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SERVING DETROIT'S METROPOLITAN JEWISH COMMUNITY
Trifa losing battle
on return to Romania
BY ALAN HITSKY
News Editor
With his Oct. 7 deadline less than
six months away, Romanian Orthodox
Archbishop Valerian Tifa of Grass
Lake, Mich. appears to be losing his
fight to avoid returning home to his
native Romania, where he could face
war crimes trials.
The Jewish News learned this
week that the Romanian government,
after 18 months, has finally responded
to a U.S. note on the possible extradi-
tion of Trifa. U.S. State Department
officials have turned the response over
to the Justice Department and have
not disclosed its contents.
Neal Sher, director of the Office of
Special Investigations (OSI) for the
Justice Department said Wednesday
night that he could not disclose the
contents of a diplomatic message.
However, he said, The Justice De-
partment feels quite strongly that
Romania is the appropriate country"
for Trifa.
"He is a Romanian national. The
events leading to his deportation took
place in Romania," Stier said. It is our
intent to pursue it (deportation to
Romania) quite vigorously."
Trifa and Justice Department of-
ficials concluded a deal during Trifa's
deportation trial in Federal District
CLOSE-UP
The stranger
at the table
BY MAX APPLE
You are hearing a
person who has never
tasted a shrimp, a ham
sandwich, a pork chop,
lobster Newburg, or
even a plain old run-of-
the-mill cheeseburger.
The Whopper is a
stranger to my lips; so,
too, the Big Mac. A
marshmallow is some-
thing I taste once a year
when it arrives from
New York for Passover
held together by algae
gelatin smelling of the
sea.
I memorize the ingredients
listed on the sides of packaged foods
and I search the surfaces for arcane
markings. A U or K makes my heart
leap; the word pareve is like a per-
sonal call at a pay phone. I am the
minority, the dinner guest you can
never satisfy. When I ask "What's
cooking?" I expect an answer.
I used to think that
in New York I might
wander the streets
smacking my_ lips like ai
freed slave, hardly .
knowing what to expecti!
next. There, I thought,
every. day must be'
Christmas morning,
bagels growing on
trees, a trellis of krep4
lach, foot-long kosher
hot dogs, unlardedl
gingerbread men danc-!
ing in the street, the
Kentucky Colonel' .
praising boiled chicken.
Alas, in my trips to Manhattan
I've had as much trouble finding;
something I can eat as I do in Hous-
ton. In some ways it's worse. Iri Man-i
hattan I've made the mistake of ask-
ing if it's kosher. I've asked full ofl.
hope, admittedly innocent and naive. 4
The waiter mumbles something
Continued on Page 14
Archbishop Valerian Trifa now faces
deportation to his native Romania.
Court in Detroit. 18 months ago.
Trifa, accused of initiating a pog-
rom in Bucharest in January 1941
which took the lives of hundreds of
Jews, was given two years to find any
other country that would accept him.
Switzerland and Italy have refused his
requests, and West Germany and Is-
rael have refused U.S. requests to take
him.
In exchange for his agreement for
voluntary deportation, the U.S. drop-
ped its court case and agreed to post-
pone for two years its efforts to send
Trifa back to Romania.
The official reason for Trifa's de-
portation is that he lied about his ties
to the fascist Romanian Iron Guard
when he entered this country in the
APRIL 27, 1984
1950s and when he applied for U.S.
citizenship.
Sher told The Jewish News that
the deal with Trifa was no secret. He
said the deal prevented Trifa from de-
laying his deportation through court
appeals. If he litigated," Sher said,
This could have gone on for six or
seven years."
Sher said the U.S. approached the
Romanians shortly after the deal was
made, "but we've never had an official
response from the Romanians" until
now.
The Romanians have been very
reluctant over the years to cooperate
on the Trifa case. After World War II,
the Romanians convicted him in ab-
sentia for his role as a student leader of
the Iron Guard. In recent years, how-
ever, Romania has not been interested
in getting Trifa back.
After 30 years of pressure led by
New York dentist Dr. Charles Kre-
mer, the U.S. filed suit against Trifa in
Detroit in 1975. Four years later, Con-
gresswoman Elizabeth Holtzman
pressured the Romanians to release
documents needed for the Trifa case by
linking that request with Congres-
sional review of Most Favored Nation
(MFN) trade status for Romania.
Those tactics were used suc-
cessfully in both 1979 and 19.80 by
Holtzman in order to get a reluctant
Romania to cooperate on the Trifa
case. When the Justice Department
opened the trial in Detroit in 1982, it
had a wealth of documents from
Romania including newspaper clip-
pings, letters, archival material and
depositions.
According to Capitol Hill sources,
Continued on Page 8
Egyptians plan to renew
relations with Soviets
Washington (JTA) — Signs of an
improvement in Egyptian-Soviet rela-
tions, strained for more than a decade,
are emerging with the announcement
that the two countries have agreed in
principle to exchange ambassadors
after a three-year break.
Foreign Minister Katnal_ Hassan
Ali of Egypt was reported by Egypt's
official news agency as saying in
Khartoum, Sudan, last Thursday,
"The principle of exchanging ambas-
sadors is agreed on. It is likely that
ambassadors may be exchanged in the
future without affecting Egypt's spe-
cial relations with Washington."
Hassan Ali made this statement
during the visit to Cairo by senior
Soviet envoy Vladimir Polyakov, head
of the Middle East department in the
Soviet Foreign Ministry. Polyakov,
Moscow's last ambassador to Egypt,
was expelled with six members of his
diplomatic staff in 1981 by then
President Anwar Sadat, who accused
the Soviet Union of sparking sectarian
strife.
In 1972, Sadat ordered most of the
20,000 Soviet military advisers and
personnel to leave Egypt.
Commenting on Polyakov's visit
last week, Egypt's Minister of State for
Foreign Affairs Boutros Ghali de-
scribed the talks with the Soviet envoy
as positive and said they reflected the
two countries will to work together.