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PAGE 4 THE SOUTHERN ISRAELITE September 26, 1986
The Southern Israelite
The Weekly Newspoper Fck Southern Je\>^y
Since 1925'
Vida Goldgar Jeff Rubin
Editor General Manager
Luna Levy
Managing Editor
Published by Sun Publications, Inc.
also publishers of The Kansas City Jewish Chronicle
Stan Rose Steve Rose
Chairman and President and
Publisher Co Publisher
Second Class Postage paid at Atlanta. Ga (ISSN 00388) (UPS 776060)
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The
Southern Israelite
A Prize-Winning
Newspaper
Say ‘yes’
Atlanta’s Jewish community is justly proud of the educational
opportunities available for our youngsters.
But like anything else, schools don’t operate on air.
This Sunday is the date for the Epstein School’s annual tele
thon to raise the dollars which augment tuition fees and are so
necessary in the operation of this fine school.
With an enrollment of over 300 students and growing,
expenses grow too. The telethon funds will be used to help offset
the deficit in operational expenses.
This year’s goal is $30,000. If we all pitch in, it should be
attainable. Each of us has a stake in our Jewish educational
system, whether or not we have school-age children.
So when the phone rings Sunday...
Say “Yes.”
Better Newspaper
Contests
Hiding anti-Semitism
by Eric Rozenman
Editor. Near East Report
Charges of anti-Semitism often
should not be taken seriously be
cause defenders of Israel use such
allegations to intimidate honest
critics of the Jewish State. So argues
Allan Brownfeld in a two-part ser
ies which ran in the Washington
Jewish Week on Aug. 28 and Sept.
4. The material appeared initially in
the magazine American Politics.
According to Jewish Week editor
Renee Matalon, the paper ran the
series as “Viewpoint” because it
seemed interesting and provoca
tive, not out of agreement with the
premise.
The premise deserves scrutiny.
Brownfeld, an associate editor of
the Lincoln Review, a black con
servative quarterly, claims that by
labeling critics of Israel as anti-
Semites, Israel’s supporters trivial
ize a major political-philosophical
concept while stifling foreign pol
icy debate.
Brownfeld objects to what he
says has been the redefinition of
anti-Semitism—from “those who
irrationally disliked Jews and Jud
aism” to “anything that opposes
the policies and interests of Israel.”
He seems oblivious to the fact that
for some, criticism of Israeli polit
ics serves as both camouflage and
opening wedge for attacks on the
idea of a Jewish state in general.
Such attacks, ultimately, aim at
the Jews as a people with a right to
their own state. And the step from
attacking Jewish peoplehood to
attacking Jewish people is easily
made.
Brownfeld begins by reviewing
the clash between Norman Podho-
retz, editor of Commentary, and
writer Gore Vidal. But rather than
deal with the substance of Vidal’s
slurs, Brownfeld focuses on Pod-
horetz. He labels the editor “a
major practitioner” of the tactic of
silencing critics of Israel by making
indiscriminate charges of anti-
Semitism.
He also labors to present colum
nist Joseph Sobran—a conserva
tive on most matters, a retailer of
anti-Israel and anti-Jewish innuen
do on others—as a victim. As with
Vidal, Brownfeld avoids quoting
Sobran so as not to let his own
words impeach him.
Like many other critics of Israel
who adopt an above-the-fray pose,
Brownfeld argues that it can be cri
ticized like any other country, like
any other American ally. Jews and
others who do not agree are “hyper
sensitive.” But this is pretense; the
history of the Jews is not like that
of any other people and Israel’s
status is not like that of any other
state.
Most of Israel’s neighbors still
insist they are in a state of war with
it. More countries have official
relations with the PLO, an organi
zation sworn to destroy “the Zion
ist entity,” than they do with Israel.
The U.N. still holds that Jewish
national liberation—Zionism —
equals racism. The effort to delegi-
timize and dismantle Israel makes
the position of the Jewish state
unlike that of any other country.
Early Christian anti-Semitism
swore that Jews were theologically
inferior, spiritually doomed. Pseu
do-scientific Nazi anti-Semitism as
serted that Jews were racially infe
rior, to be exterminated. Contem
porary anti-Zionism claims that Jews
are politically inferior, their state
to be liquidated. In each case the
result is the same—death for Jews.
Jews in and outside Israel re
member being abandoned by the
rest of the world a little more than
40 years ago. They remember how
most Western countries stepped
aside again when Israel was threa
tened with destruction in 1967 and
1973. Hypersensitive? Or never
again to be silent, ready to call an
enemy of Israel an. enemy of the
Jews.
About the Black Hebrews
by Sherry Frank
Southeast Area, director
American Jewish Committee
The issue of the Black Hebrew
Israelites is complicated. It requires
an understanding of the group’s
exit from the United States, their
entry and deportation from Liber
ia and present illegal status in
Israel. There are three fundamen
tal issues to be addressed: the charge
of Israel as racist; the claim that
Black Hebrews are Jewish; and the
right of a sovereign state to make
its own laws regarding entry, work
and citizenship.
Is racism a factor?
There are no grounds for inject
ing the issue of racism, as some
advocates of the Black Hebrews
have attempted to do. Israel has
made extraordinary efforts over
the past years to bring in thou
sands of Ethiopian Jews, who are
black, and has granted them full
citizenship. Jews from India and
North Africa have been absorbed
into Israeli society without incur
ring discrimination or racism and
many of them are as dark skinned
as the Black Hebrews. Individual
Black American Jews and non-
Jews who have immigrated legallv
to Israel have also obtained Israeli
citizenship. In Israel there are tens
of thousands of Jewish and non-
Jewish citizens who would be con
sidered “non-white" in the United
States. Israel remains the only
democratic and pluralistic nation
in the Middle East.
In 1981 a group of American
black civil rights leaders including
Bayard Rustin and representatives
of the National Urban League, the
NAACP and National Council of
Negro Women, visited Israel to
investigate the question of the
human rights of the Black Hebrews.
In its report, the delegation stated.
“From all the evidence we have
heard, including that from the Black
Hebrew community, we conclude
that official racism plays no part in
this sensitive problem. The general
agreement is that the official diffi
culties stem from deep-seated reli
gious, philosophical and political
differences.”
Are the Black
Hebrews Jewish?
1 he Black Hebrews are not rec
ognized as Jewish either by the
rabbinate or by the courts under
the Law' of Return, which grants
immediate citizenship to all Jews
entering Israel. The leaders of this
sect have rejected offers of conver
sion to Judaism. They follow a
messianic cult whose leader, Ben
Ami Carter, regards himself as
above the law, and who has declared
his intention of replacing the duly
elected authorities in Israel with
his own “Black Hebrew-controlled
kingdom of God.”
I hey confuse the issue further
by claiming they believe Jesus
Christ is the Son of God and say
they practice their faith according
to the laws in the first five books of
the Old Testament. Jesus is not
mentioned in the Old Testament
and one cannot be Jewish and hold
this belief of Jesus as the Son of
God.
What laws are at stake?
Israel is a democracy and is
entitled to have its laws obeyed.
I he Black Hebrews were provided
due process in Israel’s courts. The
cult-like group has infiltrated Israel
illegally using forged passports and
stolen airline tickets and by mas
querading as clergy or visitors from
Africa. Once in Israel, they have
secluded themselves within a closed
community, ignoring the laws of
the country. Their tourists visas
have expired and they are working
without legal immigrant documents.
The United States and countries
around the world have deported
tourists and aliens found working
illegally inside their sovereign
borders. Israel, which faces severe
economic difficulties, has been en
forcing their laws against illegal
workers. Last year Israel deported
800 illegal workers from the Philli-
pines, Thailand, Yugoslavia. India
and including 25 Black Hebrews.
A few final issues must be added.
The problem has gone unresolved
for too long. This was due in part
to the U.S. pressuring Israel not to
return the Black Hebrews, Israel
not wanting to exacerbate black-
Jewish relations in America, and
the Black Hebrews’ threats of mass
suicide if deportation orders were
given.
Recently Black Hebrew Israel
ites living in the U.S. were lound
guilty and sentenced for operating
an international crime ring, traf-
ficking in millions ol dollars in
stolen airline tickets and bogus
credit cards. Much of the funding
for the Black Hebrews in Israel
comes from this U.S. operation o
theft and deceit.
Israel nor any sovereign state
can be expected to capitulate to the
dictates of any group which arbi
trarily decides to take up residence
and impose itself, under false pre
tenses, upon the rest of society