Page 2 - lie Canadian Jewish News, Thursday, March 20,1980
Worid News
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Hay in Berlin March 27
By RABBI W. GUNTHER PLAUT
"The megiUah win be read at 7:30," EUyaha Ben-EUssar told us. We'll see yon then."
Ben-Elissar is Israel's first ambassador to Egypt, a gifted personable man in his„40s who, with his second-in-cbmmand Joseph Hadas, heads the team which presides over the normalization process between the two former enemy states. It was the initial week of his service in Cairo, arid wherever he and his beautiful wife Nitza showed their faces, television and other newsmen were likely to be on. hand.
Strange: all the other Arab nations have withdrawn their ambalssadors, but Israel is there, its bliie-and-white banner still a source of wonderment and controversy.
Not, however, amongst the comrrion people. They have welcomed the Camp David agreement and the peace process. They want some improvement of their economic condition and trust Sadat's promise that peace is their surest way.
Opposition to normalization comes primarily from intellectuals, on and off campus, and from students. The leaders of the Moslem Brotherhood are also unhappy. To control th^se dissidents, Sadat relies on his wide popularity among the masses and on a series of separate security units which threaten instant action should the unrest of 1977 find a current equivalent.
At the same time Sadat insists that religion, academe and politics remain strictly separate. He is succeeding at present, and it is both his and Israel's hope that after a while the peace process will become irreversible.
. There are two synagogues functioning for Cairo's tiny Jewish remnant: in the small, quaint 800-year-old Ben Ezra building, and in the modern stately Lofty St. edifice where the Purim service was scheduled.
Of the 40,000 who not too long ago formed a proud coriimunity here, only 260 souls are left in the whole country — a hundreid in Alexandria and the rest (including M children) in Cairo. They and
several hundred Canadians and Americans i jammed into the synagogue for Purim, and a truly i festive air prevailed - with Egyptian and Israeli i security forces guarding the worshijjers and the i cameras whirring away. /
The children had home-made greggers: boxes ; filled with chick peas or somiething similar which i rattled as loudly as the best commercial product. \ The chanting of the megillah resounded to i Sephardic and Ashkenazic traditions; there were | welcoming speeches in French, English and ; Hebrew-and a plethora of excitement.
T have heard the niegillah read a multitude of 1 times, butnevefwith a greater mixture of joy and, i at the satne instance,; of sadness. The very ; presenceof large numbers of visitors underscored \ the 'smallness of the resident community. There i was a sense of hope-against-hope which spoke \ from the heart of one of the leaders.
"Perhaps the new relationship will bring some | Jews here," he said. "We; are an endangered i species, facing early extinction: But we must j hope, mustn't we?"
He pointed at the ambassador,' 'There above all j is our hope." j
two nights-later we were at the Cairo airport to j welcome the first direct flight from Tel Aviv. , j
My heart gave ajuriip when the El Al aircraft I came into sight and pulled to a halt in view of the j terniinal. Once again theklieg lights came out in j force as BenrElissar mounted the ramp and j greeted the incoming passengers, many of whom j were Israeli newsmen; I
In the reception hall we drank a she-hechiyanu j to the occasion and then it was time to get on j board. I had looked forward to. this opportunity [ and now it was on hand. From Tel Aviv to Cairo it \ had taken us a whole day, flying via Athens. Now : it was less than an hour, and on an Israeli aircraft, I to boot. j
It was a champagne flight in every way,.and = when we landed at Ben Gurion airport the 40 years \ of Moses'travel had been ciit down to 45 minutes. | More important, we arrived not in a land to be = conquered but one that said "Shalom! Welcome j home!" • \
TEL AVIV [JTA] —
The Maccabi Tel Aviv basketball team defeated the Real Madrid team of Spain 110-100 in a crucial game last weekin Tel Aviv before a sellout crowd of 10,000-plus of Tad Eliya-hu. The win automatically placed the Israeli team' in the Europiean Clip Final championship series, which will take place Mairch 27 in Beriin against Real Madrid.
In order to qualify for the European Cup game,
Daygui
the Maccabi five had to defeat the visitors from Spain by two points, having lost to them in a previous game in Spain by one tally.
The last time a Maccabi team played on a European Gup Championship final in. 1977. it won the title and the excitement in Tel Aviv was so widespread that on that particular evening Premier Yitzhak Rabin tried to anr nouhce his resignation but could not get on the air
- before im appreciable audience and postponed his announcement until the following day. . The heros of the game against Real Madrid werie Mickey" Berkowitz, who retui-ned to the Maccabi lineup after recovering from an ankle injury, who was the leading scorer in the contest v«th a total of
,29 points, and Lou Silver, former Harvard University star, now a dual citizen, who came up with 27 vital points.
(Uii Keren photo)
Ylgal Alien, who died recently at 61, Is Uld to rest In a cemeteiy' near his birthplace, Kfar Tayor. ADon was depnty prime minister anid forel^ minister, in several Labor governments. Heachlevedherostatnsdoring W*r of Independence.
Want ordination of women
reason
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Israel expropriates 1,000 acres and starts new row with U. S.
TEL AVrV (ZINSJ -
For two years, Moshe Dayan refused to divulge his reasons for joining the Begin govejnment and consistently avoided discussing the subject. Now, after leaving it, he has revealed the secret.
According to an article in Yediot Ahronot, Dayan rationalized that his decision to join the Likud cabinet stemmed from his conviction that he Could accomplish something
that others thought impossible namely to change Begin and to influence him to take steps which Begin previously would have never dreamed taking.
Dayian believed there would be a great differ-^Cnce between Begin as "opposition leader and
Begin as the prime minister. Dayan was also convinced that Begin would be able to venture doing
Space
NEW YORK [JCNS) —
The head of EI AI, Buna Shay it,, who has been meeting large, numbers of Orthodox Jewish leaders and travel agents here, has been asked to provide separate sections on El Al fliglits for davenning, and also to consider stricter observance of the Sabbath.
A representative of the Satmar Commanity asked that his group's koshered meat be used on EI AI flights.
One step the airline' is to take is to have religious books availalile on flights.
By JTA
Israel-US relations continued at a stormy pace last week as Israeli an-' nouhced the expropriation of 1,000 acres of Arab-owned property in East Jerusalem for the construction of 10.000 new housing units for Jews. The land is in territory annexed formally by Israel but the annexation is not recognized international-
■■ ly.
As was expected, the U.S. "deplored" the action.
"It was the minimum we could say if we were going to say anything," a U.S. official stated. He . managed to avoid mention of the touchy subject of the status of East Jerusalem — especially after Presi-^
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dent Carter's recent flip-flop regarding the UN resolution which con-dernned Jewish settlements in the occupied territori^, including Jerusalem'. Carter, however, said the expropriation could deal a blow to current Middle East peace talks.
Prime Minister Begin promptly rejected all criticism which he called "peculiar suspiciousness."
The proposed new housing project will be built between the existing French Hill and Neve Yaacov neighborhoods which are presently separated by Arab villages. It is designed to create a "Jewish territorial continuum" around the northern and eastern fringes of the city.
Meanwhile, President Carter's supporters intensified efforts to win back^wish supporters in the v«e of the UN resolu-tion.^kie New York toma-ry is scheduled for March 25 and Robert Strauss, Carter's campaign manager, and Sol Lmowitz, the President's special envoy to the Mideast, met with Jewish leaders to try and save Garter from the wrath of New York Jewish voters who are reportedly apparently incensed and concerned about current U.S. treatment of Israel.
New York Mayor Edward Koch, a Carter supporter, blamed Carter's "gang of five" for the anti-Israel UN resolution — Assistant Secretary of State Harold Saunders, Secretary of State Cyrus
Vance, National Security ■ Advisor Zbigniew Brze-zinski, Ambassador to the UN Donald McHenry and former UN Ambassador Andrew Young. Koch urged the President to quickly reaffirm his authority over the state of department "before the gang of five damages Israel." Koch said the voteat the UN has seriously damaged- the President's chances for •winning the New York prinia-
■ ry. . , ■ ■ ■
The President got a kind word from Ephraim Ev-ron, Israel's, ambassador to the U.S. In a speech condemning the UN vote, Evron said the President's repudiation of it "was an act of courage... we accept it in the spirit in which it was made...".'
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are out of work; more a possihUity
JERUSALEM [JCNS] —
There are now 40,000 Israelis out of work and once the government's new austerity measures start to bite in the coming: months, 'tills total is expected to rise by an additional 60% • to some 65,000.
This will make the unemployment rate 5%, the director-general of the Israeli Ministry of Labor, Israel Goralnik, told re-
porters here. . The disturbhig factor is that most of the pockets of unemployment are in development towns which, Goralnik said, was dne to the fact there are: difficulties in finding alternative employment once a job is lost. This situation is likely to impede the government's drive to get more people to move from the major, urban centres to ouUying districts.
(IPPA photo)
A heavy blanket of snow covered Jerusalem earlier this month, prompting yonnger residents of Israel's mountainous 'capital city to finrilc In the white stuff.
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Joseph J. Cummins:
Started seven weeklies
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LOS ANGELES [JCNS] —
Joseph Jonah Cummins; who has died, devoted 70 years of his 85-year lifespan to Jewish community journalism, and, as publisher of the^wefeklyB'nai B'rith M(e^enger)swas an influential voice in the affairs of Los Angeles Jewry. ■'■K'''',:-U/'-['.i'
During his career, Cimi-mins founded seven Jewish news weeklies and during the 1920s was the publisher of newspapers in Detroit. Toledo, Sjt. Louis and Los Angeles. As
editor of the Detroit Jewish Chronicle, he fought bitterly against the anti-semitic campaigns of Hen^ ry Ford in the Dearborn Independent.
He settled in Los Angeles in 1923, acquired the California Jewish Review the same year,. and merged it six years later with the B'nai B'rith Messenger (which is not connected with the fraternal organization). Three months ago, the Messenger published a spedlal edition to mark Cummins'
golden anniversary as publisher-editor. .
When Hitler came to power, his paper initiated a boycott campaign against Nazi products, and above every article stood the exhortation "Buy Nothing Made in Germany.*'
The son of an Orthodox rabbi, Cummins was a fervent anti-Communist and an equally ferVent champion of America and California. Throughout most of his newspaper career he was also a practicing lawyer. '
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what no other prime minister had been able to do — to "make far reaching concessions for the price of peace.
Dayan proved to have "been vindicated during the peace negotiations between Israel and Egypt. He also believed that the "new Begin'' would be ready for further compromise regarding Judea, Samaria and' the Gaza Strips When he became convinced that in that area Begin remained unyielding, Dayan decided to resign.
NEW YORK —
The Group for the Rabbinic Ordination of Women (GROW) has recently been reorganized to lobby for the immediate admission of women to the rabbinical school of Con-servative' Judaism, The Jewish Theological Semi-', nary of America.
Launched in February, 1979, GROW has been revamped to take a more active role in advocating women's ordination, as well as in educating mem-: bers of the Conservative movement in Jewish law and practice.
The initiial supporters of GROW, ranging from students to professionals, rabbis to lay people, expect to attract broad-based support from Conservative Judaism's rabbinate and laity across the
country. Response has already been overwhelming, sources say.
As part of its effort to educate members of the Conservative movement and to dispel mistaken notions about the ordination of women, GROW is establishing a speakers' bureau and a basic resource library available to air individuals and organizations; Plans have also been made for GROW to be represented at the international rabbinical assembly in May.
GROW's basic position was articulated in tiie final report of the Commission for the Study of the Ordination of Women as Rabbis, a panel of leading rabbis and lay people established by the rabbinical assembly three: years ago.
The report last spring concluded: "...there is no cogent argument on hala-chic grounds for denying a sincere, committed wo-, man the opportunity to study for and achieve the office of rabbi."
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