THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
68 Friday, April 30, 1982
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Ingrid Bergman Will Star
in 'Golda' Monday, Tuesday
"A Woman Called Golda," a four-hour docu-
drama about Israel's late Premier Golda Meir, will be
aired 8 p.m. Monday and Tuesday on Channel 50.
Three-time Oscar winner Ingrid Bergman will por-
tray Mrs. Meir. Appearing with her will be Robert
Loggia as Anwar Sadat; Yossi Garber as Moshe
Dayan; Judy Davis as the young Golda; Jack
Thompson as Ben Ariel, a composite of Golda's male
companions; Leonard Nimoy as her husband, Morris
Meyerson; and Anne Jacksoi as her confidante, Mrs.
Lou Kaddar.
*
* *
Jewry on the Air
This Week's Radio and
Television Programs
YIDDISH IS HEIMISH:
6:30 p.m. Monday, WCAR
(1090), an all-Yiddish pro-
gram of music, news, inter-
views and other features
with Hy Shenkman.
* * *
CAFE SHALOM: 7 p.m.
Monday, WCAR (1090),
music, news and features
from Israel plus community
announcements, with Bella
Greenbaum, Fay Knoll and
Masha Silver.
RELIGIOUS SCOPE:
* * *
10:20 a.m. Sunday, Channel
IF NOT NOW: 12:40 p.m.
9, Rabbi Jonathan V. Plaut
will moderate a program of Thursday, WDET-FM
(101.9), Dr. Jeffrey Kottler,
Jewish interest. .
author of "Mouthing Off;"
* * *
will be interviewed.
JEWISH COMMU-
NITY HIGHLIGHTS:
11:30 a.m. Sunday, Channel Jewish Fiction
2, as part of "Sunday in De- Lecture Series
troit," Jules Doneson, a vet-
eran of Israel's War of Inde:: at Fla. College
pendence, will talk about
MIAMI — 13-week lec-
the war with host Ken Sid- ture series, "From Assimi-
low.
lation to Affirmation —
American Jewish Fiction,"
* * *
will be presented by Bis-
COFFEE WITH HY: 6 cayne College beginning
p.m. Monday, WCAR next month.
The series, which is being
(1090), a program of inter-
est to the Jewish commu- coordinated by Rabbi Rubin
nity, moderated by Hy R. Dobin, will also air over a
Miamirradio station.
Shenkman.
THE JEWISH SOUND:
6:15 a.m. Sunday, WMJC-
FM (95) and 8 a.m. Sunday
WNIC-AM (1310). Rabbi
Yitschak Kagan is the mod-
erator.
* * *
RELIGION - IN THE
NEWS: 9:05 a.m. Sunday,
CKWW (580), Rabbi Jona-
than V. Plaut i_s the mod-
erator.
* * *
Falashas Seek Close Ties, Kinship
With World Jewry, Jackier Reports
Ethiopian Jewry, now
numbering some 28,000,
looks to world Jewry, with
emphasis on the Jews of the
United States, for kinship
and for strengthening the
relationships with Jewish
communities.
Lawrence Jackier, who
was a member of a tourist
group of 15 American Jews
who visited for a period of
nine days with the
Falashas, indicated such
desires among the deepen-
ing identifications of a
once-forgotten Jewish
group whose traditional de-
votions mark a continuity of
perpetuating traditions and
religious loyalties based on
strict laws enunciated in
the Holy Scriptures.
"We found a community
living economically as, if
they were in the 10th Cen-
tury," Jackier said. "Yet
their devotion to the Bible
was tinged with so much
loyalty that it seemed like
another miracle of the sur-
vival of Jews in remotest
countries."
Jackier said the
Falashas read the weekly
prescribed Bible por-
tions in accordance with
the traditional cycles
covering the entire text of
the Five Books of Moses,
but they have been so far
removed from their
people that they are un-
aware of the Talmud or
anything else.
Enumerating the Jewish
traditions adhered to by the
Falashas, Jackier said that
among-the very impressive
was their strict adherence
to the dietary laws of -kas-
hrut.
He spoke wifE some in
Hebrew, another indica-
tion, he pointed out, of devo-
tion and survival, and with
others he conversed in their
native tongue through in-
terpreters.
The Falashas' economic
conditions were described
by Jackier -as deplorable.
"They live in mud huts of
the type described by histo-
rians of 10 'centuries ago,"
he said, "yet they struggle
to eke out a livelihood ag-
riculturally, sustaining
themselves in their faith."
"They hope for an in-
creased interest in them by
their fellow Jews, especially
those in the United States
and in Israel," Jackier said.
The American Jewish
Year Books listed . the
population records as
120,000 — in Abyssinia —
in 1900. The 1936 figure is
given as 51,000. Now,
Jackier reports, it is es-
timated that their
number is possibly
28,000.
In an analysis of the im-
pressions by the group of 15
tourists, reporting on their
visits with the Falashas,
Jackier stated the follow-
ing:
The chaotic conditions of
Ethiopia have left the-
Falasha community in-
creasingly demoralized and
fearful about their future,
this situation mainly due to
new restrictions on the
LAWRENCE JAC KIE R
main body of the Ethiopian
Jewish population in the
centers located in the Gon-
dar area, in which the bulk
of the Jewish population of
Ethiopia is found.
Ethiopian Jews are lo-
cated in an area of Africa
characterized by great polit-
ical instability. Ethiopian
Jews face disintegration' as
a group due to increased
persecution coming from
both revolutionary and
counter-revolutionary
forces as well as other forms
of repression from the cen-
tral and Gondar govern-
ments.
The revolutionary
Marxist government of
Chairman Mengistu is
relatively impervious to
foreign influence and
tends to xenophobia in its
attitudes toward the-
West, particularly the
United States. The U.S.
has only tenuous dip-
lomatic relations at the
present with the Ethio-
pian government. Repre-
sentation is only on the
charge level since the
June 1980 expulsion of
the U.S. Ambassador.
Israel' has had no official
diplomatic ties since 1973.
Despite the considerable
dependence on the USSR,
even the Russians too are
looked upon with great sus-
picion by the Mengistu gov-
ernment. There are about
12,000-14,000 Cuban troops
in Ethiopia; 1,300 Soviet
military advisers and East
German "advisers" play a
key role in the secret policy
apparatus.
Since January, the situa-
tion within Ethiopia has be-
come more volatile and dis-
ordered, especially in the
north, because of the inten-
sity of a bloody war against
the secessionist forces of
Eritrea. At -the same time,
tensions including military
between Ethiopia and
Somalia still smolder, a
situation that began over
five years ago. On at least
three sides, those Moslem
countries neighboring
Ethiopia are rabidly anti-
Israel.
Pressures on the central
government are especially
severe with respect to a ref-
ugee situation of almost a
million refugees found on
the Somalia-Ethiopia bor-
der and a similar number of
the Sudanese-Ethiopian
Borders. Conditions in
these refugee camps are
marked by hunger and dis-
ease. Hundreds of Falashas
are intermingled among
these refugees in these
areas. ,
The total reality of
Ethiopia impedes the op-
portunities for massive
rescue of Ethiopian
Jews. In spite of these
enormous obstacles to
rescue efforts the strong
commitment of Israeli
Prithe Minister Menahem
Begin and his govern-
ment to the rescue of the
Falashas has been
demonstrated. That
commitment was reaf-
firmed in the prime
minister's telegram to the
1982 plenum of the Na-
tional Jewish Commu-
nity Relations Advisory
Council in which he said:
"The government of the
day in Israel took the
momentous decision to
bring home all our Falasha
brethren and it is doing its
utmost — persistently and
to carry
without let up
out this plan."
While American and
world Jewry in the last
three years have increas-
ingly recognized Ethiopian
Jews as a priority on the
world community agenda,
the utmost discretion in
voluntary action is . impera-
tive. The Jewish commu-
nity's profound concern and
commitment must be tem-
pered with careful regard
for the dangers to Ethiopian
Jews inherent in the com-
plexities of the military,
political and diplomatic
volatility of the Horn of Af-
rica.
There must be special
sensitivity to the desires of
Ethiopian Jews, who, above
all, recognize their vul-
nerability and the conse-
—
quences of public condem-
nation of the central gov-
ernment of Ethiopia or of its
neighbors.
Such restraint, how-
ever difficult-and frus-
trating, must be coupled
with world Jewry giving
the rescue and relief of
Falashas scattered over
450 villages in Ethiopia a
high priority. Appropri-
ate resources must be
mobilized to this end.
The NJCRAC recom-' -
mends special emphasis on
interpretihg to the Jewish
community the extreme
complexity of this formida-
ble situation and why there
is a critical need for cir-
cumspection.
Care must be taken by all
who engage in such in-
terpretations to assure ac-
curacy and precision in the
presentation of the facts.
Public actions or public
statements for the media
should be avoided.
These judgments reflect
assessments of those
American Jewish leaders
who recently visited
Ethiopia. Ethiopian Jewish
leadership holds similar
views. Within this
framework, member agen-
cies should consult with the
NJCRAC Committee on
Ethiopian Jews about pro-
posals for educational and
community relations ef-
forts.
Jackier will report on his
discussions with the
Falasha leaders at the an-
nual conference of the
United Jewish Appeal to be
held in Washington next
month.
Brandeis Selects Detroiter
Ellen Cantor, daughter of
Mr. and Mrs. Bernard Can-
tor of Birmingham, has
been awarded the Saval-
Sachar Scholarship of
Brandeis University.
A junior at the Hebrew
University in Jerusalem,
Miss Cantor will use the
scholarship to study paint-
ing in Spain this summer.
The scholarship is named
for Abraham Sachar, the
first president of Brandeis
University.
Miss Cantor was the
artist-in-residence at the
Jewish Home for Aged-
Borman Hall from De-
cember 1980 to January
1981. Under-a-grant from
the National Endowment
for the Arts, she • de-
Syria Blamed
in Paris Bombing
PARIS (JTA) — A power-
ful bomb exploded in a car
parked on a busy street in
the heart of Paris last
Thursday, killing a 33-
year-old pregnant woman
and injuring 63 persons, 10
of them seriously.
French officials im-
mediately blamed the Sy-
rian secret service and
Interior Minister Gaston
Defferre ordered the expul-
sion of two senior diplomats
at the Syrian Embassy.
ELLEN CANTOR
veloped programs in
drawing and painting for
the residents.
She is a National Gold
Key Scholastic Art Awards
winner, and was graduated
from Andover High School
and the Shaarey Zedek He-
brew High School.
As a counselor at Camp
Tamarack, Miss Cantor
taught classes in drawing
and painting. She studied
with the Birmingham-
, Bloomfield Art Association
and at Interlochen.
The first yeshiva was
founded by Jochanan ben
Zakkai as a refuge for
Jewish Law while Jerus-
laem was beseiged by the
Romans.