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News Briefs
Refusnik Essas gets exit visa
NEW YORK (JTA)—Eliahu Essas of Moscow, often referred
to as “the spiritual father of Hebrew teachers” in the Soviet Union
his wife and three children have received exit visas for Israel after
12 years of trying to emigrate. Essas, a mathematician who first
applied for visas in 1973, is expected to leave the Soviet Union within
a few weeks.
Taba dispute talks continue
JERUSALEM (JTA)—The Israeli and Egyptian delegations
which resumed talks on the Taba border dispute in Cairo two
weeks ago were to meet for a second session Dec. 10 at a hotel in
Herzliya, north of Tel Aviv.
Informed sources said the two sides are on the same wavelength
but still separated by a wide gulf. The situation is complicated by a
sharp division inside the Israeli delegation reflecting the differences
between Labor and Likud over how the dispute should be settled.
Hitler promoter leaves N.J.
ELIZABETH, N.J. (JTA)—Dieter Homburg, who has celebrated
Hitler’s birthday with a party at his tavern, Loni’s Pub, every year
for the past 10 years, has sold out and returned to his native Germany.
His departure was apparently prompted by a sharp decline in business
after his Hitler bash on April 21 triggered an angry protest
demonstration May 31 by local Jewish and veterans organizations.
Elizabeth has one of the largest Jewish populations in New Jersey.
The parties usually drew about 30 guests “from all walks of
life,” Homburg said. They were open to anyone willing to pay $15
for four hours of food and drink. Accordingto witnesses, at least one
guest turned up in a storm trooper uniform last April. The party
featured a birthday cake with a swastika.
Alan Shelton, president of the Zionist Association of Kean
College in nearby Union, one of the groups that demonstrated, said
he was “overjoyed that Homburg found conditions so difficult that
he chose to return to Germany, but the fact that he was able to attract
area residents on a yearly basis to pay homage to Hitler is clear
evidence Homburg was not alone in his pro-Nazi sentiments.”
Canada honors Wallenberg
OTTAWA (JTA)—Raoul Wallenberg, the Swedish diplomat
who saved the lives of 100,000 Jews in Budapest during the closing
months of World War II, has been named an honorary citizen of
Canada in joint, bi-partisan resolutions adopted by the House of
Commons and the Senate, the two houses of the Canadian Parliament.
Wallenberg, who disappeared after his arrest by Soviet agents
when the Red Army entered Budapest more than 40 years ago, is
the first person ever to be made honorary citizen of Canada.
Kahane wants dual citizenship
TEL AVI V (JTA) —Rabbi Meir Kahane plans to appeal to the
U.S. State Department against the revocation of his American
citizenship. He was informed by the U.S. Consulate in Jerusalem
last week that his passport is being withdrawn because a U.S.
citizen cannot sit in the parliament of a foreign country.
Kahane represents the extremist Kach party in the Knesset. If
the State Department rejects his appeal, he is entitled to appeal to
the U.S. courts.
JDC OKs $51.2 million budget
NEW YORK—The board of directors of the American Jewish
Joint Distribution Committee (JDC) met in New York recently
and adopted a 1986 budget of $51.2 million and reaffirmed its
commitment to Jews and Jewish communities in more than 30
countries around the world.
At a luncheon devoted to the JDC’s programs in Ethiopia, the
.1 DC presented a symbolic key to the newly completed Teda Health
Center in the Gondar Province of Ethiopia “to the people of
Gondar.” Accepting in their behalf was Ambassador Berhanu
Dinka, permanent representative to the United Nations for
Ethiopia. A second health center is under construction in Gondar
City.
Shiites to kill 4 Beirut Jews?
TEL AVIV (JTA)—A Shiite Moslem group in Lebanon has
threatened to murder four Beirut Jews they kidnapped several months
ago unless Israel frees 300 Shiites the group claims are being held
prisoner in south l.ebanon.
Israel Radio, quoting Beirut newspapers, identified the Jewish
hostages as Isaac Sasson, Isaac Tarab. Eli Tsir and Haim Cohen
Hallalah.
V
New Year’s Eve view is challenged
Editor:
Once again I rush in where angels
fear to tread. Willingness to expose
my ignorance is prompted by an
article written by a prominent and
respected rabbi, “Their New Year’s
Eve, Ours,” which appeared in the
Dec. 13 issue of The Southern
Israelite.
The rabbi posits that Jews as
individuals may celebrate New Year’s
Eve as they wish. According to
him, synagogues or temples of what
ever “kind or style” which sponsor
New Year’s Eve Parties “add another
dim chapter to the records of
Vulgariana Judaica Americana.”
We live in a pluralistic society ,
one in which the calendar year
begins on Jan. 1. That day is no
more a religious holiday than is
July 4. For synagogues or temples
to sponsor celebrations on the night
of Dec. 31, (unless on Friday) is no
desecration in any sense of the
word.
For Jews, whether as individuals
or as congregations in Israel, to
turn their heads on Jan. 1, as if it
were just another day, connotes
them not so much as “different”
but as odd. All thoughtful Jews
observe Rosh Hashana. They do
so with prayer, atonement, retro
spection and prayerful vision for
the ensuing year, just as the rabbi
would have them do. To confuse
Rosh Hashana, one of the holiest
of days with Dec. 31, New Year’s
Eve, is to equate the sublime with
the ridiculous.
If a synagogue prefers not to
have a party on the night of Dec.
31, that is certainly an acceptable
prerogative. There should, however,
be no criticism of those congregations
wishing to welcome the commonly
accepted new year with a bit of fun.
They need not resort to “pagan
revels and orgies. . . with their
drinking and carousing.” Let them
pray on Rosh Hashana but let
them not hesitate to wish each
other a Happy New Year and to
enjoy themselves on the first day of
the calendar year C.E.
Max E. Robkin
Reader says Kahane gets raw deal
Editor:
After reading the article entitled
“The Cutting Edge” (TS1 Nov. 29),
I can only conclude that the title
refers to the knife which the author
was twisting in Rabbi Kahane’s
back. It is one thing to disagree
with someone, and it is quite another
to defame in such malevolent
terms—terms that any Jew should
wince before using. Names such as
“racist”, “demagogue”, and incre
dibly, “Nazi,” “der Fuhrer,” and
“self-proclaimed Messiah” have
disgraced the pages of your newspaper
in various articles about Rabbi
Kahane.
In addition to the slander, factual
distortion is rampant. I urge your
readers to disregard these fantastic
voyages of yellow journalism. Space
does not allow a point by point
refutation of the articles, but here
are some suggestions:
1. Go to the source! Read books
by Kahane, listen to him speak,
read his weekly articles in the Jewish
Press. The three organizations
affiliated with him are Kach, his
Israeli political party (Boston); The
Jewish Idea, his U.S. information
arm (Brooklyn); and the Jewish
Defense League (NYC). Get in
formed, and make up your own
mind.
2. Read a dictionary, and a Bible
with classic commentaries. Under
stand how saying Jews are special,
have a unique purpose, and are
unlike the rest of the peoples of the
world is not a racist statement.
3. While reading Kahane literature,
look for the statements of a
demagogue, megalomaniac, and self
proclaimed Messiah. Note the lack
thereof.
4. Ask the question: If “Israeli
society is correctly shunning him
(Kahane),” then why does everyone
predict he will win a least four
more seats in the next elections?
5. The next time anyone cheapens
the memory of the six million
murdered and insults a fellow Jew
by equating any Jew to the monsters
of that period, chew them out
vigorously.
There is always much to disagree
with in any politician, and Rabbi
Kahane is no exception. However,
if any of your readers have the
opportunity to meet him, they would
come away with the realization
that he is a person who cares for his
fellow Jew far, far more than most.
It is this concern coupled with a
sense of urgency that has given him
the strength to march and protest
for Soviet Jewry before it became
the vogue, to confront issues that
nobody wants to even look at, and
to run for public office in Israel.
He is totally undeserving of the
slander heaped upon him, and I
hope to see this campaign of
villification ended, now.
Aaron Eisenstein
-Arafat
Continued from page 1.
were, Lichenstein as a private citizen
re-examined the Arafat record and
hijackings this year, including the
TWA and Achille Lauro affairs.
On Nov. 15 his findings were
delivered to Messe. “He (Meese)
had expressed interest in seeing the
information that 1 and others had
been able to compile,” Lichenstein
said. In the third week of December
Lichenstein sent Meese a second
packet containing opinions of lawyers
regarding the problem of U.S. juris
diction in such cases. In 1976,
Congress passed legislation speci
fically giving jurisdiction that was
intended to be retroactive, the
opinions are understood to indicate.
“Edwin Meese is an old friend
and an official 1 hold in the highest
regard,” Lichenstein said. “If anyone
would feel compelled by the evidence
to recommend appropriate action
by the United States it would be
he.”
While the Justice Department
refused to discuss the material now
before Meese, Neil Livingstone,
co-author of the recently published
book, “Fighting Back: Winning
the War Against Terrorism,” noticed
in the Los Angeles Times that a
confidential cable sent to the State
Department from the U.S. Embassy
in Khartoum on March 7, 1973,
said the terrorists “did not murder
Ambassador Noel and Moore nor
surrendered. . .until receiving
specific code word instructions”
from Beirut, where the PLO had its
headquarters at the time.
Livingstone said an outstanding
arrest warrant would “make it difficult
for Arafat to travel in Western
Europe or other allied countries
without some risk of being arrested
and extradited.”
Later Terrell Arnold and Living
stone, the co-authors of the book,
wrote in the Los Angeles Times
that “any effort to re-open the case
(against Arafat and Black September)
raises a number of sensitive political
issues. There are those in the State
Department and elsewhere in the
United States government, including
friends of the slain Americans who
harbor no love for Arafat but
nonetheless maintain that he is the
least of many evils. They do not
believe that any positive good could
be achieved by further weakening
him, thereby strengthening his more
radical rivals for leadership of the
PLO.”
Arnold and Livingstone called
for legal action: “If Arafat is guilty
of masterminding the Khartoum
murder, he must be made to answer
for it.”
Another State Department source
told The Southern Israelite that
Noeland Moore have “many friends
throughout this place and they
won’t allow the charges to slip by if
there is proof.”
Violinist boycotts South Africa,
UNITED NATIONS(JTA)—Israeli violinist Lydia Mordkovitch
has provided the United Nations Special Committee Against
Apartheid with a written pledge not to perform in South Africa
until apartheid is abolished.
V /
PAGE 5 THE SOUTHERN ISRAELITE December 20, 1985