Page 4-The Canadian Jewish News, 17, 1981
Editorial
:4
All liidi'Pi'ridfiil Cumrnuiiity Newspaper \er\'iii>: as :i torum for diverseviewpoiiits.
. Directors: , . Cnarles Bronfman. Donald Carr.Q.C. . .George A: Conbn, Jack Curriminqs, Murray B.'KoKier'. Albert J. Latnei. ■ Ray D. VVoKe. Rubin ZimmerrTian ■
Editdi .■Miiur ice. .Lucow • -. Assistant Editjjr. David.Birkari Business.Manager, Gary .Laforet. .' Advertising Manager .-Vera GMlmari Controller. Maurice Bronner ,
VOL. XXII, NO. 22 (2,070)
Published by .The Caiiadian Jeuish News
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Shortl>\after the Arab oil embargo, occasioned by the Torn Kippur War. the U.S. decided to establish a strategic oil reserve as emergency measure to protect itself from the ill winds of political blackmail. A site was chosen — the salt domes along the Gulf of Mexico — and oil was pumped into them. •
In the interval, the U.S. has amassed an estimated 121.5 million barrels of crude, snfflcieht to replace American oO imports for only three weel(s. The reserve was bnllt to hold 750 million barrels;
What accoonts for tlie seeming laxity? Purchases were halted in 1979 when the new Islamic regime in Iran reduced oU prodnctlon. Two years later, tjhe Reagan administration resumed the program. Recently, the President proposed spending $3.8 billion for the reserve b 1982, a wise decision.
But the Senate budget committee, in its haste to cut fat from the bone, pared $3 billipn from President Reagan's appropriation.
Suiprisingly, President Reagan has not protested. The $3.8 billion, as he knew, would have added at least 200,000 barrels to the reserve. Reagan is so intent on budget
cutting that he ignores a gap in the U.S. defence posture.
A recent issue of Science Magazine highlights the issue. Alvin Aim, the author of an article on the subject, emphasizes the urgent necessity of filling tlie salt domes quicldy. Aim, .who is director of Harvard's energy program, points out that an adequate reserve would shelter the U.S. from severe ^npply cutbacks, deter politically-motivated embargoes designed to pressure the government hito changing Its foreign policy and stem panic in an emergency situation.
Washington's deepening involvement iii the affairs of the Middle East is all the more reason for the administration to speak out forcefully. As it is, the U.S. is increasingly dependent on foreign oil — oil that could dry up overnight and cause havoc not only in Washington, but in West European capitals as well.
if the U. S. is so determined to improve Its , defense capabilities, then it is surely incumbent oh the administration to ensure that the strategic oil reserve does not suffer needlessly from neglect. To allow that to happen would endanger its own security and that of its allies in Europe, Asia and, of course, the Middle East.
Filmgoers owe William Wyler a great debt of gratitude.
Wyler, the movie director whose name is bidelibly associated with such grand films as "Ben Hur," "Wuthering Heights," and "Funny GW," died recently at 79.
' 'The industry has lost an irreplaceable director and an irreplaceable person," said Bette Davis upon hearing the news. "I will mourn him all mylife." \
Davis had good reason to voice sorrow. Wyler, who had a flaiir for showing off his stars to excellent advantage, promoted the Davis mystique through films like "Jezebel," "The Letter,'*.and "The Little Foxes." ;
In his best filnis, Wyler, the recipient of three Academy Awards, was a careful craftsman who' stressed simplicity. and clarity — qualities which .seem at a prcr miilm these days. He was not enthralled by some of the masters of the avant-garde, as innovative as they might be.
He dismissed "Last Year at Marienbad" curtly: "Eyerything a. director does miist help the story, and the performances. Otherwise, it is useless. Look at Marienbad. ... What isit? It's just another talking radio show with pcitures. Nobody acts. People
stand around while the author talks abotit the woodwork. There is nothing clever about confusion."
Confusion, and lack of purpose, rarely plagued Wyler's films. In "The Best Years of Our Lives," "Mrs. Miniver," and . ■'Friendly Persuasion," Wyler was. like a story teller Unwinding his re;am of surprises. For decades, he held a nation rapt. The characters he created, or elaborate'd iipon, became the stuff of legend in Hollywood.
.He Was born iti French Alsace of German-Jewish parents and brought to the U.S. by his cousin, Carl Laemmle, founder of Universal Pictures. Wyler was put to work in Laemmle's New Yorkpffii:e as a publicity agent, this was in 1921, when he was 19. Wyler had little formal education, but he loved the movies. Soon he was a prop man and a script clerk, hi. 1925, he began to direct short Westerns, and his career took off. He liisver looked back.
Recoghition was not something he lacked. Only John Ford, the great director, won more Academy Awards than Wyler. He was alucky man, but also an immensely , talented one. William Wyler lived a full life and he enriched and entertained millionsof people throughout the world.
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By DAVID BIRKAN
Mayer Amschel Rothschild died on Sept. 19. 1812. He was founder of the foremost Jewish banking dynasty and philanthropic family of the 19th century. His sons established themselves across Europe, the pride of Jews around the world and the bane of Its anti-semites.
Mayer Amschel, born in 1744, traded in antiques and old coins.: He came to the attention of William UC of Hesse-Kassel in 1764, the future ruler of the area and heir to the largest fortune in Europe. Mayer Amschel joined the group of bakers which loaned William money and which he would loan out to others in the circle of nobles and statesmen that ruled Europe.
Napoleon'sjdefeat of the Prussians in the Battle of Jena in 1806 led William to take his assets out of the continent. Mayer Amschel
-offered the best contact ^ his son Nathan (1777^1836) was an established business-
: inan in England by then. William entrusted Nathan with . all his interests. Nathan multiplipdWilliarn's fortune while amassing one of his.own.beconiing in the process the outstanding figure on the London stock
■ Exchange. . .
Nathan helped finance the Dnlce of Welllngtbn^s army In Spain. Nathan's son Uohel [1808-1879] led the struggle fdrj Jewish eoiancipktlpii in England. Lionel was elected to Parliament in 1847, its first
ipriu^ctiig Jew, and was finally allowed to take Unseat in 1858;
As liead of the leading banking house, in New Court ilJonel was lespoDsIbfe for numy loans to. tile govenunent, for relief of. the Irish fiunine, for prosecution of tlie Crimean War and for tlie pnrcliaae of controlling siuues hi the Suez Caiui. Meinlxira of the family were creatod-peers and lords. Tiiey
organized the Jewish community of England and have loomed large hi its leadership
-since. '
Mayer Amschel's son James (1792-1868) settled m Pans and founded the banking firm of Rothschild Freres. Despite widespread hostility and ; anti-semitism, the " French Rothschilds competed successfully with more established French bankers. •They helped develop mines, railroads and other industries across Europe.
Theyled France's Jewish community and developed its basic organization, which remains to this day. James Rothschild, along with. AdoIpheCremieux and Moses Montefiore, tried, by arousing public _ opinion and by direct intervention, -to ." alleviate the suffenng of the Jews of Damascus in 1840,,when they were falsely accused of killing a Dominican monk.
Best known in Jewish philanthrophy is James' third son, Edward (1845-1934)'who w^s instrumental in colonizing pre-state-hood. Israel. An .ardent supporter, of Zionisim, he founded ancTaideid a number of colonies in the Yishuy.At.his death, he left . about 125;000 acres and 30 settlements.
In 1954, James' remains were transferred . o Israel. : • .•' ■■.
/At their most prominerity the Rothschilds f. ere depicted by ariti-semites as an iiitematiorial Jewish cabal... as a danger to Cifiristian society that had .to be destroyed. As World War U loomed, the Rothschilds transferred ownership of their assets to neutral countries. The Nazis were frustrated in their many, attempts to grab : members of the family, .z''^'^..
The Rothschilds;c6ntin^et play an impOitantj if less prominent role in Western Europe, as much in their philanthropy and support: of the iarts as iri the affairs of business.-/ ■-A';- ■'■
IrcmMIsl(ln^m
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5 Europe^ U.S.
with this Issue SHELDON iORSHNER begins a new bi-weekly columm on Jewish affairs around the world.
Before the 1979 revolution which swept the shah out of power, the Jewish community in Iran was the largest in the Islamic world, numbering 70,000 to 80,000.
Frightened by the political, social and economic upheavals which accompanied the overthrow of the monarchy, Iran's Jews began to leave the country.
The exodus was given impetus by the execution of several well known Jewish ■ businessmen, who were accused of being "Zionist spies." and by the vociferous anti-Israel stance adopted by the new government in Teheran.
It didn't help matters, either, that some of the writings of Ayatollah Khomeini were patently anti-semitic.
Since the shah's nnceremoniousi departure, an estimate 40,000 to 50,000 Jews have emigrated, leaving Iran with a Jewish population of some 30,000^
Several thousand have gone to Israel and Western Europe, Joining Iranian Moslems who also chose exile. And, according to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, 25,0OO Jews have opted to immigrate to the U.S.
Most of the Jews have settled in Los Angeles, but sizeable comniunities of Iranian Jews are found in New York, Chicago and in other big U.S. cities.
They are middle class and upper middle class people who, upon reaching the U.S;, did not seek any financial assistance from the government or Jewish charitable agencies. As refugees, they were entitled to help, but so far, they appear to have managed without h.
Like all refugees, they have encountered problems. And one major one revolves around prayer. Having lived in one of the oldest Jewish communities — J[ews have dwelled in Iran for 2,500 years — Iranian Jews are deeply attached to ancient Jewish religious traditions; In the U.S., they have not found them practiced in synagoguies.
And so they haye begun to biiild their own congregations. In New York, the Jews of Masiiad — site of a mass forced conversion in 1839 — are putting up a synagogue in the Kew Gardens section of Queens, It is expected to be ready for use early next year.
For generations after 1839, Jews in Mashad practiced Judaism in secret. Nominally Moslems, they set up elaborate ruses so. that they could study Jewish law an^pray without being exposed. When they made pilgrimages to Mecca as supposed Moslems, they stopped in Jerusalem, too.
Umil the 1920s, when the shah's father seized control of Iran, Jews in Mashad could not observe Judaism openly. .
Jews, In Iran today are permitted.to practice their religion, but they do so unobtrusively, ever mindful that their . rulers regard Jews and Christians as dhimmis, or second-class citizens.
A new World Jewish Congress study says that press commentary being published In -Poland today displays "a remarkable preoccupation with the Jewish theme."
Written by Lukasz Hirszowicz, editor of the quarterly journal Soviet Jewish Affairs, the study is entitled "Jewish Themes in the Polish Crisis."
According to the writer, anti-semitism is part of a 'political package endorsed, in various ways, by conservatives within the Communist Party. As a result, liberals andr progressives oppose h largely because it is advocated by hard-liners. "Though the. Jewish community in Ptriand is Justified in feeling uneasy at tlie upsurge of anti-semitism in public life, including the official press and uncensored publications^ the Jewish theme today is hi reality used almost exclusively in the : hitemal Polish poUtical struggle," he contends. .■•
Poland is home to an estimated 6,000 Jews, the bulk of whom are elderly pensioners. Prior to 1968, the year of.the notorious anti-Zionist campaign, 30,000 . Jews livedin-Poland. On the eve of World War 11, .Poland's Jewish population was about 3.3 million.
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As memories fade and emotions dim, the enormity of the crimes committed by the Nazis during Worid War II recedes into the recesses ofhistory. -
It is relatively simple, in. such circumstances, for a manipulator to distort, mangle or misrepresent the truth about the Holocaust—a unique crime in the annals of mankind. ^
Of late, these manipulators have worked hard to discredit the veracity of the Holocaust.
In recent times, the most persuasive proponent of this "revisionist" view of history has been a 52-year-old French professor of literature at Lyons University. A professed leftH>f-centre liberal, Robert Fanrlsson caused a sensation hi France when lie caDed the existence of German gas chamliers and the massacre of Jews hi tlie Holocaust "a historic lie."
Faurisspn's conclusionSj published ■ in the -prestigious Le Monde, triggered widespread debate throughout France, straining or solidifying friendships much like the' Dreyfus affair had done. • His articlief was printed less than a month aftertheweekly magazine L'Express ran an exclusive interview • with-a former Vichy minister for'Jewish affairs, Louis Darquier de iPellepolx, who, was responsible for deporting 75,000 Jews from France during the war.
In response to questions about gas chambers at Auschwitz, he rieplied: ""nie Jews are always ready to do anything to make themselves interesting. The only things the Germans gassed were lice."
De Pellepolx's remarks, together with Fanrisson's thesis, liad an explosive effect, Faurisson was suspended from Ids pbst, and copies' of Ills ixioks — lie specializes In Rimbaud and Lantreambnt —'■. were destroyed hi a Paris bookshop. The French International League Against Racism and And-Semltism, and veteran iiistorhm Leon Poliakov, sued fadm.
"Thei)attle 1 am conducting is a ten"ible one," Faurisson said. "It is a battle for truth ... Of all the modem myths the most persistent and pernicious is that of the Nazi gas chambers. 1 want to explode it. I pity all those people who have been deluded by it, including the members of the Jewish younger generation."
The attorney representing the International League Against Racism and Anti-Semitism disagreed: "In my opinion, Faurisson is a mental crackpot. But Le Monde has given him respectability. His lies have now become an opinion in the cause of anti-semitism. It is necessary for us to set the record straight, so that future generations will know that the Holocaust against the Jews really happened. This is the only way in which we can guarantee it will not recur."
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Judge fined 6,000 marks
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Recently, a court In Paris handed down a Judgment on tiie case. Faurisson was convicted of inciting hatred and racial discrinihiation, given a 90-day suspended sentence, fined $9O0 ahd ordered to pay $3,500 to those who had filed suit against him.'
Although the verdict was a victory for truth, and a rebuke to Faurisson, like-minded purveyors liave not been chastened.
Last month, in West Germany, a former-judge was fined 6,000 marks fOr claiming that there were no gas chambers during the war, or indeed, any Jewish victims. , The man, Wilhelm Sfaglich, is the author
The railway tracks hi Auschwitz that the Allies could liave l>ombed.
of a recent pamphlet, "The Auschwitz Myth."
Historians contend that hundreds of thousands of Jews could have been saved had the Allies bombed Auschwitz or the rail lines leading to that death camp in Poland.
The debate is conjectural, of course, because the Allies did not attempt to level Auschwitz, or to knockout the railway going there.
In a forthcomhig book,' "Auschwitz and the Allies," British historian Marthi Gilbert examines the controversy, and finds that Britain and the U.S. could have Incapacitated Auschwitz's ovens if the will had been there.
It is a shocking indictment of the Allies' indifferent attitude toward Jewish suffering. Excerpts from Gilbert's book — to be published in Britain by MichaelJoseph—■ appeared recently in The Sunday Times of London.
According to Gilbert's account, the Jewish Agency representative in Geneva approached a British diplomat in Berne and told him that Hungarian Jewry was doomed. TTiis was in June of 1944, when the truth about Hitler's Final Solution was no longer a carefully kept secret.
The Jewish Agency urged the Allies to bomb Auschwitz or the railway lines to it. The recommendations were telegraphed to London and then forwarded to Anthony Eden in the, foreign : office, Winston Churchill. the prime minister, discussed the matter with Eden and Chaim Weizmann, president of the World Zionist Organiza-
tion. Churchill informed Eden he was in favorofthe Jewish Agency plan.
On July 15, when Hungarian Jews by the thousands were dying in Auschwitz every day. Sir Arcliibald Sinclair, secretary of state for air, wrote Eden and to|d him that the task Was beyond the Allles's capabUl-.ties.
Yet withhi two weeks of Sbidah-'s letter, U.S. Iiombers were dropping tons of bombs on oil refineries only 13 miles northeast of Auschwitz! On Aug. 8, one day later. Allied planes passed within Just a few miles of lAusciiwItz while flying supplies to support the Warsaw uprising against the German occupying force.
Twelve days later, a raid carried out by the 15th U.S. Air Force hit a synthetic oil and rubber plant very close to Auschwitz. On Sept. 13, the planes returned for another bombing run.
By mistake a few liombs fell on Auschwitz, destroying SS barracks and killing 13 SS men and 23 Jewish hunates.
"During this same bombing attack, a cluster of bombs was; dropped in error in Birkenau (a concentration camp contiguous to Auschwitz),." Gilbert writes dispassion^ ately. '-One of the bombs damaged the railway embankment leading into the camp, and the siding leading to the crematoria, A second borrib hit a bomb shelter, located between the crematoria sidings, killing 30 civilian workers/"
Like the British, the Americans rejected repeated pleas to pulverize Auschwitz, arguing that such a raid would divert aii-. power front vital industrial targets.
Ursnepo
against Soviet Jews who ask to leave
By J. B. SALSBERG
There are times when anger gives way to dismay and heartache. I experience this transidon of feeling at tlie moment in the case of the kremUn's treatment of the heroic and self-sacriflcing band of Jewish Refnseniks hi the USSR.
Such afeeling of sadness came upon me during the last few days as 1 tried to catch ■ up with the material on Soviet Jews that accumulated during the postal strike.
h is one thing to read and to be aware of the intolerable attitude of the Soviet government towards its. approximately 2Vi million Jews. BiItTf is another thing to read detailed descriptions of the suffering of prominent members of the Refusenik category.
It is difficult to absorb emotionally the . overall tragedy of tens of thousands .But one becomes emotionally captivated by the description of the suffering of A, B, e, etc. and their families who are caught' up in the nightmarish web -of Soviet vindictiveness.. Instead of thinking in terms of an amorphous mass, one feels poignantly the suffering of the many from the description of the suffering of a human being, of a human family. After extensive reading of such uidividual cases one cannot help but askr Why?
Why, President. Brezhnev, do yon pursue so punitive, so vengeful a policy towards those Soviet Jews wliose sole "crime" is that they adt to be aDowed to leave the country tliat persecutes them.
the country that allows tlie publication of inexcusable anti-semitic propaganda? Why the inhumanity?
TTiat Russia should be against emigration or that it should be violently anti-Israel is, of course, inexcusable but it. is, at least, understandable by the rules of formal logic. But why the sadism, why wreck lives of decent, well-intentioned people who wish to exercise the universal right to emigrate — a right that the USSR has given public consent to?
Why, for heaven's sake, torture a world-renowned scientists like Prof. Alexander Lemer, the dean of the Moscow Refusenik community, by denying his requests to be allowed to go to Israel or to engage in any and all forms of scientific work, despite woridwide protests?' ■ .'-.^ : . ■
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Prof. Lemer's a^)eal denied
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Why, in the name of common decency, did the kremlln deny Prof. Lemer!^B appeal to have the body of his wife Judith, who died on July 8, transported for burial hi Israel, where their daughter, Dr. Sonya Levin, has lived sfaicel973?
Why, for heaven's sake, do they do tUngs like that?
Why, did Soviet (injustice sentence Vladimir Slepak, an electronic engineer and a key figure in the struggle of Soviet Jewry, to five years exile in the ''Soviet Far East" where he slaves as a stoker in a boiler room, removed from family and friends? Why?
Slepak was found guilty of "malicious
hooliganism." What did that "hooligan" do? After 8 years of denial of an exit, visa, Slepak, on International Child's Day, hung a paper sign from his 8th storey apartment, which read:."Let us go to join our son in Israel." "What civilized country would be so severe in its treatment of one who tried to exercise the right to make a grievance known? Why this sadistic response to a legitimate complaint? .
Another favorite charge that Soviet authorities enjoy laying against activi-"^" ties and protesters is that of "slandering" or "defaming" the Soviet government and its social order. This is a doubly reprehensible pro-. cedure. First the accused is denied common justice (even when' formally: provided by the Soviet constitution) and if the aggrieved person makes known his grievance in writing or by word of mouth then the protester is charged with slandering the Soviet Union!
It's bizarre, it's grotesque; it's surrealism; it's all that, but it is also appalling-and a perversion of logic and simple justice and decency, h's like throwing a person in jail for disturbing -the peace because he cried out for help when attacked by gangsters on the -street. •
When meditating on this cynical and irrational behavior of Soviet authorities 1 am reminded of something that the late GoldaMeirsaid.
It was at the Brussels conference for Soviet Jews. When addressing the public meeting that closed that historic world conference she said:
The Soviet Union is a world power, it hashundreds of million of people, it is one of the two strongest military powers in the worid; why, then, are they afraid to let the Soviet Jews go to Israel (or elsewhere); ,why do they resort to such offensive and shameful practices; why do thfey offend not only the Jews but all _ fairminded people in the worid by then-oppressive and inhuman treatment of those who desire to leave? ,
To which I can sadly add: Why, oh why?