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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 -