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Council for Judaism Denies Charge Search Untapped Legal Guidelines in 3-Year
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A team of scholars and graduate
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verison
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and
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at Yeshiva University has
Scholars are being selected on the
NEW YORK (JTA) — George
Bagrash, acting executive director
of the American Council for Juda-
ism, has denied a charge that the
anti-Zionist organization was un-
concerned with the plight of Jews
in Arab countries.
Replying to that charge, made
by Dr. Norton Mezvinsky, recently
resigned council executive direc-
tor, Bagrash said that his organi-
zation's invitation to Rabbi Yehuda
Leib Levin of Moscow to visit the
United States was "based on a
deep concern" for Jews in Russia.
As for Dr. Mezvinsky's charge
that the American Council's phil-
anthropic fund refused to aid be-
leaguered Jews in Arab nations
after the Six-Day War, Bagrash
said, "I don't know of any fund
policy that would preclude such
aid."
Bagrash disputed Dr. Mez-
vinsky's statement that the Coun-
cil has 5,000 members. The actual
figure, he said was closer to
000.
In a related development, Gott-
"ed Neuberger of New York
denied that he was a council
member, as Dr. Mezvinsky had
asserted, and denied that he
sought to displce the council as
sponsor of Rabbi Levin's visit by
writing Rabbi Levin that- the or-
ganization was comprised of non-
Sabbath observers.
Neuberger and Bagrash told the
Jewish Telegraphic Agency that
the former had gone to Moscow to
help arrange the visit, partly on
behalf of the council, which sought
details about visit arrangements,
and partly on behalf of the
"Friends of Jerusalem," a New
York-based organization.
The latter is the U.S. represen-
tative of the ultra-Orthodox Neturei
Karta sect of Jerusalem and
Neuberger is a member of it.
Neuberger said he was trying to
act as coordinator with other
Orthodox groups that wanted to
meet with Rabbi Levin and any
other Russian Jews coming to the
U.S. with him next month.
(Novosti, the Soviet press agency,
has reported that Rabbi Levin will
be accompanied by only one other
congregational leader, Cantor
David Stiskin of the Choral Syna-
gogue in Leningrad.)
The Council in a statement
Tuesday designed to dispose of
"unfounded and irresponsible
rumors" said that all communica-
tions between the council and
Rabbi Levin, "despite rumors to
the contrary, have been private
exchanges between Rabbi Levin
and us, with no intervention or
assistance by the governments
of the United States or the Soviet
Union."
The council will hold a public
meeting for Rabbi Levin in Town
Hall, New York, June 13, it said,
to which "Invitations have been
sent on a wide basis to many Jew-
ish academicians and religious
leaders." It asserted that "except
for respecting what we have been
led to believe are certain specific
predilections of Rabbi Levin, we
have deliberately ignored ideologi-
cal and philosophical differences.
Accordingly, we have invited a
wide variety of distinguished reli-
giously-oriented Jews . .
The Council said that "out of
deference to what we understand
to be Rabbi Levin's views, we
avoided issuing official invitations
to organizations." It asserted that
it had advised representatives of
organizations that they were "per-
fectly free" to deal with Rabbi
Levin and his colleagues.
begun a complex and delicate ex-
ploration of ancient Jewish law in
hope of finding untapped legal
guidelines helpful to contemporary
man.
For the next three years, they
will evaluate and interpret the
legal literature of Judaism, most
of which is written in Hebrew and
Aramaic and has a unique method-
ology and jargon currently com-
prehensible only to authorities in
the maze-like Talmudic discipline
They will attempt to relate to
issue of 20th Century life opin-
ions laid down in the Bible, the
Talmud and its related works
and various rabbinic codes on
such subjects as the right to
privacy, judicial review, self-in-
crimination, the right to work,
others.
Dr. Samuel Belkin, president of
the university, said the "Talmudic
explorers" would interprete and
evaluate the works, rather than
merely translate them, in order to
make available "concepts highly
revelant to modern life to people
who hitherto have been unable
to profit from their lessons."
The undertaking is being fi--
Friday, June 7, 1968-7
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
SUPRISE DAD
With a Set of Sterling Silver
CHAI CUFF LINKS ..
Europeans Change Name
LONDON (JTA) — The Standing
Conference of the European Jewish
Community Services has changed
its name to European Council of
Jewish Community Services. The
new name was adopted at a meet-
ing here at which the Central Brit-
ish Fund for Jewish Relief and
Rehabilitation was host. The meet-
ing was attended by representa-
tives of 10 European Jewish com-
munities.
basis of their knowledge not only
of Talmudic law but of the legal
foundations of western civilization.
Graduate students will work with
them, each concentrating on one
of 30 legal themes. Their evalua-
tions and interpretations will be
published in three years as the
nucleus of an encyclopedia on Jew-
ish law and Talmudic thought.
III
(Copyright 1968, JTA Inc.)
WASHINGTON—The charge by
the late Sen. Robert F. Kennedy
that the administration's response
to Polish anti-Semitism was "inade-
quate" has focused attention of the
State Department. Reaction of the
American diplomats to the serious
outbreak of anti-Semitism in Po-
land is reminiscent of the official
U.S. attitude toward Hitler's anti-
Jewish program in 1933. When the
Nazis came to power in Germany,
the State Department insisted that
accounts of anti-Semitism were ex-
aggerated. Then a line emerged
that still echoes: The United States
was sorry about the Jews but could
not intervene in the internal af-
fairs of another country.
(The State Dept. now has offered
to take in Polish Jews who manage
to get visas).
If a Jew of U.S. nationality
were abused in Germany, the
department would protest. But
if German Jews were persecuted,
our diplomats said that, offici-
ally, it was none of America's
business.
Thirty-five years have elapsed.
Six million Jews have been mur-
dered. State Department officials
still insist that they cannot prop-
erly make representations in War-
saw on behalf of Jews. This policy,
however, is not applied to Catholics.
U.S. embassies in Eastern
Europe have granted sanctuary to
Catholic prelates. American diplo-
lats intervened with vigor on be-
Alf of Catholicism. Only recently,
secretary of State Dean Rusk said
publicly that the fate of Catholics
in Vietnam was a factor in our
involvement.
The State Department made clear
that American policies toward Rho-
desia and the Union of South Africa
were affected by their mistreat-
ment of black people. Yet the
same Department insisted to Con-
gressmen that it was "improper"
to make representations in War-
saw to help the Jews.
One official argued that such a
protest would be "counter-produc-
tive" and might offend "all seg-
---
ments of Polish society, including
anti-Communists, who resent hear-
ing that Poles are anti-Semitic."
He said it would also damage
American diplomatic objectives in
the Moslem states as well as Eas-
tern Europe by indicating "some
sort of special relationship between
Washington and Israelis, Zionists,
Jews, and so forth."
Meanwhile, some startling simi-
larities have emerged in the propa-
ganda lines of Warsaw Commu-
nists and Berlin Nazis. The official
Polish position is that Poland is
"anti-Zionist" but not anti-Semitic.
Polish authorities have attacked
"World Jewry" for "spreading hate
and propaganda in foreign areas
against Poland." This is precisely
the same tactic and almost the
identical words used by the Nazis
in 1933. The parallel is documented
in "The Nazi Seizure of Power," a
scholarly study recently published
by William Sheridan Allen.
Cablegrams extorted from the
hostage Jewish communities of
Germany—or simply invented by
the Nazi Propaganda Ministry—
told the outside world: "All agita-
tion and hate propaganda of Jews
are untrue. . . Halt hate and
agitation propaganda imme-
diately."
In 1933, the Nazi Embassy in
Washington, like the Polish Em-
bassy today, accused "international
Jewry" of spreading "gruesome
propaganda" against the homeland.
The offices, businesses, and homes
of Jews were picketed by the Nazi
S.S. Corps as a "counter-action
against the Jewish hate propa-
ganda abroad." This took place
in the spring of 1933. In the spring
of 1968, just 35 years later, the
Polish Communist government
fired Jews because Jews abroad
dared to protest.
Yahrzeit Custom
Yahrzeit, the anniversary of the
death of a close relative, is a cus-
tom that originated in Germany. It
spread to the Sephardic communi-
ties of North Africa and Yemen
where it was called Hazkara (re-
membrance).
and
up
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State Dept. Inaction on Woes of Jews
in. Foreign Lands Not New Phenomenon
BY MILTON FRIEDMAN
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