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*r 1 r* 'S 3W g r- > .%. - il^llHiMBirffTlIflliTTf HI ■imuiT T '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.