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News Briefs
Arab mayor puts price on terrorist
JERUSALEM (JTA)—Mayor Abdul Hamid Abu-Sneine of
Kalkilya, an Arab town in the West Bank, has offered a reward of
1,000 Jordanian dinars for information leading to the arrest of the
person who shot an Israeli in the Kalkilya marketplace last
Saturday afternoon.
I he victim, Yitzhak Ron, 43, of the nearby settlement of Sal’it,
was described in good condition at Beilinson Hospital in Petach
Tikva where he was treated for a bullet wound in the neck. The
Kalkilya mayor visited him at the hospital.
ADL issues report on terrorism
NEW YORK (JTA)—Since being expelled from Lebanon in
1982, the Palestine Liberation Organization and other Palestinian
terrorist groups have carried out terrorist actions throughout the
world on an average of once a week, according to the Anti-
Defamation League of B’nai B’rith report, “PLO and Palestinian-
Inspired Terrorism, 1982-1985: The Continuing Record of Violence.”
According to the report, in the past three years the PLO has
carried out attacks in Ankara, Athens, Bangkok, Bogota, Brussels,
Buenos Aires, Frankfurt, Hamburg, London, Madrid, Marseilles,
Milan, New Delhi, Nicosia, Paris, Quito, Rome and Vienna.
AJC: protect U.S. Arab groups
NEW YORK—The American Jewish Committee this week
urged that American law-enforcement agencies provide better
protection for Arab-American organizations that have been
threatened with violence.
In a statement issued by David M. Gordis, executive vice president,
the human relations agency called also for prompt action against those
who have already threatened or attacked Arab-American leaders, and
added: “Violence and threats of violence amount to terrorism. They
simply have no place in the American body politic, no matter what
the political cause. The rule of law must protect the Constitutional
right of free expression for all Americans, whatever their beliefs or
opinions.”
Jewish terrorists given amnesty
JERUSALEM (JTA)—President Chaim Herzog has granted
amnesty to two of the 27 members of a Jewish underground
terrorist network in the West Bank serving sentences for acts of
violence against Arabs.
Dan Be’eri, 41, a former Roman Catholic from France who
converted to Judaism, and Yosef Tzuria, a 2.6-year-old Jewish
settler in the West Bank, were sentenced in 1984 for plotting to
blow up Islamic shrines on the Temple Mount in East Jerusalem.
Each was given three years and would have been eligible for parole
in several months had Herzog not intervened to release them sooner.
Herzog freed another underground member earlier this year.
NCCJ to unload S. Africa stock
NEW YORK—The national executive board of the National
Conference of Christians and Jews voted last week to divest the
portfolio holdings of the organization from companies doing
business in South Africa as a means of protesting the system of
apartheid.
Nicholas V. Petrou of Pittsburgh, chairman of the executive
board, and Jacqueline G. Wexler, president of the 58 year-old
human relations organization, said that the board called the racial
segregation policy of the South African government “an affront to
human dignity and anathema to everything the Conference stands
for in this nation and in the world community.”
U.S. plans to deport ex-Nazi
NEW YORK (JTA)—Justice Department officials confirmed
that the Office of Special Investigations has begun deportation
proceedings against a 65-year-old California man accused of
membership in the Nazi Waffen SS and serving as a guard at two
concentration camps during World War II.
An “order to show cause” was filed last week by the Justice
Department against Bruno Karl Blach of La Habra, Calif. The OS1
alleges that Blach entered the country illegally in 1956, having lied
to authorities about his wartime activities. Blach maintains that he
was in the German army and air force.
The OS1 alleges that Blach, a native of Czechoslovakia,
voluntarily joined the Nazi Party in 1939and in June 1940 became
a member of the Waffen SS. It is further alleged that Blach served
as a guard and a dog handler in the Dachau death camp between
1940 and 1943, and at the Wiener-Neudorf camp in Austria from
1943 to 1945.
!ettersto the editor
NCJW asks advocacy
Editor:
Ironically I returned from a Joint
Program Institute, focusing on Rights
and Responsibilities, sponsored by
National Council of Jewish Women,
in Washington, D.C., and saw as
the lead article “North American
Jewry. . ,”(TSI, Nov. 22).
Because advocacy is an integral
element of NCJW, the conference
was devoted to workshops and
legislative briefings on domestic
issues that resulted in sessions with
our legislators.
In discussions with congressmen
and senators, a recurrent theme
emerged. The overwhelming
majority oi their mail favors a
highly conservative stance on the
issues. In other words, the “pressure
groups” are apparently well
organized.
Sen. Howard Metzenbaum from
Ohio spoke to the delegation. His
words echo the statements from
the article. Jews in the United
on issues
States can not be identified as a
single issue group. He added that
now is the time to make ourselves
heard loudly and clearly.
Advocacy is an activity on behalf
of an individual or group which is
designed to improve conditions,
programs, or services.
Please act now!
Nancy Hamburger, Vice President
National Council of Jewish Women
Atlanta Section
‘Women’s Plea’ event draws kudos
Editor:
Irene Berson, Ellen Goidstein
and Beth Smith of Women’s American
ORT are to be highly commended
for their efforts on behalf of the
1985 Women’s Plea for Soviet Jewry.
The event was a meaningful, touching
display of solidarity on behalf of
our Jewish brethren in the Soviet
Union.
The Women’s Plea forced us to
reflect on the rights we have in this
country. We enjoy freedoms and
privileges everyday that are ours
through no virtue of our own,
while Jews in the Soviet Union are
oppressed and persecuted through
no fault of their own. We must
continue to speak for those who
cannot speak for themselves—and
we must do so passionately and
consistently.
On behalf of National Council
of Jewish Women, Atlanta Section,
I applaud and thank these women
and Women’s American ORT for
convening a most exciting Women’s
Plea.
Nancy H. Levine, President
NCJW, Atlanta Section
Judaic Needlework seeks artists
Editor:
The Pomegranate Guild of Judaic
Needlework is looking for artists
interested in working in Judaica.
The guild was founded in 1977
to create Jewish needle-work, dis
seminate information and educate
the public. It has been successful in
all these areas. Membership has
grown from a handful to 650, with
1 1 chapters in the U.S. and one in
Canada.
Members produce work using a
wide variety of media; from
embroidery and needlepoint to
quilting and weaving. Amateur and
professional artists work and learn
together, creating decorative and
ritual pieces for synagogue and
home use. Ark curtains, Torah
mantles, challa covers, and table
cloths are only a few of the types of
work produced.
Chapters provide lectures,
workshops and tours that are of
interest to their members.
While membership has grown
significantly, the guild always
welcomes new members, at all skill
levels. Joining the Pomegranate
Guild is a wonderful way to enhance
your knowledge of Judaism, and
increase your skill as a needle artist.
For information about the Guild,
please write to the Pomegranate
Guild of Judaic Needlework, c/o
The Martin Steinberg Center, 15
East 84th Street, New York, N.Y.
10028.
Dona Rosenblatt
Teaneck, N.J.
Aliyah unit comes up short
by Carl Alpert
— HAIFA
The Jewish Agency has of late
been subjected to considerable
criticism, ranging all the way from
“The Jewish Agency is just a building
in Jerusalem with a bunch of Volvos
out in the front,” to more serious
critiques of its financing and actual
operations.
No department of the Agency is
more vulnerable to criticism because
of its faulty administration than
the one which is supposed to be
devoted to encouragement of aliyah
to Israel. Few people are more
deserving of sympathy than many
of the devoted, competent and hard
working shlichim (emissaries) sent
overseas by this department, who
fail to receive the needed cooperation
and backing from Jerusalem.
Ever since the flagrantly political
appointment of Haim Aharon as
chairman of the Aliyah Department
there has been a steady deterioration
both in the operations and morale
of the department and in the statistics
of aliyah to Israel. In the first half
of 1985 immigration from North
America declined by 20 percent
after a 30 percent drop in the
previous year. The decline from
Latin America was 25 percent.
Yet bureaucracy reigns supreme
in the head office where no less
than 62 persons are engaged in
ottice and administrative work, not
counting those working in ulpanim,
absorption centres, children’s insti
tutions, retirement and nursing
homes, social workers, etc. It is
also reported that the head office
provides 20 of these functionaries
with cars for the performance of
their duties, which in most cases
are paper work in the office.
The chairman of the department
is always available for TV interviews
or for issuance of statements to the
press, or for his feud with the
Ministry of Absorption, but re
markably silent when it comes down
to the actual business of promoting
aliyah. A series of letters, not one,
dispatched to his office by this
writer, seeking literature, information
and promotional material, to enable
the writing of a series of articles to
encourage aliyah, all went unan
swered, even when sent by registered
mail.
A serious proposal from a respon
sible American Zionist, which has
been endorsed by a number of
Knesset members, looking to the
creation of an American-sponsored
city in Israel, has been cold-
shouldered by the chairman of the
Aliyah Department.
Meanwhile the fog has not been
lifted from the situation which
surrounds the work done by the
Aliyah Department in relation to
similar work carried out by the
Israel Government Ministry of
Absorption. Duplication, competition
and confusion are rampant, with
the Jewish Agency completely un
willing to give up any of its operations
which provide a political power
base, even though vast funds are
being spent. Last year’s budget of
the Aliyah Department was no less
than $70,000,000. If that were divided
by the number of immigrants, many
of whom come independently of
the department, we would get a
fantastic figure of what each oleh
costs. This year’s budget is kept a
deep, dark secret.
As immigration declines from
year to year, the budget of the
Aliyah Department goes up. After
all, there are lots of jobs to be
protected, not to speak of the political
ambitions of the chairman.
These may sound like harsh words,
but there are times when frank
speaking is required.
Some of the facts and figures in
this article may sound unbelievable.
We wanted to make sure everything
was accurate, and so we sent most
of this material to Haim Aharon,
by registered mail, explaining that
we were writing an article on aliyah,
and asking for verification of the
facts and figures. We also asked a
number of questions, explaining
that we wanted to be sure to have
“authoritative information.” Like
all previous letters, this one too
remained unanswered.
PAGE 5 THE SOUTHERN ISRAELITE December 13, 1985