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The Movement of Jews to the Sun Belt Is Slowing

NEW YORK (JTA) — The movement of Jews from the Northeast United States to
the Sun Belt — the southern and western part of the country — continued during 1981
but may have lost some of its momentum, judging from figures appearing in the just-
published 1982 American Jewish Year Book.
The Northeast and Northcentral states accounted for 68.5 percent of the total
5,921,000 Jewish population, as compared with 68.9 percent the year before. Of the 21
states in these regions, only five showed population increases over 1980.

Honors for
Stollmans
Emphasize
Importance of
nay Schools

:::ientary, Page 2

The South and West comprised 31.5 percent of the total, compared with 31.1
the year before. Eleven of the 30 states (including the District of Columbia) in
these regions reported population increases.
The demographic report, compiled for the Year Book by Alvin Cherkin and Maynard
Miran of the Council of Jewish Federations, indicates that the Greater New York
Metropolitan area contains more than one-third the total Jewish population of the
(Continued on Page 6)

THE JEWISH NEWS

A Weekly Review

of Jewish Events

The Ron
and Menahem
Messages
as Tests of
Two Nations'
Friendships

Editorial, Page 4

Copyright © The Jewish News Publishing Co.

VOL. LXXX, No. 26

17515 W. Nine Mile, Suite 865, Southfield, Mich. 48075 424-8833

$15 Per Year: This Issue 35c

February 26 1982

,

Begin's National Unity Govt.
Proposal Is Mulled by Labor

The Plight of Syrian Jews
to Be Marked on March 6

JERUSALEM — For the past two decades the ancient Jewish
community of Syria has been subject to continued persecution. In
particular they have been deprived of their right of freedom of move-
ment and immigration.
In March 1974, four young Jewish women were brutally murdered
while attempting to escape from Syria. The four were Lulu Zibak, 28,
Mazal Zibak, 26, Farah Zibak, 20, and Chava Sa'ad, 18.
To mark this anniversary, the government of Israel, cooperating
with the World Organization of Jews of Arab Countries, has declared
March 6 a day of identification with Syrian Jewry.
Until 1948, the Jews in Syria numbered 40,000. For 2,000
years, they lived in peace with their Arab neighbors. But with the
birth of the state of Israel, the policy of the Syrian government
towards the Jewish minority changed completely.
The Jews, considered a sort of enemy fifth column, were subjected
to ever growing restrictions and insults. The bulk of the community
managed to emigrate during the 1950s. But with the Baathist coup of
1963, the frontiers were closed and those who remained found them-
selves prisoners in the country which they had considered to be their
fatherland.
Their conditions became particularly painful after the 1967 war
and r-ontinued to deteriorate thereafter. As Syria continues to be
racl-:--4 by civil strife, its 5,000 Jews face a future that becomes more
pre( - ..ions day by day. They are uniquely discriminated against by a
strip ban on Jewish emigration. Jewish men and women have been
or severely wounded in escape attempts. Jews also are subjected
(Continued on Page 6)

JERUSALEM (JTA) — Premier Menahem. Begin's latest pro-
posal for a national unity government drew no immediate response
from Labor Party chairman Shimon Peres on Wednesday. Peres,
scheduled to address his party's Central Committee on Thursday,
was expected to make his position known at that time, after consulta-
tions with his Labor Alignment colleagues.
Begin's offer, in a "Dear Shimon" letter to Peres, was made public
on Israel Radio. It followed Peres' rejection of Begin's proposal on
Tuesday that Likud and Labor send a joint Knesset delegation to
Washington to explain to the American Administration why Israel
regards proposed U.S. sales of mobile air defense systems and F-16 jet
fighters to Jordan to be an intolerable threat to Israel's security.
Peres stated that while Labor appreciated the gravity of
the threat, it would not be party to any move which suggested
that it endorses the Begin government's policies. He proposed
instead that a delegation of the Knesset's Foreign Affairs and
MENAHEM BEGIN
Security Committee, which includes both coalition and opposi-
tion factions, go to Washington. That was turned down by Begin.
In his letter to Peres, Begin expressed regret that the Labor. Alignment rejected the idea of a
joint parliamentary - mission. "It is unclear to me why your friends should suspect that a
parliamentary mission is a corridor for a national unity government," Begin wrote. "I proposed,
and I am still proposing, to form such a government. It is objectively possible to form it."
Begin explained that after Peres announced in the Knesset that Labor supported the
Palestinian autonomy plan, there was a clear basis for cooperation in a national unity govern-
ment, at least for the five-year interim period during which autonomy would be in effect on the
West Bank and Gaza Strip.
"We are prepared at any moment to engage in talks for that purpose," Begin wrote.
"Although I know that the Alignment Knesset faction decided to refuse even to negotiate this
positive idea," if the Alignment dropped its objections, he would invite Peres for immediate
negotiations.
Labor has endorsed autonomy in principle, but does not subscribe to Begin's version.

.

Ancient Mahzor of Worms Restored

JERUSALEM — Restoration work has been completed
on Volume I of the hand-written "Mahzor of Worms" (High
Holy Day Prayer Book from Worms, Germany), which is
housed in the Jewish National and University Library
(JNUL) on the Hebrew University's Givat Ram campus.

The mahzor is composed of two volumes that have no
apparent connections between them. It is written on 228
leaves of large parchment (approximately 20 inches by 12
inches) in square, calligraphic Ashkenazi script with vow-
els.

The Mahzor of Worms, one of the oldest known
Ashkenazi High Holy Day prayer books in existence, is
considered one of the most important, rare and beautiful
flahzorim of Ashkenazi Jewry that was written in its
Emtirety during the Middle Ages. It was written in 1272 in
e l'hine area of Germany and was used by cantors of the
orr:ts Jewish communities during the High Holy Day
festivals for 650 years.

The pages of the mahzor are illustrated and decorated
with the spectacular colors characteristic of the South
German style of the period. On the images of human figures
are heads of birds wrapped in Jewish head coverings typical
of that time. Also drawn in the mahzor are animals, some of
them primeval, as well as illustrations of scenes from the
text itself.

Some highly-developed Jewish art is found in the
mahzor. No remnant remains from the earlier editions
which led to its development. The Mahzor of Worms itself
was miraculously saved from destruction at the hands of
the Nazis on "Kristallnacht," Nov. 9, 1938.

As the structure of the mahzor has deteriorated
over the years, resulting in loose leaves, it had been
very difficult to bind them in the past. The margins of
the pages were worn out and some of the pictures
were damaged.

The mahzor is an important source for the study of
Jewish art, liturgy, the vocalization and pronunciation of
the Hebrew language in medieval Germany, and also for
the study of palaeography (ancient writing) and codicology
(the study of the technology of handwritten books).

•

The page at right from the Worms Mahzor shows a
piyyut — liturgical hymn — for Shavuot. The deer at
the top left represents the Jewish people being chased
by a hunter and his dogs.

" 'v77'1 tsk .nt",

rett!4

N;raw