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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. Second Class Postage paid at Atlanta. Ca (ISSN 00388) (UPS 776060) POSTMASTER Send address changes to The Southern Israelite. P O Box 77388. Atlanta. GA 30357 Mailing Address: P.O. Box 77388, Atlanta, Georgia 30357 Location: 188 15th St., N.W.. Atl., Ga. 30318 Phone (404)876-8248 Advertising rates available upon request. Subscriptions: $23.00, 1 year; $41.00, 2 years Member of Jewish Telegraphic Agency; Religious News Service; American Jewish Press Assn.; Georgia Press Assn.; National Newspaper Assn. 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 Customs and Immigration J Jewish Immigrants Tourists and Pilgrims y tWi I j4;-i —. kJ\ ^ fi - V United Stater Presidential Candidates 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 Continued next page-