Detroit Hosts 11 States This Weekend for the UJA DR. IRVING COTLER `Betrayal' of Israel and Seriousness of Problems Affecting U.S. and Israel Commentary, Page 2 Four hundred delegates from 11 states will lay the groundwork for the 1984 United Jewish Appeal and local Allied Jewish Campaign this weekend, as the UJA East Central-Midwest Regional Leadership Confer- ence convenes today through Sunday at the Michigan Inn. The conference, hosted by the Jewish Welfare Federation of Detroit, will include workshops on challenges facing' American Jewry, Israel/ Diaspora relations and the plight of Jews in countries of distress. Special sessions will be held throughout the weekend for graduate students and Women's Division members. Delegates from Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Michigan, Min- nesota, Mississippi, Nebraska, western Pennsylvania, New York and Wis- consin are in Detroit to participate in the meetings. Carolyn Greenberg will host a regional Women's Division recep- tion for contributors of $5,000 and over at her home today. Meeting with the group will be Dr. Irwin Cotler of_,McGill University and Women's Division scholar-in-residence Marjorie Scott. Dr. Cotler will address this evening's Shabat dinner. Later, he will meet with members of the UJA Young Leadership Cabinet and Federation Young Adult Division for a private reception. Saturday's agenda includes a host of workshops on Soviet Jewry, Cam- paign planning, Arab influence on campus, creative programming for Women's Division members and others. The Saturday evening banquet will be highlighted by a Project Re- newal multi-media presentation, and the keynote address by Sen. Lowell Weicker (R-Conn.). Detroiters Lawrence Jackier and Joel Tauber are (Contintied on Page 7) THE JEWISH NEWS A Weekly Review of Jewish Events Jewish Unity Chief Aim as Midwest UJA Leadership Assembles Here Editorial, Page 4 Copyright © The Jewish News Publishing Co. VOL. LXXXIV, No. 8 17515 W. Nine Mile, Suite 865, Southfield, Mich. 48075 424-8833 $18 Per Year: This Issue 40c October 21, 1983 Harsh Sentence for Refusnik Is Blasted by Reagan, Israel jewish U.S. Marine Is Killed in Lebanon NEW YORK (JTA) — Marine Sgt. Allan Soifert, killed last Friday by sniper fire as he drove his jeep through a Shiite Moslem sector of south Beirut, was described as a "very proud Jew." "He didn't hide his Judaism and everyone knew he was Jewish," said Soifert's stepfather, Chaim Romer, in a tele- phone interview with the Jewish Telegraphic Agency. Romer said his stepson was an active member of the Jewish community in his hometown of Nashau, N.Y., where Soifert was buried Tuesday. The 25-year-old Marine is believed to be the first Jewish American soldier killed in Lebanon as part of the U.S. contingent in the multinational force. Romer stressed that Soifert viewed his participation in the MNF as a purely military endeavor. Soifert served as a bomb disposal expert. The Reagan Administration charged that the U.S. Marine contingent in Lebanon was being "targeted" by groups seeking to undermine the national recon- ciliation process in that country. But State Department deputy spokesman Alan Rom- berg refused to "speculate" on which group or countries were responsible. Reports from Lebanon quoted Marine officers as saying that Palestinian terrorists had fired on the Marines. Wadi Hadad, Lebanese President Amin Gemayel's national security adviser, after meeting with President Reagan last Friday, indicated that Syria was trying to undermine the reconciliation process. The firing at the Marines, which killed Soifert last Friday and another Marine Sunday night, reportedly came from areas held by Shiite Moslems. But State Department sources said that even if one pinpointed the area where the "sniping" came from, it still did not mean that group in (Continued on Page 5) WASHINGTON (JTA) — President Reagan on Tuesday strongly con- demned the Soviet Union for the 12-year sentence against Jewish activist Iosif Begun, calling it an "illegal and inhumane act." Begun, a 51-year-old engineer and unofficial teacher of Hebrew in Moscow — where such activity is banned — was given the maximum sentence: seven years imprisonment to be followed by five years of internal exile. He had been charged with "anti-Soviet" activities. In a statement issued at the White House, Reagan accused the Soviet Union of "launching a new campaign of repression against human rights activists" after it had made a commitment to respect human rights "nearly a month" ago at the Madrid conference on compliance with the human rights clauses of the Helsinki accords, of which the Soviet Union is a signatory. Calling Begun a "courageous Jewish believer," Reagan said, "Soviet persecution of religious and political dissidents is not new. In the case of Mr. Begun the Soviet regime has refused for 13 years to honor his request to emigrate to Israel." IOSIF BEGUN Reagan said, "Soviet policy toward Jewish emigration and dissident move- ments has sunk to a new low of brutality and repression. Anti-Semitism has escalated dramatically as has harassment of other human rights defenders." He said that a Lithuanian Catholic priest, Father Sigitas Tamkavicius, "is facing a similar fate" to Begun and Oleg Radzinsiy, a Soviet peace activist, has been held for almost a year. "We condemn these illegal and inhumane acts," Reagan said. The U.S. State Department expressed the official American protest in a statement that referred to Begun's trial as the cutting edge of a The striking teachers at Akiva Hebrew Day School "new wave of repression" in the USSR and an filed a libel suit against the school this week in Oakland "increase in officially sanctioned anti- County Circuit Court. The suit alleges that statements Semitism." made by representatives of the school, including President The Israeli government issued an official Ronald Berman's letter in The Jewish News on Sept. 30, statement after Sunday's Cabinet meeting de- libelously accused the striking teachers of picket-line vio- nouncing the Soviet policy of discrimination lence. In a letter to Akiva parents this week, the striking against Jews. teachers said that reports of the union being guilty of vio- It appealed to all nations of the world lence on the picket line are "absolutely false." and lovers of freedom to appeal to the Striking Teachers Sue Akiva for Libel (Continued on Page 11) (Continued on Page 6) Federation Honors Schlussel Hart and Safran for Leadership Mark E. Schlussel, Sharon Hart and James A. Safran have been selected to receive the 1983 Young Leadership Awards of the Jewish Welfare Federation at its Board of Governors meeting Tuesday. Schlussel will receive the Frank A. Wetsman Memorial Leadership Award. A member of Federation's Board of Governors and Executive Committee, Schlussel is chairman of the Culture and Education budgeting and planning division, and sits on the boards of United Jewish Charities and the Max M. Fisher Jewish Community Founda- tion. Former president of the Jewish Federation Apartments, he is a member of the board and executive committee of Sinai Hospital and chairs its Human Resources Committee. He chairs Federation's task forces on transportation and the day schools. Sharon Hart is recipient of the Sylvia Simon Greenberg Young Leaderhip Award. She has held numerous positions in Federation's Women's Division and currently serves as its associate Campaign chairman. She is a member of Federa- tion's National and Community Relations Agencies budgeting and planning division, the board and executive committee of Jewish Family Service and the Detroit Soviet Jewry Committee of the Jewish Community Council. She has served on the United Jewish Appeal Young Women's Leadership Cabinet. Safran, 1982-1983 president of the Junior Division (now the Young Adult Division), will receive the William H. Boesky Memorial Leadership Award. Safran was co- chairman of the division men's pre-Campaign section of the 1982 Allied Jewish Cam- paign. He served as liaison to the board of directors of the Jewish Vocational Service and the Jewish Educational Loan Service, as well as Federa- tion's Capital Needs Commit- tee. As part of their award, both Schlussel and Mrs. Hart are invited to the General As- sembly of the Council of Jewish Federations next month in Atlanta. Safran is invited to a spring Young Leadership Conference of the CH and United Jewish Ap- SAFRAN HART SCHLUSSEL peal.