Our 64th Year
Since 1930 the only weekly publication serving Jewry of the Pacific Northwest
An independent Newspaper
Advertising fvlanager RON FREEDMAN
Editor ARIELA FRIEOmNN
City Desk LYNDA ROSENBERG
Thursday, March 17,1994
Published 47 times per year by Anglo-Jewish Publishers Ltd. 3268 Heather St., Vancouver, British Coiumbia V5Z 3KS Subscription in Canada: $42.00 per year plus $2.94 G.S.T.
While Shakespeare had it that "music hath charm to soothe," it also has the capacity to arouse feelings of hatred and revulsion — especially towards unpopular target groups.
In the United States a congressional committee has held hearings on rap lyrics which have incendiary anti-white and anti-women messages. Several music distribution companies are also under investigation for marketing the rap music in question.
However, in Germany, mindful of the danger of music and lyrics that preach outright hatred for minorities, authorities have taken a much more aggressive posture on the link between violence and racially-tinged music.
One company in particular, Rock-O-Rama, based in Bruhl, has 28 different bands on its label. Steven Silver, staff writer for Searchlight magazine, wrote in the New York Times that the lead singer for one of its bands, Storkraft, is now under investigation for inciting racial hatred and other crimes.
German authorities now maintain an index of album titles which preach racial hatred and they can prosecute companies which distribute albums on the list.
To rehearse the various lyrics found in these albums of hate would be to participate in the obscenity which they manufacture. Suffice it to say that the singers featured in these albums celebrate them-
Letters
selves as the saviors of Germany and attack the foreigners in their country as the source of ail evils.
It would be folly to dismiss this fascist music and lyrics: some of the appeals to super German patriotism are couched in well-crafted irnages and the identification of the enemy— the foreigner — is subtle and non specific. The appeal to German racial pride and history is justified on the basis of a people needing to emerge from the past.
What is as disquieting as the lyrics and messages of these songs is the enthusiastic reception accorded them by large numbers of Germans who, disenchanted with the economic chaos that has beset their country since reunification, are looking for scapegoats and simple solutions to their problems.
A represenative of German Jewry, A. Bubis, recently assured a Jewish audience in Toronto that while the situation in his country was disconcerting with regard to racially-motivated violence, things were worse in other jurisdictions in Europe and especially in the former Soviet Union.
This relativizing exercise brings small comfort. Germany is the power house of Europe and what happens there is bound to affect Jews everywhere. The German government in Bonn seems to be aware of the dangers that skinheads and neo-Nazis pose in its country. Yet Chancellor Kohl never goes out of his way specifically to condemn these groups. It's time he did.
Cartoonists & Writers Syndicate
Letters represent writers' opinions, not The Builetin. Right ot reply rectifies Inaccuracies. Letters must be signed, with day phone contact, and typed or printed, up to 250 words. VIEWPOINT exists for longer pieces, up to 750 words.
9
Dear Mr. Kaplan:
"Taking a human life is murder, even if it's done to the roll of drums". (Voltaire).
The sickening news of a lonely gunman committing his insane murderous act of killing more than 30 worshippers in the Hebron mosque must sadden and horrify all decent humans regardless of race, religion or political belief. There can never be any excuse or justification particularly at this time when both Israelis and Palestinians are desperately trying to find a solution for peaceful coexistence.
Unfortunately, a headline in the Victoria Times-Colonist of Feb. 26, does not help to keep this event in its tragic perspective. The large print of "Dozens of Arabs slain as Jew attacks mosque" is shockingly bad taste, if not the worst of anti-Semitic journalism.
Please understand that my objection is not to the article, or to its beginning "Jewish settler . . ."etc. My objection is in the headline with the word "Jew" as it has been used in the 2.000 years of anti-Semitism, scrawled on the walls, fences.
The weeks go bv sentenced to life Kjsslbllity of parole," nfcmation to Israel.
has htm
without the passing American defence
incatcerated for:
Organizatlom worldwide recogiake that Pollard's punishment in no way fits his crime. A collective voice of outrage at his excessive sentence - letters, telegrams, faxes and phone calls ~ can make a dl^erence.
Voice your »tet by writing to:
The White House Washington, O.C 20S0O
The President'^ Comment Line
The President's Fax: 1-202^56-2461
shop windows of Germany, Austria, Poland, France, Romania, Hungary and many other countries of the world. This three letter word "Jew", describing a person or a group of people with its ugly connotation, resulted in the persecution, rape, murder and torture of the Jewish people.
My friends said to me, "Come on Peter! What's in a word? How can you be so thin skinned?" I had to answer "1 must be." Just as 1 feel the continued pain for what I experienced in four-and-a-half years in the death camps of Majdanek, Dachau and Bergen Belsen and the loss of my childhood, I suffer and mourn for the lost lives of the innocent victims of a senseless and brutal act in Hebron. But, that ill chosen word "Jew", in the journalistic context, sickens me. I heard it too often from my childhood "... the dirty Jew!"
1 am a Jew! My children are too. So are some of my friends. That does not mean we go out and kill innocent people. The "Jew" did not massacre those worshippers. It was a criminal, a hating person, an Israeli Jewish settler if you want to describe him.
What is the difference? Language, that is. The shortcut of headlines. The need for sensationalism, (or maybe to get the adrenalin of hate going?). We need mourning for the dead. And for the living . . . conciliation not incitement.
Whoever wrote that headline . . . shame on you!
DR. PETER GARY, Victoria
Meeting one-sided
Dear Mr. Kaplan:
Regarding the Or Shalom meeting of Jews For a Just Peace (See "Questions Or Shalom on anti-Israel meeting" and "Shul responds: *We support open debate' ", JWB Feb. 17), it was a shandeh (shame) for Or Shalom to host such a meeting. Raising funds another way might have been advisable.
In addition, this one-sided view of Palestinian life was replayed on Richmond RogersCablevisibhorithreesticces-sive programs which 1 haippened to see. Perliaps even more were shown.
My point is, why was the other side of the issue not shown, and why was our own Jewish Western Bulletin a.nd other Jewish organizations absent from the meeting?
BRINA PERITZ, Richmond
Editor's Note: JWB was not informed about the meeting.
Dear Mr. Kaplan:
Concerning the Adolf Hitler quote the Reform Party MP used in his newsletter. Mr. Werner Schmidt should have had a disclaimer stating that the "famous quotes" were made by historical people, not all of whom were (or are) "nice" individuals. Then the backlash wouldn't have occurred ("MP apologizes for use of Hitler quote", JWB Feb. 24).
In a past letter to the editor ("Schindler's List reflects horror of war", JWB Jan. 20), I mentioned my friend Reginald Courtney-Browne, known as "Courtney Browne" in the credits for the TV series The World at War. Reg had met and interviewed Hitler's sister, Albert Speer, Rudolf Hess (in Spandau Prison) and other ex-Nazis for the series.
If we don't know what dangerous evil "geniuses" such as Hitler, or Vladimir Zhirinovsky in Russia, thought (or think), then we may be setting ourselves up to repeat getting one of those types in leadership somewhere.
With all the nuclear weapons still in the world, Fm reminded of the things Reg told me when he toured Hiroshima soon after World War II.
Let's hear what these people think, so we are better able to stop them before it becomes too far gone to do anything, except having to fight their evil.
H. DAVID SMITH-
Dear Mr. Kaplan:
I would like to congratulate the Board of Talmud Torah on their creative and community-minded thinking. They, advised Jewish Family Service Agency that tickets pur-, chased by people who were not able to attend, but who, wanted to support the Talmud Torah Milton Berle fundraiser (March 10), would be given to JFSA to distribute. As a result, JFSA provided tickets to a number of individuals, who could not afford to go but who wanted to attend.
This community-minded thinking results in_the school, the donor and the JFSA clieTJt all "winning". I hope this type of initiative is "contagious". It's a wonderful way to provide access to community events for people who would not otherwise be able to participate, and it enables people to become or remain involved in our community.
BARRY CORRIN, JFSA executive director
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