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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