2 Friday, teptimber 15, 110 Purely Commentary Another Community Under Fire: Progressive Nicaraguan Jewry Another Jewish community, albeit very small, may be affected by a crisis involving the troubles of their country- men. Nicaraguan Jewry may not number more than 200. Yet they function as a community. They have a synagogue that serves as a communal center and a school. They respond to Jewish needs. They have and had' Israeli consuls. They came from Poland, Romania and Hungary. Their first minyan was organized in 1935 upon the birth of the first boy child and the occasion of the first circumcision. Quickly, the community developed. It has, since the early 1940s, a strong WIZO chapter, the Women's International Zionist Organization which is the equaivalent of Hadassah. It has a Zionist Organization; a Jewish National Fund committee; it conducts fund-raising for Israel, all suc- cessfully. Nicaraguan Jews are part of a well-organized section of the World Jewish Congress which includes a number of Latin American countries. The Nicaraguan Jews are engaged both in commerce and in agriculture. Their close links with Israel have encouraged large exports from Israel and in one year, in 1969, $100,000 worth of. synthetic fibers were exported from Israel to Nicaragua. While some Jews lived in Nicaragua in the late 19th Century, it is the community that was established in the 1930s that has the role of an organized Jewry in that land. Most Jews live in Managua where the Congregation Is- raelita d'Nicaragua is headquartered. The Jews of Nicaragua are engaged in mercantile activi- ties. They get along well with their neighbors. How the current revolt will affect them and their future remains to be judged on the basis of all of Nicaragua. Iran the More Serious Threat to 70,000 Jews Iran presents a very serious problem for the world be- cause of the Russian threat to that nation and therefore as a possible eventual eruption into an international crisis; and to the country's 70,000 Jews whose security had depended through the years on the protection assured them by the Shah. Iranian Jews have always prayed for the welfare of the Shah because their fate depends so much on his retention of power over the fanatic Moslem tribes, especially in the north. The fact that 60 percent of Israel's oil supplies come from Iran, with the blessings of the Shah, also have a deep effect on Jewish-Iranian relations. It is no wonder that there are the usual rumors about Israeli military support for Iran — as if that were possible. The conditions enabling a Christian-Israeli alliance in Lebanon is vastly different from the Iranian possibilities for such an accord. Thus, in Iran, Jewish rights may be affected by internal revolutionary uprisings. • Lord Caradon: A More Positive Approach to His UN Role Because of a recent criticism of Lord Caradon in these columns, it is necessary to indicate the more affirmative role he played in the adoption of UN Resolution 242. The Consulate General of Israel in Chicago calls atten- tion to the Caradon attitude in the following statement: Commenting on President Sadat's speech of Aug. 14 to his new political party, the state-controlled Egyp- tian broadcasting sta- tion asked, with refer- ence to the possibility of territorial compromise in Sinai or the West Bank: "Can anyone be- lieve that we shall give up even one inch of holy territory?" In this connection, it is interesting to note that, contrary to Egypt's inflexible stand on the question of Is- rael's borders and secu- rity needs, Lord Cara- don, who was one of the LORD CARADON two authors of Resolu- tion 242 of the Security Council of the UN, has stated very clearly that the above UN decision does not call for a return by Israel to the old 1967 borders. On the TV program "MacNeil-Lehrer Report," Lord Caradon recently said: "We didn't say there should be a withdrawal to the '67 lines; we did not put the 'the' in, we did not Nicaraguan Jewry in the Midst of a Crisis Claims Unusual Background in Jewish Ranks . . . The Shah's Fate Affects Iranian Jewry say 'all the territories,' deliberately. I happen to know those boundaries as well as any living man. They're bad boundaries; they're just where the troops happened to be at a cease-fire line 20 years before, just where they happened to be sitting. The Arab Legion was sitting across the road from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem and, therefore, there had to be a detour right up to 1967. So we knew — we all knew — that the boundaries of '67 were not drawn as permanent frontiers, they were a cease-fire line of a couple of decades earlier. So we deliberately did not say — I'm glad to be able to say that — we did not say that the '67 boundaries must be forever." By Philip Slomovitz Laughing at the Reporters Who Are Interviewing Each Other One wonders whether the White House official staff is in guffaws over the status of the media. Newsmen, broadcasters and commentators who always had a free hand in almost everything they tackled, because leaks are so common in diplomacy, now are helpless on the outskirts of Camp David. There are no leaks, only a few winks and finger signs a la the deaf. The reporters, gathered at great expense from the entire country and from many foreign lands, including Israel, are speculating and resorting to rumors which prove unsph- staRtiated all-too-often. They could have sat in their of awaiting the news via the telephone. This is too serious a portion of the official UN records on Yet, something may break at any moment that could the issue to be ignored. It negates the earlier criticism of prove of international significance. Therefore, the store LordCaradon while establishing a basic fact about a debat- must be watched and word awaited from the silence- able subject that needs clarification for an appreciation of enforced Camp David atmosphere. the position pursued by the Israeli government and Prime Regardless, this is an interesting age and the historic Minister Menahem Begin. moment is awaited with bated breath. Kennedy Says Soviets May Release Some Wishing to Exit WASHINGTON — Eigh- teen Soviet families trying to emigrate may be allowed to leave soon, Sen. Edward M.-Kennedy (D-Mass.) said after returning from his meeting last week with Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev. Kennedy said the 18 families include those of Dr. Benjamin Levich, a re- spected physical chemist, and of Mr. and Mrs. Boris Katz, whose infant daugh- ter, Jessica, recently at- tracted concern in the U.S. because of her inability to digest normal food. Meanwhile, a Russian Zionist heroine, unheard from for more than 30 years, has re-emerged as a "re- fuseiiik" trapped in the depths of the USSR, accord- ing to the Student Struggle for Soviet Jewry (SSSJ). The SSSJ reported that the then 18-year-old Bella (Bilha) Alshkovsky joined the Bnei Akiva Zionist youth move- ment's hacksharak (pre- paratory) Kibutz Av- raham in Slobodka, near Kovno, training for a fu- ture life in Palestine. A survivor of the labor camps, she has since mar- ried, had a son and applied for and was refused an exit visa. The rigors of the labor camp have not left her and she has been repeatedly hospitalized. Meanwhile, it was learned that Solomon Slepak, 87, the father of banished Soviet Jewish dis- sident Vladimir Slepak has died. He rejected his son for announcing plans to emi- grate to Israel. Vladimir Slepak is now in exile in Siberia because he hung a * * * Program to Focus on Soviet Jewry A century of Russian Jewish life will be the focus of a special television broadcast, "L'Chaim — to Life!," to be aired 10 p.m. Oct. 8 on Channel 56. The broadcast, narrated by Eli Wallach, features photographs from renowned photographer Roman Vis- hniac and rare motion pic- ture footage culled from archives all over the world. banner outside his apart- ment window to protest the long wait for an exit visa. In a related develop- ment, the American Jewish Congress has called on the U.S. Olym- pic Committee to demand assurances that the Soviet Union will not dis- criminate against Rus- sian Jews or Jewish vis- itors from abroad when it hosts the 1980 Olympics. leged grounds that no hotel space was available. Howard Squadron, president of the AJCon- gress, said that the rabbi was refused the visa despite the fact that his traveling companion, a member of the Danish Parliament, who also had no hotel reserva- tions, was granted a visa. The Al Tidom Association reported, meanwhile, that the members of a newly The AJCongress blasted the Soviets for their refusal to grant a visa to the Chief Rabbi of Denmark on the al- 1978 AJC IEF Volunteers Honored at DSG Stag Day formed Moscow Jewish theatrical group touring Jewish communities in the Soviet Union to become bet- ter acquainted with Jewish tradition, ceremonies and places of interest were de- eply moved by their visit to the Leningrad Synagogue where they were addressed by an American rabbi, Jacob Pollak, of Cong. Shomrei Emunoh of Boro Park, Brooklyn. Nazism Upsurge in Brazil Queried WASHINGTON (JTA) — A delegation of the Anti- Defamation League of Bnai Brith met with Brazilian Ambassador Joao Baptista Pinheiro and expressed con- cern to him over the "up- surge in Nazi activity" in Brazil. The delegation suggested a Brazilian government program to locate and iden- tify Nazi war criminals be-_ fore the West German law on war criminals expires next year. The delegation cited as examples of current Nazi activity in Brazil the break- ing of windows in synagogues and other Jewish communal structures, Nazi slogans painted on Jewish and pub- lic buildings and a display of Nazi flags in the Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul where the majority of the population is of German origin. Chinese Talk With JNF Man JERUSALEM (JTA) — Meir Shamir, head of land development for the Jewish National Fund in Israel, re- cently met with a delega- tion from the People's Re- public of China at an annual tree fair in Austria. The Chinese refused to attend a private dinner where Shamir was a guest because Israel and China do not maintain diplomatic re- lations, but they spoke to him about the forestry of the two countries. j The Detroit Service Group's annual stag day was held last week to honor the volunteer workers of the Allied Jewish Campaign. In the top photograph, Phil- lip Stollman, chairman with Philip Warren of the 1978 Campaign, accepts one of several gifts. Also shown are, from left, Jewish Welfare Federation Executive director Sol Drachler, 1977 Campaign Chairman Daniel Honigman, and Detroit Service Group President Arthur Howard. In the second photograph are, from left, stag day committee chairmen Myron L. Milgrom, Dr. Paul C. Feinberg, Irving Laker and Robert A. Steinberg. In the bottom photograph, Ber- nard H. Stollman, left, and Lester S. Burton, chairmen of the Real Estate and Building Trades Division, hold the loving cup awarded annually to the division with the largest increase in pledges to the Allied Jewish Campaign.