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r News Briefs Shcharansky tired, but ‘well’ Echoes of the Leo Frank case JERUSALEM (JTA)- Anatoly Shcharansky says he is feeling “quite well." The 38-year-old aliyah activist who spent nine years in the Soviet Gulag told reporters here Monday that reports that his health deteriorated since he arrived in Israel are untrue. “According to the newspapers I am in very bad health. But the truth is that 1 actually feel quite well. 1 am only tired, and regret that the vacation is over,” he said. He was referring to his month long vacation with his wife, Avital, which kept him out of the public view. That apparently gave rise to rumors he was ill. Shchransky returned to his job at the Council for Soviet Jewry • Sunday. His only complaint is that he is unable to sleep more than four hours a night. He said it might be the result of the excitement attending his arrival in Israel. He also admitted he suffers from nightmares. ‘ Actually, there might be some good in it since at night I dream of prison and when I wake up, I am here,” Shcharansky said. Fire hits third matza factory TEL AVIV (JTA)—A fire that swept through the IsraelMatza factory in Petach Tikva Monday night—the third blaze in a matza factory in recent weeks—destroyed more than 200,000 packages of matza. The fire was second at the Petach Tikva plant in six weeks. It followed by less than a week a fire that gutted the Aviv matza bakery in Bnei Brak where 100,000 packages for export were destroyed. Fire marshals said the three conflagrations in bakeries all owned by the same family could not be coincidental. Experts are investigating the possibility of arson. Israel’s matza factories are working around the clock to avert a Passover matza shortage while experts search for evidence of arson in the three fires. Croatian weekly is censured NEW YORK (JTA)—The Australian Press Council has cen sured a Croatian weekly newspaper, Hrvatski Tjednik, for publish ing an article that contains “wild and unsubstantiated” anti- Semitic statements. The Press Council, according to information made available here by the Anti-Defamation League of B’nai B’rith, acted on a complaint filed against the weekly by the Anti- Defamation Commission of B’nai B’rith District 21 of Australia and New Zealand. The article, which charged that Jewish organizations “run the world,” was a “classic case of conspiracy theory which has been used by anti-Semites for the past century,” according to the Press Council, which added that it was “typical of the kind of propa ganda that has been used to stir up anti-Jewish prejudice and justify racial persecution.” Togo to re-establish Israeli ties WASHINGTON (Polakoff)—The government of Togo will soon resume diplomatic relations with Israel, an American spe cialist on West African affairs has reported here. Speaking on background, the specialist who had just returned from Togo, said that like the Ivory Coast, a neighboring country on the Atlantic Coast, it is looking forward to resuming ties broken after the 1973 Yom Kippur War. Togo, with a population of three million, was described as a “benevolent dictatorship" with a largely free market economy under the leadership of Enassingbe Eyardemea. It has good rela tions with the United States and is antagonistic toward Libya. Its major exports are phosphates, cotton, cocoa and cottee. The capital of the former French colony is Lome, a seaport with modern facilities for visitors. About 4.000 French citizens live there. Many of the businesses are operated by Lebanese. The specialist said he was certain some Jews are residents but could not provide specific details. Mohels feel unkindestcut of all JERUSALEM (JTA)—Tax collectors here were cut to the quick hy the realization that they were not receiving a fair slice of the profits made by Israel's mohels (ritual circumcisors). They reacted sharply upon learning that, with only 94 ol the 224 licensed circumcisors bothering to file returns for 1984, they had only scratched the surface of the mohels’ income. The 130 mohels who did not pay taxes, Israel television reported, will now be subjected to acute audits and their incomes most probably slashed. The circumcisors are now aware that this time round they will not be able to circumvent their civic duty. Editor: Echoes of the Leo Frank case are still being heard. Celestine Sib ley’s most recent series in the Atlanta Journal/Constitution was quite interesting. She carried a sim ilar series (five-part) eight years ago in the papers, which at that time, was quite literally “news” to most Atlantans. Much has been written, however, since 1978 about the Leo Frank case. Even though we have had many years to digest this case, it is still very shocking and disturbing to read all of the gruesome details involving the case. I’m sure that many people, for some of their own personal reasons, did not want to make this case public. It opened too many wounds, since it happened in the not-so-distant past. It is probably the most hei nous crime committed against a Jew in modern American history. Contrary to Ms. Sibley’s opin ion that prior to the Frank case. anti-Semitism was unheard of in Atlanta, we must all know that the have-nots were just waiting like vultures. Aside from the fact that jurors were prejudiced from the inception of the trial, and that out cries from the enraged crowds out side the courthouse influenced the jury, the real culprit wasnoneother than Hugh Dorsey. He seized every opportunity to discredit Mr. Frank’s good name, using some of the most repulsive and ludicrous descriptions, and would not let the case rest or the crowds outside until he convicted this “outsider, Yankee Jew.” He certainly had his “golden opportunity” to further his own political career, and fell right into the hands of the man who could help him the most—Tom Watson. It is very curious that not even one of the lynching mob was ever arrested. Were the Jewish people living in Atlanta at that time so fearful for their own lives or the lives of their businesses to have spoken out more boldly? Why wasn’t Mr, Frank given protection at the prison? I suppose all of these questions and many more like these will forever go unanswered. Cynthia Hatten Morgan Hannah Senesh’ reprise? Editor: On behalf of the Second Genera tion/Children of Holocaust Survi vors, we wish to thank publicly the community for its outstanding sup port of the play, “Hannah Senesh," which we sponsored. The produc tion was a sell-out. The night of the play we were encouraged to bring the produc tion back, and we have already been contacted by one organiza tion which has expressed an inter est in sponsoring the play. We would also like to thank the Jewish Community Center for its support and assistance. We do hope this wonderful play will return by popular demand, and that those who unfortunately missed it can see it on its return engagement. Stanley M. Lefco An oleh’s view of Kahane Editor: Flere in Jerusalem we receive The Southern Israelite two months late, so this week I read the end of the articles and letters about Meir Kahane’s visit to Atlanta. I re membered, only two years ago, when my husband and I sat in an Atlanta hatel listening to his un changing rhetoric. Although Ka hane is old news to those of you in Atlanta, here in Jerusalem he is new news, every day news. He lives here and serves in our Knesset and has a strong effect upon the every day lives of those of us living in Israel, so 1 thought that the Atlan tans who hear him once a year might like to read about him from the perspective of a resident of Jerusalem. Here in Jerusalem we suffer from three basic problems, prob lems that exist all over Israel, but with greater intensity here in the Holy City. The first problem concerns the hatred that exists between the reli gious Jews and secular Jews. The religious Jews feel that Jerusalem is the Holy City and that those who live here or visit here should tem per their behavior in a way that reflects this. For example, religious Jews be lieve that Jerusalem is not the place for pornography shops, or on a lesser scale, that movies and res taurants should not be open on the Sabbath in this city. Secular Jews, on the other hand, feel that Jerusalem is their home, and that no one should be able to tell them how to behave in their home. They feel that living in Jer usalem should be no different than living in Atlanta. Those of us who love this city. Orthodox Jews like myself, and secular Jews work very hard to overcome this problem. We work for compromise, and we try to find ways to bring the two groups closer together. Meir Kahane, on the other hand, uses this issue to help himself get support. He presents the secular Jews as monsters who want to destroy Israel. He causes hatred between one Jew and an other in order to help himself. The second problem we have here in Jerusalem is between Jews from the Middle East and North Africa, and Jews from Europe and the West in general. The Eastern Jews, many of whom arrived in Israel in the 1950s, comprise 90 percent of the poor in Israel. The Western Jews make up most of the middle and upper class. Some Easterners feel that they are discriminated against. Some Westerners feel that the Eastern Jews are different from them and do not wish to associate with them. But again, those of us who love this city work very hard to bring all the Jews of this city together, to stress not the differences but the similari ties. We work to remind the people that we all came from one father — Abraham —that we are one people who are different only because we, in recent history, have lived in dif ferent parts of the world. Now, we are all here in Jerusalem, and we are all the same. Meir Kahane uses this issue to help himself get support. He pre sents the Western Jews as monsters who want to destroy the Jews of the East. He causes hatred between one Jew and another in order to help himself. The third and most difficult problem we have in Jerusalem — one that may never be totally solved—is the divisiveness and ha tred that exists between the Jews and Arabs of this city. Many Arabs feel that they are discriminated against. Many Jews feel that every Arab in this city would like to kill them. Again, those of us who love this city know that it cannot exist upon hatred. We work hard to help all of the citizens of this city to learn to live, if not together, then at least side by side in peace. Meir Kahane uses even this issue to help himself get support. He presents the Arabs as monsters who must be thrown out of our city. He asks us as Jews to do to others what was done to us for 2,000 years. He asks us to break the most fundamental of Jewish laws, “Do not do unto others, that which is hateful to you.” Meir Kahane has come to Israel to seek power. He has found sup porters among those whose lives are difficult, just as other despots before him have in the past. Those of us who fight all of our lives against hatred find it hard not to hate Meir Kahane. We cry for the wife and children of the policeman who was crippled while protecting Kahane on one of his missions of hatred in the Village of Umm el Fahm. We wonder when a man who calls himself a rabbi does not hesitate to interrupt the funeral of a Jewish soldier if it brings him political gain. He does not hesitate to cause hatred between Jews and between citizens of Israel if it helps his cause. I live in this city of Jerus alem, and I would like to live here in peace. 1 wish that Meir Kahane’s supporters in the U.S. would in vite him to live in their city and not support him in his attempt to de stroy ours. Esther Ben- Yaacov Jerusalem PAGE 5 THE SOUTHERN ISRAELITE March 28, 1986