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60 Pages
Thursday; May °4, 1989     Nisan 29, 5749
Secbno.Class Mail Registration Nuoibef 1683   Posiagp PaiO at Toronto
SOLroAMTY SERVICE
Ayelet Cohen, 14, reads from the Torah at a women's service at the Spanish and Portuguese Synagogue in Montreal, held in solidarity with women in Israel who wish to pray freely at the Western Wall. Looking on are Carmela Aigen (left) and Norma JosefA. [Howard Kay photo]
At Orthodox shul in Montreal
. :- By,:..- >
JANICE ARNOLD
MONTREAL-
In a break with tradition, about 75 women and girls
last week, conducted their own- service using the Torah at the Orthodox Spanish and Portuguese Synagpgue. ' The service, led by Nor-
ma Joseph, the congregation's rebbetzin, wks held in solidarity with womei? in Israel who iare seeking the right to worship togedier freely — including using
By
BEN ROSE
TORONTO -
. Expressing their solidarity with women who pray at the kotel (Westem Wall) in Jerusalem, 70 women held a religious service in the chapel at the downtowri branch of the Jewish Conr-rnunity Centre last week.
They then marched to the Israeli consulate on Bloor St: near Avenue Rd., a few wheeling baby carriages and strollers. About 10 men, most of them wearing kipot, also walked with the women. The peaceftil demonstration included singing and shofar blasts.
deadlines
Because of the Victoria : Day holiday the May 25 issue of The CJNwillgoto press earlier than usual.
Editorial deadline for the issue is Monday noon, May 15, in Toronto.
Advertisiiig deadlines are: Tuesday hodn. May 16 for classified arid or-' ganizations and Wednesday noon,. May 17 for display retail.
Rabbi Deborah Brin of Congregation Darchei Noam said it was the first time that an all women's service had been held in Toronto. She said its main purpose was to pro-test the violence against women praying at the Western Wall.
Margot Azen. one of three women who read from the Torah, said Orthodox women were among those attending to support the women's cause. Members of six different synagogues and temples were among the marchers, she said.
Iht shofar blasts were sounded by four men and one woman as traffic roared by on Bloor St.
Paula Caplan, a psychologist at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, spoke briefly to the demonstrators gathered on the south side of Bloor St. across from the consulate, as there was more room there.
Women who want to pray at the Kotel are now forced °to take men with them for protection, Caplan said. "Ultra-Orthodox meii are harassing them and tragically, ultra-Orthodox women scream, scratch, bite and
try to gouge out the eyes of the praying women," she said.
She said services were being held at the same time in Montreal, Vancouver, ; New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Boston, Philadelphia, and Tea Neck, NJ.
Caplan said the women in Jerusalem were accused of acting provocatively but she claimed there was nothing provocative in their actions.
Women have not yet reached equality with men in Jewish religious affairs but events show that it is sure to come, she said.
Her grandfather, a man in his 90s, and an Orthodox Jew, has written her a letter saying that elevating the status of women will be good for Judaism, she added.
At the service before the march, Elizabeth Bolton and Denni Leibowitz also read from the Torah while others taking part' were Liba Lesk, Marci (jilbert. Rabbi Brin, Sylvia : Solomon and Nora Gold
Sister Marge Boyle, of Sisters of Our . Lady of Sion, and a member of Christian-Jewish Dialogue also took part in the demonstration.
the Torah — 9t the Western Wall, Judaism's holiest , site.
Jewish women prayed with a Torah for the first time in recorded history at the WaU Dec. 1, during an international Jewish feminist conference, in whteh Joseph was a participant. In March, Israeli women who attempt^ to pray this way again were pelted with chairs and other articles by ultra-Orthodox men, who consider such acts to be a defilement when performed by women.
: The" Spanish and Portuguese service was held on the third day of Choi Ha-moed, simultaneously with another gathering of women at the Wall and a sbrv^ ice at the Bnai Zion Building in Manhattan.
The IVi-hour service, held in the chapel, was conducted in large part by Mary Ruth Gehr, a member of the Orthodox Shom-rim Laboker Congregation. It followed most of the regular Monday Shacharit service, except for a few. segments either considered unessential or on which a consensus has not been ' reached on whether women constitute a quorum for their recital, said Joseph.
A mixed Ashkenazir Sephardi rite was used, reflecting the makeup of the congregation. Most present, however, were ^lot Spanish and Portuguese members.
A minor modification was the substitution of the names of Jewish matri:_. archs, such as Miriam. Sarah and Ruth, in the place of patriarchs!,
[Cont'd, on page 15]
JERUSALEM (JPFS) -
Eighty leading Palestinians in the territories, in a unique public statement last week, rejected Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir's proposal for elections in the territories as an attempt to divide Palestinians and 'ignore our political legitimacy and legitimate aspirations."
The strongly-worded statement criticizes Shamir's election proposal and rules out "any elections prior to the withdrawal of the Israeli army."
(In Tunis, meanwhile, top PLO official Salah Khalaf — also known as Abu lyad — said the organization rejected elections in the territories without UN supervision and before Israeli withdrawal.)
The local declaration appears to be an attempt to close ranks with the PLO and counter Israeli media and official reports of local Palestinian interests in elections.
Signatories include leading supporters of both Yasser Arafat's Fatah and of left-wing factions in the PLO. They included Arab Studies head FaisalHussei-ni, Bir Zeit University professor Sari Nusseibeh, deposed Hebron mayor Mustafa Natshe, and Gaza Red Crescent Society director Haidar Abdel Shafi.
Describing Shamir's proposal as '' nothing more than a maneuver for the media to save Israel from its international isolation," the statement asserts that the FLO is "the sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian pebpte," and that "Shamir's proposal ignores this fact."
"The Palestinian people is an indivisible whole," the statiement says. "The attempt to select lc>cal representatives is an, attempt to divide our people into 'inside' and 'outside'
Palestinians . . . Negotiations must begin with the representatives of the Palestinian people as a whole, and not with the representatives of any fragment.
"Shamir's attempt to ignore the PLO is an attempt to ignore our political legitimacy as well as our legitimate aspirations. The rejection of negotiations with the PLO is a rejection of the existence of a Palestinian people searching for .self-determination."
The statement also asserts that "real peace in the region cannot be achieved by projects that are calculated to appeal to the media, to end tlvs uprising and to win time.". Instead, it says, Israel should recognize the Palestinians' right to security and an independent state, and the need to
negotiate with the PLO in an international conference wich should provide security guarantees—for f-ail--
states.:'    ; .r..  ■■ / ■
The United Nal^ions should administer the territories for a transitional period, the statement says.
Reacting to the statement, Shaniir said, "The Palestinians are mistaken if they think they will get something better than Israel's latest offers. We have given generous offers, but today we have already heard people rejecting them. We cannot be defeated by violence. Let there be no illusions, violence will not bring the establishment of a Palestinian state. There will be only one state in Israel — a Jewish ope." A Likud cabinet source
[Cont'd, on page 15]
in
ence
By
PAUL LUNGEN
WITH NEWS SERVICES
JERUSALEM-
The editor of the Jerusalem Post is "absolutely confident" the prestigious English-language daily will retain complete editorial independence following the paper's recent sale to a Canadian company.
The Post's editorial staff was told by David Radler, president of the purchaser, Hollinger Inc., Uiat the paper's "editorial independence and journalistic integrity" will be respected. Post managing editor An Rath told The'CJN in a telephone interview from Jerusalem.
; Speaking to the newspaper staff, Radler said ' 'We are looking forward to an ongoing relationship
with the people who niade the Jerusalem Post the important world-respected title that it is."
And Radler, in a telephone interview from Vancouver, told The CJN "I don't see any change (in editorial policy). Any changes be generated internally."
Hollinger Inc. is controlled by Canadian multimillionaire Conrad Black, along with Radler, Dixon Chant and Peter G. White, principal secretary to_ Prime Minister Brian Mulroney.
It owns.a chain of 80 daily newspapers in Canada and the U.S. (mostly in smaller centres) as well as Britain's Daily Telegraph arid 15% of Canada's Financial Post: It also has some 120 weeklies, includ-
[Cont'd. on page 14]
ton o
at
JERUSALEM (JPFS)-
Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir believes that last week's rejection of his proposal for elections in the territories by the PLO is "totally irrelevant."
In a statement, the PLO said elections were not acceptable before ' 'agreement is reached on a final settlement and Israel withdraws from the occupied territories." The Tunis statement, which was cosigned and also released in Tel Aviv by the Israel Communist Party, calls for a 2-state solution based on a return to the. pre-19^7 borders.
But sources-do-Shamir's office insisted that Shamir's plan "had nothing to do with the PLO," and the premier was determined to forge ahead with his plan regardless of the organization's position. .
Shamir also hopes that the Arab League, which will probably convene an
emergency summit meeting this month in Morocco, "will not offer any further support for the PLO or an international conference," said the sources.
Labor cabinet Minister Moshe Shahal, meanwhile, said that — from information he received on the PLO's talks with the U.S. and with European leaders—he had "no doubt that the PLO is agreeable to elections.'' Their continued riejedtion,
he reasoned, is a tactic aimed at securing stronger U.S. linkage between the elections and the final settlement, and recognition of the Palestinian, right to self-determination. , In any case, he said, the PLO would not be able to prevent elections from taking place, and would at the last moment "join the race" — as had occured during the last elections in the areas in 1976. /
Radio Moscow urges Israeli investment
JERUSALEM (JPFS)-Radio Moscow—has asked Israeli companies to invest in the Soviet Union, saying the lack of diplomats ties between the two countries was not an obstacle to trade.
During its nightly Hebrew-language broad-
cast recently, the radio provided the address, teF ephone and telex numbers of a Soviet trading" company.
Radio Moscow has been previously used mainly for commentary sharply critkal of Israel.