Newspaper Page Text
Page 4 THE SOUTHERN ISRAELITE November 14, 1986
Another IRC rejection
Once again, the International Red Cross had made Israel's
Magen David Adorn, its Red Cross equivalent, a pariah in the
world of humanitarian agencies.
This has been going on for 37 years. Since 1949. the IRC
has regularly rejected Magen David Adom’s applications for
recognition. At that time the Red Crescent and the Red Lion
and Sun (for Iran) were acceptable emblems—but not the Red
Shield of David.
Never mind that MDA fulfills all the duties of a national
Red Cross Society and cooperates with the International Red
Cross.
What makes this discriminatory action even more repre
hensible is the fact that at its meeting in Geneva late last month,
the organization was apparently renamed the International
Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement. The decision to
.incorporate the Red Crescent was endorsed without a vote by
delegates from more than 120 governments and 137 national
societies.
Now. think back to the war in Lebanon in 1984. Remember
the stories about so-called atrocities that were released to the
press by the Red Crescent? They were accorded legitimacy
because they came under the International Red Cross umbrella.
You may remember that the head of the Red Crescent was Dr.
Fathi Arafat, none other than the brother of the PLO’s notor
ious Yasir Arafat. That no doubt explains why the PLO was
expected to be granted observer status (it may already have
been granted) to the International Red Cross and Red Crescent
Movement.
The PLO’s okay but not Israel.
And does anybody care? Yes. One thing that needs to be
clearly understood is that this kind of discrimination is not
connected with the American Red Cross. Over the years, the
American Red Cross has challenged the non-acceptance of
MDA. It did so again this time around, and in no uncertain
terms. To what avail, remains to be seen. But they’re trying.
We recommend using whatever means are at our disposal
to protest the international organization, but we want to be
certain that the distinction is clear, so when it is time again to
roll up our sleeves and give blood, we don’t hold the American
Red Cross responsible for those who place the Mogen David
Adorn beyond the pale.
Love of learning is by nature curious and inquisitive...pry
ing into everything, reluctant to leave anything, material or
immaterial, unexplored.’
Philo
Migration of A braham
The Southern Israelite
The Voice of Artonro 5 Jewish Community
Since 1925
Vida Goldgar
Editor
Jeff Rubin
General Manager
Luna Levy
Managing Editor
Published by Sun Publications, Inc.
also publishers of The Kansas City Jewish Chronicle
Stan Rose
Chairman and
Publisher
Steve Rose
President and
Co Publisher
Second Class Postage paid at Atlanta. Ga (ISSN 00388) (UPS 776060;
POSTMASTER: Send address changes to The Southern Israelite. P O Box 250287
Atlanta. Georgia 30325
Mailing Address: P.O Box 250287, Atlanta, Georgia 30325
Location: 300 Atlanta Technology Center, Suite 365,
1575 Northside Dr., N.W.. All.. Ga. 30318 Phone (404) 355-6139
Advertising rates available upon request.
Subscriptions: $23.00 a year.
Member of Jewish Telegraphic Agency, Religious News Service.
American Jewish Press Assn , Georgia Press Assn . National Newspaper Assn
The
Southern Israelite
A Prize-Winning
Newspaper
Better Newspaper
Contests
Vida Goldgar
Take two aspirin...
It wasn’t any surprise to Jewish mothers when
scientists decided a few years ago that chicken
soup—Jewish penicillin—really did have curative
powers. Maimonides, in hisi
“Medical Aphroisms,” recom
mended “soup made from an old
chicken” as beneficial against |
chronic fever.”
With that in mind. I wonder)
if the medical profession might
do well to consider some otherl
ancient cures and remedies.
I found these listed in “Thel
Jewish Almanac” compiled and
edited by Richard Siegel and Carl Rheins and pub
lished recently by Bantam Books.
Maimonides was very high on chicken. He also
suggested chicken soup for asthma. For melan
choly you get the meat, too. He wrote: “One should
always attempt to partake of the meat of chickens,
one should always drink their soups, because this
kind of fowl has the property of improving the
harmful humors and particularly the melancholic
humor.
On the other hand, if that melancholy is caused
by a pain in the posterior, don’t worry—same
remedy, but be sure to use fat chickens. Maimo
nides’ “Treatise on Hemorrhoids” reads thus: “Flesh
of fat chickens and broth made therefrom are the
most valuable with which sufferers from (hermor-
rhoids) should be nourished.”
The Jewish Almanac cites a second cure for
chronic fever, this one from the Talmud, Gittin
67b. ...take a black hen, cut it open crosswise,
shave the crown of the patient, place the hen over
hts head, and leave it there until it sticks. He then
stands in water up to his neck until he feels faint-
after that, he immerses his whole body, comes out
of the water, and rests.”
Toss out your Alka Seltzer, folks. Next time
you have indigestion, try this, also from the Tal
mud: “...take 300 grains of long pepper and each
day drop 100 of them in wine.” But if you only have
a headache, you don’t get to drink the wine
Instead, “rub the head with wine, vinegar, or oil."
There’s a remedy for jaundice from 18th cen
tury Germany that I’d just as soon skip, “...sw allow
eight lice taken from your own head.”
Fish oil for a cough sounds sort of reasonable
but I have a little problem figuring out how engrav
ing the image of a tongueless lion on a plate of silver
or gold cures kidney problems. That, of course, is
only if the pains are in the right kidney. If is is the
left kidney, “the image should represent a woman
riding a lion, wrapped up and holding in her hand
reins or a stick.”
A few years back, when 1 had a painful foot
problem, 1 had to wear some rather expensive
orthopedic oxfords for a while. Had I only read the
Song of Songs, Rabbah II, 3, 2,1 would have found
a cheaper cure. There, according to this delightful
Almanac, it says: “They were like a man who suf
fered with his feet and went around to all the doc
tors and could not find a cure until at last one came
and said to him. If you want to be cured, there is a
very easy way of doing it; plaster your feet with
excrement of cattle. Of course, first you have to
find the cow.
Now, if you aren’t suffering from any of the
above you can find other cures for - bad breath,
bleeding bowel problems, dog bite, earache, heart
trouble (both angina and palpitation), heartburn,
impotence, madness or even nosebleed. But you’ll
have to buy the book and look it up. I’ve run out 0!
room.
Besides, I’m going to go home and take two
aspirin ... .
I tda Goldgar is attending a convention ibis
w eek. The "sure-cure" column is reprinted from
1981.
Mainstream crises
by Stanley M. Lefco
Jews are becoming less Jew ish.
The claim is not a religious one; it
is intended as a commentary on
Jews in American life. It ap
peared that Jews prided them
selves on the closeness of family,
the emphasis on education, and
their imperviousness to society’s
ills such as the commission of
crimes, wife and child abuse and
addiction to drugs and alcoho
lism. Now stories are appearing
on a more frequent basis that
J nr*ki are fac j n 8. s °me of these
problems and crises.
Rabbi Ilan D. Feldman of Beth
Jacob notes that the rate of
addiction to alcoholism among
Jews is equivalent to the popula
tion as a whole. If the national
statistic is that 10 percent of the
population are alcoholics, that
*mlr, antha,ahaif - miiii ° ni o
600,000 Jews are addicted The
rabbi is convinced that thousands
of Jews in Atlanta have an alco
hol problem.
In response the rabbi has
formed a group, called Genesis,
which meets regularly to deal
with its members’ situations and
needs. It could be considred an
extension of Alcoholics Anony
mous and has been in existence
for about three and a half years.
It began when a Methodist minis
ter, who was the spiritual HIv
Continued nexl p»P e -