Newspaper Page Text
Bookbinder will not debate
Meir Kahane in Washington
by Joseph Polakoff
TSI's Washington correspondent
WASHINGTON — Plans by a
newly formed local group friendly
to Rabbi Meir Kahane to have him
debate with Hyman Bookbinder,
the Washington representative of
the American Jewish Committee,
at Temple Sinai here have failed on
both counts, and the group is seeking
to file a million dollar suit against
the temple.
“You must be kidding,” Book
binder exclaimed when he was asked
by The Southern Israelite about
the Jewish Public Affairs Com
mittee’s announcement he was
“invited guest” to debate “Do the
Arabs of Israel have the right
democratically and peacefully to
become a majority and do away
with the Jewish State?”
“I would not dignify his presence
by entering a debate with him,”
Bookbinder, an arch-critic of Kahane,
said. “He is a menace to what
Judaism stands for.” Bookbinder
said he was asked to attend the
Jan. 23 meeting scheduled at Temple
Sinai but categorically denied he
had accepted the invitation. Jewish
communal leaders have sought to
isolate Kahane by refusing to meet
with him for discussions.
A spokeswoman at Temple Sinai
Jan. 10 had confirmed the committee
had rented its social hall to the
group. On Jan. 13, the temple's
rabbi, Fred Reiner, said the group
was informed by the temple’s presi
dent, Susan Fratkin, that it could
not use the premises because
additional information about itself
that the temple had requested was
not provided.
“We did not know Rabbi Kahane
was speaking,” Rabbi Reiner said.
Noting that the temple office did
not know' “it was not a private
meeting, but a public debate,” Rabbi
Reiner said the group “misrepresented
use of the room.”
Bookbinder said that a similar
incident had taken place in Los
Angeles, where Rabbi Harold
Schulweiss was reported scheduled
to debate Rabbi Kahane. In
Washington, Bookbinder said, it
Meir Kahane
was to be “the debate of the decade”
while in Los Angeles it was called
“the debate of the century.”
Madeline Abraham and her
husband David are leaders of the
Jewish Public Affairs Committee
and also of the District of Columbia
chapter of the Kach movement led
in Israel by Rabbi Kahane. Mrs.
Abraham said that the meeting
scheduled for Jan. 23 at Temple
Sinai was its first program. Mrs.
Abraham is a native of Waco,
Texas, and a graduate of the
U niversity of Texas in Austin where
she majored in journalism.
After it had become known Rabbi
Kahane would not be appearing at
the temple, David Abraham said
the rabbi would speak at the Sheraton
hotel in Silver Spring, Md., a nearby
Washington suburb. Abraham said
he has asked the American Civil
Liberties union here to sue the
temple for a million dollars for
breach of contract. The ACLU, he
said, responded that it wanted a
letter of intent from the group. The
ACLU was asked to represent the
group, Abraham said, because its
New York office had represented
Rabbi Kahane after his request for
a visa for his current U.S. visit was
refused by U.S. consular officials
in Israel. Brooklyn-born Rabbi
Kahane’s U.S. citizenship has been
cancelled by the State Department
because he is a member of the
Knesset.
Wendy J. Katz DDS
is pleased to announce
the opening of her dental offices
specializing in the practice
of orthodontics for
adults and children.
Windy Hill Professional Building
2480 Windy Hill Road
Suite 105
Marietta, Georgia 30067
(404)952-5255
Vernon Woods Professional Center
6667 Vernon Woods Drive
Suite B-30
Sandy Springs, Georgia 30328
(404) 255-7047
Abraham, who works here as a
kosher butcher, was born in Baghdad.
He was a year old when his parents
brought him to Israel. After serving
with the Israeli forces in the Yom
Kippur war in 1973, he said, he
went to the United States. He said
he and his wife and their three
children plan to make aliyah to
Israel in a year or two.
“We’re still hoping Mr. Book
binder will show up at the hotel
when he realizes the importance of
the issue,” Abraham said.
Art Spitzer, the legal director of
the ACLU’s national capital area
office for the past five years, said,
“I don’t know the first thing about
this situation.” Spitzer said it is
“very possible” that a secretary in
his office was telephoned and she
had given the caller the “standard
response” of having the caller “send
a letter and we’ll take a look at it.”
Temple Sinai (which is Reform)
has a tradition for allowing its
premises to be open for speakers of
virtually any shade of opinion.
Former Arab mayors on the West
Bank, expelled by Israeli authorities,
have been among them. Rabbi
Kahane, who is on a speaking tour
of major American cities, was a
speaker there too.
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PAGE 3 THE SOUTHERN ISRAELITE January 17, 1986