Balfour Pledge:
Historic Reality
•
Israel's Tribute
to Leonard Simons
Role of Lebanese
Maronites
Editorials
Page 4
VOLUME LVI—No. 10
THE JEWISH NE
N.,I1C1-11
A Weekly Review
of Jewish Events
Priority for
Education
Role of Youth
in a Changing
World
Commentary
Page 2
Michigan's Only English-Jewish Newspaper — Incorporating The Detroit Jewish Chronicle
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17100 W. 7..Mile Rd., Detroi t 43235—VE 8-9364—November 21, 1969
$7.00 Per Year; This Issue 20c
Vietnam Issue, Golda Meir's
Support of Nixon's Policy
Stir Congress, Jewish Ranks
Israel Protests UNIIWA' ■ g
Assistance to Terrorists
1 UNITED NATIONS, N.Y. (JTA) — Ambassador Yosef
Tekoah said Monday that the United Nations aid should not be
given to Arab refugee camps that pass into the control of
"terror organizations." He told the UN Special Political Com-
Mittee, which took up the report of the United Nations Relief
and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), that the
UN "cannot give assistance to persons engaged in warfare
against a member state."
Tekoah's reference was to the 14 or 15 UNRWA camps in
Lebanon which have been taken over by terror organizations.
He said that UNRWA is not entitled to continue the adminis-
tration of a camp and the supply to it of relief and services
when it becomes "barracks of terror organizations."
Maenwhilc, a spokesman for UNRWA said the guerrillas
who have taken control of the camps have not in any way
interferred with the health and welfare services provided to
the Arab refugees in Lebanon. .
Tekoah charged in his speech that the refugee camps have
become a base for mobilization and training of terror squads.
An UNRWA spokesman said the agency regarded the control
Of Camps by guerrilla elements as "temporary" and, hoped that
the normal control would be restored to the Lebanese govern-
ment which is charged with maintaining law and order.
The spokesman said that apart from the abnormal activities
of recent weeks of crisis in Lebanon when the government and
guerrillas were at war, there has not been "overt" recruitment
In camps by guerrillas for their organizations.
Tekoah said that UNRWA should revise its rolls to eliminate
many Arabs in the occupied territories who have become self-
supporting and thereby help relieve some of its own severe
financial burdens. His address coincided with a detailed report
on the refugee situation delivered by Dr. Laurence Michelmore,
Commissioner general of UNRWA. Dr. Michelmore stressed the
urgency of his agency's financial needs and urged greater con-
tributions from member nations and other sources.
Ambassador Tekoah noted that the commissioner general's
report placed the number of self-supporting refugees as high
as 148,004. Ile observed, however, that there may be many
more who•are self-supporting because an "accurate assessment"
is complicated "by the fact that UNRWA's working rule has
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Page 3)
WASHINGTON (JTA) — American Congressmen were cautious in their reaction to
a letter from Premier Golda Meir endorsing President Richard M. Nixon's Nov. 3 Vietnam
War speech.
None of the senators and representatives contacted by the Jewish Telegraphic Agency
were willing to be identified by name. Their comments followed party lines. One high-ranking
Republican praised Mrs. Meir as a brilliant, perceptive woman. But a prominent Democratic
senator expressed disbelief that Mrs. Meir had actually endorsed the President's speech.
A Democratic member of the House told JTA that he was reserving comment because:
"Many of my supporters strongly support Israel but just as strongly oppose the President's
Vietnam policy."
Mrs. Meir's letter was made public by the White House Sunday. It was conveyed to the
President through Walworth Barbour, the U.S. ambassador in Tel Aviv.
It said: "The prime minister wishes to congratulate the President on his meaningful
speech and expresses her hope that he will speedily succeed in bringing about peace in Viet-
nam. The President's speech contains much that encourages and strengthens freedom-I o v in g
small nations the world over, which are striving tomaintain their independent existence looking
to that great democracy, the United States of America."
Gen. Itzhak Rabin, Israel's ambassador to the U.S., said he believed Mrs. Meir's letter
referred to certain portions of President Nixon's address. Addressing the Women's National
Democratic Club in Washington Monday, he said he thought these passages included the fol-
lowing:
"Our defeat and humiliation in South Vietnam would, without question, promote reck-
lessness in the councils of those great powers who have not yet abandoned their goals of world
conquest. This would spark violence wherever our commitments help maintain peace—in the
Middle East, in Berlin. and eventually even in the Western HemiSphere . . . Let historians not
record that when America was the most powerful nation in the world. we passed on the other
side of the road and allowed the last hopes for peace and freedom of millions of people of this
earth to be suffocated by the forces of totalitarianism."
Strong dissent from Mrs. Meir's position was voiced Monday by Rabbi Balfour Brickner,
national director of the Commission on Interfaith Activities for Reform Judaism. He told JTA
that he had no alternative as a liberal Jew but to repudiate Mrs. Meir's support of President
Nixon on the Vietnam issue.
Rabbi Brickner said, "Golda Meir has driven a wedge between herself and the liberal,
intellectual Jews of America who saw no conflict in supporting Israel's struggle while opposing
the unjust, unwise war in Vietnam."
He expressed fear that the Meir endorsement of the Nixon Vietnam policy would alien-
ate "many of Israel's friends in America's academic community, among liberal Protestants and
Catholics and the clergy and among politically active young people with liberal inclinations."
A memorial service for the Jewish servicemen killed in Vietnam and an antiwar
demonstration involving about 100 self-styled Jewish "radicals" was held Sunday in front of
the White House. The demonstration was held as President Nixon attended worship services.
Shofarim (ram's horns) were sounded as a call for action. The National Jewish Organiz-
Priority Given Education in CJFIIIVF Program:
Responsive Moods Created by Youth Demands
By Special Correspondent to The Jewish News
BOSTON—American Jewry's philanthropic programing was assured .conversion into major cultural
aspirations in the decisions reached at the 38th general assembly of the Council of Jewish Federations and
Welfare Funds held here for five days, at the Sheraton. with exciting concluding sessions on Sunday afternoon.
Facing the numerous issues that were posed by youth delegations and spokesmen for college students,
the conference took into account the demands for priority to Jewish education and in the main resolved to
give due consideration to the needs for an expanded school system for higher salaries to Jewish teachers and
for efforts to secure for Jewish schools in this country the most qualified teaching staffs.
It was in the confrontation with youth that the assembly became a platform for representatives of stu-
•
dents in theological seminaries and universities. The young people came with declarations of their-avowed
Interest in Jewish life and their desire and determination to share in Jewish activities, but with demands
for changes In established procedures, for representation, for a partnership with their elders—the emphasis
their demands being for proper educational media and priority for cultural projects.
Max M. Fisher, newly elected president of the Council of Federations, in his acceptance speech at the
banquet Saturday night, gave the assurance that his aim will be "to achieve the highest quality in educa-
tion."
The assembly resolution considered the protests and the demands and committed the federations
throughout the land to "extend and deepen" educational activities, "to improve the quality and effective-
ness of Jewish education at all levels and to enhance the growth of Jewish cultural life generally."
Scores of young people came to the sessions to present their views, to emphasize their demands for
Improved educational methods in speeches, in a picketing demonstration in front of the Sheraton. by display-
lag placards that indicated their views. It was a peaceful demonstration of loyalty and of a desire to see
Jewish life in this country enhanced and the standards of cultural aspirations elevated.
. Reform of the decision - making processes of the American Jewish community was urged by Gordon
tacks, chairman of the Young Leadership Cabinet of the UJA. Presenting the views of the young leadership.
Lacks called for establishment of a 5100.000,000 "Foundation for Jewish Identity in America." A CJFWF
Spokesman said later that this proposal would be considered by a task force and submitted to the Council
board of directors.
Jewish life. Zacks charged that "we have diluted and watered
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In slashing criticism of the direction of
down Jewish education to the point that far too often, in far too many schools, it is one vast wasteland of
banalities, unimaginative, uninspiring, uninformative and unproductive."
(Continued on Page 48)
(Continued on Page 10)
R evision' of Passion Play
Has AJCongress Stirred Up
NEW YORK—The American Jewish Congress Monday
voiced' skepticism aobut a "revised" text of the anti-Semitie
Oberammergau Passion Play and asked the mayor of the
West German village for a look at it,
Last Friday, Mayor Ernst Zwink of Oberammergau -an-
nounced that the village had adopted revisions which would
"stand up to any criticism" and that rendered the traditional
play "free of anti-Semitic overtones."
Monday Dr. Joachim Prinz, chah'inan of the American
Jewish Congress' commission on international affairs, ex-
pressed doubt.
"It is hard to have confidence in the competence and in-
tentions of the mayor and his friends when their position
throughout has been that the original grossly anti-Semitic
play was completely proper and acceptable," Dr. Prinz de-
clared, adding:
"It is unlikely they can cure a defect they cannot even
perceive."
In a cable to Mayor Zwink, Dr. Prinz requested that copi6s
of the revised script be sent to him and to Father Stephan
Schaller of the monastery at Ettal. near Oberammergau.
Father Schaller is the Benedictine priest and educator who
had been assigned by Julius Cardinal Doepfner, archbishop of
Munich, to revise the text. Ile submitted a new script, which
was rejected by the Bavarian villagers. Last September, in a
letter to Dr. Prinz, Father Schaller wrote of his frustration
in dealing with the townspeople and noted that "The already
weak will to reform the play disappeared completely" when
Oberammergau was told by travel agents that the 1970 per-
formances were sold out.
In response to the AJC protest. Cardinal Doepfner said
he favored the revised text prepared by Father Schaller.