t
British Near Completion of Preservation Task on
Geniza Colection, Judaism's Window to History
By MAURICE SAMUELSON
CAMBRIDGE, England (JTA) — Cambridge University is about to complete the huge task of preserving the world's greatest
treasure house of medieval Hebrew manuscripts — the famous Cairo Geniza collection.
The last of the 140,000 fragments and documents, some up to 1,000-years old, are being unravelled, cleaned and sealed in a
specially-developed plastic casing by experts at Cambridge University library.
Dr. Stefan Reif, the scholar in charge of the priceless collection, says the conservation work begun about 80 years ago when the
material came to Cambridge, will be completed this autumn.
The parallel task of cataloging the fragments may not be finished until the end of the century, and Reif fears that it
will be delayed or even suspended by lack of funds. Nevertheless, the completion of the conservation work will be an
important milestone in an archeological epic in some ways as remarkable as the finding of the Dead Sea scrolls.
This accumulation of Hebrew manuscript material and Judaica was recovered from the thousand-year old Ben Ezra
Synagogue of old Cairo in 1896-1897 by the noted scholar Dr. Solomon Schechter, who later founded the Conservative movement in
American Judaism.
The Geniza was the synagogue's depository for worn-out copies of sacred Jewish writings. Schechter, then reader in Talmudic
literature at Cambridge, was sent to Cairo by his friend and patron Dr. Charles Taylor, master of St. John's College, Cambridge.
n Cairo, Schechter secured the approval of the synagogue authorities to empty the Geniza, and the fragments
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Realities About
Beirut Bombing
Negating Hatreds
and Rejecting
Panic-Stricken
Giving Comfort
to Israel's Enemies
DR. SOLOMON SCHECHTER
THE JEWISH NEWS
A WeekIN Review
Commentary, Page 2
of Jewish Events
Lobbying Charges
Against Israel
and the Pragmatic
Conditions Which
Justify Honorable
Resort to
Fact-Sharing
Editorial, Page 4
Copyright © The Jewish News Publishing Co.
VOL. LXXIX, No. 22
17515 W. Nine Mile, Suite 865, Sbuthfield, Mich. 48075 424-8833
$15 Per Year: This Issue 35c
July 31, 1981
Haig, Reagan Administration
Still Support Sale of AWACS
Detroit Rabbi Visits
Archbishop of Paris
By RABBI RICHARD C. HERTZ
Temple Beth El
Earlier this year, Monsignor Jean-Marie Lustiger was
named by the Pope as the new Archbishop of Paris. Ordi-
narily, the appointment of a new archbishop in a city where
some 600,000 Jews live would not raise an eyebrow in
Jewish circles. But the fact that the new archbishop was the
son of Jewish parents, immigrants from Poland, who were
members of the Bund — the left wing Jewish labor move-
ment — created special
interest. I had read that the
new archbishop feels
Jewish and maintains his
feeling of solidarity with the
Jewish people. I therefore
was interested in meeting
him.
My friend, John Cardinal
Dearden, wrote to Ar-
chbishop Lustiger to tell
him that I would be in Paris
and would appreciate his
receiving me in an audi-
ence. The Archbishop wrote
back and said that unfortu-
nately he would be out of
(Continued on Page 10)
ARCHIBISHOP LUSTIGER
WASHINGTON (JTA) — Secretary of State Alexander Haig said Tuesday that the Reagan Adminis-
tration is confident that Congress will approve its proposed sale of five AWACS reconnaisance aircraft to
Saudi Arabia. But it still has not decided when to notify Congress officially of the package deal which
includes enhancement equipment for the 62 F-15 fighter bombers the Saudis purchased earlier from the
U.S., -he said.
Israel and its supporters in Congress are vigorously opposed to the AWACS package and there are
believed to be sufficient votes in both houses at this time to reject it. Haig made his remarks in denying that
the AWACS issue had anything to do with the resignation of the U.S. ambassador to Saudi Arabia, Robert
Neumann, which was announced. Tuesday.
Haig insisted that Neumann quit for "personal reasons" but other Washington sources said
he was troubled by the Administration's slow movement toward implementing the sale.
Neumann, a Vienna-born academician and diplomat associated with the Georgetown University
Center for Strategic and Interna-
tional Studies, reportedly had
urged the Administration to pur-
sue the AWACS deal more
energetically with Congress on
grounds that the Saudis needed
TEL AVIV (JTA) — The administrative director of an American
the planes to -protect them from
firm building a new Israeli air base in the Negev has been dismissed by
surprise attack by Israel.
the Israel Defense Ministry and sent home after he made anti-Semitic
The Administration's position has
remarks. According to Israel Radio, Don Bast, administrative director
been
that the Saudis need the
of the U.S. firm, Air Base Contractors (ABC), allegedly said during a
AWACS but that the threat is posed
quarrel with the wife of an American Jewish engineer that "Hitler
by the Soviet Union. Neumann
should have finished the job he started" as well as other anti-Semitic
served previously as ambassador to
and derogatory remarks against Israel.
Afghanistan and Morocco and
Officials of the firm have protested the dismissal, claiming that the
headed
the Administration's foreign
facts of the case were not as described by the Jewish engineer and that
policy transition team before
the charge of anti-Semitism is groundless. Bast left Israel last Thurs-
President Reagan's inauguration.
day.
Air Base Director Fired
for Anti-Semitic Remarks
Embassy Jewish Lead ers Defend Israeli Raids
,
t Videspread editorial condemnations of Israel, with severe attacks on Prime Minis-
t enahem Begin who is personally blamed for the massive civilian losses in the July
17 bombing of PLO headquarters in Beirut, bi-ought explanatory reactions from - the
Israel embassy in Washington and from the Conference of Presidents of Major American
Jewish Organizations.
The official embassy statement was accompanied by a map indicating the northern
Israel Jewish settlements which have been under constant shellings from the PLO. The
Israel embassy explanatory statement declares: "The recent escalation stems directly
from the fact that the terrorists had amassed huge quantities of Soviet weapons and were
planning a major assault on the civilian population in northern Israel. Therefore, in
accordance with its policy of pre-emptive defense, Israel struck at the terrorist headquar-
ters and bases in Beirut and other parts of Lebanon. Civilian casualties were the direct
result of the fact that the terrorists have set up their headquarters in the midst of the
civilian population."
The statement issued by the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish
Organizations follows:
"Operating from bases in Canada, a band of terrorists sets out to destroy the
United States. They pour hundreds of Soviet-made rockets into the Northern
U.S., raining death and destruction on Ithaca, Buffalo and Rochester. Washing-
ton decides to remove this threat to the safety of its citizens and orders aerial
attacks on the terrorist headquarters in Ottawa and outposts in Toronto and
Montreal. Because the terrorists issue their orders not from military camps but
from apartment houses and other places where women and children congregate,
the civilian toll of dead and wounded is regrettably high.
"The terrorists cry foul, accuse the United States of waging an tinhumanitarian war'
and insist on the right to continue their struggle. One of their commanders, in an
interview, boasts of 'hundreds of millions of dollars' worth of SAM-7 and SAM-9 antiair-
craft missiles, heavy artillery with a range of 20 miles and rockets capable of firing 15
miles.
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