Page 4-The Canadian Jewish News. Thursday, February 11, 1993
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RECOMPENSE $10,000 REWARD
Arretez Les Profanations.Combattez Le Racisme
Stop Desecrations.Fight Racism
10,000 REWARD
Si: vous avez des informations visant ddecouvnreT condamner le(s) responsable. (s) ■des recenTs actes de vandalisme contre : les Synagogues.contactez:
If you have any information leading to the arrest and conviction of those responsible for the recent Synagogues vandalism please contact:
0
CCMMUNALfTT URBAINE DE MONTTREAL
842-6822
CONGRESJUIFCANADIEN CANADIAN JEWISH CONGRESS
931-7531
280-2215
Bv JANICE ARNOLD
MONTREAL -
Police have released to 77j(' Cana-dian Jewish News a copy of an anti-Semiiic letter sent last month to Beth Israel Beth Aaron Congregation in Cote" St. Luc, one of seven synagogues daubed with swastikas at the beginning of January.. .
bet. Lt. Rene Leduc said the letter, which is hand-written in pcxir English, is the: only physical evidence police have lodate in their investigation of the shul desecrations Jan. 1-2. and may or may not be connected to the vandalism.
The letter, postmarked in Montreal Jan, 18. was mailed to the Beth Israel Beth .■Xaron on Mackle Road. The letter itself was addressed to an individual (whose name has not been .relea.sed) and signed by-initials which appear to be :;HUN." , Much, of-it is illegible because of the peculiar spelling. It appears to accuse Jews of • "killing (a) patient" and spreading "disease, bacteria, viruses. • infection."
It concludes ■"People know your dirty job. we watching you. We ar heer."" (sic)
Leduc. who is chief of criminal investigations at Montreal Urban Community police station 15 in NOG. said police are making the letter public in the hop^ someone might recognize the handwriting.
Anyone with information is asked to called Del.-Set. TlufinBoudreau at 280-2515 or 280-2597_
Police also received a report from 'Lisette Sebag. who lives across the street from the Beth Rambam synagogue on Westminster Avenue in Cote St. Luc. where a 6-ihch swastika in red marker pen ink was found.
She told police, andjatei" Vie GJN. that early in,the morning of Jan.. 31 she saw two men and a woman out-
side the synagogue. When she yelled at them from her window.'they ran off to a car aboiit five or si.x houses away.
The only description she could pro-vide was that the meri were in their 30s.were white and had dark hair, and the woman was in her 20s and slender. The car they dro\ e off in was a dark color and had a noisy miiffler.
. .- She did not report to police what she later told'77;('C7/V about finding the words /"Juif and ""Nazi"" and several swastikas draw n on her house ^ the next day: ^ ■
She did not see their faces or any of the license number.
""I was born in Palestine, during the British mandate, and I remember .Arab terrorism at the time of indepen-, dence. These things make me very
■worried."
"The information she gave us does not help much." ^aid Leduc. He said his department has received only one call in connection with the $10,000 reward offered by Canadian Jewish Congress and the Sun Youth Organization, despite the distribution of lO.CXX) fliers aroiJnd Montreal advertising it. ■ ■
And that call was described by Leduc as vague ihformatioii by .someone who "heard something, from someone. who had heard something."
Two school buses used by a chas-sidic school located just outside Out-remont were painted with swastikas and anti-Seniitic graffiti while parked over the Jan. 30-31 weekend on Fair-mount Avenue, behind College Francais.
In Ottawa. St. Henri-Westmount Member of Parliament David Berg-er^called on Justice Minister Pierre Blais to support B'nai Brith's recom- : mendation that a royal commission on racism be established.
"'There is troubling evidence that
these are not isolated incidents. New groups are emerging in Canada, students are being recruited in our schools, and modem technologies are being used to propagate hatred:
In addition to the incidents involving Jewish targets. Berger. a Liber-
. al, pointed to the burning of a mosque and church, frequented by those of Haitian origin; and the murder by skinheads of a niiin they believed to be gay in the past few months. . Condemnations continue to come in from politicians and church groups, as the anti-Semitic incidents mount up. including Deputy Premier Lise Bacon, the Mehiber of the National
, Assembly for Chomedey. and Laval Mayor Gilles Vaillancourt.
Federal Miilticulturalism Minister Gerr'y Weiner said., ""No open and democratic society can afford to ignore the threat that such acts pose, not only to the individuals and community so singled out. but to the society itself.".
A group of 19 churches and religious organizations, largely of the Protestant evangelical tradition, issued a statement deploring the incidents and extending their sympathy and prayers to the Jewish community.
They quote Psalm 122:7: "May there be peace within your walls and .security within your citadels."
The Quebec office of the Canadian Council of Christians and Jews (CCCJ) asked Laval Mayor Vaillancourt and the Laval police to step up their efforts and vigilance to stop these crimes.
Christian-Jewish Dialogue of Montreal is circulating a petition throughout the city e.xpressing outrage at the anti-Semitic incidents, which it intends to present to the Jewish community at the Yom Hashoah commemoration in April..
By BEN ROSE
TORONTO -
Joseph Luttenberg walks ramrod-straight even though his right arm is paralyzed, an injury he sustained in the Israeli War of Independence.
He e.xudes the confidence and determination of the people he represents, the 40.(XK) Israeli soldiers and airmen who have been disabled fighting for their homeland.
Luttenberg's eyes blaze with pride when he recounts how Koty Gersho-ni. a blind and partially deaf double amputee, who has been a guest in Toronto homes, teaches African studies to students in Tel Aviv.
And when he tells about a quadriplegic veteran who studied law after his injury, rose to the rank of lieiitenant-colonel in the anny. and is now a judge in the territories, being driven to work every day.
""Our disabled veterans are in the Knesset, in government and in the universities." he said. '"If your head works, and you have a strong will, it can happen."
Joseph Luttenberg
When this 63-year-old veteran, born in Israel to Lithuanian Jews, who lost a son in the Yom Kippur War. gets on the subject of how well disabled Israeli veterans are hosted here through the efforts of Beit HaliKhem Canada and lival synagogues, he practically lifts off his chair..
""They all want tocome to.Canada." he said. "'When they come back they are so e.xcited. And it's wonderful to see how they reciprocate when their Toronto hosts visit Israel."
.\ total of 6.000 Israeli disabled \ete-rans have visited Jewish families in
war vet
Canada, the United States. G re Jit Britain and,other countries since the 1967 Six Day War.
Luttenberg is in Canada to bring local Beit Hal(Khem officers up to date on the $15 million centre now being built in Jerusalem, expected to open in 18 months, for which Beit Hakx-hem is raising $2 million in Canada to cover the cost of the centre's equipment. There are also centres in Tel Aviv and Haifa.
His optimism rises to the surface again when he relates how a Yugoslavian Jew by the name of Fleishman; who died in Switzerland, left $50 million to Jewish causes, including $5.5 million tor Beit Halochem (House of Warriors) and this enabled the Jerusa-lerhproject to be tx)m.'"I never met the man and no one seemed toknow much about him." Luttenberg said.
Another bonanza for Israeli veterans had its origins in Switzerland."When the Six Day War started, a committee in Switzerland began raising money for the Isi-aeli refugees they telt would have to come to other countries when Israel was destroyed in the war. They raised a million dollars but of course it wasn't needed for the purpose they had in mind. They .sent a mission to Israelto decide what to do with the money. It was like a dream for us. But we had stiff opposition from the Israeli minister of finance who also wanted the money. But we won out and received the money, except for S 100.000 which went to Ben Gurion University in the Negev." ; " .
The Israeli disabled veterans themselves pay AO percent of the organization's operating budget through fees, he said, but Beit Hakx-hem depends to a great extent on the generosity of Jew.s in the Diaspora for capital purposes.-
What some people fail to realize is that even in so-called: peactirne, the number of disabled veterans in Israel 'is rising 2.000 a year, as a result of injuries fighting the intifada arid sustained in training.
No other country in the world provides for its wounded soldiers to the same extent as Israel. Luttenberg said proudly. "And Israel integrates its rehabilitation services with the ministry of defence, a concept pioneered by David Ben Gurion. its first prirne minister, who realized that Israel would have to fight more than one war."
:However. despite the level of services in Israel itself, veterans are sometimes seni-'tlT other countries for treatment.for example, two pilots with ■"phantom pain" in their backs are being ministered to in the United States, while others are being fitted with artificial liiiibs in, the United States.
Israeli award recipients
NEW YORK -
.A Japane'se-American United States senator, a BriX"»klyn-bom chief rabbi of an Israeli community locat-- ed in Judea aind an organization of Israeli disabled war veterans recently recei\'ed The Defender of Jerusalem Award. ;
This year's recipients were U.S. Senator Daniel K. Inouye of Hawaii. Rabbi Shlomo Riskin. chief rabbi of Etrat. Israel and the Zahal Disabled Veterans Organization of Israel.
In one of his final addresses as Israel's ambassador to the United States. Zaiman Shoyal commended the achievements of the three recipients and linked the WQrk of each to enhancing the prospects of peace in theMiddle East.
He received an ovation from the crowd of more than 300 persons, .when he stated that United States and Israeli relations generally have remained favorable in recent years "mostly due to one man."Senator Daniel Inouve."
The senator, adisbled \var veteran, also was presented with a small menorah by another of the evening's, award recipients! the Zahal Disabled Veterans Organization. •
National chair Joseph Luttenberg accepted The Defender of Jerusalem Award on behalf of the organization's 40.000 members. The disabled war veterans, wounded during and since Isrdel's War of Independence, were honore;d as being "literal defenders of Jerusalem."
The third Defender of Jerusalem Award was presented to Rabbi Riskin who founded and serves as chief rabbi of Efrat. a spphi.sticatedJudean community which peacefully co-exi.sts withjts Arab neighbors.
First presented In 1983 by the Jabotinsky Foundation. The Detender of Jerusaiem Award annually recognizes and honors tho.se individuals or groups whose outstanding actions have contributed to-defending the rights of the Jewish people.