RECENTLY RETURNED from a visit to a not-too-distant  Western  Canadian  town, a Vancouverite reports an incident which sent him into a state of shock and should do the same to those responsible, for Jewish education in that community. While there, he went to the synagogue where he met a few Jewish teenagers, boys and girls with whom he started a conversation. He asked them if they knew how to read Hebrew. They replied, **Yes we do, we know the word 'Mazeltov'!'' Astonished, the visitor pointed to a page in the prayerbook and asked them if they could read the "Shema.". They replied, **No, we don't know it in Hebrew but we can say it in English: "Hear O Israel...   The visitor shook his head in disbelief In his own youth he remembered being in Europe in the front lines in wartime^ And he recalled how all around him were men from different countries — Polahd, Russia, the Ukraine and Latvia^^ all of them speaking different native languages. But how, when some of them were hit by bullets, you knewthey were Jewish —not from their faces but from their voices. They shouted with their last breath, hot in Polish or Russian or Ukrainian or Latyian, biit in Hiebrew: "Shema Yisroel..." Surely the supreme affirmation of our martyrs and of all Jews throughout the ages ought to be the minimum Hebrew education requisite of every Jewish youngster today . . . riot Mazeltov.
AND BY THE WAY, as everyone knows, the "Shema" includes thebbmmandment: "Thou shalt bind them for a sign on thy hand, and they shall be as frontlets between thine eyes." This is the direct commandment for Jews to don tefillin (phylacteries) within which is a parchment scroll which, includes the "Shema." Furtherntt^ should be noted that both tenilm sacred books which contain the ns^me and word of G-d, by Jewish law riiust be buried in a Jewish cemetery when they ai^too^o unable to be
;used. All of tWs serves to jnjtroduce another rei)brt iv^ich has surfaced here; if true, it is also a pathetic commentary on the quality of Jewish life in bur own community. It has been reported that On two occasions, several dozen sets of tefillin were not buried but were incinerated here.
MEMO TO PAT BURNS: Thanks for the copies of the series of early a. m. commentaries on Israel and the Palestinian Arabs you aired last week. No wonder some of your listeners thoujght somebody had put a little into your
morning coffee. "It doesn't sound like him, but ril check," I saiii, and hencemy call. Right off, one of the problems arising from the nature of your media, unlike otirs, is that the listener cannot readily go back to see what was said earlier. Thus
your opening comment correctly depicting yourself as "a staunch supporter of the 5tate of Israel," was totally lost to anyone tuning in late or listening only to the last three program segments.
But I, for one, do not think you are any less a staunch supporter of Israel than you ever were: in spite of your criticism of Israel for what you term "discrimination" against her Arab citizens^ arid in spite of yourstatement that Israel is "withholding justice" to noii-Israeli Palestinian Arabs by preventing them from having their own independent homeland. Patrick, there is only one area in which Israel discriminates against her Arab \ citizens: they are not conscripted into the Army as are Jewish citizeriswheri they turn-18. (Arab Israelis travel abroad — I'vemet them overseas— they can buy: and sell land, they haye their representatives in Parliament, they publish their own newspapers and are subject to the same laws and benefits as Jewish Israelis.)
As for your, remark about Israel withholdirig justice from the Palestinian Arabs; you are aware ' that in 1947 the Arabs were offered their own , Palestinian state and rejected it. You also know that although Arab authority prevailed on the West Bank from 1to 19S7, no 6rie theii talked of establishing an independent Palestiniari state to house the Arab refugees. The Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan cpiild easily have done so but instead chose to dp nothing.
I think you will agree that the entire problem of the Arab refugees could havebeeri solved long ago if both the Soviet Union and oil^rich Arab nations had wanted to do so. The Arab nations had the land and the money to resettle their kinfolk, but they lacked the humanity, instead they have used their petrodollars to buy Soviet weapons to wage war against Israel and have deliberately kept the refugees ais political pawns.
You kripWv I^ how all wars and upheavals have created refugees. At th^ehd pj^brld W^
of refugees. Again after Korea^after^herSoviet bccupaiion of Euippean ebuntriesv aftef after Vietnam and after Uganda, there were niiliipns niore. Yet ill of those refugee situations became reconciled as the refugees were resettled after a few years. Only the Arab refugees have been left by their brethreri to fester for 30 years in canips while the U.N. fiddled; Let us not put this injustice onto Israel's shoulders — the Israelis have had their Own burden in resettling Jewish refugees from wars and oppression iri Arab lands and in the Soviet Union. Let us not charge Israel alone with ari injustice perpetuated by the U.N. arid. 21 Arab nations. '
It is evident, Patrick, that you have been fed some rather historically inaccurate concoctions with your morning coffee recently.
LEVIGH PROMISED RELEASE
(Continued from page 1)
60th birthday by leading world scientists.
In Moscow, academician Levich said recently he hoped that he would be able to attend an upcoming inter-
- DEATHS-SARAH JACOBSON November 6
As another Bulletin community service feature. Deaths will be published weekly as they are regisr-tered. — THE PUBLISHER.
Remenilier the Sabbath
Sabbath begins, light candles
Friday, November 17,4:09 p.m.
Sedra Vayera,' Genesis Shabbat ends, Havdallah November 18, 5;09 p.m.
Friday, November 24, 4:02 p^m. Sedra Chayei Sarah, Genesis Shabbat ends, Havdallah November 25, 5:02 p.m.
national scientific conference being organized in his honor in Washington, where he would be able to thank Western scientists for their support.
Lev  Roitburd,   a. 42-year-old . Odessa aeronautical engineer and a former Jewish prisoner of conscience, was given piermission recently to emigrate to Israel.
Roitburd, who lost his job after applying to emigrate to Israel in 1972, was jailed for two years in August, 1975, on a charge of resisting arrest. His trial in the Odessa airport workers' club, was preceded . .by a lecture.equating Zionism with . fascisni. ;
Social Calendar
Nov. 19
Nov. 21
Nov. 21 and Dec. 5, 12
Israel publishes^^^^m for Russian 'dropouts'
JERUSALEM— A modest, 24-page Israeli newsmagazine for soviet Jewish ^dropouts* has created a wave of interesi among *noshrim*in the U.S. and other countries where they have settled.
But the new publication," produced monthly on flimsy, air-mail paper by the Jewish Agency and the Absorption r Ministry, can hardly compete with the slick, full-color magazine put out by the U.S. information Agency for distribution in Russia. The American magazine — with its stories on high fashion, advanced technology and luxurious homes — advances the myth of gold-paved American streets.
**The U.S. government does it as propaganda to keep up its image, not
because it wants to encourage Russian imnjigratioh to America,*" says Alia Rusinek, a fofmeir Russian ;;^^T||^Jns^cvJoisat^gency'-Mirt; y ' ^fepartment of jnformatioh for t>i|m^ which publishes the Israeli newsmagazine izrail Sevodnia' (Israel Today). "But we Israelis, who want
Russian Jews to come on aliyah, ; have only just begun tov prepare material in Russian about ourselves," he says.
Despite its limitations, the Israeli , information bulletin has been well received by ^dropouts,^ especially in the U.S., where it has 1,000 subscribers. -
It is a digest of stories from The Post and other Israeli newspapers, translated into Russian.-Dropouts* thus view its contents as accurate information rather than propaganda:
With over 30,000 'dropouts* in the U-S. alone,, Rusinek is certain that' the magazine has a large potential market. But its distribution is hampered by the difficulty in locating Russian emigrants in the U.S., since they are. quite widely dispersed among many states. Appeals by the information departmenit|p tj|^ja^,^, rew immigrant Aid Society for assistance in locating-dropouts' have not yet been answered, she says.
(Jerusalem Post).
(Continued from page 1)
conference, which is held every two years, condemned Israel for her archaeological excavations in Jerusalem, in spite of a report by a UNESCO expert. Professor Raymond Lemaire, of Louvain university in Belgium, that they were being carried out with proper regard for the historic and religious aspects of the area.
A second 1974 resolution prevented Israel from joining UNESCO's European grouping as she had requested. A third instructed UNESCO to supervize educational and cultural organizations in the occupied territories.
The resolutions sparked worldwide protests by governments, organizations and individuals. The Israeli and United States governments cancelled their contributions to UNESCO and other governments reduced theirs.
.However, Israel was admitted to UNESCO's European grouping in November, 1976 and she resumed her membership last April.
JEWISH CALENDAR LUACK 5739 ^ J97S-79
Rosh Chodesh
Kislev Nov. 30-Dec. I
Chanuka Dec. 25-Jan. 1
Rosh Chodesh Tevet Dec. 30-31 Asarah B'Tevet Jan. 9
Rosh Chodesh Shevat Jan. 29 Tu B'Shevat Feb. 12
Shabbat Shekalim Feb. 24
Rosh Chodesh Adar Feb. 27-28 Fast of Esther Mar. 12
Purim Mar. 13
Shushan Purim Mar. 14
; Shalom fi- Newcomers
'Drop-in' Pioneer Women Clothing Sale
Schara tzedeck ~ . Lecture Series on "Jewish View of Here and Hereafter"
Centre - NCJW Lecture
*Heart to Heart' Nov. 22, 29 CZF Evening Meeting —
"Religious Pluralism
in Israel** Nov. 23
Roosevelt NCJW Meeting Nov. 23 Centre — Cabaret Nov. 25
CRT Film , Nov. 26
Schara Tzedeck — ^
Vicki Frimer----
Jewish Book Month      Nov. 28
Beth Israel Sisterhood
Luncheon Nov. 29
Hadassah Youth Allyab
Workshop   ^ Nov. 30
CZF Annual Board Meeting
and Elections Nov. 30
Beth Hamidrash Bazaar Dec. 3 Schara Tzedeck Women's
Branch— Brunch and
Elections Dec. 12
THE JEWISH WESTERN BULLETIN
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Thursday, November 16,1978
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