M-T
The Canadian Jewish News, Thursday, November 5, 1992-Page 5
Canada
receives
award for service^
OTTAWA -
Dorothy Reitman of Montreal, who has worked voluntarily to improve the lives of women over four decades, has been presented with the Governor General's Award in Commemoration of the Persons Case. The presentation was made by Governor General Ray Hnatyshyn recently at Government House.
The awards, presented to five women this year, commemorate "the lengthy legal and political battle for women's constitutional right to be recognized as persons" led by Nellie McClung, among others. Eventually, on Oct. 18. 1929, the British Privy Councildecided that Canadian women were persons and thus eligible for appointment to the Senate.
Established in 1979. the awards are presented annually to individuals who have made an outstanding contribution
toward promoting the equality of women in Canada.
Reitman's efforts on behalf of women include initiating pilot pfe-school enrichment and family life education programs for impoverishal mothers and their young children: establishing the Partage program for treating drug addicts; and founding Auberge Shalom Pour Femmes. a shelter for battered women.
As president of the Montreal section of the National Council of Jewish Women, she initiated a course in civics designed to teach women how to use the political system to bring about social change.
She also established the Conjoint Committee for Citizen Participation and Social Action, a coalition of the leaders of women's groups in Montreal.
As the first female president of Canadian Jewish Congress, Reitman established a status of women committee to encourage women's political and community involvement.
Other 1992 winners of the awards are Sandra Lovelace Sappier of Perth, N.B., Doreen Orman of Calgary, Shirley Robinson of Gloucester, Ont.. and Shelagh Wilkinson of Toronto.
"Through their lifelong dedication to women's equality, the recipients of the Governor General's Awards in Commemoration of the Persons Case have contributed substantially to building our nation." said Mary Collins, minister responsible for the status of women.
Nominations were submitted by individuals, women's groups and other organizations across Canada. Recipients were selected by an independent, seven-member committee, drawn from all regions of the country.
"OROT ISRAEL"
College for Women
mourns the loss of a beloved Chaver
R' NACHMAN SOKOL"PT
Reb Nachman was a dear friend, supporter and builder.
His deep devotion to and love for Orot Israel College-Elkana, Yeshivot Hesder, Medinat Israel, Mizrachi, Yeshivat Bnei Akiva Or Chaim and Uipanat Otot, and his total dedication to the ideals of Torah VAvodah are an inspiration to us all.
We extend sincerest condolences to wife Bertha, daughters Gloria Halberstadt and Merna Davidowitz, sons Marvin and Reuben Sokol, grandchildren, great-grandchildreri and to the entire family.
Rabbi Yehuda Felix Rosh HaMichkla
ByPAULLUNGEN
TORONTO -
A year ago, when Jeff Olin first read a Time rhagazine story covering an anti-Semitic speech by former City University of New York (CUNY) professor Leonard Jeffries, his immediate reaction was that Jeffries made "a number of extremely outrageous and clearly racist remarks."
But later, when Jeffries appeared on the Phil Donahue Show and attempted to mitigate his anti-Jewish views by pointing to his membership in the largely Jewish Pi Lambda Phi'. fraternity, Olin was aghast.
"I said, what? This guy's my fraternity brother? What's going on?"
Olin is president of Canada Kappa Alumni Association, the fraternity's alumni branch in Canada. It boasts about 400 members in chapters at the University of Toronto, the University of Western Ontario, The University of Windsor and , McGill University. The fraternity was established in 1895 at Yale University and has traditionally had a large proportion of Jewish members. Olin said.
Olin's shock at Jeffries' outrageous statement quickly turned to action as
he obtained a videotape and transcript of Jeffries' appearance on the Donahue show.
In it Jeffries, at that time he^d of the black studies department at CUNY, claimed that "It was around the synagogue [in Amsterdam) that the slavery system was established. . . [that there was] a conspiracy planned and plotted and programmed out of Hollywood. . . [where] Russian Jewry had a particular control over the movies and their financial partners, the Mafia, put together a system of destruction  of  the   black people."
When confronted by Donahue over his focus on Jews, Jeffries stated that "I was in college in the 1950s mth my Jewish fraternity brothers and I was very proud of that and most of them are very proud of me."
Soon after reviewing the videotape.
Olin called the fraternity's international office to voice his concern about the stain Jeffries' membership might place on the organization. He followed that up with a letter and petition alleging that Jeffries violated the fraternity's anti-racist code and should be expelled.
Since that time, he has spearheaded an effort, originating in the Toron-
to branch of the North America-wide fraternity, to remove Jeffries.
But he feels he has come up against a brick wall in the organization's head office.
"I'm concerned," Olin said. "What's clearly happening is that my . fraternity doesn't want to take action. It doesn't want to get involved. . . It's only paying lip service to the issue."
What's all the more galling for Olin is that while the fraternity is spinning its wheels and getting nowhere, CUNY fired Jeffries in March 1992 even though he was a tenured professor and head of a department.
Olin said that at a recent meeting of the fraternity's international council, he was told that a three-man committee was continuing its year-long investigation into the issue.
In a telephone interview from New York; Bennet Silverman, president of Pi Lambda Phi's international council, refused to comment on the issue. "It's fraternity business. I'm not discussing it in the press," he said.
Olin speculated that the fraternity might be concerned about heightening tensions between blacks and Jews and of running into a freedom of sjjeech argument.
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member CDIC
PEACE NOW presents a special public lecture with Colonel Meir Pa'il
In Toronto
Sunday, November 8 - 7:30 P.M. at OISE - 252 Bloor Street West
IiiMontreal
Tuesday, November 10 - 7:30 P.M. Centre Hillel - 5325 Gatineau
Bom in Jerusalem in 1926, Meir Pa'il volunteered for the Paimach at age 17 and eventually served as Deputy Battalion Commander in the War of Independence. In 1971, he retired as Colonel. Dr. Pa'il received his Ph.D. in History from Tel Aviv University in 1974 and was awarded the Itzhak Sadeh Prize for military history. He served as a member of the 8th. and 9th. Knessets asa senior representative of the Peace Initiative Camp. Since 1984, Meir Pa'il has been the academic director of the IDFs Historical Research Centre.
For more information contact Canadian Friends of Peace Now in Toronto at (416) 764-3997