Publisher and Editor-in-Chjef SAMUELKAPLAN
Our 63rd Year
Since 1930 the only weekly publicatipn serving Jewry of the Pacific Northwest
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Advertisirig Manager RON FREEDMIAN
Assistant Editor ARIELAFRIEDMANN
News Desk ETHAN MINOVITZ
Thursdfify; April 29,1993
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nfiessage4o
eartobrjlsts & Writers Syndicate
In their recent survey of fundamentalism in the world, Martin E. Marty and R. Scott Appleby urge readers of The Glory arid the Power (Beacon Press) not to overreact to extremist religious activities whether they come from Christian or Muslim sources. -V-':-',.'v/'-
They note that fundamentaUst extremism tends to peter out because of the eventual opposition of the citizenry of a country to the rigors of religious
Massacres of Copts have occurxed in Dairut, Tema, Cairo, Alexandria, Fayum and other large cities by hit men from the Muslim Brotherhood, the Egyptian version of Hamas. It was only \yhen fundamentalists began to attack Christian tourists that the Egyptian government began to take more energetic means to neutralize the outrages committed by the Muslim Brotherhood.
There is, of cpurse, a very strong message for
discipline imposed by ecclesiastical leaders from , Israel in the perilous condition of Egypt's Copts.
above.
This is a thesis with much consoling value but it will be of Uttleimmediate benefit to the millions who are now suffering the brutalities of extremist religion in Saudi Arabia, Ir^n and Sudan.
nine million Coptic Christians living in :, moreover, will not find much balm in impassioned scholarly ideas while Islamic fundamentalists' In that country organize massive pogroms against the oldest surviving Christian collective in the Middle East.
The New York Times describes the plight of Copts in Egypt in terms of siege conditions. Two hundred Copts have fallen victim to Muslim militants within the last seyeral months. The Egyptian government, while paying lip service to freedom of religion, through benign neglect, has conceded the streets to the fundamentalists.
The latter are being murdered openly in a country where Muslim fundamentalists are not even in power. In Israel,^ Hamas is part of the cousinhood of Muslim militants and has made no attempt to hide its adypcacy of destroying the Jewish S^tate, It has pursued this policy by kidnapping and killing individual Israeli soldiers.
The Egyptian model offers an all tpo clear picture of what awaits Jews should Hamas ever be in a position to actualize its plans on a broader scale.
The firm: measures which Israel has taken to defend itself against Hamas may be faulted perhaps on the basis of method^ but not on principle. The first obligation of every government is to protect its citizens. Ill the open but undeclared war against Israel carried on by Hamas and its supporters, the Jewish State will not allow others to determine its future.
When Joseph Kliausner, the eminent Jerusalem historian of Hebrew literature, characterized the messianic idea as one of the most beautiful jewels on the diadem of Judaism's crown, it is not likely that he was thinking of:
David Koresh ■ Jim Jones
Mervyn Davis Jordan
Yahweh Ben yahweh.
Koresh,"thedead Branch Davidian head in Texas, Jim Jones, the suicide commander in Guyana, Mervyn Davis Jordan, the Trinidadian would-be "King David," Yahweh Ben Yahweh, the Miami cultist accused of kiiling followers — these are but four of the recent crop of false messianic leaders. Having appropriated Hebraic symbols, they have proceeded to debase and disfigure an honorable Jewish concept.
Given the principles of freedom of religion cherished in democratic societies, there is little one can do about these cult leaders and their followers. It is only after their apocalyptic dreams explode into violent confrontations that the public evenbiecomes aware of these people. Because of them, as in the case of Jim Jones, and now through the shocking immolation whichappearstohavebeentriggered by David Koresh, innocent victims have again been sacrificed by a false messiah.
As the millennium approaches, there seems to be something in the air, which along with perturbations in the economic wheels of society, seem to be providing fertile ground for the growth of these "eiid of time" fanatics. When they stay Syithin the confines of their own precincts, they offend no one; when they come into violent conflict among themselves and with others, society must be concerned.
In viewing the horrific spectacle of these self-appointed messiahs, one begins to understand better why the rabbis of the Talmud suggested that it was a black day when the Hebrew Bible was translated into other languages.
Excerpts from ih0 press
Minister's family makes aliyah
The wife and son of Alexander Asmalov are living in Jerusalem, while he has decided to remain in Russia. Asmalov, who is the Russian deputy education min^ ister, visited Israel recently.
His wife, Jenia, a psychologist, and his son Gri-sha, 13: made aliyah in J urie 1992. Grisha is studying in the Rehavia Gymnasia.;
Yugoslavians make aliyah
Tomy Shossberger, the Jewish Agency's emissary to Yugoslavia, said that interest in aliyah is on the rise, and that 500-600 olim canbe expected from Yugoslavia in the next six months.
Since the outbreak of hos tilities in Yugoslavia, sorni 600 Jews have found refuge in Israel as olim or tourists.
Absorption of single-parent families
A joint team of the Ministries of Absorption, Hous-ingand Building,and Social arid Welfare wiH examine different aspects of the absorption; of single^parent immigrant families.
They will submit their findings to the Aliyah ; Cabinet,>headed by Ministry of Absorption YairTzaban.
According to Ministry of Absorption figures, 6f the families whQ immigrated to Israel since 1990,8.7 percent (or 18,406 households) are headed by one parent;
Symbol over sub^
Jews have an agonizing reputation for always questioning injustice. Anytime we are not in front on an issue of justice and right, justice suffers, right suffers, mankind suffers. And if mankind suffers, it follows as the night follows the day — Jews will suffer.
When we grow timid, When we waffle in the faceof evil, we are the ones who suffer. Sometimes allit takes is a statement. Sometimes we have to take action. All ■ \- ■ ' ■■ ■': symbols of pur tradition
our
ion
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— are meaningless unless we are willing to JIM SHIPLEY That
«;tanH ifnr gnmpthino Tn turn thf- rhMnrin
of Tbrah into reality.
We were, as an overall American Jewish community, timid in the face of our own documented disaster in the 'JOs; We did not maximize our political clout; we did not demonstrate our social demands for justice. Jews died by the millions/ Gould the American Jewish community have prevented it? Probiably not. But wecould have had an impact on American policy. We could have done something. We probably could have forced opeh the gates of this nation at a time when it was ia lot less crowded than it is now.
The State of Israel was the next moral imperative on the Ahierican Jewish agenda. Yet, even after the war, even after the Holocaust, it still was not a iinanimoiis Jewish community. Some of us were timid in the face of the redemption of the Jewish people. .J
In the great civil rights battles of the '50s and '60s, the Jews were in the forefront. We fought a good fight. This generation of Afro-Americans has forgotten that there we were. Standing for the rights of others, often more strongly than we have for our own. We dealt in substance along with the symbols. ..
Oursymbols inthejsast decade, though, have outstripped our substance. Oh, we will do safe things like giving money to get Ethiopians to Israel or Russian Jews to wherever they want to go. But when is the last time the so-called organized Jewish community took a real moral stand?
You want to see Jewish leadership quake? Mention the
name Jonathan Pollard. Pollard is no saint. He is tainted; the Israelis who were around him are tainted. But he is a symbol of what Jewish survival is all about.
He saw danger to the Jewish State. He saw that the anti-Seinites \yho abound in the U.S. governmient intelligence establiishment were in possession of intelligence that could help the Jewish State. No. Intelligence that if withheld from the Jewish State could be its death knell.
Did he act in the brightest manner? Probably not. Was what he did wrong? Of course. But for the Jewish community to wrap itself in the American flag and turn their back on him is disgusting.
t's just what they have been doing for the better part of five years. Recently, the National Jewish Comitiunity Relations Committee decided that they did not consider it prii-. dent to become involved.
To become involved in what? His guilt or innocence? His justification? None of the above? What the Jewish commun-ity was asked to come forward on was justice. That t his man, misguided as he may have been, did what he thought he
Jim Shipley is a columnist with the Heritage Florida Jewish hiem
should do for the saifety of his people. And because He was Jewish, giving secrets to the Jewish State, an ally of America, he was given a harsher sentence than people who had been selling secrets to our enemies for pure profit, not ideological reasons, ;
Let us not argue that these "secrets" were intelligence that Israel was entitled to by treaty with the U.S. Let us simply state that Jews have a chance todo what is right once again!
We should Starr in our community. Has there been any action on behalf of a Jew convicted for helping Jews? Then, we should act as Americans, as Jews who recognize injustice when we see it. Petition the president — through letters — through phone calls — through our congressmen.
Feel queasy about it? Feel timid? Why*? Because of what thegentile community might think? That's all it took in the ■ads. Isn't it time we got beyond that? Isn't it time we became a moral force once again? When willwe learn?
Shipley Spesks . . Heritage Florida Jews Sews
.March 26,1993
76