Senate Defeats
Proposals Which
Would Bar Arms
Sales to Israel
Distinguished
Names in
Week's News:
S. L. A. Marshall,
Prof. Haber,
Judge Levin,
Cleveland Amory
Commentary
Page 2
WASHINGTON (JTA)—Last Friday the Senate rejected two proposals which opponents said might impede arms sales to
Israel. By a 56-6 vote the Senate refused to end the $600,000,000 in the Foreign Military Sales Act for credit sales of U.S. arms
abroad. Observers noted this money could be used to give Israel fast credit if Nixon approved the request for more jet warplanes.
By a 50-1 vote, the Senate refused to remove language from the bill urging President Nixon to make such credits available to
Israel if he decided she needed arms help. Senator John Williams, Delaware Republican, offered both amendments. He said he
did not intend to stall possible aid to Israel but to give Congress control over which nations would get U.S. arms.
THE JEWISH NEWS
Michigan Weekly
Reviezv of Jezvish News
17515 W. 9 Mile Rd., Suite 865, Southfield, Mich. 48075, 356-8400
June 19, 1970
Blocked
Confusion Over
E
Asia and M..dr
Editorials
Michigan's Only English-Jewish Newspaper -- Incorporating The Detroit Jewish Chronicle
VOL. LVII, No. 14 42 7-7"... 27
Road to Peace
Not Totally
/6"
Page 4
$7.00 Per Year; This Issue 20c
Positive U.S. Decision on Arms
Sales to Israel Due Next Week
Israel Coalition Government
Threatened by New Religious
Issue; Mrs. Asks Unity
JERUSALEM (JTA)—A new religious controversy emerged here
Tuesday on the issue of conversions. The Supreme Court held by a
four-to-one majority Tuesday that a civil marriage contracted between
a Cohen and a divorced woman was legally valid. Religious law,
which according to the Orthodox rabbinate is the only law applicable
to marriage in Israel, expressly forbids such a union. A Cohen is a
Jew presumably descended from the priestly tribe of Levi.
. The couple underwent a civil ceremony performed by a lawyer
in his office. They signed the standard marriage contract form and
followed the Halakhic (religious law) ritual that requires the passing
of an object of value (ring) from bridegroom to bride.
But the ministry of interior refused to recognize the marriage,
and the couple was forced to appeal to the Supreme Court. Observers
here said the minister will now have to comply with the court's
verdict or precipitate a new cabinet crisis.
Meanwhile, the "blitz" conversion of American-born Helen
Zeidmann according to Orthodox rites Tuesday came under sharp
attack from two quarters Wednesday for widely divergent
reasons.
A group of Orthodox rabbis from various towns appealed to the
rabbinical court to invalidate the conversion on grounds that two of
the three rabbis officiating were not qualified. A Knesset member,
Shalom Cohen, representing the New Left Haolam Hazeh faction,
charged that the hasty conversion was a political expediency
engineered by the government to avert a threatened cabinet crisis.
Mrs. Zeidmann, whose adopted Hebrew name is Rebecca,
was originally converted to Judaism by a Reform rabbi in Tel
Aviv. The Orthodox rabbinate refused to recognize the conversion,
and Mrs. Zeidmann filed suit in the Supreme Court to force the
ministry of interior to register her as a Jew by nationality.
The Orthodox National Religious Party threatened to quit the
coalition cabinet if the court validated the non-Orthodox conversion,
as it was expected to do in a ruling that was to have been announced
Wednesday.
Under severe personal pressure from high government figures,
including President Zalman Shazar, and reportedly, behind the
scenes, Premier Golda Meir, Mrs. Zeidmann agreed to withdraw her
suit and undergo an Orthodox conversion. It was performed by the
army's chief chaplain, Rabbi Shlomo Goren, and two other military
chaplains, all of the Orthodox.
But other Orthodox rabbis contended that the latter two were not
qualified and that Mrs. Zeidmann, a resident of Kibutz Nahal Oz for
the past few years, did not have sufficient preparation for admission
to Judaism.
Cohen declared, on the other hand, that Mrs. Zeidmann's speedy
conversion amounted to discrimination against other converts who are
forced by the rabbinate to undergo a much more lengthy and rigorous
procedure.
Mrs. Meir appealed to the National Religious Party Monday not
to quit her coalition cabinet. She warned that this is not the time to
take "such a grave step."
WASHINGTON (JTA)--The Nixon administration's decision on the sale of more
jets to Israel will be announced by Secretary of State William P. Rogers at a press
conference to be held here, possibly next week, informed sources said Tuesday. The State
Department announced Tuesday that Rogers would hold the press conference some time
prior to his departure on a fact-firiding tour of the Far East.
It did not announce the date of the press conference or indicate what announcements
might be made. However, Rogers is scheduled to leave for Asia on or about June 26, and it
is believed he will meet the press several days earlier. It is also generally believed that
he will use his press conference as the occasion for announcing the decision on Israel's
request for 25 Phantom and 100 Skyhawk jets.
According to most observers the decision has already been made and would have
been announced but for the crisis that erupted in Jordan last week. Sources here said the
administration felt it would be inopportune to announce the sale of more jets to Israel at
a time when the future of Jordan's pro-Western King Hussein is in doubt. The State
Department was said to be closely following events in Jordan where Palestinian guerrillas
appear to have gained the upper hand in their efforts to obtain complete freedom of action
for forays against Israel.
Sources close to the Israel Embassy here said the Israel government also felt that
an announcement of jet sales should not be made until the situation in Jordan stabilizes.
There was reportedly feeling in Jerusalem that a positive announcement by Nixon would
serve to solidify the splintered guerrilla movement and strengthen its more extremist
elements.
But there was no indication here why American or Israeli officials think the
situation in Jordan will be clearer a week from now than it is now. All reports from
Amman imply that King Hussein has been virtually stripped of his authority by last week's
events and remains on the throne only at the will of the guerrillas.
Most informed sources here believe the Nixon administration has decided to sell
more jets to Israel but not in the quantity Israel has requested. The sources say that
in order to maintain a balance in the Mid East and to reassure Arab regimes of American
good will, Israel will be provided only with sufficient jets to make up for its combat losses.
Meanwhile the State Department is continuing its efforts to reach some kind of
understanding with the Russians. U.S. Ambassador Jacob Beam was recalled . from Moscow
last week for what were described as routine consultations. He conferred at the State
Department last Wednesday and was expected to return Friday or Saturday. Assistant
Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs Joseph J. Sisco will meet again this week
with Soviet Ambassador Anatoly F. Dobrynin in their continuing talks on the Mid East.
Thant Tells Efforts on Behalf of Jews in Arab Lands
LONDON (JTA) — United Nations Secretary General LT Thant told the Royal Commonwealth
Society here of his personal efforts to intervene with the governments of several Arab states on behalf
of the Jewish minorities in those countries.
Thant brought up the subject in connection with what he said had become "an almost routine
function of the United Nations" to arrange for the repatriation of civilian or military personnel detained
by one side or another in the Middle East conflict. The secretary general said that a continuing source
of concern, especially since 1967, was the situation of the small Jewish minorities in some Arab states.
"After the 1967 war I approached the government of the United Arab Republic concerning the
Jewish community in the UAR, of whom some were imprisoned and others were unable to get exit
permits. Eventually, some 1,400 of them were released and, with the help of the government of Spain,
enabled to leave the UAR," Thant said.
He continued, "My approaches to the government of Iraq on the question of the Jewish minor-
ity in that country have been less successful, but my concern continues and I still hope for results."
Thant also referred to attempts to hijack and sabotage commercial aircraft which, he said was
"one of the deplorable and quite recent phenomena of the Middle East crisis." He said that in his view
it was "extremely important that the hijackers should derive no advantage from the criminal act of
hijacking by bargaining over, or making deals for, the release of the crew, passengers and aircraft."
Detroit Investors Plan $4,000,000 Eilat Hotel
week.
A $4,000,000 luxury hotel on the shore at Eilat will be built by a group of Detroit investors, The Jewish News learned this
Called the Eilat Investment Co., Ltd., the group is chaired by attorney William Liberson and metals manufacturer Philip
Minkin. Also involved in the project are Maurice Chandler, Meyer Minkin, Harry Granader, Harold Goldstone, Harold Blumenstein,
David Hermelin, Donald Davidson and Seymour Brode, among others.
The committee was formed for procurement of capital for the project following several visits to Eilat by Liberson,
Minkin and Chandler. They are now waiting for final approval by the Israel Government Investment Authority, but approval is
imminent, said Liberson.
Plans have been drawn for a 200-room structure on Israel's "Mediterranean" of the Negev. Liberson, who said he looks' upon
this as a pet project, hopes it will stimulate certain areas of the economy in Israel and that it will "lend stability to non-emotional
tourism."
Liberson describes non-emotional tourism as that of Israelis and non - Israelis who seek a "sun sojourn," not only a visit to the
Jewish state because it's the Jewish state. Liberson has other investments in Israel, as well.
The project originated with a group of South African investors who withdrew over differences of opinion with the investment
authority, which made it difficult for them to raise the required capital.
Lansing Couple
to Help Build
School in Israel
A S500,000 gift from Mr. and Mrs. Alan
II. Ginsburg of East Lansing toward the
construction of a multi - stage nautical
school in Caesarea has been announced
by Charles J. Hensley, president, and
Dr. Aryeh Nesher, executive director, of
the Israel Education Fund of the United
Jewish Appeal.
Ginsburg, a member of Cong. Shaarey
Zedek, Lansing, is president of Alco
Universal, a construction firm.