• THE JEWISH NEWS Serving Detroit's Metropolitan Jewish Community with distinction for four decades. Editorial and Sales offices at 20300 Civic Center Dr., Suite 240, Southfield, Michigan 48076-4138 Telephone (313) 354-6060 PUBLISHER: Cha"rles A. Buerger ASSOCIATE PUBLISHER: Arthur M. Horwitz EDITOR EMERITUS: Philip Slomovitz EDITOR: Gary Rosenblatt CONSULTANT: Carmi M. Slomovitz ART DIRECTOR: Kim Muller-Thym NEWS EDITOR: Alan Hitsky LOCAL NEWS EDITOR: Heidi Press STAFF WRITER: David Holzel LOCAL COLUMNIST: Danny Raskin OFFICE STAFF: Lynn Fields Percy Kaplan Pauline Max Marlene Miller Dharlene Norris Phyllis Tyner Mary Lou Weiss Pauline Weiss Ellen Wolfe ACCOUNT EXECUTIVES: Lauri Biafore Randy Marcuson Judi Monblatt Rick Nessel Danny Raskin PRODUCTION: Donald Cheshure Cathy Ciccone Curtis Deloye Joy Gardin Ralph Orme © 1986 by The Detroit Jewish News (US PS 275-520) Second Class postage paid at Southfield, Michigan and additional mailing offices. Subscriptions: 1 year - $21 — 2 years - $39 — Out of State - $23 — Foreign - $35 CANDLELIGHTING AT 8:54 P.M. VOL. LXXXIX, NO. 18 Jewish Agency Series: Kill The Messenger The loud and angry response in Israel to The Jewish News series on the Jewish Agency/WZO ("Where Do All Our Dollars Go?") only underscores the message of the articles: that some key leaders in Israel are unwilling to confront the tough issues at hand. At the Jewish Agency annual Assembly this week in Jerusalem, attended by some 800 delegates from Israel, the U.S. and from around the world, our series of articles, which we reprinted in booklet form and distributed to the participants, was the subject of a major controversy. (See story, Page 1.) Unfortunately the focus was not on the content of the well-researched and documented 30,000-word report, which has appeared over a period of five weeks in The Jewish News beginning May 23 and concluding today, and critically examined the workings of the Jewish Agency/WZO. The articles explored an historic lack of accountability on the part of some Israeli administrators for millions of dollars raised in the U.S. for Israel. Instead of responding to the facts, critics created a diversion to shout about. The major outcry was over the illustrations accompanying the articles, which Jewish Agency head Leon Dulzin and others labeled as "anti-Zionist and anti-Semitic." Dulzin dismissed the articles as "full of lies, distortions and a lot of maliCious poison against the Jewish Agency and especially against the WZO." There were demands that Jerrold Hoffberger, chairman of the governing board of the Jewish Agency, resign because of his alleged role in this matter. We feel it is important to shed some light, rather than heat, on this episode. The genesis of the articles began many months ago when Charles Hoffman, a Jerusalem Post reporter, proposed writing a series for us on whether the Jewish Agency/WZO is meeting the needs of Israel and the Jewish world, and to explore the relationship between Diaspora leadership in America and the Zionist leadership in Israel. We encouraged Hoffman to work on the articles and, when we received them, we were impressed with the importance of the issues raised and with his research, which we verified through our own sources. The response we received to the publication of his articles was, for the most part, positive and came from the highest levels of American Jewish leadership. To illustrate the lengthy articles, we commissioned Giora Carmi, a well-known native Israeli free-lance illustrator, whose work has been published widely in Israel and America, including the New York Times and Business Week. We had the series reprinted in booklet form and sent to Jerusalem in time for the Assembly in the hopes that the articles would be read and provide useful information to anyone concerned about the Jewish Agency/WZO and its vital role in Jewish life. We felt the series was compelling and merited attention, and we had hoped that it would help raise the level of discourse from name-calling and turf-protecting to deal with the issues themselves. But apparently that was not to be. Rather than tackle the central themes, critics have created a side-show in dismissing the articles as half-truths and labeling the illustrations anti-Semitic. That is indeed sad. 4 Friday, June 27, 1986 THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS OP-ED Juitice Is Dragging Along In Barbie Case In France BY ROBERT E. SEGAL Special to The Jewish News During the Nazis' near-victory in World War II, one of every four French Jews was a Holocaust victim. No Nazi sadist was more efficient at imposing Hitler's final solution on the Jews of France than Klaus Barbie, the "Nazi Butcher of Lyon." More than three years have passed since Serge and Beate Klarsfeld succeeded in tracking Bar- bie down in Bolivia and led the suc- cessful effort to get him back in the jail he favored for incarcerating French Jews. Now U.S. Justice Department documents have been released indicat- ing that this killer who still praises Hitler's evil deeds was able to find haven in South America largely with the help of Father Krunoslav Draganovic, a Croatian Catholic priest. The latter apparently used his post as secretary of St. Jerome's Col- lege in Rome to protect not only Barbie but other Nazis including Ande Pavelic, head of the Croatian govern- ment, controlled by Hitler and his comrades-in-genocide. Serving with Croatian officers was the great Austrian deceiver, Kurt Waldheim, who received Croatia's highest military award. While Barbie's lawyers continue to succeed in keeping him free from facing the forces of French justice, the significance of his evil course spins an ever-widening web of history. Well may we ask why the long court delay in the case of the Nazi with a record of 4,342 executions, 7,591 de- portations of Jews, and 14,311 arrests and deportations of members of the French Resistance. One answer must surely be that his trial will lay bare the sorry records of some citizens of France who collaborated with the Nazis dur- ing the dark days of the Petain-Laval authoritarian French regime. The road that led to Auschwitz and other death camps for thousands of French Jews was constructed by the Vichy functionaries and by such avowed anti-Semites as Xavier Vallat who gloried in his job as supervisor of the Staut des Juifs. On Jan. 27, 1984, despite the fact that Barbie had been twice sentenced to death in absentia while making a fortune in cocaine and arms dealings in Bolivia, the French Supreme Court refused to quash Barbie's case. Later, the French appeals court postponed Why the long court delay in the case of the Nazi with a record of 4,342 executions? Barbie's trial until after parliamen- tary elections. This March, while broadening charges against Barbie, the court set an early 1987 trial date. Meanwhile, never repenting, Barbie has arrogantly insisted that Hitler, thanks to a mode of operatiori dear to the Nazis, was able to do away with 6 1/2 million "unemployed Ger- , mans." As dismal as the record of tem- porizing over Barbie's fate is, the cloud hanging over the nature of U.S. in- telligence practices after Hitler's downfall darkens America's own his- tory. If efforts now in progress by both House and Senate intelligence com- mittees succeed, we should be able to form clearer judgements about the use of questionable means to achieve the goal of halting the spread of Moscow's influence at World War II's close. Consider again America's em- ployment of Barbie as a spotter of Communists and their nefarious ac- tivities. Our government claims that U.S. Army Intelligence was unaware of Barbie's crimes against Jews. Cer-