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PAGE 4 THE SOUTHERN ISRAELITE August 15, 1986
The Southern Israelite
The Weekly Newspaper for Southern Jewry
Since 1925
Vida Goldgar
Editor and Publisher
Leonard Goldstein
Advertising Director
Luna Levy
Associate Editor
Eschol A. Harrell
Production Manager
Lutz Baum
Business Manager
Published every Friday by The Southern Israelite, Inc.
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Of pawns and politics
Hard on the heels of Moscow’s “nyet,” to Israel’s participation
in the Goodwill Games ceremonies, comes word that the 1986
International Chess Olympics in Dubai will go on without Israel
despite protests against the exclusionary policy.
After much debate, the United States Chess Federation
decided to take part in the Olympics, but will press for a change in
the bylaws which now allow any state hosting an international
tournament to bar any other country with which it is at war.
Dubai is the capital of the United Arab Emirates, technically at
war with Israel since 1948.
According to reports, if the American resolution is rejected,
the U.S. team will quit the 1986 games, even if play has not been
completed.
All in all, the decision may achieve more in the long run than
the boycott which was being pressed, if the U.S. federation sticks
to its guns.
But we hope the day will come when the playing fields (or
boards) will no longer be used as pawns in international politics.
The kipa caper
The Senate found an easy way out of the “yarmulkes in the
military” situation. They voted to table the amendment which
would have allowed Jews and members of other religions to wear
religious headgear if “it is neat and conservative” and “does not
interfere with the performance of military duties.”
By tabling the amendment, no senator was put in the uncom
fortable position of voting against the free exercise of religion.
We’re a little surprised that Sen. Rudy Boschwitz was one of
three Jewish senators opposing the amendment. Perhaps his rea
soning will become clear when the matter comes up again, as
surely it will.
But with a 51-49 vote to table. Sens. Boschwitz, Chic Hecht
and Edward Zorinsky could have made the difference. Curious.
Vida Goldgar m
Thieves in the night
f
How many of you watched the recent television
movie, “Amos.” about a nursing home where the psy
chotic director and her goon squad alternately made
life miserable for the residents and
made death happen to those whose
physical condition put a strain on
the budget? Kirk Douglas, aged
with makeup until only the cleft
chin was reassuring, played the
title role.
His research on nursing homes
to prepare for the film led him to
respond to a “Dear Abby” com
plaint from a woman whose letter was signed “Help
less." Helpless wrote that her mother, a nursing home
resident, had her wedding ring and watch stolen the
day after she arrived. Helpless had been cautioned by
the nursing home’s staff that “theft is rampant in the
best of nursing homes," that it is uncontrollable and
that she should not send gifts of value to her mother.
Abby called that response “outrageous" and, in his
letter. Douglas concurred. He said, too, that his
research had led to the awareness that theft is only the
beginning of abuses in some nursing homes. In fair
ness, he also said that his own mother spent her last
seven years in a fine nursing home where she was very
well cared for.
The letter from Helpless and the one from Douglas
drew at least two local responses. Whether they have
or will see the light of day in “Dear Abby,” 1 don’t
know, but both writers sent me copies and I’ll share
parts of them with you.
A day after Helpless’ letter appeared in the Atlanta
Constitution, and before the Douglas response, Deb
orah Beards, the hard-working, dedicated executive
director of the Jewish Home, wrote the advice colum
nist, agreeing that “to accept repeated thievery seems
outrageous.” But, she wrote, despite thorough pre-
employment screening, banks, department stores and
other businesses employ cameras and guards to help
prevent employee theft. Ms. Beards, citing already
expensive nursing home costs, says that cameras in
patient’s rooms “to detect the theft of small items that
can be easily concealed on one’s person” and other
security costs “would cause the cost of care to be
prohibitive for private paying patients.”
She writes of hospitals, which tell patients not to
bring any valuables with them; warnings which too
often go unheeded. (I know I’ve ignored these warn
ings even when I knew I would be out of my room for
hours during surgery and only semi-conscious for
more hours in the room.)
Ms. Beards has a tough decision...one she answers
this way: “When I must make a decision as to whether
limited funds are used for nursing care of my debili
tated elderly patients or theft control, I choose the
nursing care.”
It’s hard to argue with that...But—
Bob Moser, whose mother, a stroke victim, is a
resident at the Jewish Home, also wrote to “Dear
Abby” and to her sister, “Ann Landers,”, as well. He
also wrote an open letter to anyone and everyone at
the Jewish Home. The latter told a sad story. It told of
two young people, fleeing Germany in 1937, both
working hard to start a new life in the United States,
getting married on their day off, with a honeymoon
that consisted of a Manhattan subway ride. The wed
ding band wasn’t much but with it came a promise that
one day there would be a diamond to wear with it. Ten
or 12 years later, the promise was kept. He wrote:
“That simple ring, with its four tiny diamonds, did not
leave Mom’s finger for the past 40 years.”
It is not there now. The ring was taken off her
finger while Mrs. Moser slept.
In his letter to the columnists, Moser praised the
Jewish Home, calling it “one of the finest convalescent
and long-term care facilities in the southeastern Uni
ted States." He very accurately says it is a “modern,
well-maintained, exceptionally well-managed nursing
home” and praised the “caring, compassionate and
dedicated professionals” who run it.
Nevertheless, his mother’s ring is gone. This is not
the first case of theft I’ve heard of there, and I’m not
sure I'm willing to accept the answer that nothing can
be done.
But Bob Moser goes a step further. In his letter to
Abby and Ann, he has a solid Lit of advice for those
whose loved ones are in a hospital or home. He sug
gests: “If you or your loved ones place special value,
either sentimental or financial, on something like a
ring, bracelet or necklace, have it copied; lock the real
object in a safe-deposit box; and let the low-life thieves
see how much cocaine, whiskey or cigarettes they can
get for a gold-plated piece of glass.” Perhaps, he says,
a local jeweler or artisan can assist the family in mak
ing a relatively inexpensive imitation.
In the best of all possible worlds, those who are
employed where people are defenseless would all be
loving and honest. And in that world, the aging pro
cess would be unfailingly graceful and painless. But
till then, Kirk Douglas said it best: “Theft is not a
normal part of the aging process.”
A message of hope
D n KKl IliflnL 1/ _ _ r> _ _ _ .
by Rabbi Judah Kogen
Congregation Shearilh Israel
For nearly 2,000 years the Jew
ish world has observed Tisha B'Av,
Welcome To Israeli 1
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4 •
the fast of the Ninth of Av, as a
memorial of the national tragedy
of the destruction of the Second
Temple by the Romans in the year
70 C.E. and coincidentally, the
destruction of the First Temple on
the same date by the Babylonians
656 years earlier. The Ninth of Av
was defined in Talmudic times as a
day of mourning for a sequence of
events that began in Moses’ time
with the decree that the generation
of the Exodus would wander in the
desert for 40 years and continued
through the destruction of both
Temples to the final devastation of
Jerusalem and Jewish sovereignty
by the forces of Rome.
The Talmud discusses the des
truction of the Temple in terms
that are especially meaningful for
the Jewish people today. Accord
ing to Yoma 9b, biblical Judea in
586 B.C.E. was sinful and deserv
ing of its punishment: “Why has
the First Temple destroyed? Be
cause of three things w’hich were
current then—idolatry, sexual mis
deeds and murder,” 1 heir question
was about the Second Temple:
But as for the Second Temple, in
which they studied Torah, observed
the mitzvot and practiced acts of
loving kindness—why was it de
stroyed?”
The answer the Talmud gives to
that question carries with it a les
son of great urgency: “Because of
gratuitous hatred prevalent there.
That shows that gratuitous hatred
is equivalent to the other three
sins—idolatry, sexual misdeeds and
murder."
Israel today is militarily secure.
It has been said that the Arabs
cannot destroy Israel; only the Jew s
can. When we look at Israeli society
today, we see a country deeply
divided over domestic issues,, espe
cially the role of religion in the
modern state. Opinions range all
the way from those who believe
that a new Jewish state should
replicate the religious ideals of the
past, to those who feel that a mod
ern secular society represents the
ultimate redemption of the Jew ish
people from the shackles of the
Diaspora. The one ingredient so
sorely missing is the pluralism that
we take for granted in this country.
Many of those who advocate a
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