60 Friday, December 17,1982

THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS

Peace Now Official Finds Public Split on Israeli Policies

By GIL SEDAN

JERUSALEM (JTA) —
American Jewish public
opinion is divided on
policies of the Israel gov-
ernment in the same way
that Israeli public opinion is
divided on the same issue,
according to Tzaly Reshef,
29, chief spokesman of the
Peace Now movement, and
one of its founders.
Rashef recent returned
from a two-wee
-e-ek -Visitto 10
American cities, in which
he presented the views of
his movement, and tried to
boost the activities of
American Friends of Peace
Now which supports the Is-
raeli dovish organization.
Reshef noted, though, one
major difference between
American Jewry and Israeli
public opinion.
"Whereas we have no
problems expressing our
criticism of the government,
American Jews have a diffi-
culty expressing it," he said.
Although Reshef is well
aware that American Jews
do not wish to interfere in
the internal issues of Israel,
one of his efforts during the
tour was to convince them to
speak out.
"First I tried to con-
vince them of the posi-
tions of Peace Now. Then
I told them that those
who agree with us, but
still keep quiet, harm the
State of Israel," Reshef
said.

r

In all the meetings, Re-
shef brought up the exam-
ple of a recent recommenda-
tion by Israel's Ambas-
sador, Moshe Arens, to the
government to freeze the
settlements on the West
Bank for a period of half a
year.
"I argued that Arens, who
is not suspected of having
anything against the set-
tlements, would not have
made such a recommenda-
tion had it not been for the
influence of Israel's friends
in the U.S. — Jews, Sena-
tors and newsmen," Reshef
stated.
A lawyer by profession,
Reshef was one of the foun-
ders of Peace Now in March
1978. The movement was
designed to push the gov-
ernment toward successful
conclusion of the peace
negotiations with Egypt. In
1980 he left for the U.S. for
graduate law studies at
Harvard University.
During his absence, the
movement underwent a
crisis, with most of the
original leaders leaving.
The crisis continued until
after the general elec-
tions. Reshef returned
last year, to help put the
movement back on its
feet — and soon engaged
in public campaigns, de-
manding a completion of
the withdrawal from
Sinai — at the time the
movement to halt the

-

To: The Jewish News

17515 W. 9 Mile Rd.
Suite 865

Southfield, Mich. 48075

WElf JUST

From:

Paste in old label

To

4. •

NAME

Effective Date

withdrawal picked up
momentum — criticizing
the settlements policy in
the territories, and re-
cently, denouncing the
war in Lebanon.
The visit, which included
meetings with Jewish offi-
cials and grass roots Jews,
reinforced his impression
that the Israeli government
was "misleading the Israeli
public" that it enjoyed total
support of world Jewry,
specifically North Ameri-
can Jewry. "There is no such
total support," Reshef said,
neither in the leadership
nor among grass roots Jews.
By way of confirming this,

he cited an example:

in the U.S."

"On the way back to Is-
rael, in Zurich, I met gov-
ernment secretary Dan
Meridor, who returned from
a United Jewish Appeal
tour to America. Meridor
was under the impression
that support for the gov-
ernment is greater than he
had expected. My impres-
sion was completely to the
contrary. Of course part of
the explanation is that we
each spoke to audiences
which came to hear each one
of us, but I am convinced
that the line of Peace Now
enjoys considerable support

Peace Now objected to the
war in Lebanon, and is in
favor of a territorial corn-
promise in the administered
territories. As such it came
out in support of President
Reagan's plan. Reshef said
that Peace Now considers
the main goal to be Israel's
withdrawal from Lebanon,
and to work for the full im-
plementation of the deci-
sions of the commission of
inquiry once it completes its
investigation into the mas-
sacres in the west Beirut
refugee camps.

Peace Now was one of

the main organizers of
the massive demonstra-
tion in Tel Aviv last Sep-
tember in which some
400,000 Israelis gathered
to demand that the gov-
ernment appoint a judi-
cial commission into the
Sabra and Shatila mas-
sacres.
Following the rally, over-
seas interests in Peace Now
mushroomed and Reshef
was sent to the U.S. and
Canada where he visited,
among other cities, New
York, Chicago, San Fran-
cisco, Washington, D.C.,
New Haven, Toronto and
Los Angeles.

Isaac Bashevis Singer and the Two Pinskers

By BEN GALLOB

(Copyright 1982, JTA, Inc.)

In real life, there is only

one Sanford Pinsker, a
young professor of English
at an eastern seaboard col-
lege, but for Isaac Bashevis
Singer, there will always
apparently be two Pinskers:
Pinsker the Poet and Pins-
ker the Professor.
And, according to the
young scholar, not only is
Singer convinced there are
two Pinskers but he is also
convinced that Sanford
Pinsker is the son of Pinsker
the Poet. How this came
about has been explained by
Prof. Pinsker, who teachers
at Franklin and Marshall
College in Lancaster, Pa., in
a vignette in a recent issue
of Moment magazine.
The scholar met Singer
before the noted writer on
a Nobel Prize for Literature,
a famous person who was
then still able to answer his
own phone in his Manhat-
tan apartment.
Pinsker was living in
Manhattan during the
summer of 1966 for a
variety of reasons. He
had a job at a nearby
school, a summer grant to
cover his living expenses
and a dissertation to re-
vise for publication as a
book, one chapter of
which dealt with Singer's
writings.
When Pinsker mentioned
that fact to an older aca-
demic friend, the latter
urged him to call Singer for
a lunch date, assuring
Pinsker that Singer was al-
ways interested in meeting
his reviewers. After a week
of hesitation, Pinsker called
Singer, who "listened po-
litely, took my name" and
"we agreed on a time to
meet later in the month."
All went well on the ap-
pointed day. The young
scholar met Singer at the
writer's apartment and they
walked to one of Singer's
favorite dairy restaurants.
Pinsker described how he
told Singer about his proj-
ect, a book with the unlikely
title, "The Shlemiel as
Metaphor." Singer did not
seem particularly
pressed.
After a pleasant but une-
ventful hour, Pinsker de-
cided the time had come to
say goodbye. Singer broke
in to say: "Tell me, what is
your name • again?" The

•

I.B. SINGER

scholar described his disap-
pointment: "Evidently, the
meeting was more unevent-
ful" for Singer "than I had
imagined." He replied:
"Sanford Pinsker, but
everybody calls me Sandy."
Excitedly, much to the
scholar's surprise, Singer
said, "Yes, that's it, Pins-
ker. When I saw you, I.
wondered if you might
not be perhaps the son of
Pinsker the poet. A
couple of months ago, I

saw a wonderful poem
written about me by
Pinsker the poet. And I
said to my wife, 'See,
poems- they write about
me now.' "
The scholar asked, "Was
it in The Reconstruc-
tionist?" Singer replied he
thought it was. "That's my
poem," _Pinsker shouted.
"That's your poem?" Singer
repeated, in amazement.
"You are Pinsker the Poet?
But how can this be? You're
so young to be a poet"
It was immediately clear
to Pinsker that, for Singer,
poets came in only one con-
dition — old. "And the Yid-
dishist in him treated 'poets'
with utmost respect."
"To think," Singer added,
"that Pinsker the Poet
should be in New York City
and I should miss the
chance to thank him for a
lovely poem. I tell you, it
would have been terrible, a
shanda (shame)."
The "dutiful lunch" be-
came "a long, exciting af-
ternoon, one of the many

I spent with Singer in the
years since he 'dis-
covered' Pinsker the
Poet," the scholar wrote.
"Of course, Singer re-
fused to believe teat
Pinsker the Poet and
Pinsker the Professor
were one-and-the-same.
By him I was always the
Son of Pinsker the Poet."
He recalled that, "a week
after our first meeting,"
Singer told a book reviewer,
a friend of Pinsker, that he
(Singer) had met "the son of
Pinsker the Poet, and then
he proceeded to describe me.
I heard about it the next
morning."
But, Pinsker added, when
Singer and he met at the
end of that summer in 1966,
"I was too thrilled to correct
him. And although I saw
Singer less than I used to,
occasionally I get a letter, in
his child-like scrawl, ad-
dressed to 'My Dear Friend,
the son of Pinsker the Poet."
"I've learned to cherish
them." the scholar re-
marked.

Jerusalem Post Marks 50th Year

JERUSALEM (JNI) —
Founded in 1932, the
Jerusalem Post (originally
the Palestine Post), is mark-
ing its jubilee this. year.
The Post has become
something of a national in-
stitution. Israel is sym-
bolized the world over by
the Jaffa orange, the kibutz
and, for tens of thousands of
readers everywhere, the
Post, Israel's only English-
language daily.
When the first issue of the
Post appeared 50 years ago,
the population of Jewish
Palestine was 250,000 and
the British mandatory
authorities ruled the coun-
try. The paper has missed
only one issue; when it was
confiscated on Oct. 7, 1936,
by the British censor.
The English-language
daily has circulation fig-
ures of 29,000 on week-
days, 40,000 on weekends
and 48,000 for the inter-
national edition. This
makes it one of the top
five Israeli papers. (The
only one published in
Jerusalem). _
Much has changed since
the first editor, Gershon
Agron set out to meet the
needs and tastes of British

residents, other Europeans
and Palestinians. Although
the Post is written in
English, it is now an Israeli
newspaper. It covers inter-
national and Jewish affairs
thoroughly and carries lead
stories on local topics.
The Post naturally re-
tains special links with
world Jewry and Zionist af-
fairs. Here, too, its approach
is independent and fre-

quently critical. The Post
retains that sort of objective
approach which has enabled
it to serve the Zionist cause
credibly and effectively.

The best school of disci-
pline is home — family life
is God's own method of
training the young; and
homes are very much what
women make them.
—S. Smiles

Information, Not Political
PLO Office OKd in Finland

•

NEW YORK — In flat PLO- "in order to avoid mis-
contradition to a claim by understandings."
the Palestine Liberation
The controversy arose
Organization, the Finnish
when
a PLO spokesman had
Foreign Ministry has an-
nounced that the PLO will on the previous day claimed
not be allowed to establish a that a. PLO political office
"political office" in the would soon be opened in
country, but only an infor- Finland. He added that
mation office, the World agreement in principle on
establishment of such an
Jewish Congress reported.
The report of this de- office had been reached dur-
velopment was monitored ing talks he had had with
by WJC sources from a Foreign Minister Paer .
broadcast carried by Radio Stenbaock last summer.
Helsinki. According .to the
Meanwhile, Bolivia an-
broadcast, the ministry nounced itlias agreed to let
found it necessary to clarify the PLO open an office at a
its attitude towards the level to be determined soon.

