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News Briefs
Radiation detector is hot item
JERUSALEM (JTA)—An Israeli-made pocket-sized radia
tion detector is selling well in Europe as a result of fears following
the Chernobyl nuclear disaster. There have been so many orders
for the $140 detector that the Amcor Company has had to add
extra shifts to meet demand which has increased 10-fold since
Chernobyl.
The “gamma alert device,” the smallest and cheapest personal
radiation detector on the market, beeps and flashes when radiation
reaches five tifnes the usual level.
L.A. board urges S.A. divestment
LOS ANGELES (JTA)—The Jewish Federation Council
Board of Directors has instructed the Jewish Community Founda
tion, its $60 million endowment arm, to divest itself of all invest
ment holdings in companies doing business in South Africa.
This action, taken at the Board’s July meeting, makes it one less
than a handful of American Jewish Federations to join the growing
economic boycott of the apartheid-wracked nation. The Founda
tion is the largest clearinghouse of Jewish philanthropic endow
ment opportunities in Southern California and the third largest
Jewish community foundation in the nation.
AJWS helps sugarcane workers
NEW YORK (JTA)—The American Jewish World Service
(AJWS), a Boston-based international development organization,
has provided a grant of $5,000 to a group representing sugar cane
workers in the Philippines.
The grant was given to the National Federation of Sugar
Workers, a non-governmental group formed several years ago in
an effort to raise the standard of living of sugar cane workers.
Israeli Moslems go to Mecca
JERUSALEM (JTA)—Some 2,750 Israeli Arabs, a third more
than last year, left Israel Sunday, July 27, on the first stage of the
Haj, the traditional Moslem pilgrimage to Mecca.
This is the eighth year that Saudi Arabia has permitted Israeli
Moslems to make the journey. According to a tacit agreement
between Israel, Jordan and East Jerusalem Moslem leaders, the
pilgrims will use Jordanian documents and travel on Jordanian
buses.
The pilgrims, who will be joined by other Arabs from the
territories, will travel to Saudi Arabia via Jordan. They will stay in
Mecca and Medina, the two holiest cities of Islam, for a month.
Canadians can pray in school
TORONTO (JTA)—The Supreme Court of Ontario, in a 2-1
vote, has upheld the constitutionality of school prayer. The court
held that the daily recitation in many Ontario schools of the Lord’s
Prayer does not violate the religious freedom of non-Christians or
non-believers and is not contrary to Canada’s Charter of Rights
and Freedoms.
The case stems from a suit launched by five parents in Sudbury,
Ontario, who argued that the daily recitation of the Lord’s Prayer
in schools promotes Christianity over other religions and discrimi
nates against non-Christians and non-believers. Two of the parents
are secular Jews, one is a practicing Jew, one a Moslem and one a
non-practicing Christian.
Arab murder suspects arrested
JERUSALEM (JTA)—Ten Arabs have been arrested on sus
picion of kidnapping and murdering Akiva Shaltiel, a 21-year-old
Israeli soldier, in April 1985.
The 10 men, from the village of Kafr Kassem in the Galilee and
two villages near Nablus, are also suspected of shooting at a bus on
the trans-Samaria highway last November and of throwing a gre
nade at another bus in Nablus in August of last year.
Shaltiel was kidnapped as he was hitch-hiking home to the
largely Yemenite town of Rosh Ha’Ayin from his post in Lebanon
His body was found some days later near Bet Arieh in Samaria by
an Arab shepherd.
The 10 detainees are said to belong to the Palestine Liberation
Organization.
etters to the editor
Clearing up some misconceptions
Editor:
Rabbi Bernard S. Raskas’
“Emma Lazarus—a Jewish Poet,”
(TSI, July 4) will surely help your
readers understand the significant
connection between her poem, “The
New Colossus,” and the Statue of
Liberty. Permit me, however, to
correct a few errors that slipped
into Rabbi Raskas’ account of that
sonnet.
First, William M. Evarts’ request
to her that she write a poem about
the statue made no mention of its
being placed on the base of the
statue, as Rabbi Raskas puts it.
She was asked to write a poem that
would be auctioned, with other
poems by other writers, to raise
funds for building the pedestal of
that statue.
She wrote the poem, according
to her own dating on the manus
cript, on Nov. 2, 1883 (not “the last
week of November,” according to
Rabbi Raskas). Nor did she “live
to read that President Cleveland
unveiled the Statue of Liberty con
taining her words,” as Rabbi Ras
kas writes, because the statue in
1886 did not contain her words,
nor was her sonnet read at the 1886
unveiling, nor was it printed in the
press account of that ceremony. In
fact, the poem was not engraved on
a bronze tablet placed in the base
of the statue until 1903.
Also questionable is Rabbi Ras
kas’ statement that Emma Lazarus
“was evasive and seemed to balk at
becoming a ‘Jewish writer,’” when
Rabbi Gustav Gottheil of Temple
Emanu-El invited her to contrib
ute to the new prayerbook he was
compiling. As Rabbi Gottheil him
self reported in his eulogy after her
death on Nov. 19, 1887, her reply
to his request was, “I will gladly
assist you so far as I am able; but
that will not be much. I shall
always be loyal to my race, but I
feel no religious fervor in my soul.”
In fact, when Rabbi Gottheil’s
“Hymns and Anthems Adapted
for Jewish Worship” was published
in 1887, it contained her versifica
tion of “Ecclesiastes, XII” and two
translations from Moses Ben Ezra.
Rabbi Gottheil also noted that his
request to Emma Lazarus had been
made “some years before 1882."
Therefore Rabbi Raskas’ view
that she was “turned...into a ‘Jew
ish writer’” by the Russian pogroms
“in the beginning of the 1880s” is
also faulty. In my book, “Selec
tions from the Prose and Poetry of
Emma Lazarus,” published in 1943
and now in its fifth edition, 1 detail
her development as a Jewish wri
ter. Suffice it here to note that in
1876 she published a poem,
“Vashti.” “A few years before 1882,”
as she explained in a letter, she
wrote the play, “The Dance to
Death,” “founded on an incident
of medieval persecution of the Jews
in Germany.” And in 1879 she was
publishing her translations (from
German translations) of poems by
Judah Halevy and Ibn Gabirol.
Her “Songs of a Semite,” pub
lished in 1882, is not “a poem,” as
Rabbi Raskas wrote, but a volume
containing her play and other
poems.
What the pogroms of the early
1880s and her visits to the refugees
on Ward’s did do was not to “turn
her into a Jewish writer” but to
turn her literary interest in the past
of the Jews into a champion of
Jewish rights in her own day, into
an activism she expressed in her
prose and poetry, and in her ad
vancing such programs as soon
developed into the Hebrew Tech
nical Institute to train Jews to be
productive workers.
Morris U. Schappes
Editor, Jewish Currents
New York
Teacher learns all about Israel
Editor:
I have just returned from my
very first trip to Israel. I was an
Atlanta delegate to the WZO Early
Childhood Seminar in Tel Aviv
and Jerusalem. I owe my Israeli
experience to the help and support
of the Atlanta Bureau of Jewish
Education and the Atlanta Jewish
Community Center, where 1 am
currently supervisor of the Satel
lite School.
The two and a half week seminar
was fantastic. I participated with
17 other early childhood educators
from the U.S. and Canada with
whom I developed a strong bond.
We attended seminars at the Levin-
sky Institute in Tel Aviv and He
brew University in Jerusalem on
topics such as Hebrew programs,
Jewish holidays, science for pre
schoolers. We also had the oppor
tunity to visit kindergarten classes.
There were tours at the Museum of
the Diaspora and the Israel Museum
and tours all around Jerusalem.
There were visits to Yad Vashem
and the Knesset. A representative
from JNF took us on a tour which
culminated in our own tree plant
ing at the U.S. Forest. We attended
an all-day workshop at David Yel-
lin Teacher’s College where we
participated in activities which
focused on teaching Jerusalem to
preschoolers. The conference ended
with an exciting trip to Masada,
the Dead Sea and Ein Gadi.
The WZO ECD Seminar in Israel
was an enriching experience for
anyone involved in our Jewish pre
schools. It gave a wonderful first
taste of Israel for those making
their first trip. It provided multiple
learning opportunities for everyone,
even those who have made numer
ous visits to Israel.
I can’t wait to go back, and I
hope many of you other Atlanta
Jewish preschool teachers will take
advantage of this fabulous program.
Raye Lynn Banks
Something new under the sun
Editor:
There is something new under
the sun. A candidate running for
office who will not accept political
contributions. Perhaps there have
been individuals who refused finan
cial help in their campaigns. I have
heard of none such.
Joseph Greenberger, a resident
of Dunwoody, has announced his
candidacy for the position of Labor
Commissioner. Naturally, he is
anxious to obtain all the support
he can get but he will not accept
funds. He feels that contributors of
small amounts may be burdened to
do so and substantial contributors
are likely to expect “a return on
their investment.” He insists that
he cannot and will not be indebted
to anyone. His indebtedness will be
only to the public which he will
serve to the best of his ability.
His ability is considerable. As an
employee of the United States gov
ernment for 32 years, he started at
grade 1 and subsequently was ad
vanced to grade 31. The required
examinations were rugged, the
competition great, yet he prevailed
because of his expertise and intel
lect. As a Department of Labor
executive his experience is un
matched.
The citizens of Georgia have an
unusual opportunity to elect as
their Labor Commissioner an indi
vidual who will serve them effi
ciently, honestly and in accordance
with the highest standards the posi
tion demands.
My interest is none other than
serving my state by helping elect
those who are best qualified.
Max E. Rob kin
s-Rosenne mending after surgery^
WASHINGTON (JTA)—Meir Rosenne, Israel’s Ambassador
to the United States, underwent single bypass heart surgery last
week.
The 55-year-old ambassador is “feeling very good,” Israel
Embassy spokesman Yosef Gal said Monday.
According to Gal, Rosenne underwent surgery at Georgetown
University Hospital July 22.
Vice President George Bush, who is presently in the Mideast,
visited Rosenne Friday. He reportedly brought with him President
Reagan’s wishes to Rosenne for a speedy recovery.
The ambassador’s surgery was kept “a secret” in order not to
cause undue worry to his daughter in Israel.
PAGE 5 THE SOUTHERN ISRAELITE August 1. 1986