Page 10-The Canadian Jewish News, Thursday. October 2, 1986
MT
But 406.000 other Refuseiiiks are still waiting
What a year 5746-has been!
At long last, Anatoly Scharansky was released, and his brother and mother. Israel and Moroccb's heads of state met in the first formal Arab-jeWish summit in nine years. And Prime Minister Peres has just met with Egyptian Pr^identHosni Mubarak^ U.S. President Ronald Reaganand Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mulroney.
The U.S.'s first Jewish astronaut, Jiidy Resnik, was killed with her crew when the space shuttle Challenger exploded.
Religious tensions in Israel flared. Jews were murdered In Larnaca, aboard the Achille Lauro, and in Beirut; a hate-crazed Egyptian soldier shot seven Israeli tourists to death in the $inai as his fellowslooked on. In Turkey, 21 Jews were massacred in a synagogue by Arab terrorists. Controversial Kurt Waldheim was elected president of Austria.
Two of Judaism's'leading authorities. Rabbis Moshe Feinstein and Jacob Kamenetzky, died within days of each other in New York.
Obituaries were also written for Benny doodman, Bernard Malamiid, Allah Jay Lerner and other prominent intellectuals and entertainers.
Raoul VVallenberg was named its first honorary citizen by Cjanada. The student preedom Caravan traveled across Canada to rally support for Soviet Jewry. Mainifestations of racial hatred ri^ared their heads. The Canadian Jewish Congress elected its first woman president, Montrealer Dorothy Reitman.
CJN staffers Janice Arnold, David Birkan, Ron Csillag, Mark Dodick, Sheldon Kirshner, Paul Lungen, Fraiik Rasky and Jeff Rosen elaborate.
No doubt a m^or highlight of the past year was the release of Anatoly Scharansky, the Soviet Union's bestrknown Prisoner of Conscience and the veryi symbol of the plight of; Soviet Jewry.
Scharansky. the 38-yeiir-old balding little c6ni-puter scientist, walked to freedom across the Glicnickc Bridge, linking East to West; on Feb. 'IK after serving nearly nine brutal years in a Soviet prison on charges of spying for the CIA,
The world watched with rapture as this man in baggy pants who endured so much, went in one day from a Soviet prison to. Jerusalem's Western Wall, carried on the shoulders of a surging crowd, with prayer book in hand.
Much to the pleasant surprise of world Jewry, the Soviets kept their word in allowing the rest of Scharansky's family to joinhim and. his wife Avitat. in Israel. In late August, Scharansky's mother. Ida Milgrom, aiid his brother Leonid, his wife and their two sons, left the Soviet Union for their triumphant reunion with Anatoly, or Natan, as he has come to be known in Hebrew-.
The situation for the Soviet Union's remaining 400,000 or so Refuseniks wasn't as sunny. In all of J985, just 1,139 Jews were allowed to tfmigrate and only 423 left in the first seven months of 1986.; • Ju.st prior to his summit meeting last fall with President Ronald Reagan. Soviet leader Mikhiail Gorbachev stated. "1 would be glad to hear of Jews enjoying any where such politicaland other rights as they have in our country.*' ;
Last August, a historic meeting between Soviet and Israeli officials in Helsinki broke off after only 90 minutes, presumably because the touchy subject of Soviet Jewish emigration was raised by the Israelis. The possible re-establishment lil consular ties between the Soviet Union and Israel, was seen warily by many as a way for the Soviets to gain a toehold in Mideast f)eace talks. .
On other international fronts, the election of Kurt Waldheim to the presidency of Austria shocked the world and sent a shiver up the spines of Jews everywhere. Substantiated charges by the World Jewish Congress aind the New York Times that Waldheim, as a German army officer during World W'ar II, ordered the deportation and killings of; thousands of Jews, Greek partisans and others in the Balkans, were heatedly denied by the former United Nations Secretary-General.
At first. Waldheim had said he was discharged from the German army after.bbing wounded in 1941 and returned to Vienna to study law. But later, he amended his story to say that while he did return to military duty, it had been as a translator. Throughout, Waldheim denied his Nazi links in the face of mounting evidence to the coritrary and said the charges were a smear campaign directed by the WJC. Despite an in-, conclusive preliminary vote, Waldheim. was elected president, a largely ceremonial post, in a runoff on June 8.
Andrija Artukovic, the 86vyear-old former interior minister of the Nazi puppet state of Croatia, was sentenced to death in May by a Yugolslavian court for war crimes andjcrjmes
Arabs have united to bppo.se its construction. Bis-edon leaked memos, the Mormon propeiiMly to project itsChiirch of the Latter Day Saints, and 'the proposed centre's proxiniity to the Hebrew University's brimming Mt. Scopus campus, the opponents fear it will Be used for proselytizing.; In fact. Israeli religidus affairs minister Ydsef Burg — head of the National Religious Party — head of a Kneisset commiittee to decide the centre's fate, declared that it was too la)e to stop the project. Inihe.U.S::';;;
• Reform leaders pledged to step up demands for. riiore say in Israeli religious affairs.
• The (Gon.servative) Rabbinical Assenibly ; voted down patrilineardescent. This principle
also deems as Jewish the children of a Jewish father whether the mother was Jewish or not. It was adopted by the Reform movement several years ago.; .■■
• Ner.Israel Ye.shiva (Toronto) graduate Neil Hosenbluni was gunned down erev Pesach in Pitt-; sburgh. Despite a substantialreward — miich of it raised in Toronto — his murderers remain at
The shroud-covered body of Rafael Nesim, a victim of the Shabbat murders in an Istanbul synagogue, is lowered into a grave in Israel. Nesim was one of twb Israelis who died in the terrorist attack. [Religidus News Service photo]
against humanity. The death sentence was upheld by Yugoslavia's; Federal Court in September.
Artukovic, who had been deported by the United States on Feb, 12 after living in California since 194.8, stood accused of irivolvement in the killing of at least 700.000 Serbs. Jews aiid gypsies.during World War II. He was found guilty of the charges in a Zagreb court after "ari emotional riionth-long trial.
In September. Artukovic's lawyers;said they would appeal the death sentence;
Another sensational Nazi trial got under way in Israel in March. John Demjanjuk, a 66-year-d!ld retired; auto worker from Cleveland, became the first suspected Nazi war criminal to be extFadited from the U.S. to Isi-ael to face charges that he had operated the gas chambers at Treblinka, where at least 900,000 Jews were killed. Formal charges have yet to be laid and Demjanjuk remains in an Israeli prison. The Israeli justice department .says Demjanjuk's trial will start in early 1987.
A Ukrainian, Demjanjuk denied the tharges at his pi-eliminar>' hearing, saying he was a victim of a Soviet-backed frameup. Doubts about his guilt grew when a Spanish survivor of Treblinka testified that Demjanjuk, was the wrong man. If foiindguilty^ Demjanjuk faces the deaith penalty.
On a brighter note, the World Union for ft-ogressive Judaism, the umbrella body of the world's 1.3 million Reform, Liberal aind Progressive Jew^, met in Toronto in AprG, the first time the. organization convened outside Europe or Israel.
After a 5-day convention, the WUPJ sounded an unprecedented and overwhelming w'rllingne.s.s to.iron out differences between them. Conservative and Oiihodox laciions, but vowed to stick to. their guns oh controversial issues like patrilineal descent.. Conversion and interpreting Jewish, law. ■ '
In a year of triumph and tragedy, the January explosion of the space shuttle Challenger and the loss of its crew was felt as a calamity throughout the.worid. The Jewish community had a special reason to grieve:;Judith Resnik, the first Jewish ■astronaut, was otie of the seven astronauts who lost their lives in the fiery accident.
A service in Resnik's memory drew more than 1.000 mourners to pay their respects at Teinple Israel, in Akron, her home town. She wa-s eulogized as a sensitive, talented and private person — not only a scientist, but a classical piahLst as welL A mission specialist on Challenger, Resnik was an electrical engineer. She received her doctorate frojnjhe University of Maryland in 1977; Resnik RaSTalso spent some time train-iiig for her shuttle duties at Spar Aerospace in
Toronto;
Not longafterthetragedy.JTA reported froni Jerusaleni that the Jewish Nationeil Fund planned to plant a forest of thousancis of trees in memory of .the astronauts. It was also announced that a physiotherapy room at the Beit Halochim . (rehabilitation centre) in Jerusalem would be. established in theii-memory..
Long suppressed religious issues involving Israel and the Diaspora carneclose to bursting over the past year. ,       \ ;
Still unresolved are:
• The nature of Ethiopian olim's formal salute to modem Judaism. Some have continued to demonstrate in Israel against the niininial Orthodox demands of ritual immersion, rejecting the offer of various officials to accompany them into the mikvah. They say their Judaism goes back uninterrupted to King Solomon's time and would be deriigrated by any symbolic conversion. Israeli religious leaders cite lack of verification, the probable inclusion of significant numbers of non-Jews in the Ethiopians' midst over the cen; turies, and the need for. them to recognize^ the supremacy of modern halacha as necessitating the proposed ceremony.  ;   ^ ^'
> Flaring tensions between zealous Orthodox and .secular Jews in Israel. The past years round of symbolic hostility was seit off by the placement of risque advertising posters at bus booths, an. affront to the residents of. many religious neighborhmnls. The perennial underiy-ing.issue remains. The ultra-Orthodox maintain that the administration of the Holy Land by a Jewish government that is secular and not ^ halachically based coristitutes a dangerous affront to Jewish tradition and to God;. One group, the Neturei Karta, applied for representation to the PLO's Palestine;National Council.
• The final form of Israel's Law of Return. Orthodox pressuj-es within Israel and without to exclude Reform-cohverted individuals from the Israeli definition of Jews were defeated in the Knesset. . Prime Minister Peres asked for a 15-year mprdtorium.
• The final disposition of the TempieMount. Judaism's holiest Site from the time Abraham nearly sacrificed his son Isaac on its .slope near-; ly 4,000 years ago. ShlomoGoren, Chief Rabbi of the IDF when Jerusalem was retaken by the Jews in the Six Day War, launched a new movement to persuade the Israeli government to take the Temple Mount back from the Arabs. He drew clear distinctions beween areas ritual ly permissible and; non-permissible to Jews, a; prerequisite for a Jewish presence on the Mount. The non-permissible area, the; site of the Holy of Holies, is relatively small and well defined. ;
• The fate of the Mormon centre to be built in Jerusalem. Jews of various beliefs and some
two of modern Jewry's leading sages died, within days of each other^ in March, in New York. Rabbi Moshe Feinsteih, foremost halachist. who pioneered decisions on birth control, test tube babies arid autopsies, passed away at 91. Rabbi Yaakov Kamerielzky, an Agudat Israel leader. Who served in Toronto in the40s, .;\^:as 95;- ■■■^
InCanada, Ontario's legislature passed a law facilitating the obtaining of a get by either party in a divorce.
The Deschenes Commission continued its investigation into Nazi war criminals living iii Canada, with the federal government extending the probe's mandate to Sept. 30. ,
Despite the extra tioie to complete jts work — its original Dec. 31, 1985 deadline had already been extended to June 30 — the federal probe de--cided not to travel to. the Soviet Union to gather evidence.
- At first; Commission spokesmen claimed absence of Soviet agreement 10 several condition.s prevented the extraterritorial evidenee-gaihering trip: However after the Soviets agreed to all conditions iricliiding a stipulation witnes,ses be questioned in accordance with Canadian rules of evidence — the Commission claimed insufficient lime for a foreign trip.
Spokesmen for Jewish organizations questioned the sincerity of the Commission in requesting access to Soviet-based evidence. David Matas, lawyer for the League for Human Rightis of B'naiB'rith Canada, said the Commission decision "tainted its credibility and cast doubt" on its report. ,
Sol Littman. Canadian representative for the Simon Wiesenthal Centre, said fears of trigger-; ing opposition from groups of East European origin was likely a factor in the GOmmi.ssion's decision.
Earlier, Soviet diplomats in Canada informed the ConimijNsion and the media that 34 witnesses; in the Soviet Union were prepared, to testify against two Canadians— one of them a former Torontorarea businessman.
A Soviet spokesman said the two are "accused of the nia.ss execution of Soviet citizens during the war."' One of the men, the Soviets said, was part of a Ukrainian unit which killed at lca.st 100 men, women and children.
Meanwhile, Prof. Irwin Cotler, Canadian Jewish Congress' counsel to the Comniissiori, repeated a call for the inquiry to follow evidentiary trails whercycr they may lead, including the Soviet Union. .. ;'' ,
He also called on the Commission to review the files of the UN Conimission on War Crimes. Cotler noted Canada had been a member of the UN Commission, had evaluated dossiers of suspected war criminals and had received individual files of stispected Nazis.
■ * -
Congress was bhe of a number of losers in a court challenge tO.Oritario legislation that extend^ ed government funding to Roman Catholic schix)ls but not to Jewish .schools.
Congress had argued before the Ontario Court of Appeal that Bill 30 favored one religious group and was unconstitutional. Congress lawyers stated that if Catholic schools were.to receive funding; through grade 13; then equality provisions under the Charter; of Rights and Freedoms require similar treatment to Jewish schools.
The court rejected that argument saying Catholic schools may receive special treatment as a result of the bargain struck at Confederation — a bargain that is not superceded by the Charter. ;■■■■',■;;.
Congress, as well as Other groups which in-tervetitd in the case, is appealiiig the decision to
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