Our 61st Year
Since 1930 the only weekly publication serving Jewry of the Pacific Northwest
AnJndependent Newspaper
Publisher and Editor-in-Chief SAMUELKAPLAN
Advertising Manager ttONFREEDMAN
. Assistant Editor ARIEUFRIEOMANN
News Desk; ETHAN MINOVITZ
EditariM^ — Page Four
Thursday, December 19,1991
Published 47 times per year by Anglo-Jewish Publishers Ltd. 3268 Heather St.>ancouver, British Columbia V5Z3KS' Subscription in Canada: $37^ per year plus $2.60 G.S.T. ~
Disquieting revelation
The brutal civil war which has been raging in Yugoslavia between Serbs and Croats is a stain on the conscience of mankind. The war in question is all the more frightening because it is the first sustained combat in the centre of Europe since 1945. The spectacle of the two sides warring against each other is not the appropriate model, moreover, for newly emergent countries in the former Russian empire to emulate.
Jews within and without Yugoslavia have been extremely careful not to take partisan roles in this conflict. The fact that some Croatian nationalists under Artukovic sided with the Nazis in World War II and engaged in horrendous massacres of Jews (the magnitude and brutality of which still staggers the imagination) is not relevant to the present imbroglio. In Judaism children are not to suffer for the sins of the parents.
On the other hand, Robert Kaplan in 77i^ New Republic discloses that a book written by Croatia's president, Franjo Tudjman in 1988(and reprinted in 1989 and 1990) contains views on Jews and the Holociaust which are disquieting indeed.
Called Pov/e5«^ Z6j77wo5/i "Wastelands — Historical Truth"), the book's major focus is the Croat role in the massacre of Serbs during the war. But^ Tudjman also has things to say about the HolocaustJ
He places the word Holocaust in quotation marks, moreover, saying that the number Six Million dead is based oh biased testimonies and exaggerated data "in the post-war reckonings of war crimes." Tudjman also makes the outrageous remark that World Jewry still"has the heed to recall its'holocaust'... in the mid-80s by trying to pre-
vent the election of . . .Kurt Waldheim as president of Austria."
Tudjman feels that the "Holocaust" is linked among Jews to their self-immolation in medieval times and in more recent history as "group cases of suicide." While not denying that Jews were murdered during the war, the Croatian president suggests that no killings would have occurred had the Nazi armies been victorious in the Soviet Union.
After minimizing Jewish suffering in World War II, Tudjman charges Jews with having conducted a genocidal policy towards Palestinians. "What does this small historical step from Nazi-Fascism to Judeo-Nazism indicate? It indicates that because of the Judean origin of Western civilization ... genocidal violence is a natural phenomenon, in keeping with the human^social and mythological divine nature."
With regard to the Jasenpvac concentration camp where Jews, Serbs and Gypsies were murdered, Tudjman not only niininiiizes the numbers that were killed but also credulously repeats a charge made by a Bosnian informant that Jews them^dves were i^ charge of the annihilation machine!
If this kind of revolting lunatic-fringe historical revisionism inhabits the heart and mind of the elected president of Croatia,.one wonders about the integrity of the leader of a nation that is trying to reconHgure its national destiny. One also wonders what percentage of the Croatian people he represents...: ,■
Perhaps the most disturbing aspect of this whole affair is that Tudjman advertises himself as a mod-derate!'
R0Cital support, not
Dear Mr. Kaplan:
Many thanks indeed for all your paper-s support regarding the Robert Silverman {benefit recital. Support such as yours made my task somewhat easier, and although the attendance was not as high as 1 wduld have liked it to be, the evening was a very enjoyable experience for those of us who attended.
Mr. Silverman is a ivorld-class pianist, but it seems thkt Vancouverites haven*t come to grips with the fact that we have someone of this calibre in our very midst. All I can say is that those who did not attend were the losers!
ESTELLE JACOBSON
Leftofs npn$entwHten*oplnlon$,n6tTh9 Bulletin. A/glif 0fnplynetHl99lmccuncle».Lett9nmu8tbB»lgn9d,^ day phone contact, and typed orprthied, up to250 word: VIEWPOINT exieta lor longer plecea, tip to 7S0 words.
New Russian immigrants seeking locai reiatives
Dear Mr. Kaplan:
The international Red Cross is seeking assistance in locating relatives of Boris Berman and his mother, new Russian immigrants to Israel. : ^
Their relatives came to Canada in 1937 and were last heard from in 1956.
Their names are Maria and Ilya Kaminer (mother*s sister, maiden naihe Novisova) and F^anya and Jan Koblientz, or Koblients (mothers niece, maiden name Kaminer).
If anyone has any information, contact me at Shalom Vancouver, 266-91II.
JANETKOLOF
Siialom Vancouver
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NEW YORK — Some 72,000 people have immigrated from North America to Israel since the state was founded, representing less than one percent of the Jewish population of the United States and Canada.
Despite absorption difficulties, 3,600 America:ns more than 60 percent of them under 40 years old — have moved to Israel in the past two years. The proportion is considerably lower than most other Western Jewish population centres. For example, almost 10 percent of British Jewry nowjives in Israel.
NEW YOBK^ With the increase of about 300.000 Russians in Israel in the past two-and-a-half years, the total number of Jews of Soviet origin in Israel has reached more than 600,000, surpassing Moroccans, who number 500,000, and 262,000 Israelis of Iraqi origin.
NEW YORK — In the late 1920s, the Soviet Unionjestab-lished a Jewish autonomous region in Birobidjan in eastern Asia; meant as an alternative to Zionism. About 10,000 Jews remained there a few years ago.
Last year, the Jewish population was reportedly down to 6,000, and it*s said that half of those remaining have applied to leave; Only about 100 can read the Yiddish ni^wspaper, the BirobidzhanerShtern, and the Jewish settlement is expected to end before the century is out.
Dry Bones
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IRlPS -ID ^020106
HARMSM. AMRTrif ll>.
So lUetL!
By ETHAN MINOVITZ
Does Christmas present any probleniswith youriam^^
0
AnnaLeith,
retired Ubrarlan: "No, but I think the commercialization of Christmas has, unfortunately, imposed itself on some aspects of Jewish people's lives."
0
^^^^
Michael Lltvack,
academic affairs director, Canadian Friends of Hebrew U.: "We don't celebrate Christmas, never have, and don't miss It. Christmas is the best day to go skiing, since there's no one there on the slopesl"
Rachel Comester,
c/er/f, Langley: "Definitely. My kids would like to get a Christmas tree. They miss out on the decorations. I put up some decorations for Chanuka."
0
David Litvak,
communications worl(er: "For myself, yes. I feel like I'm In an alien culture. It's not my culture."
0
Devorah Stone,
tiousewife and writer: "My children realize that Chan-uka's their holiday, and that other people believe In Ch rist-
mas.
0
AvIMaIki,
moving company owner: "No, we just work around it. Instead of listening to Christmas carols on the radio, i put on some Israeli tapes."