Newspaper Page Text
News Briefs
Two newspapers lose appeal
JERUSALEM (JTA)—The High Court of Justice has over
ruled the appeal by two East Jerusalem newspapers of the order to
close them down. The daily Al-Mithak and the periodical Al-Ahd
had petitioned the court to rescind the closure order by the Interior
Ministry which claimed that the the publications were promoting
anti-Israel views. This was denied by the owners of the two
publications.
However, the court was convinced by classified information
supplied by the Shin Bet that the papers were “financed and
directed” by the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, a
terrorist group headed by Dr. George Habash. Therefore, the court
ruled, the security of the state necessitated closing the papers.
Demjanjuk still at Ramla jail
JERUSALEM (JTA)—The Supreme Court extended last Fri
day the detention of John Demjanjuk, the Ukrainian-born Ameri
can autoworker accused of operating the gas chambers at the
Treblinka death camp, until Oct. 1.
Demjanjuk, who claims he isn’t the alleged war criminal “Ivan
the Terrible,” is being held at Ramla prison, where last week’s
hearing took place.
Israeli scientist visits China
JERUSALEM (JTA)—Professor Yosef Singer, chairman of
Israel Air Industries and president of the Haifa Technion, is visit
ing the People’s Republic of China. Singer, a senior scientist in the
field of aeronautics, is in China on what was described as a “profes
sional” visit.
He and his wife reportedly entered China on their Israeli pass
ports. Singer was reported to be meeting with senior heads of the
China Academy of Science and might have meetings with govern
ment officials.
Two other senior Technion scientists, Professors Yaacov
Epstein and his wife Professor Shulamit Epstein are also sche
duled to visit China within the next few days.
Shcharansky to visit Holland
AMSTERDAM (JTA)—Natan Shcharansky will vist Holland
Sept. 29 and 30 at the invitation of the Dutch Solidarity committee
with Soviet Jewry and the Dutch Jewish community.
Shcharansky will visit Holland to express his gratitude to those
who were instrumental in securing his release from prison in the
Soviet Union earlier this year. While here, the former Prisoner of
Conscience will meet with Dutch Parliamentarians, and wdl
address the annual Solidarity with Soviet Jewry meeting in
Amsterdam.
Former SS guard goes on trial
BONN (JTA)—A former SS guard, Otto Reidemann, 74, went
on trial last week in West Berlin charged with beating deaths of at
least 20 prisoners, many of them Jews, at the Mauthausen-Gusen
concentration camp in Austria.
The trial is expected to last until the end of this year. More than
15 witnesses are scheduled to give testimony. Reidemann is deny
ing that he murdered prisoners under his jurisdiction. However, in
preliminary questioning he admitted being involved in arguments
which led him to beat inmates.
Kach member extradited
TEL AVIV (JTA)—Craig Leitner, a 25-year-old former Amer
ican citizen and member of Rabbi Meir Kahane s Kach Party in
Israel who escaped from custody in Israel over a year ago, was
returned here last Friday, on extradition from the United States.
He had been charged in Israel with six attacks on Arab vehicles
and homes in Ramallah, Hebron and Jerusalem, and was also
suspected of participating in a bomb attack on the Al-Fajr Arabic
newspaper offices in East Jerusalem.
Koch, Wolpe invited by Tutu
WASHINGTON (Polakoff)—Two Jewish political leaders—
New York Mayor Edward Koch and Rep. Howard Wolpe (D-
Mich.)—are among the 120 Americans invited by black Anglican
Bishop Desmond Tutu to attend his installation Sept. 7 as Archbi
shop of Capetown, the top Anglican post in southern Africa.
Wolpe, chairman of the House Foreign Affairs subcommittee
on Africa and among the most ardent congressional foes of apart
heid, has written Tutu that prior commitments in Washington and
in his home district in Michigan prevent him from attending the
ceremony.
——
The name of the game is discipline
Editor:
I am not “curious” as to why
Sens. Boschiwitz, Hecht and Zorin-
sky voted against the amendment
on the kipa. As a member of the
military for 42 months in World
War II, I learned that the military
can only function with one set of
rules. The military has to step on
toes sometimes or fall flat on its
face.
Discipline is the name of the
game. Religious practices cannot
be the first consideration in all cir
cumstances. The U.S. Military does
not inhibit or prevent the practice
of Judaism. It would be good to
hear from some Jewish chaplains
on this subject.
Jerome W. Ross
JFS retirement seminar earns praise
Editor:
I want to express our apprecia
tion to Jewish Family Services in
general, and to Harriet Cohen in
particular, for the fine course on
“Planning for Retirement,” which
we just concluded. Invited experts
spoke to the group on social and
emotional adjustments, Medicare
and other insurance. Social Secur
ity and taxation problems.
The only disappointment was
the meager attendance at these
valuable sessions. Perhaps people
are unaware that JFS provides for
various kinds of group interactions;
their fees are reasonable and the
standards aim high.
Keep up the good work, JFS!
Trudi and Fred Bohm
‘Passion Play’ underfire
by Ben Gallob
JTA
There are six major productions
of the Passion Play performed in
the United States annually and one
of them, produced in a Florida
town, has been denounced by Flor
ida Jewish spokesmen.
The oldest production in the
United States is staged at Black
Hills at Spearfish, S.D., where a
company from Germany was settled
in 1939, giving summer perform
ances with a winter season added
13 years later at Lake Wales, 200
miles northwest of Miami, accord
ing to a report in the Miami Herald.
The Black Hills production is
based on a six-centuries-old ver-'
sion originated by monks in Lue-
nen, Germany, home city of Josef
Meier, 81, producer of the Black
Hills-Lake Wales version. Meier,
who still plays Jesus in the drama,
brought the company from Luenen
to settle in Black Hills.
David Mesnekoff, a Fort Laud
erdale attorney and a past presi
dent of the Florida chapter of the
American Jewish Comittee, was
quoted by the Herald as asserting
that to say the Lake Wales perfor
mance is offensive is an “under
statement.”
Mesnekoff has seen the version
at Lake Wales the past two years.
He was one of 25 persons, accom
panied by three journalists, mak
ing up an interfaith group from
South Florida organized by the
AJC chapter to see the play.
But Meier argued that “under no
circumstances” could the Black
Hills-Lake Wales version be con
sidered anti-Semitic. He said his
group had made “a diligent effort”
to treat the subject matter—the
trial and crucifixion of Christ—
with “the utmost respect.”
Mesnekoff responded that “the
overall picture and feeling” emerg
ing from the play for him was that
the Jews of the time were “horrible.”
William Gralnick, AJC regional
4irector, said the Lake Wales ver
sion presents a stark contrast be
tween good and evil—with the Jew
ish foes of Jesus obviously the evil
ones—which he said makes that
version susceptible to implications
of bigotry, adding that he felt the
■ other five were worse. Sites of the
other five performances were not
listed in the Herald report.
Mitchil Dabach, a Jewish edu
cator who works with the AJC,
said that because so many who see
the production are lacking in bibli
cal and historical knowledge, the
performance is as dangerous now
as it was in the Middle Ages.
Reporting that he saw the ver
sion at Lake Wales, he cited the
scene when members of the San
hedrin, the Jewish court, forcefully
pressure Pontias Pilate to crucify
Jesus, and he said he heard specta
tors behind him say, “See, the Jews
were connivers, just as they are
now. Look how mean they are.”
The educator said this confirmed
his worst fears about people react
ing to what they see on stage.
Rabbi Abraham Richter, direc
tor of chaplaincy services for the
South Broward Jewish Federation,
said the play, as well as the New
Testament on which it is based, is
historically wrong about the nature
| of such Jewish institutions as the
Sanhedrin.
Arthur Teitelbaum, director of
the Miami regional office of the
Anti-Defamation League of B’nai
B’rith, said that, since the early
1960s, he has been getting com
plaints that the Lake Wales version
suggests that all the Jews wanted
Jesus to die, that Pilate was a weak
but fair ruler who was an innocent
bystander in the crucifixion, and
that Jesus rejected the Jewish beliefs
and practices in which he had been
raised.
Christians who saw the Lake
Wales version, as members of the
interfaith group, differed in their
evaluations. David Horner, a Pres
byterian radio producer, after see
ing the play for the First time, said
he could not come to the conclu
sion that the play was anti-Semitic
because he felt that doing so would
be to judge the intentions of those
involved in the production.
But others said they felt the Lake
Wales production was flawed.
As a Christian, said Cindy Sir-
mons, the performance broke her
heart because, she said, it involved
a failure to present the Gospel mes
sage of why Jesus died, which she
said should be understood to pro
vide salvation to those who recog
nize they are sinners and are will
ing to believe that Christ’s sacrifice
can change their lives.
A member of the Key Biscayne
Presbyterian Church, she said the
experience of seeing the Lake Wales
performance and discussing it with
Jews and others of different denom
inations led to a belief that a Pas
sion Play was not the way to tell
about Jesus.
She said Christianity unfortu
nately has done things to the Jews
through the centuries that Chris
tians are now called on “to rectify
as much as possible.” She said it
was not enough to say it was the
Crusaders and the Inquisitors and
others who did those things. She
said Christians must look for anti-
Semitism and try to root it. out.
s Ex-state senator offers apologyv
LOS ANGELES (JTA)—-A former California legislator has
issued an apology to Jews, women and homosexuals as part of a
$20,000 settlement in a defamation suit against him here.
The apology by former State Sen. John Schmitz was read in
open court in settlement of a $10 million defamation suit arising
from a press release issued by Schmitz’s office in 1981.
Schmitz, a former member of the ultra-conservative John Birch
Society, had issued the news release after a feminist attorney,
handed him a chastity belt to protest his views during legislative
hearings on a proposed anti-abortion measure.
The release denounced witnesses opposing the measure as
“imported lesbians from anti-male and pro-abortion queer groups
in San Francisco.” The audience at the hearing was described as “a
sea of hard, Jewish and (arguably) female faces.”
J
r p AGE 5 THE SOUTHERN ISRAELITE August 29, 1986