Page 4 - The Canadian Jewish News, Friday, July 2, 1976
Editorial
An independent Community Newspaper serving as a forum for diverse viewpoints.
DIrectbrs: Donald Carr, Q.C., George A. Cohon, Murray B. Koffler, Albert J. Latner, Ray D, Wolfe.
E/dltor, Ralph Hyman. Associate Ejlitor, Levyls Uevendel Production Manager, Gary Laforet Business Manager, Sydney Sugarman Office Manager, Edna M, Johnstone
VOL. XVII, No/ 221906)
Published by The Canadian Jewish News
(A Corporation without share capital) at 22 Balliol Street, Suite IS, Toronto, Ontario. M4S ICl. 481-6434
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Carter on Israel
More than a few American Jews are somewhat suspicious of. the evangelical Baptist peanut farmer who may yet suc-" ceed the man from iGrand Rapids, Michigan, as the president of the most powerful and prosperous cbuntry in the world.
Democratic hopeful Jimmy Carter is thus far an unknown quantity on a whole host of issues, a Southerner who minces his words and seemingly changes his colors depending on the aiidiehce he is addressing. For good reasons, his detractors claim he is.like a chameleon: he has a speech for practically everybody, which of course is confusing.
Now that he is so close to capturing his party's nomination, Mr. Carter is casting his net in all directions in a supreme effort to unify the party for the real test iri the autumn against incumbent Gerald Ford or Ronald Reagan. Yet in order to win the presidential prize against Mr. Ford, the onetime Georgia, governor would have to defeat him on his own northern turf, where the majority of Jewish voters reside. Cognizant that Israel is one of the issues closest to the hjearts of the Jewish electorate, Mr. Carter has launched an earnest caihpaign to woo Jewish Americans to his camp, to convince them that he would not foresake Israel.
Jimmy Carter is a hard man to follow, but if one judges him bV: his speeches rather than, by the innuendos surrounding him, one inevitably comes to the conclusion that he would not do any worse than Gerald Ford or Richard Nixon vis-a-vis Israel.
First and foremost, he is unhesitatingly committed to Israel's survival. But this comment should be tempered by the observation that in American mainstream politics, this is hardly a novel position for a . smart politician to adopt, and indeed all the Democratic contenders — from Frank Church to George Wallace — made it quite clear that Israel's survival and well-being could hot be tampered with.
In going beyond the bare basics, Mr. Carter has defined what one newspaper analyst has described as "a series of positions on the Middle East that add up to a
nearly complete list of what Israeli and American supporters of . Israel like to hear;"
He calls for direct negotiations between Arabs and Israeliis, noting that an Israeli withdrawal from occupied lands would hav e to be followed by Arab recognition of the Jewish state, Arab-Israeli diplomatic relations, a peace treaty, open frontiers and an end to the trade boycott.
Surveying the day-to-day needs of Israel, Mr. Carter urges that Washington continue to supply Jerusalem with whatever military and economic aid is necessary for her to "pursue peace from strength arid confidence."
The Carter plank on Israel sounds good, incredibly good, but there are several ambiguities which he must clear up sooner or later. . .
He has not spelled out how much territory Israel.would have to relinquish in a peace agreement. On the one hand, he says that Israel must withdraw "basically to the 1967 boundaries." Yet in the same breath, he excludes the Golan Heights and the Jewish, and Christian holy places in Jerusalem. The trouble with this hazy formulation is that it deviates from Mr. Carter's professed desire for fundamerital withdrawals, and therefore clouds the issue. In short, what is the exact meaning of "fundamental withdrawals"?
Mr. Carter's views on the Palestinians also leave one in some doubt. He voices the opinion that they "have rights that must be recognized in any settlement." arid adds that the Israeli government "js sensitive to that fact." Yet at other times he has been far more specific by advocating a Palestinian homeland on the West Bank — a geopolitical concept which Jerusalem opposes at the moment.
Jinimy Carter will probably clarify his opinions after July's Democratic convention. But until such time the average Jewish voter may well be forgiven for thinking that he is waffling on a few of the crucial questions bearing on the Middle East conflict.
B' nai B 'rith autonomy
Autonomy for Canadian B'naiB'rith is long overdue. And therefore it comes as welcome news that/District 22 (eastern Canada) at its recent arinual convention has set the wheels in motion to gain its independence.
At its 13th annual meeting in the Cat-. skills, a resolution was adopted to ask the international board of governors to approve this movg. Newly-installed BB President Morris Flicht of Toronto has expressed confidence his organization would get its way. All other districts, 'not part of the U.S., are autonomous.
The men in this case are following BB Women of Eastei-n Canadai who earlier this year broke away to become a Canadian .constituent group. If and when BB men gain their autonomy, they will remain affiliated with their international organization as are the women.
The ultimate goal, long the aim of its leaders, is a coast-tO:Coast organization. This move towards autonomy shoitld be the first major step in the process of union.. Most BB leaders in eastern Canada, . ahhbugh they realize this will be a costly venture, are strongly behind a truly national body.
Like most such organizations. BB is experiencing financial and membership problems. The body is extremely concerned about this and is undertaking a number of measures to combat the shuation. Its wide area of involvements arid services offer much to the prospective member.
In.his final address as president. Bill Morris of Hamilton said BB, "partook most actively in the Canada-Israel Committee." . He explained that "we had been a junior partner, not necessarily by choice, in the CIC along with the Canadian Zionist Fed-
. eratioij and the Canadian Jewish Congress.'; Therefore, a stronger BB, both financially and membership-wise, should lead to a stronger CIC.
Mr. Morris has been a most visible president during his term of office. Besides being national vice-president of the CiC, he is turning his efforts to the League for Human Rights as chairman. There appears to be strong division about the future of the BB-funded organization and the main hope for its continuation seems to be setting up a joint committee for human rights with Congress, similar to the Joint Community Relations Committee of BB and CJC.
Mr. Flicht is one. of the best liked B'naj B'rith leaders and. no doubt will be an aggressive, hard-working president. Maybe it is time BB should consider extending the length of its officers' terms. A orie-year term is pretty well out of fashion in rhajor Jewish organizations. A longer term . of office may allow the administratiori to achieve its goals and strengthen the posi-tion of its president in such bodies as the admiriistrative committee of the CIC.
It was encouraging to witness the enthusiasm and participation, of the young members at the recent convention. This bodes well for the future leadership of the organization. ^ •
It was also interesting to actually observe an election.for one of the officer positions — three men competing for the two Montreal regional vice-presidencies. An election for any senior position in a major national or local Jewish organization is a most encouraging sign. Hopefully, this is the start of a trend that ultimately will sec an election for the first national president of B'nai B'rith in Canada. May that dav come soon.
Mosaic, the only commerciailly produced Jewish television program in Toronto, is going off the air.in the autumn, arid it is a shame and a pity. A ishame because the weekly half-hour CITY TV show was not sufficiently supported by advertisers. A pity because this vibrant community of 115,000, the second largest in Canada after Montreal, is in dire'heed of a mass appeal program devoted to Jewish and Middle Eastern affairs.
Yet companies which refused to place . ads with Mosaic are not the only ones to blame for its demise. The show itself, though it reflected the aspirations and feelings of the community to some extent, was at times too dull and often top superficial to succeed. ^
We realize that it is difficult to achieve a comfortable balance between information and entertainment. But it should have been knQwn to the producers of Mosaic long ago
that they were not exactly inspiring the . community~with their show.
Tobefairabout this, one should also say that some Jews, here and elsewhere, would not have tuned in to Mosaic no matter how good and exciting it happened to be. As CITY TV president Moses Znaimer said succinctly, we are living in an era when Jews have "arrived", both economically and socially, and therefore do not wish to watch an 'ethnic'-program which they consider beneath them.
One hopes that Mosaic can be resuscitated and, concomitantly, reworked, and possibly rescheduled from 6:30 on Sunday to perhaps a more favorable time frame; But if all this is to happen, advertising dollars will have to be forthcoming, and the community at large will have to display a far more positive attitude than they have shown to daite.
By ELLIE TESHER
TORONTO —
Dr. Alexander (Sandy) Logan calls high blood pressure "the silent killer." The 34-year-old nephrologist at the Mount Siniai Hospital is conducting a research study to help identify and treat the problem of high blood pressure more effectively. "Usually, the person with the condition experiences no symptoms whatsoever," he e;xplained. Undetected and untreated, high blood pressure can lead to stroke, heart attack, kidney trouble, eye problems or leg pain. But only a small percentage of cases have warning symptoms such as head^ aches, a change in vision or light headed-ness. •
Known as hypertension, the condition is not synonynious with stress, as is often presumed, "Stress can aggravate preexisting hypertension," Dr. Logan said. Buthypcrtcrision itself is a disorder of regulation which the young researcher likened, to a faulty thermostat in a house. VVith sustained high blood pressure, the heart has to pump against increased resistance.
Dr. Logan pointed out that high blood pressure i,s one of the five or six risk factors that prc-dispose toward cardiovascular disease, which he termed the number one killer of middle-aged men in North America. Bui Logan stresses that the patient with high blood pressure does not have a disease, and need not be cast into a sick role. Treatment is a long-range commitment that is really a matter, of monitoring, at times an inconvenience to the patient who feels well.
Hence the Mount Sinai program to seek alternative forms of health care for the public, to bring convenient therapy to the hypertensive person rather than the traditional mode of repeated visits to the family physician.
The project is two-fold. A screening program has been carried oiit and just completed on some 20,000 people in Metro Toronto. They have been sought out at their place of work or its. immediate area through the use of health centres in large industrial sites, in government offices, and on location at major banks and newspapers. Of these, some 380 people have come into the program for treatment. Excluded were those who-were already receiving ongoing therapy for previously known high blood pressure, and worrien taking birth control pills.
Thesccond phase is follow-up treatment at the work site for half of the group, and a traditional course of therapy, contacting the family physician for his treatment program for another group. Comparisons will be made over a period of time. The group receiving at-work health service will have an initial assessment by a physician and monitoring at frequent intervals by a specially-trained nurse practitioner.
"In the past, high blood pressure has been poorly handled," said Dr. Logan in an . interview in his Mount. Sinai Hospital ' office. :"Only one-quarter or less of those with, high blood pressure have had their condition under control."
The boyish-looking researcher outlined a number of the different barriers to control facing the hypertensive patient; a sizeable group suffer side effects such as nausea from the required medication and initial therapy demands frequent visits to the doctor's office, including a rest period to obtain a true blood pressure reading.
Dr. A. G. Logan of Mt. Sinai Hosphal, administers to patient Mary Hrynkiw. A nephrologist, he is conducting a research study to help identify and treat the problem of hypertension (high blood pressure), more effectively. (David .Groskind photograph)
Added is the time away from work, travel involvement, and the waiting period irt the doctor's office. '.
"Studies repeatedly show that the patient is riot motivated to continue treatment on a consistent basis." summarized' Dr. Logan.
The obvious conclusion of the research
planning team was to bring therapy to the patient."We'll go to where the patient is." he said.
■ Dr. Logan sees no conflict with the family physician who has hitherto been, responsible for his patients* treatment program for high blood pressure. In fact, he reports full co-operation from physicians
whose patients hive entered the research study. He stresses that it has not been the family doctor's fault that there has often been poor follow-up on hypertensive people, rather the combination of barriers that the person faces when he is feeling no alarriiing symptoms, yet must commit himself to ongoing treatment.
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By ROCHELLE CARR
June 29, 1946, came to be known, in Zionist history, as "Black Sabbath".
On that day, the British mandatory power in Palestine ordered the arrest of the
members of the Zionist executive, most other Jewish public officials and hundreds upon hundreds of Jews throughout all of Palestine-
This latest iow ebb in British-Jewish relations in Palestine was a retaliatory act by the British against the increasing activities of Jewish activists in Palestine. In a sense, this episode began with the establishment of an Anglo-American committee to investigate what to do with the remnant of post World>War II European Jewry.
When the British Labor government, on Oct. 19, 1945, proposed the establishment of the committee, it did so hoping to show others, particularly its American ally, its honorable intentions towards the Jews despite such harsh policies as its White Paper which, among other things, severely limited Jewish immigration into Palestine.
The committee's report, published on
By J.B. SALSBERG
Dear Editor, consider yourself picketed by. me.
And why not? Everybody that's anybody nowadays pickets or demonstrates with signs or placards in hand championing this or denouncing that — as the case niay be; So, why not me?
Mr. Editor, I am "hittingthe bricks," as this once courageous and dangerous performance was called, before it degenerated into the safe and stylized activity of the "white-collared" the professional, the middle and upper cjasses of our confused society.
Yes. Mr. Editor, I'm out there (I miean in here, at the typewriter) braving all hazards and am doing what I wanted to do to yoii for a long time. I'm picketing you! But since you may-not dare to corne oiit to read my signs, preferring to remain barricaded in the safety of your inner sanctum. I am informing you that my placards read; "Equal space for __Rabbi Felder!" and "Equal prominence of coverage for Rabbi Felder."
yfhy, you may ask, am I championing Rabbi Felder's cause? Did Rabbi Geda-lia Felder. or any of his friends ask me to do it? The answer is an unfaltering and loud NO! When (and if) this will appear Rabbi Felder and his friends will be as surprised as will be every sophisticated reader of this column. (Are there any other?) If I am resorting to this.
rather extreme, method of protest it is solely because of my dedication to the caus;e of fair play. Yes, sir, fair play
What's happened? This is what happened! Our owri Miriam Herman, bless her. and her most'informative and widely-read column, made known that Toronto's Rabbi Gedalia Felder was paid tribute to at a special luncheon during the recently held convention of the Rabbinical' Council of America, in Fallsburg, N.Y. This tribute, as Miriam informs us, was in recognition of his scholarly work as a member of the "Beth Din Tzedec" (Orthodox) and on the appearance of "his lOth book on Jewish religious law."
But is an event such as the appearance of the 10th volume of a rioted Tororito rabbinic scholar worth ho more than aparagraph in a coliimii that musti of necessity, treat every item in it in capsule form? (The facts are that the works of Orthodox rabbis Gedalia Felder, Abraham Price, Nachman She-men — Torontonians all — are read, studied and quoted in Orthodox religious circles in many coiintries.)
On the other hand, we do (let's admit
Rabbi Gedalia Felder of Toronto
it) find space for news and pictures of people who get "honorary degrees", yes, and "honorary titles" and "honor-. ary positions" (whatever those things may mean) but give no such prominence to news of acknowledged scholars and their latest works, except perhaps in the book review columns. ''
Now. don't misunderstand me, please. 1 don't object to grown ups, the honoraries, waving their institutional lollypops as if they were Nobel Prizes or Oak Garlands from Olympus. And if someone engages a musical Kapella to celebrate a lollypops occasion well and good. As my uncle Eliezer says: "Does it hurt anyone?" But let's be fair to those in our midst who really deserve an Oak Leaf or its equivelarit.
Now that 1 said my piece, Mr. Editor, I will fold up my placards and ask you to join me for a drink! Tea and lemon, of course. AJFter all, I'm a "Yiddisher Gazlen" and my anger usually lasts a miniite or two and then I'm ready to beg forgiveness from those whom I may have hurt or criticized.
You see, my dear and highly esteemed editor, it is really not you, but the whole social atmosphere that I ani critical of. It is our prevailing standards of values that disturb me. I suppose we need brass and drum instruments but: what of the violins, the violas, and the thrbbbing cellos? ^
I don't have to agree with Rabbi Felder to have "naches" aiidfeel pride ^Jn his scholastic attainments any rnore than I have to be a follower of Reforih Judaism to feel the same-way about' Rabbi Gunther Plaut's latest biblical work.
So: To Rabbi Gedalia Felder, who displays the best of traditional. Orthodox dedication to the enrichment of rabbinic literature, I say, on the occasion of the publication of his 10th volume, "Congratulations, and may there be many years of creative work irt the area of Judaism that you are dedicated to. L'chaimI"
May 1, 1946, made 10 recommendations of which one was the immediate immigration of 100.000 Jews into Palestine, a proposal which President Truman did not cease to remind the British government about, particularly its foreign secretary, Ernest Bcviri.
The Arabs were adamant that the proposals not be carried out, the British goveni-mcnt was totally confused as to its next move, not to mention any definitive long-range plan and the Zionist hierarchy began to argue and bicker about the best way to bring about the proposals.
But, the Jewish activists would have no part in further delays. While the statesmen and diplomats debated, the activists blew up nine bridges, including the AHenby bridge linking Palestine to Jordan and severely damaged railway buildings in Haifa on June 16, 1946.
Thus it came about that, 13 days later, in an attempt at a show of force, the British retaliated for about two weeks by instituting wave after wave of mass arrests of Palestine's Jews, which included such well-known names as Moshe Shertok (Sharett)and the aged Rabbi Yehuda Leib Fishman. as well as conducting one of its most intensive searches for caches of arms.
Chaim Weizmann, Israel's first president
There were charges of British cruelty towards their prisoners and at least one high British official began making public anti-Semitic statements. The situation was further aggravated when the Irgun blew up the King David Hotel on July 22. All these actions served to push the parties even further apart, making_aii attempt to find a solution even more difficult.
Chaim Weizmann and David Ben Gurion (both had not been in Palestine at the time of the mass arrests) worked feverishly to obtain the release of the Jews. Some were let go in a few weeks, but many high ranking, Jews such as Shertok remained in jail for several months while the British hoped that, from somewhere, a plan might be devised to 'make the Palestine situaitioii tractable.
None would come until Nov. 29, 1947, when the United Nations voted to partition Palestine. In the meantime, naiiies like "Black Sabbath" would enter the history books as a reminder of the difficulties that beset both the British mandatory power and all the inhabitants of Palestine during those years before Israel was bom. /■