M-T
The Canadian Jewish News. Thursdayi March 12, 1992-Page 3
Bv
PAUL LUNGEN
TORONTO -
For the first time in 10 years, Israeli and Canadian government ministers will meei in a joint economic committee (JEC) to discuss enhancing trade relations between the two countries.
The meetings between Israel's Industry and Trade Minister Moshe Nissim and Canada's International Trade Minister Michael Wilson will lake place between March 26 and April 1 during Nissim's visit to Canada, said Benjamin Noy, the Toronto-based Israel trade commissioner and consul for economic affairs.
Technological co-operation forums in Montreal and Toronto, as well as a luncheon in Toronto hosted by the Canada-Israel Chamber of Commerce are also on Nissim's agenda, he said. Wilson is scheduled to deliver the keynote address at the luncheon.
Nissim, who also serves as deputy prime minister, will visit Toronto, Montreal and Ottawa during his stay. He will address the representatives of 30 Israeli companies and a like number of Canadian businessmen af^tech-nological co-operation foruins in Toronto and Montreal.
The minister is expe^ed to outline
Moshe Nissim
some of the recent steps taken by the Israeli government to boost investment. Among them are grants for capital investment, government-guaranteed loans of up to 66 percent of the investment, tax incentives and the removal of bureaucratic red tape, Noy said.
With the massive influx of Jews from the former Soviet Union, many of them highly educated, the government is moving to create jobs for them by pushing for international ventures, Noy said. ' ^
Following several days in Toronto and Montreal, Nissim will travel
to Ottawa for the JEC talks. Trading partners conunonly hold JEC meetings every two or three years, but there hasn't been an Israeli-Canadian memig since the 1982 Lebanon war, Noy said.
In his meeting with Wilson, Nissim plans to discuss means of continued co-operation between Canada and Israel corporations, the issue of market access and the continuing Arab boycott. Israel would like Canada to use its good relations with Arab states to urge suspension of the boycott as a confidence-building measure during the peace negotiations, Noy said.
Israel has already offered to begin talks aimed at free trade, but Canada has turned that request down. "Free trade is now a dirty word in Canada," Noy said.
The potential for trade between Canada and Israel is high, the trade commissioner said. In 1991, the two countries did only $250 million in business. About $137 million of that consisted of Canadian exports tqTs^7 rael, a small fraction of Canadian trade and of Israel's $18 billion in imports.
Noy noted that Nissim's lengthy visit to Canada during the Israeli election campaign "shows the importance he pays to promoting trade between Israel and Canada."
RON CSILLAG
RICHMOND JBLL— w
A r^tructuririjg agreement between the Royal Bank of Canada and Shaareh Haim Synagogue will whittle the shul's debt from $4.8 million to $2 million.
The deal means both the synagogue and a United Synagogue Day School (USDS) campus housed in the shul will renrtain open and viable, those involved say.
The synagogue was in danger of closing Feb. 20 for lack of operating funds.
Synagogue officials have been tight-lipped about the agreement. All they concede is that the shul has staved off bankruptcy and will remain fully ftmctioning.
A statement from Shaareh Haiin says a financial restructuring agreement with the bank "will enable the synagogue to move forward with United Synagogue Day School and other Conservative congregations."
The goal of the deal is to" leave Shaareh Haim with a "s.eryiceable" debt of $2 million, USDS president Ira Schecter told 77i€ OA'. '
ScheCter said the plan calls for USDS to contribute $1.5 million and for Toronto's Conservative congega-tions to kick in $500,000
The Royal Bank, which agreed to the plan, has written off $800,000 from the shul's original $4.8 million mortgage, leaving a mortgage of $2 million, Schecter said.
to Spearhead
Last week, leaders of Metro's 14 Conservative congregations met and agreed to the contribution to help save Shaareh Haim, he said. Two synagogues — Beth Tzedec and Beth Sho-
lom — agreed to the plan immed-iiately, he added. '
Schecter said USDS will "spearhead" the collection from the Conservative community.
He stressed that the contribution by USDS will not boost tuition fees for its .600 students, a thir^ of.;whom attend the Shaareh.Haini.caitipus..
A letter to that effect has gone out to parents, he said.
The money from USDS will come from its growth and development campaign and from "past, present and fiiture fundraising efforts."
He said the plan ''guarantees the viability of Shaareh Haim and of USDS in perpetuity. The cloud of uncertainty has been lifted."
The proposal was put to Shaareh Haim's membership in December, which approved it by a 92 percent margin, he said.
The CJN was unable to = reach Shaareh Haim president Sheldon Rot-man last week.
Niki Parker, executive director of United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism, Ontario Region, said the umbrella organization is asking all Conservative synagogues in Metro to "stand behind" Shaareh Haim.
TORONTO -
Revenue Canada Customs and Excise has banned the importation of written material that accuses Jews of poisoning non-Jews and of being responsible for many serious medical conditions.
"ITtie ban involves a letter that had been mailed to OttaWa-area electronics research and development firms^ as well as the Carleton. University School of Business, -^d Ian Kagedan, head of government relations for the League for Htunan Rights (LHR) ofB'nai Brith Canada.
Kagedan, who has been tracking the letters, said they originate with Rose Mokiy, a woman in her late 50s
who has b^n handing out such material in New York City for several years.
According to the Anti-Defamation League, the LHR's U.S. sister organization, Mokry immigrated to the United States from Czechoslovakia via Austria in the mid-1960s. Kagedan said Mokry aj^)ears to be "a loner" who is unaffiliated with U.S: racist groups. "It appears to be a personal mission," he said.
The most recent tract sent by Mokry to Canada begins: "The Jews are bestial professional poisoners," Kagedan said. It goes on to allege an international Jewish conspiracy to poison non-Jews, and even lists Hi-
tler as an agent of Jewish "poisoners."
Revenue Canada spokesman Diana Adams said the Prohibited Importation Unit quickly determinwi the material was hate literattire and it has contacted regional Customs offices to put them on alert about it. But trying to prevent its importation to Canada (it was mailed injjlain white envelope) will be "like trying to find a needle in a haystack," she said.
Kagedan said that despite the difficulties of stopping the letter, "I think it's important that Customs labels it hate propaganda. That sensitizes the public to the issue that hate literature is a serious problem."
If
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