Newspaper Page Text
‘Seal of Israel’
In May, Israel’s Knesset honored Michael Schwartz, an artist
and new immigrant from the United States, by installing his “Seal
of Israel” in its main entrance hall, alongside Marc Chagall’s world
famous tapestries.
The seal, a replica of the state emblem, is gold- and silver-plated
and weighs 400 pounds.
The Southern
Israelite
The Weekly Newspaper For Southern Jewry
'Since 1925'
Bush makes the rounds
on goodwill tour of Israel
by Joseph Polakoff
TSI’s Washington correspondent
©
| WASHINGTON—Vice Presi-
& dent George Bush scored personal
f gain and boosted U.S.-Israeli bilat-
i eral relations, during his sojourn in
£ Israel, although unable to advance
£ the peace initiative engineered by
Morocco’s King Hassan with Prime
Minister Shimon Peres or witness
a tentative solution of the Taba dis
pute between Egypt and Israel.
One close follower of Israeli-
American relations noticed that
Bush’s visit “went well” despite the
fact that he wanted the U.S. to
impose sanctions on Israel at the
time of Israel’s destruction of the
George Bush
atomic bomb factory in Baghdad
and the 1982 Sabra-Shatila epi
sode in Lebanon. “He handled
himself well and walked a tight
rope between the two parties (Labor
and Likud groupings) that is diffi
cult at any time,” the observer
noted. Another said that “it was
most unfortunate that his (Bush’s)
people leaked to the media that he
would go to Morocco. This put the
onus on him, when in fact King
Hassan couldn’t possibly see him
at this time.” Another observation
referred to media jibes that he
wanted to go to Morocco merely to
enhance his political image. “Peres
bailed him out,” that observer said.
Peres had said Bush’s visit was
See Bush, page 19.
Dark mmnoirn^ of Vienna.
Nun, rabbi encounter barrage of insults
Sister Rose Thering, Rabbi Avraham Weiss (left) and the Rev. David Bossman hold candles at a short
prayer service in front of the Austrian mission to the U.N.
by Susan Birnbaum
NEW YORK (JTA)—For Rabbi
Avraham (Avi) Weiss and Sister
Rose Thering, their trip to Vienna
to protest the inauguration of Kurt
Waldheim as Austrian president
was a nasty confrontation with
undisguised anti-Semitism and, for
them, an underscoring of what
they perceived were their reasons
for the trip.
Among the memories they
brought back with them are vile
epithets, reported widely by the
on-scene press, hurled at them dur
ing their outdoor demonstration
and hunger strike, and, for Sister
Rose, a Dominican nun, a humil
iating strip-search at the Vienna
airport prior to her embarkation
for the return flight to the United
States.
The Orthodox Jewish rabbi and
Roman Catholic nun have been
friends and political activists to
gether for many years, Sister Rose
having learned of Weiss’s activities
on behalf of Soviet Jewry.
She works with the Interre
ligious Task Force for Soviet Jewry,
and is a board member of the
National Coalition of American
Nuns. Since 1968, she has also
been on the advisory committee of
U.S. Bishops for Catholic-Jewish
Relations. At Seton Hall Univer
sity in South Orange, N.J., she
teaches Jewish-Christian studies, a
field she has worked in since 1953.
Sister Rose has visited Israel 28
times. She remembers particularly
the time, 11 years ago, that she
took her mother, then age 84, with
her to Yad Vashem. “Rose,” she
recalls her mother telling her, “you
almost have to be ashamed that
you’re of German background.”
The statement shocked her into
an even stronger awareness of the
Holocaust than she had had pre
viously, motivating her all the more
to work tirelessly in the field of
Christian-Jewish understanding.
She remembers watching programs
on the Holocaust with her mother,
discussing its history, its causes
and the need for activism.
Waldheim's election was a call
to action by both Weiss and Sister
Rose. Joined by Nazi-hunter Beate
Klarsfeld, Glenn Richter of the
Student Struggle for Soviet Jewry,
Father David Bossman, provost of
Seton Hall and a professor in the
department of Jewish-Christian
studies, and two young men, an
Israeli and an Austrian non-Jew,
they spent what they described as
an “open Shabbat” in the Jewish
quarter of Vienna, the first ever.
according to Weiss, praying, sing
ing, eating out-of-doors to demon
strate a lack of fear and a pride in
their Judaism.
During that time, Weiss told the
Jewish Telegraphic Agency, they
engaged about 1,000 young peo
ple—passers-by—in a dialogue. Dif
ferent views were aired, he main
tains, in a friendly, constructive
manner.
After Shabbat, the group moved
to the area in front of the Presiden
tial Office on Bollhaus Platz, “near
where Hitler spoke when Germany
annexed Austria,” Weiss explained.
Dressed in striped prison uni
forms, the Austrian-non-Jews
wearing a yellow star marked
“Jude,” and Sister Rose wearing a
dark suit and the large crucifix in
terwoven with a Star of David
which she always wears, the group
began a hunger strike, proclaiming
this with signs reading “Hunger
Strike of Conscience.” That’s when
“things became ugly,” Weiss re
called.
He remembers “terrible anti-
Semitic slogans that I’ll never forget.
‘We should have gassed you,’ ‘We’re
going to hang you from lamp-
posts,”’ he recalled, looking pained.
He remarked on an older man
who, he said, stopped and, with
pride, showed a picture of himself
in his wallet, wearing a Wehrmacht
uniform.
Following the inauguration
ceremonies, the group remembers
Waldheim passing them and look
ing. They recall it as a “particularly
ugly” part of their demonstration,
people hissing and chanting anti-
Semitic slogans. Weiss insists the
group was refused police protection.
Waldheim’s election, said Weiss,
“was a vindication for Austria. 1
realized that many older Austrians
voted for Waldheim because they
could not vote against themselves.”
“You, the Jew, you’re creating
anti-Semitism. You don’t want to
forget,” he quoted.
Weiss drew a parallel between
See Vienna, page 19.