(5) IT-1;111C; i;li:

TIM li

2 Friday, February 29, 1980

THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS

Purely Commentary

The Olympics and the Concerns Over the Russian Role:
George Meany Had the Vision to Oppose Holding Them
in Russia as Far Back as 1973 When Israel Was Maligned

Submission to Insults, the Tyranny of Oppressors

Submission to insults, the tyranny of oppression that creates fears, the agony of
humiliations, have a record of shame intermingled with agony in the chronicles ofJewish
experience.
There was a period when the "Mah Yofis Jew" was the symbol of self-degradation
from which the humiliated Jew could not liberate himself.
It was in the era when the Jew was dependent upon the landowner, without whose
favors he could not earn a livelihood. The poretz took advantage of the Jew, invited him
to social functions at which he could show off "my Jew" by compelling him to dance on one
foot while singing one of the most beautiful Jewish-hymns, "Mah Yofis."
This was in the era when Jews were helpless and had to submit to the tyrannical
humiliations of those who ruled over them economically, socially, politically. They found
refuge in the synagogue and in the home, where their dignity was restored. But the
outside world created panic for them.
What about our own time? Does the Mah Yofis Jew reappear often on the scene as the
humiliated of our people?
The dissidents, the refusniks in the Soviet Union are the witnesses of refusal to
panic. Jews are asking for the right to emigrate from Russia rather than submit to
insults. Because "Yevrei," "Jew," on their passports is used as means of discriminating
against them, they demand the right to go to Israel where Jew is a symbol of honor and
self-respect.
What about Iran? Perhaps the Persian Jew also retains his dignity. Would that there
could be proper reporting of how he celebrates Purim under Khomeini! Yet, when the
Iranian dictator assumed power, a delegation ofJews_came to him to pledge allegiance in
the form of condemnations of Israel and Zionism, by rejecting the Jewish national ideal,
by isolating themselves from their people. These were the repetitions of Mah Yofis
Jewish self-abnegation, self-hate.
Perhaps these so-called Iranian Jewish spokesmen are the counterpart of the op-
pressed under the paritzim. Now there is another example of Jews in the mantle of the
Mah Yofis Jews, in a land where they once sought freedom: in Argentina.
A bulletin appearing under the title "Argentina Independent Review," published in
New York by the Argentina Society Inc., in its issue Vol. 2, No.,1, in a leading article
entitled "Timerman Abused Anti-Semitism Issue, Jewish Newspaper Asserts," revealed
the shocking story developed under this heading, stating in part:

LaLuz, which serves the third largest Jewish community in the world,
accused Timerman of abusing the anti-Semitic issue in an effort to cover up
his own, possibly, criminal conduct during the reign of leftist terror which
struck the nation during the 1970s. Moreover, LaLuz further expressed
dismay at the Jewish organizations in the United States for not consulting
with the Jewish community in Argentina about what their stand should be
regarding the controversial publisher.
LaLuz's editorial, which appeared on Oct. 12, 1979, stated: "Timerman
was not jailed because he was a journalist or a Jew (the fact that he is a Jew
truly helped his release), but for affairs neither related to his profession or
his religious beliefs." The military government of Argentina had jailed
Timerman, according to LaLuz, for his connections with the international
financier, David Graiver, who is sought both in Argentina and New York for
a host of alleged frauds, including the theft of possibly up to $60 million in
New York and millions more in Argentina.
Additionally, Timerman was jailed by the military government for his
possibly conspiratorial connections with at least five or more terrorists
associated with the PRT-ERP, the Montoneros, and the FAR, three of the
major terrorist organizations which were responsible for the murder of
hundreds of people, the kidnapping and extortion of many others, and the
robbing of numerous banks and other Argentine establishments.
According to LaLuz, another well-regarded, Argentine daily news-
paper, La Prensa, conducted an extensive investigation of Timerman's
relations with terrorists, and found that he had even hired one of the
prominent leaders of the Montonero organization, one Juan Gelman, as one
of his editors, with full-cognizance of the man's open terrorist advocacy and
actions.

Meany's Vision: Protested
Holding Olympics in Moscow
When Israel Was Defamed in 1973

Protests against holding the Olympics in Moscow are
not new. They began in 1973 and the outspoken protester
was George Meany. When Israel was discriminated against
during the University Games held in Moscow in 1973, the
then AFL-CIO leader warned against holding the Olympics
in Moscow in 1980. The protest was recorded in this column
(Purely Commentary, Oct. 26, 1973). It is repeated here as a
reminder:

••

Warnings by Meany on 1980 Olympics
Shameful acts of the Hitler era must not be re-
peated. George Meant', president of AFL-CIO, pur-
sues the warning in an expression of his sense of out-
rage over what had occurred in Moscow during the
University Games.
In a two-page editorial in AFL-CIO American
Federationist, he commenced with a recollection of
the past, enumerated the experiences of the present
and concluded with a demand that the 1980 Olympic
Games should not be held in Russia, stating, in part:

Let us not repeat the shameful blunder of 1936 when
the U.S. Olympic representatives yielded to Hitler's
blandishments and bullying and made possible the
holding of the Games in Berlin — the "capital city of
Nazism." This action was a flagrant violation of the
anti-racist provision of the International Olympic
Committee Constitution.
The Soviet behavior at the University Games was a
blow against all human decency and not only against
the Israelis. This behavior is of the same spirit and

By Philip
Slomovitz

Repudiated in Mordecai's Purim Admonition to Esther

Had it been necessary to defend Jacobo Timerman, this generation of civilized
peoples would be put to shame. Timerman did not submit to injustice. He spoke out. He
defended himself and his people. He suffered torture in the Argentinian jails. His courage
led him to freedom and he is now an Israeli member of the editorial staff of the Hebrew
daily Maariv. fhe New York Times recognizes him as a regular contributor to its Op-Ed
Page.
Was he lying about anti-Semitism? Calling Amnesty International as a witness, let
the record be straightened in refutation of the Argentinian bulletin's charges. Amnesty
International, in a release issued last week, quoted two Argentinian non-Jews who
suffered from their country's persecutions. Oscar Alfredo Gonzalez and Horacio Cid
deLaPaz exposed the horrors imposed upon hundreds of prisoners, "most of them now
believed to be dead." This statement by Amnesty International contains the following:

Jewish prisoners were singled out for especially harsh treatment. Dur-
ing torture they were interrogated not only about their political ideas, but
also about the Jewish community in Argentina. Names and addresses of
Jews, diagrams of synagogues, clubs and business premises owned by
Jews were diligently collected. "From the moment they were kidnapped
until they were included in a `transfer' they (Jews) were systematically
tortured," the authors say. "Some of them were made to kneel in front of
pictures of Hitler and Mussolini, to renounce their origins . ."

The facts speak for themselves. Ther
e
is no defense for anti-Semitism, wherever it
may raise its ugly head.
How are Jews to act when they are submitted to insults and are confronted with
dangers? The Book of Esther has the answer. The charge of Mordecai to Esther carries
with it an historic lesson. Let it be repeated, now, and for all generations to come:

Then Mordecai bade them return answer unto Esther: "Think not with
thyself that thou shalt escape in the king's house, more. than all the Jews.
For if thou altogether holdest thy peace at this time, then will relief and
deliverance arise to the Jews from another place, but thou and thy father's
house will perish; and who knoweth whether thou art not come to royal
estate for such a time as this?"
Then Esther bade them return answer unto Mordecai: "Go, gather
together all the Jews that are present in Shushan, and fast ye for me, and
neither eat nor drink three days, night or day; I also and my maidens will
fast in like manner; and so will I go in unto the king, which is not according
to the law; and if I perish, I perish."
So Mordecai went his way, and did according to all that Esther had
commanded him.

Will Jewry suffer again from the agonies of the Mah Yofis Jew? Let him be defined:
In his "Jewish Conce0s," Dr. Philip Birnbaum explained the Mah Yofis hymn and the
Jew who was compelled to humiliate himself by singing it, thus:
One of the table songs for Sabbath (Zemirot), Mah Yafith begins with

the words: "How beautiful and delightfully sweet you are, 0 Sabbath .. ."
Its author, Rabbi Mordecai ben Isaac of 13th Century France, was a tal-
mudic scholar of great fame. His hymn is largely based on halakhic-
midrashic material, and has four rhymed lines to the stanza.
It became very popular in both Germany and Poland, having received a
set tune which the Polish tyrannical overlords, or paritzim - regarded as
symbolic of Jewish song. They used to urge the subservient Jews to sing it
and dance to it in a comical fashion. Hence, the expression Mah-Yofis-Yid
applied to those who bend or crouch in a degrading manner.
For obvious reasons, the hymn Mah Yafith has lost its popularity and is
no longer chanted at the Sabbath table, nor is it inclUded in the prayerbook
editions.

There is a lesson in the indignities of the past. There is an inerasable admonition in
the Book of Esther. Once there is submission to tyranny, self-liberation becomes difficult.
May these lessons from historic experience sink into the minds of all Jews, especially the
youth, so that self-hatred and self-humiliation may be erased from Jewish experience
and the Jewish mind.

stripe as the Kremlin's inhuman treatment of the Rus-
sian intellectuals crying for freedom and human de-
cency. As long as the Soviet government distrusts its
own people, no other people can trust the Kremlin
rulers' talk about international detente. Awarding
Moscow the 1980 Olympics would hurt rather than help
true detente.
Brezhnev's Russia is to-
tally unfit and unqualified
„1,talost the Olympics or any
•=7tother international sports
event. Totalitarian Mos-
cow is not a fit place for the
youth of the world to come
together in welding friend-
ship through athletic
competition.
The 1980 Olympics in
Brezhnev's Moscow would
do no more than did the
1936 Games in Hitler's
Munich for "creating in-
ternational respect and
goodwill and thus helping
to construct a better and
more peaceful world."
GEORGE MEANY
(Point 3, IOC "Fundamen-
tal Principles") The Olympic torch is already close to
extinction. The Olympics cannot afford any more
tragedies; 1936 and 1972 were more than enough! Mos-
cow must not be chosen as the site of the 1980 Olympic
Games. I

A

If another scandal is to be averted, action must be
pursued until a just decision is reached.

Test for Demography: Contested
Jewish Population Figures

Figures compiled by the American Jewish Committee
and published in the 1980 American Jewish Year Book, the
annual issued jointly by the AJCommittee and the Jewish
Publication Society of America, claim a world Jewish popu-
lation figure of 14,396,000. The U.S. Jewish population is
listed in the current year book as 5,860,900.
The figures thus published are not even listed as ap-
proximate. There is the 900 added to the more than five
million accumulated for U.S. Jewry.
We have challenged the U.S. number before, and if the
American figure is exaggerated, so also inadvertently is
the world population estimate.
Prof. Roberto Bacchi, a top world demographic expert,
maintains that the world Jewish population is not more
than 10,000,000. His views must be taken seriously.
An example of exaggerations is notable in the Russian
Jewish figures given in the American Jewish Year Book,
2,666,000. This contrasts with the 2,678,000 figure given
for Russian Jewry in the 1978 Year Book. The official
Russian claim is that there are 1,800,000 Jews in the
USSR. Somewhere in-between there must be the actual
figure and the exaggeration is evident.
Our own contention is that there are not more than
5,000,000 Jews in the U.S. This is as much a conjecture as
the AJCommittee-American Jewish Year Book estimate.
Jewish demographers are under challenge. It would be
well for experts to make further studies and to establish the
correct figures for the world, the American and other area
Jewish populations. The only state where the figures are
correct is Israel because the studies there are made on a
national basis demanding accuracy: