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'986 Goal: $8.5 million
Miracles Can Happen
Campaign *86 goes over goal
...when you support the
Atlanta Jewish Federation’s
1986 Campaign
See page 7 for Campaign update
Over the top!
The 1986 Atlanta Jewish Feder
ation Campaign went “over the
top” according to Gerald Horo
witz, 1986 general chairman. Horo
witz announced a final figure of
$8.610,231 at a campaign closing
celebration for workers and lead
ers held at the Standard Club on
April 3. The final figure is more
than $100,000 above the original
$8.5 million 1986 Campaign goal.
Additionally, $225,000 in new dol
lars was raised for Project Re
newal.
“I'm thrilled with the results of
the 1986 Campaign,” said Horo
witz. “The additional funds raised
will enable us to make miracles
happen by addressing the expand
ing needs of the Atlanta Jewish
community and of Jews around
the world.”
Horowitz, paid tribute to cam
paign leadership and workers for a
job well done, and praised com
munity support for Campaign ’86.
Federation President Gerald Cohen
in turn thanked Horowitz for his
excellent leadership and manage
ment abilities which made 1986 a
record-breaking campaign.
The campaign celebration was
made complete by a moving pres
entation by Leonid Feldman, the
first Soviet emigre to be ordained
at the Jewish Theological Sem
inary.
The Southern
Israelite
The Weekly Newspaper For Southern Jewry
'Since 1925'
Bush welcomes Peres;
praises U.S.-lsrael ties
by Joseph Polakoff
TSI's Washington correspondent
WASHINGTON-Vice Presi
dent George Bush and Secretary of
State George Shultz welcomed Is
raeli Prime Minister Shimon Peres
on his 24-hour Washington visit
that was marked by emphasis on
Israel’s greatly improved economic
condition under his leadership and
the warm and close relationship
between the two countries.
At the White House after the
first of his two meetings with Bush,
Peres invited the vice president to
visit Israel and there was agree
ment he would make the trip in
June or July. Bush had not in
cluded Israel in his journeys this
month to Saudi Arabia and three
other Arab countries. He was host
to Peres at dinner at his official
residence. President Reagan is at
his estate in Santa Barbara.
Peres came to the United States
for the 50th anniversary celebra
tion in New York of the World
Jewish Congress. He is expected to
come again in June for the honors
to be paid Sam Rothenberg, the
longtime leader of the Israel Bonds
organization in the United States.
Shimon Peres
Neither Peres nor the U.S. offici
als indicated what might be the
next step in the moribund Arab-
lsraeli peace process. Peres said he
discussed with Bush how to con
tinue efforts to initiate talks,
adding, “We won’t quit” the peace
movement despite the difficulties.
He said, “We want to keep violence
out and the hope for peace in.”
Peres, in meetings with the
media after his White House and
State Department visits, said the
U.S. naval crossing of Libyan dic
tator Muammar Qaddafi’s self-set
sea boundary in the Gulf of Sidra
was timely and right, and said,
“The U.S. has again shown its
leadership for freedom of naviga
tion and protection of innocent,
people.”
Responding to a questioa-«n
Syria, he replied Qaddafi is “even
more dangerous than th'£-3yrians
are.” He did not elaborate. (Syria,
Cuba, Yemen, Libya and Iran are
listed by the State Department as
states supporting terrorism.) He in
dicated that United Nations forces
(UNIFIL) should remain in south
ern Lebanon because of the pres
ent chaotic conditions. (Other Is
raeli officials have suggested that
UNIFIL depart because it has not
prevei^d terrorist attacks on Is
rael from that area. The U.S. op
poses departure.)
At lunch at the State Depart
ment at which more than a score of
prominent American and Canadian
businessmen aiding Israel were
among the guests, Shultz praised
Peres’ “bold and far-sighted leader
ship” for having “tackled Israel’s
See Peres, page 27.
What price credibility?
Journalist decries official news service
by Victor M. Bienstock
As a newspaperman who has
spent the better part of six decades
in Jewish journalism, I am dis
turbed by reports out of Jerusalem
that the Israeli government and the
World Zionist Organization joint
ly are planning to establish a new
service primarily for the world
Jewish press.
I he decision to proceed on this
is bad for Israel, bad for the Zionist
movement, bad for the Jewish com-
munitv and dangerous lor the Jew
ish press. Never since Bffron
Reuter established the first news
agency in London in the 185()s has
there been an official news agency
that had credibility. Every dicta
torship has sought to control the
news distribution channels so as to
be able to manipulate the news to
what it deems its best advantage.
One effect establishment of this
agency will have will be to make
suspect all the news flowing through
Jewish distribution channels since
only a small proportion of news
paper readers attribute any signifi
cance to the credit lines on the dis
patches they read.
Both the Israel government and
the WZO will be accused ol attempt
ing to control the flow of informa
tion which they will be doing, not
by censorship but by selection of
the information to be relayed to
the Jewish world.
No one expects an official a-
gency to report developments that
reflect unfavorably on its sponsors
and this agency will not be able to
disappoint its critics in this respect.
In the words of the song, it will
accentuate the positive and in so
doing, seek to cloak what the au
thorities consider the negative
aspects.
As a former editor, I know the
pressure on every editor to give
space to a good upbeat story with a
lot of human interest over a critical
report on the economic situation,
for instance, or Arab complaints
on the West Bank. There is a lot of
good journalistic talent in Israel
today and the new agency will have
no difficulty in finding the skilled
journeymen to produce good human
interest stories.
The Jewish press, in most cases
not too generously budgeted, will
be tempted to rely heavily on the
new service for news and features.
The service wall thus discourage
independent reporting and thus
reduce the perspectives the indi
vidual paper can offer.
1 am concerned about the im
pact the planned service may have
on a large segment of the American
Jewish press which has made great
strides in the last half-century since
Philip Slomovitz and a handful of
his contemporaries founded the
American Jewish Press Associa
tion and gave it professional stan
dards. T he Jewish press has won a
substantial measure of credibility
and acceptance in the community
and professional acceptance in the
wider field of American journal
ism. This should not be jeopar
dized.
While the independence and in
tegrity of some of the American
Jewish weeklies has been questi
oned because their ownership and
financing has been assumed by
local community organizations, in
most cases, especially in the larger
communities, an informed leader
ship has recognized that a news
paper must have editorial inde
pendence in order to maintain
credibility. But there are still
communal leaders w ho believe that
the sole function of the Jewish
press is to provide publicity and
facilitate communal fundraising
efforts.
In too many cases the suspicion
persists that communally operated
papers arc official organs present
ing the “official” viewpoint. That
suspicion will be strengthened if
reports from and about Israel are
perceived as coming from an “offi
cial” agency.
T here has been progress both in
the press and in the communal
leadership since the day in the Fif
ties when the president of a major
federation berated me in Jerusa
lem because the Jewish Telegra
phic Agency had transmitted news
of an unpleasant incident in Israel
that had resulted in protest in the
United States.
“You shouldn’t have sent it,” he
complained. “It’s bad for the cam
paign.”
But the incident was, in itself,
dramatic proof of the need for an
alert, independent press. American
Jews reacted so strongly to the news
report that the Israel government
had to step in within 48 hours to
correct a deplorable, heartrending
situation.
The Jewish Agency public rela
tions establishment and the Israeli
government’s public relations setup
as well have never really under
stood that they cannot “sell” Israel
to American Jews as a land of
unadulterated milk and honey and
See Journalist, page 27.