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PAGE 4 THE SOUTHERN ISRAELITE March 21, 1986 Vida Goldgar The Southern Xsraelite The Weekly Newspaper For Southern Jewry Since 1925 Vida Goldgar Editor and Publisher Leonard Goldstein Advertising Director Luna Levy Associate Editor Eschol A. Harrell Production Manager Lutz Baum Business Manager Published every Friday by The Southern Israelite, Inc. Second Class Postage paid at Atlanta, Ca (ISSN 00388) (UPS 776060) POSTMASTER: Send address changes lo The Southern Israelite, P.O. Box 77388, Atlanta, GA 30357 Mailing Address: P.O. Box 77388, Atlanta, Georgia 30357 Location: 188 15th St., N.W., Atl., Ga. 30318 Phone (404)876-8248 Advertising rates available upon request. Subscriptions: $23.00, 1 year; $41.00, 2 years Member of Jewish Telegraphic Agency; Religious News Service; American Jewish Press Assn.; Georgia Press Assn.; National Newspaper Assn. The Southern Israelite A Prize-Winning Newspaper Better Newspaper Contests it’s Purim Be happy—it’s Purim! Well, almost. The Southern Israelite's first “Purimspieler” on pages 18 and 19, and, for the youngsters, Noah’s Ark’s Purim issue starting on page 27, highlight the holiday’s emphasis on fun and celebration. This holiday is the nearest thing that Judaism has to a carnival. Whether at costume parties, plays or by drinking “ad lo yada”— until one doesn’t know—the difference between Mordecai and Haman, we celebrate courageous Esther’s victory over evil Haman. Purim is a good time to hope that today’s wise Mordecais and courageous Esthers and will overcome 20t.h century tyrannical Hamans. But there is another aspect of Purim that should not be overlooked—the custom—no, the precept—of giving to the needy. Charitable giving is by no means a once-a-year occasion. However, it’s a special mitzva at Purim. There are many ways to help but, just as a suggestion, consider the annual Moas Chitim Appeal which is now under way. This fund has the specific purpose of helping those in need have the wherewithal to have an appropriate celebration of Passover. So, in the midst of our merriment, let’s remember this other side of Purim. Sharing with the less fortunate can make the holiday even more joyous. First the good news This weekend 1 finally made it up to Jackson, Miss., to get my first look at the latest grandchild. He s five weeks old already and 1 was beginnmg^owonder if 1 would manage to get away to see him before his bar mitzva. In the end, 1 just said “this is it” and hopped a plane. Now don’t turn the page. Dan iel is not the subject of this column. Proud as I am, I know better than to fill this space with the mewlings of an infant. 1 had another experience that was as distressing as the rest of the visit was delight- existed. Finding myself unusually wakeful very late Satur day night (really, Sunday morning), 1 flipped on the set to what was termed in the television listings as “The Jewish Voice.” Actually, 1 was kind of excited, because like many of you, I’ve long bemoaned the fact that, except for the occasional special, Jewish TV programming is virtually non-existent. This must be something new, I thought. New or not, it was not Jewish programming. What it was, was Jews for Jesus. What it really was, was revolting. Only after I got the gist did I go back and check the newspaper and noticed that it was the Christian Broadcasting Net work. That might have warned me had 1 seen it earlier. 1 still haven’t quite recovered from my revulsion of the national magazine ads which ran around Hanu- ka/Christmas and this didn’t help any. After a warm welcome by a woman whose last name was Kaplan, the scene shifted to a piano dramat ically adorned with a menora. The male pianist and female vocalist launched into a melody that forall the world sounded like an Israeli tune but the words were far from it. It was what my kids, long ago, would have referred to as “a Jesus song.” All I can remember now is a refrain that went something like “1 knew Jesus before he was a gentile.” There followed a bearded, yarmulka-topped man, Eliezar Urbach, who was introduced as a Holocaust survivor who talked of Shavuot and noted that “our Messiah was the first fruit of resurrection.” In passing, 1 thought it was a strange time of year to be talking about Shavuot, but perhaps it was a rerun. There were occasional camera shots of the Wes tern Wall and other appropriate graphics and at commercial time viewers were invited to call in to talk to “prayer counselors” who were standing by. The phone numbers didn’t have 800 numbers, so presum ably if you want to be counseled, the call to Phoenix is on your phone bill. Other commercials offered var ious publications. There was a free sample of Pro phetic Magazine, but a copy of “Betrayed” (and forget who betrayed whom) is a SlOdonation. Another book whose name I can’t remember was $ 15 but presumably any of these will help Jews realize what they have been missing. While I was wavering between flipping the off button and trying to get some sleep and having some sort of perverse fascination with what was happening on screen, there unfolded the testimony of a Dr. and Mrs. Jack Sternberg or Steinberg from Little Rock, Ark. Their description of their earlier lives as "or dinary" Jews and their difficulty with dealing with the death of loved ones and, in cancer specialist Dr. Steinberg’s (Sternberg’s?) case, the terminal illness of patients was cited as the turning point in their becom ing Jews for Jesus. There was even a tasteless com ment about “the difference between having God in your pocketbook and God in your heart.” When the program finally signed off, I was a lot more wide awake than when it started. Now don’t get me wrong. If a Jew, after serious thought and consid eration, decides that Judaism is not the religious path he or she can follow and chooses to convert, 1 believe that must be an individual decision, just as is the decision of a Christian to convert to Judaism. But the idea that one can remain a Jew while accepting Jesus as saviour, Messiah, whatever, just doesn’t hack it. Yet, from the amount of money spent on multiple magazine ads, television programs and “Messianic Jew” congregations springing up (there's one in Atlanta), somebody has an awful lot of interest in swaying the insecure, unstudied, unaffiliated. It may be an easy way—but it’s not the Jewish way. No recognition by Carl Alpert —HAIFA The Red Magen David is, with good cause, known to all Israelis. Its fleet of more than 600 ambu lances are a familiar sight wherever there is need for emergency first aid. Some 80 percent of the coun try’s civilian blood needs are pro vided through the RMD. Its first aid stations, training courses and general medical services are con stantly being called upon for help, and the six-pointed star is always a reassuring sight, whether at a na tional disaster or a personal tra gedy. But not only Israelis have reason to regard the red shield as a symbol of mercy and relief. In the past few years alone it was clearly visible to victims and sufferers from the vol canic eruption in Colombia, fam ine in Kenya, hurricane in Haiti, earthquakes in Greece, Italy and Nepal, floods in Ecuador, Bolivia, Paraguay and Swaziland. Whether the need was medi cines, tents, blankets, food, field kitchens or medical staff, the Red Magen David was among the first of the various international agen cies rushing aid to the stricken areas. The record has been a long and honorable one, including from ear lier years emergency assistance also to Thailand, India, Honduras, Cyprus, Brazil, Madagascar, Phi lippines and Ethiopia for epidem ics, drought, war, cyclones, fires, landslides—and even this is but a small, partial list. Civilian victims in all parts of the world have learned to recog nize the Red Shield of David and to bless it as a symbol of merciful assistance. Only in one place is the Red Magen David neither acknow ledged nor respected—in the offi cial circles of the International Red Cross! Immediately after establishment of the State of Israel, at the signing of the fourth Geneva convention in 1949, the Red Magen David appli cation to be included as a Society within the Red Cross was defeated by a vote of 22 to 21, out of a total of 60 delegations participating, and that situation has not changed. The reason given: Israel has not adopted the red cross as its symbol. The fact that the Arab states use the red crescent as their insignia, and call their organizations the Red Crescent Society, is of course immaterial. Israel asa country, while lacking full membership status, attends sessions of the International Com mittee of the Red Cross as an observer—an honor shared also by Yassir Arafat’s brother, in his capacity as president of the Pales tine Red Crescent Society. It must be noted, with due credit, that of all the national Red Cross Societies in the world, only the American Red Cross recog nizes the M DA and its star symbol. There is little the Americans can do to influence the international body. Of the 16 societies which are members of the Executive of the League of Red Cross societies, H are from Arab states, the Soviet bloc or the so-called third world. Of the eight elected vice presidents of the League, only three are from the free Western world, with Libya, Syria and the U.S.S.R. dominat ing the other five. While it may not be generally known, the official name of the international organi zation is the “League of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies. In short, Israel’s enemies have succeeded in hijacking the Inter national Red Cross. For the past eight years the Red Cross has had a “Working Group on the Emblem,” studying this “highly delicate and important question.” No solution has y et been found. Undeniably there is good will in many quarters, but blind hatred of Israel has thus far obstructed any equitable solution