20 Friday, November 23, 1979 FIRESTONE . JEWELRY Wholesale Diamonds & Jewelry Remounting Jewelry & Watch Repairing SUITE 318 ADVANCE BLDG 23077 Greenfield at 9 Mole (313, 557-1860 • LENNY LIEBERMAN Orchestra 559.0844 Quality Music Disco Dance Instruction Floor Show (audience participation) ALL IN ONE THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS Vance Request on Nablus Mayor Turned Down NCCJ Honors for HUC-JIR JERUSALEM (JTA) — The Israeli government indicated Sunday that it will not accede to Secretary of State Cyrus Vance's ap- peal against the deportation of Mayor Bassam Shaka of Nablus. A Cabinet source told the JTA that he was certain the Supreme Court would up- hold the government's ex- pulsion order after it studies the evidence against Shaka. photography vq\e IZFIViet. \ \- gory P. pAonp Specializing 398-0394 In Portraits & Sound Movies Editor-in-Chief Emeritus, JTA (Copyright 1979, JTA, Inc.) Dr. David Hyatt, right, president of the National Conference of Christians and Jews, is shown present- ing two NCCJ honors to Dr. Alfred Gottschalk, president of Hebrew Union College, on the occasion of the recent dedication of HUC's Brookdale Center. The hand-lettered scroll cited the college for "its bold, pioneering and courageous ecumenical program." Dr. Gottschalk also received the NCCJ Brotherhood Award. ...AND THEY RODE OFF INTO THE SNOWBANK. herman's presents western boots that stand up to winter. in Michigan. Sleekers for men and women by Andrew Geller. Waterproof, warm-lined boots in black, bordeaux, antique brown, taupe or grey that look great and stay dry even when you're up to your spurs in slush. . For cowgirls in sizes 5 to 10 for only $36. For cowboys in sizes 7 to 13 for just $38. Sleekers at Lady Sherman's and Sherman's. Because bad weather and leather just don't go together. S • SLEEKER'S For men and women by andrew geller DOWNTOWN BIRMINGHAM, SOMERSET MALL, PRICE'S MEN'S WEAR- DEARBORN, LAKESIDE CENTER, FAIRLANE CENTER, TWELVE OAKS-NOVI. 4 DOWNTOWN BIRMINGHAM MAIL ORDERS: 642-2600 Boris Smolar's r. • THE JLC CONVENTION: Jewish Labor Committee, holding its biennial convention in New York Nov. 30-Dec. 2, achieved an important breakthrough in the rigid U.S. immigration regulations. It secured an innovation which paved the way to the present mass-admission of Soviet Jewish immigrants to this country. The innovation, suggested by the Jewish Labor Com- mittee and accepted by the State Department after th€ shameful SS St. Louis tragedy 40 years ago goes back to the first months after the Nazis invaded Poland. Some 800 Jewish political, labor and cultural leaders managed to escape in time to the part of Poland then occupied by the Soviet Red Army. The Jewish Labor Committee "innovation" consisted of urging the Washington administration to issue a collec- tive "Block Visa" for the entire group. The issuing of such collective visas, or Block Visas — outside of the regular immigration quota — was never practiced in the U.S. im- migration system. Under strong pressure from American Federation of Labor President William Green, the Jewish Labor Committee's request was granted. Some of those admitted to the U.S. on the "block visa" are today outstanding leaders of the Jewish Labor Commit- tee. They were very active in this country against Nazism during the war years, and they played an important role after the fall of the Nazi regime in organizing aid for the Jewish survivors of the Nazi camps. A JEWISH LINK: The Jewish Labor Committee came into existence in 1934, soon after Hitler came to power in Germany and intensified his anti-Jewish prop- aganda in the United States. It was necessary to organize a central representative Jewish labor body that could speak to the American labor masses on the menace of Nazism as brother to brother. The American Jewish Committee maintained at that time a labor department that was in touch with all the trade unions in the country. However, the AJCommittee was considered by labor an organization of Jewish aristocrats, and its contacts with the labor movement were of little value. The Jewish Labor Committee was formed in 1934 at a convention of the American Federation of Labor in San Francisco, with Baruch Charney Vladeck, the popular Jewish Socialist leader and manager of the Jewish. Daily Forward, as its national chairman. Soon the leadership of the JLC was joined by such prominent labor figures as Sidney Hillman, David Dubinsky, Jacob Potofsky and other leaders of the large trade unions with a predominant Jewish membership. The JLC was thus able to appear as a spokesman for 500,000 organized Jewish members in three of the largest interna- tional trade unions — the Ladies Garment Workers, the Amalgamated Clothing Workers and the United Hat, Cap and Millinery Workers; for more than 110 local trade unions; for the Workmen's Circle, which is the largest Jewish fraternal order with tens of thousands of members; and for more than 750 other labor groups. The impact of the JLC was immensely felt. The organ- ization received full support from both the American Fed- eration of Labor and from the CIO long before the two powerful representative labor bodies merged. Adolph Held, a popular figure in the American Jewish labor movement, was later elected president. He retained this post until his death a few years ago. . Today, the Jewish membership of the three major nee- dle trade unions is not as large as it was when the JLC was formed, but the three unions still fully support the JLC. AN ENVIABLE RECORD: During the 45 years of its existence, the JLC has established an enviable record. The JLC activities are especially felt in the fields of fighting racial and religious bigotry in labor's ranks, of stimulatin support for Israel's security, and of activating the interest of the American labor movement in the fate of Soviet Jewry. • No better compliment could be paid to the JLC than the drafting of its top executive, Isaiah Minkoff, to become the executive vice president of the National Jewish Commu- nity Relations Advisory Council. Minkoff retired last year from this high position after holding it since the formation of the NJCRAC 35 years ago. • Canada Cantata Takes Award TORONTO (JTA) — "Echoes of Children," the cantata composed by Ben Steinberg of Toronto as a tribute to the 1,500,000 children who were killed in the Holocaust, has won the prestigious Gabriel Award of the Catholic Association of Broadcasters and Com- municators in the United States. The cantata was commissioned by the Holocaust remembrance committee of the Toronto Jewish Congress.