Page 8-The Canadian Jewish News, Thursday, January 8,! 1987
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Logic of Mosw^ ^ mFrankfurt
We cannot help confessing to some small measure of satisfaction in discovering that Canada came under a rather brutal attack during a recent meeting of thcHelsinki Accords szroup held in Vienna (CJN /Dec..18). '
According lo William Bauer the Soviets delivered vituperative attacks against Canada (based oh a melange of clippings, moreover, from Canadian newspapers) alleging that this country condones anti-semitism and that it supports terrorism.
Canada supports tdrrorism?
Apparently the Soviets consider all Afghan fighters who oppose their presence in Afghanistan to be terrorists. Since Canada has gone on record at the United Nations and in Vienna as being opposed to the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, this country is considered ipso facto to be supportive of terrorism.
That is the kind of logic that can come only from someone schooled in Soviet double-think.
With regard to ahti-semitism, the. Soviet delegate at Vienna trot-^ ted out various articles about the activity in this country of such organizations as the Ku KIux Klan and the Aryan Nations as proof that Canada condones this anti-semitic posture.
For a Soviet representative to accijse Canada of being anti-semitic is a shameless act when all the world knows that it is the kremlin which has been the: main engine of anti-semitismJn the wof-ld (the Arabs running a close second). ■/
While it is true that anti-semitism exists in pr^nada (and this publication has reported on its magnitude and vira^6fice otlen) it must be remembered that in this country anti-.semitism is the preserve of the lunatic fringe. It has not, to our best knowledge, infected the government.s of our provinces or of our.country. ' In the Soviet, Union anti-semitism is part of state policy and is expressed in the'persecution, harassment and imprisonment of Refuseniks- in the foreign policy of the government towards the State of Israel and in the state-controlled press.
The fact that Canada was recently attacked by the Soviets over a human rishis issue shows that our delegates are doiniz their jobs well! ; ■ . ^   ' ■
Elie Wiesel's speech to the Nobel Prize assembly in Oslo (CJN Dec. 18) is notable for its expression of concern for suffering humanity.
Wiesel spoke eloquently of the individual travail of people such as Andrei Sakharov (since released). Lech Walesa and Nelson Mandela and described the plight of these peoples as a disgrace.
AViesel also alluded in his speech to the need to succor the Palestinian people, "for whom," he said, ''terrorism is no answer. . ; . "Violence and terrorism are not the answer. Something must be done about their suffering and soon. I trust Israel, for I have faith in the Jewish people. Let Israel be given a chance, let hatred and danger be removed from her horizon, and there will be peace in and around the Holy Land."
What Wiesel said about the suffering of the Palestinians is not surprising. In his book, A Jew Today^ Wiesel reflects jjrecisely in the same way about the human dimension of the Palestinian Arabs' unfortunate situation.
What.is more surprising, however, is that Wiesel's views on the Palestinians have become the object of both concern and controversy among certiain segments of the Jewish community. Wiesel has already been bitterly attacked in one New York City-based Jewish publication for his alleged failure to understand the nature of the Palestinians' hatred for Israel and the Jewish people.
The attack is misplaced and mean-spirited. . In Oslo, Wiesel said what had to be said about the tragic fate of. the former.Arab inhabitants of P'alestine. They have paid dearly for the ineptitude of their leaders. Thinking to bury Israel at its birth, those leaders bequested to their people a 40-year legacy of homelessness, deprivation and suffering — most.of it at the hands of their Arab cousins in Egypt, Jordan, Syria, Iraq and Saudi Arabia.;
In commiserating with their plight, Elie Wiesel was.highlighting the huhian dimension of their quandary. He was not commenting on the legitimacy of their political postures, Wiesel went out of his way, moreover, to condemn the violence ind terrorism which has been endemic to Palestinian politics..
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■    Bv- ■■-SHELDON KIRSHNER
Frankfurt, at the end of World War Il,.was all but destroyed. Allied bombing raids, having pounded the city relentlessly, left much of it in ruins, particularly the world-renowned medieval quarter.
The Jewish community was. for all practical purposes, non-exi.stcnt; Several hundred Jew.s, including tho.se of partial Jewish ancestry, had survived the Nazi regime. But they did riot constitute a community in any senseof the word.
That situation changed when Ea.st European Jewish concentration camp surv'ivors and Israelis of German origin scitlcd in Frankfurt. The growth of the Jewish population was such that, in 1965.' the first postwar Jewish school in Germany was opened! Today, about .5.5(X) Jews live there, making it West Germany's second largest Jewish Community after West Berhn.
Recently, the Jews of Frankfurt took another important step toward rebuilding when they inaugurated a $50 rnillion community centre containing a kindergarten, a primary school, a kosher restaurant, and religious, cultural, sports and entertainment facilities.
Financed by Jewish community and governmental funds, the centre is the first ofits kind in Frankfurt, according to its architect. In the pre-Nazi era, when assimilationist tendencies were prevailenr,: die Jews of Frankfurt had no pressing need for one. Attitudes have changed considerably since 1945 and novyadays assimilation is largely a creed of the past among German Jewry. ■;
Michael Friedmann, a communal leader, told Die Welt in an interview that the centre is "a place where Jews can enjoy their own way Of life."
Security is tight, with $7 million having been spent on bullet-proof windows and aclosedcircuit television monitoring systerri. Every hour or so, a police car drives past, and when children have finished.school, they are driven away together.
Die Welt says that threats "are coh-stantly being made," usually anonymously.
. The centre is located in the sedate West End section of the city, where Jewish real estate developers have been quite, active. To the dismay of some critics, they have torn down old buildings and replaced them with faceless highrise structures. . Rainer Werner Fassbinder, the late filmmaker, was one of Uiose who didn't like the changes taking place in the West End.Teh years ago, when he was reaching the height of his creative powers, he wrote a play that caused
Frankfurt Jewish centre
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VOL. XXVII, NO. 34 (2,336)
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eyebrows to be rai.scd. Entitled Garbage, the City and Death, n was a violent tale of frustrated love among homosexuals, pro.stitutcs and other people. One of its characters, an unscrupulous Jewish estate developer, 1s said to have been modeled after Ig-naz Bubis, a Polish Jew well-known in the Jewish community.
The play was due to have been premiered in Frankfurt's Little Theatre in October 1985, On opening night, a group of Jews occupied the stage, claiming it was anti-semitic, ar.d Garbage, the City and Death was canceled. The cancellation was applauded by politicians, union leaders and intellectuals.
But it upset Gunther Ruble, the director of the Little Theatre, who reportedly said the play should be staged because the "no-hunting seatson" was over for Jews in West Germany.
This quotation gained further notoriety when authors Henryk Broder and Heiher Lichtenstein used it in their books — The Eternal Anti-Semite znd The Fassbinder Controversy: The End of the No-Hunting Season,
Last June, Ruhle sued Broder and Lichtenstein, saying they had misquoted him. But last month, he dropped legal proceedings against the pair. Under the terms of their settlement, Brodei* ^and Lichtenstein agreed to delete the phrase "no-hunting season*' from futurie editions of their books, but are permitted to use' less inflammatory phrases that Ruble admits to having uttered.
Ruble told the court he did not intend to sound anti-semitic when he used expressions like "Jewish np-
hunting zones,'' ''areas," and "reservations.''Indeed, he disclaimed being anti-semitic. "Anti-semhism,'-' he declared, "issoitiething morally and politically reprehensible."
DESIGNER EXTRAORDINAIRE
Raymond Loewy, a French Jew, was a design genius who changed the look . of North American life: Called the "father of streamlining," he gave inanimate. objects a "packaged" appearance, putting his unique stamp on Coca-Gola dispensers, ,dinnerwarc, sewing machines, toasters, electric clocks, radios and television sets.
Ldwey, who died recently at 92, also designed the familiar eagle silhouette logotype of the United States Postal Service and.thedistinctive look of the President's white Air Force One jet.
Born in Paris, he was recognized as the most influential industrial designer in America. The company he formed in the early 1930s, Raymond Loewy Associates, became the largest industrial design flrm in the world. (It no longer exists.)
By 1939, Raymond Loewy Associatesh^d.more than lOO clients, with offices in New York, Chicago; South Bend, London and Sao Paulo. In consultation widi his client's engineers, he designed Stiidebaker automobiles,' International Harvester trucks, ^Frigidaires and aircraft fuselages for Lockheed. ^
There-^as hardly an area that escaped his touch. He designed die first all-welded locomotive, fireproof passengejD-liners and the interiors of New York department stores like Gimbels and Lord & Tayloc^-
During World War-ff, he directed die
design of the crarnped quarters (in sub-; marines and redesigned the rcd-and-green Lucky Strike cigarette package.
His artistic creed ' is well-remembered.: "Good design." he said."keeps- the user happy, the manufacturer in the hlack and the aesthete unoffended."
EDITOR PAR KXCKI LFNCK
The name Nathan Ausuhel may not ring a. bell. But Ausilbel was a tor-inidablc figure in Jewish.publishing.
He edited and/or compiled a series of books that have a place of honor in many Jewish libraries,
The works with which he is associated include Pictoriul History oj the Jewish People, A Treasury oj Jewish Folklore, A Treasury of Jewish Poets and Tlic. Book of Jewish Knowledge. .
Ausubel, who died in November at the age of 88, was born in Galicia. in what is now Poland, and immicratcd to the U.S. in 1902.        - ^
Ausubel's books were clearly written and   profusely   illustrated with photbgraphs, and adults and children alike could.enjoy them immensely. : He will be missed.
PRESS BARON
Robert Maxwell, the British tycoon, was in the news recently when he won a $375,000 libef case against Private EyeV the irrevereni riiagazinc. In his suit. Maxwell claimed that Private Eye had cast him in the role as a bullying., megaiomaniacal publisher.
"I'm a mari that everyone loves to hale," he has said, summarizing a life of success in his adopted homeland.:
Maxwell, the publisher of The Daily Mirror tabloid (circulation 3.6 million), has a fonune estimated at
$200; million, :
Born into a Jewish family 63 years ago, in Siovakia, Maxwell was known as Jan Ludwig Hoch before he changed his name. It appears he has ako tinkered with his religion.; A recent edition of the Jewish Ghroni-cle's glossy magazine, published in London, reveals that Maxwell "ceased to beapracticingjew'' beforehe immigrated to Britain on the eve of World War II.
The magazine reports that Maxwell wrote the Chronicle in 1964 to inform its editors that he was "now a member of the Church of England." However, in the same article. Maxwell is quoted as saying that he considers.himself Jewish and that he will "die Jewi.sh."
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Robert Maxwell