THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
Original Viet Refugees Adjusting to Israel
By MOSHE RON
The Jewish News Special
Israel Correspondent
TEL AVIV — The leader
of the first group of 68 Viet-
namese refugees, which
came 18 months ago to Is-
rael, is Dr. Hua Trang
Kuan, a physician in the
Beersheba hospital. He
says only the Jewish
People could understand
the suffering of other
people. His group arrived in
Israel after no other country
agreed to receive it. Some of
the Viet children are living
today with Israeli children
Adapting to Israel
in the children's village of
Shfeya, near Zichron- they stayed together. Af-
Yaakov. They are "living terwards they became
orphans," as their parents familiar With their sur-
are living in Vietnam. roundings and the ice was
Today one can hardly dis- broken. They have Israeli
tinguish between them and friends and walk with the
the Israeli children. They Sabras hand-in-hand.
already speak Hebrew.
The Israeli children
In the beginning, the Vie-
tnamese children felt like them. They make
strange in their surround- them feel that they are at
ings. They came to Israel home. The Vietnamese
_without their families. But children keep their
as time . went on, they got rooms neat and clean.
accustomed to their home They have decorated
and the Israeli children. them with Vietnamese
The adult refugees moved dolls and pictures. They
all over the country; they wear modern jeans in-
work in restaurants, hotels, stead of their traditional
dresses and have cut
etc.
The children remained in their long hair. They are
the home. In the beginning very polite and discip-
Hebrew U. Reveals Secret
Soviet-Israel Conferences
JERUSALEM — Secret
meetings were held in
1962-66 at the Kremlin be-
tween leaders of Maki, the
former Israeli Communist
party and the Soviet leader-
ship elite, according to the
oral history department in
the Hebrew University's
Leonard Davis Institute for
International Relations.
Through the years many
meetings were held with
Soviet leaders such as
Communist Party Chair-
man Nikita Khrushchev,
USSR President Leonid
Brezhnev, and Mikhail Sus-
lov, member of the Pres-
idium of the Central Com-
mittee of the Communist
Party. At all these meetings
the Soviets consistently
demanded that no
documentation be done by
the Israelis.
Central issues were dis-
cussed there, such as Soviet
policy towards Israel and
Soviet relationship with Is-
rael.
The Davis Institute, of
which the Oral History De-
partment is part, was estab-
lished in June, 1974 for the
express purpose of finding
and collecting raw material
for future historians who
wish to study Israel's de-
fense and foreign policy.
As its name implies, the
oral history, department
- collects such material or-
ally, e.g. by personal in-
terviews. The depart-
ment focuses on inter-
viewing all those per-
sonalities who have
played a role in Israel's
foreign and defense af-
fairs.
There are five main
categories of people who are
interviewed:
lined and obey their
teachers.
A 16-year-old, Hawan,
told us, "When I was a child
I helped my father in fish-
ing. Now I learn Hebrew
and wish to be a mechanic. I
fled from Vietnam because
the Communists would
have killed me." He has
tears in his eyes. He heard,
that his parents were ar-
rested and face the death
penalty.
The solidarity among the
Vietnamese children is very
strong. They help each
other as if they were all one
,family.
Everything they possess
belongs to everyone. They
learn Hebrew together and
show great patience. They
can sit for hours and learn.
The leader of the group, Dr.
Hua Trang Kuan, visits
them often. He has become
an admirer of Israel. "We
have come here naked —
without anything," he says.
"Look what has become of
us: I am working as a physi-
cian in a hospital. Our chil-
dren are settled and have a
safe future."
Doctor Hua was a
military doctor in Viet-
nam. He was a prisoner of
the Communists and
spent 18 months in
prison. He decided to es-
cape. He used an oppor-
tunity, when he was tem-
porarily released — the
authorities wanted to
watch his contacts. He
and three friends or-
ganized a group of 68 to
escape in a small sail
boat. No country would
accept the refugees. They
remained on the high sea
without water and food.
When the small boat was
• Past and present mem-
bers of Israeli cabinets,
• Past and present high
officials in the Foreign
Ministry,
• High officials in the
Ministry of Defense, the Is-
rael Defense Forces and
Secret Services,
• Members of the Knes-
set Foreign Affairs and De-
fense Committee and
• Leaders of Israeli polit-
ical parties who have influ-
enced the - process of
decision-making in defense
and foreign policy.
These interviews are first
recorded on ordinary casset-
tes and then re-recorded for
posterity on specially
treated tapes at the phone-
tics department in the
Jewish National and Uni-
versity Library (JNUL) at
the Hebrew University.
Since almost all the
material recorded on these
tapes is of a highly classified
nature, the tapes and their
printed transcriptions are
kept in special safes in the
archives of the JNUL. This
material will be officially
released and opened for re-
search in years to come, sub-
ject to clearance.
sinking, an Israeli ship
came to its rescue. The re-
fugees wept with joy when
the captain of the Israeli
ship told them that Israel
had decided to accept them.
Dr. Hua admitted that
during the nights he is
thinking of his country. But
he has to accept the reality.
In Vietnam he would not be
alive if he had stayed. To-
day, his place is in Israel,
where he is a new immig-
rant and intends to stay for
good.
f
Friday, February 16, 1979 13
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NEW YORK — In a re-
cent expansion of its public
relations department, the
Jewish National Fund has
named Michael Kresky as
its director of press rela-
tions.
Kresky was formerly
with the Jewish Federation
of North Jersey as director
of public relations.
Kresky will work in asso-
ciation with JNF Director of
Public Relations, Milton
Jacoby.
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