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THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS

PURELY COMMENTARY

I KNIT FAST

with the electronic

PHILIP SLOMOVITZ

UPERB

Birobidzhan

Knitting Machine

Continued from Page 2

.

Chamber Musical Theatre led
by Yuri Sherling. My group
has close contacts with the
famous composer Zinovy
Kompaneyets, and well-
known poets Aron Vergelis
and Haim Beider. I'm glad that
Soviet artists involved with
Yiddish culture ever more
often turn to national
sources..."
Yuri Subbotin, information
officer of the Embassy of the
Union of Soviet Socialist Repub-
lics, informs this commentator
that the quoted material was
submitted to him for release by
the Novosti Press Agency in Mos-
cow.
Once again, Allan Kagedan is
called upon to analyze these
claims and this column is
privileged to have his views:
Let us assume that the report
is accurate — that a Yiddish
pop group gives occasional
performances in the USSR.
The first point is that the USSR
strictly limits Yiddish lan-
guage activity. If the Soviet
government approves of Yid-
dish language culture, then
why are there no functioning
Yiddish language classes in
the country? Why has the
Soviet regime repeatedly de-
nied a group of "Jewsin Kiev
the right to assemble a Yiddish
language theater troupe? The
article mentions that "Fre-
lichs" performed in "many
cities in Siberia and the Far
East, in Central Asia and the
Caucasus." These regions
have few Jews, and few, if any,
Yiddish-speaking Jews. Why
not focus all performances in
Moscow, Leningrad, Kiev,
Odessa and other centers with
Yiddish speaking publics?
Another salient fact, not
mentioned by the Novosti
correspondent, is that, during
the past year, the Soviets have
stepped up harrassment and
arrests of Jews who seek to
participate in their own cul-
ture. Unofficial Hebrew
teachers are being arrested on
such specious charges as drug
pushing with increasing fre-
quency. The KGB has been
given a freer hand to disrupt
Jewish observances of reli-
gious festivals in private
homes.
What is the intent behind the
limited gestures towards Yid-
dish, and the harsh policy
toward Hebrew teachers and
Jewish religious observers?
The Soviet regime is attempt-
ing to crush any revival of
Jewish spiritual or cultural
life, and eliminate internal
pressure for emigration. Thus
the government allows rare
Yiddish languages perfor-
mances to try to convince
Soviet and Western Jews that
it will tolerate Jewish culture.
Yet for every Yiddish per-
formance, a representative of
independent Jewish culture —
a Hebrew teacher a religiously
observant Jew, a petitioner for
a Yiddish theater, is harassed,
and sometimes arrested.
Limited narrow gestures
towards Yiddish, then, are
part purely propaganda man-

ufactured for Western audi-
ences and part "carrot" for
Soviet Jews to cease demands
for their basic human rights.
As has been the case in the
past, the Soviets are relying
more heavily on brutalizing
Jewish activists than promot-
ing Yiddish language culture
to make their case.
This is giving a lot more space
to a matter that has become in-
significant for Jews, an issue that
has often been ridiculed by Jews
within Russia. Even in the hey-
day of propaganda for that offer of
statehood for Jews in a remote
area of the Soviet Union, Jews
would have little if anything to do
with it — except in the ranks of
the propagandists. Nevertheless,
the facts must be stated, the truth
must be known. Therefore, the
additional expose by Mr. Kagedan
is most valuabe. He earns appre-
ciation for studies and comments
that are vital to an exposure of a
piece of Russian propaganda re-
lating to Jews.

Friday, January 18, 1985

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Here's something else
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NEWS

Jet engine
project may
not take off

Tel Aviv (JTA) — The first
production model of an advanced
jet aircraft engine which Israel
hopes to produce under license
from its American manufacturer,
Pratt and Whitney, has just ar-
rived and is being broken down by
engineers at the Beit Shemesh
Engine plant to study its many
component parts.
The PW-1120 engine is in-
tended to power the Lavie, Israel's
second generation jet fighter
plane. But Israel's economic crisis
has cast doubt over the entire
Lavie project and has raised con-
cern that the financially troubled
Beit Shemesh plant may not be
capable of producing hundreds of
the powerful American-designed
engine.
The alternative is to scrap the
project and rely on foreign sources
for the next generation of air force
combat planes.

Lower prices for minor emergency medical care.

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Providence Hospital introduces new, lower
Express Care prices. From now on, most
Express Care visits will cost just $25 or $50—
depending on the severity of the injury
or illness—plus doctor's and any lab or

Warsaw U.
offers Yiddish

Warsaw (JTA) — A lecture pro-
gram on Yiddish language and
culture has been established at
the University of Warsaw, the
World Jewish Congress reported
last week. The cultural and social
association of Polish Jews there
credits the widely-known Polish
expert on Jewish history in Po-
land, Prof. Jerzy Tomaszewsky,
for initiating the lectureship.
According to Mark Friedman,
director of -cultural affairs of the
WJC in New York, Toma.szewsky,
who is not Jewish, is recognized as
a leading historian of Polish
Jewish History in the modern era.

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