Page 10-Tbe Canadian Jewish News, Thursday, November 4,1993
World
Ad
Come hear the untoU story of the secret negotM between Israel and the P.L. O.
CANADIAN FRIENDS OF HAIFA UNIVERSITY
, present
PROFESSOR YAIR HIRSHFELD
Professor of History, University ofHaifa
Professor Hirshfeld instigated the secret talks between the Palestinians and the
Israelis in Norway
WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 10, 1993
8:00 P.M.
BETH TZEDEC SYNAGOGUE
1700 BATHURST STREET. TORONTO
NO ADMITTANCE CHARGE
For more information, please contact:
NO SOLICITATION
Canadian Friends of Haifa University
1110 Finch Avenue West, #510 Downsview Ontario M3J 2T2 Telephone: (4161665-4462
IMPORTANT CHANGES
HOLOCAUST EDUCATION WEEK PROGRAMMING
Programming for the 13th Annual Bolocaust Education Week was outlined in a ement to the Canadian Jewish News (October 14th issue). To order a copy of the Supplement or for more information, please call (416) 635-2883 ext. 153.
PROGRAM CANCELLATIONS
NOVEMBER 13 & 14, NOVEMBER 20 & 21
"A ShaynaMaidel" - Theatre Production \
NOVEMBER 15 - Adath Israel Congregation Program
PROGRAM CORRECTIONS
NOVEMBER 8 8:00 p.m.
Holy Blossom Temple, 1950 Bathurst Street, Toronto "Yitzhak Zuckerman and the Jewish Resistance in the Warsaw Ghetto" with PROFESSOR MICHAEL MARRUS, University of Toronto and fellow bf the Royal Society of Canada. Professor Marrus will look at the adventurous war-time experiences of this leader of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising who exemplifies the idealism and dynamism of the Jewish underground in NJazi-occupied Poland.
NOVEMBER 9   . 7:30 p.m.
Petach Tikvah Anshei Castilla, 20 Danby Ave., Downsview "Sepliardic jews and the Holocaust" wWl be presented by DR. S. TAIEB-CARLEN, York University.
NOVEMBER 10
Pride of Israel Synagogue was inadvertently listed as Pride of Israel Temple.
VARIOUS DATES
The film "Acts of Faith" being screened at the Churches listed in the Supplement will be followed by-the personal testimorues of a rescuer and a Holocaust survivor.
NEW PROGRAMS
NOVEMBER 16 8:00 p.m.
Shaarei Tefillah Congregation, 3600 Bathurst St., Toronto "A Letter From My Father." ARIELLA BLUM SAMSON. Theauthor discuisses the profound affect on her family of a letter received in 1992 from her father. It was written more than fifty years ago, shortly before he was deported to the Eastern front.
NOVEMBER 1 - NOVEMBER 30
Beth Tzedec Reuben & Helene Dennis Museum, 1700 Bathurst Street, Toronto
THE LODZ GHETTO- AND FTS CURRENCY. This exhibit examines the workings of the Lodz Ghetto through its social history and material culture, focusing on paper money and coinage currency from the permanent collection. For more information call (416) 781-3511,
NOVEMBER 11 :   8:00 p.m. ■
SPECIAL REMEMBRANCE DAY BROADCAST featur-ing "Children of the Shadows", a film by Marc Cukier, that reflects the past and present of a wornan hidden as a child during the Holocaust; and "Fields of Sacrifice," an award-winning film dealing with war veterans. TV Ontario. Check TV listings foi- more information.
NOVEMBER 30                             10:00 p.m.   . . Adrienne Clarkson Presents "CHILDREN OF TEREZIN." CBC TV. Check TV listings for more information. _^
The 13th Annual Holocaust Education Week, November 4 -16,
is coordinated by the
|fti«8B»iwi   Holocaust Education Sub-Committee of the Jewish Federation of Greater Toronto
Mikhail Chlenov (at the microphone)
expeetedi"o leave
By SHELDON KIRSHNER
MOSCOW - The leader of Russia's Jewish umbrella organization expects a "moderate" increase in Jewish emigration following the political turmoil and street violence which fcpnvulsed this city last month.
Mildiail Chlenov, president of the Confederation of Jewish Organizations and Communities, or Vaad, said that Russian President Boris Yeltsin's armed victory over a coalition of hardline, anti-Semitic opponents in parliament had assured many Jews that democracy had triumphed.
In theafterinath of the revolt, Chlenov said in an interview, Yeltsin banned the anti-Semitic Pamyat movement arid such anti-Jewish newspapers as Den (bay),which supported the insurrection.
"This showed to the Jewish public that Yeltsin, finally, had taken a decision to limit the spread of Nazism and anti-Semitism here."
On the other hand, he added, the instability which manifested itself in Moscow-from the time Yeltsin dissolved parliament on Sept. 21 and crushed the revolt on Oct. 4 "frightened" some members of the Jewish community.
"That in itself leads to emigration,'' he said. "But I don't foresee dramatic changes in the flow of emigration. Rather, a moderate increase ineriiigrationcan be expected."
Referring to the recent events in Moscow, Chlenov noted that "tens of , thousands" of Jews would have left Russia had Yeltsin's foes won;
Chlenov said that economic and political instability are the leading reasons for Jewish emigration today.
Aliyah from the former Soviet Union, he saiid, has stabilized.Tf current conditions prevail, 60,000 to 80,000 olim, roughly one-third of them from Russia, can be expected to emigrate to Israel annually.
Chlenov came out in support of the tough economic reforms undertaken by Russia since January 1992. In his view, the measures are slowly and steadily "revitalizing" the country.
However, he warned, the transition from communism to a free market economy has brought with it "deep and dramatic social stratification and inequality," a prime source of instability.
Grassroots anti-Semitism in Russia today is at a "tolerable" level, he observed.
"What is really dangerous is political anti-Semitism, which has become part of the political struggle in Russia." '
Chlenov called on Yeltsin to issue a public denunciation of anti-Semitism, something he has declined to do so far out Of fear of alienating ' 'a certain part of the Russian population." .
Turning to another topic, Chlenov said , that Jewish communities in Russia will need about $30 million (U.S.) per year for thenext five year? to rebuild Jewish life after decades of Communist repression.
"A viable community can be rebuilt in Russia. The chaos and anti-Semitism here are not as tremendous as they are seen from the West. Normal life goes on."
Russian Jewry, he disclosed, has begun its own fund-raising drive. Last year, two-thirds of Russia's communities were able to finance 60 to 70 percent of their local operations.
Chlenov was critical of the Diaspora's attitude to Russian Jewry.
"It was our expectation that the world Jewish community would want us to join Klal Yisrael, and would support this'goal, in fact, we have the feeling that Jewry considers us to be doomed to disappear.''
'empire
Chiding such organizations as the Jewish Agency and the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (Joint) for having cut off funds to Vaad and local communities in Russia, Chlenov accused them of trying to build bureaucratic "empires" in Russia and attempting to dictate "strategy" to Russian Jews.
"We're patronized by world Jewish organizations," he declared.
(A Joint spokesman in New York said that funding to Vaad; in Moscow and elsewhere in the former Soviet Union, continues. He said the Joint has been "more than generous" with the Vaad, but is now concentrating on financing cultural programs rather than organizations per se.),:
, Ticking off the challenges which confront Russian Jewry at present. Chlenov listed the need for acquiring a deeper sense of Jewish identification, a better grasp of organizational know-how and greater political influence on legislative bodies.
A social anthropologist by profession. Chlenov was a Jewish activist and an underground Hebrew teacher in the 1970s and 1980s. Among his pupils were two of Russia's most notable Jewish dissidents, Natan (Anatoly) Sharansky and Vladimir Slepak, both of whom live in Israel.
In the mid-1970s, he was one of the organizers of a Jewish cultural symposium in Moscow which was almost broken up by the secret police, the KGB.
All told, he was detained by the KGB several times, the last occasion being in 1988, when he tried to establish a Jewish cultural association in Moscow.
In 1989j Chlenov was one of the founders of Vaad, an organization which claims to represent the majority of Russian Jews.