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The Canadian Jewish News/Thursday, March 20,1980 -Boge 5
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75-year-old artist holds a one-man exhibitioii after decades of sketcbing, painting, carving
SPEAKER ON HOLOCAUST
Rev. Stanford Lncykj of Ilmotiiy Eaton Mem^ Chnrdi, Tonmto, explains how text from New Testa-i ment can be misinterpreted a« denonctatfon of Judaism. He pairtMpatod In a confmnce for Q clergy and edacators organized by Holocaost Remembrance Committee of Toronto Jewbh Congress.^ _ lie conference took place at Holy Blossom Temple. Please^ tarn to page (me for comj^te report.!
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ByMOtJRAy^OLPEBT
HAftnLTON-
After a lifetime of sketching, painting, darv-hig, finally, at the age of. _;75>. his first one-man
show. ■■■ , Eor^-Emil Lederer, the opening of his one-week exhibition at the Jewish Community Centre on Sunday, March 23, is an event that should have • taken place long ago but fate, and circumstances, decreed otherwise.
But. retired how from the life of a farmer -— not ; the gentlemanly kind but that of the real, hardworking man of the land— Lederer has no regrets. I And although at last able to do what he has always wanted to do, his life as a farmer hiad. been consciously chosen and there has never been any time to wish otherwise. He is hot a man to look back and say ; "If. . .'•
In the bleak winter landscape, the little one-room schoolhouse in nearby Mount Hope stands lonely
and deserted. Inside, it is a haven of warmth and colorbook shelves line the paneled walls, paintings, wooden carvings and other artjobjects in every available space, a studio upstairs in the attic. A collection of-classical re-i cords, a large TV set "our concert Hall and theatre" - and from the open kitchen the smell of coffee and freshly-baked strudel. And living not too far, away, their daughter Doris Popper and her family — the reason Emil and Edith Lederer moved to Mount Hope in 1971 to the hoiise their twin sons converted for them.
Bom in the German-speaking northwestern corner of Czechoslovakia, the youngest of 10, Lederer showed obvious talent at an early age: While still in high school, his drawings were chosen for an exhibition in Prague. A couple of years followed at an art school in Dresden, Germany. But. he was already a Zioniist and de-J
Lev Ovsisher object bfgcUherine
200 demonstrate for a Refusenlk
EVERLEY STERN
TORONTO —
On a recent brilliant sunlit afternoon at the Anshei Minsk Synagogue in the old Kensington area of Toronto, a crowd of over 200 men, women and youth gathered to show they cared about a 61-year-old Soviet Jewish war hero living thousands of miles away.
Col. Lev Ovsisher, a former bomber pilot who . ^woalT'ipedids.in the last war and considered the leading Refusenik in Mmst,' a city of about 150,000 Jews — has been trying for the last eight years to join his only daughter in Israel. /
Stripped of rank, pension and job, Ovsisher has •aroused the ire of Soviet authorities for his open sujpport of causes on behalf, of Soviet Jewry. '
the Toronto Committee for Lev Ovsisher, whose parent orgamizationp is Friends of Pioneerinjg Israel, chose the 50-year-old Toronto synagogue—-pnce ihe congregation of Minsk refugees — as the site for its first demonstration for the. Minsk hero.'
The "Free Colonel Lev Ovsiisher'' program, as it was called, included the color guard of the Toronto post of the Jewish War Veterans of Canada, Temple Sinai cantor Severin Weingort, Temple Sinai choir led by Ben Steinberg and four leading figures from the Jewish community. ^ ■ ■ ■
The four spokesmen were: Genya Intrator, national vice-president of the
Canadian Committee for Soviet Jewry; Emil Fackr enheim, philosophy professor. University of Toronto; Leo Heaps, war veteran and Canadian aiuthor; and Alan Borovoy, general counsel for the Canadian Civil Liberties Association.
The audience, which included about 100 Russian immigrants, broke into applause when informed about recent attempts to secure Ovsis-'her's release, v
Joel Hirsch, -29, chair-nisin of the lV>ronto ;Com-mittee, said newly appointed solicitor rgeneral,. Bob. Kaplan, gave * 'a written commitment to introduce a resolution in the House of Commons asking the Soviet authorities to let Ovsisher go to Israel." . _
In an interview with The Canadian Jewish News, Mrs. Intrator, who spoke to Ovsisher by telephone about 15 times, said he sounded "despondent" when she spoke to him on March 5. '
Mrs. Intrator said Ovsisher told her that "a storm is brewing in Russia'' because of recent events in Afghanistan and the possible cancellation of the Olympics.
"He said the mood of the Refuseniks was very 'low' and was filled with 'apprehension.' Over and over, he thanked us for our support.
"When he heard about our demonstration, not just in Toronto, but also out in Vancouver and-Calgary, he said the news gave all the Refuseniks
courage to carry on.
"Without the connection with Jews outside of Russia, he said the Refuseniks would 'collapse' ," Mrs. Intrator said. .
Reinforcing Ovsisher's concerns, speakers Heaps and Borovoy emphasized the fragility of human rights and concern for constant vigilance.
"We live in a world of diminishing freedoms, especially across Africa, Asia . and eastern Europe," Heaps said. "Even though our freedoms in this country sometimes appear eroded, Canada is still one of the few places in the world where people.can still speak their minds.
Along with Heaps,
Borovoy stressed that "human rights for no one are safe unless the hiiman rights for all men are safe." Borovoy argued that "demonstrations achieve a lot more than is realized."
"Thaws in Soviet policy come about when it becomes too politically costly to pursue policies of oppression," he said.
Borovoy dismissed the thesis that detente would be undermined by constant pressure on the Soviet Union to clean uj) its act'Oii-ciVil rights. "In any case," he said, "human rights is not a price we should pay for detente, desirable as that may be."
Recalling his visit three years ago to the Soviet
Union, Prof. Fackenheim reported on the annual ceremony Ovsisher organized in Minsk to pay tribute to the memory of 5,000 Minsk Jews massacred by the Nazis in March 1943.
"The KGB tried to stop Ovsisher frdm speaking and to break up the rally, but the crowd chanted for Ovsisher. '
"Ovsisher rose," said Fackenheim, "and told a chebring throng that 'our Jewish history was nothing to be ashamed of. Jewish heroes could compare with anyone else, and in the war against Nazi Germany. Jews contributed as much as anyone elseinthe Soviet Union'.",
Fackenheim said Ovsis-her's daring sorties over
Stalingrad had constituted a turning point in the Soviet war effort against the Germans.
Ovsisher's personal fortunes nosedived when he refused a request to all high-ranking Soviet personnel to denounce Israel after the Six Day War, said Fackenheim.
"We should all focus our artentionon liberating this man who saved the Soviet people from extermination," he urged.
Lev-Ovsisher committees haye sprung up in Vancouver, Calgary, London, Eng. and in the states of New York and New
Anyone interested, in working with a. Lev Ovsisher committee should call 635-9977. ^
of Forest Hills
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Windsor indents study Holocaust
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By ANITA HURWITZ
WINDSOR-7
Two University of Windsor students recently initiated a program of Holocaust education at a local high school. —
To-get their project off_ the ground, Debbie Matheus^and Stan Gordon took over history teacher >John Tomlinson's,classes for one day at Riverside Secondary School. In the audience, in addition to the students, were J. Henderson, history co-ordinator for the Windsor Board of Education, Elizabeth Kishkdn, local CBC radio'interviewer and researcher, a priest, and a social studies resource person for elementary sdiOob m Windsor.
Humerous concerns werie raised: Why the Jews? Could the Holocaust happen in Canada? How could such criminal atrocities go undetected? < As an introduction to
the brainstorming ses-. sion, the students were shown the movie. Night and Fog, a French docu- , mentary with subtitles, about Auschwitz.
"They were horrified... and very angry," said Gordon. ^ -
Miss Matheus, 24, who is working on her master's degree in sociology, and Gordon, 25, a certified' history teacher, tried to make the.events of the Holocaust a learning ex- f perience. "We must be aware of what can happen when prejudice turns into ■ hatred and that hatred' becomes an obsession," she said.y
"We must act as springr ■ boards, ".emphasized Miss Matheus, "so that teachers will reach their students i in a humaiiistic maimer -1- reach kids on a gut level."
If Just two or three students arC^truly af-. fected." she added, "we have achieved our goal."
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cided to prepare for emigration to Palestine by apprenticing as a blacksmith and working as a farm hand for Jewish, farmer, Aloys Popper, who later followed him to Canada and eventually became his. daughter's father-in-law.
He served his two-year stint in the Czech army, took up mushroom,farming near Theresienstadt, married and moved to Teplitz-Schoenau and a new job as a clothing store manager, his dreams of a life in Palestine shattered' by the return of an older brother who had found the
life of a chalutz too difficult.
It was while, he was doing his reserve army duty in 1938 at the time of Munich that Lederer realized what was coming. With characteristic ehergy and determination - and a touch of the fierce temper he claims to have - he cut through bureaucratic slow-motion to obtain a visa and, within days of his release from service, was on a boat to Canada with his wife and daughter but very little else.
For seven years he farmed in the Annapolis Valley of Nova ' Scotia,
where the twins were born ■ - both are now landscape architects, Paul - in Washington and Peter in.., Haifa - followed by 25 years as a chicken farmer in'New Jersey. But with sketchbook always at hand, Lederer never felt himself less of an artist. Nor does he regret his lack of formal training.
"Ignorance is bliss," he offers happily, his lively dark eyes glinting with humor. Schooling, one gathers, would have cramped his style. Winter courses at Mohawk College have been useful for life classes and afforded the opportunity to be With young people, but he prefers to be free to do what he pleases.
And there seems to be little that he hasn't tried. Wood-block prints painstakingly hand-pr^aced with the aid of his wife's best Wooden spoon, bils of typical central Eirropean landscapes, abstracts with a political message ("in which case they are no longer abstract"), carvings of mainly biblical characters and water-colors of Israel, which he and his wife visit every two years. ■
~ The exhibition opeBs Sunday, March 23, at 7:30 p.m. at the Jewish Com-mnnHy Centre, ST.JkUm- . Ware AyeV*nd wIO be. open 9 a.m. to 10 p.m., Monday throngh Thais-day, 9 a.m. tin 4:30 pjs. on Friday, Marcb 28.
CANADIAN FRIENDS OFAMAL
Give an ISRAELI CHILD an EDUCATION, Honor a friend or loved one. Send an AMAL SIMCHA OR SYMPATHY CARD.
Toronto: 2.72 CodseU Ave. Downsview, Ont.
M3H 3X2 (416)636-3751
Montreal: -4770 Kent Ave;, # 301 , Montreal, Que. H3W 1H2 (514)735-1593
Emll Lederer, 75, still pats in a hard day's work.
Orthodox Synagogue Requires Cantor
For a Vibrant and • Young Suburban Synagogue - .located 15 minutes from Downtown Montreal. Send Resume, Salary Requirements, Picutre & Tape to:
Rabbi Dr. Mordecai E, Zeitz, Congregation Beth tikvah 136 Westpark Boulevard DoUard des Ormeaux, Quebec.
H9A2K2 : :
Telephone Area Code - 514 - 683-5610.