'Breira' and Quakers: PLO Backers Challenged • 60th Anniversary of Jewish Legion THE JEWISH NEWS A Weekly Review Commentary Page 2 • VOL. LXX, No. 25 of Jewish Events , ' 9 17515 W. Nine Mile, Suite 865, Southfield, Mich. 48075 424-8833 ,'1 - 'Reassessment' as a Moral Issue in Diplomacy • Prejudices as Challenge to Mankind Editorials Page 4 $10.00 Per Year; This Issue 30 4 February 25, 1977 Detroiters Establish Philanthropic High Mark Unprecedented Gifts to Israeli Universities .include Academic Chairs and Scholarships All records for philanthropic generosity were broken in the Greater Detroit Jewish community this week by the announcement of the estab- lishment of several academic chairs in Israeli universities, scholarship funds in many institutions of learning and aid to health and recreation causes. Abraham J. Cutler, a pioneer Detroit jeweler, who has just reached his 95th year and has lived in Detroit for more than 50 years, announced in his own and his wife's behalf that trust funds already set up assure the estab- lishment of the various academic chairs and provide perpetual trust funds for all Israeli institutions of higher learning, in addition to scores of local causes that are remembered in the trust funds. Maurice Axelrod, for many years an active leader in the Detroit Techn- ion Society, acting in behalf of Ab- raham J. Cutler and his wife, Minnie, made the -formal announcement of the unprecedented gifts. Accompany- ing his announcement of the estab- lishment of a Chair in Talmudic MINNIE and ABRAHAM CUTLER Studies at Bar-Ilan University in Ramat Gan, Israel, Axelrod supplemented the contribution with a cash $50,000 gift for perpetual scholarships at Bar-Ilan. He presented that gift to Phillip Stollman, chairman of the global board of Bar-Ilan University, on Monday. Many local causes are included in the trust funds set aside for philan- thropic causes, including Hillel, Avika and Beth Yehudah Schools, Hadas- __ sah, the Home for the Aged, and, of course, the Allied Jewish Campaign which is provided for with annual repetitive gifts. - Among the major contributions is a gift for the planting of a Cutler JNF Forest of 60,000 trees on Jewish National Fund land in Israel. Perpetual scholarships, in addition to other gifts, will be established for the Weizmann Institute of Science at Rehovot and the Hebrew Univer- sity in Jerusalem. A $50,000 gift provides for the naming of the auditorium in the Haifa Clinic of Magen David Adorn., the Israel equivalent of the Red Cross. The Cutlers last year contributed an ambulance to Magen David Adorn and this year, in addition to the larger sum, are contributing $17,500 to Magen David Adorn for a bloodmobile. A lifelong interest in Technion inspired Mr. Cutler to make a donation to further the Institute's research program in engineering, technology and applied science, in addition to previous scholarship gifts. The school is plan- ning an A.J. Cutler garden in the family's honor. Tel Aviv University, the University of the Negev and numerous other major causes are provided for generously? Tel Aviv University will name its audio-visual language center after Cutler in appreciation. The center will house four language laboratories and two recording studios. A -chair in Jewish history is being established by the Cutlers at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev. A substantial gift has been provided for the American Cancer Society, as well as the American Friends of Hebrew University, Brandeis Univer- sity, the Jewish Theological Seminary of America, Yeshiva University, the Rabbi Kaplan Torah Center of Chicago and other causes. The Cutlers have. one son, Joseph Morton Cutler. Mr. Cutler has one brother, Philip A. Cutler, a pioneer Detroit Zionist leader who was for years an active leader in the Zionist Organization of Detroit. Mr. Cutler retired from the jewelry business about 15 years ago. He (Continued on Page 11) CIA Funding for Israel's Africa Programs Denied WASHINGTON (JTA) — The White House on Tuesday refused to discuss a published allegation that the Central Intelligence Agency "provided large sums to the Israeli government" for use in Africa. The Is- raeli Embassy dismissed the report with a brief denial. In declining to comment, deputy presidential news secretary Rex Grandum!referred to the White House statement last Friday in the King Hussein case that Administration policy is not to comment — not to confirm or to deny — alleged covert stories because if it did "the operation no longer would be covert." Israeli press counsellor Avi Pazzner said, "I deny it completely." The question arose after the Wall Street Journal reported the CIA "played both sideg"of the street in the Mideast" and added: "While pub- lished reports say the CIA has given millions of dollars to King Hussein of Jordan in an apparent effort to strengthen relations with Arab moderates, the Wall Street Journal has learned that the agency provided large sums to the Israeli government." It said the purpose of the payments to Israel was to finance "foreign aid" projects in African nations "ap- parently" to bolster "Israel's political standing on the African continent." The period of payments, it alleged, included "at least the period" from 1964-1968 and "perhaps be- yond." The CIA paid Israel, the Journal continued, a total estimated in the millions of dollars in the late 1960s. It said checks for several hundred thousand dollars each were frequently delivered by U.S. gov- ernment officials to the Israeli Foreign Ministry in Jerusalem. "The money was then to be channeled to the African recipients," it said. During the 1960s Israel began to provide both mil- itary and technical assistance to several African na- tions, including Uganda and the Central African Re- public, according to the article. "Israel hoped to have both good will and specific support from the African recipients in voting on Mideast issues in the United Nations," the paper added. "Nonetheless, most African countries eventually came to support the Arab cause and in the early 1970s they began breaking relations with Israel. It isn't known whether CIA payments to Israel have con- tinued since then," the Journal said. Meanwhile, Israeli sources also denied as "utterly without foundation" another report alleging that Pre- mier Yitzhak Rabin engaged in improper conduct dur- ing the 1972 presidential election. Discussing the Yadlin affair in Israel, financial writer Elliot Janeway .com- mented in last Sunday's Washington Star: "It is appropriate that Rabin should be engulfed in an Israeli version of Watergate. He seems to have learned nothing but forgotten nothing from his own participation in it during his tour of ambassadorial duty in Washington. He accepted and probably met a jumbo-sized quota from CREEP (the committee to reelect President Nixon) in defiance of all known standards of propriety, let alone legality." Soviets Banning Mail Matzot Shipments Narrow Rabin Win NEW YORK — The Soviet Union has informed the Universal Postal Union in Bern, Switzerland that it ,gill no longer accept packages containing baked goods into the USSR. As reported by Newsweek magazine, "U.S. Jewish groups believe the intent is plain: to disrupt the mailing of matzot to Soviet Jews in time for Passover." The Soviets invoked a similar ban in 1963, when they also prohibited the baking of matzot inside the country. International protests forced the Russians to rescind the mail ban and allow the baking of matzot in some cities. However, Jews in many areas depend on imported matzot because of the lack of local suppli6s. Earlier, Jewish sources within the Soviet Union had told New Jersey Rabbi Pinchas M. Teitz in telephone conversations that the Soviet authorities had allotted large amounts of flour for Passover matzot. Rabbi Teitz said this apparently represented a change from past practice in that matzot baked in the Soviet Union were baked from flour which Jews brought with them to the baking premises. Rabbi Teitz said he was told by Reuben Zeitchik of the Moscow Synagogue that 150 tons of flour have been allotted to Moscow for baking of matzot to meet increased needs of the Moscow Jewish community and Jews in the vicinity. Moshe Litunsky, president of the Leningrad Synagogue, and Mordechai Zedovietsky, president of the Kiev Synagogue, told Rabbi Teitz that 70 tons of flour have been allotted to those communities. Rabbi Teitz said in (Continued on Page 5) JERUSALEM (JTA) Premier Yitzhak Rabin won the Labor Party elec- tion Wednesday night by a narrow margin of 41 votes. The official tally . gave him 1,445 to Defense Minister Shimon 1,404. The closeness of the, vote is expected to put Rabin on the defensive in the May elections. The opposition parties are ex- pected to seize upon his tiny margin to argue that he is not fully accepted by his own party. YITZHAK RABIN