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News Briefs ADL to open Holocaust library NEW YORK. (JTA)— A Library of Holocaust Law—the first of its kind is being established by the Anti-Defamation League of B nai B rith to house legal and other documents relating to the pursuit of justice against Nazi war criminals. It will include documents having to do with the European war crimes trials, American deportation actions, war crimes investi gations, Canadian Holocaust denial trials and SS archival papers previously available only in Austria and Germany. Bishop Tutu seeks Jewish help TORONTO (JTA)—South African Bishop Desmond Tutu recently thanked Jews for fighting oppression—part of their com mon heritage with blacks—and called on Jewish support in the battle against apartheid. Speaking to a capacity audience at Holy Blossom Temple, a major Reform synagogue here, the 54-year-old Nobel Peace Prize winner and leading voice in the fight against South Africa’s racist system reminded Jews they too suffered and continue to suffer from oppression. Lutheran, Jewish meeting set NEW YORK (J7 A)—Lutheran and Jewish leaders have agreed to hold a number of meetings to deal with such current problems as terrorism, nuclear disarmament, an emerging new anti-Semitism in Germany, Soviet Jewry, Jews in Arab countries and world poverty and hunger, Rabbi Walter Wurzberger an nounced here. W urzberger, chairman of the inter-religious affairs committee of the Synagogue Council of America, said the agreement on cooperation between the Jewish organization and the Lutheran World Federation was reached at the offices of the SCA, the coordinating agency for rabbinic and congregational organizations of Orthodox, Conservative and Reform Judaism. Police exercise is flawed TEL AVIV (JTA)—A secret police report on a widespread police exercise carried out about four months ago has disclosed serious flaws and shortcomings, according to Israel Radio. T he radio said that because of the sensitivity of the subject, no details of the report are being disclosed, but senior officials are said to be studying it to learn what immediate steps should be taken to improve the situation. The exercise covered a number of simultaneous incidents, including the firing of katyusha rockets, explosive charges, attemp ted infiltration by terrorists, and the hijacking of vehicles and the taking of hostages for bargaining purposes. IDF corrals terrorist gang JERUSALEM (JTA)—An Israel Defense Force spokesman announced the capture of a terrorist gang believed responsible for 29 attacks in northern and central Israel during the past year. The suspects belong to the mainstream Fatah wing of the Palestine Liberation Organization, the IDF said. They are believed responsible for placing 10 booby-trapped devices in Haifa and 10 others in Alula. An explosion charge that detonated near a gasoline station in that Jezreel Valley town last Thursday was the 10th bombing there in 12 months. Other explo sives were planted by the gang in a half dozen other population centers around Israel. There were no casualties or damage in Afula. SLA holds 200alleged terrorists TEL AVIV (JTA) Gen. Antoine Lehad, who commands the Israel-backed South Lebanon Army (SLA), confirmed that he is holding 200 suspected terrorists prisoner in the south Lebanon security zone and defended his refusal to permit representatives of the International Red Cross to visit them. Lehad said that 75 percent of the prisoners belong to the extremist Shiite Moslem Hezbollah group, said to be influenced by Iran. They are being held at the El-Hiam prison, which the Israel Defense Force used for detainees before its withdrawal from Lebanon a year ago. Increase in yordim to U.S. JERUSALEM (JTA)—The number of yordim—Israelis leav ing the Jew'ish state—arriving in the United States is constantly increasing, according to Haim Schein, head of the aliyah emissaries. According to figures provided by U.S. immigration authorities to a team of researchers, in the past 20 years, 402 Israeli govern ment officials were naturalized as U.S. citizens. An urgent appeal for blood donors Editor: We as a community are falling down (in our support of the blood drives). This city has grown the past 10 years and instead of the need for blood being less, it has become greater, and the donors have be come less. When the blood is needed, we somehow come up with it, even by borrowing from other groups to meet the great needs of our community. At our joint blood drives with the Jewish War Veterans Post 112, the Fulton Masonic Lodge 216, the Ahavath Achim Synagogue and other Jewish and non-Jewish or ganizations, there was a point when we would obtain approximately 200 pints and now' we are lucky to obtain 60 pints at four drives per year. This will hardly cover the Jewish people in our community. The real givers are getting older and there are few new younger donors around. Where are they and why don’t they realize that they are the ones that should come forward and take up the much needed slack? I appeal to our community to help out in this great need. You can’t go out to the store and buy the stuff, you can’t make it in a factory, it must come from the heart...Without it we can’t live. Our next drive at the A.A. Synagogue is Aug. 3 from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. on a Sunday. It is for the whole community and not just a few. Please support this Community Wide Blood Drive, and feel good that you did something that money would not buy. A note of interest: This is the oldest continuing blood drive in the country. We have not missed a drive in approximately 40 years. This is a record that we should not let falter, because if we do, there will be many lives affected. Jerry H. Fields ‘There must be a middle ground’ Editor: If everyone were of the same opinion life would be unbearably dull. On the other hand, attitudes can be so different, so divergent, that dullness and lassitude are removed and instead, equations that are most disturbing are in troduced. There must be a middle ground. Not everyone is in agreement with the Supreme Court decision that abortion is constitutionally permissible. There are the “right to lifers” who are horror-stricken, while others feel that where there is valid reason the right to abort should not be abrogated. Southern Baptists convening in Atlanta, voted into office a presi dent of far right fundamental per suasion. Approximately half the delegates went away grinning like Cheshire cats while the remainder were left shaking their heads. About by Don McEvoy National Conference of Christians anil Jews “Can A Woman Be A Rabbi?” was the topic of Regina Jonas’ the sis when she completed her studies at Berlin’s Reform Seminary shortly before World War II. “Absolutely not!” was the response of Chanoth Albeik, the only member of the faculty authorized to sign rabbini cal diplomas. Undaunted, Frau Jonas persuad ed a liberal rabbi in Offenbach to give her a private ordination. She then served as a rabbi in a home for the aged until 1942 when she was arrested by the Nazis and sent to a concentration camp. In 1944 she was put to death in the ovens of Auschwitz. When making hospital calls she introduced herself briskly. “My name is Frau Regina Jonas. 1 am not the wife of a rabbi, but a rabbi. What can I do for you?” At least one bedridden patient at the Jew ish hospital in Berlin replied, “You can darn my socks!” Courageous, perservering, single- minded are the words used by many to describe this remarkable woman. “Pugnacious” \yas the term wondering what the world was coming to. Southern Baptists are not alone. We Jews are in the midst of differing viewpoints that may unfortunately lead to dissension and divisiveness. Reform Judaism has concluded that patrilineal descent sufficiently qualifies a child to be considered Jewish. Conservative Judaism takes the egalitarian stance that women may aspire to the rabbinate, may read from the Torah, may, if they wish, wear tallit and tefillin. Or thodoxy will have none of it. The words of Rabbi Irving Greenberg reverberate in our minds: “Will there be one Jewish people in the year 2000?” Israel is being torn apart by the ultra-Orthodox who, among other acts of violence, burn bus stops which display advertisements de picting women, stone automobiles that violate Shabbat. In an ad in women used by the rabbi of a Berlin syn agogue where she attended servi ces. Three decades later he recon sidered and wrote, “The personal encounters I had with her were not always very pleasant (but) for rea sons I understand and appreciate now far better than most of us did at the time, her pugnaciousness was the mark of one trying to break through long established barriers, in her eagerness and desire to be fully recognized and accepted in the role she had chosen.” Valiant is another word. Indeed, a valiant woman who deserves not to be forgotten. I went back to Roslyn Lacks’ book, “Women and Judaism,” to refresh my memory about Regina Jonas when the morning paper reported that Leslie Alexander has been selected, over six male appli cants, for the position of pulpit rabbi at Adat Ar El, a large Con servative synagogue in North Hol lywood, Calif. This marks the first time that a prominent Conservative congrega tion has employed a woman for such a significant leadership role. Sally Priesand was the first woman rabbi in America, ordained the New York Times, a group of rabbis refer to Jerusalem’s mayor, Teddy Kollek as “Teddy the Ter rorist” simply because he insists that the city maintain its pluralist characteristic. Martin Peretz, a devoted Zionist and editor of the New Republic magazine, feels that the greatest threat to Israel stems not from the Arabs but from the ultra-Orthodox Jews “who are at tempting to turn Israel into an Iran-like theocracy.” Of the Kho- meinist rabbis he states, “These rabbis might just as well be agents of Yasir Arafat.” Barry Gold water to the contrary, extremism in pursuit of liberty is no virtue. We shall and must learn to respect one another’s viewpoints or we too are in danger of tearing ourselves apart. Max E. Rohkin rabbis by the Reform branch of Judaism in 1972. Quite a number of others soon followed. Only much more recently has the Conservative wing given approval. Finding employment in other than secondary or supporting posi tions, however, has been the diffi culty for both women rabbis and their counterparts in the Christian ministry. Perhaps this represents a another major breakthrough. It is a good time to remember others, who blazed the trail in the wilderness, like Regina Jonas. After a fire ora flood... after any disaster... it takes money to help people rebuild their lives. A lot of money. Give to the Red Cross. We’ll help. Will you? + American Red Cross PAGE 5 THE SOUTHERN ISRAELITE June 20, 1986