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kWJunaw*/ 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 Only letters with names and ad dresses will be considered for this page. Letters cannot be acknowl edged or returned We reserve the right to edit, delete or make neces sary changes to preserve meaning and save space. 1 etters submitted to other publications or copies of letters sent elsewhere will not be accepted for publication. PAGE 5 THE SOUTHERN ISRAELITE June 13, 1986