Page 8 - The Canadian Jewish News, Thursday, October 13, 1983
M-T
World-National
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Letters are welcome if tiiey are in Engiisli, brief [no more than 250 words], typewritten [doable spaced, please], free of libel, and of interest to om* reading public. We reserve the right to edit letters.
* *•.*■■
"FREE SPEECH NOT SUPPRESSED"
The-CJN of Sept". 29 carriedacolumnby J. B. Salsberg entitled "In Crises, It's Wise to Listen To All Views" as well as a letter to the editor from Harry Steiner, with the heading, "Peace Now Merits Forum."
In apswer thereto, and in order to keep the facts straight, the position of the board of governors of
Beth Tzeaec Congregation in refusing its facilities to the Peace Now (Shalom Achshav) movement was as follows:
1. We were concerned that an advocacy meeting on behalf of a purely IsraeU political position could lead to a bitter confrontation among localJewiy.
2. We were concerned that the media would take advantage of the situation. Surely, we have had more than sufficient inaccurate and biased media exploitation of events related to Israel.
3. We were concerned lest Beth Tzedec as an institution could be interpreted by some as supporting the alms of the Peace Now movement.
move
By
JOSEPH POLAKOFF
WASHINGTON —
"Where else in the world do we have our embassy that is not in the capital?"
This was the question asked by three Colorado congressmen following a recent visit to Israel and the American Embassy in Tel Aviv.
All agreed the embassy should be moved to Jerusalem. "It's logical to me riot to treat Israel differently than any other country, "said Rep. Dan Schaefer. Congressmen Hank
Brown and Ray Kogov-sek agreed. "We should have our embassy where the capital is and the capital is decided by the nation,'' said Brown.
Under Israeli law, Jerusalem is a unified city and the capital of Israel. Nevertheless, virtually all nations with diplomatic missions^ in Israel maintain them in Tel Aviv.
The U.S. does not recognize East Jerusalem as under Israeli sovreignty and contends its future status is subject to negotiation, since Jordan occupied it until the Six Day War.
Visits
[Cont'd, from page 1]
allow the May 17 Lebanon - Israeli agreement to die.
The U.S. official rejected these suggestions, stressing that in the agreement Israel pledges "to remove itself entirely from Lebanon" once Syria and the FLO agree to withdraw "and that is something to build upon and not to throw out."
In the meantime, the CBC reported as The CJN
went to press that Syria would be given a new type of missile by Russia capable of carrying nuclear warheads. These missiles have never been deployed outside the -Soviet Union and the Warsaw Pact countries.
Saudi Arabia, while acting as a mediator between Syria and the Gemayel government in Lebanon, is believed to be paying for many of the weapons Syria is obtaining from the USSR.
Our meeting halls are not public halls. They are not made available to any and all causes willing to pay a fee.
It is absurd to suggest that there is suppression of free speech, when a multitude of other facilities are availablefor the sponsors of Peace Now. Two other-meetings have been held in Jewish institutions and a third is now scheduled.
The board of governors of Beth Tzedec, consisting of 30 elected members of the congregation, deliberated at considerable length on the pros and cons of the use of our premises, and in a democratic process took its stand on this issue by a substantial m^ority.
This letter is being written merely to make a simple explanation and with no other intent. We consider the matter to be closed.
Aaron S. Black,
President,
Beth Tzedec Congregation
Toronto
PEACE NOW AND INTOLERANCE
We are grateful to Harry Steiner ("Peace Now Merits Forum," Sept. 29 letters) for keeping us up to date on his ongoing crusade to transplant the Israeli Peace Now movement onto Canadian soil.
Surely he realize.s that, for a synagogue to grant the movement a platform, would imply a sympathy with its aims to the general public.
Very few synagogues would provide a forum for a movement seeking to make Hebron Judeh-rein any more than they would provide a forum for a movement to make Toronto Judenrein.
If Mr. Steiner views this as intolerance, he can take comfort in the fact that they probably agree with him in the city hall in Eckville. Gordon Uibach Toronto
FAN MAIL FOR TURKISH STORY
I would like to congratulate Sheldon Kirsh-
JOEL ANTHONY KERBEL
MEMBER OF THE BRITISH COLUMBIA. ONTARIO AND YUKON TERRITORY BARS
IS PLEASED TO ANNOUNCE THE OPENING OF HIS OFFICE FOR THE PRACTICE OF LAW IN ASSOCIATION WITH
DAVID HIMELFARB
■■ AT
SUITE 305 — :
55 YORK STREET TORONTO, CANADA M5J 1R7 TELEPHONE (416) 365-0505 V
VANCOUVER OFFICE: SUITE 600. 535 WEST GEORGIA STREET VANCOUVER, B.C. V6B tZ9 TELEPHONE (604) 687-6000
PREFERRED AREAS OF PRACTICE: International Business, Corporate-Commercial, Real Estate and the Law Pertaining to Entertainment, Media and the Arts.
fNF TREES GIVE SOMUCH MORE THAj\ THEY COST
JEWISH NATIONAL FUND
Toronto..... 638-7200 Hamihon. .527-7385
London......432-2139
Windsor......969-8733
Montreal.. .934-0313 Halifax. ...422-7491 Ottawa.......820-3835
ner for his Sept. 7 article ("Turkey still denies genocide charge"), in which he points out that Israel is succumbing to the advertising blandishments of the Turks who claim that the Ottoman Turks did not murder a million Armenian civilians in World War I.
I urge you to support Armenians who are campaigning for the permanent exhibit of the Armenian genocide committed by Turkey to be included in Washington's National Holocaust Museum.
SybelleJalielian
Toronto
PLEASE WRITE ME, BACHER LANDSMEN
Although I write this letter from South Africa, where I am on holiday,-1 live in Israel, to where I emigrated about six years ago, from SA. I read with great interest your article on the gathering of 250 members of a Bacher family in Canada (July 21, "Bacher family members reunite").
In SA there is only one Bacher family coming from Lithuania. In Israel the name is quite common, but all from Bulgaria etc.
I \yould very much like to make contact, with the Canadian or American side, but unfortunately you give no addresses.
Please write me, Bacher Landsman, at 19
Jehos aphat Hamelech, Herzlia Pituah, Israel. Morris Bacher Johannesbarg South Africa
JEWISH UNITY SPLIT BY REFORM?
With all due respect to Rabbi Dow Marmur of Holy Blossom Temple, the "split in the Jewish community'' he foresees if the Law- of Return is amended to include conversions according to ha-lacha, has already taken place ("Shamir is urged not to amend Law of Reform," CJN, Sept. 22).
The Reform movement, having decided decades ago to opt out of the halachic norm, has effectively split the Jewish community and cannot now claim "foul."
If, as Rabbi Marmur says, he is interested in the unity and cohesive-ness of the Jewish community, then he will send telegrams to the World Union of Progressive Judaism demanding:
a] Conversions be cdndncted according to halacha.
b] Rabbis who perform
inter-faith marriage l>e stripped of their tide.
c] Rescind the most recent and most divisive Reform change — ie. only a child of a Jewijsh mother is Jewish [not of a Jewish father].
Anyone familiar with Jewish history must know that strict adherence to halacha played a major unifying role and preserved Jewish traditions and values.
Let us hope we will one day fulfil the prophetic cry, "turn us to thee, O'Lord, and let us return; renew oar days as of old'' (Lamentations 5:21).
Rabbi Moshe Stem ShaareiTefiUah Congregation Toronto
CAUSE FOR MISGIVINGS
The space given by the Toronto Star recently in publicizing the anti-Israel ranting of Richard Arens (brother of Israel Defence Minister Moishe Arens) will undoubtedly cause much misgivings by the Jewish community; who have documented the anti-Israel sentiments of the Star over many months.
Personally, however, I am far more concerned over the small band of Jewish people in the community who give succor to the enemy by dieir continual destructive public criticism of Israel, and who thus gain far more m^la attention than warranted by their small numbers.
The fundamental
point at issne is that Israel is still hi an ofiBcial state of war with many Arab coontries, and that the PLO*s defined ob^ jective is the destmction of the State of Israel.
Legitimate political dissent in peacetime is one thing. But actions which, by their nature, give hope to the enemy in wartime and lead to the loss of Jewish lives, is a far more serious matter.
The guerrilla forces in Europe and elsewhere during the Second World War knew precisely how to treat traitors and quis-, lings.
While our reactions niust be more limited in scope, let us make sure
we at least isolate and shun them wherever they show their faces. And let us make quite clear to these creatures that they are unwelcome in our community, whether it be the synagogue, the community centre, or in any other sphere of Jewish communal or professional life.
Monty Robins
Toronto
STORY FULL OF '*BUBA MEISESr*
Don Carr's astonishingly one-sided picture of the Jews* return to Hebron (Sept. 29) presents a simple case of a few Jews minding their own business amidst 70,000 local Arabs.
The Jewish settlers, he implies, are maligned and slandered by Peace Now activists and others who want to make the Holy Places Judenrien.
It is high time to clear away the hypocrisy of some polemics on Jewish settiement of Judea and Samaria.
At issue has never been the right of Jews to live hi Hebron, Nablus, or other cities — on the same basis as Jews live m Toronto or New York or wherever.
At issue is the Israeli government's settlement policy, which officially and openly is designed to ensure the integration of these regions into an undivided and indivisible Greater Israel.
The Likud is deliberately spending huge sums to transform the national and political status of these regions, to break up the continuity of areas densely populated by Arabs.
In the process, the government has sanctioned extravagant lawlessness on the part of_ Israeli settlers, has set a clearly defined double standard for lawbreakers, punishing Arabs severely while allowing Jewish vigilantes to go free.
The Hebrew press is full of these issues, and a recently released Knesset report documented them fully. Tens of thousands of Israelis, including Peace Now, charge that what is happening will undermine the Jewish character of Israel as well as its ethical foundations.
Don Carr may know about these matters, but prefers to relate to Canadian Jews the rebbitzin Levinger's bubba meises.
Michael R. Marrus
Toronto
UKRAINE WAS BED OF THORNS
I hope the 4-day conference on World War II Jewish-Ukrainian relations at McMaster University in Hamilton Oct. 17 to 20 will show that the life of Jews in that period was a bed of thorns.
When Poland was conducting in the 1930s a ruthless economic boycott against the Jews, the Ukrainians — though themselves persecuted by the Poles — jumped on the bandwagon, introducing their own relentless boycott of the Jews.
And the collaboration of the Ukrainians with the Nazis — their zealous participation in the tormenting, robbings, beatings, shooting of Jews in the ghettos and concentration camps, as well as the killings perpetrated by the Bander-ovtsi — should not be omitted.
Joachim Schoenfeld Toronto
A/bvlng To Israel? Cbnlad Us I
COMPtSTE r^ACICINa 8t SHiPPINO
• FREC esTHVlATES
♦ MAR^E INSURANCE
# 3^MqNtHSlFRi£STORAae , •V • CONTAINERSERViCE
• AIR CAR^O
♦ AOTOftftOBILESHlPMNG
Call
1 -
From Montreal
CO. LTD.
# DUTY FRE^SHOmNG
• 220 VOLT APiPUANCES
Toll FREE
Call Collect
561-9882
iiliiP