two-thirds majority
needed to override a veto.
The most important national Jew
ish organization supporting the
anti-apartheid legislation passed by
the House is the National Jewish
Community Relations Advisory
Council(NJCRAC). The umbrella
organization of 11 national Jewish
groups, it plans jointly coordinated
action to deal with development of
concern to Jews. Affiliated with
the NJCRAC are also 113 local
Jewish Community Councils.
The NJCRAC believes that the
measure passed by the House repre
sents the soundest and most con
structive approach toward mobil
izing U.S. influence to dismantle
apartheid. When its position favor
ing the House sanctions bill was
presented to its national executive
committee, eight of its member
agencies went on record as sup
porting it: the American Jewish
Congress, Jewish War Veterans of
the U.S., Jewish Labor Commit
tee, the central bodies of the Re
form, Conservative and Orthodox
congregations, the National Council
of Jewish Women, and Women’s
American ORT.
Three of the NJCRAC national
member agencies—the American
Jewish Committee, the Anti-Defam
ation League of B’nai B’rith, and
Hadassah—did not participate in
the voting.
The American Jewish Commit
tee, at its annual meeting last May,
See Apartheid, page 20.
The Weekly Newspaper For Southern Jewry
iS ™™gp$irfi^ 1925'^JpiSb
Atlanta, Georgia, Friday, August 23,1985 No. 3
Black/Jewish Coalitio
calls for end to apartheid
The Black/Jewish Coalition has
asked Atlantans to join the Coali
tion’s efforts in “calling for an end
to the racist policies of the South
African government.”
At a press conference held Aug.
16 at Atlanta City Hall, Coalition
Co-Chairmen Cecil Alexander and
City Councilman John Lewis also
released a letter the Coalition sent
to President Reagan urging him to
“exercise your influence in bring
ing a peaceful end to the violence
and racist policies of South Africa.”
The letter also urged the president
to support the House-Senate Con
ference bill which would impose
economic sanctions on the Preto
ria government.
Alexander and Lewis also issued
a statement which said that re
strictions imposed by the South
African government during the state
of emergency were “singly freedom-
stifling,” and that the United States
government should “exercise its
leadership within the family of
nations to help bring about a non
violent end to the pain of apartheid
in South Africa.”
Saying that the notion that “color
is a determinant of a person’s worth
and his standing within society” is
an affront to both Judaism and
Christianity, Rabbi Arnold M.
Goodman of Ahavath Achim Syn
agogue called upon the South Afri
can government to put an end to
the laws that “are making you a
Cecil Alexander
leper among civilized and freedom
loving people.”
Attorney Robert Lipshutz. for
mer counsel to President Jimmy
Carter, said that while apartheid
may be a new word to most Ameri
cans “what we are really here to
talk about today is an old, old
word, which all of us understand —
slavery.” Saying that the Jewish
people know that “people and gov
ernments which use the claim of
legality to justify slavery and oppres
sion are nonetheless still slave-
masters,” Lipshutz said that Jews
“will no more accept the claim of
Afrikaaner superiority and domi
nation of black people in South
Africa than we would accept the
John Lewis
claim of Aryan superiority and
domination in Nazi Germany.”
Noting that blacks and Jews
have “special ties deriving from
our history, our struggles, our
faith,” City Councilwoman Barbara
Asher said that apartheid “mocks
and demeans the very spirit that
has nourished the centuries-old
struggles of blacks and Jews. Apart
heid is a living, vicious symbol of
racial and ethnic hate.”
The speakers called for the U.S.
government to impose economic
sanctions on the South African
government and urged all Ameri
cans to support the struggles of
South Africa’s black population.
Bomb severs ex-Nazi’s leg
by Kevin Freeman
PATERSON, N.J. (JTA)—Tshe-
rim Soobzokov, the Soviet-born
61-year-old former member of the
Nazi Waffen SS, remained listed in
critical condition today at St. Jo
seph’s Hospital and Medical Cen
ter six days after being injured
when a pipe bomb exploded at his
home. The blast severed his right
leg.
Paterson police said their inves
tigation is continuing with the coop
eration of local and county police
authorities and agents of the Fed
eral Bureau of Investigation and
the Treasury Department’s Bureau
of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms.
The Jewish Defense League and
the Jewish Defense Organization,
two groups that have denounced
Soobzokov’s presence in the Uni
ted States, denied responsibility
for the bomb attack, although both
groups, in separate statements, ap
plauded the action.
Soobzokov was charged in 1979
by the Justice Department’s Office
of Special Investigations of having
concealed his past wartime activi
ties when he applied for entry into
the United States in 1955. The OSI
said he belonged to a Waffen SS
unit of the German Nazis and
served as a member of the German
Army’s North Caucasian Legion
of a Nazi-run police unit during the
Holocaust.
But in July 1980, the OSI with
drew the charge after Soobzokov
provided a document proving he
had disclosed his wartime record
when he applied for a visa at the
U.S. Embassy in Jordan in 1952.
The Central Intelligence Agency
said it had found a copy of the
document in its files.
The suit was dropped by the
OSI, although the documents that
were provided during the course of
litigation provided evidence that
Soobzokov was a member of the
Waffen SS. He became a U.S. citi
zen in 1961.
One week prior to the attack,
JDO leader Mordechai Levy as
sailed Soobzokov during a speech
to some 50 persons at the Young
Israel Synagogue in nearby Pas
saic. He urged, during the speech,
for those present to march on
Soobzokov’s home. Levy asserted
that he had been denied permission
to stage the march.
JDL national director Fern Ros
enblatt said her group “is certainly
not responsible for the bombing,
but we applaud the action.” JDL
members have in the last several
years demonstrated in front of Soob
zokov’s home.