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1986 Goal: $8.5 million Miracles Can Happen... $7.5 million ...when you support the Atlanta Jewish Federation’s 1986 Campaign See pages 6 and 7 for Campaign update News of pope’s visit hailed by Italy’s Jews by Lisa Palmieri-Billig ROME (JTA)—The Jewish community has warmly welcomed the Vatican’s announcement Monday that Pope John Paul II will visit Rome’s main synagogue next month. But while this is viewed as an “historic gesture” which may well be the first papal visit ever to a Jewish house of worship, the feel ing among Jewish leaders is that it will be up to the pontiff whether the occasion is merely “symbolic” or contributes substantively to Catholic-Jewish relations. “It would be a fantastic step forward,” said Tullia Zevi, presi dent of the Union of Italina Jewish Communities, “or it could be a perpetuation of ambiguities.” She was referring to certain fundamen tal issues that remain unresolved after more than 20 years of Vati- can-Jewish dialogue that began after Vatican Council 11 in 1965. The chief Vatican spokesman, Joaquin Navarro Vallis, an nounced at a press conference Monday that the pope’s visit would take place on the afternoon of April 13. He said it would be the first such visit in living memory, though he could not be certain it would be an historic precedent. The Jewish community, in a statement released Monday night, expressed its “satisfaction at the decision of Pope John Paul II to visit the synagogue of Rome,” adding that “this will mark an important step in the direction of an ever more rewarding dialogue.” The Rome synagogue was the scene of a traumatic event in Oct ober 1982 when worshippers were attacked by Arab terrorists with machineguns and grenades. A two- year-old boy, Stefano Tache, was killed and 34 persons were wounded. More than a year earlier, on Feb. 9, 1981, thespiritual leader of the synagogue, Rome’s Chief Rabbi Elio Toaff, met with the pope at a church adjacent to the old Jewish ghetto, about lOOyards from the synagogue. From that time on, a papal visit to the syn agogue itself seemed more and more in the realm of possibility, awaiting only the appropriate “conditions.” Zevi stressed in her remarks Monday that the conditions could never have materialized but for the changes in Catholic-Jewish rela tions engendered by Vatican II. Yet there is disappointment in Jew ish circles here and abroad that the changes have not progressed fur ther than they have. One issue that wrankles Jews is the Vatican’s per sistent refusal to extend formal recognition to the State of Israel. This was one of the main criti cisms vented by a Jewish ecumeni cal group in June 1985 over a just published Vatican document called “Notes on the Correct Way to Present the Jews and Judaism in Preaching the Catechesis in the Roman Catholic Church.” According to the International Jewish Committee on Interreli gious Consultations (IJCIC), the Notes fail to acknowledge the reli gious significance of Israel to the Jewish people and refer only briefly and superficially to the Holocaust. The IJCIC called them a retro gression from the historic “Nostra Aetate” (Our Times) which e- merged from Vatican Council II in 1964 and the Dec. 1, 1974, “Guide lines and Suggestions for the Appli cation of the Declaration Nostra Aetate.” Dr. Joseph Lichten, the Anti- Defamation League of B’nai B’rith’s liaison with the Vatican, told the Jewish Telegraphic A- gency Monday that the pope’s forthcoming visit to the synagogue “will certainly be a historical event. Never before has a pope set foot in See Pope, page 26. The Southern | Israelite > c_ re c. c r~ The Weekly Newspaper For Southern Jewry 'Since 1925' c x u c r c. — Vol. LXII Atlanta, Georgia, Friday, March 21, 1986 No. 12 rr > Shamir on shaky groun as convention falls apai by Yaacov Ben Yosef Special to The Southern Israelite JERUSALEM—Following a stormy week of infighting within the Herut Party, Israel’s political scene has undergone a sudden shift. Yitzhak Shamir’s position as Herut Party leader is in serious doubt and new questions have been raised whether Shamir will be able to replace Shimon Peres as prime minister next October. All of this is a direct result of the four-day Herut Party convention, the first in seven years and the first without Menachem Begin. By the early hours of Thursday, the con vention had literally disintegrated into a startling deadlock between Shamir and the combined forces of Ariel Sharon and David Levy. Herut, dominant party in the right-wing Likud bloc which shares power with Peres’ Labor Party in the national unity gov ernment, ended its convention amidst fistfights and bitter name calling. Yaacov Ben Yosef The real loser in the free-for-all gathering was Likud leader, For eign Minister Yitzhak Shamir. He failed to earn a clear-cut vote of confidence from the 2,000 dele gates in his leadership of the party. Moreover, the Sharon-Levy forces actually took over the running of the convention from Shamir’s people. Though Shamir was trying to repair the damage this week in order to regain his position as party leader, his weakened s ing may well invite Labor to euver itself out of the govern with the aim of foiling rotation; and of setting up a narrow gov ernment without the Likud. That Likud nightmare has sent Ariel Sharon, the minister for commerce and industry, shuttling around, trying to win support from among the Shamir and Levy fac tions for a plan that would get the convention back in session for one day. During that day, Sharon wants to have Shamir sanctioned as party leader; Levy, as chairman of the party executive; and himself, as chairman of the all-important central committee. That clever move would bring Sharon into a preeminent position in the party. That proposal appeared doomed after Shamir met Monday with other Herut ministers and declared afterwards that Sharon’s plan was unacceptable. Shamir’s main ob jection: rather than hold the party See Shamir, page 26. Purim in Israel Youngsters in Jerusalem participating in a Purim parade. * f? jMff:' ■. m * . 'Jw j* ,y ...! mr 1 * Jk iv A L;A j, J Ar L.i PKU J hC 1