Newspaper Page Text
Where’s Noah’s Ark?
There’s something for everyone in The Southern Israelite. Youthful
“reader” Stephen Joseph Ross is the son of Douglas and Robyn Ross
of Marietta. Photo was submitted by proud grandparents, Mr. and
Mrs. Robert Warren Ross of Boston.
Jewish vandal is held
in anti-Semitic spree
on Avenue J in the adjoining
Midwood section of Fiatbush, also
heavily populated by Orthodox
Jews.
Bromberg noted in a prepared
statement that Dworkin came under
suspicion as a result of information
supplied by members of the public
and that his arrest was based on
that information and on statements
by the suspect. He said police found
rocks in the trunk of Dworkin’s car
similar to the rocks thrown through
the shop windows.
The vandalism gave rise to tension
in the tightly knit Jewish communities
of Boro Park and Fiatbush where
racial incidents have been rare in
recent years. A new wave of anti-
Semitism was feared, especially
because the date of the first rock
throwing coincided with the 47th
anniversary of Kristallnacht, Nov.
9, 1938, when rampaging Nazis
smashed the windows of Jewish
homes, businesses and synagogues
all over Germany, littering the streets
with broken glass.
The attacks in Brooklyn were
carried out on Sabbath nights when
the streets of the Orthodox
neighborhoods were deserted. The
rocks apparently were thrown from
a passing car. The windows of non-
Jewish shops were spared. But one
ingredient common to anti-Semitic
vandalism was missing: There were
no swastikas or anti-Semitic graffiti
and no anonymous telephone calls
to the police or the media boasting
of the deeds.
Nevertheless, New York State
Assemblyman Dov Hikind, a Boro
See Vandal page 20.
by William Saphire
NEW YOR K (JTA)—A 38-year-
old Jewish man charged with
smashing the windows of 21 Jewish-
owned shops during two rock
throwing sprees in the Boro Park
and Fiatbush sections of Brooklyn
last month was arraigned in Criminal
Court Tuesday on 13 counts of
felony and misdemeanor, a spokes
person for Brooklyn District Attorney
Elizabeth Holtzman informed the
Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
If convicted on all counts, the
suspect, Gary Dworkin, could be
sentenced to up to 18 years in
prison, according to the D A’s office.
One of the misdemeanor counts is
violation of civil rights and discrimi
nation because Dworkin’s alleged
vadalism was carried out specifically
against Jewish property.
He was arrested at his Boro Park
home Monday and reportedly
confessed. Capt. Donald Bromberg,
commander of the N.Y. P.D. bias
unit which was assigned to the case
because of its anti-Semitic implica
tions, said Dworkin “is Jewish and
has a history of psychological
problems.”
He is accused of throwing rocks
through the windows of 13 Jewish-
owned shops during the nights of
Nov. 9-10 along a seven-block strip
of 13th Avenue, the main shopping
center of Boro Park where the
population is 80 percent Jewish,
mostly ultra-Orthodox and Hasidic.
He is accused of repeating the
act two weeks later, during the
night of Nov. 23, when five more
shop windows in Boro Park were
smashed and three shop windows
e Southert
Israelite
The Weekly Newspaper For Southern Jevs
'Since 1925'
Vol. LXI
Atlanta, Georgia, Friday, December 13, 1985
No.
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Sofaer appointment g<
scrutinized; U.S. is firm
by Joseph Polakoff
TSI's Washington correspondent
WASHINGTON—The State
Department has denounced implied
doubts about the suitability of
Abraham Sofaer, its legal adviser
who is Jewish, to head the team of
U.S. officials that went to Israel
this week to “determine the facts”
in the Jonathan Pollard espionage
case “through discussion and other
forms of cooperation” with Israelis.
Charles Redman, the Department
spokesman, declared “there’s
absolutely no question” Sofaer and
other members of the U.S. team
“will conduct their business in a
thoroughly professional manner.”
The reporter questioning Sofaer’s
background said “it is clear” from
Sofaer’s “official biography he is
Jewish. Can you tell me if he is a
Zionist or a member of a Zionist
organization?”
“No, I’m sorry,” Redman replied.
“It is not my role to comment on
those kinds of questions.”
“Wait a minute, wait a minute,”
the reporter continued. “Don’t brush
it off. Does the State Department
not believe it’s significant if a head
of a delegation on a mission of this
kind might be a Zionist?”
“The State Department feels that
officials of the State Department
will conduct their business in a
professional manner and there is
absolutely no question whatsoever
that Judge Sofaer and other people
participating in this delegation will
not do so on that basis,” Redman
replied.
“You have no information about
that point,” the reporter continued.
“Is that true?”
Redman answered: “Next
question.”
Sofaer, who was born in Bombay
in 1938, is a graduate of Yeshiva
University in New York. He was a
law professor at New York U niversity,
Columbia and Duke, and was a
law clerk to U.S. Supreme Court
Justice William Brennan before
becoming an assistant U.S. attorney
in New York and a federal court
judge there. He presided at the
celebrated trial of the libel suit of
Ariel Sharon against Time magazine.
Last spring he was appointed legal
adviser in the State Department
and confirmed in that post by the
U.S. Senate.
Besides Sofaer, the U.S. team
consists of Mark Richard, deputy
assistant U.S. attorney general; John
Mart in, chief of the Justice Depart
ment’s internal security section;
Joseph DiGenova, the U.S. attorney
See Sofaer page 20.
Lights of Freedom embody
’85 ‘Plea’ for Soviet Jews
The 1985 Women’s Plea for Soviet
Jewry was a major success, according
to Irene Berson and Ellen Goldstein,
co-chairwomen. More than 100
people attended the event which
took place at the Tower Place
Hotel on Friday, Dec. 6.
Women’s American ORT served
as the sponsoring organization for
the 1985 Women’s Plea and Mrs.
Jean Childs Young acted as this
year’s honorary chairwoman. Beth
Gluck opened the ceremony with
an invocation, and read from a
letter written by female Soviet
Refusniks she recently visited in
Russia.
The central part of the ceremony
was a candle lighting service involving
the more than 50 Jewish and non-
Jewish organizations represented
by the Plea. Each organization has
“adopted” a refusnik—a Soviet Jew
who has applied to immigrate to
Israel, but has been denied by
Soviet authorities. Representatives
of these organizations lit menorahs
they made especially for the occasion,
associating this year’s Plea with the
holiday of Hanuka, the Festival of
Lights and Freedom. The menorahs
will be housed at the Atlanta Jewish
Federation in a wooden menorah
display case, to symbolize this year’s
plea.
A letter received from a pro
minent Soviet refusnik, Lev Elbert,
who was “adopted” by Congregation
Etz Chaim, was read expressing
gratitude to all in Georgia who
have been supportive of his—and
his fellow Jews’—cause for freedom.
Beth Smith, president of the Atlanta
Region Women’s ORT, closed the
ceremony with a prayer.
“It is through public ceremonies
that the community will be aware
of the plight of the 2.5 million Jews
in the Soviet union, 400,000 of
whom are in the process of applying
for exit visas. Programs, such as
the Women’s Plea, call attention to
the 30,000 refusniks, and to the 22
Jewish Prisoners-of-Conscience who
are serving prison terms for the
crime of being Jewish and wishing
to practice their Judaism. Finally,
public advocacy lets the Soviet
authorities know that the Western
world expects them to honor their
commitments to the Helsinki Accords,
which calls for the right of Soviet
Jews to seek repatriation to their
national homeland, Israel,” says
Mrs. Berson.
“The Women’s Plea,” adds Mrs.
Goldstein, “will keep the flame of
hope and of commitment alive for
our community as we join hands in
solidarity with the thousands of
other women participating in
Women’s Plea events that will take
place this month across the nation
and around the free world..”