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40 Pages
Thursday, July 29,1993 Av 11, 5753
Publicalions Mail Registralion No. 1683 - Poslaqe.Paid at Toronlo
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No issue August 5
PRAISE FOR CANADIAN
Fred Oberjander, legendary Canadian Maccabiah veteran (right); is congratulated for helping make the 14th Maccabiah Games an outstanding success by Joel Rabinowitz (left), manager of the new immigrant section of Bank Hapoaiim^ an official Maccabiah sponsor. In a reception for team delegation leaders at the Maccabiah Village in Ramat Gan, Rabinowitz praised organizers for bringing thousands of overseas Jewish participants, their families, friends and fans into close contact with young people of Israel.
TEL AVIV (JTA and JPFS) - In one
of the fiercest air strikes since the 1982 Lebanon incursion. Israeli jets and helicopter gunships blasted suspected gUerri la and military bases in southern Lebanon Sunday and Monday, including at least one Syrian-held position.
Areas around the Lebanese port city of Tripoli, north of Beirut, came under Israeli fire Monday, just as Lebanon was requesting an emergency meeting of the United Nations'Security Council.
In the northern Israeli town of Kiryat Shmona. two civilians were killed and at least 13 others injured in retaliatory Katyusha rocket attacks on the Galilee panhandle. , :
Israeli officials announced Monday that children, the elderly and the disabled would be evacuated from the tense town.
The world chairman of the Jewish National Fund,.Moshe Rivlin, on Monday invited"500 children from Kiryat Shmona and other settlements along the north-em frontier to spertd the next week at JNF camps in Shuni, Lavi and Tzippori.
Rockets were also launched at Israel's northernmost settlement, Metulla, where they hit an apartment building.
Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin visited Kiryat Shmona and Metulla Sunday evening, meeting with residents and local council heads in a gesture of solidarity. He stressed that Israel would not allow the Iranian-backed fundamentalist Hezbollah to hold northern towns and villages hostage in an effort to prevent the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) from taking action against the organization.
Syria's official news agency reported two Syrian soldiiers killed, while other reports said up to six Syrian soldiers died. These would be the first Syrianmilitary
casualties by Israeli gunfire in years.
Reports of deaths on both sides of the border ranged as high as 36. At least 35 were wounded and many were reported missing..
The cabinet met late Sunday night to discuss the Katyusha attacks.
Chief of General Staff Lt.-Gen. Ehud Barak told reporters that the security forces wanted to prevent ''an uncontrolled deterioration" of the situation in Lebanon. However, he said Israel does not exclude any kind of military action in its attempt to bring security to the northern border.
Barak said the air force carefully chose 16 Hezbollah targets to bomb'.
He would not specify how long the army's retaliatory attacks would last but hinted that even if it took a few days, and led to loss of troops; the IDF and air force would continue the operations until.residents of the northern border could live without fear of Katyusha rockets.
The United States urged restraint from all sides involved in the fighting.
U.S. secretary of State Warren Christopher^ who is slated to be in the Middle East this weekend, said the violence does not advance the peace process.
The Israeli strikes were ordered in response to weeks of increased clashes on the Lebanese border that have resulted in the deaths of seven Israeli soldiers this month alone — the highest monthly death toll in nearly three years. ■
In the latest incident, Sgt. Gad Lipski, 19, of Ramat Aviv was killed last Thursday by a mortar shell that fell near an IDF post in the northern part of the security zone Israel maintains in southern Lebanon. /
fCont'd. on page 8]
Stephanie takes a look at community is Usease.
man . the Jewish
two part series.
Bv STEPHANIE CHAPMAN
"My family is having such a problem with this — they'd prefer to think I'm already dead — and I'm really getting upset about their reactions. I'm not ashamed so there's no reason for them to be," says Joel, a 42-year-old Jew who has tested positive for HIV. '
[Despite the fact Joel wanted his last narne used, it has been omitted to protect his family.]
Brought up in a "good Reform fafnily" ill North York, Joel's, troubles began'when he was 18; Upon finishing Grade 13. he took a.year to travel around the world to see where the trip would end.' It ended in India, the country that was to be the setting of his serious drug problems. By 1971. at the age of 20, he was a drug addict.
Joel's story is a familiar one. For the next 15 years he was in and out, of jail and detention centres for using, carrying and dealing drugs un-
til, at 35. he found himself homeless on the streets of New York.
He was diagnosed with HIV early in 1986 when he was taken to the hospital by friends. In' a coma, Joel was admitted with meningitis (an infection of the spinal fluid) and suffering from kidney failure. Doctors released Joel without telling him that he carried the virus.
"There was just so much wrong with me that everyone said it was just a miracle that I.caifne: back. As soon as 1 got out, I went back to Washington Square Park, back on the street, back homeless — I wanted to get high." he says, adding that he paid no attentiori to theoadyice from his doctors.'
He was'told he was HIV positive on a follow-up visit.
"I appreciated at least knowing. I didn't be-lieve.it. Most people Who test positive go through a long state of denial.
"Now I'm sick — serious sick. I'm probably dying right now. I don't think I was six months ago, biit 1 do now. I don't know how long a stretch it will be but it's very hard.
"My T4 count (conductor cells of the immune sysieniyhas dropped drastically. They're keeping me on synthetic heroin and 1 thank God everyday for it. If I didn't have it. I'd be dead. I can't stand the attitude of most doctors because they think you're a f---ing junkie, but truthfully, these drugs are now keeping me alive."
Although Joel is tapping the financial support services of the Jewish Family & Child Services (JF&CS), he is not seeking counselling. At one point, he called Holy Blossom, the only shul in Toronto with existing AIDS and HIV programs.
"They came here to interview, me about a month and a half ago and they never called me back. The sight of drug paraphernalia [belonging to visiting friends] lying around — I think that
scared them. They don't want to be involved with me." Joel says.
Jonathan Lahipe, chair of Holy Blossom's AIDS Committee reports that in this case, program co-ordinatprs understood that Joel was al-. ready appropriately matched through thie AIDS Committee of Toronto (ACT).
Perhaps one reason why Joel is hesitant to turn to the Jewish community for help is the reaction he has received from his own family.
"My mother no longer will let me touch her. She doesn't want a hug even. She's scared. You'd think over the years, she'd get better — she's not. She's getting worse. My father won't talk to'me. He thinks I'm dead already. I guess that adds a lot of pressure." Joel says, his voice breaking. "My own brother won't talk to me or let mc see his children. His wife, who is a registered
[Cont'd, on page 2]
Clearing immigration picture
Pages
Inside
Gold for Canada at Maccabiah
Page 4
Jewish life in Mexico
Page 6