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Jewish Welfare Federation Annual Report in Special
12-Page Section in This Issue of The Jewish News
Jewish Welfare Federation's functions in all areas of Jewish life, on the local scene, nationally and in behalf of overseas
causes, are summarized in the special 12-page section in this issue. The record of the Fred M. Butzel Award winner is presented in
the section on the occasion of the presentation of the 1972 award to Erwin S. Simon. The activities of the many Federation agencies
are reviewed in the specially prepared analyses of our communal activities.
Right to
Self-Defense:
Israel's
Unquestioned Need
United
Foundation's
73 Needs
Editorials
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Vol. LXII, No. 5
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Deir Yassin
an Excuse for
Threats to
American Jews:
Terrorists
Emerge in U. S.
Commentary
Page 2
October 13, 1972
Sisco's Rogers Plan 'Revival'
Raises Serious Israel Concern
Goren, Nissim Seen Certain
Victors for Chief Rabbinate
JERUSALEM (JTA)—The chief rabbinate election to be held
Sunday was shaping up as a bitter contest in which die-hard con-
servatives will be opposed by candidates considered relatively liberal
within the Orthodox religious spectrum.
The 150-man electoral college that will vote for the candidates
for Ashkenazi and Sephardi chief rabbis and for members of the
Chief Rabbinate Council, was finally completed after weeks of
haggling.
De. Zerach Warhaftig, the minister for religious affairs, an-
nounced the appointment of the 10 rabbis which, according to Israeli
law, are the appointees of the religious ministry, subject to cabinet
approval.
Of the 10 rabbis appointed by Dr. Warhaftig, seven are said
to be confirmed supporters of Tel Aviv's Chief Rabbi Shlomo Goren,
regarded as a moderate. None are committed to the incumbent Ash-
kenazic Chief Rabbi Isser Yehuda Unterman, who has the support
of conservative elements.
But of 24 rabbis named by an electoral assembly of their col-
leagues from small townships, 12 are for Rabbi Unterman, eight for
Rabbi Goren and four are uncommitted.
The election picture was complicated when Tel Aviv's Sephardic
Chief Rabbi Ovadiah Yosef announced his candidacy in oppostion
to the incumbent Sephardic Chief Rabbi Yitzhak Nissim, who was
hitherto unchallenged.
Rabbi Yosef, like Rabbi Goren, is regarded as one of Israel's
more "enlightened" rabbis. His enlightenment is measured by his
recent ruling that slacks tailored for women are more permissable
than mini-skirts according to lialakha, religious law. Most other
rabbis solidly oppose women wearing pants.
The rabbinate electoral college consists of 70 rabbis and religious
lay leaders, 70 mayors, heads of district councils and local religious
councils and the 10 rabbis named by the government.
The Unterman camp was reportedly unhappy over Dr. War-
haftig's appointments, which it considers stacked in favor of Rabbi
Goren, whose candidacy is supported by the Labor Party and the
National Religious Party.
Some Unterman supporters have called for a rabbinical boycott
of the elections on grounds that the electoral college was rigged by
the government.
Election of the candidates supported by Premier Meir's govern-
ment probably would avert a threatened conflict between the religious
establishment and the state.
After nominations closed, Rabbi Goren had 104 signatures of
electoral college members, and Unterman had 31. Rabbi Nissim had
98 signatures and Yosef had 40. Twenty-five signatures were the
minimum required.
The show of strength by Rabbis Goren and Nissim seemed to
assure their victories.
In the last elections in 1964, Rabbi Unterman heat Rabbi Goren
by three votes.
JERUSALEM (JTA) — U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs Joseph J.
Sisco offered a vigorous defense of the controversial Rogers Plan on a television interview here Mon-
day night. Sisco's remarks indicated that the plan first unveiled by Secretary of State William P.
Rogers in December 1969, and immediately opposed by Israel, has not been effectively shelved, as
many Israelis had hoped.
Sisco stressed what he said were the three basic points of the plan that he said tended to he
forgotten. These are the need to negotiate an arrangement for Sharm el-Sheikh. demilitarization of
the Sinai and an agreement on the future of the Gaza Strip. The Rogers plan called for a Middle East
settlement based on only minor boundary adjustments— in effect Israel's evacuation from virtually
all of the Arab territories it captured in the 1967 Six-Day War—and cast doubt on Israel's claims
to East Jerusalem. Israel labeled the plan unacceptable and since its enuniation it has been the most
serious point of difference in U.S.-Israli relations. Though the Rogers plan has never been officially
renounced by the U.S., it has barely been mentioned in recent months by administration leaders in
Washington in statements on the Mid-East.
Secretary Rogers did not refer to it in his address to the UN General Assembly last month.
Sisco stressed that on the three issues the U.S. made no "substantive judgment." They are
to be negotiated, he said. The American diplomat intimated, however, that talk of an over-all settle-
ment was not practical at present because of the wide gulf between Israel and Egypt. lie said the U.S.
regards an interim settlement for reopening the Suez Canal to be the only feasible step at this time.
Sisco said there were no signs at present that Egypt was willing to enter into proximity talks with
Israel.
(Supporters for Sen. George McGovern for
President have been warning that the Rogers
plan would he revived in the event of Presi-
dent Nixon's re-election).
ADL Hits Yule Stamp
`Art Object Gimmick'
NEW YORK (JTA) — The Anti-Defamation
League again has decided to withhold its stamp of
approval from the Postal Service's annual Christ-
mas offering.
Paul Hartman, director of the ADL's law de-
partment, told the Jewish. Telegraphic Agency that
the Postal Service has in recent years been side-
stepping the church-vs.-state problem through the
"gimmick" of reproducing "art objects" instead of
outright religious symbols on its Christmas stamps.
There are two such issue this year, to go on
sale Nov. 10. One depicts Santa Claus under the
words "'Twas the Night Before Christmas:" the
other shows a detail of a painting and the words
"Christmas" and "Master of St. Lucy Legend Na-
tional Gallery of Art."
Both are 8-cent stamps that will be sold
"only to persons who specifically request them,"
according to the Postal Service, which adds that
if this policy results in light sales they "may be
placed on general sale, withholding other 8-cent
denomination sheet postage unless specifically
requested."
The ADL and other Jewish organizations have
complained to the postmaster general in the past
about the issuance of stamps with religious themes.
Hartman said, but have "never been successful"
because of the "art object gimmick." Hartman said
the Jewish groups were again "considering" this
year what action, if any, to take.
Sisco said the Jarring memorandum of Feb.
8. 1971, was still the bone of contention. The
aide-memoire by Gunnar V Jarring, the Unit-
ed Nations mediator in the Middle East. asked
Egypt to make a commitment to peace and
asked Israel to commit itself in advance to
withdrawal from the occupied Arab territories
Israel rejected the memo.
Sisco described an agreement between Is-
rael and Egypt as the key to a Mid East peace
settlement and said such an agreement would
have to take priority over an arrangement
between Israel and Jordan. He said the Pales-
tinians would have to be taken into account
in a final settlement and expressed the view
that the majority of Palestinians did not side
with the Black September, the terrorist group
responsible for the•Munich outrage last month.
Sisco stressed that no major power was
capable of enforcing a solution on Israel and
the Arab states "today." Ile said "Each state
must assume commitments toward the other
and not to a third party."
office in Washington declined Toes-
day to comment on the interview. An aide
said that Sisco had not seen the televised in-
terview and was awaiting the tapes lie said
there might be a comment after the transcrip-
tion is studied.
Posthumous Kaddish for Heinrich Heine on 175th Birth Date
Scholars from many lands will gather in Dusseldorf, Germany, next week, for a Heinrich Heine Congress, to commem-
orate the 175th anniversary of the birth of the great German-Jewish poet and satirist in the city of his birth On the day of
issue a special Heinrich Heine stamp. In Jewish circles, Heine's peni-
his birth, Dec. 13, the West German government will
tential role will serve to approve the feelings now extant that he be given status in Jewish history as a Jew who retained
his Jewish loyalties with emphasis on self-revulsion at having become an apostate. Many Jewish intellectuals now therefore
advocate his being granted a posthumous Kaddish.
A
(An account of Heinrich Heine's role as Jew and poet in Commentary, Page
21