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A. • . • ti Small Zimbabwe Jewish Community At Crossroad Boston (JTA) — Several Con- servative rabbis have expressed interest in going to Zimbabwe to fill that Jewish community's need for a rabbi and spiritual leader, according to Rabbi Richard Yel- lin, of Temple Mishkan Tefila in Chestnut Hill, Mass. Describing it as ”a mission of mitzvah," Rabbi Yellin said that he had approached rabbis about the post in Zimbabwe at the con- vention of the Rabbinical Assem- bly in Miami last month. He suggested that a good candidate for the post would be either a stu- dent just out of rabbinical school or a retired rabbi. . Rabbi Yellin has a special interest in the Jewish community of Zimbabwe. Many members of his synagogue are former resi- dents of Zimbabwe. Also, he re- turned last month from an eight- day visit to the country formerly known as Rhodesia. The 42-year-old rabbi was in- vited to Zimbabwe by the repre- sentative body of Zimbabwean Jewry, the Central African Board of Jewish Deputies. He had been asked as an outsider to assess the community's operations and needs, and provide suggestions for strengthening relations with other groups in Zimbabwe and, in general, its stature among world Jewry. Rabbi Yellin described Zim- babwean Jewry as being at a. •"crossroad, . . . filled with prob- abilities of taking off positively or = going down negatively." He cited several reasons for this view, among them the economic situa- tion and travel restrictions, both of which have a direct effect on the Jewish community. According to Rabbi Yellin, gov- ernment imposed currency re- strictions "present limitations" on free enterprise. "All those in-- volved in capitalist endeavors are in a bind," he said. There have been rumors of nationalizing pri- vate industries, although this has not happened, he said. Furthermore, the government's Marxist-Socialist rhetoric, along with support for the Palestine Liberation Organization, which has an Embassy in Harare, and Zimbabwe's general rhetorical support for so-called liberation movements in the Third World makes the "Jewish community very, very nervous," Rabbi Yellin said. But despite these aspects of life in Zimbabwe, the Jewish commu- nity lives relatively modestly and there are Israelis in the country and according to Yellin, Zimbab- weans privately trade with Israel. Zimbabwean Jewry dates back to the late 1800s. In 1880, four Jews participated in a pioneering trek across the Limpopo River into the African Kingdom of Monomotapa which is now part of Zimbabwe. In 1893, 30 Jews par- ticipated in the nearly 600-strong white army during the bloody Matabele War. There are other reports that chronicle the growth and de- velopment of the Zimbabwean Jewish community, such as the first Jewish meeting at the Ma- soni Hotel in Salisbury, now Ha- rare, to the souring of the Jewish relationship with the former re- gime of Ian Smith, premier of white minority-ruled Rhodesia. The Jewish community reached its peak some time ago at 7,500 persons, and his slowly declined in population since 1980 with the establishment of majority rule. The new government aligned it- self with other liberation move- ments, and broadcasts the aggres- sive anti-Zionist rhetoric familiar in some Third World nations. There are three Jewish schools in Zimbabwe, two in Harare and one in Bulawayo. In past years, when the Jewish community there was larger, the Jewish schools had a registration of some 500 Jews. But today, as the com- munity has dwindled, so has the schools' enrollment. Perhaps ten to 20 percent of the students cur- rently enrolled in Jewish schools are Jewish. The others are black and white non-Jews. The gov- ernment funds,Jewish schools in Zimbabwe. There remains a "Hebrew cur- riculum of Jewish-Zionist orien- tation, created by the Jewish community" in the schools, Rabbi Yellin said. The children wear yarmulkas and receive Hebrew instructions. All three schools are "truly multi-racial, multi- religious" and they are "a vision of what the government would like to do" with the whole country's school system, "at least rhetori- cally." the rabbi said. Rabbi Yellin also met with the Minister of Information, Dr. Nathan Shamuyarira, who talked of the government's hope for a multi-racial, multi-religious state. Rabbi Yellin engaged in a discussion of the essence of Zionism, he recounted, informing the Zimbabwean official that Zionism is a national liberation movement. Yellin left Shamuyar- ira, at his request, information - distributed by the American Is- rael Public Affairs Committee. Rabbi Yellin met with officials of the Roman Catholic church, and leaders of the Anglican, Presbyterian and Methodist churches, urging that they extend _ contacts with the Jewish commu- nity, including speaking to Jewish congregants, conducting exchanges programs and building coalitions. One poignant comment, Rabbi Yellin said, came from a leading member of the Jewish community there. He said that if Zimbabwean Jewry can make it in that coun- try, "it will be the first time in history that a sizable Jewish community will be able to succeed and do well in this kind of environment." "So Black Africa has a lot at stake riding on the success and well-being of the Jewish commu- nity in trying to create an open society," said Rabbi Yellin. He and Rabbi Murray Saltzman of the Baltimore Hebrew Congre- gation, were recently named as co-chairmen of the Synagogue Council of America's National Task Force on Minority Rights. The SCA was not actively in- volved in Rabbi • Yellin's visit to Zimbabwe. ,