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‘You put your right foot out...’ British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher practices a Yemen ite dance step under the guidance of famous Israeli singer Ofra Haza (left) and encouraged by Prime Minister Shimon Peres at a Knesset dinner in Jerusalem. The May 25 dinner was given by Peres in honor of Thatcher, the first British prime minister to visit Israel while in office. E. Berlin synagogue to reopen PARIS (JTA) — East Berlin’s 100-year-old “New Synagogue” is being repaired and will be re opened for the 50th anniversary of the Kristallnacht in 1988, accord ing to the East German news agency, monitored here. The “New Syn agogue,” which was spared during the Kristallnacht pogrom when the Nazis destroyed 281 synagogues throughout the country, was ruined during an allied air raid in 1943. The building and its decorations will be reconstructed as they were originally. The Southern Israelite The Weekly Newspaper For Southern Jewry 'Since 1925' Vol. LXII Atlanta, Georgia, Friday, June 6, 1986 No. 23 Zamir’s resignation fails to clarify Shin Bet affair by Yaacov Ben Yosef Special to The Southern Israelite JERUSALEM—In abrupt fashion. Attorney General Yitzhak Zamir has been forced to leave office and his successor quickly named in an apparent effort by the government to quash a probe of Israel’s head of the Shin Bet. Zamir had been the main figure pressing for the probe. (The Shin Bet is the Israeli equivalent of the American FBI.) Zamir had been seeking a police investigation into the role of Shin Bet head Avraham Shalom after the Gaza bus hijacking of April 1984. Terrorists hijacked a bus near Ashkelon and took it to the Gaza Strip where Israeli soldiers stormed the bus; two terrorists were killed as well as one Israeli woman soldier; two other terror ists were taken away alive but were reported to have later died from injuries. The “Shin Bet” affair, as it is now called, centers on how those two terrorists died; and who was involved in their deaths. According to Israeli press reports, Yaacov Ben Yosef Shalom won approval from then Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir to keep the Shin Bet’s role in the kil ling of the two terrorists after the hijacking from being probed. Armed with evidence that Sha lom directed Shin Bet personnel to perjure themselves, to forge and conceal documents, Zamir asked the police to investigate and then found himself under government pressure to drop the case. All throughout last week, the Israeli press was filled with hints that Shamir was part of the cover- up; and that Peres may well have been as well. That wouid certainly explain why the two men formed a rare alliance in trying to keep the Zamir-sponsored probe from oc curring. The Cabinet appointment Sun day of Tel Aviv District Court Judge Yosef Harish, 62, appeared aimed at keeping Zamir from pushing the probe . And on Monday there were reports in the Israeli press that Harish might be sympathetic with asking for a delay of the police probe, due to begin this week. Harish appeared to favor a be hind-the-scenes probe, perhaps run by Supreme Court Justice Meir Shamgar on his own—accompanied by a total news blackout. By Monday there were indica tions that Peres realized that some form of official probe was inevita ble. Shamir was still reported as opposed to a probe. The prime minister appeared before the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee Monday to deny that he was involved in the * See Shin Bet, page 23. Averting anti-Semitism Specialist to work with Midwest farmers during crisis KANSAS CITY, Mo. (JTA) — In a further effort to ease the plight of Midwest farmers and to counter the activities of extremist groups in the region, the Jewish Community Relations Bureau of Kansas City, together with a grant from Women’s American ORT,recently hired a specialist to work full-time on addressing the farm crisis and rural anti-Semitism. In hiringCarol Smith, a 36-year- old native of Highland, Kansas, the JCRB of Kansas City becomes the only Jewish agency in the coun try with an employe working full time on the farm issue, according to David Goldstein, JCRB execu tive director. Focusing initially on Kansas and western Missouri. OR! and JC RB hope to work with local farm or ganizations, Christian clergy, rural media, educators and elected pub lic officials to determine how the jewish community can best help alleviate the effects of the farm cri sis, according to a report in the Kansas Citv Jewish Chronicle. with the Jewish Telegraphic A- gency, said she does not anticipate any short-term solutions to the plight of America’s farming com munity. In fact, she noted that her family recently lost their family farm, held since 1910. But she stressed that it is impera tive that the Jewish community remain alerted to the needs of the farmers, and said that Jewish community activism can serve as one method to offset efforts by extremist organizations active in the Midwest who seek to recruit desperate farmers. According to JCRB statistics, an estimated 2,000 to 5.000 "hard core” anti-Semites thrive in the Plains States and Midwest and another seven to 10 sympathizers for thoM' "In. . -< e” ac • vists. An estimated 14,000 to 50,000 people are claimed to subscribe to some degree to the theory that an organized Jewish conspiracy is responsible for the problems of the farmers and other rural people. Goldstein told the Chronicle, “The agricultural crisis has pro duced a pervasive despair which in turn has meant a rapidly increasing rate of suicide, alcoholism, mental illness, child abuse, and spouse abuse. These are the classic conditions that spawn anti- Semitism.” According to Goldstein, projects being considered range from direct financial aid for emergency food assistance to developing expanded mental health services to deal with family problems, to a crisis hotline. dance. The JCRB also will try to work with other Jewish agencies to make their services available to farmers. In turn, the Jewish community will be able to voice its concerns and share information about anti- Semitic extremist groups with re sponsible community leaders and with the farmers themselves. Gold- stem said. Goldstein said ORT was a natu ral partner for the JCRB in its farm crisis program. A member of the National Jewish Community Rela tions Advisory Council for many years, ORT has its own commun ity relations program and one of its priorities is anti-Semitism, he said. “Women’s American ORT, as a result of its involvement with this project nationally, wants to become involved locally in hands-on pro jects with farmers.” said Goldstein. Among the projects being consi dered are a woman-to-woman program between ORT members and farm women and ORT involve ment in petition drives. nationally, Goldstein explained that the organization’s support in gath ering petitions dealing with the farm issue could have a major impact on the nation’s elected officials. “Farmers need to have urban support for legislation to help with agricultural problems,” Goldstein said. “Jews can play a big part in spearheading that campaign. All of those kinds of programs—the petition project and the woman-to- woman program—have to do with tlje problem that farmers feel nobody cares about them, especially the Jewish community.” Smith, meanwhile, who grew up on a dairy farm in Kansas, has for the past several years been active in the farm protest movement. A musician who has performed farm protest folk songs at many farm rallies throughout the Midwest, she already is acquainted w ith many farm movement leaders and clerg ymen attempting to help ease the plight of farmers, Goldstein told the Chronicle . z i I. c ’ .e\\