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The Canadian Jewish News, Thursday, September 13^ 1984-Page 11
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Peaceful integration is essential
Synthesis of
By:'
J. B. SALSBERG -
Some readers niay think that this iseries, based on my recent visit to Israel, focuses excessively on the issue of AshkenazirSephardi integration. On the other hand, I received congratulations (JFrom a Sephardic Jew in Canada) for "the courage" to speak out, and for "telling the truth" about this festering problem.
Frankly, I don't think it is a sign of courage to dwell on what I believe to be most dangerous to Israel's future. It iSj rather, a matter of depicting the situation as I found it and as it was glaringly revealed in the recent Israeli general election.
Furthermore, no apologies are necessary for an extensive treatment of this problem if the commentator is convinced, as I am convinced, that next to defence the peaceftil integration of the two mainstreams of Israeli society — the Sephardic and Askienazic — is a supremely urgent task.
For those who may question my emphasis of the problem let me cite a few facts that were-revealed since I left Israel — 10 days after the election.
• Seventy percent of the Israeli electors who voted for Likiid are of the Sephardic cominu-
J.B.Salsberg
nity^and 70% of the electors who voted for Alignment are of the Ashkeriazic community. (This according to the well informed founder and editor of Israel's Yiddish daily, Mordechai Tzanin, in a correspondence to the NY Yiddish weekly, the Forward.)
• Ezer Weizman, the commander of Israel' s air force in the Six Day War, was the director of the Likud election campaign that brought Begin to power and he is now 5ie head of Yahad, a new political party. Weizrnan's Yahad list was i headed by him and by three outstanding generals (reserve) of the Israeli army. But in the army vote Meir Kahane's list attracted more votes than Weizman's party did, as he remarked ironically to an Israeli newspaperman recently. (Since the Sephardic population is now larger, by far, than the Ashkenazic it is, of course, reflected in the army ranks and a high perecen-tage of the Sephardic population does not approve of Weizman's present peace proposals.)
• Nathan Silver is a respected, successftil Canadian businessman and community leader who, with his wife Lil, (whose father, the late Yossel Cooper, I admired greatly) have homes in both Israel and Canada, Nathan Silver is also a.lifelong activist in the Revisionist niovement (Jabotinsky-Begin), one of the few intimates of Air. Begin and a boundless supporter of Likud,
According to a report in The CJN a week ago Mr. Silver addressed the TororitaChapter of Herut, the central force iii Israel's Likud party. As reported in this paper, iSilver said, during his analysis of the elections in Israel, ■ 'We gained in the poorer areas, but lost in the wealthier middle class areas."
Silver's report is, correct, but it raises many
profound questions about Israel's peculiar political alignments. The poor, unlike the custom elsewhere, voted in large numbers for the non-labor party while the "wealthier middle class," also unlike the worldwide pattern, voted for the Labor Party. Why? Only an undefstanding of the unfortunate cultural disharmony between the two major streams of Israeli society can help us perceive that political anomaly.
One could citie such examples without end. But enough has been revealed to leave no doubt that we are faced with a serious cultural divisivene^ that will be aggravated unless supreme enbrts are made by every responsible sector of Israeli society to reverse the damaging process.
A recent Israeli study concluded that the richest individual Israelis are not of Ashkenazic (European, American etc.) origin but of Sephardic origin (Middle East, Far East etc.).. But no one can question the fact that the majori-ty.of Israelis of Sephardic origin are among the poor of the country.
Insufficient efforts to avoid this condition go back to the early years of the new state and an altogether insufficient effort has been made in recent years to radically change the situation.
The poor usually live in crowded quarters and children bom and raised, in such conditions cannot, regardless oftheir native intelligence, reach the average scholastic levels of the better situated sector of the community.
But it would be entirely wrong to assume that considerable progress has not been made, The young of both communities serve together and fight side by side in Israel's defence forces. The number of commissioned officers in the armed and police forces of Sephardic origin has ris-
en. A similar process is-noted at the university level. .'T
The adults of both communities work side by side in Israel's enterprises.
That propinquity leads inevitably to happy marriages of members of the two communities. (Among my Israeli family and friends such happy unions are quite common.)
The former President of Israel was a Sephardic Jew, as is the present head of the • powerftil Histadrut and as an increasing number of leaders in air political parties.
All that, however, is but the beginning of what must become universal in Israeli society. Of course this cannot be achieved by the wave of a magic wand, and of course this is a process. But in modern tunes the tempo of any process can be increased many, many tunes faster than was the case in the past. And Israeli society needs to "catch up" with the utmost of speed.
In my own mind there is little doubt about the possibility of avoiding a lasting and fright-ftil division bnetween the two major branches of Israel society. I profoundly believe that the fii-ture of Israel will not be a "levantine" state as sbmQ Israelis fear, for that would lamentably weaken the ties between Jewish state and the Jewish majority in the rest of ^the world.
Nor do I envisage the future of Israel as being a carbon copy of East European or, for that matter, of present European-American Jewish civilization. It will, rather, be (if not deliberately disrupted) a synthesis of both cultures, a repository of what is best in both of our cultural heritages. It will be that or it will be a historic tragedy.
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Letters are welcome if they are in English no more than 250 words, typewritten with lines double spaced, and of uiterest to our reading public. Readers are cautioned not to make sweeping claims against persons or instiHU^ which they cannot verily, as libel laws are very stringent. We reserve the right to edit letters, which must bear the sender's address and handwritten signature.
HOLOCAUST PRATTLING
Presently on a sabbatical leave of absence from Concordia University in Berlin, I regret the necessity of responding to Irvin Mintz's scurrilous communication of 28th June, headed' 'Hermann a prattler?"
If Mintz considers Profs. H. M. Sachar and Max Dimontand the late Prof. Gerald Reitlinger to be "revisionist prattlers," he merely asserts a statement about himself.
If Mintz deems the murder of between 4.2 and 4.6 million Jews to constitute ''revisionist prattle," then let him please argue the issue with tfiose scholars who provided the information, and not with me who cites those scholars. Klaus j. Hermanii Berlin, Germany
CENSORING OR EDITING?
One of the tenets of The CJN is to allow readers the oi:^rtunity to express diverse viewpoints. I understand that moral ethics dictate limits which are well defined within the Canadian Charter of Human Rights.
. Within this context, however, my recent letter to the editor of The CJN, which was well within the limits aforementioned, was not edited as professionally proscribed as an editor's right but censored, and my viewpoint was taken out of context due to the arbitrary elimination of the last paragraphs. The letter was within the 256-word limit.
Manuel Linden
Toronto
Editor's note: Mr. Linden is mistaken on several scores. The Canadian Charter of Human Rights doesn't dictate to us whether we publish a letter or not. We only take dictates from our common sense.
He's ftirther mistaken in his assumption that we try to "censor" letters. As an editor, it's our ftinction to edit, and that's what we did when we edited out what we considered his extraneous paragraph,,
By the same criterion, we edited out an additional paragraph from his abpve letter. We must remind Reader Linden that it's our editorial prerogative to edit letters, even if they're less than 250 words in length, and indeed, if our common
sense tells us so, not to run the letter at all.
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EYES OF BEHOLDER Your art critic, Hijary Horlock, used the words
"stilted quality" to describe the oil paintings of Israeli artist Eitan Dvir.
I'm prejudiced, because he happens to be my husband.
.1 alsojrecognize that what's jilted is all in the eyes of the beholder. His portraits, as you can see by the enclosed Prayer of Innocence, are painted to stress the classic Jewish tradition and reflect the beauty and quietude of the inner person.
Your readers may see for theriiselves at 2 p.m. Sept. 16, when 15 of his paintings will be exhibited at Hamilton Place.
Therese Dvir
Hamilton
Prayer of Iiinocence ... by Eitan Dvir
CAN'T WIN WITH SHYLOCK I would like to respond to Rabbi Bernard Baskin's Aug. 23 article about The Merchant of Venice. I would like to share my personal footnote.
In 1969, when I was a grade 9 student in a high school m Windsor, 1 protested quite strongly when the negative traits of Shylock were discussed in my English class.
I was told by my non-Jewish teacher either put up with it and remain in the class, or I could leave the class as an act of protest that
was accepted by school. But, either way, I was responsible for the work for exams and tests.
When I protested, I was told I was just be-. ing too sensitive about Shylock as a Jewish stereotype. _^
\n closing, I. found it amusing, after reading Rabbi Baskin's moving article about Shylock, that the same paper a Jewish organization like PACE of the JCC could offer a field trip to see . . , what else? . . . The Merchant of Venice. Mindi. Langer Toronto
ELITIST POLTROONS
Recently, you reported that Montreal's Jewish Public Library is reinstating a system whereby 1984 graduates of Jewish high schools in Montreal will receive free memberships for one yedr. One must commend the institution for this uplifting gesture of charity.
It is a credit to the Jewish community of Montreal that we have a library that is willing to exempt the poor Jewish students of Cote St. Luc and Ville St. Laurent fmm paying the normal $10 fee, regularly accorded those of us not affluent enough to have graduated from Jewish high schools.
For a group of people that prides itself on its awareness of discrimination, this is a blatant case of educational bigotry.
Is it not more likely that students who cannot aff<nrd to attend Jewish high schodds diould receive free 1-year membership, rather than shell out the $10 they are probably less able to afford than their Bialik counterparts?
Invariably, this leads to a dangerous presumption on the part of the library. Although theJPL focuses its attention on literature ofajudak nature, is the library still not open to the general public?
Graduates of Jewish high schools tend to be Jewish, Graduates of non-Jevdsh high schols are not necessarily Jewish.
Is the JPL too pompous to believe that lion-Jewish graduates will not make use of its facilities (ks|Nte the library's Judak inclinations?
A D-minus to the JPL for educational stimulation. An A-plus for elitist poltroonism, Eddie Paul Montreal
CREDIT TO RUDY, ET AL
The winners of the Technion Science Fair have how r^med fipm their Israel trip and had a marvelous time touring the country and visiting with Technion people. We appreciated the announcement of their departure in your What's New column of Aug. 23.
The text under the picture made it sound as though the Canadian Technion Society alone was involved with the winners' trip to Technion. It is important to give proper credit to others.
The help of Rudy Brill and the B'nai B'rith Sar-nia - Port Huron Lodge (No. 2161), and the ex-
cellent service of the El Al Airlines, were important aspects of the grand prize winners' trip to the Technion and to Israel.
Debra Ektove
Toronto
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JEW NOT JEWELRY
The danger of a majority government for any party is that many a goOd man or woman is "swept out" while nonentities glide in on the coattails of able leaders.
The local incumbent MP in our area was strongly for Israel and Soviet Jewry. I decided to see what the opposition offered.
When I asked about Soviet Jewry, I was talked to about * * import duties'' and " free trade." It became clear that they meant Soviet Jewelry.
When I explained that Jews were people and not necklaces and rings, I was referred to the National Office for Toronto, as the worker said the candidate had no views on international matters.
The Nat'l. Office told me the stand its leader took on Canadian minority rights. I explained that Soviet Jews only wish they were Canadian rather than Soviet minority members.
I do not doubt the sincerity and interest of the Leader and his foreign affairs experts.
What saddens me is that, in an area that has 26.8% Jews in it, people would offer themselves as candidates for any real political party without a knowledge of the issues. Ray Havelock Toronto
KUDOS TO KOSHER HOSPITAL
Lying on your back for nearly two weeks in a Montreal hospital leaves you with lots of time to listen and to think.
It was during one of those long nights that the idea developed: What makes the Jewish General Jewish?
It is the special care and concern that permeates the doctors, the nurses, the orderlies, the housekeeping, the kitchen staff and dieticians?
But, then there is very good care in other hospitals as well.
So, what makes this hospital Jewish?
It seems it is the dietary laws, of which it is said in the Bible, "You shall not defile yourselves with any of the fcreepings that creep upon the earth." _
If these la\vs are applied and reign in this ulstitute, a pkice of emergency, how much more should they enter mto one's ordbary dr-cumstances like going outjor supper or traveling on a plane?
What makes the Jewish General Jewish? It is because they observe kashrut. After two weeks in your midst, thank you, Jewish General.
Ephraim Carlebach Ste. Agathe, Que.