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Jewish worker wins
anti-Semitism case
by Joseph Polakoff
\ Si's Washington Correspondent
WASHINGTON —A Jewish
employee’s charges of anti-Semi
tism in his working environment in
the Defense Department have
resulted in a federal court ordering
his reinstatement with full back
pay and employment rights and
recommendations later in a U.S.
civil service proceeding that one of
his superiors be dismissed and
another demoted three pay grades.
The case was initiated four years
ago by Wallace H. Weiss while he
was employed as an operations
research analyst at Grade 13 pay
level in the Defense Logistics
Agency, a component of the Defense
Department that deals with costs
of services and supplies outside the
armed forces. Weiss has left the
agency and is now employed by the
U.S. Army.
Edward J. Reidy, chief ad
ministrative lawjudge of the Merit
Systems Protection Board which is
an independent agency serving as
watchdog over the civil service
system, in an opinion Feb. 14,
recommended dismissal of Dennis
L. Zimmerman, who is DI.A’s
senior study director for supply
management, and a three pay grade
demotion for at least three years to
Michael Pouy, a DLA supply
manager, who was also fined
$1,000.
Mark Talisman, Washington
representative of the Council of
Jewish Federations, lauded Weiss’
courage and determination to go
through with proceedings to
vindicate his claims. Referring to
anti-Semitism within government
ranks. Talisman said, “This goes
on all the time. Weiss’ courageous
action could' be an example to
others who fear they will lose their
jobs, especially at this time when
jobs are hard to get, if they fight
anti-Semitism where they work.”
Federal Judge Richard L.
Williams found that Weiss, em
ployed in the DLA from Feb. 17,
1980, to Aug. 4, 1983, was “fully
qualified” for his position when he
was hired as a GS-13 analyst by
Zimmerman, who is not Jewish
and did not know that Weiss was
Jewish when he hired him. Weiss
was the only Jewish employee in
the office. None of Zimmerman’s
three supervisors on two levels
above him and to whom Weiss had
made his complaints are Jewish.
“From 1980 until March 1982,
plaintiff Weiss was the constant
target of highly offensive religious
slurs and taunts” by Pouy and
Zimmerman, Williams’ decision
said. “These slurs included such
taunts as ‘resident Jew,’ ‘Jew
faggot,’ ‘rich Jew,’ ‘Christ killer,’
‘nail him to the cross,’ and ‘you
killed Christ, Wally, so you’ll have
to hang from the cross.’
“Mr. Zimmerman made no
attempt to stop the repeated anti-
Semitic remarks that were directed
at the plaintiff by Mr. Pouy,” the
decision said. “Indeed Mr.
Zimmerman himself repeatedly
directed anti-Semitic remarks at
Weiss.”
Prior to March 22, 1982, “Weiss
never repeated or complained
about the anti-Semitic remarks to
anyone above Mr. Zimmerman,”
the decision added. “However, the
remarks upset him to develop
stress and anxiety-related dis
orders.” Despite the slurs re
garding his religion, Weiss
received high performance evalu
ations and generally performed his
duties to his supervisor’s satis
faction, the decision said.
On March 26, 1982, Weiss spoke
to Zimmerman and demanded an
end to anti-Semitic remarks
following a branch staff meeting at
which Pouv used an obscenity
See Worker, Page 23.
The Southern
Israelite
The Weekly Newspaper For Southern Jewry
'Since 1925'
Vol. LXII Atlanta, Georgia, Friday, February 28, 1986 No. 9
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Arafat fails king’s ‘tesl
loses U.S. concession
by Joseph Polakoff
rsi’s Washington correspondent
WASHINGTON—Two major
concessions made by the Reagan
administration to the Palestine
Liberation Organization to enter
the “peace process” with Israel are
now without effect because PLO
chief Yasir Arafat has refused to
accept other parts of Washington’s
proposal, the Stale Department
has declared.
Without the promise of PLO
reciprocity in any form, the U.S.
had offered through Jordan’s King
Hussein that the PLO could have a
seat at an international conference
to settle the West Bank-Gaza
situation if it agreed to U.N.
Security Council resolutions 242
and 338 adopted after the Arab-
Israelt wars of 1967 and 1973,
recognized Israel’s right to live in
peace and renounced terrorism.
Successive administrations have
pledged to Israel since 1974 not to
deal with the PLO until it had met
the stated conditions. The two
King Hussein
recent concessions appear to
violate the 12-year-old policy that
Henry Kissinger had originated
\fyhen he was secretary of state.
In a statement read by chief
spokesman Bernard Kalb fol
lowing reportedly heated Israeli-
U.S. talks here, the Department
said that its concessions to the
PLO were part of a package that
“would not have been imple
mented without agreement to the
full package by all sides. Now that
the PLO has failed the king’s test
there is no package and this
isolated question is moot.”
Following King Hussein’s three
and one-half hour address in
Amman that Arafat had broken his
commitment that he would ap
prove the U.S. conditions in return
for the concessions, Israel’s foreign
ministry and the embassy in
Washington indicated they had no
information on the concessions
before Hussein’s speech. Wash
ington sources then hinted that
Prime Minister Shimon Peres had
knowledge of the developments.
Israel’s cabinet meeting follow
ing the speech reportedly did not
discuss the concessions.
However, Ambassador Meir
Rosenne met with Under Secretary
of State for Political Affairs
Michael Armacost, Assistant
Secretary of State Richard
Murphy, an architect of the
See Arafat, Page 23
Hebrew Academy’s search
ends with vote to buy land
by Vida Goldgar
It was no ordinary board
meeting and everybody knew it.
The Hebrew Academy’s president.
Dr. Jerry Blumenthal, highlighted
it when he said, “I call this very
historic and important meeting of
the Hebrew Academy board to
order.”
Two hours later, the significance
was confirmed when the board
voted overwhelmingly to set in
motion the acquisition of ap
proximately 19 acres of land on
High Point Road for construction
of new facilities. The enabling
resolutions also provided for
entering into a sales agreement for
the present property on North
Druid Hills Road.
The approval, which carried by
a vote of 41 to 4, ends several years
of speculation and on again, off
again reports that the Hebrew
Academy would relocate to the
Atlanta Jewish Community
Center’s Zaban property.
At Monday evening’s meeting,
David Minkin, who heads the
Academy’s relocation committee,
made it clear at the outset that
“Zaban is not an alternative.”
Minkin said both the AJCC and
the Academy, with assistance from
Federation, “made a tremendous
effort” to arrive at a mutually
agreeable solution to a very
complex situation but that “it was
finally concluded it could not be
done within the framework
allowed.”
A second alternative—for the
Academy to stay at the present
location and, presumably limit
growth of the student body, had
been ruled out after last year’s
demographic study showed a
strong shift in the student base to
the north. “A lot of the community
is on the move north of 1-285, with
fewer in this area and south of this
area,” Minkin said. He said, “The
easy decision would be to stay
here. We can get an easy 320
students (approximately the pre
sent enrollment)” and then he
added the kicker—“until some
body comes along and builds a new
school."
Present plans for the utilization
of the High Point Road property
call for the construction of an
elementary school and a middle
school, with a view toward adding
a high school in the future.
Estimated costs of the initial
phase range from $4.5 million to
approximately $6.75 million, with
land costs at roughly $1.3 million
assuming that the actual acreage
after road rights-of-way is at the 19
acre figure. Additional property
would be required for the high
school at a later date.
Under a proposed contract for
the North Druid Hills property
negotiated by Jeffrey Snow and
Jerry Siegel, somewhere in the
vicinity of $3 million would be
realized. The contract, which is
subject to zoning, calls for the
initial sale of approximately five
acres not occupied by the school
on or before Sept. 15, 1986, with
the balance of the property to be
sold between Sept. 1, 1987, and
Sept. 1, 1988. No rezoning is
required to put a school on the
High Point property. Construc
tion of the new facility woujd not
begin until the sale of the school
portion of North Druid Hills is consum
mated.
The resolutions called for
$400,000 to be borrowed from the
Atlanta Jewish Federation, se-
See Academy, Page 5.
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