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News Briefs
The bells are ringing...
TEL AVIV (JTA) — Israel and the People’s Republic of
China opened their first telephone connections Monday. Calls now
go through the telephone exchanges in each country but direct
dialing will become possible in the not too distant future.
Israel Radio recorded and broadcast the first telephone conver
sation between countries at the opposite ends of the Asian conti
nent. It was between the supervisors at their respective exchanges.
The Chinese supervisor asked her Tel Aviv counterpart how to
spell the name Israel. She wasn’t quite sure where it is located.
Israel, Greece to sign ad pact
A f HENS (JTA) —Israel and Greece are expected to sign an
agreement for a joint tourism advertising campaign in the United
States during the current five-day visit here of Israel’s Minister of
Tourism, Avraham Sharir.
Sharir is the first Israeli Minister to visit Greece in an official
capacity since Abba F.ban's visit in 1962 as Minister of Education.
Both Greece and Israel have suffered a sharp decline in Ameri
can tourism this year because of the terrorist threat and the weak
ening of the U.S. dollar. In addition to a common advertising
campaign, Greece is expected to increase the foreign currency
allowance for its citizens who visit Israel.
Wiesenthal rapped for WJC slur
SWAN LAKE, N.Y. (JTA) — Barnett Zumoff, newly re-elected
president of the Workmen’s Circle, said Sunday that he “deeply
deplores the intemperate attack of Nazi-hunter Simon Wiesenthal
on a respected Jewish organization, the World Jewish Congress,
for its efforts to expose to the world the disgraceful wartime
activities of Kurt Waldheim," the former U.N. Secretary General
who is running for the presidency of Austria.
New life for Nashpitz family
JERUSALEM—Dr. Mark Nashpitz, a Soviet trained dentist
whose 14-year wait to emigrate to Israel finally ended in October
1985 has accepted Hadassah's offer of professional retraining and
has enrolled in a special 12-18 month course at the Hebrew'
University-Hadassah Dental School founded by the Alpha Omega
Fraternity.
His wife, Ludmilla, expected to start training as a dental assist
ant at the same time, has postponed the course due to her preg
nancy with their second child. The family, which included 5Vi~
year old Benjamin, are guests of Hadassah at the Murray J. Rym-
land Doctors Residence. Hadassah is providing support to the
family while they are being retrained.
Bank Leumi chariman resigns
TEL AVIV (JTA) — Ernst Japhet resigned May 1 1 as chairman
and chief executive officer of Bank Leumi, one of Israel’s largest
banks. He was promptly replaced in both capacities.
Japhet was the second top bank executive to step down since
the special commission headed by Supreme Court Justice Chaim
Beisky released a report on April 20 of its investigation into the
1983 collapse of bank shares and the ensuing panic on the Tel Aviv
Stock Exchange. The Beisky commission recommended that the
heads of the country’s five leading banks be forced to quit within 30
days.
Taba talks to resume this month
JERUSALEM (JTA) Israel and Egypt will resume their talks
on the Taba border dispute here after a hiatus of more than a
month Foreign Minister Yitzhak Shamir said he hoped the Egyp
tians would soften their position because Israel has reached the
limits of the concessions it is prepared to make.
Israel has agreed, reluctantly, to Egypt's insistence that the
dispute be put to binding arbitration, though without abandoning
attempts at conciliation. Both processes are allowed by the terms of
The 1979 Israeli-Egvptian peace treaty. But the two sides have been
unable to agree on the terms of reference to be submitted to the
arbitration panel.
Israel, Uruguay affirm amity
JERUSALEM (JTA)—the presidents of Israel and Uruguay
issued a joint statement here last Sunday affirming the warm
friendship between their countries, their support for the Middle
East peace process and support of the Contadora process to end
conflicts in Central America.
V.
etters to the editor
Reader decries poor turnout for ‘Shoah’
>
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Editor:
We went to see “Shoah” expect
ing a long line for tickets; to our
amazement we almost had the
theater to ourselves. There were a
dozen or so viewers; intuitively, I
asked a few people if they were
Jewish—no, they said, they were
not. In return I was asked if 1 was
glad that I came. How ironic, I
thought.
“Shoah,” a documentarv of tre
mendous power, a cinematic feast,
is a lasting memorial to European
Jewry. “Shoah” is not fiction. It is
an authentic document that blows
your mind and shakes you to the
core. It is unforgettable.
As I sat in the empty theater I
asked myself some questions: Where
are our community leaders to forgo
such an event? Where are our
youngsters, those who know little
and are in search of answers to the
n
Holocaust? ^
As an only survivor of a huge —
family who were murdered in 50
Auschwitz, 1 wondered what the ^
American Jewish community could £
have done at the time when the ^
slaughter of our people was going sj
on. A part of the answer I found in •“
that empty theater.
Doris Ellen »
Atlanta draws kudos for conference
Editor:
I hope you will allow me as the
executive director of the Associa
tion of Jewish Family and Child
ren’s Agencies to use your fine
newspaper to express publicly the
appreciation of the association, its
board of directors and the partici
pants at our 14th Annual Confer
ence for the wonderful hospitality
provided by your Jewish commun
ity. The Southern hospitality
extended to us was appreciated
and commented upon by all.
Most especially, I wish to express
our thanks to Susan and Dale
Schwartz, for their marvelous job
in serving as host and hostess of the
conference. There is no question
that the conference could never
have been as successful as it was
without their help.
Thank you so much for allowing
me to publicly praise you, the Jew
ish community of Atlanta, and
Susan and Dale.
Bert J. Goldberg, ACSW
Executive Director
‘Teachernaut’ ready to go
by Vida Goldgar
Addressing the charter members
of the Auxiliary of the Jewish
Home at the Ritz-Carlton, Buck-
head, on Tuesday, “teachernaut”
Barbara Morgan made one thing
very clear. She’s not only ready
and willing to climb aboard the
next Teacher in Space shuttle, but
she’s eagerly awaiting the assign
ment. If she didn’t have confidence
in NASA, she said, “I wouldn’t be
here in the first place. No one is
forcing me.
Since the tragic Challenger acci
dent in January, which took the
lives of her training companion in
the Teacher in Space program
Christa McAuliffe and six astro
nauts, Morgan said: “A lot of people
have asked if it was difficult to go
on. Sometimes the going on is dif
ficult but the decision was not. We
must go on,” shes says emphatically.
Even such a terrible tragedy can
have positive results and to make
the point she described the after-
math of the Apollo launchpad fire
some years ago that took the lives
of three astronauts. In the follow
ing investigation, she said: “They
found some things that had nothing
to do with fire. If they hadn’t been
discovered we wouldn’t have gone
to the moon.”
Though the biographical data
sheet provided by NASA says she
is 34, Barbara Morgan, the next
teacher in space, looks much
younger. She’s a trim 106 pounds,
with long brown hair and green
eyes.
She grew up in Fresno, Calif.,
where, she told me later, she went
to Sunday School and was con
firmed at Temple Beth Israel.
Her major at Stanford Univer
sity, where she graduated with dis
tinction, was human biology, and
she’s a Phi Beta Kappa. Her first
position was teaching remedial
reading and math at the Flathead
Indian Reservation in Arlee, Mont.
Since 1975, with a year off to teach
in Ecuador, she has been an ele
mentary school teacher in McCall,
Idaho.
Her other interests are playing
the flute, learning to play the vio
lin, swimming, cross-country ski
ing, hiking and sailing.
Her descriptions of her “teacher
naut” training as backup to Christa
McAuliffe (the two were narrowed
down from 114 nominees out of
I 1,000 original applicants), were
often humorous. What NASA de
scribes in the information sheet as
"a series of medical and psycholog
ical tests” to determine the flight
status of the 10 finalists, she calls
“poking and prodding until they
knew us inside and out.”
When she and Christa were finally
selected and began their training in
earnest at the Johnson Space Cen
ter, one of their challenges was to
help test a “Personal Rescue
Sphere” being developed to transfer
future astronauts from one shuttle
to another in case of emergency.
“We knew they were really testing
us for claustrophobia,” Barbara
said. Contrary to being upset by
the 10 minute confinement in a
very small ball, (she timed it by
completing in her mind the Bach
Cantata that was playing when she
entered) she said. “It was one of the
few' times we had a little peace and
quiet” and she and Christa decided
“that every classroom teacher
should have one.”
Morgan described another part
of the testing process, an experi
ment with adjusting to weightless
ness, as “the vomit comet” but even
so, she said, “you feel good” and, "1
hope all of you someday can expe
rience it.”
Going up in a T-38 high perfor
mance jet was a wild experience
with some built-in maneuvers that
prepared the teachers for space
flight. As she described the Laz.y-8
loops, breaking the sound barrier,
and barrel rolls, she pointed out
that in space flight, teamwork is
very important and you want to be
sure the crew works together. The
T-38 flight was “an opportunity to
learn to trust your commander and
for him to trust you.” That was
amply demonstrated when she was
told, “It’s your turn to take the stick
(controls).” At that, she said, “My
jaw dropped.” But she did it—even
barrel rolls over the Gulf of Mex
ico. “Here I was, not even sure I
could work the oxygen mask or
ejection seat and (I was) flying the
plane."
Willingly answering questions
from the audience, she conveyed
such information as: There is a
private bathroom on the shuttle
for any women on board; the cur
rent prediction as to the next shut
tle flight is 18 months but NASA
won’t send her on the first few
flights (and she said she’d like to
return to Atlanta to share with the
people at the Jewish Home her
experiences w hen she does go up).
Only once did her voice break.
That was when someone asked
where she was and what she felt
when the Challenger blew up.
Softly, she described it. “1 was
standing on a building with some
TV cameras pointed at me. 1 was
waving goodby to my friends and
waiting for them to come back"
Then, unable or unwilling to des
cribe it further, she says, simply, “1
felt terrible, as I’m sure all of you
did."
But she exhibits all the confi
dence in the world and anticipa
tion of her first flight, whenever
that may be. “When they are ready.
I’ll be ready.”
American
Red Cron
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