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56 Pages
Thursday, May 13, 1993 lyar 22, 5753
• Publications Mail Registration No. 1683 - PQstaae.Paid at Toronto
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NEO-NAZIS, JEWISH STUDENTS CLASH
Members of North American Jewish Students' Network-Canada last week clashed with neo-Nazis when the students attempted to deliver a 4,000-name petition to Ontario Attorney-General Marion Boyd calling for the layuig of hate charges against pro-Nazi publisher Ernst Zundel. They were confronted by several neo-Nazis, including the leader of the far-right Heritage Front, Wolfgang Droege (right, with beard) and George Burdie (in sunglasses), head of the Toronto cell of the Church of the Creator. [Ron Csillag photo]
Due to the Victoria Day statutory holiday and Shavuot TTjf CJN offices will be closed May 24 and May 26-27: As a result, early deadlines will apply for the May 27.and June 3 issues. ' ^-
For the May 27 issue the editorial deadline is Tuesday, May 18. For classified and organizations, deadline is May 18 at noon.
Display advertising deadline is Wednesday, May 19 at noon.'
For the June 3 issue the editorial deadline is Friday. May 21 at noon. The deadline for advertising is Tuesday, May 25 at noon:
By JANICE ARNOLD
MONTREAL — A disciple of American black Muslim leader Louis Farrakhan lashed into the Jewi.sh groups that denounced his appearance at Cpncprdia University, calling them "lying, hypocrite, no-good bastards." but at the same lime denied that Farrakhan arid his extremist Nation of Islam are anti-Semitic. : Khallid Abdul Muhammad, "national assistant" to Farrakhan. ridiculed a statement by the B"nai Brith League for Human Rights and McGill Hillel Students Society calling him "a demagogue, a racist and an anti-Semite" that was handed out prior to his address to about 5(K) people, the great majority black and supportive, and mocked attempts to have him blocked from entering Canada.
Diverting from his scheduled topic on the murder of Malcolm X. Muhammiad said. "I'm going to take care of my Jew business first."
It was a stunning performance, rarely seen in Canada. Muhammad talked nonstop for two hours, never unsmiling as he defiantly lit into whites, with special atr tention to Jews. He attacked them for daring to show up and quietly protest his presence.
He called them "damn fools" for not realizing they were actually talking to him in the lobby.
He denied Farrakhaii had called Judaism "a gutter religion" because Muslims "revere" the Torah and its prophets, and respect Jewish believers. . "My teacher and mentor knows, the difference between Judaism and Zionism, and between what one professes: and practises."
. Instead, he insisted the remark was fabricated by the Jewish press to derail Jesse Jackson's presidential bid.
"How arrogant you are to think you are the only Semites in the world. Are you anti-Semitic for the way you are treating the Arabs and the Palestinians?." he asked, later bringing in Israel's "'unholy alliance" with South Africa.
He accused "so-called" Jews of "professing one religion and practising another" and falsely claiming that they are the Chosen People, that the State of Israelis the fulfillment of biblical prophecy, and that they were slaves in Egypt.
He challenged Jews to bring on ''their professor 'Goldberg' and professor 'Goldstein' and he would debate them.
(Cont'd, on page 9]
By PAUL LUNGEN
TORONTO — It is said there is nothing new under the sun.
At the dawn of Jewish history, the patriarch Abraham was faced with a problem that today's Jewish parents could readily identify with. An.x-ious to see his son married. Abraham called his most trusted servant to his side and made him swear an oath.
"Thou shalt not take a wife for my son of the daughters of the Canaanites, ainong whom I dwell," Abraham said, according to the book of Genesis."But thou shall go unto my country, and to my kindred, and take a wife for my son. even for Isaac." :
Following the patriarch's instructions and, according to tradition, with angels guiding the way. the faiSiftil servant found Rebecca — Abraham's
intermarriage
re issues
vea in
takes a look at the causes of and
of a two-part series.
great-niece — as a suitable wife for Isaac. The rest, as they say, is biblical history.
While some will argue that the world has changed a Ipt since biblical days, and that Ruth the Moabite is not the same as Ruth Cohen today. Jews still face the issue of mixed mairriiiges and continuity, perhaps as never before;
With increasing frequency, Jews are marrying from among the modern-day "Caniianites'' among whom they live.
The familiar, anecdotal stories of friends and relatives marrying outside the faith are backed by the most recent sociological data as well. A 1991 study published by the Jewish Federation of Greater Toronto confirmed that intermarriage rates have been increasing since 1961. . The study, titled A First Look, found that before 1961. only two percent of Toronto Jews married outside the faith. From 1961-70 the number
rose to eight percent. Between 1976-80 it clinribed to 12 percent and the rate'jumped to 28 percent between 1981-85. Although the data showed a drop in mixed marriages to 20 percent in the period since 1986 (some in the field dispute the accuracy of that figure), the overall trend has caused a great deal of concern among Jewish communal organizations as well as anguish among many parentis who see their children marrying non-Jews.
Jewish organizations become even more concerned by the prospect that peak intermarriage rates have not yet been reached. They worry that Canada may be following the U.S. lead in this respect, albeit one generation later. Nationwide in the United States. 52 percent of current marriages involve a Jew with a non-Jewish partrier.
At its October. 1992 General Assembly in New York, the Council of Jewish Federations made "continuity" the meeting's buzzword and its
number one domestic priority.
Spurred in part by the U.S; statistics and the fear that Canada may one day emulate them, the Toronto federation struck a task force late la.st year to study the issue arid develop a series of recqmmendations that could be applied in a practical manner. The l6-member task force, which is chaired by longtime community volunteer Aaron Brotriian, is also mandated to suggest way.v of funding the yet to be proposed programs.
Brotman acknowledges that the issues facings the cornmittee are complex —^perhaps even ot biblical proportions — and that despite the inclusion of members from diverse backgrounds, ages and ideological convictions, as well, as canvassing abroad spectrum of views, the task force will come Under criticism regardless of its findings.
{Cont'd, on page 2]
TV'S impact concerns Wallin
Page 5
Warsaw Ghetto commemoration
Page 11
Simon Wiesenthal interview
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