2 June 4, 1976 THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS Purely Commentary An Historic Mission CAPE TOWN, South Africa — Talmudic wisdom inherent in the proverbial "sadno d'arho had hu," the ways of the world are like, is applicable to the experience of an American Jew amidst his kinsmen in far odd lands. Many of the problems are related, the aspirations are the same, the loyalies are in evidence and the concerns are equatable. Commencing the South Africa report with the last point, the southernmost point, rather than Johannesburg, which is to follow, the impressions gathered are filled with admiration for a very dignified and courageous community. The inaugural Pan-American Airlines flight from New York to Johannesburg, via Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, which inspired the Jewish reportorial mission, introduced the visit- ing editors to the conditions in the land which is generally viewed as filled with tensions through the government involvement and the deep interest of the Jewish community. SATUR, the South African Tourist Bureau, a government agency, the South African Railways and the Jewish Board of Dtpaties of South Africa were the joint co-hosts to a visit that must be viewed as historic because of the deeprooted desires on the part of all involved to-establish strong links between American Jewry and South African Jewry, just as there is the growing urgency to create the strongest links between the U.S. and South Africa. In the process there is the aim to emphasize a sincere desire to end the racial tensions. That is why talk about "apartheid" diminishes with the introduction of the policy to attain the fulfillment of the program of "separate development." The Jewish community is deeply involved in this. There are the concerns over an uncertain future of whites outnumbered six to one — in 20 years it is anticipated that the whites will number 8 million but the blacks will exceed 50 million. Admittedly many youths are leaving the country. But there is a retention of confidence that the "separate development" program,`granting autonomous status to five different tribal groups but retaining a form of overall unity for all of South Africa may prove to be a workable program. But there also is the problem of 32 languages being in use in South Africa — not dialects but languages — and the South African experience is a challenging experience. The Jewish anxieties are akin everywhere. Jews in South Africa are as much worried about miked marriages and assimilation as those in Brazil, as the Jews of the U.S. and Great Britain. In South Africa the Jewish student population is 46 percent, among the highest; just as philanthropy is on a higher scale. But the concern over intermarriage and assimilation plagues the community. In all of South Africa there are, in a semi-official count, 117,000 Jews, 65,000 of them in Johannesburg, 25,000 in Cape Town. The latter became a focus of special interest at this time because the S. A. Parliament, which divides its sessions between Pretoria and and Cape Town was in session here during the Jewish editorial study mission. It provided an opportunity to observe the country's valor. It was tested in two forms, with glittering results. South African Jewry responded promptly to a challenge that involved a basic princi- ple. A television program .recalling the tragedieS of World War II, with emphasis on the Holocaust, was preemptoriously cancelled by authorities on the morning preceding the evening's showing. Cape Town Jewish leaders acted firmly and promptly. John Simon, the chairman of the Cape Town branch of the Jewish Board of Deputies and his associates protested, contacted government officials and demanded revocation of a verdict that shocked the liberals in the land. In Johannesburg, Dennis Diamond, the executive director of the Board of Deputies; David Mann, the president; John E. Rosettenstein, the chairman of the board; and other leaders refuted the fears over expose of the Nazi bestialities. The very next night the program was restored and shown. The reversal had the unanimous commendation of the press, with editorial commendation of the Jewish position. There were some pro-Nazi echoes, but the Jewish sense of pride and justice predominated. The other evidence relates to the "separate development," to the rejection of "apartheid," to the Jewish liberalism. Jews are represented in all parties in parliament and the views, logically, differ. But it was a Jewish woman, Helen Suzman, the wife of Dr. Moses SuznPan and mother of three children, who 12 years ago organized the Progres- sive Party and fought alone for total erasing of all restrictions on blacks. Now there are 12 Progressive Party members in the S. A. Parliament and Mrs. Suzman has the greatest South African Jewry's Role as a Valiant Sup- porter of Israel, as a Community with Deep Roots in Jewish Traditions and in Aims for Racial Justice By Philip Slomovitz An Experience in Realism respect ever of her fiercest opponents for the courage and sincerity with which she con- ducts her battle for justice for the non-whites. The South African friendship with Israel, more firmly cemented as a result of the visit in Israel recently of S. A. Prime Minister John Vorster, began in greater firmness two years ago with the establishment of embassies to supersede the previous general consulates. South African Jewry takes great pride in the first Israel Ambassador to their country, Itzhak Daniel Unna. The interview with Ambassador Unna conducted by 12 American Jewish editors added immensely to the highlights of the editors' mission. The evaluative analysis of South African-Israeli relations enunciated by Unna emerged as a policy statement of great significance. In the process of his explanatory definition of the two nations' relation- ships, Unna said: After 1961, we did not encourage them (South Africa) to open a mission in view of our Black African policy, and, indeed, then came the votes at the Un: ' Nations when Israel aligned herself with the Black African countries and the third world powers. Whenever apartheid came up, we voted against So Africa . . . We voted for sanctions against South Africa and indeed relations were, shal 1 we say, somewhat less than cordial. Things began to change a bit after the 1967 war. Now, it (Israel) is the only country to where South Africa can legally trans fer funds. And, eventually in 1971, South Africa did establish a Consular mission, a Consulate-General in Tel Aviv. Anyway, it was felt that the time had come to raise the diplomatic mission of Israel to an Embassy and in June 1974, the mission was raised to Embassy and I am, for my sins, the first fully-fledged Ambas- sador of Israel in South Africa. The South Africans, who are very mindful of Arab reaction over there, have officially today no re- lations between South Africa and Israel. There are connections which have to do with oil. South Afri- cans have everything except oil, and they are very keen not to foreclose any options, especially on oil... I would say that the relationship on the whole (between Israel and South Africa) is a commercial relationship. Over the last seven years, I would say that South Africa and Israel have discovered each other economically, in terms of the tremendous nat- ural wealths of this country, which is short of manu- facturing skill, and the available manufacturing skill in Israel which is short of natural wealths, and so the supplementary and complementary aspects of the relationship really suggest themselves, and I think it suffers to say that in the last seven years, trade has grown from $3 million to $80 million. HELEN SUZMAN What justifies having an editors' tour? In the present instance it is the deep interest that was shown by two val- iant Jewish communities who are seeking closer ties with U.S. Jewry and the concerns in such aspirations by the gov- ernments involved. In Cape Town, the government dis- played unusual interest in the visiting group, cabinet minis- ters insisted on holding special sessions with them and the conferees were the intergovernmental discussants in a ma- _ jor issue involving just rights for all races. The Johannesburg story that is to follow next week will embark upon the immensity of what began as a tour and emerged as the linking of communities and cementing good relations between distant nations. I. D. UNNA Brazilian Jewish Community, Rooted in Freedom, Struggles Against Assimilation BY PHILIP SLOMOVITZ (Copyright, 1976, JTA Inc.) RIO de JANEIRO, Brazil — Editors of English-Jew- ish newspapers from 14 major American Jewish communities, here on a study mission, were given the assurances by Jewish spokesmen that the free- doms Jews enjoy here are deeprooted, guaranteed by "a Brazilian mentality" that does not know prejudice, racial or religious bias. This unanimous view- point was asserted in spite of their country's vote with the Third World at the UN defining Zionism as racism. Oscar Bloch, vice presi- dent of the leading Brazilian publishing house, Bloch Publishing Co., famous for the Mabchete magazine and a score of the country's lead- ing publications, told the American journalists that he had confidence in assur- ances given him by high gov- ernment officials that the negative vote was a one-time act and that never again will it symbolize that nation's actions. Zevi Ghivelder, admit- tedly the best qualified spokesman for the Jews of Brazil as the editorial di- rector of all the many Bloch publications, which have a total circulation exceeding_ a million, con- curred that the anti-Zion- ist vote at the UN did not denote the country's treat- ment of and attitude to- ward Jews. "The people," he said,"__have no bias against anyone. Our secu- rity is assured." Zevi Ghivelder is presi- dent of the Zionist Council of Brazil which is composed of all Zionist parties. Trans- mission of funds abroad is prohibited, and that applies to Israel. Nevertheless all Zionist parties function for educational purposes. The strongest group is WIZO — Women's International Zionist Organization — the global counter-part of the American Hadassah, with the Pioneer Women a strong second. The proudest Brazilian achievement vis-a-vis Israel occurred in January, when 814 youths went on an or- ange-picking mission, work- ing on Israeli farms, estab- lishing a link between their country and the Israelis. "This is the best retort to what had happened at the UN," the Brazilians say. Brazilian Jewry, rooted in freedoms, concerned about growing assimilation, nev- ertheless takes pride in youth volunteer roles on Israeli kibutzim. Brazilian Jewry is con- cerned about youth identi- fication. With about 20 percent of the children enrolled in Jewish schools, most of them retain a knowledge of Hebrew. There is a partial reten- tion of strength in com- munal organizations. The increasing number of mixed marriages is attrib- uted to the vast majority's estrangement from Jewish school enrollment and the indifference to the Jewish school system as a substi- tute for the public schools. The more than 50,000 Jews in Rio de Janeiro are proud of their Jewish schools. There are more than 3,000 children in one of them. In Sao Paulo, with a Jewish population exceed- ing 70,000, there is an equally concerned devotion on the part of the Jewish community td educational tasks and whatever links may be established with Is- rael. The Lubavitcher Hasidim — the Chabad movement — has become concerned with the need for an improved school system which is de- pendent upon properly trained teachers and has established a yeshiva in Pe- tropolis, not too distant from Rio de Janeiro. In ad- dition to training teachers, the yeshiva plans to send senior students to Israel for graduate studies and even- tual ordination as rabbis. Concerned with the prob- lem of intermarriage, Cha- bad also is organizing classes for girls at Petro- polis and a sort of shad- hanut, marriage brokerage and counseling, is planned to assure Jewish marriages. Because the overwhelm- ing majority of children do not get any sort of Jewish education, there is the usual concern about an increasing assimilation, the rise in in- termarriage, a slackening of Jewish identification. Contributing to the con- cern is the rapid decline in the use and knowledge of Yiddish, the threat to the continuity of the Yiddish press as a lessening of unity in Jewish ranks. True, Hebrew is substi- tuted for Yiddish in the Jewish schools, but only when the youth identify with Israel is the problem soluble. There are three Yiddish weeklies in Brazil — two in Rio, one in Sao Paulao. David Marcus, editor of the Jewish Press of Rio de Ja- neiro, admits to the diffici• 1 ties and points out t when a Yiddish composiwr is ill and absent, he can not produce issues during his absenteeism, and there are no replacements: no _one wishes to study or learn to operate the Yiddish machine. Sociability helps retain the strength of the commu- nity. There are three Jewish clubs in Rio — one with a membership of 5,000, an- other has 2,000, with 800 in the third. Sports, entertain- ments, readings and discus- sions bring thousands to gatherings in these clubs, thus creating a literary-ath- letie-social atmosphere for all ages. While the Brazil JewiSh community has its tests, it also has its encouraging fac- (Continued on Page 5) - .