r
46 Friday, April 25, 1975
Readers
Forum
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
SZ Youth Plan
Tamarack Trip
Cong Shaarey Zedek's
junior congregation will
take a trip to Camp Tamar-
ack May 2-4 for the group's
Israel Confidence
annual spring kibutz. The
theme for,the weekend is
Is Reflected Here
"Torah in the Wilderness."
Editor; The Jewish News,
The junior congregation
Defense Minister Shimon will have its annual election
Peres, addressing the nation 7 p.m. May 8 in the syn-
of Israel on Yom Ha 'Atz- agogue. To run for an office,
maut. Independence Day, contact Rick Green,
sounded a note of supreme . 356-4746.
confidence in the country's
The group will attend a
combative capacity.
Tiger baseball game May 11,
We, the Jews of the Dias- leaving 12:30 p.m. from the
pora, should emulate that synagogue. Fee for the trip
confidence, remembering includes round-trip bus fare
that we, too, are soldiers in and lower deck reserved
the same cause and must- seats. For reservations,. by
combat the enemy fire, May 5, call Mrs. Adele
though with -different tools. Cohen at the synagogue,
We must r_e_me_mber to 357-5544. Eighth grade Ka-
give heed to the admonition dima members are invited.
of Moshe Rabeinu, "What
The junior group will
man is there that is fearful have its annual installa-
and faint-hearted, let him tion 7 p.m. May 20 in the
go and return unto his west social hall. For reser-
house, lest his brethren's vations, call Rhonda Bar-
heart melt as his heart" uch, 353-2437.
(Deut. XX-8).
Kadima will have a lunch-
M. MANUEL MERZON eon immediately - following
Committee for Justice to Shabat _services May 10. For
Israel details, call Yoram Dahav at
the synagogue, 357-5544.
`Personal Views'
Kadima will have its an-
nual election- meeting 1:30
Cited in Article
p.m.. May 18 in the youth
lounge.
.Editor, The Jewish News,
In a recent issue (March
21) you published an article Tribute Published
by Rabbi Marc Tanenbaum to Religion Scholar
entitled, "The Vatican, Jews
BROOKLINE, Mass. —
and Israel." This article rep-
resents Rabbi Tanenbaum's The late Prof. Harry Wolf-
personal views and not son, one of the world's lead-
those of the American Jew- ing scholars in comparative
religion, and founder of
ish Committee.
This is particularly so in Hebrew College here, was
the case of the organizations memorialized by ,a panel of
and their leaders to which scholars..following his death
reference was made in the last September.
BERTRAM H. GOLD
Executive Vice President
American Jewish
Committee
The regular worshipper
enters a new- world every
day, a world which did not
exist yesterday, a bright
AO.
new world wherein the mi-
PROF. WOLFSON
raculous and the divine are •
The tributes have been
within his grasp.
—Reuben M. Katz published by the Hebrew
College Press here, and .in-
cludes one written by the
Gerhard Taussig,
school's president, Dr. Eli
Aided Dutch Jews
Grad, who at one time was
education
director for Cong.
AMSTERDAM, (JTA) '—
Gerhard Taussig, former Shaarey Zedek in Detroit.
director of the Dutch Jewish Sylvia Leemon, 58
Social Welfare Board
Sylvia Leemon, a member
(JMW) died here Sunday at
of women's and communal
the age of 71.
A Prague-born Czechoslo- organizations, died April 19
vak, who emigrated to Hol- at age 58. -
Born in Detroit, Mrs. Lee-
land just before the out-
break of World War II, he mon was active in efforts for
served as assistant director Bar-Ilan University, and
of the JMW, and was the was a life member of Had-
JMW's director until his re- assah and a member of
Northwest Child Rescue
tirement.
Mr. Taussig was also im- Women and Dov Frankel
migration director for the-- Chapter of Bnai Brith.
She is survived by her
American Joint Distribu-
tion Committee-, was honor- husband, Jack; a son, Ar-
ary secretary of the Jewish- nold A:•of Palatine, Ill.; two
Dutch Federation for Resti- daughters, Mrs. Louis
tution Claims, and was a (Francinel_ Rosberg and
member of the Dutch Advi- Mrs. Allan (Sandra) Weiss
sory Committee of the of Vail, Colo.; five b•othe-fs,
Sidney Barack, Charles Bar-
Claims Conference.
He was a prolific writer acik,-Donald Barack of Albu-
- and contributed articles on querque, Joseph Barack of
politics and social work to Philadelphia and Harry
Jewish and non-Jewish peri- Weller of Florida; and nine
grandchildren.
odicals and newspap-ers.
JTA Exposes Evans-Novak 'Plot' Charge
(Continued from Page 1)
press — small weeklies and
dailies devoted to Jewish
affairs with heavy emphasis
on Israel . ."
Evans and Novak wrote
that "On April 1, the Jew-
ish Telegraphic Agency
bureau in Buenos Aires
transmitted a long section
of the alleged interview —
which had been published
weeks before — on its
main trunk wire, extend-
ing worldwide. That wire
copy was immediately
published in the special-
ized Jewish Press." In
addition, the columnists
note, in England, "The
respected Manchester
Guardian also published a
large portion of the-alleged
interview, but on April 10
carried a full retraction
for running a piece of
black propaganda which,
the newspaper said, was
obtained from an Israeli
source (that was) impecca-
ble.".
Indeed, Evans and Novak
continued, "So widely has
the allegation against Am-
bassador Ashref Ghorbal
been spread by the world-
wide Jewish press .• . . that
it was actually discussed at
Secretary of State Henry
KiSsinger's final session
with Israeli Prime Minister
Yitzhak Rabin in Jerusalem
last month."
This was a remarkable
achievement, if, indeed, this
was discussed last month.
The final session between
Kissinger and Rabin was
March 23. The article by
JTA was not transmitted
until April 1, as the column-
ists themselves noted.
But giving the columnists
wide latitude, perhaps Ra
bin and Kissinger did have
the article before it was re-
leased by the JTA. The arti-
cle had appeared in the Bue-
nos Aires - periodical,
Marchar (to March) at least
a month earlier. A check,
however, indicated that it
had not been picked up ear-
lier by any other journal or
newspaper and that some of
the Israeli papers had only
skimpy excerpts of the Mar-
char article by mid-March.
The Jerusalein Post first
published a large segment
of the "alleged" interview in
its March 28 issue, five days
after Rabin and Kissinger
reportedly discussed it. Ev-
ans and Novak did not indi-
cate in their column how the
two diplOmats had gotten
hold of the interview —
whether through the Israeli
press or directly through
Marchar.
Even assuming that Ra-
bin and Kissinger had seen
the full Marchar report
and not just sicimpy ex-
cerpts, a top Israeli source
told the JTA Tuesday that
the Ghorbal story was not
raised during the talks.
The only possibility, the
source noted, was that
Rabin mentioned it during
a private breakfast with
Kissinger at which no one
else was present. But, the
source added, he does not
know of any such discus-
sions at those meetings ei-
ther.
Evans and Novak, in their
column, stated: "The defa-
mation of Ghorbal is cruel
and tragic, both to responsi-
ble Jewish leaders and to
Ghorbal himself. Without
any effort to check the accu-
racy of the inflammatory
report in Marchar, a publi-
cation the Argentine am-
bassador says is practically
unknown outside extreme
nationalistic groups, the
understandable emotions
and fears of thousands of
Jews have been manipulated
in the rising crescendo of
the propaganda battle."
The facts about the inter-
view and the circumstances
surrounding it are quite dif-
ferent from what Evans and
Novak depict. In. addition, a
number of-vital questions
still remain to be answered,.
questions which the col-
umnists either did not ask
or, if they did ask, did not
report.
A copy of Marchar which
was sent to the JTA shows
that it is undated and iden-
tified only as issue number
seven of -1975. It has a cen-
terfold layo-ut of the article
titled "Arabs and Jews,"
with a number of -photo-
graphs, including four
showing Ghorbal and Patri-
cio Kelly, the editor of the
paper who "allegedly" inter-
viewed Ghorbal.
One picture shows the
envoy and Kelly shaking.
hands, another shows -them
sitting on a couch and smil-
ing, another shows Ghorbal
gesturing with Kelly look-.
ing on, and the fourth shows
the two men in what ap-
pears to be a conversation.
on Friday, March 28th, I im-
mediately sought and ob- _
tained information from
Buenos Aires concerning
the article you mentioned
by Mr. Patricio Kelly. I was
very much distressed by
your comments on the inac-
curacies reflected in this
"As you know, upon his
arrival in Washington,
Mr. Kelly requested a
meeting with you through
this embassy. According to
conversations with him, he
wanted to prepare an
analysis on the Mid-East
Situation. Since the print-
ing of his evaluation of this
meeting, it has become
obvious that not only were
your thoughts and posi-
tions not reflected cor-
rectly, but concepts were
expressed that were not
even discussed. during this
meeting. This is of course,
the gravest error that any
reporter can make. Cer-
tainly, his qualifications
as a reporter are now to-
tally discredited. . . .
"Despite all other reper-
cussions of this incident, I
am at least happy to report
that this article was printed
in a publication practically
unknown in Argentina out-
side of extreme nationalistic
groups. We have made an
inquiry into other journals
and have come to the conclu-
sion that nothing else was
published.
"Nevertheless, I want to
express my deepest apolo-
gies again for this most un-
fortunate incident and to
Another picture shows reassure you of the regret
Alejandro Orfila, the Ar- that I feel in the fact that
gentine Ambassador to the one of my countrymen mis-
U.S. and Kelly with broad represented your concepts
grins on their faces. Kelly in the interview which you
had asked a photographer so generously granted."
to be present during his
The letter is extremely
meeting with Gorbal on instructive in that Orfila did
Jan. 13 in Washington not characterize Keilv in
where the "alleged" inter- any way except to say that
view took place.
his qualifications as a re-
If, as Orfila maintains, porter are "now" totally dis-
the magazine is practically credited, his reference to an
unknown, why did he agree interview Ghorbal "so gen-
to help set up the interview? erously granted," and that
If Kelly - is an irresponsible Ghorbal's thoughts and po-
journalist, as Ghorbal and sition was not "reflected
Orfila now contend, why, correctly" and that "con-
again, did Ghorbal submit cepts" were expressed that
to the interview and photo- were not discussed at the
graphs? If Ghorbal did not meeting.
What makes this instruc-
know at the time about
Kelly or the nature of his tive and interesting is that
publication, why didn't Or- Ghorbal, in a- letterdated
fila alert him to this; why April 4 in replying to Orfi-
did Ghorbal wait until he la's letter, stated that Kelly
was alerted to the JTA story "did not stay more than two
after it appeared April 1 to minutes" and that all Ghor-
issue a denial of statements bal said during that time
attributed to him in Mar- was "that the Egyptian peo-
char when the article ap- ple hold a great friendship
peared weeks before in that for the Argentine people
and that I was happy to visit
publication?
Is it possible that the. in 1963 the beautiful city of
Egyptian embassy in Bue- Bueno (sic) Aires."
This does not seem to
nos Aires was unaware of
the article either in Marchar square with Orfila's allu-
or the Israeli press? Why sion to an "interview" nor
didn't Evans and Novak also to "thoughts and positions
contact Kelly to find out his not reflected correctly." If
side of the story? The JTA Kelly really did not stay
sought to locate Kelly but for more than two minutes
was informed in Buenos this could hardly, even by
Aires that he and his maga- stretching a point, be con-
zinc "went underground" sidered an "interview"._ so
not long after the article generously granted, nor
was there any time for
appeared.
In fact, Orfila sent a let- concepts and thoughts to
ter- to Ghorbal dated March be expressed.
In letters written to sev-
31. In it he wrote: "After re-
ceiving your telephone call eral people who had in-
quired of Ghorbal about the
Kelly article, the Egyptian
envoy noted that "I am be-
wildered how the words I
have spoken could become
the words that he published.
It is obvious, therefore, that.
Mr. Kelly has relied on a
fertile imagination, invent-
ing a whole interview which
is totally contrary to my
views and philosophy and
those of my government."
If Evans and Novak had
checked with JTA they
would have found . out t
JTA first obtained the St
of the interview from one of
its correspondents in Israel
.nn March 17. It was not used
then because it was incom-
plete both with reference to
substantial excerpts from
the interview and the cir-
cumstances surrounding it.
Instead, the JTA asked its
Buenos Aires correspondent
to transmit either a transla-
tion of the article or to mail
the article to New York for
translation. He wired back
to say that JTA's Montreal
correspondent was. in the
city and that he would -
transmit a translation upon
his return to Montreal:The
translated article was sent
from Montreal to New York
on March 28 but the JTA
once again held it up in or-
der to locate Kelly.
It was then that a mes-
sage arrived from Buenos
Aires that Kelly and Mar-
char had disappeared from
the scene. By then the arti-
cle had appeared in Israel
and the JTA released it
again in New York in its
daily news bulletin on April
2.
Until that time there
had been no public denials
from Ghorbal: Copies of
the letters between
Ghorbal and Orfila were
sent to JTA in New York
on April 7 by a Jewish
reader of the daily news
bulletin who described
himself as .a friend of
Ghorbal.
Subsequently, discussions
were held between Joseph
Polakoff, JTA's Washington
bureau chief, and Ghorbal
and Orfila on the Kelly arti-
cle. Polakoff's account with
Ghorbal's denial appeared
this week.
In their zeal to make
points, Evans and Novak
scattered journalistic ma-
chine gun fire over the lot,
wounding facts, missing the
target and maiming reality.
Their allegation of a con-
spiracy by the worldwide
Jewish press is as basele
as it is vile and malicio∎
Their charge impugnes the
integrity of the press,and
-implies that it is a mere
handmaiden of an unnamed
agent manipulationg the
media_ to some nefarious
end.
The contrary is true. The
Jewish media expressed a
genuine concern about the
fate of Israel and the Jewish
people, a concern based on
very real political develop-
ments in the Middle East.
By publishing the "alleged"
interview the press tried to
alert Jews everywhere to
real and potential dangers.
Certainly alerting journal-
ism is more -honorable than
Bonnie and Clyde reporting.