CONGRESS '77
The Canadian Jewish News, Friday, May 20,1977 - Pa^ 11
SECOND SECTION
'n alarms US.
ress
Pride in the accomplishments of Israel must be tempered by the fact that aliyah is on the wane and. in the Diaspora, intermarriage is accelerating at an alarming rate.
This was the message brought to the 18th plenary' session of the Canadian Jewish Congress by Rabbi Arthur Jiertzberg, president of the American Jewish Congress.
Addressing a large Congress audience immediately after speeches by Israel Ambassadors Chaim Herzog and Morde-chai Shalev. Hertzberg expressed concern that Israel needs S2.5 billion a year from the U.S. government and warned that "much can happen on the way to Washington*' which could affect the decisions of the
administration and Congress.
Turning to the question of aliyah, Hertzberg said that despite.adverse conditions for Jews in Russia, South America and South Africa, they are not going to Israel and said this is a problem that must be solved. "There is a Jewish brain drain," he commented, "but the brains are not on the move to Israel."' —- _
On the question of intermarriage, Hertzberg gave no statistics except to say that there is a great erosion of Judaism because so many in the U.S. are marrying out of the faith. He said the only reason the Canadian record is not as bad is "because you are still half a generation closer to the boat." He doubted the descendants of one-third of today's Jews would still be Jews.
The AJC president, who has a pulpit in Englewood. N.J.. called for a united worid-wide Jewry, with "one heart.one mind, one spirit," to solve its problems both in Israel and in the Diaspora. He said Jews lived top long on the goodwill of others and now that they have a spirit of independence, thanks to the establishment of Israel, "we can't become again a people who depend on those who like us today but not tomorrow."
Chaim Herzog, Israel's permanent representative at the United Nations, said the Arabs are only paying lip service,' 'which is the cheapest commodity in the Middle East." to the cause of peace and said that those who think the Arabs are taking a more moderate stand are gullible. He held out little hope for a successful solution to the
Arab-Israeli problem through the UN.
He said that in their relentless propagan-/la drive against Israel, the Arabs are trying to drive a wedge between Jew and Jew and many Jews "are falling into the trap" in believing that Arabs want a solution. He said "we must make it clear that no Jew will "speak to them unless they cease the sinister distinction between Israeli Jews and other Jews."
Herzog expressed pride in Israel's agricultural and industrial accomplishments and reported that exports of goods and services this year will total $4.5 billion and next year should reach $5.4 billion.
Israel's ambassador to Canada, Morde-chai Shalev, praised the friendly relations which exist between Canada and Israel and
said "it rests on firm foundations and is in a process of continuous expansion."
Shalev said there is a small group among the nations of the world that offers some resistance to the Arabs' anti-Israel crusade "and Canada is one of these select countries. It has a good record, perhaps better than most, in its voting pattern on the , slanderous resolutions at the United Nations and other international organizations."
. He said Israel deeply appreciates Canada's stand but added that "there is room for^ improvement in some positions taken by your country..[because"we think Canada's position should be measured by the yard-stickof its own standards and because of the high regard we have for the principles that
guide Canada in its international relations." '
Shalev added that while a vote by Canada at the UN and a position by Canada may count the same, officially, as that of any other country, "we know that its moral weight and its political significance are much higher and that is why we attach such great importance to the votes and positions taken by Canada."
Charles Bronfman, Congress associate executive chairman, presided at the session. He called on Saul Hayes for a tribute to Michael Garber, long associated with Congress, who died recently. Hayes said Garber "enriched our lives and leaves us a legacy in Congress for which we must be thankful and which we shall cherish."
'Not enough
representation from groups'
By LEWIS LEVENDEL Associate Editor
David Satok, the number two man in the Canadian Jewish Congress, chided his organization for ignoring many constituencies of the community.
Addressing about 300 delegates in a plenary session entitled "Community structures — the new reality," the CJC executive committee chairman said there is not proper representation from B'nai B'rith, Hadassah, the National Council of Jewish Women, synagogue groups (taking in about 50% of the organized community), the francophone community, academics and Israeli and Russian newcomers.
"Officers should actively seek them out." said Satok. "Things will not get done by waiting for them to come to us."
The Torontonian. in his address, called on national organizations to get together to allow for greater efficiency. ' 'Organizational yichus has to go by the board...Too many national organizations are trj'ing to do everything."
He also urged the CJC to provide service to organized communities other than the big cities, and to come to grips with the problems of Jewish education.
In his address, Alan Rose, new CJC executive vice-president, asked: "With two (Winnipeg and Toronto), and possibly three (Montreal) city states, does this mean the structure and by-laws of Congress should take recognition of the concept of the city state ratherthan the old systems of regions?" This system came into being at an entirely different time, he added, saying provisions would have to be made for smaller communities.
Congress, he continued, will have to" do less speaking from platforms and more listening from those who claim to be its constituencies.
Flora Naglie. a Montreal CJC officer, told the large audience that communal flexing of muscles by Congress and Allied Jewish Community Services in Montreal as to which is top dog is "a waste of time, money and personnel in a community riddled with serious problems."
She called for the combining of power, people and funds in one strong organization with a strong leadership.
Morley Globerman, past president of the Winnipeg Jewish Community Council, commented that if Congress was to become a federation of city states, it would have ia stronger voice in the I*)ational Budgeting Conference. He called for more involvement
of national organizations in the CJC and for Congress to become a national clearing house for Canadian Jewry.
The following day. there was a session on "funding priorities of the Canadian Jewish community" highlighted by the speech of Milton Harris. Toronto Jewish Congress president.
He warned an audience of about 125 persons "that it is going to be increasingly difficult for the community to maintain the level of consensus on the distribution of funds — The community might turn into warring factions fighting for dollars."
Harris explained that almost ever>' community organ-'ization is running a deficit. If the sense of community is lost, education, local Congress programs and fund-raising itself win suffer because cross-currents will lead to a much more difficult time for fund-raisers, he continued.
An end. of the consensus might also lead to the United Israel Appeal calling for a two-card campaign (local and Israel) Harris added.
He urged, as did many others at the session, for an end to the multiplicity of campaigns for Israeli institutions. The United Israel Appeal has to be the primary campaign, he asserted.
Hillel Becker, chairman of the AJCS executive committee, was pessimistic about continued funding by the Quebec government of Jewish'education. He made his remarks prior to Rene Le-vesque's address.
He explained one of Montreal's particular problems is helping support 20.000 indigent persons.
' Globerman told the session fund^raisers and spenders should be the same people.
CJN National Director Steve Airi urged leadership not to assume things as given. "We have to re-examine our priorities," he said,' "We in Canadian Jewish life have been too reluctant to take a long look."
David Finestone of Montreal complained of the low-level of giving from professionals such as lawyers, doctors arid accountants and called for an educational process to raise this level.
Stephen Berger of Toronto said bequest funds are the answer to the money problems. And Harry Steiner of the same city urged that there be no confrontation, but accommodation on this matter.
Nat Hurwich. also of Toronto, argued that people have a right to give to Israel; institutions. "Everyone has a right to set his own priorities."
Congress Associate Executive Chairman Charles Bronfman (right) chats with Premier Rene Levesque prior to latter's address to 1,500 persons at luncheon during plenary assembly.
Four long-time Congress leaders get together. Monroe Abbey (second from left) and Saul Hayes (beside him) recehred the CJC's highest awards, the Samuel Bronfman Medals, from Judges Harold Lande (left) and Sydney M. Harris, at plenary.
No condemnation of separatism, Bill 1
maJntaMs non-
stance
Canadian Jewish Congress has resolved to increase its efforts in the protection of human rights because, in reference to the-Quebec situation, "nationalistic movements have in the past, sometimes encroached on civil liberties."
"The Canadian evolution," one of 24 resolutions passed at the plenary assembly, also calls on Congress to continue its support for bilin-gualism and multicultural-ism.
Despite protests fi^m several at the crowded resolutions session, no amendment ' was made to include a clause
condemning'Bill One or separatism. The resolution committee decided it would adhere to Congress' policy of maintaining a non-partisan stance. • Another resolution demanded that the candidacy of Roger Delorme be '*repudia~ ted and disavowed" by the Progressive Conservative Party.
In a session on community relations, CJC Executive Vice-President Alan Rose labelled Delorme "a hate-monger". He said it's only a political question for the Conservative Party, but a moral question that he might have a voice in Parliament.
Steve Ain
Alan Rose
The Canadian media does not have a great deal of influence on the formulation of Canadian government foreign policy, says the Canada-Israel Committee's director of communications.
Nicholas Simmonds, in a speech during a workshop session to an overflow crowd of 400, cited as ah example Mark Gayn's scathing attack on Canadian Middle East policy in Canada's largest circulation daily, the Toronto Star, last year.
"It appears that the mandarins in the External Affairs Department heard oral reports on the article and had to send somebody out to buy a copy of the Star because the only newspaper they read -.regularly is The Globe and Mail."
Gayh is one of the rare breed of Canadian journalists vrith a good foreign affairs background, said Simmonds, who has held 'nis position for 18 months. "There is a paucity of qualified Canadian journalists with international experience," he said, noting most information Canadians receive is culled from foreign sources.
By and large, said the Toronto-based media specialist, the image of Israel in the Canadian press is favorable with some notable ^^excep-tions.
An example of a media display of negative attitudes.
according to Simmonds. is As It Happens, the top-rated CBC radio pop news show. "In addition to taking a fairly jaundiced view of Israel and a somewhat romantic view of the PLO," said Simmonds, "it strangely decided that the report of the Commission on Economic Coercion and Discrimination, which h>t the front pages of' newspapers across the countrj- and the national newscasts, was not newsworthy and chose to ignore it entirely." He noted that in Toronto; however, the program isheard by only 50% of the audience CFRB has at the same time, i
He also attacked CBC's National TV news for failure to run an on-the-spot-report on the • 'Good Fence,!' despite the fact that CBS News, which the National uses for much of its foreign reporting, carried the story in some detail, as did CTV National News.
Throughout much of his address, Simmonds was critical of the media.
"...We have a duty to ourselves and to the cause in which we all believe, to be realistic and accept that we are dealing with a commodity, which is produced by big media to make money and that journalists, often despite claims to the contraryj-are-np more objective or/1mpartial , than you or I. /
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The Canadian gbyemment should be stropgly'urged to adopt legisiaottn outlawing public and private compliance in Canada'with the Arab boycott, it was resolved, as the boycott is discriminatory and "totally abhorrent to Canadian, morality."
Other resolutions include that Congress:
— prepare for the federal authorities a well-documented brief outlining new facts and arguments in relation to war criminals: frhis presentation to the; government should be parti of an effort organized across the countr>-to make the public aware of the war criminal problem. It was suggested in the resolution that this be done in a "dramatic and striking" manner, although this was not clarified;
— assist the efforts of "Operation Recognition", which is seeking to allow the admission of Magen David Adom into the league of Red Cross societies;
— appointa staff person in each region to" oversee the concerns of youth and that an annual conference of youth be sponsored;
—- the public relations office and the publication of the Congress Bulletin, should be resumed because of the in-
creased communication needed with governments, the general and the Jewish communities;
— take over the sponsorship of Viewpoints magazine, in danger of suspension, from the Labor Zionist Movement of Canada;
— revitalize the Bureau of Demographic and Attitudinal Research, in view of the lack of socio-economic data that exists on Canadian Jewry;
— find means to increase the use of Yiddish and Hebrew; in its programs and
literature. This resolution sparked an emotional exchange on whether Yiddish should be considered the language of all or only Ash-kenazim;
— make it known to the Department of External Affairs its concerns about Soviet Jewry, so that it may relay them to the Conference on Security and Co-operation in Belgrade in June;
— welcome the establishment of a national committee for Jews in Arab lands to aid  the 800,000
Jewish refugees who have been ignored by world governments when discussing the Middle East;
— create expanded programs for outlying communities and
— re-examine the section of the Criminal Code dealing with hate propaganda.
Three amendments to the CJC constitution \yere passed almost unanimously. They are by-law 61, to allow the honorary president to serve more than one term; by-law 62, to create the position of an
associate chairman of the national executive (theposttdt? which Charles BronfinSi i^ appointed in May, 1976); and by-law 64, to permit the appointment of an executive vice-president, in addition to an executive-director.
By-law 63. that would have permitted all past presidents and chairmen to attend officers' meetings but have no vote, was defeated narrowly. The practice of allowing only immediate past presidents and chairmen to attend and have a vote will stand.
Jews of Europe face...
A's
Jews of Europe are faced with the possibility of a "spiritual holocaust." the 18th plenary assembly of the Canadian Jewish Congress was told by Lord Fisher of Camden, president of the Board of Deputies of British Jews.
Lord Fisher, one of 39 Jews in the British House of Lords, said "there is a general weakening of Jewish commit-
ment and consciousness, an erosion from within which in the long term can be as deadly as attack from without."
In Eastern Europe, he said, the aim of governments, as laid down by the Soviet Union, is the destruction of
the basis of western civilization."
In Western Europe there is little overt anti-Semitism, What there is. exists in the form of propaganda from extreme groups or an attempt to deny the Holocaust "to stifle guilt complexes." It is the
Jewish beliefs, Jewish prin-; Jews' own disregard for Ju-
ciples. the Jewish code of law — "indeed all that has been
Two of Congress's top officials share a lighter moment with Secretary of State John Roberts (right), ptibr to his speech. They are David Satok of Toronto, chanrman.of thena-tipnal executhre, and Dorothy Reitman of Montreal, who won, the contest as secretary.
daisrii that is causing the erosion of their position.
Lord Fisher said everjv effort must be made to get Jews out of Russia "for the hope lies only in that the Soviet Union w-ill be faced with the intractable problem-that the movement of Jews cannot be stopped naturally and there is a limit to the sadistic measures which the authorities can impose to destroy Jewish feeling."
U.S. community /leader Philip Klutznick, a former president of B'nai B'rith arid former cheirman of the goy--eming board of the World Jewish Congress,- said the worldmust come to the realization that Israel has a right to live.
The main problem, he said, is that Islam is a religion with a political cotinotation and cannot tolerate a non-Islamic entity in its midst — like Israel. Only time will overcome this attitude.
Klutznick declared that only the government of Israel can determine the terms of the eventual settlement with the Arabs and no other body or individuals should attempt to dictate'a solution.
He said Jewish education is becoming a matter for public
action and expressed the opinion that it is "legitimate" to teach Hebrew arid Jewish studies in schools and universities as part of world historj'. He called for public financial support for such a program.
Prior to the speeches by Lord Fisher and Klutznick, tw;o veteran Congress leaders. Saul Hayes and Monroe Abbey, were presented with the Samuel Bronfman Medal "for meritorious service." The presentation was made to Hayes by Judge Sydney M, Harris, and to Abbey by Judge Harold Lande.
Meanwhile, the National Committee for Jew-s in Arab Lands has asked Defence Minister Barney Danson to explain a letter to the committee chairman. Judy Feld Carr, in which he outlined reasons for not visiting with Jews of Damascus when he made an officiail visit there recently. Mrs. Carr had asked : Danson, in a letter on April 19. for these reasons.
She read Danson's reply (sent May 6) at a session of the Congress plenary. Danson said he was under con-sidetable time pressure and on a rigid schedule while in Damascus and did not have a free day, as he had requested.
He then said in his letter that "there were other aspects more germane to your specific concerns which have some hope of success, rather than publicity which might
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