Our 60th Year
Since 1930 the only lyeiekiy publication serving Jewry'of the Pacific Northwest
An indepeiuknt Newspaper
Publisher and Editor-in-Chief samuel kaplan
_,^vertisihg Manager
romfheedman
NewsOesIt ethan minovitz
Ediiorials — PtBge Four
Thursday, July 12,1990
Published every Thursday by Anglo-Jewish Publishers Ltd. 3268 Heather St. Vancouver. BriHsti Columbia V5Z 3K5 Subscription In Canada: $36.00 per year ;
Promoting hatred
Freedom of speech, as Justice Holmes once reriuirked, "does not anclude shouting fire in a crowded theatre/'The eminent American jurist was trying to suggest that in incendiary situations one does not pour more fuel on the fire.
There is no doubt that North American society is undergoing some serious perturbations these days as visible minorities protest vigorously the injustices which they feel have been foisted upon thenii. The deaths of black youths at the hands of white mobs in New York city and the shooting of black youths in Toronto have done little to calm the situation.
What is especially reprehensible iis that in certain areas of^iublic discourse the tensions in question have been aggravated by an acceptance of and respect shown for purveyors of racial hatred. Especially ironic is the fact that show business, long a reservoir of tolerance and camaraderie among entertainers, has becomie a poisonous source of that pathology.
The prominence given to Andrew Dice Clay, a stand-up 6otnedian whose slurs against women, ethnic and sexual minorities earned him the host spot on SaturdayNight Live, is an exaniple of the legitimization conferred upoii those who brazenly slander minorities. Even the late Lenny Bruce, the king of the foul-mouthed clan, knew when to stop. It is regrettable that Clay does not.
Television is not the only source of the racist ihfection^ pop mtisic in^ t^^ form of Public Enemy has used the inedium^^ records to proclaim anti-Semitic calumni^^^ reflect the world according to Louis f^i:^khah.^T^ repeat the heinous allegations fbiinditi the lyik would be to participate ih the obscenity.
It is timefprthbse inti^ realize that tfebytoo^^^ a role in promoting not hatred but jgcrad^^^W^^^^ the inhabitants of this
continent.
Dry Bones
J6WISH
MOSCCM
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BoroMe
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Challenge issued on concerns
Dear Mr. Kaplan:
Rene Goidman*s hysterical Utter {JWB May 29) accuses me and my kind of everything from hijacking to Israel-bashing to PLO-loving to being oblivious towards Russian Jewish Refu-seniks and towards Kurds gassed by Iraq*s Saddam Hussein. I have counted a total of 21 inaccuracies, half-truths, fallacious assumptions or simple points of disagreement in his letter. JfVB space to reply adequately to each item is far greater thaii I can expect to be granted. For this reason, I limit myself to comment on one item only and hereby challenge Rene Goldman to a public debate in the Jewish Community Centre on issues raised in his letter, particularly the Israel-Palestine question.
The one item 1 will comment on is the UBC Faculty Association Klotion of July 19, 1984, original version of which was submitted by Rene Goldman, who accuses me of helping to have it "effectively defeated". This motion had a long preamble detailing the return within the USSR Of repressive policies "of a brutality unequalled since the Stalinist era", and went on to "call for immediate release of Sharansky, Orlov, Paritzky and other prisoners of conscience, freedom of emigration from the USSR in conformity with the Helsinki agreements, and cessation of anti-Semitic persecution", as well as to advocate "that, until these objectives are achieved, all academic exchanges between UBC and the Soviet Union be suspended."
In ensuing discussion, there was virtually no opposition to the preamble nor to the call for cessation of suppressive activities detailed. Almost all participants at that meeting, incliiding myself, supported both. However, Paul Marantz and Irving bzier moved an amendment to the last part of Goldman's motion changing it to "that, until these objectives are achieved, all membersof theacademic.community be urged to reconsider, as a matter of conscience, further contacts with the Soviet Union."
Principal argument for this amendment was that it served the intent of the motibn better than*" the original wording, which
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would close the one small door that Jewish academics and others had at that time for leaving the Soviet Union even temporarily. I stated during discussion of the amendment that a Soviet Jewish engineer wasabout to visit my research group and that the amended motion would require me to cancel this laboriously arranged NSERC (Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada) subsidized visit.
The amendment was passed by an overwhelming majority of those attending. The amended motion, which I strongly supported, was then passed with, as I recall, only one dissenting vote.
In the Minutes of this meeting it is stated that, before the amendment was voted on, "R; Goldman acknowledged that some people would suffer from implementation of the original motion; nevertheless, heconsidered that the amendment would reduce the impact of the motion."
Thus Goldman was more concerned about the hypothetical "impact" of a motion passed by a meeting attended by fewer than 50 faculty members than about the fact that "some people would suffer from implementation of the original motion." Of course, if those people:whom Goldman was ostensibly trying to help were themselves calling for suspension of academic exchanges, then :one would be obliged to honor their calls (as one honors South African anti-apartheid activists' calls for economic sanctions, even if immediate suffering is thereby caused to victims of apartheid). But no such calls, at least to my knowledge, have ever been made by Jewish Refuseniks.
Finally, it should be added that, if anybody were seriously interested in killing Goldman's motion at the time, all they had to do was call fora quorum count, which would have put an end to the meetingV.Even the person who did not support the final amended motionig^^^ this course of
action. This response was in direct contrast to that of Goldman and his cohorts .who; when the motion urging re-opening of Palestinian universities wa$ originally brought to the Faculty Association,.meeting of peC; 7, 1989, insisted on muzzling any discussion of the motion, by forcing early adjournment of the meeting, even after'it was agreed to postpone the vote to a later meeting.
NORMAN EPSTEIN
Dept. of Chemical ^glneering, UBC
^mall coinmunities get noticed
Dear Mr. Kaplan:
I have just lookeii over your Canada Day special edition and would like tocompliment the paper for the prominence it has given to the small Jewish communities of British Columbia in this issue. ^
Yancouveris blessed with many synagogues, schools, organizations, newslettersand facilities with a Jewish character. While basking in this good fortune it is easy to forget about the others in this province espousing Je>vish values in "Yechupitz."
77if AwW^/iw hias^ consistently given equal coverage to the activities of small communities and the Canadian Jewish Congress Pacific Region Small Conifnunitics Development Project. It has helped to inake the individuals in these scattered communities feel part of a greater Jewish whole in B.C.
In closing, let me add that copies of J If 5 articles relevant to our communities are amongst the material forwarded to them monthly.
.., ., \ RONNIE TESSLER
; T^^^^^ ^^^^^ ^ ^ ^^^^^^ C^^
' ■''^\['.:..:'-.'^\:-'''':\]''^^^^^ Sraiall«Nnnmunilies Development Prajecl
Effective debate best conducted in writing
Dear Mr. Kaplan:
Norman Epstein calls my letter of May 29 "hysterical", because in it I ventured to accuse him and his conferees i.a. of "Israel-bashing" and "hijacking". The latter was obviously a figure of speech meant to describe the manner in which a handful of people manipulated the 2000-strong Faculty Association of UBC in the service of a politically partisan objective.
The media and the public arena have, in the past three years, been the scene of a relentless, distorted and often malicious campaign against Israel, to which leftist Jews have contributed more than their "fair" share.
If, in these conditions, bucking the trend and speaking up for Israel constitutes "hysteria", then I am proud to be called "hysterical". Of what importance is one more hyperbole in an age when "brwellian" corruption of the language reigns supreme in the Western media? Of the 21 "inaccuracies, half-truths : . . or simple points of disagreement" so laboriously counted by Epstein in my letter, the latter must, in my view, constitute the bulk.
My reason for considering the motion I submitted to the Faculty Association in 1984 as "effectively defeated" is that the amendment did not convey the intended sense of outrage at the gross violations of academic freedom and human rights at the time in the Soviet Union. I shall never forget how Hank Rosenthal, one of the pillars of "Jews for a Just Peace", objected ' to the Soviet Union being singled out, and ridiculed my motion by proposing to add to the Soviet Union the names of a whole -series of Latin American and Eastern European countries. Yet, at the December 1989 meeting, which Epstein accuses me and my "cohorts" of stifling, Rosenthal expressed the hope that all present would, as a matter of course, pass a motion which took no cognizance of the reasons that led the Israeh authorities to dose the Arab universities.
Norman Epstein challenges me to a duel of words. 1 will not give him the pleasure Of "debating" before an audience in which the orily side to turn out in force is likely to be "Jews for a Just Peace", accompanied by reporters of the media who lionize them.
1 am all for debate, but I believe that reasoned, effective debate is best conducted in writing, when both (or all) sides can coherently develop their arguments. 77ie Bulletin has a good record of publishing conflicting opinions: why not use it as an avenue of ongoing debate? Indeed, the Jewish press alone offers us such a chance. The Bulletin does not, like the Globe and Mail or 77i^ Proviwf^, stifle debate by refusing to publish letters which challenge the assertions of their columnists and editorialists. That happened to me when not one of the four letters was piiblished that Isent to the Globe and Mail in response to one of Gabor Mate's outpourings of gall. ^
RENEGOLDMAN
Dept. or Asian studies. U B C
Chair's ruling was correct
Dear Mr. Kaplan:
It has come to my attention that a letter which appeared in this column on May 29, 1990 was critical of the conduct of a meeting on Jan. 25, 1990 of the Faculty Association of U BC. I wish to emphasize that the Chair's ruling on the question of what constitutes a "special" or an "ordinary" motion of the Association was correct, and that all proceedings associated with the motion were in accordance with our constitution and bylaws.
W.R.CULLEN
President. Faculty Association of I'BC
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