Wednesday. September 14,1994 — THE BULLETIN — 9
By Orit Katzov
Israel Emissary. Jewish Federation, Combined Jewish Appeal
JA camps strengthen
More than 20,000 Jewish youth, ages 10 to 14, from all across the CIS participated this year in 45 Jewish Agency-run summer camps in the Former Soviet Union (FSU), double the number that took part in 1993.
The importance of these camps was highlighted in a recent survey conducted by the Gutman Institute for Practical Social Research on some 3,000 participants in the J API summer camps.
The survey found that attending JA camps in the FSU helped to strengthen youths* ties to, and identification with, the Jewish people and the State of Israel, and improved knowledge levels concerning Judaism and Jewish history.
A link was also found between the desire to live in Israel and the desire to study there.
Factors most strongly influencing feelings of belonging to the Jewish people were education in the home and the relationship of the surrounding environment to Jews.
After participation in the JA summer camps, youth stated that they were more inclined to identify with the Jewish people (89 percent at
the end versus 79 percent at the beginning).
The survey also revealed the importance of a direct link between Jews in the FSU and their relatives in Israel, both as a source of information and as a factor in the decision to immigrate.
Most of the youth surveyed (70 percent) have direct links with relatives or friends in Israel. In a surprise finding, they reported that 86 percent of olim writing back to the CIS are satisfied with their aliyah experience.
Help for Argentinian Jews
The Jewish Agency will undertake an extensive program to assist Jewish Zionist education among young people in Argentina, the Zionist Executive decided recently.
A special delegation headed by acting Jewish Agency chairman Yehiel Leket will leave shortly for Argentina to meet Jewish community leaders and discuss ways of helping the community.
JA has been looking into ways to assist Argentina's Jewish community in wake of the recent attack on the Jewish community centre in Buenos Aires that killed nearly 100 people.
From Page 3
ing the so-called disclaimer, Sobolewski said "it was published like the Bible — with no interpretation.*'
Sobolewski sent a strongly worded letter of protest to Kuiisy Polonii in which he outlined some of the examples of how the "Protocols" were used to incite hatred against Jews.
With a circulation of 5,000 nationally, Kuiisy Polonii is an independent newspaper but does receive the support of the Canadian Polish Congress, which publishes an insert in the newspaper every two months.
Prof. Karol Krotki, a member of the Canadian Polish Congress executive and editor of the insert, called the "Protocols" publication "the very bottom to which journalism can fall."
Joseph Bereznicki, president of the Canadian Polish Congress, echoed Krotki's sentiments.
"I'm appalled," he said.
"We expressed our dismay and this matter will be discussed at our next meeting," Bereznicki said.
Happy New Year
The Canadian Polish Congress will hold Lenik to his promise not to publish anything like this again, Bereznicki said. If that promise is broken, the organization will consider withdrawing its support from the newspaper.
'We have always had good cooperation with the Jewish community, and we hope to maintain it," he said.
Meanwhile, the Jewish Federation of Edmonton has demanded an immediate apology and awaits the resoonse of Kuiisy Polonii,
From Page 1
the family ever since the brothers were arrested in late 1987.
The Sweds arrived in Brooklyn's large Syrian Jewish emigre community in April.
"We thank all the contributors to the Dr. Ronald Feld Fund for Jews in Arab Lands of the Beth Tzedec Congregation in Toronto and of the Beth Tfiloh Congregation in Baltimore, whose generous support ensured the survival of the Swed brothers and their family and their eventual release from Syria," Feld Carr said.
The Swed Brothers had been incarcerated for four-and-a-half years in a Syrian prison, Feld Carr recalled, during which time "they suffered unspeakable torture." They were released in 1992. (JWB April 30, 1992: "Sweds freed from prison,")
Eli Swed, then a 31-year-old pharmacist, disappeared at the Damascus airport in November 1987 after returning on a flight from Rome.
The next month Selim, at the time a 50-year-old father of seven who worked in his brother's pharmacy, was arrested in his home in the Damascus Jewish ghetto.
After repeated inquiries in 1987 by Amnesty International's Canadian branch and the United Nations' Committee on Disappearance, Syrian officials finally acknowledged the two were being held incommunicado oh undisclosed charges.
Two years later, in October 1989, the brothers' families discovered they were being held in Adra prison, and were later permitted to visit them.
In May 1991, after being imprisoned for three-and-a-half years without charge in the Mukhabarat (secret police) prison in the Syrian capital, the brothers were sentenced to six-and-a-half years.
No charges were ever made public by the authorities, although there were some earlier reports that they were accused of espion-
age.
Their lawyer was not permitted to be present in the courtroom during the brief in-camera trial, nor was he allowed to present a defence.
The final hearing lasted only a few minutes, when the accused were also not permitted to speak.
Following their sentencing, Syrian president Hafez al-Assad offered a 15-day period during which pleas for clemency were heard.
Canada's then external affairs minister Barbara McDougail asked for a reconsideration of the sentence on humanitarian grounds.
It was in April, 1992 when Assad relaxed travel rules for Syrian Jews. Over 2,500 Jews left for the United States before the doors were abruptly closed six months later.
Despite a new Syrian policy of splitting families, a steady trickle continues to find its way out.
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BONN — With the help of massive police deployments, German authorities prevented a series of neo-Nazi rallies planned to commemorate the seventh anniversary of the death of Hitler deputy Rudolf Hess.
Unable to carry out their demonstrations in Germany, a group of some 100 rightists showed up in Luxembourg, where they waved Nazi flags, threw stones at the German Embassy in downtown Luxembourg and clashed with local police.
Luxembourg police detained and later released some 90 demonstrators, most of whom were German, but included a few French supporters. Police escorted the detainees to the German border, where they were handed over to the German authorities. After questioning the detainees, the German police later let them go.
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Carr noted the problem with Syrian Jewish emigration is that those who leave must do so as visitors. This disqualifies them from refugee status in the U.S.. or any of the entitlements which that status confers.
Not can Jews leaving Syria sell possessions or businesses. They can leave with only the equivalent of U.S. $2,000 and two suitcases per person.
Syria's Jews were, for decades, subjected to state-sanctioned harassment, constant monitoring by police and arbitrary detention.
The community has dwindled to about only 300 in Damascus, 100 in Qamishli and just five in Aleppo, Carr noted. She said she believes most of that number will leave, but that a handful of Syrian Jews, mostly the aged and infirm, will elect to stay.
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From Page 4
Jern lawyer MeMn Fenson wm one® ©ditOEr of the Jewish Post in Winnipeg.
stones, kept a set of 47 volumes of Gandhi's speeches and writings in his office, between the American Colony Hotel and Orient House, in Sheikh Jarrah.
My problem with this loveable saint in his "diaper" was that Martin Buber wrote him during the war and asked him to say a word in public about the plight of the Jews in Germany and Poland. Gandhi never wrote an answer to Buber. But he gave him his reply orally, true to form: The Jews in Germany should practise passive resistance. Period.
Now the Brits in India were not shy about using guns, but most of their attacks on defiant Indians were lashings with bamboo canes. If the Jews of Germany had faced that kind of attack, passive resistance could conceivably have done no harm. But we are talking about gas ovens, attacks by Demjanmk-type goons, bullets in the neck over open graves.
I had nursed this disappointment with my adolescent hero since the mid-forties, and here I was . . . escorting 30 Guja-ratis through Yad Vashem. Among these gentlemen farmers (and two sari-clad ladies) were a minister of agriculture, head of an ashram^ university professors, and my own two house guests — a lawyer and magistrate.
My 50-year-old grudge naturally sought its outlet. I had brought along a book on Buber, with his saintly portrait on the cover. I held it up, described briefly what his role was in Jewish intellectual life, and then related his plea to Gandhi — and Gandhi's reply.
The group then set off on their tour of Yad Vashem. 1 think they, too, entertained some doubts about the universal applicability of Gandhi's wisdom when they finished the tour.
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