Amity of Lebanon and Israel Emphasized in Agenda Agreement
Meanwhile,- in Jerusalem, the Prime Minister's spokesman reacted with anger
Wednesday to reports from Washington to the effect that Menahem Begin's visit next
month might be postponed if there were no progress in the Lebanon negotiations.
The reports, on Kol Yisrael Radio, also referred to President Yitzhak Navon's
imminent decision on whether to re-enter politics, and the report of the Sabra-
Shatila Commission of Inquiry as factors cited by U.S. officials in weighing
whether to postpone the Begin visit.
(Continued on Page 5)
At press time Thursday, reports reached The Jewish News of an agreement by Israel
and Lebanon on an agenda that calls for peaceful borders, with planks for Israel's
security, anticipated commercial ties as an emphasis on the peaceful aims, and coopera-
tive efforts for speedy removal of all foreign forces from Lebanese territory.
While complete details were yet to be announced, it was apparent from the initial
reports that the agenda finally arrived at leads toward the peace anticipated by the
Israeli participants in the negotiations, with the fulfillment of the aims for strengthening
the commercial ties between the two nations.
Woe Unto
A Declining Fate
Marking the End
of Daily
Circulation of
A Great Newspaper
An Inquiry
Localized
in the Exp6rts'
Analyses of
U.S.-Israel
Relationships
THE JEWISH NEWS
A Weekly Review
Commentary, Page 2
of Jewish Events
Editorial, Page 4
Copyright © The Jewish News Publishing Co.
VOL. LXXXII, No. 20
17515 W. Nine Mile, Suite 865, Southfield, Mich. 48075 424-8833
$15 Per Year: This Issue 35c
January 14, 1983
Vatican Agrees to Investigate
Its Bank Director's Nazi Ties
Japanese Memorial to
Auschwitz, Hiroshima
LOS ANGELES — Vatican officials have informed the Simon Wiesenthal Center of their plans to
investigate the alleged Nazi background of Herman J. Abs, a recently appointed member of the Vatican
bank's advisory board.
Monsignor Jorge Mejia, secretary of the Vatican Commission for Religious Relations with the Jews,
informed Rabbi Marvin Hier, dean of the Wiesenthal Center, of the Vatican's action in a telephone
conversation last week. In a follow-up telegram, Mejia confirmed his request that the center mail documen-
tation on Herman Abs to assist in the Vatican's investigation.
Mejia told Rabbi Hier that Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Agostino Casaroli will head
an investigation into the charges made by Wiesenthal Center officials against Abs, who was
chairman of the executive board of Nazi Germany's largest financial institution, the Deutsche
Bank. The bank financed, among other things, the I.G. Farben rubber plant at Auschwitz, and
donated large sums of money annually to the Adolf Hitler Fund and Friends of Himmler Circle.
Other allegations to be investigated will be Abs' role while serving on the advisory board of the I.G.
Farben chemical conglomerate which controlled, jointly with another banking institution, a company
called Degesch. Degesch had a monopoly on the production of Zyklon B gas and other toxic chemicals used
to systematically exterminate millions of people during World War II.
The .Wiesenthal Center has sent a copy to the Vatican of the 330-page U.S. military report on the
Deutsch Bank, published in 1946, which was a primary source used by the center in confirming Abs'
significant role as Hitler's leading banker from 1940-1945.
El Al Resumes Flying After Four Months
Fumikatsu Inoue (see inset), a Japanese architect
who has lived for 16 years in Israel, has completed the
plans for a "Gateway to Peace" memorial to be built
near Hiroshima, in the neighboring north Japanese
town of Kurose. The memorial pays tribute to the
"parallel tragedies of Hiroshima and Auschwitz."
Two white pylons will frame the skyline of Kurose,
while the monument's viewing plaza will "give the
effect of floating between heaven and earth" in the
architect's view. A professor from Warsaw University
will plan the landscape of the memorial, which is to be
largely financed by Japanese donations and includes
a museum, a library, lecture halls, a youth hostel and
several auditoria.
Fewer Anti-Semitic
Incidents in the U.S.
NEW YORK — After more than
doubling for three years in a row, anti-
Semitic vandalism in the United States
declined noticeably in 1982, according to
the annual audit conducted by the Anti-
Defamation League of Bnai Brith.
The survey disclosed 829 reported
incidents this year in 35 states and the
District of Columbia as compared to 974
in 31 states and the District in 1981 — a
drop of 14.9 percent.
In making the findings public,
Nathan Perlmutter, ADL's national di-
rector, noted that the number of arrests
in connection with the anti-Semitic
episodes increased nearly 50 percent —
from 114 in 1981 to 167 in 1982. Of those
(Continued on Page 14)
TEL AVIV (JTA) — El Al flight 511, the Israeli airline's first passenger flight in four months, took off for Nairobi
and Johannesburg with a full load of passengers on Wednesday, and a long waiting list.
Wednesday's passengers were presented with flowers by hostesses before boarding. But as the aircraft lifted off
from the runway it was by no means certain that the airline's new schedule would be met and other El Al flights would
follow.
The pilots said they were flying this trip under the company's old contact with them.. But the airline's
new management and the temporary receiver appointed by the courts claimed they were all operating
under the new arrangements concluded between the receiver, management and the Histadrut — which the
pilots reject.
The Pilots Association has appealed to the Jerusalem District Court to uphold their claim that any Histadrut
arrangements cannot bind them, as they alone are responsible for the safety of aircraft in the air. All other El Al
employees have accepted Histadrut as their bargaining agent, even though it means dismissal of 10 percent of the El Al
workers and wage and benefits concessions.
The International Federation of Airline Pilots Associations (IFALPA) will back the El Al pilots if the government
tries to replace them with foreign employees. IFALPA president Robert Tweedy, who is in Israel to examine the
possibility of holding the IFALPA 1984 convention in Israel, said that if El Al pilots asked his association for aid "we
(Continued on Page 6)
Step Up to Israel' Conference
on Feb. 13 to Encourage Aliya,
Inspire Tourism Product Sales
,
An organized community-wide aim to encourage aliya to Israel, increased tourism
and the purchase of Israel-made products will be expressed at a "Step Up to Israel"
conference set for Sunday, Feb. 13, 1-4 p.m., at the main Jewish Community Center.
The representative character of this conference is evidenced in the sponsorship of the
event. Joining in promoting it are the following Metropolitan Detroit organizations:
The Jewish Welfare Federation, Jewish Community Center, Hadassah, Women's
American ORT, Labor Zionist Alliance, Jewish National Fund, Zionist Organization of
America, Israel Aliya Center, Habonim and the Detroit Zionist Federation.
Also, Bnai Brith Men's and Women's Councils and the Bnai Brith Youth
Organization, United Synagogue Youth, National Council of Synagogue Youth,
Jewish Community Council, Pioneer Women/Naamat, American Mizrachi
Women, Israel Information and Resource Center, National Council of Jewish
Women, Chug Aliya, Association of Parents of Americans in Israel, Michigan
State Temple Youth, Histadrut and Hashachar.
(Continued on Page 8)
NYTimes Misuses
Criticism of Israel
By BORIS SMOLAR
(Editor-in-chief Emeritus, JTA, Inc.)
NEW YORK (JTA) — There is a
great deal of annoyance among Jews in
this country — and also in Israel — over
remarks made by Rabbi Alexander
Schindler, president of the Union of
American Hebrew Congregations
(UAHC), in an address delivered in De-
nver at a meeting of the
board of UAHC. The
UAHC is the central
body of lay members of
Reform Judaism.
Schindler, a very
able and energetic
person, is a "dis-
(Continued on Page 23) SMOLAR