2 Friday, August 26, 1977
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
Purely Commentary
Another Big Fake Exposed: The Arab 'Invitation' for
Expelled Jews to Return...Another Example of the
London Times' Distortion of Israel's Juaiciary
By Philip
Slomovitz
Among the Big Fakes: Invitation to Jews to Return to Arab Countries
So many laughable fantasies emanate from the desert
that the frequency of their circulation is an amazing occur-
rence. Many are the fakes concocted by the Moslem
rulers. Among them is the one addressed to the hundreds
of thousands of Jews who have left their native lands to
settle elsewhere, mostly in Israel where there was an open
door for them.
If there are genuine refugees they are these 800,000 Jews
from Moslem countries for_whom bait is now being offered
by Sadat, Assad, even Qaddafi.
They were persecuted. robbed, humiliated. Many of
them could claim a longer residence family-wise than the
Arabs themselves. Some trace their family backgrounds in
Arab lands to the pre-Christian era, let alone the Mo-
hammedan.
So revealing, is the account of the Jewish heritage in
Arab lands written for the Los' Angeles Times by Don A.
Schanche from Cairo that it merits widest interest.
Schanche's article- was titled "Oriental -Jews Spurn Bid to
Leave Israel: Egypt's Offer of Full Citizenship Latest Ef-
fort by Arab States." Schanche went into great detail to
describe the role of the Jew and his fate under the Mos-
lems, as well as his status in Israel. He outlined and ana-
lyzed the situation as follows:
CAIRO—Egyptian President Anwar Sadat's invitation
last week (July 25) to former Egyptian Jews asking them
to return to their once-thriving community echoed through
Cairo's last functioning synagogue "like pebbles falling in
a tomb where there is no one to hear them."
The words were those of, an aging Jew who, like all but
a handful in Egypt's dying Jewish community, is simply
living out the last days of his life. To avoid the chance of
making those days unhappier than they already are, he
asked that his name not be used.
The invitation was a response to a two-year campaign
by the Palestine Liberation Organization, which thinks po-
litical gains can be made by urging so-called Oriental
Jews to leave Israel and return to their original homes in
the Arab world.
Sadat offered full citizenship to any returnees from
among the estimated 100,000 Jews who have left Egypt
since the creation of Israel in 1948. Similar "calls to the
Jews" already had been issued by Morocco, Iraq and
Sudan, and Syria has publicized efforts to lift restrictions
on its Jewish citizens.
The Egyptian call is expected to fare no better than
those from the other Arab countries, whose invitations
have gone almost completely ignored. Iraq for a time
boasted of a trickle of returnees and showed off a token
Iraqi Jew named Yusuf Salah Navi, who had returned with
his wife and children after 26 years in Israel. Navi was
trotted out so often to meet visiting tourists and journalists
that Western diplomats began referring to him as "Mr.
Trickle."
However, in what must have been a blow to the Bagdad
government, "Mr. Trickle" left Iraq in June, reportedly
tired of being a pariah among the 520 other Jews there,
and returned to Israel where he knew he faced certain ar-
rest_because he had broadcast anti-Israel propaganda on
Iraqi state radio.
The Sudan had few Jews before 1948 and reportedly has
received none since opening the doors to returnees last
year. Morocco, whose 19,000 Jews form the largest Jewish
community in the Moslem world, claimed early this year
that thousands had returned. However, a recent Los Angel-
es Times survey revealed that the number of actual . re-
turnees was less than a dozen, not a tenth the number re-
quired to replace the 200 to 300 young Moroccan Jews who
emigrate each year.
Leaders of Egypt's Jewish community have become so
discouraged by its withering away that they no longer
even bother to keep a count of their numbers.
"Maybe there are 450 of us, maybe less," said Emil
Pinto, 73, lay religious leader of the still-resplendent Chaar
Hachamain synagogue in downtown Cairo. "Perhaps 200
live in Alexandria and maybe we have as many as 250
here."
The synagogue, with its shining marble pillars, beautiful
dome ceiling and seating for 1,000, rarely draws more than
the 10. men required for a minyan.
"On the holidays—Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur—we
may get as many as 60 in the synagogue, counting the
women upstairs in the balconies," Pinto said. "Otherwise,
we can make minyan on Saturdays only."
Chaar Hachamain has not celebrated a Bar Mitzva since
1969 or a wedding since 1970, when a 76-year-old man mar-
ried a woman in her 60s. The last rabbi, Haim Douek, left
for the United States in 1971 and reportedly died there.
Pinto said most of the remaining Jews were not far from
the same fate. "There are only 15 or 20 children, and al-
most all of the rest of us are over 60, so what future is
there for the community?" he asked.
Pinto shrugged doubtfully over the Egyptian president's
invitation to Jews who left or were expelled duting 29
years of Arab-Israeli hostilities. "What would they do
here?" he asked. "There, already are more mouths than
Egypt can feed, so what could the Jew do? Nothing:"
Chehata Haroun, a lawyer, leftist intellectual and the
only Jew who is actively engaged in Egyptian politics (as
leading member of the leftist party), agreed that the call
will go unheeded by former Egyptian Jews. But he credit-
ed Sadat and the PLO with more than just political mo-
tives in urging Jews to return.
"I think it reflects a growing maturity and strength of
identity, particularly among the Palestinians," said Ha-
roun, an avowed anti-Zionist who, because of his out-
spokenness, is not very popular among Cairo Jews.
"They recognize now that the conflict really created two
victims—the Palestinians and the Jews who had to leave
their homes in Arab countries."
Haroun described himself as acutely sensitive to any sug-
gestion of mistreatment of or discrimination against
Egypt's Jewish citizens, who legally enjoy the same rights
as other Egyptians.
But his passport, unlike those of Moslem and Christian
Egyptians: bears a special stamp— "Refer to Ministry of
Interior" —which means that he cannot travel abroad with-
out special permission. "Every time I am forced to seek
special permission, I send a telegram to the president
pointing out that this is unconstitutional," he said. "Lately
there are indications of a change, so perhaps my protests
have had some effect."
Haroun's 24-year-old daughter, a graduate in interior de-
sign of Cairo University, recently was issued a passport
without the special stamp.
Otherwise, Egypt's Jews appear to live at peace and
without harassment from the government or from their
Moslem neighbors.
Pinto and Felix Eskaki, president of the community
council, seemed proud to report that Sadat always sends a
"delegate from his own staff" to attend holiday services in
the syagogue.
But the government's Interior Ministry also sends a regu-
lar "delegate." The ministry demands that the synagogue
keep a list of foreign visitors—most of them Jewish tour-
ists—and an officer comes once a week to record the
names.
Ironically, about half of Egypt's remaining Jews are not
legally considered Egyptian citizens, even though their
families may have lived in Egypt since before Cairo's 800-
year-old Ben Ezra synagogue was built. According to a sur-
vey by a Western embassy, about 10 percent of the Jews
are stateless and 33 percent hold foreign (mainly Italian)
citizenship, adopted generations ago by ancestors who
sought the benefits of token foreign nationality in a Eu-
ropean-dominated land.
One of the stateless Jews said that his status and the
the "foreign" Jews were almost the same as those %. •
have Egyptian citizenship, with the same conditions that
apply to other foreigners in Egypt. But there is one major
difference: while free to leave the country, they cannot re-
turn without special reentry visas, which until recently
were all but impossible to obtain.
He said a few had been granted to Jews in their 60s who
presumably represented no security threat, but that young
applicants had been turned away.
The Cairo Jewish community has one shohet, or kosher
butcher, who operates a community-supported shop and
sends a weekly supply of kosher meats each Wednesday to
Alexandria, which has no shohet.
Historically, Egyptian Jews have occupied a special posi-
tion and in most periods a friendly and even powerful one.
Even after the Exodus, when Moses led the Jews across
the Red Sea and into the Sinai desert, some Jews are said
to have remained, and a cohesive Jewish community
gained wealth and influence in Alexandria during Ptole-
maic times, - long before Christianity began.
Historians say there was little persecution of Egyptian
Jews over the centuries, and except for the internment of
some Jews during the 1948, 1956 and 1967 wars, even re-
cent hostilities have not brought unusual government repr-
ession or violence against them.
While not harassed by the government, Egypt's Jews re-
ceive no special benefit from it, either. Only one Jew
works in a government ministry. A handful in Cairo includ-
ing two physicians and two attorneys, live relatively pros-
perous and busy professional lives, and the rest either
work in small shops and factories for low wages or live on
the charity of their community council, which receives in-
come from an estimated $2 million worth of property held
in Alexandria and Cairo. Surprisingly, the community re-
ceives no aid from Jewish agencies abroad, as do the Jews
of Morocco and Syria.
It is so very easy to fool people, and Jews who should
know better may also be misled by Arab invitations for
Jews "to return. - The reply from former Jewish refugees
from Arab lands has been heard numerous times.
Schanche tells about one of the tricked who returned to his
native land. No one, no matter how blind to reality, re-
turns to oppression or deliberately endangers his life.
There could be much glory and material benefit in anoth-
er fashion—in a peaceful Middle East which would ben-
efit so much from expanded tourism. from trading ex-
changes, from cultural and social friendships. That's what
Sadat should strive for. Perhaps he doesn't because of the
danger of being assassinated for gestures of good will to
Israel. When such gestures can come without endangering
one's life there may be peace.
Golda Krolik, the Woman
of Valor and Good Cheer
ther Bernard Ginsberg. Collectively all of them combine a
notable chapter in American Jewish activities. Golda
helped to enhance that chapter so immensely that her role
in this community will never be forgotten. Her 85th birth-
day is a wonderful occasion to tell her of the love her fel-
low citizens have for her.
ment set above the headline in the Sunday Times.
The article in the Sunday Times claimed to be
based on a signed statement of an unnamed Israeli sol-
dier. The Peace News article is clearly an interview
with the same man, and was by Bill Hillier.
About one-third of the Sunday Times article reads
like a rewrite of the Peace News article. Neither ar-
ticle identifies the eye-witness, except to say that he
was an Israeli soldier who had done three weeks re-
serve duty in Gaza.
It is fascinating to compare the cases in the two arti-
cles. There is a woman called Lutfieh el Houari (Sr -
day Times) or Lutfeh el Harwan (Free Palestit
This is obviously the same person.
According to the Sunday Times she was aged 25 and
arrested in Ramallah and interrogated for 15 days.
She preciously had been put in prison with "a group
of Jewish prostitutes mostly from the Yemen" and
subsequently got into a fight with them.
In the Free Palestine version her age is not given,
but she came from El Bireh, which after all adjoins
Ramallah, and was set upon by dogs while in prison.
The Free Palestine article then goes on to describe
the ill-treatment of "a middle-aged woman from a
well-known Arab family in Jerusalem".
This woman is not named but had exactly the same
experiences with prostitutes as the 25-year-old in the
Sunday Times.
How deplorable that it should be necessary to keep
refuting libelous statements! But such is the lot of those
who seek the truth and won't yield to venomous attacks,
especially from quarters where the authors of the dis-
tortions should have known better.
Golda Krolik is the one person for whom it is not enough
merely to publish a personality sketch, as we do in this"
issue. She is such a remarkable lady that she merits some
editorializing.
She is truly a lady of valor. She is a Jewess with great
dignity and with pride in her inherited traditions; and she
lives by ethical codes that have become the lifeline of her
people.
Golda has a good sense of
humor, and the anecdotes
that could be related about
her are so numerous that
they would fill a volume. But
she must and should relate
them herself. Her recollec-
tions of a busy life. tinged
with experiences that are
filled with the lighter veins
as well as the most serious,
could provide a most delight-
ful evening, especially for
the communally-minded.
Her husband Julian was
such a remarkable man that
in the writing of the history
of the Detroit Jewish and
civic ----communities there
could be completion only
with full credit to his
GOLDA KROLIK
enormous role.
Then there was the pioneering in Detroit of Golda's fa-
More About the Shocking
London Times Accusations
Distorted accusations by the London Times about Is-
rael's treatment of Arab prisoners keep demanding refuta-
tion, especially in view of the expectation that the untruths
will be exploited by Israel's enemies during the debates at
the upcoming United Nations General Assembly sessions.
It has been shown that the London Times had merely re-
peated some charges that were made by the two lawyers
for the Arab prisoners and by Arab propagandists for
whom truth is a strange term.
A letter by David M. Jacobs to the Jewish Observer and
Middle East Review of London, from the columns of which
we reprinted the refutation of the London Times articles
by David Pryce-Jones, lists the venomous sources that pro-
vided material for the London Times poisonous attacks on
Israel.
The original article was published on Nov. 23, 1969,
but it had already been "scooped" some three weeks
before by two journals of the Far Left: Peace News
and Free Palestine.
The Peace News article not only has the same title
"Eye-witness in Gaza", but its last paragraph corre-
sponds almost word for word with a typescript state-