2 — THE BULLETIN ~ Wednesday, September 19.1990
BBI prez seeks 'young blood'
DALLAS — Barbara Schiner of Baltimore recalls that 32 years ago, her brother encouraged her husband, Kent, to join a B*nai B*rith lodge. Siiice then, Kent Schiner has held virtually every major leadership post in the worldwide organization, capping it off by being elected president Of B'nai B'rith International at the organization's 35th biennial convention here tJiis month.
Schiner*s top priority, he said, will be "to infuse young blood into the organization, increase membership, improve the quality of programming, strengthen public relations programs and inspire members to reach greater heights in service to BBI.'*
An insurance underwriter and financial consultant.
Schiner served on BBI's international board of governors for 15 years and on i^s financial management committee for six.
Schiner said he will seek new ways to work together on projects and programs with the independent B'nai B'rith Women for mutual benefit, noting at the same time that females may now join lodges. Asked whether he saw any chance of BBW coming back into the fold under one B'nai B'rith banner, Schine replied: "Neyer! There is no chance of that happening. We will work closely together and resolve issues, however."
The son of a manufacturing plant supervisor and a Balti-morean since the early 1940s, Schiner had to lie about his age at 16 to join the Marines during the Korean War. jta „
Robbie Michaelson
ONE HUNDRED and seventy-seven of 200 gravestones at Jewish cemetery in Ihringen, West Germany were desecrated In August attack. VilSage mayor Arthur Kobele (Inset) believes vandals came from outside area.
WEST GERMAN DIARY
PART 9
Ihringen Jewish cam
Austrian tabloids speculate on Waldhelm re-election bid
By REINHARD ENGEL
VIENNA — Austrian tabloid newspapers are speculating that President Kurt Wald-heim might be tempted to run for re-election when his term expires in 092 as a result of his coup in bringing home 95 Austrian detainees from Iraq.
However, Waldheim himself said this was pure speculation, and would not give credence to the reports. There is no age limit to the presidency.
which is a six-year term, but one can be re-elected only once.
The 71 -year-old president, scorned by most world leaders because of his wartime activities with the German Weh-rmacht in the Balkans, has been applauded here for his surprise visit in August to Baghdad and his meeting with Iraqi president Saddam Hussein.
There has been some skepticism here over his trip. JTA
By ROBBIE MICHAELSON
IHRINGEN — The desecration of Jewish cemeteries was brought home very forcefully in Ihringen. Last month I travelled to the cemetery, which is located in Southern Germany, to see for myself and to be able to relate to you first-hand what such a brutal desecration really looks like. And more important how it feels.
Of some 200 gravestones in the cemetery, 177 were desecrated. Swastikas and SS symbols were written everywhere along with the usual hate-filled slogans of Jews to Dachau", etc. Tombstones were pulled out of the ground or cut in half. Whoever planned this -despicable -act-
must have been in the cemetery for several hours.
The village of Ihringen is nestled in the foothills about 20 kilometres from the city of Freiberg, very near the Rhine river and the French border. It is picturesque, very clean — as is all of Germany — and with a fair share of good-looking young people. A more tranquil place would be hard to find.
Vancouverite Robbie Michael—^ son Is on work assignment in West Gennany for two years. ^
In 1936 there were about 300 Jews in the village. However, with the rise of Nazism, the majority succeeded in fleeing to France, Switzerland, and in some cases, America. -The-Nazis torched the village
OPERgTiON
August saw larger monthly aliyahtn39years
JERUSALEM — A total of 17,484 Soviet Jews immigrated to Israel in August, and another 1,300 immigrants arrived from other countries, the largest monthly immigration to Israel in 39 years.
The figure on Soviet immigration to Israel, a H-percent jump over the July total, was reported by Simcha Dinitz, chairman of the Jewish Agency and World Zionist Organization Executives. The National Conference on Soviet Jewry released an identical figure in New York.
The August total brings the level of Soviet Jewish emigration to more than 80,000 so far this year, according to the Soviet Jewry Research Bureau. ~
Four or five planeloads of
Soviet Jews arrive nightly at Beh-Gurion airport from various transit points in Europe. In addition, "hundreds of Jews arrive every month from the Soviet Union in roundabout ways," Dinitz told the WZO executive here.
He said even more channels of exit are needed for the
stepped-up Soviet immigration.
Dinitz also said the Jewish Agency is doing its utmost "to break through the barrier hindering aliyah from Ethiopia." He was referring to reports that 15,000 to 17,000 Ethiopian Jews waiting for permission to emigrate in the
/ _ Israel Sun
YOUNG NATASHA, immigrant from Soviet Union, examines f rult^ drinks at Tel Aviv supermarket.
capital of Addis Abba are suffering from malnutrition and disease.^
In light of the massive influx of immigrants, Israeli absorption minister Yitzhak Peretz urged world Jewry to make even greater efforts to support "the great mission of absorbing aliyah."
Peretz met with 50 leaders of State of Israel Bonds, who held a three-day conference commemorating the 40th anniversary of the group's founding.
Peretz told them that one of Israel's chief concerns is finding jobs for the Soviet immigrants, 70 percent of whom are professionals. "We must take advantage of this manpower and turn Israel into a scientific world power," he said. JTA
The special emergency campaign — Operation Exodus — Is being conducted by the Jewish Federation In conjunction with the Combined Jewish Appeal.
A funny thing happened ...
For months over the long, hot summer, Shpeter Krupnick, father of the three partners of the law firm Krupnick, Krupnick and Krupnick, teaches his pet parrot the Kpl Nidre. The parrot learns the prayers perfectly, so at Rosih Hashana Krupnick sets the bird on the Om^^/and awaits with pride his "student's"
B.B. teadei- supports^Bush
...jrmance. ^. Gornisht. Not so much as a peep emanates from the highly trained bird. Beside himself. Old Man Krupnick angrily confronts the bird after shul: ''ScMimien Nincompoop! You embarrassed me in front of the whole kehillahr .
Whereupon the parrot explains: "Fm waitmg for Yom Kip-pur Everyone knows you dotCldaven Kol Nidre on Rosh
Hashana."
LOS ANGELES Mort Wolk, president of B'nai B'rith District Four, representing the western United States and British Columbia, has lent his voice and his organization's total support for actions taken by United States president George Bush against Iraqi president Saddam Hussein's invasion of Kuwait.
"We want our president to know that the entire membership of the world's largest Jew-
ish organization, and surely Jewish people everywhere, stand behind every action and order he has given to stop Hussein," said Wdik.
The invasion by Iraq threatens the peace and well-being of perhaps the entire world, Wolk stated.
"The price for freedom alid human rights will always be eternal vigilance. Nobody can appreciate this more than the Jewish^ community worldwide," he said.
synagogue during "Kristal-Inacht" and the area apparently harbored a strong Nazi presence during the war.
However, this is 1990. There are no Jews in the village, and most of the original Nazis are likely dead. So why would anti-Semites pick this cemetery for such a brutal desecration?
When we arrived at the site there were about 50 people, mostly from Ihringen, standing in shocked silence inside the cemetery. They looked genuinely saddened by what had transpired and one felt that they certainly did not want or approve of what had happened. They appeared to this observer as a group of people who were collectively reflecting on a bad dream,
Jtrwith the "Burgermeis-ter" of Ihringen, Herr Arthur Kobele, who told me that over 600 of the village's 5,000 inhabitants had already come to the cemetery to pay their respects. He believes that those who completed the desecration came from outside the area. The village has offered a reward for information leading to the arrest of the perpetrators. The Mayor also pointed out that the cemetery would be repaired, and I saw evidence that this had already started.
I also had a conversation with a 21-year-old German man. Dirk Klank. Klank. represents, to some degree, the coming generation of young Germans. He knew about the Holocaust and , knew the history of his village during the Nazi era. I asked him why he had come to the cemetery and he said that he read about the desecration in the newspaper and wanted to coine.
He said: "What happened is sad and I am angry about it. I think it is wrong."
The desecrations at Ihringen and other places — and other incidents that_wiU no doubt still occur — demonstrate that there are still those in Germany who hate Jews. However, the people of Ihringen Avho visited the Judische Freidhof also demonstrate that there are today niany in Germany who are not anti-Semitic.
Colleges join forces
JERUSALEM
Jerusa-
lem's Hebrew university and East Berlin's Humboldt university have signed a research, education and training agreement — the first between the nations* post-secondary institutes.
HMeless burn tires
JERUSALEM — Homeless people staged a demonstration outside Ramla city hail, blocking a main road and burning tires. Protesters said police used excessive violence in scattering them»
Hornets prove deadly
JERUSALEM - Yitzhak Shalian, an asthmatic from Herzlia, died at 32 after being stung by hornets while hiking in the Golan with the Nature Protection Society. A youngster in the group apparently stepped on a hornets' nest, prompting the attack.
Soviet hackers lured
JERUSALEM — Organizers, of the Fifth Jerusalem Conference on Information Technology, slated for this October, have invited Soviet computer experts to take part.
Tube Speaks English
JERUSALEM — Israel Television English-language news will start Oct. 14, and will be aired at 8 p.m. daily, said ITV managing director Yosef Barel.
Austrian leader's
Iraqi trip knocked
\ BRUSSELS — The Eurp-pean Community has criticized Austrian president Kurt Waldheim for his recent visit to Baghdad, where helmet Iraqi counterpart Saddam Hussein.
The E.C. Commission called the visit a "breach in the international solidarity against Iraq." Diplomatic sources npted Waldheim's unilateral move will probably have a negatrveimpactron Austria's drive to join the E.C.
* ^ * * ' ■
Israel not put on travel advisory
AMSTERDAM
The
Dutch government has issued a travel advisory against visiting most Mideastern countries. Ho>Yever, no restrictions have been placed on travel to Israel and Egypt.
Cancellations of trips to Israel from Holland have been made mainly by those who were to visit for the first time and as group members, but not those visiting Israel regularly and individually.
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Doctors see virus in Iranian Jews
NEW YORK Two doctors have been awarded a new Israel Cancer Research Fund grant to study and help treat a group of Iranian immigrants to Israel who have a cancer-causing type of virus.
Drs. Dina Meytes and Joseph Rosenblatt have found that many of the 6,000 Iranian-born Mashadi Jewsin Israel are infected with HTLV-1, a retrovirus that causes adult leukemias and other medical problems.