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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