GOLDBERG BLASTS
SOVIET POLICIES
WASHINGTON — Ambassador Arthur J. Goldberg who headed the American delegation at the Belgrade conference to review the Helsinki Final Act, charged recently that the ideals to which the Soviet Union has committed itself in the Final Act are far from realization.
He said this was evidenced by ttie fact that Jews in the USSR are still unable to exercise freely their WITH DYNAMISM, fa^ed Nazi hunter Simon Wiesenthal told a capacity ri^t to emigrate, to practice their Vancouver audience last week that he and "people with conscience". rehgion or develop their culture must face the fact that of the 150.000 Nazis committhig major crimes hi and by the Soviet Union s m-SecondWorldWar—oniy38.000havebeentried. [Seestorypagesix.] chnatipn to retreat for a time mto
retribution'' when confronted with
"honest criticism." , Goldberg, the former Airi-bassador of the United States to the United Nations, reported on the Belgrade conference at the opening session of the National Conference on Soviet Jewry leadership conferencei here.
Earlier, more than 1,000 school children from the Greater Washington--area marched from Lafayette Park, in front of the White House, to the Soviet Embassy where they attempted to deliver a letter addressed to Soviet
President Leonid Brezhnev appealing for the rights of Soviet Jewish children to emigrate to Israel or elsewhere.
The youngsters waited outside the Embassy for 10 minute but no one appeared to accept their letter.
Goldberg told the NCSJ leaders that the irecord of Jews in the USSR shows that they are not able to "freely profess and exercise theur religion, fully develop their national heritage and culture, nor [Continued on page 8] see SOVIETPOUaES
SHABBAT SHALOM-THURSDAY, APRIL 27,1978
NISAN 20, 5738
VoLXLV.No. 17
$18.75 p«i yeajc this issue 30c
Israel elects new President
YITZHAK. NAV0N was elected Israel's fifth President, the fhrst Sephardito hold the post, by the Knesset on April 19, his 57th bhr-thday;'Jerusalem-horn NavonwIU resign from the Knesset and take over firom President Ephraim^ Katzir at the end of May. The only can^ate,Navon obtained 86 votes in a secret ballot, the biggest number ever received by a presidential candidate^ Twenty-three members abstained and eleyen were absent; [JCNS]
NEW YORK — A recently formed groupi the Ad Hoc Committee of American ^ Jews' in iSuppoi-tf of; Begin,.iknnoupced recently that "a^ .letter signed; ^y hunA®^s!i:^tjfe^ittefi<^ afmming fidl :suppo]!t: to. Israeli Premier Menadicm Begin "in the great ^struggle you are waging for IsraeFs security" wiU be hand delivered to the Premier's off ice in Jerusalem by Gerald S.Strober, co-chahrman of the committee.
Strober said that more than 700 signatures were gathered across ' the country within a 48rhour period in a response which he termed "remarkable" and signifying "that the American Jewish community stands firm in its support^)f Mr. Begm.*'
Irving Green, a spokesman for
the committee, said the group was formed in response to media reports that iA^erican Jews are not in full support of Begin.
^ TIieMteci^krJB'eginV'notfe influenced by negative forcesrwhQ. woldd try to make youl)elieve that the / Jews of America^ iare. not wholeheartedly behind your ef<> forts."
It notes that the signers "believe that we represent the grassroots of AmericanJewry^ and that millions: of Jews in the United States would subscribe to this letter if they had the opportunity."
It concludes: "Now as never before the Jewish people must be united and we . . are proud to stand united behind your leadership . . . Am Yisroel Chai.*'
The committee claims that the signatories represent a cross section of the American Jewish community, including rabbis, businessmen, commvoial leaders, artis^( students and "per^ns who ire highly significant coiltribdtprjs to Jewislf and Israeli related
causes^
The founders of the committee; Green said, are Strober, Gary Ratner, a United Jewish Appeal leader from Chicago, and Harry S. Taubenfeld, chaurman of Herut-
y.s.
According to strober, the letter "clearly demonstrateis that recent Administration^attenipts to split the American Jewish comihunity over the issue of supp^nrt tor Mr; Begm have failed."
VILLAGES ATTACKED
TEL AVIV — There were no casualties but dectric power lines, were damaged when several Katyusha rockets were fured at Israeli villages m Upper Galilee from terrorist-held territoiy iu>rth of Litani rivei*.
DEVELOP OUTPOSTS
JERUSALEM — Agriculture Minister Ariel Sharon got Knesset Finance cbihimtteeapprov an additional IL 20 million budget for development work at outputs m Rafah salient' of northern Sinai. ~
SOLDIER KILLED
Tlillb AVIV— An Israel soldier. Corporal Ilan, Clamper,> of Her-zliyah, was killed in a clash with terrorists in wesfem sector of south Lebanon, a military spokesman announced.
Sodof fhreotens
to resign
CZECHOSLOVAKIAN JEWRY IN DECLIN
LONDON — The Jewish community of Czechoslovakia is steadily declining and is. now believed to number about. 15;(WQ compared with the 30,000 registered in the census of 1950, and the 400^000 \jrho lived in the country before World War IL
Thepresent total of «bout 15,000 canj^e gauged from a hew report by the International Council of Jews from Czechoslovakia, stating
that last year the community had between 6,000 and 7^000 registered adult members.
The reports the fu-st of its kind on post-war Jewry in Czechoslovakia also shows that one-thurdof the Jews living there in 1968 had since died; The number of localities inwhich Jews reside has also fallen smce 1968—from 193 to 174.
The capital, Prague, still has the
largest number of registered congregants — 644 — at the end of last year compared with 934 in 1968, followed by Brno with 237 members (295 in 1968); Ostravia witti .122 (154 in 1968); and Bratislava witti 88 (314 in 1968).
JERUSALEM ^ THvO Lebanese^^ children, whose mother was killed during battle for the terrorist stronghold in soutb Lebanese village of Bint Jebeil^ two miles from Israeli border, have been temporarily adopted by an Israeli mother of eight in Galilee village of Shlomi.
JERUSALE M — Egyptian ihresident Anwar has sent a message to MenacheiirBegin, the IsraeU Premier, intimating that he wiU'resign in October if there has been no progress towards peace by then. The message was convey^ by a group of leading American evangelists who arrived in £srael recently durect from Cairo, and is an example of the indirect pressure being exerted on Israel by the Egyptian President.
. ^(JCNS)
JERUSALEM — The 11 terrorists who perpetrated l!he massacre on the Tel Aviv-H»fa highway on March 11, were armed with weapons from the Saudi Arabian army. It has been learned from a police source who examined the weapons found at the scene of the incident, which cost 33 civilian lives, that the terrorists were armed with U.S.-made M-16 automatic rifles, ■^ght anti-tank wea{N>iis and standard U.S^^ plosives --^sdl of whi^ bore Saudi arihy inarkings and 'S^ialnunibers.-^;^'' ^r^/^-:
TMs is the furst time that Israel has ppsitiye proof that weapons from Saudi stockpiles are being handed outto the terrorists. Unto how it w that the SaAidis supported the ten^onsts money, training facilities and coveri cooperation from Saudi, embassies annind the; wb^^^ that Americian-m^de weapons, including tl^e relatively sophistii^tedLaw'anti-t^ have been used by
the teiTpi^ civiUan target^;^5^: J^^^^^
Dear Eileen:
Pew days ago I received Your letter, because as You know I am hiding right now and couldn't get it in time. Thank You very much for You and Your collegues have done and doing now. You know, the struggle of Russian Jews is based on Lord and support of America, and 1 realise you are doing a lot.Thank*You, one's more
Best wishes.
Leonid Slepack
FROM HIS PLACE OF HIDING from a punitive Red Army draft, 18 year-old Leonid Slepack^ son of Vladimir SKepak, Russia's most famous 'refusenik', has written a message to an Aoierican friend. The note, obtained by Student Struggle for Soviet Jewry, summarizes the deep gr^ of Russiainr Jews for help on their behalf.
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