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PAGE 6 THE SOUTHERN ISRAELITE August 8, 1986
636-7877
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by Joseph Polakoff
| si's Washington correspondent
WASHINGTON A federal jury
here on July 30 convicted nine
members of the Black Hebrews
religious sect accused of operating
an internal crime ringa few hours
after the Supreme Court of Israel
upheld a government order to de
port 45 American-born Black He
brew's to the United Stated as ille
gal aliens who had overstayed their
visas.
The group’s national leader in
the United States, Warren Brown,
known also as Prince Asiel, was
among those found guilty after an
89-day trial, the longest ever held
in the U.S. District Court in Wash
ington. The nine were charged with
trafficking in millions of dollars
worth of stolen airline tickets and
using worthless checks and bogus
credit cards to purchase merchan
dise valued at hundreds of thou
sands of dollars. They face possible
40-year prison terms and fines up
to $500,000 each.
The verdict here was the second
in eight days involving members of
the sect known as the Original
Hebrew Israelite Nation of Jerusa
lem. Six women were convicted
July 22 of conspiracy and wire
fraud in connection with a welfare
fraud operation. U.S. Attorney
Joseph diGenova said three other
trials involving Black Hebrew's are
pending.
Supporters of the defendants,
who included Rep. Mervyn Dym-
ally (D-Calif.), accused the U.S.
and Israeli governments of con
spiring against the sect. Dymally, a
character witness in the trial of the
Congregation Beth Shalom
A Conservative Synagogue Serving North Atlanta
cordially invites
Prospective and New Members
to a
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Sunday, August 17
11:00 a.m.
at the synagogue
3147 Chamblee-Tucker Road
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Marcia Bergman, President, the Officers and Board will be
available to discuss plans for our new building, and for High
Holiday Services.
For further information & reservations, call the synagogue office, 458-0489.
six women members, told the court
he saw nothing irregular about
members of the sect using false
names to obtain U.S. passports to
enter Israel.
“I’m very familiar with the com
plications arising” from the Black
Hebrews’ relationship in Israel “and
the necessity to get a passport to
visit their family,” Dymally testi
fied. "Using another name is not
unusual. In American life, movie
stars, songsters, everybody does
it.”
Questioning Dymally, Chief U.S.
District Judge Aubrey Robinson
asked, “Is it your understanding.
Congressman, that anybody can
go in the U.S. Passport Office and
use any name they want to get a
passport?” Dymally replied, “Yes,
if you have a birth certificate or if
you have legally changed your
name.”
“You have to identify yourself
and establish your identity, isn’t
that correct?” Robinson continued.
“It doesn’t make any difference if
you’re a movie star, congressman,
federal judge or whoever,” he said.
“And you’re in the Congress that
makes that law, is that correct'*”
Dymally replied, “That is correct,
sir."
Information received from Israel
said that the 45 Black Hebrews
under the court ruling would be
flown individually or in small
groups to the U.S.
Since 1984, Israel has deported
between 30 and 40 Black Hebrews.
In March, a group that landed at
Ben-Gurion Airport was denied
entry.
The sect was founded in Chicago
in the late 1960s by Ben Ami Car
ter, who now heads the approxi
mately 2,000 who now live in Dim-
ona, Israel. They claim to descend
from the 12 Original Hebrew tribes,
say Israel is their homeland, eat
kosher vegetarian foods and observe
Saturday as the Sabbath. They also
have settlements in Ghana and
Liberia. Jewish religious authori
ties, however, say the group’s prac
tices have little in common with
Judaism. In 1972, Israel’s Supreme
Court ruled they are not Jews and
therefore are not eligible for auto
matic citizenship. They began
coming to Israel in 1969.
Kohl puts it in writing;
urges pardon for Hess
BONN (JTA) -Chancellor Hel
mut Kohl sent a personal plea to
the leaders of the Big Four wartime
powers to pardon Hitler’s former
deputy Rudolf Hess, who has spent
40 years in prison, is now 92 and
reportedly ill. Leaders of the Soviet
Union, United States, France and
Great Britain must approve the
pardon.
Hess, who was reportedly hospi
talized early last month, was sent
back to his cell at Spandau Prison
where he has been the only inmate
for about 20 years.
The Soviet Union has blocked
repeated British and West German
appeals to pardon the ailing Hess,
and Soviet guards at Spandau in
sure that this will not happen with
out their approval.
In personal letters sent to Presi
dent Reagan, Mikhail Gorbachev,
Margaret Thatcher and Francois
Mitterrand last month, Kohl asked
the leaders to “mercifully release
the prisoner into the bosom of his
family” to spend his final days in
freedom. Over the years, dozens of
similar appeals and rallies in West
Germany have called for Hess's
release on humanitarian grounds.
Hess was convicted and sent
enced to life imprisonment at the
Nuremberg trials in 1947. He para
chuted into Scotland and was cap
tured in 1941 but his motivations
for landing there remain a mystery
until today.
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