2 - THE BULLETIN - Thursday. June 5/1986
JERUSALEM VereJ Yericho (Rose of Jericho), hilltop settlement overlooking Jordan Valley, has been abandoned by the 40 families whose home it was for the past six years. The reason: bankruptcy. .
Financial woes piled one atop the other until the moshav was unable to function. ,\
The moshav. blames an unfeeling-bureaucracy for its demise and lashed out at the "settlement institutions.".
Ten months ago the settlement received a $1 million mortgage to huiId permanent homes. The money was immediately deposited with a thrift institution which paid highJnterest.
It was supposed to do the purchasing for the moshav. But a few months later the ^ institution col la p.sed. because of its own financial difficulties and. took the moshav's money with.it. The settlers also lost the , $150,000 they had deposited to pay the water bills.
The settlers had been warned not to deposit their money with the failing financial institution but they didn't heed hisad vice. AVorld Zionist . organization continued to assist the settlement even though it was not entitled to any help.
The assistance was too little and too late. This week settlers turned in their personal . weapons to the local
military authorities. Ihe 40 families got into theircarsand drove in a long motorcade to Jerusalem.
A day, earlier Moshav Koihav Michael in the Lachish region also closed its gates because of a financial crisis. .11a
Drug^taklng
TEL AVIV Research conducted by El Sanu voluntary anti-drug organization, has revealed 17 percent of Israeli youths turning 18 are, taking drugs. Professor Moshe Homkin, chairman of the association, says about 150 Israelis die every year from taking cocaine and other hard drugs. u \s
WINNER of the 23rci International Bible Quiz was Yoav Shiosberg of Israel who scored afull 100 points. In photo he is shafting hands With Israel's prime minister Shimon Peres. Leading contestant from the Diaspora was Gad Dishy of the United States.
Fofced labor victims receive redress
KIAMESHA LAKE, N.V. - Rabbinical Assembly of the Conservative movement put itself officially , on. record as opposed to the so-called "patrilineal descent."
The action came in the form of a vote on a resolution proposed by its Committee on Jewish Law and Standards and after , a long discussion at its annual convention here.
The resolution stated that "ascription of Jewish lineage through a leg;al instrument or ceremonial act on the basis of anything other than matrilineal descent*' or through a conversion procedure omitting tevilah (ritual immersion) for women and tevilah and brit milah (ritual circumcision) for men "shall continue to be regarded as violations of the halacha of Conservative Judaism."
It furtheirstated such actions will be regarded as "violations of a standard of rabbinic practice inconsistent with membership in the Rabbinical Assembly."
The resolution upholding matrilineal descent which, ("has been authoritative in normative J udaism for tnany centuries as "the sole determinant of Jewish lineage,") passed by a vote of 235 to 92.
Rabbi Ronald Price,' executive director of the Union for traditional Conservative Judaism (UTCJ), said he was "happy with the vote " but did not think the argument for "patrilineal descent" which he calls "non-lineal descent" — has ended. Price, former acting rabbi at Vancouver's Beth Israel synagogue, said he had not expected the opposition to mandatory matrilineal descent "to beso strong,"addingthatthe whole issue bears watching.
He added that the 30 percent who had voted against the decision included those in favor of non-lineal descent, those who opposed one single R A standard for determining Jewishness, and those who opposed expelling a rabbi from the RA for not upholding that single standard.
NEW YORK Dr. Israel Miller, President of the Conference on Jewish Material CI a i m s Against Germany (Claims Conference), has called upon Jewish victims of Nazi persecution who worked as forced laborers in factories of Dynamit-Nobel or Ver-wertchemie to Tegister their
claims. ■ ,
Claims are to be filed with Compensation Treuhand; Gruneburgweg 119, 6000 Frankfurt, West Germany. They should contain factual information concerning the time, place, and circumstances surrounding forced labor for Dynamit-Nobel or Ver-
END1NG HER FOUR-DAY visit to Israel last week, Britain's prime minister Margaret Thatcher saidJafks with Israel's leaders "produced some ideas of how progress can be made" toward Mideast peace talks. Thatcher said the future for peace negotiations would look better ifan alternative for the PLO was found —possibly a federation between Jordan and Palestlnsans In Israeli-administered territories.
THATCHER ... four days in Israel
wertchemie. Deadline for the registration of claims is Dec. •31. ^ "
The Claims Cpnference recently obtained from Dynamit-Nobel a payment of 5 million DM for distribution to Jewish concentration camp inmates.
This payment was made in fulfillment of an understanding reached with Dynamit-Nobel representatives 20 years ago.
Friedrich Flick, leading German industrialist who controlled "the company at that time, prevented implementation of the agreement. The present payment became possible only after Flick interests were.sold Dynamit-Nobel to tl>e Deutsche Bank.
Taxes reversed
JERUSALEM — The government has reversed an earlier decision to impose an education tax and to tax retirement pensions. The turn-about eaine after strong; public pressure against both levies. Another controversial tax — a,heavy levy on cars — is also under public attack.
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SINGAPORE
Two
Israeli advisers to the Singaporean Civil Defence Corps, both retired colonels^ were among 93 people receiving awards for gallantry.
The awards were presented by the President of Singapore, Wee Kim Wee, before an invited audience.
The rescuers saved the lives of 17 people, digging them out of the rubble of a collapsed six-storey hotel.
Colonel Baruch Doronand Colonel Yaacov Kedem each received the Public Service Star, Singapore's second highest award for bravery.
Only seven others were given the same high honor.
Asa result of the prominent part played in the rescue operations by the two Israelis, Singapore was forced to admit for the first time her civil defence organization had Israeli advisers.
Even then, only Colonel Doron*s name was allowed to be mentioned, and that after, the Prime Minister's consent had been obtained.
LOS ANGELES — Simon Wiesenthal Center and' Para-' mount Studios last month hosted a screening of the documentary on the Holocaust,
SHOA H. Nearly 1,000 people filed into the American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for the Holocaust Remembrance
^^^^
Week showing of the unique film.
Claude Lanzmann, SHOAH's producer, director and writer, was present to introduce his film which was an I I-year labor of love.
Paramount Home Video has enlisted the Center's participation in assuming the role of distributor for educational institutions and libraries, to the Jewish community and
othe r re Iigio us gro u ps in North America and Canada.
The 5-cassette SHOAH, will be available in July.
S/i^O/l// is composed of nine and a half hours of interviews with former S.S. officers (a hidden camera was used V and Lanzmann posed as an historian) and Holocaust survivors, interspersed with visuals of the concentration camp sites as they exist today.
Art Waldinger/Tru-Dimension Co.
SmOf^ WIESEf«3THAL centre, in association with Paramount
eaust. Pictured above (from left): Tim Ciott, Paramount Home Video general manager; Claude Lanzmann, Shoah's mller-producer; and rabbi MatMln Hier, dean of Simon Wiesenthal Centre.
From Page B ^
Soviet military support to Damascus. Recent deliveries include helicopters, SA-5 air defense missiles, patrol boats, STYX and SEPAL antiship missiles, additional T-72 tanks, and attack submarines. MiG-29/ FU LCR U M aircraft are expected by 1987.
In return for military and economic assistance, the Syrians provide the Soviets access to the ports of Latakia and Tartus as well as to the airfield at Tiyas.
Tartus has become the primary maintenance facility for Soviet submarines operating in the Mediterranean, with a submarime tender, oiler, and water tanker located there.
Reprinted from the fifth edition of Soviet Military Power, published by the U.S. government in 1986.
Israel Sun Photo '
Labor ynlted'
JERUSALEM The Labor Party ended itsconven^ tion with a strong display'off unity after unanimously electing a 1,300-inember Central^ Committee with greatly exr panded powers at the sec6nd| and final session in Tel Aviv shortly before midnight Thursday. The new body, carefully selected to represent every groupJarid trend within^v the party, will draTt lists of Labor candidates for the Knesset and office holders iti such institutions as Histadrut and the World Zionist Organrj iz^tion. 77.4
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Dfreot to China
TEL AVIV Israel and People's Republic of China have opened their first telephone connections. Calls now go through the telephone exchanges in each country.but direct dialing will become possible in the not too distant future. Israel Radio recorded-and. broadcast the first telephone conversation between countries at the opposite ends of the Asian continent. It was. between the supervisors at their respective exchanges.
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Victory for feminists
JERUSALEM - Feminists here have notched up another victory, with revocation by the Cabinet bf a regulation prohibiting women from working at night in all but "traditional women's jobs."-like nursingvwaitress-ing and hotel worlc. This means women, will now be able to compete with men for, factory night shift jobs, which are much better paid than day. shift. jc.ss
U.rslazlfife
UNITED NATIONS — Israel has received copies of 347 files on Nazi war criminals from the U.N. archives.
The files were given to Binyamin Netanyahu, Israel's U.N. Ambassador, at the U.N. archives which are stored at 345 Park Avenue South in Manhattan. Israel asked to inspect the archives to see if they contain files on any of 1,379 Nazi war criminals still wanted by Israel. jta
ATHENS — Greek Foreign Minister Karolos Papou-lias, regarded as the most pro-Arab Minister in the Socialist goverhment of Premier Andreas Papandreou, seemed to go out of his way to disavow that reputation at a meeting with Israel's Minister of Tourism, Avraham Sharir.
Sharir, on a five-day official visit concerned mainly with tourism and economic matters, paid a courtesy call on the Foreign Minister. jta