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c 1986 by The Detroit Jewish News (US PS 275-520)
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CANDLELIGHTING AT 8:50 P.M.
VOL. LXXXIX, NO. 20
Do Not Forget Them
The recent annual convention of the American Jewish Press
Association in Boston featured two consecutive speakers one evening with
very different stories to tell but with a common message.
The first was Barbara Ribakove, director of the North American
Conference on Ethiopian Jewry, who noted that while thousands of
Ethiopian Jews are making the difficult transition to life in Israel,
thanks to their rescue last year, a minimum of 10,000 of their relatives
are still languishing in Ethiopia. They are the most vulnerable of groups,
comprised mostly of people too young, too old or too ill to have made the
grueling trek to Sudan and on to Israel by air transport. Ribakove, who
was about to make her fourth visit to Ethiopia, stressed that keeping the
story alive of the plight of the Jews was a means of actually helping to
keep them alive.
Yakov Gorodevsky, a former refUsenik from Leningrad and now an
activist in Israel on behalf of Soviet Jewry, spoke of how the situation for
Jews now in the USSR is the worst since Stalin." He detailed the
persecution and beatings suffered by many of his friends and warned not
to be fooled by Gorbachev's more Western appearance. He spoke of the
mutuality of Jewish fate and said that if we can't help provide Soviet
Jews with their right to live as Jews, someday we may not be able to
assure our own right to practice our faith.
Two voices, two causes. But each advocate encourages fellow Jews
not to lose hope — to help one's brethren by worrying about him, and to
translate that concern into action. They, on the front lines, have not
given up. We can do no less.
•••
`Untenable And Intolerable'
Kurt Waldheim has been inaugurated as president of Austria and
there is nothing we can do about that. But we can, and should, keep him
out of the United States as a symbol of protest over his eleCtion.
Before the Austrian election, Neal Sher, director of the Justice
Department's Office of Special Investigations, recommended to Attorney
General Edward Meese that Waldheim not be allowed in the U.S. in light
of evidence about his wartime activities.-The fact that Waldheim is now
president of Austria should not change anything and we urge the
Attorney General to follow Sher's recommendation.
The President or the Secretary of State have the power to accept or
reject a foreign head of state or diplomat. In 1984, President Reagan
refused to accept Nicaragua's proposed ambassador to the U.S. and it
should also be noted that in 1885, Austria refused to accept the proposed
U.S. ambassador. The reason: his wife was "a Jewess" and her presence
was "untenable and intolerable in Vienna."
We feel that in light of Kurt Waldheim's participation or assistance
in Nazi atrocities, his presence in Washington would be an offense to the
American people.
,
4
Friday, July 11, 1986
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
OP-ED
Jewish Agency Articles
Lacked Sense Of Balance
MARTIN E. CITRIN
Special to The Jewish News
I read with a great deal of inter-
est your series of articles on the
Jewish Agency and your editorial
comment • on the subsequent furor
raised at the Jewish Agency Assem-
bly over the cartoons and drawings
that accompanied the article. While
a serious question might be raised as
to the appropriateness of the car-
toons — particularly as they may af-
fect the sensitivities of those with
experience in pre-World War II
Europe — my comments relate to
the substance of the articles them-
selves.
I found a singular lack of bal-
ance in the reporting and comments
on the issues raised and omission of
background material and informa-
tion on current Agency activities
that would have been very helpful to
your readers in understanding the
complexities of the Jewish Agerhcy.
A case in point. You state in
your first article under the heading,
"What is the Jewish Agency?" —
"The Jewish Agency was created in
1929 as a framework for prominent
and wealthy Jews who did not iden-
tify as Zionists, to contribute to the
building of a Jewish national home
in Palestine." This is, at best, only
half the story and does not convey
the unique character and mission of
the Agency as conceived by its foun-
ders.
Nowhere was the reader in-
formed that the Agency is a one-of-
a-kind organization in the entire
world, has a singular legal position
in Israel and a special mandate from
the government of Israel. A place
Mr. Citrin is a past president of the
Council of Jewish Federations, the
Jewish Welfare Federation of Detroit
and is a member of the board of
governors of the Jewish Agency.
where Jews from many different',
countries, different governmental
systems, cultures and languages,
focus, ideology, aspirations and reli-
gious persuasions come together and
— despite these differences — have
managed to work together and to
create and continue an enterprise
whose history is filled with noble ag-
pirations and accomplishments.
Some explanations would have pro-
Nowhere was the reader
informed that the Agency
is a one-of-a-kind
organization in the entire
world.
vided a needed framework to navi-
gate through the issues raised.
Accomplishments of the past, of
course, are no excuse for not making
needed changes today. But here,
also, I find fleeting or no mention of
current major successes and accom-
plishments in the Agency's activities
— and short shrift is given to the
very real progress being made
toward significant involvement of
Diaspora leadership in the
decision-making process.
Nowhere is the saga of the re- \
cent absorption of Ethiopian Jewry
discussed — nor the Agency's in-
volvement on behalf of Soviet Jewry.
On the governance and adminis-
trative side, there is hardly a com-
ment on the importance of the sig-
nificantly improved Agency budget-
ing process,. strengthened committee
structure and the coming together
on goals and objectives and priority'
programs coming out of the
Caesarea process. These accom-
plishments, not incidentally, are the
result of hard work and mutual re-
spect amongst leadership of Diaspora
communities and Federations, fund
Continued on Page 9