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THE CANADIAN JEWISH REVIEW
JULY 1, 1966
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR'S REPORT TO FIRST ANNUAL MEETING OF ALLIED JEWISH COMMUNITY SERVICES OF MONTREAL
BY ALVIN BRONSTEIN
An Impartial Medium for the Dissemination of Jewish News and Views
MEMBER AUDIT BUREAU Of CIRCULATIONS PUBLISHED BY THE CANADIAN JEWISH REVIEW LIMITED
George W. Cohen, Founder
At nu annual meeting it is customary to look back over the previous year, but'it is ine\it;ible that in the process one also looks tor-ward, l'iist 1*11 take lh.it look ahead and 1 sir that next year, 1%7, will be the '50th anniversary of the Federation of Jewish Philanthio-pies of Montreal, an observance of which we can be proud, because it was the forerunner of all such movements throughout Canada.
It will also be the year of the Canadian Confederation Centennial, another celebration in which we will be .proud to participate. -1%t will be significant as the year of K\po, and its theme, "Man And 1!is World**, has great relevance ior us. 1907 for me will be a personal anniversary, thirty years in the field of Jewish social service, a rceoul of which 1 am very proud since 1 have felt honoured and privileged to be a part of a movement which has sought the welfare of our own people and at the same lime has made enduring contributions lo the .improvement of the lot of all mankind.
In these years of work on 'behalf of Jewish communities, I cannot remember a year such as this past one where there were so many challenges to be faced and so much to be done. This has been a year of very hard work not only for me but especially for AJCS officers, executive committee, standing committees, board and staff.
I cannot say enough in appreciation of Die devotion displayed by our president, Jacob M. Lowy. by Gordon Brown, chairman of the executive committee, their fellow-officers, and all lay leaders who have shown unusual understanding and have intensified their activity
to get the Allied Jewish Community Services off the ground in the first year. I must express deep gratitude to a dedicated and loyal staff tor whom this vcar was also difficult since it was a year of transition, of charting new com s, and of staff shortages, so that all had to share in an increased load.
Mach member of the staff voluntarily took on additional responsibilities so that necessary work could be done. 1 wish 1 could name and thank each staff member personally but in the interest of time 1 am going to ask all members of staff to rise so they can receive your commendation and mine. I want to thank, too, all those, lay and professional leaders of agencies, whose cooperation helped to launch Allied Jewish Community Services and whose future cooperation will assure the effectiveness of AJCS planning and coordination.
As difficult as our first year has been, we must resolve to redouble our efforts in meeting the challenges still ahead.
� The rounding ont of our organization, the improvement of campaign efforts, refinement of budgetary practices, and particularly an intensification of planning and research efforts will require prodigious energies. Improvement of our fund-raising is basic to our being able to maintain the level of support Tcquircd by expanding needs locally, nationally, and overseas. Improvement of budgeting will help to assure that funds raised arc being used in the wisest possible manner.
Important as these two foregoing activities arc, the real test of Allied
THE REGULAR SUNDAY RIOT
By Scott Young, of the Toronto Globe and Moil
The most noticeable group to nie in the regular Sunday afternoon riot at Allan Gardens vesterday was one I've scarcely heard .mentioned before: the loughs. 'I hey looked as if they came to fight. 1 hey also looked or-�*HfnVd. with leaders'and thinkers as well Js infantry. And no nutter how fall flicy were or What the color of their(j^jj1r-xrt7C7--+rid this in common: wide shoulders, flat stomachs, hips exceedingly slim. They all wore open-necked shirts with the short sleeves turned up high to reveal bulging biceps. Also, they knew the- Nazis � right down to the last slciidct and . scared anommous one who was bundled into a taxi by a Cop.
. Four young men beside me leaped . at this ta\i and opened the door as it began to move.
�''\\liy don't >oii come out, you bastard! * they tailed at him. and "other endearments, while'one. h.df-laughin-j:. told the driver: I akc him to my hou^o. and we'll In? right over."'
I also lud seen them in dozens a few minutes before, running among the police In rscs during the regular 2-p.m. cavjlrv charge, the mounted cops r<�de solidly westward out of the park driving the croud before them. As I "was on Jams Street I could not sec much of what happened as the charge approached. I he crowd, tiglitb packed, was moving in front '-of the horses and ttic police were using restraint.
But once the first of the crowd crossed the sidewalk iiisf at the south comer of St. Andrew's i uthcran Church, tlicrc wis \uddcnh rooai for action. Iraffic wis stopped. One of the toughs hinged at one of the horses, clapping its rump and shoving, and the cop on the horse behind dug his heels in and mo\cd. A 31'rl and her fellow ran scared for the shelter of the church. Others rail in all directions. As the ho^es wheeled and plunged two nun were thrown hard against one small tree planted on the oanow boulevard. One fU;w horizontally two feet off the ground to hit the tret's steel support with the mid-
dle of his back. I lis look as he hit was horror and fright and anger.
T have seen hockey players hit a goalpost like that and be carried off, and this man must have been hurt but as-soon as he hit the ground he was rolling for dear life, reaching his feet, running.
While all this had been going on, three cops were jamming shut the back door of a paddy wagon on the east side of Jarvis, pointed north. It took off with the three policemen' hanging on to the back door. It had been this ��"the removal of the most hated among the local Nazis � that had brought the action to Jarvis Street.
Once they had gone, it was almost over. Within .minutes, the cavalry moved off south through the . park in twos. Old frail men with anti-Nazi signs headed for streetcar stops, the whitc-helmetcd foot police crossed at the Carlton Street light and then walked south on Jarvis to where police cars and buses were parked beside the Westmorland Hotel. Many plain clothes policemen (each as obvious as if he were wearing a scarlet stripe on his trousers) gathered in groups in the park and spoke of home, the backward, a rum and coke in the sunshine.
Sonic of the horses were packed double into small horse-vans and towed away. 'Ilie higher police officers walked down to their Pbmouths parked on Jarvis and nearby streets and flies left. too. sonic to write reports which b> now are Incoming rather institutionalized. I he police have flic regular Sundjs riot well t.ipcd. I lies acted, as far as I could see. with admirable absence e�f anger. White-faced, sonic of them; strained, others; but acting with restraint.
1 he toughs were a little less businesslike, hut onb a little. As the main arnn of police were leaving, the toughs left. too. Although their shoulders and muscles did not shrink .ins. their truculent manner did. "Any. bod) want a lift home?" one said, and that group moved off. hk< men at the end of a bill gjoic.
Jewish Community Services will come in its ability to do the soundest, most effective job ]x>.ssiblc in the planning areas. Mr. Lowy's annual rejK)Tt has suggested the areas where we need to concentrate:
Planning of institutional and non-institutional services for the aged; planning for a comprehensive program of services for-the youth of our community; planning for effective coordination of health services; planning for the best use of our cultural, group work, recreational and campaign services; planning to determine our role as a central Jewish community organization in Jewish education; and planning to determine our proper role in the services being dcvclojxxl through governmental programs, so that wc may contribute our skills and knowledge in the shaping of such programs and can coordinate our services with those of government as the need arises.
Planning also implies a deep concern with directions and the future responsibilities of our Jewish community; it implies a deep concern with the survival of Jewish values and identity in a period when an open society encourages acculturation.
We' have gone far in the 49 years of history of our central Jewish organization, but wc have much further to go. We have gteat contributions yet to make to the strength, to the welfare of our people, and of the entire population. We can make these contributions through ever-growing unity within our own community and through our resolve to work together in applying our accumulated understanding and knowledge in a coordinated way in the attack on social injustices.
There arc some who claim that wc tend to isolate ourselves too much in what wc do. Nothing could be further from the truth.
In achieving the many miracles of human service for which Ave have been rcs|wnsiblc, wc not only help our own but help show the way for a better life for the entire community.' Wc can best make our contributions to society as a whole if we are a strong, unified community offering what is our unique Jewish contribution.
Wc. derive our commitment to total .community welfare from a distinct and proud heritage which we preserve by adapting it to changing needs and conditions, al-
ways being sure that the basic ethical tradition is preserved. There are many among us who say that wc face a grave problem, that of losing our identity as Jews, or of "seeing that identity so watered down that we begin to forget who wc are and whence we came."
Working together with all of the forces of the community in which we live does not mean the loss of group character if wc maintain a strong central structure within our community for planning, financing, and budgeting of Jewish community services. In this way, wc can be sure wc will not allow our heritage to be dissipated. Our true test as an organization will not be in concealing, but in affirming our origin and the contributions to society which flow from it.
��-We will show strength in our difference, not just to be different from others, but as our special contribution to the richness of our entire community and country. We have, ah obligation to make our contribution to the larger society but wc also have an obligation to make it in our own way. I would predict that our direction in making our specific contributions will be not in becoming less Jewish, but on the contrary, in reaffirming our heritage, and in strengthening our identity and values.
/Miead of us lies our unceasing and unrelenting search for new forms of cooperation to replace presently competing efforts and to bring' all divisions of our Jewish community ever closer together. This united approach will call for the greatest efforts of all. It will-be difficult, as it has been difficult in the past; of this much we can be assured, that it will offer the most effective way to study emerging needs, to set priorities of services and to mobilize the necessary leadership and resources.
hi our Federation and Combined Jewish Appeal we had a solid foundation on which to build. In this first year of AJCS we have added significantly to the stnic-turc. The next years ahead will, I am sure, witness the completion in AJCS of a solid and enduring community structure which will allow us to move forward in meeting our own needs and in working with others .to make our total community in which all will have an opportunity to live in dignity, security, and self-fulfilment.
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JUSTICE COHEN'S MARRIAGE
The Congress Bi-Wcckly says:
A Justice, of the supreme court of Israel married an Israeli woman in New York. The reason they married here is that they could not lawfully marry in Israel, and the reason for that is that the woman was a divorcee and the Justice's name was Cohen.
There would have been no problem if his name were Abramowitz or Lcvinc, but since it is Cohen he is presumably a kohen or member of the priestly tribe and therc: fore, though }>ersonally not observant, barred by Halachah, or Jewish religions law, from marrying a divorcee. Since no rabbi in Israel could marry the couple, and since there is no civil marriage there they had to come to the United States to be married.
Whether the marriage will be recognized as \alid in Israel is a question which will have to be answered by the Israeli courts, and ultimately perhaps by the very court of which Justice Cohen is a member. Nor do we have competence to pass on the Halachic issues involved. (It has been asserted that since the woman remarried after her divorce and her second husband has since died, she was technically an eligible widow rather than an ineligible divorcee when she married Justice Cohen.)
This question will have to be decided, if not already done so, by the Chief Rabbinate in Jerusalem. But. wc do have the right to comment on the broader issue underlying this incident.
Indeed, we have more than a right; we have a duty to do so. If we attack the denial of religious liberty to Jews in the Soviet Union, how can wc be silent when Jews in Israel are denied religious liberty?
To Justice Cohen and his bride at least, freedom to marry in accordance with one's conscience is no less precious than freedom to eat tnaltofn on Passover. Consistency might require that some of the pickets marching in front of the Soviet embassy in New York be detached for service in front of the Israel embassy.
Israel is proud of being the most if not the only democratic state in the Middle Fast. Jews throughout the world share in that pride. But the credibility of the claim to democracy is seriously impaired bv events such as this one. Separation of religion and state is long overdue in Israel; there is no room for a theocracy, even a partial one, in any society with pretentions to democracy.
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JULY 1, 1986
Publication Office
VOL. XLVIII, No. 40
Gardennle, Quebec
STATEMENTS OF JEWISH ORGANIZATIONS ON KING FAISAL'S FAUX PAS WITH REGARD TO JEWS AND ZIONISTS
Jacques Torczyner, president of the Zionist Organization of America, says:
We deplore the attack by King Faisal'of Saudi Arabia on Jews and Zionists while the guest of the United States among whose citizens are over five and one half million Jews loyal to the United States and including many prominent in all ranks of leadership.
We recognize the courtesies and hospitality accorded Faisal by our government as the fundamental rights to a visiting sovereign of a state. Despite the many infringements by Saudi Arabia on the rights of U.S. citizens who might be employed by business firms or members of the United States Armed Forces barred from Saudi Arabia, it was to be expected that the royal visitor might also have been aware of his responsibilities as a guest to refrain lrom attacking the Jewish citizens of his host country.
President Nasser of the United Arab Republic, who is the' chief enemy of the State of Israel, is locked in a deadly conflict with King Faisal of Saudi Arabia and King Hussein of Jordan. Indeed, only a week ago, Nasser labelled Hussein and Faisal as "reactionaries." It is against this background that we- must read. King Faisal's attack on Jews and Zionists in Washington on June 22. Faisal was obviously maneuvering tactically to preserve his own throne and possibly his very life against Nasser's threats.
Dr. Max Nussbaum, chairman.of the American Zionist Council of.all Zionist organizations in The U.S., says:
The remarks of the King from Saudi Arabia come with ill grace from a visiting monarch who is being given the hospilality of our country and our city.
If King Faisal wishes 1a consider the Zionists to be the enemies of his country, that is his privilege. But he should know that the overwhelming number of American citizens, both Jews and non-Jews,'as'well as the Government of the United States, have given decisive support in thelcreation of Israel and applaud the efforts of that small country^fn the Middle East to develop a democratic society which will become a boon to the entire area, for the benefit of Jew and Arab alike.
Dr. Joachim 'Prinz, chairman of the Commission on International Affairs of the American Jewish Congress, says:
The American Jewish Congress heartily commends Mayor Lindsay for cancelling the city's official dinner for King Faisal of Saudi Arabia.
In his own country. King Faisal is an absolute monarch. He prohibits Christian religious services. He bars Jews from setting foot on Saudi Arabian soil, "a prohibition that was in effect long before the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948.
But when he visits these shores King Faisal dare not insult American Jewish citizens who are his hosts by calling them his enemies because they support Israel. It is also the policy of the Johnson Administration to support Israel. Does King Faisal consider lhe President of the United Stales tc be his enemy as well?
Americans of many faiths abhor the Arab ruler's attitude towards Israel and those who are its friends. All New Yorkers will applaud Mayer Lindsay for his forthright repudiation of a foreign despot who has abused the hospitality 'and -he patience cf the great city of New York.
The American Jewish Committee issued this statement:
V/e deplore Kir.g Faisal's having taken the occasion of a state visit to cur country to support :he Arab boycott of Americans engaged in business dealings in Israel. In so doing, he is approving a program that has specif.cally been denounced by his hosts, the United States Government. The King is no doubt aware that the Congress, m a law ena:ted jus! a year ago, reaffirmed that it is the policy c! the Urn fed States "to oppose restrictive trade practices or beyectts festered or imposed by foreign ccur.tr.es against ether ceuntr.es friendly to the United States, ' and that this ieg;sla;;en was prompted by widespread American disapproval cf the Arab boycott. Further, American companies are specifically encouraged by our Government to refuse to comply with any requests for information or the signing cf any arrangements that would support such boycotts.
