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Israel defends plane interception
MONTREAL(JTA)— Israel, backed by the United States,
defended itself at a meeting of the International Civil Aviation
Organization’s (ICAO) Governing Council here Feb. 23 against a
move by Syria and Libya to have the 33-member body condemn
the Israel Air Force interception of a private Libyan plane which
Israel had reason to believe was carrying Palestinian terrorist
leaders. Israel, at the same time, charged Libya with threatening
Israeli civilian aircraft.
The interception occurred on Feb. 4 when a Libyan Grumman
Gulfstream executive jet enroute from Benghazi, Libya to
Damascus, was forced to land at an Israeli Air Force base for an
identity check of its nine passengers and three crew members.
Spain receives Israeli envoy
JERUSALEM(JTA)—Shmuel Hadass became Israel’s first
ambassador to Spain when he presented his credentials Feb. 20 to
King Juan Carlos in Madrid. Hadass has been Israel’s unofficial
representative in Spain since 1981 while serving as representative
to the World Tourism Organization in Madrid.
Spain and Israel announced the establishment of diplomatic
relations last month.
Serge Klarsfeld goes to Beirut
PARIS(JTA)—Nazi-hunter Serge Klarsfeld has gone to
Beirut in an effort to obtain the release of a small group ol
Lebanese Jews being held hostage by Shiite extremists. Four
Jewish hostages have been murdered in recent weeks and five men
are still missing and presumably in the hands of the kidnappers.
Klarsfeld said before leaving for Beirut that he wanted to replace
his wife Beate, who earlier this month returned from Lebanon
where she had tried to find the kidnappers and to negotiate with
them for the release of the missing hostages.
UJA Mission raises $1.4 million
NEW YORK(JTA)—Ninety Jewish participants in the UJA
Winter President’s Mission to Israel pledged $1.4 million to the
1986 UJA/Federation Campaign, a 43 percent increase over
pledges by the same donors last year. Bernard Borine of
Philadelphia, who chaired the January trip, also reported that
participants pledged $233,400 to Project Renewal.
Twenty-three members of the group took part in a pre-mission
visit to the Jewish communities of Casablanca and Marrakesh and
observed social programs of the American Jewish Joint
Distribution Committee in Morocco.
France releases two terrorists
PARIS(JTA)—France has released two Palestinian terrorists
serving 15-year prison sentences for murder, apparently as part of a
deal with the terrorist group headed by Abu Nidal to refrain from
terrorist acts inside France.
The deal reportedly dates back to 1982, after French police
found conclusive evidence that the Nidal gang was responsible for
the machinegun and grenade attack on a Jewish restaurant on the
Rue Des Rosiers in the summer of 1982 in which six people were
killed.
Plan to ship arms draws fire
MONTREAL(JTA)—B’nai B’rith Canada is protesting to
West Germany against plans by the Thyssen conglomerate to
establish an armaments plant at Cape Bretton, Nova Scotia, which
would export weapons to Persian Gulf and other Arab countries
hostile to Israel.
Thyssen is seeking a five-year export license from the Canadian
government. According to B’nai B’rith Canada, its purpose is to
circumvent West German restrictions on the export of weapons
manufactured on German soil to regions of tension.
Another B’nai B’rith Canada delegation met on the issue with the
West German charge d’affaires in Ottawa, Wolfgang Behren.
Meanwhile, the Canadian government has put Thyssen’s export
license request on its agenda but no date has been set for a
discussion of the matter.
French Jew named to post
PARIS(JTA)—Robert Badinter has been appointed
president of France’s Constitutional Council, one of the country’s
highest legal bodies, in some way the equivalent of the Supreme
Court. He replaces Daniel Mayer, who resigned the presidency but
remains a member of the council. Both Badinter and Mayer have
been active in Jewish communal organizations.
Badinter will be remembered as the man who abolished capital
punishment and liberalized France’s 200-year-old criminal code.
His appointment is for nine years, starting March 5.
Atlantans’ aliyah
Adjusting to life in Israel
by Esther Ben-Yaacov
FxcIumvc to I he Southern Israelite
We lived in Atlanta for 19 years
and now we have lived in
Jerusalem for 19 months. I
thought it was time to write
“home” our experiences.
Except for the first year of my
marriage and the birth of my son
Yaacov, I have lived all of my adult
life in Atlanta. My husband
Yehuda, my children and I were all
very happy there. We loved our
children’s schools, our home, our
friends and our life in our city.
But I was raised on Zionism.
Born at the end of World War II,
some of my first memories are of
the broken survivors who passed
through our home staying for a
month or a year or more. My
parents worked very hard to insure
the existence of our new little state,
and proudly displayed the picture
they had taken with Chaim
Weizmann. For me it was always,
“Next year in Jerusalem.” My
husband, a Jerusalemite, also
waited for the right time to go
“home.” We spoke of it often, so in
1984, when the dream became a
reality, none of our friends or
family was very surprised.
We did all the right things. We
contacted the Israel Aliyah Center
and worked through them. We
read all the books on aliyah and
spoke to all the people who could
help us. We knew where our
children would study and where we
would live before we left Atlanta.
We took with us all the things that
we felt we needed to be com
fortable in Israel, and we were off
to the start of a successful aliyah.
We arrived in Israel and soon
learned the meaning of the saying,
“Kol Hatchala Kasha.” (Every
Continued from page 1.
cured by the North Druid Hills
Road Property, for the down
payment on the High Point Road
land and other initial costs.
After the initial presentation
Monday evening and approxi
mately 45 minutes of discussion,
the issue was put into perspective
by Mickie Eisenberg. She said,
“When the people who started this
school in 1952 signed the charter, it
was a tremendous risk to hire a
kindergarten teacher and wonder
where the children were going to
come from. We had deficit
budgets. We have managed to
come out from under those
risks....We have been hearing how
crowded this place is. There are
kids out there that would be
attracted to an up and comingarea
where the young children and the
young parents are. Let’s get this
campaign on the road.”
Her plea was echoed by Linda
Bressler: “Families and our kids
have been looking to us to do
something. Now we have an
opportunity to do something.”
Not everyone agreed, though the
primary objections appeared to be
beginning is hard). We found that
everything at “home” was strange
to us. The little Jewish Jerusalem
of 1966 had grown to a large and
crowded metropolis. The children
and 1 suddenly had to live from
morning til night in “our”
language, only we didn’t know it
very well. As Rachel aptly put it, “I
don’t even understand biology well
in English!” But we were deter
mined to become “real” Israelis
and to make Israel our home. We
did all the right things: Ulpan for
me, tutors for the kids, not
speaking English except at home,
making friends with Israelis.
We found that the language
wasn’t the only thing that was
strange to us at home. We were
used to the slow, polite life of the
deep South. In Israel, people were
more abrupt, to the point, no time
for politeness. The Israelis
delinitely weren’t overwhelmingly
thrilled that we had come home to
join them. Most people were too
busy trying to make it through the
month to pay much attention to us.
The last month was a parti
cularly difficult one. My oldest son
was off to guard the borders; my
daughter was struggling with finals
in a language she still doesn’t feel
quite comfortable with, but maybe
most difficult of all, my youngest
son Boaz has become so well
adjusted, that sometimes he seems
like an Israeli presence in our
American midst. When the At
lantans had a reunion last month,
he chose to go to Bnai Akiva
instead. I began to think about the
trade-off: three cars for one, a
house for an apartment, 6,000
miles from Grampa instead of 700.
Was it all worth it?
Twice in the last 19 months these
thoughts have hit me pretty hard.
—Academy—
And both times something hap
pened to remind me why I was
here. The first time it was the
arrival of the Ethiopian Jews and
this time it was the arrival of
Anatoly Shcharansky. The diffi
culty of day-to-day life in Jeru
salem was washed away by the
knowledge that the Jews of
Ethiopia and Russia, and any Jew
who wants to or needs to can come
“home.” They can’t burn us in
ovens any more because we have
no place to go. They can’t
persecute us, because we have a
home to go to. No Jew on earth
need suffer in Galut.
Anatoly Shcharansky stood up to
one of the greatest powers on earth
and said: “I am a Jew and 1 want to
go home.” For this he spent nine
years in prison under conditions
that most of us could not have
withstood. But this week, with the
help of God, Anatoly Shcharansky
did come home, and he reminded
those of us who struggle with day-
to-day living in Israel of what
Zionism is all about.
My children went to the airport
to welcome Anatoly Shcharansky
home. I sat at home and thought
about how lucky I am to live in the
Holy City of Jerusalem, to struggle
with our language, and with life in
our homeland.
My family and 1 will be waiting
here for the Jews of Russia, the
Jews of Syria and Iraq and Iran,
and any other Jews who want to
come here and share the privilege
of living in our homeland. Our
presence here helps make the
Zionist dream of a Jewish
homeland a reality. So thank you,
Natan Shcharansky for reminding
us of why we are here, and,
“Welcome Home!”
based on the complexity of the
transactions and the status of the
N. Druid Hills re-zoning is not
approved. Nonetheless, after a
secret ballot, the 41-4 vote was
more than enough to start the
wheels turning. However, a re
quest by Blumenthal to make the
vote unanimous was declined.
Among those present were
several who had been founding
members of the Academy, which
opened in 1953 with 16 children in
the old educational building of the
Atlanta Jewish Community
Center. When the school outgrew
the facilities, it was relocated to the
Shearith Israel Education Build
ing. The present facility was
opened for the 1965 school year. In
1969, the Hebrew Academy
became the first elementary day
school in the United States to be
fully accredited, in this case by the.
Southern Association of Colleges
and Schools.
Jerry Blumenthal believes that
the new location will be “our
definitive campus” and said, “I am
not sure the Hebrew Academy will
ever again have to relocate.”
Blumenthal summed up the sit
uation in his closing remarks: “We
have taken a very bold and
courageous step and over the next
six months the burden on us will be
one of joy, delight, blood, sweat
and tears.”
rBrazil city honors Maimonides^.
SAO PAULO — (JTA) — In the predominantly Jewish
neighborhood Bom Retiro, the mayor of Sao Paulo, Mario Covas,
inaugurated the Moises Maimonides Square in memory of the
great Jewish sage whose 850th birthday is being commemorated,
the World Jewish Congress reported last Thursday. The festive
ceremony included wide public participation.
A commemorative plaque was unveiled by Elias Salem,
president of the Latin American Sephardi Federation. In Latin
America, the Maimonides anniversary has been marked by Jewish
communities, culminating in the massive scholarly conference in
Buenos Aires under the auspices of President Raul Alfonsin.
V s
‘PAGE 5 THE SOUTHERN ISRAELITE February 28, 1986