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The Canadian Jewish News, Thursday, June 18, 1992-Pagc 5
Canada
Father of oral polio vaccine takes aim at solar research
By FRANCES KRAFT
TORONTO-
Dr. Albert Sabin is a man with a purpose: solar energy research.
So convinced is the legendary 85-year-old physician (best known for his development of the oral polio vaccine) of the importance of solar energy research that he refused to discuss other issues during a recent interview in Toronto.
So convinced that, despite a recent hospitalization and bouts of precarious health over the last dozen years, he travelled to Toronto recently from his home in Washington to speak about the subject for 65 minutes, on his feet and without visibly tiring, to a group of supporters of the Weiz-mann Institute of Science's solar
more solar energy above ground than oil underground," he said.
To be practical, said Sabin. solar energy has to be converted into a form that can be stored, transported over large distances and recovered where it is piped.
energy
So convinced that last year he made a personal donation of $500,000 to Weizmann for solar energy research, and is now urging others to follow his example, enabling Weizniann to continue its solar energy research.
The snowy-haired former president of Weizmann declined to begin his speech at the tea until everybody found a seat, "whether on the floor or not." Close to 100 people, carefully dressed and coiffed for the tea held at a private home in Sabin's honor, sat down, some on chairs but most on the needlepoint rug in the elegantly furnished living room.
Sabin cogently outlined the urgent reasons for finding "an industrially feasible substitute" for oil, coal, and natural gas, among them the world's finite supply of fossil fuels, perhaps only ancKher 50 years' worth, he said.
Solar energy is an inexhaustible source of clean energy, without the drawbacks of nuclear energy, Sabin reminded his audience. "We have
Dr. Albert Sabin
Sabin spoke of the importance of having a viable pilot facility for solar energy "not on the campus.but in the desert."
Among the important things that have been achieved at Weizmann so far, said Sabin, was the denionstra-tion that "the dream of converting solar energy into chemical energy is possible, and [that] the resulting syngas (synthetic gas) can be stored and piped by already existing technologies.
"But what does it mean to achieve something on a small scqle?" Sabin askal rhetorically. "You have to show whether this can be scaled up to see whether it has any practical ap-
plic^on. That is where the Canadian fiacility comes in." (The institute's solar energy r^earch facility, dedicated in 1988, was ahnost comply ly funded by the Canadian Society for the Weizmann Institute.)
When Sabin visited the institute in December, 1990 after an absence of 10 years, he was told that the establishment of an industrial-sized pilot project in the desert was peihaps 10 years in the future, but with money to hire more engineers and scientists, the time could be cut in half.
"That got me fired up," Sabin said: "This was probably the most important thing Weizmann could do, not only to help the world, but to help Israel." .
"I said to myself, i don't care what else I do, I've got to spend my time on this*.
"Merely to have a nice big tower to supply energy is not enough," Sabin insists, "Having built that facility was a sine qua non. No progress could have been made without it, but it wasn't enough."
Private donors have come forward, said Sabin, but more money is needed. "We don't have all the years you had in gathering money and building this initial effort. It has to be done very quickly."
Despite the serious environmental problems facmg the world, Sabin remains an optimist, he told The CJN in an interview after his speech. "If one views the course of civilization, one must concede that progress, however slow, has continued over the centuries." He envisions "a futurie that may bebetterby far than we have ever known before if we continue to use our brains. I believe if we don't blow ourselves up with careless use of atomic energy, then there is hope for the future."
ByRONCSILLAG
TORONTO-
The highest-ranking Jew in the Reform Party of Canada has quit, citing widespread racism and anti-Semitism in the rank and file and among party higher-ups.
Michael Lublin, a 31 -year-old Orthodox Jew and follower of the Lu-bavitcher rebbe, stepped down last Friday as director of the party's Ontario conmiunity relations arm, saying he could no longer reconcile Reform's policies with his conscience.
Ironically, it was Lublin's job to recruit ethnic Canadians to Reform, which he joined a year ago. Now, he says a government led by party leader Preston Manning would be "a recipe for disaster for Canada" because of what he calls Reform's "undefined" policies on multicul-turalism, official bilingualism and immigration.
His quitting "should send a clear signal to the Jewish community and beyond that Reform is definitely not the road for Canada," Lublin told The aN\BSi Sunday.
Lublin says he quit because of• "routine" anti-Seniitic and racist remarks he'd heard over the year from party members and organizers and
oyer how complaints were handled.
He says that at a party gathering last year, witaesses told hhn a key organizer fix)m Waterloo gave the fascist salute as a joke.
A turning point for Lublin came last August, when he says he discovered that several njembers of the far-iright, white supremacist Heritage Front were Reform members.
Lublin says he brought the matter to the attention of party leaders but that it was not until the media broke the story last March that four members of the Heritage Front — Wolfgang Droege, James Dawson, Nicola Polinuk and Peter Mitrevski — and the party member who recruited them, Al Overfield, were expelled from Reform.
Lublin says he feels "personally
betrayed'' by Manning,
Charges of racism have dogged Reform for years. Lublin feels die party is suffering from "serious fractures in its infrastructure.
"Unless you're white and Christian, you're not really going to get anywhere in Reform," he adds.
Last Friday in Ottawa, Manning said Lublin's claims will be investigated.
receives
By MAURICE LUCOW
VANCOUVER -
A former Refusenik has been named as the United Israel Appeal emissary to Vancouver,
Orit Katsov, who with her husband Alex emigrated to Israel in 1973, was once a member of the Communist youth movement in the Soviet Union but, she told the Jewish Western Bulletin recendy, her Jewish upbringing made her realize h^r true identity, "I had to live a dual personality — a patriot in the coimtry I was bom, and being a proud Jew, knowing that there is a Jewish country, Israel,"
When it became known in 1972 that exit permits were .available to go to Israel, she and her husband aR)lied to leave and both, became Refuseniks at once and were .fired from their jobs, Orit had been employed by die
Soviet communications ministry.
It was a tough fight getting out, she said. "We demonstrated, went on hunger strikes and knocked on die doors of the authorities."
When United States President Richard Nixon came to die Soviet Union in 1973, he helped negotiate the exit of a number of Je>ys — including the Katzovs.
She has served as die South African Zionist Federation's Israeli emissary for students and was director of the Jerusalem office of the Israeli Public Council for Soviet Jewry.
In Vancouver, she will be mvolved in fundraising aii^ expects to have a number of spealdng engagements. She is here for a two-year period.
Grit's husband, an engineer widi IBM in Israel, and Oieir two children, will jojn^her in Vancouver next month.
A major non-profit community service organization seeks a dynamic and motivated
PROGRAM CO-ORDINATOR
Working with volunteer leadership, with the objective of ensuring the continuity and growth of Montreal's Jewish community, you will develop and co-ordinate programs in the newly-created Student Federation, including leadership development, education and outreach to students aged 18 to 24 You will also co-ordinate similar programs which target young adults of ages 25 to 40, as well as the Campus Division of the annual Combined Jewish Appeal fundraising campaign.
You must have a university degree, at least two years related experience and good knowledge of the Montreal Jewish community. Bilingual, with excellent "people" skills and an ability to put ideas into motion, you must also be able to put in extra hours as needed. This is a one-year contract position, with possible renewal if good results are achieved. We offer a competitive salary. Send your C.V. to: ,
CIA
Personnel Department FEDERATION CJA
5151 Cote St. Catherine Road, Montreal, Quebec, H3W 1M6 (formerly Allied Jewish Community Services)
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94 Ross St. 3H Brooklyn, N.Y. 11211
718 - 387-4941 :.Tel
IMPORTANT NOTICE
Our late fether. Rabbi Elye Steinberger, of blessed memory, the author of the sefer NfETZACH KEDOSHIM — a description of the suffering of our people in the Holocaust — in two volumes Loshen Kodesh and Yiddish had taken contributions i&x)m various people in different areas towards translating and publishing a third volume in English. Unfortunately, this project could not be completed because he became seriously ill this past winter and passed away on January 12, 1992.
Unfortunately, we the femily don't have an accurate listing of the names of the contributors, therefore, we ask these generous people to forsake their contributions in the merit of our dear fether's name Eliyahu Ben Benjamin Zev Halevi.
For any inquiries in this matter please call or write to: Mrs. Steinberger 94 Ross St. 3H Brooklyn, N.Y. 112U
718-387-4941
Family Steinberger