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News Briefs
Soviets training Syrian pilots
WASHINGTON (Polakoff)—Syrian pilots are in the Soviet
Union training on advanced Mig-29 fighter aircraft, says London’s
f inancial Times They went there at about the time of the U.S. air
raid April i5 against Tripoli and Benghazi.
The Soviet warplane is of the same generation as Israel’s most
advanced fighter, the American F-16, the newspaper reported.
Delivery of some 60 of the Soviet warplanes to Syria is expected in
the next several years. The newspaper attributed its information to
Arab and West European military attaches in Damascus.
Seventh neo-Nazi arrested
BONN (JTA)—Seven neo-Nazis have been charged in Stutt
gart with spreading violence, displaying illegal Nazi symbols,
circulating anti-Semitic propaganda and other political offenses.
The Stuttgart prosecution office said that the seventh and last
member of the group had been arrested while entering West Ger
many. The office statement said the others were arrested previously
when they returned to West Germany from various European
countries where they had been trying to avoid prosecution.
Most of the offenses charged against members of the group
were committed last year. The neo-Nazis had started to use SS-like
uniforms while celebrating various events connected with alleged
Nazi achievements.
Sweden plans Wallenberg stamp
LONDON (JTA)—A postage stamp with the portrait of Raoul
Wallenberg will be issued by Sweden next year as part of a series of
stamps honoring Swedish nationals who lost their lives while on
international humanitarian missions.
Wallenberg is credited with saving the lives of 100,000 Hungar
ian Jews when he headed a special section of the Swedish legation
in Budapest during World War II. He was arrested by Soviet
authorities when the Red Army entered Budapest in January 1945
and his fate remains unknown.
Soviet army inducts refusnik
NEW' YORK. (JTA) Eighteen-year-old Leningrad refusnik
Boris Lifshitz was forcibly inducted into the Soviet army June 3
although he is suffering from ulcers, the Student Struggle for
Soviet Jewry reported here.
According to the SSSJ, this was “clearly further retaliation
against his father. Dr. Vladimir Lifshitz, who was sentenced
recently to three years in the gulag for ‘anti-Soviet slander’.’’
Soviets snatch Marx texts
JERUSALEM (JTA) - Soviet officials at Moscow airport
confiscated a copy of “The Communist Manifesto” by Karl Marx
and also a copy of “Marx's Early Writings.” But the owner of the
books, Shlomo Avineri of the Hebrew University, believes that the
works of Communism’s founding father were barred from the
Communist “motherland” because the officials simply did not
recognize them. Both books are Hebrew translations.
Avneri was in Moscow to attend an academic convention at the
invitation of the Soviet Academy of Sciences. The airport watch
dogs allowed him to keep another Hebrew volume—a siddur.
Hussein meets with Mitterrand
PARIS (JTA)—King Hussein of Jordan met with President
Francois Mitterrand June 3, the second day of a two-day visit to
France prior to traveling to Washington, where he will meet Presi
dent Reagan on June 9.
The Jordanian monarch is the first major Arab head of state to
come to France since the March elections brought the center-right
government to office.
French writer wins prize
PARIS (JTA)—-The Foundation for French Judaism has
awarded its annual prize to Alain Fienkelki aut, a writer and lec
turer who is the author of eight books, most of which deal with
Jewish matters. Fienkelkraut, 37, is also a visiting professor at the
University of California, Berkeley. The Foundation, chaired by
David de Rothschild, awards its prize each year for outstanding
achievements in the fields of literature, arts and science.
Military deployment assessed
TEL AVIV (JTA)—There has been no change in the military
deplovinent of Jordan and Syria, according to the head of the
Israel Detense Force's northern command. Maj. Gen. Ori Orr He
said that recent talks between the Svrians and Jordanian leaders
had not led to or resulted in any change in the military deployment
of their armies But. he added, military cooperation between the
two countries could pose a military threat to Israel
Another view on ‘bias’ at Vanderbilt
Editor:
I have read with amazement my
friend Joseph Cohen’s narrative of
his adventures in applying for
admission to graduate study in
English at Vanderbilt in 1949(your
issue of May 16). I preceded him by
a few years as a graduate student
and teacher of English there, 1941-
1944, in the department chaired by
the same Walter Clyde Curry who
almost didn’t admit Joe because he
was Jewish and “English literature
was overwhelmingly grounded in
Christianity.”
When, not yet dry behind the
ears, I came up to Vanderbilt from
Mercer in 1941 I suppose I filled
out some sort of application form
but I did not have a personal inter
view with Dr. Curry or anyone
else, nor did anyone refer to my
being Jewish, then or later. If Jews
were not supposed to make a career
of teaching English in universities,
I never heard of it.
My years at Vanderbilt were
notably free, not merely of anti-
Semitic slurs, but of any allusions
to my Jewishness on the part of
faculty or fellow graduate students.
I am probably as sensitive to these
things as Joe Cohen, but I never
once had the sensation, in Curry’s
Chaucer class or in my dealings
with him as an administrator, that
he was thinking of me as anyone
specially marked. In 1943, when
the (Nashville) Tennessean called
upon Donald Davidson, under
w horn I had come to Vanderbilt to
study, to recommend a book review
editor, he told them, “Why, Harry
Goldgar, of course!” Neither he
nor the people on the paper gave
any sign of caring whether I was a
Jew or a Hottentot.
It was not Joe Cohen but W.C.
Curry who was the naive one when
he told Joe that if he worked on a
Ph. D. at Vanderbilt he couldn't get
him a job at any university in the
country, or there probably weren’t
10 Ph.D.s of Jewish origin teach
ing college English. Recognizing
that name identification is ex
tremely unreliable, I have listed
Jewish-sounding names in univer
sity English departments from the
1949 Modern Language Associa
tion directory—names like Kap-
stein, Goldberg, Feingold,
Rubenstein—and Cohen.
My list is conservative: It does
not include a great many German
names that might be Jewish, nor
such “ambiguous” names as Wise,
Miller, or Wolf. It does include
some outstanding scholars like
Harry Levin of Harvard, Lionel
Trilling of Columbia, Morton
Dauwen Zabel of the University of
Chicago, and Victor Harris of the
University of Iowa, later chairman
of the department at Brandeis. I
have added a few younger people
who did not then belong to the
MI.A, like Haskell Block at Wis
consin and myself, then teaching at
Iowa.
My list totals 132 names. Let’s
say 1 may be wrong on half of
them. That still makes 66 Jewish
professors in English departments
in 1949.
As an undergraduate at Mercer,
the college of the Georgia Baptist
Convention, I was the campus Jew,
the subject of many attempts by
fundamentalist ministerial students
to “save” me. My experience at
Mercer must have been quite like
Joseph Cohen’s at rural camp
meetin’s: We both learned a lot
about Christianity, at least about
Pi otestant evangelical Christianity,
in those days. But that is not really
the point. Any 22-year-old college
graduate majoring in the human,-
ties, who has grown up in a Chris
tian culture, who has looked at the
pictures and listened to the music
and read the books of Western civ
ilization, especially one who is
enough of a reader to want to
become a professor of literature,
must know what doctrines like
original sin, immaculate concep
tion, the trinity, and all the rest are
about. Like it or not, whatever our
religious allegiance, these things
are inescapable. Wouldn’t Joseph
Cohen, the English major, have
read “Paradise Lost,” and wouldn’t
Walter Clyde Curry have known
that he had read it? Or am / some
how the naive one?
Harry Goldgar
New Orleans, La.
Camp Hiawatha
‘alumnae’sought
for 1987 reunion
Editor:
I am interested in locating any
woman who attended or knowsthe
whereabouts of someone who at
tended Camp Hiawatha, a Jewish
girls’ camp in Kezar Falls, Maine,
between the years of 1939 and
1950.
If you are interested in helping
plan or attending a reunion at
camp or in a convenient city during
the summer of 1987, I would love
to hear from you.
Jane Shacknow Sternberg
2105 Glenhurst Road
Minneapolis, MN 55416
(612) 926-4597
Couple wants local PNAI chapter
Editor:
My husband and 1 have just
returned from a national conven
tion of PNAI in Toronto, Canada
You may say, “We’ve heard of
Toronto, but what is PNAI?”
It stands for Parents of North
American Israelis.
Its purpose is “Building the
bridge that joins us to our children
in Israel.” These, our children and
grandchildren, are modern day
pioneers. They have quietly and
determinedly made Aliyah, and
now face the daily struggles to
insure that Israel will always be our
Jewish homeland. PNAI works just
as determinedly to assist these ohm
toward successfully integrating into
this sometimes difficult society.
We. their parents, share an ex
perience that goes beyond the bond
which unites those who so gener
ously give financial and moral
support to the state of Israel; we
are bound together by a common
hope and concern for our child
ren’s and their children’s future.
In Toronto we learned that we
are not alone. We were among 160
parents from every spectrum of
religious commitment and finan
cial situation.
Paul and 1 went as members-at-
large, as there is not a chapter here
in Atlanta. At the convention we
met officers and members repres
enting chapters in 40 cities from
coast to coast in the United States
and Canada. What we learned about
PNAI made us wonder why, with
so many of our children in Israel,
Atlanta does not have a viable,
vital and visible chapter. Here,
with our combined strength we can
be part of a net w ork which is woi k-
ing for our children in so many
ways.
Among other activities:
PNAI maintains emergency loan
funds in Israel, administered by the
Association of Americans and
Canadians in Israel (AACI) which
are available within 24-48 hours,
and are interest free.
It is working to establish a mort
gage fund to provide supplemen
tary low-interest mortgages for
housing to new immigrants.
While not a political action
group, it encourages members to
support activities dedicated to
Israel’s safety and survival and fos
ters the purchase of Israeli pro
ducts and travel to Israel.
PNAI publishes The Bridge four
times a year to inform parents of
programs and projects relevant to
our goals.
Through local chapters, PNAI
helps parents make the difficult
adjustment to prolonged separa
tions through contacts with other
parents.
Now PNAI is trying to encour
age the state of Israel to drop the
Head Tax for oiim who are travel
ing home.
Paul and I feel that establishing
a chapter of PNAI in Atlanta can
make a difference in our children’s
lives, so we would like Atlanta par
ents of children in Israel to contact
us. As Joan Rivers quips, “Can
we talk? Can't we meet?
Paul and Eleanor Freerner
(404)321-6542
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sary changes to preserve meaning
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PAGE 5 THE SOUTHERN ISRAELITE June 13, 1986