Publisher and Editor-in-Ghief SAMUEL KAPLAN
Qur 59th Year
Since 1930 the only weekly publication serving Uswry of the Pacific Northwest
An Independent Newspaper
Advertising Manager RONFRsSDMAN
1.
Page Four
City Desk MARTHA BARKER
There is nothing more gut-wrenching than the nausea induced by terrorist Jiostage-taking, and when it occur$^in the Middle East the qiieasiitess increases.''
With regard to Lebanon--^ the «te of most 6 kidnapping — there is a question that has not been addressed sufficiently. Do all the hostages held by the neo-barbariahs in Lebanon deserve the same compassion?
Certainly journalists and diplo-
mats who are yictiiris of abductipns suffer their unfortunate fate because they are required by their profession to be in the area. Tp theiri we owe the utmost sympathy and the obligation to help in any way we can.; J; ■■■■-^ ^
It is significant; lio^yer, that ^m^ Ameri-can^hostages are coimected With the American Uni-veniity in Beirut. These academics chose to come to tha| institution and that city voluntarily in the full knowledge of the chaotic political situation itf the area. Since 1975 Lebanon has been engaged in bloody civil war that has caused more than one hundred thousand casualties.
The American University, once a venerable institution, moreover, has been a faybrite target of Arab
terrorist attacks and several professors and one president of that university have been murdered in cold blood. Surely a warning!
It is not the right of the current academic hostages to have chosen to go to Lebanon that is contested here; it is their judgment, if not their sanity, that is the issue. These American hbstages clearly were aware of the turbulence and violence that have characterized Lebanese life for the past 15 years. Their decision to stay in Beirut, in the land of hostage-taking and carnage, is incomprehensible.
The American government, moreover, has warned its citizens in Lebanon to leave the country, on at least two occasions in the past five years. The academic hostages chose, for reasons we cannot speculate about, to disregard specific advice of their government.
Those hostages haye paid the price for the unwisdom of their choice to remain in one of the most unstable parts of the world, and we are sorry for them. But they need not have paid that price- they chose to be in Lebanon knowing the peril.
Our sympathy for them cannot be of the satne measure as that reserved for those who fell genuine victim of terrorist abductions while engaged in their career postings:
Soviet Jews at 'new crossroads
The Soviet Jewry movement is at a new crossroads. Increasingly^ statistics show that an average of 4,000 Jews are leaving the Soviet Union each month. Hardly a day goes by that Glas-riost^nd Perestroika are not mentioned in our daily newspaper. Good news abounds from the Soviet Union.
What follows is the news that is not reported. For some reason there is a nervousness about putting a question mark at the esiid of the news^; reports from the USSR. -There is a deep seated fear in the hearts of Soviet Jewry aLCtivists. A^^^ on the rise. With more openess, we
see the breeding ground foi- overt acts of anti-Semitism hot prevented by state authorities.
Renee Bellas is chairperson of the Vancouver Action Committee for Soviet Jews.
• July 16th,1989 —a Hebrew instructor from Moldavia was abducted and beaten on his way to a lecture. His abductors mentioned several times that all Jews should be murdered.
® July 4th, 1989 — tn Riga at the site of the former synagogue, swastikas were found with a sign reading "Kill the Jewish people."
These actions were perpetrated by the anti-Semitic group Paniyat. This organization is believed to have compiled a list of all Jews in Leningrad by approaching the concierge of every apartment block in the city.
Recently, the manifesto of Pamyat came into the hands of Western activists. Within its eight page text there are eight direct statements blaming the Zionist conspiracy for Russian Genocide, economic problems, separatist and nationalist hostilities as well as other ills of Soviet society. There are many other less direct inferences. One Jew in Tblisi received a letter signed Pamyat which said "We know who you aire, we know where you are. We can come for you whenever we please."
In Nalchik, near Tblisi, some Jews are so afraid of a pogrom they woii't leave their apartments.
In addition to these frightening reports, appeals arnve week after weekoii behalf of Jewish prisoners still being held in
By RENEE BELLAS
camps. Leonid Lubman is spending his 11 years in prison because he stood in open court aiid said he is a citizen of Israel. He is not the only one! Lkar Riilyov-Kagen is sw^^ years in a labor camp.
Week after week, we read about long-term Refuseniks still being held,due to cha.rges of secrecy. Poor relatives are being denied even the possibiiityVex^^^
spouse, with whom there has been no communication for years, reifused to sign a waiver of financial obligation. '
On Jan. 19 the Soviet Union agreed that all Refusenik cases would be resolved within six months in accordance with the Helsinki Final Act. According to the Helsinki Commission as of July 19, less than 25 percent of the cases have been resolved. Some people have been in Refusal as long as 17 years. New Refuseniks are being created daily.
In addition to concentrating on ensuring free emigration for all who wish to leave, the Soviet Jewry movement has a moral obligation to assist with the dream of Jewish cultural and religious revival within the Soviet Union. We must do our best to provide what ever we can in the way of moral support, physical presence, and religious and educational material.
In doing so we will be helping Jews who have been forcibly assimilated for three generations, to begin to enter the realm of positive Jewish experience. They will have a head start of a new life in Israel, or with their families in Canada or the U.S. from whom they have tragically been separated for many years.
It is time that Jews in the West recognize that improvements in Soviet life in generaldoes not mean the same for Jews in the Soviet Union. The Soviet Jewry moveirient still has a monumental job to do.
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Jevvs need to remain 'Poles apart'
Dear Mr. Kaplan:
Why must we Jews continue to support those who hate and scorn us?
Numerous Jews still visit Poland, putting money into the poc^ketsb^a" nation and people who rank among our bitterest and most vindictive enemies.
Thife reasons foi" this flow of tourism ate commendable and underistiahdable^ But the effect only serves to encourage and cbnnfort Polish anti-Semitism. Since they do not want Jews in their country, they should ho longer benefit from what we contribute to their economy.
Consider how much each traveller spends on accommodation, trips, tips, souvenirs and services, even during the briefest of visits. Then multiply this by the number of individuals that are potential visitors, from our locale alone. Is the memory of our martyrs worthifatteriing the coffers of their most intransigent and implacable persecutors (or descendants of these persecutors; in whoni hatred lives on)?
Poland has now entered a new phase in its history, where it must openly depend on foreign investments, earnings and good will to survive. It is lip to the new Polish government, and the people it represents, to undo its own history and prove that it deserves our financial support.
Meanwhib, we should be cautious and prudent about purchasing Polish goods, prod ucts orservices until good intentions are supported by poshive actions. lilAX A. JACOBSON
Thursday, September 14,1989
Published every Thursday by AnglcKlewish Publishers Ltd. 3288 Hoattier 8t, Vancouver. BriUsh Columbia V5Z 3K5 . Subscription In Canada: $35.00 peryear
By JWB Reporters
heips^amidsubsta^n^ (dmgfs.alc^
' Robert Gbrdohjf
businessman: ■ "Yes: briigs affd alcohol are just a substitute for the inner peace which cp'mes naturally with a religipus lifestyle. Tolerance, as opposed to condemnation, should be the iriitial approach by Jewish mstitutions in dealing with' substance abu^." .
0
Dariel Pavony,
^ 17. student: ; ii^es,;clef i n Itely. I don't hang, around those kind Of people at all who would Influence me (towards substance, abuse). Also I have different values being religious — I value my brain cells!"
Roneet Kahan, A
29, recruiting coordinator 1/ in LA.:
M think being religious helps; it can't hurt/It'gives you a basis of something to believe In so you don't have to look for something -- /you haya a meaning in life. And as a byproduct your kids would have less chance of straying."
ODov Morgan, administration manager: "No. I'm not religious but I'm not alcoholic and 1 don't use drugs. I've been a member of a society that was absolutely unrellglous in Israel and yet none of them were Into alcohol or drugs. I don't see any connection."
0
Michael Cohene,
businessman: "Being religious is not the answer to drug or alcohol abuse. It's.a qu&stion of education, peer preisure, a question of the children's upbririg-i hg andperhaps how rel ig ious observahcei within the home.''
/] Eti Kertesz,
V housewife: • "Yes, because if you are religious you ai-e notsupposed to do things^ that are wrong. It would be a help to be reli--glous, because if a person believes in G-d, he (or she) would not do the wrong thing/ . ;
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